MediPurpose® Blog

To anybody whose professional life is in some way connected to wound care dressings, last month’s announcement that MediPlus expanded its portfolio to include silver (Ag) dressings was likely recognized as a very important headline. But why is it so important to offer silver? One way to appreciate this is to understand the evolution of wound care dressings, since many of the products in that evolutionary timeline are still sold and used today.

There have been several critical milestones in the evolution of wound care that have lead to noticeable improvements in treatment outcomes. Each step reflects a better understanding of the needs of the wound and the needs of the patient, which, when supported, have lead to an increase in the quality, speed and reliability of wound healing. Each step forward has led to a new plateau of improvement, which in turn has served as the new baseline for standards of care. In most instances, the step involved the recognition of a barrier to healing and the adoption of means to overcome that barrier.

Let There be Gauze!

Looking back approximately 100 years ago, it was an era when gauze was the first choice for wound care dressing. This era represents the first baseline and lengthiest plateau in the wound care dressing evolution.

Wounds underwent surgical, mechanical enzymatic or chemical debridement to expose viable tissue. Dry or saline-moistened gauze that was changed several times a day and packed into the wound was often accompanied by the liberal use of antiseptics at each dressing change. Under these gauze protocols, healing was frequently disrupted since multiple daily dressing changes and moist gauze enabled a direct route for microbial colonization of the wound.

Licking a Wound with Moist Wound Dressings

It would eventually be discovered that the first “advanced” moist wound dressings—transparent films—could seal the wound from further contamination and allow the natural exudate to support the physiology of wound healing

Dressing options would soon rapidly evolve to optimize moisture levels and conform to wound surfaces in ever more efficient ways. For example, dressings were left in place longer, reducing the mechanical and thermal disruptions to the healing process, reducing time to healing, and the resources expended on dressing changes. As the wound began to heal, the dressing selection could be modified to provide optimal moisture levels for healing at each stage and to reflect the changes associated with the wounds progression.

The practice of moist wound healing after wound debridement soon became state-of-the-art, and with the introduction of hydrogels, it provided an alternative to surgical and mechanical debridement. Consequently, most wounds could now be managed by non-physician practitioners at lower cost and with dramatic increases in success.

How Compression Caused an Expansion in Wound Dressings

Moist wound healing and advanced wound care represented a new healing plateau of wound care that lasted with minor changes for decades. The next evolution came from the recognition that different wound etiologies required targeted adjuvant therapy to get to the next level of healing.

The most dramatic demonstration of this philosophy came with the adoption ofcompression to support the healing of venous stasis ulcers. Once compression was accepted as a best practice, the methods to deliver effective compression proliferated from four-layer elastic to two-layer short stretch, with phenomenal changes documented in healing outcome.

Additionally, etiology focus directly improved the outcome of other chronic wound groups by demonstrating the dramatic efficacy of total contact casting for neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers and pressure relief for pressure ulcers.

Once wound etiology was addressed (e.g. restoration of circulation) and a moist wound environment was provided, additional barriers to healing became apparent. Two key related concepts arose that focused attention back to the local conditions within the wound: matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which surfaced as a hot topic of discussion and research, and critical colonization came forward to account for wounds stalled in the inflammatory stages of healing.

Solving the Riddle of Critical Colonization with Advanced Wound Dressings

Although all wounds might have been seen as colonized, not all colonized wounds progressed to infection, and not all colonized wounds healed routinely. Instead, as many wounds would stall in the inflammatory stage of healing, it became apparent that one of the factors involved in this barrier to healing was the presence of microbes in sufficient quantities to stimulate a chronic inflammatory response by the host.

The concept of critical colonization was recognized as a state between contamination levels that were managed and resolved by host defenses and full-blown infection with the classic signs of heat, redness, swelling and pain. The objective soon became one of shifting bioburden within the wound (i.e., the number of organisms and their toxic products) back towards levels below those that generated a chronic inflammatory state and away from the serious risk and expense involved with wound inflection.

Silver Dressings Becomes a Gold Standard

The routine use of antiseptics as prophylaxis against infection had declined dramatically as study of the stages and physiology of wound healing revealed their toxic effect on cells and the processes required for healing. Local antibiotics were known to have limited spectra of activity, with the potential to generate resistant microbial strains. Of utmost importance was the fact that neither worked well with the advanced wound care dressings, bandaging systems or TCC that had become so important in supporting efficient wound repair.

Silver, by comparison, had a long history as an antimicrobial agent from its use in silver-coated vessels in ancient times to reduce the spoilage of wine and water. It had also demonstrated great success in helping to prevent infection in burn patients when it was formulated as silver sulphadiazine cream.

Silver could be readily incorporated into advanced wound care dressings as elemental silver (e.g., Acticoat®, Silverlon®) or in any number of silver compounds (silver lactate). Silver dressings preserved the beneficial properties of advanced wound care moisture interactive dressings while adding antimicrobial activity to stop microbial populations progressing from contamination to critical colonization to infection. Silver also provided effective antimicrobial action, a broad spectrum of coverage with low cytotoxicity and the long duration of action required for efficacy under bandaging and advanced wound care dressings.

Ultimately, the evolution of wound care dressings that would manifest with a rapid adoption of silver wound care dressings would also signify acknowledgement that the prevention of infection and critical colonization has beneficial consequences on the speed and cost of wound healing treatment.

The Real Value of Silver

Although silver dressings are more expensive to produce—and in turn cost more for a treatment center—they are treated as standard wound dressings under the HCPCS Level II reimbursement system.

Inexplicably, silver foam dressings are reimbursed at the same rate as non-silver foam dressings. However, obtaining FDA 510(k) marketing approval for silver dressings has now become a more intensive and costly process, requiring significantly more supporting clinical and laboratory data.

Wound care dressing manufacturers with the most recent 510(k) clearances meet the new standards demanded by the FDA. Manufacturers of older established products should be challenged to document similar performance parameters before being considered for use in the clinic.

MediPlus’ Silver Foam dressings were recently cleared by the FDA under these new standards. MediPurpose is now marketing these dressings at a very competitive price point to be more affordable, and thus more widely available in appropriate treatment settings to a larger patient population.

Do you use or sell silver wound dressings? What are your opinions about their efficacy and value?

Tags: Medical Device Innovation Read More

Over the past few months, the LinkedIn group discussion that I moderated on the Medical Device Inventors forum yielded some valuable information on best practices in safeguarding medical device IP. Now that ideas have been presented on what to do, let me address for a moment why it is so important to implement these measures. Besides protecting medical device ideas and product designs from theft or misuse, what other undesirable—and costly—circumstances might be avoided?

For those who have never been through a patent dispute, a centimeter of personal experience may equal a kilometer of knowledge for new medical device innovators who are not only unsure about the protections available, but also the immediate and long-term costs if one must ultimately go to court to protect their medical device IP interests.

Here are just a few of the issues that medical device innovators could face if a patent dispute makes it into a public forum:

• Legal Expenses: These are what everyone thinks of first when they hear the word “lawsuit.” Court costs, attorneys’ fees, travel costs to-and-from court proceedings, and expert witness compensation are just a few of the financial burdens associated with being involved in a medical device IP dispute.

• Public Relations: Simply being a party to a lawsuit can be damaging to your standing as a medical device innovator or IP owner, regardless of whether you are a designer or an unintentional infringer. If you have just started building your reputation in the medical device market or establishing a medical product brand, quick work may have to be done to repair any collateral damage and to even save your fledgling startup.

• Relationship Building: There could be temporary or irreparable harm done to your relationships with investors, distributors, manufacturers, strategic partners and customers when they evaluate the uncertainties that a patent dispute could impact their businesses.

• Development/Production/Sales: Even though you are the plaintiff, be prepared for counter suits by the defendant (read Apple vs. Samsung). Cases could result in a court-ordered cessation in development, production or sales that could sideline medical product product advancement for months or even years.

• Management Distraction: Cases may drag on for months and years, taking away valuable management time which could be better used on developing, manufacturing and selling your new medical product.

Although it is important to note that not all patent infringements are malicious, it can be quite costly to both your bottom line and your reputation. For this reason, it is best to shield your medical device IP during each stage of its journey to market. Based upon the results of the LinkedIn discussion, the following represents the offensive and defensive strategies to employ at the most critical stages of your medical product’s lifecycle.

Protect Your Medical Device IP From Inception

To ensure that your new medical product IP is protected from its first stage of development:

• File for both medical device patent and medical product trademark protection.

• Reverse-engineer your medical product: It is best to file for protection for each alternate design or improvement.

• Establish where the medical product will be manufactured, sold and distributed: It is recommended that you file for protection in countries where the cost/benefit ratio is balanced.

• Require non-disclosure agreements (NDA): Obtain these from all investment partners, developers, manufacturers and distributors, as well as any other individuals who will have access to proprietary information.

• Consider IP insurance, balancing the cost versus the protection you’ll get.

• Utilize Google Alerts: Keep track of your own trademark, company name and generic product identification.

• Enforce your rights without an infringement lawsuit: This can be accomplished by a) sending a warning letter to the offender, b) requesting an opinion on patent infringement from independent counsel, or c) filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

• Enforce your rights with an infringement lawsuit: When selecting your legal team, remember that the size of the law firm chosen is not as important as the experience and expertise of the attorneys. If you cannot afford representation, locate counsel who will take a patent case on a contingency basis.

• Negotiate a license and royalty agreement with a patent infringer: Higher royalties charged to an offender can offset their past infringement and keep them out of direct market competition.

Protect Your Medical Device IP From Your Suppliers and Partners

Now that you have a solid idea on paper and you have built some protections around your medical device IP, you are ready to contend with potential issues that could arise as you bring suppliers and partners into your development circle.

To ensure that your medical device IP is protected from misuse by suppliers and partners:

• Select the right partners: Get recommendations or referrals from trusted colleagues or networks.

• Select the right countries in which to do business: Consult with representation that specializes in IP management.

• Research each country’s legal infrastructure: Investigate the protections that are afforded to IP owners.

• Use experienced counsel to draft all agreements.

• Execute non-disclosure agreements (NDA): Require all suppliers and partners with whom you intend to discuss proprietary information to assert their commitment to confidentiality in writing.

• Prevent medical device IP dilution: Ensure that your agreements specifically address all additions made to the original design.

• Control access to information: Divide all proprietary components among several suppliers and limit the number of individuals who have internal or external access to sensitive information.

• Monitor partners’ and competitors’ activities: Subscribe to patent-listing Websites, or pay a firm to monitor for the appearance of similar medical device IP filings.

• Address any infringements swiftly and thoroughly: This will benefit both parties involved.

Protect Your Medical Product in the Marketplace

Once your new medical product is ready for market, you will need a new arsenal of tools to help you stay ahead of infringers and copycats. To ensure that your new product is protected from intentional or unintentional IP infringement or reverse engineering:

• Be the first one to market: Strive to expand the gap between your medical product and similar ones that may follow.

• Expedite regulatory clearancesfor your medical device.

• Develop the market: Make a concerted effort to establish benchmarks in medical product quality and customer service.

• Establish a broad network of medical product distributors: Ensure that your product is inserted into all corners of the market.

• Continue to improve your medical product: Stay abreast of advancing technologies in order to provide your customers with the best, most up-to-date product available.

• Build your brand: Establish your reputation by being consistent with medical product quality. Develop recognition by being persistent with marketing messages.

Knowing about the potential threats that exist in a competitive marketplace is only half of the battle for new medical device inventors. Understanding how to shield your medical device intellectual property is key to facilitating a secure environment for bringing your ideas to fruition. The three stages above highlight critical steps in protecting your medical device IP as your product moves from concept to market.

At MediPurpose, our commitment to medical device innovation stems from our proven success at every level of the medical product development process. We are pleased to provide supplemental information about topics like medical IP protection, in addition to offering more comprehensive support to medical device inventors and innovators. For more information or to submit an idea, please contact us.

Thank you to everyone from the LinkedIn Medical Device Inventors forum that contributed his or her comments and suggestions to this discussion. Your input has helped us to provide support to medical device inventors and innovators.

 

 

 

Tags: Medical Device Innovation, Medical Devices | Medical Products, Medical Device Intellectual Property (IP) Read More

Last month, I wrote a blog that emerged from a question that I first posed in a LinkedIn discussion forum for members of the Medical Device Inventors group. In that blog, I digested suggestions for what you can do if somebody copies your medical device invention.

Since that time, the conversation has evolved to address other related issues, such as Ian. S.’ question about how to protect medical device IP from medical product suppliers and other partners in the manufacturing and distribution chain.

Coincidentally, I also discovered a SPRING Singapore white paper, Best Practices in Intellectual Property Protection: Are Your Asian Suppliers Protecting Your Interests?

So, as I did last month, I’m summarizing some key points from the LinkedIn discussion and the SPRING white paper.

The Best Defenses

Following the old saying “an ounce of prevention is your best defense” and using some common sense can go a long way in protecting your medical device IP:

• Have IP to protect: Firstly, if you haven’t taken the steps to establish your medical products’ IP, you don’t have anything to protect. Much of what was covered in the “IP Protection” section of my previous blog provides some crucial considerations related to establishing IP.

• Mitigate risks: Although legal systems are in place to assist in resolving medical product IP disputes, the best defense, according to SPRING, is to create systems that minimize the likelihood of IP being stolen. As mentioned in my previous blog, once IP is infringed, it can be very expensive to resolve matters.

Select the Right Partners in the Right Countries

It’s very difficult and often economically impossible to not outsource any part of your medical product’s manufacturing or distribution. But while having partners in some countries may yield economic advantages, this might expose you to greater IP infringement risk. So how do you select the right partners in the right countries?

• Consider a country’s legal infrastructure and protections: Select countries that are “reinforced by a highly ethical culture,” are signatories to key international IP protection conventions and practice an effective legal system.

• Seek expert advice: Another great point from SPRING is to find corporate counsel or a firm specializing in IP management in the selected region.

• Get recommendations and referrals: Trust is easy to lose and hard to get, so it’s worth the effort to seek trusted partners—whether through your own networks or by reaching out to LinkedIn members such as Ian S. who can vouch for “having a supplier for many years that would never consider ‘screwing me over.’”

Execute Effective Agreements

Once you’ve established your medical product IP and have found the right partners, ensure that the agreements that bind you go as far as they can to protect you.

• Execute non-disclosure agreements (NDA): According to SPRING, this should be done with ALL medical product suppliers before discussing ANY proprietary information. And don’t worry about offending them—if they have passed the recommendations and referral litmus tests, they know that NDAs are an SOP (standard operating procedure).

• Use experienced attorneys to draft agreements: Don’t just copy an NDA or manufacturing agreement that somebody else once had you sign or something that you downloaded from the Internet, especially if you are dealing with international partners. Use an attorney with experience in manufacturing practices in the countries you’ve selected.

• Clarify agreements to prevent IP dilution: As Nick W. pointed out, it can become very difficult to maintain “IP identity and value,” especially if a prototype gets additional development from manufacturers and partners. What started off as “your” unique and novel IP can ultimately end up as “their” IP if too much creative license is allowed.

Control Access to Key Information

• Diversify the information: As Jory T. suggested, medical device IP owners should “split the product patent, know-how, core software/firmware (if any), market control, key-component supplier agreement, and module product design with multiple suppliers.”

• Diversify access to the information: As with the different departments in your company, not every partner needs to know what every other partner knows in order to maintain an efficient, productive workflow. SPRING encourages medical product IP owners to both control internal access to sensitive documents and ensure that all external persons and suppliers handling sensitive information understand their responsibility to protect that information by restricting access only to those who need to know.

Monitor Partners and Competitors

• Keep an eye on patent filings: Just because you have a medical device patent, it doesn’t mean that everybody is aware of it, especially if others are filing medical device patents that unintentionally infringe upon yours, said Nick W.  The sooner you discover such filings, the better.

Andy. R. mentioned two ways to monitor medical product patent filings. One is to subscribe to Websites such as Free Patents Online.com, or to even hire a search firm to monitor patent filings for you.

De-escalate Problems

Whether they occur intentionally or not, medical device IP infringements are unavoidable in the medical product industry. When preventative measures aren’t enough, Nick W. advised, “A key part of effective IP enforcement is diligence and speed. Help your infringers to cave in gracefully and cheaply. Save them money and bask in their gratitude.”

As before, these tips and suggestions are anything but an exhaustive list. Can you suggest others? How do you protect your medical product IP? Has your IP ever been infringed? How did you handle it? What did you learn?

Tags: Medical Device Intellectual Property (IP), Medical Product Manufacturing, Medical Devices | Medical Products, Medical Device Innovation, Medical Product Distribution Read More

Casual filmgoers, professional film critics, and academic film professors often have markedly different perspectives on what makes "great" cinema, but there are a handful of films—and filmmakers—in which there is often little debate about their greatness. Francis Ford Coppola is certainly one of those filmmakers, and The Godfather is certainly one of those films.

Yet, despite producing one of film history's most fabled movies in 1973, by the end of the decade, Coppola would be facing complete financial, professional and personal devastation while making what would become yet another of the virtually indisputable cinematic masterpieces, 1979's Apocalypse Now.

To make a long story very short, the film's allegory of a man's descent into madness as he attempts to track another man (that also descended into madness) ultimately became an accurate description of the filmmaker and his film's development and production. (In fact, an award-winning film about the film—Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse—was released in 1991).

Medical device inventors and innovators can probably very easily relate to Coppola's saga. After all, how many of you have invested or risked innumerable hours and dollars—as well your reputation and sanity—while trying to create, launch or distribute a medical product that you believe in as much as Coppola believed in his film?

Like a film, a developing medical product needs support at all phases, from conception and pre-production phases through development and distribution. This is why MediPurpose has expanded its scope to provide funding and distribution services for medical device inventors and medical product innovators.

Although the process is by no means willy-nilly—in fact, there's a carefully structured methodology for selecting and developing the "right" medical product—it is led by somebody (company founder Patrick Yi) that has experienced many of the challenges (and risks) that you have faced.

Tags: Medical Device Innovation Read More

"Seems like just yesterday" to coin a phrase, but that is how fast 10 years can fly by—as it has since MediPurpose first launched the SurgiLance® Safety Lancet in 1999.

Once just an idea for an innovative healthcare safety product and today a solid market leader in safety lancets, it almost seems unlikely—considering the dominance of some large companies like Roche and B-D—that a small medical product startup like MediPurpose could not only exist, but actually be successful.

I'm not the first author in this blog to say it, but it can't be stated enough: MediPurpose's good fortune is not only a credit to not only the product, but also to the founder, Patrick Yi, for his unwillingness to allow the company to fail.

Achieving this success has meant providing a quality product at a competitive price. It has also meant his personal sacrifice of moving his family halfway around the world...and then asking people that had never heard of this product to "trust me."

As with all small and young organizations, there were the usual struggles early on (some of which will soon be revisited in this blog), but having weathered them, MediPurpose is now spreading its wings to help new and exciting medical device inventions, products and companies discover their own success.

Ten years is something very few startup companies ever experience, and being a witness and participant to some of that growth is something for which I am very proud.

Changes are happening all around us, but this organization continues to stick with its original philosophy of quality products and great customer service. I can only imagine what the next 10 years will bring, but am excited to seeing it unfold!

Tags: Medical Device Innovation, Medical Product Sales Read More

As MediPurpose celebrates its first 10 years in business—and perhaps because this is also the end of the year and the close of a decade—there's been a lot of reflecting around the office.

Like with MediPurpose founder and CEO Patrick Yi's recent blog, my contemplations have toggled between reviewing our company's success and the trajectory of my own career—including the last four years that I've spent at MediPurpose.

Similar to most senior sales and marketing professionals, I have worked for a range of companies that span a spectrum of sizes, scopes and requisite responsibilities. Although I don't have any illusions of having complete clarity with how MediPurpose achieved its success, I do believe that my experiences have given me some perspective.

More specifically, my current perspective is that there are three fundamental reasons for why MediPurpose has not only survived, but has thrived and is poised to continue doing so for another 10 years and beyond. After all, an estimated 50 percent of startups fail, and MediPurpose has had the additional challenge of being a single-line medical device company in a field of Fortune 50 healthcare titans.

Reason #1: MediPurpose has Always Been Customer-Centric

This exceeds the standard "the customer comes first" credo. Any business that doesn't put the customer first is doomed.

A company that wants to do more than "not fail" and truly achieve success must be customer-centric. To me, "customer-centric" sensibilities means:

• Embracing an honest, straightforward approach to problem solving that simultaneously puts in a fix to prevent the problem from resurfacing.

• Always assuming accountability in the eyes of our customer.

• No excuses. No fluffy explanations.

Reason #2: MediPurpose Founder CEO Patrick Yi has Never Forgotten His Experiences as a Struggling Entrepreneur

Remaining grounded to those early years-in spite of our 10-year success-has produced a unique workplace culture.

Not only is there still a sense of excitement and discovery in our ongoing business our first product, the SurgiLance® Safety Lancet, but it's fostering a sense of empathy and understanding for new medical device inventors within our Medical Device Innovation division, as well as with medical product companies looking to bring medical product innovations to the market through our Medical Product Distribution Services division.

Reason #3: People Come and Go in All Companies

The litmus test for a company that claims to provide the nurturing environment for the good to get better is when its talent comes back after spreading its wings.

I've seen it at MediPurpose quite recently with the return of VP of Sales and Marketing Mark Stoppenbach. His return reinforces the notion that although we will always learn from our mistakes, we fortunately make more wise decisions than not.

Pleasin' Reasons

Although I would agree that this is certainly not an exhaustive list of factors for success at our company, I will say that they are essential elements.

In my entire career, I have seldom seen them all come together as consistently and effectively as they have at MediPurpose, and that alchemy has me very excited for the next 10 years.

Tags: Medical Product Sales, Medical Device Innovation Read More

There’s an old saying that “the first million is the hardest.” Presumably, that “million” refers to money and wealth, accumulated by individuals, businesses, or both.

For MediPurpose, the first million in medical product sales was achieved quickly. I started MediPurpose (then known as SurgiLance Pte Ltd) in Singapore in 1999 to sell SurgiLance® Safety Lancets (then known as One-Step Safety Lancets).

By 2001, the first full year of sales, MediPurpose had made its first million; by the end of the next year, that figure had tripled.

I can’t say which million was easier or harder to make as every million and every year in business has presented its own unique challenges.

Reflections on the 10th Anniversary

Yesterday, we published a news release that officially announced our recognition of our 10th year in business, and that has put me in a reflective mood. Ironically, the more I think about the past, the more I think about the future. It also has me thinking about that old saying.

Although money is always on the mind of most people, it is only a small part of the motivation for medical device inventors and medical product innovators and entrepreneurs—or at least myself and the successful ones that I’ve met or read about.

Both then and now, my motivation has mostly been in the quest to achieve something meaningful.

For me—and for that matter, MediPurpose—that has meant solving the riddle that we like to call “from concept to commercialization.” More specifically, it involved taking my brother-in-law’s innovative safety lancet from the “good idea” phase in 1999 to what it is now: one of the world’s most popular safety lancets.

Prior to MediPurpose, I had zero experience with medical products—developing them, marketing them or distributing them. However, I did have experience in taking things “from concept to commercialization” such as the Singapore NETS debit card service. The opportunity to test my intuition and the versatility of my problem solving skills with my brother-in-law’s innovation was too tempting to resist.

Ten years later, after selling millions of dollars and more than a half-billion SurgiLance® Safety Lancets, that urge to test myself has never faded. In fact, it’s as strong as ever, especially as I look back on the past 10 years and continue to focus on the next 10 years and beyond.

It may be true that the first million was the hardest. The same can be said for the first years. During that period, I was too busy trying to get MediPurpose into the black to think much about whether I was doing things right, and the thrill of achieving each milestone sustained my efforts.

Now that I have some security and confidence with what I do in the medical product arena—especially as I now guide MediPurpose into new directions with our Medical Device Innovation and Medical Product Distribution Services divisions—I don’t expect the next 10 years to be any less difficult, stressful or challenging. Then again, I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t!

Tags: Medical Product Distribution, Medical Device Innovation, Medical Product Sales Read More

The central purpose of my blog is to recount a journey that started with an idea for an innovative medical device in Singapore and blossomed into the successful company that MediPurpose not only is today, but also continues to become.

All stories need a beginning, and MediPurpose's arguably began in 1998 when my brother-in-law John Teo invented the original SurgiLance One-Step Safety Lancet.

I was soon invited to help him build a company—then known as SurgiLance—that would complete his medical device's development, setup its manufacturing, and establish its marketing and distribution.

After launching the SurgiLance One-Step Safety Lancet in the United States in 2000, SurgiLance quickly achieved sales of $1 million (2001) and then $3 million (2002) and then $6.3 million in 2003—the same year we were bestowed the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Distribution Leadership Award. By 2005, after expanding into European distribution the previous year, we had achieved profitability.

In 2006, shortly after International Technidyne Corp. (ITC) appointed us as co-exclusive distributors for their Tenderfoot® Heelstick, we changed our name to MediPurpose.

2009 saw many exciting changes at MediPurpose, such as the new Website and and the launch of Medical Device Innovation and Medical Product Distribution Services divisions—with many others that we'll be rolling out in 2010 and beyond.

However, before I cast too much of an eye on the future, I want to retrace this journey up to this point, which covers five overlapping phases:

• Bringing the SurgiLance® Safety Lancet to market
• Developing medical product distribution channels
• Moving to global medical product markets
• Partnering with medical device innovators
• Serving as master distributor

I'm hoping that you'll get as much out of the journey as I am with looking forward to revisiting it!

Tags: Medical Device Innovation, Medical Product Distribution Read More

The majority of questions that I am often asked about our medical product company almost always start with "how," such as:

• How did I develop an independent entrepreneurship in Singapore into the international medical product sales and distribution company that MediPurpose is today?

• How does a medical device inventor get funding and support for developing a medical innovation into a winning product that is ready for the global market?

• How can a medical product innovator get a medical product distributed in the United States?

This blog—or at least my contributions to it—will attempt to answer these and many other questions...but not through "here's how you should do it" checklists, but through my personal "here's how I did it" perspectives.

As you will hopefully discover, the "how I did it" informs "how you should do it" as well as "how you should not do it."

Although my journey through the process of building the broad infrastructure to commercialize a medical product has been filled with—and continues to deliver—many rewarding successes, it also has had its share of missteps, setbacks and failures. But as I learned from them—and will continue to learn from them—I hope that you will, too.

I've been very fortunate to achieve what I have at MediPurpose and elsewhere in my career, and this blog is my way to give back to the medical device innovation community. If you haven't yet, please be sure to click the RSS button and subscribe to this blog, and if you have any suggestions or ideas for this blog, please let me know.

Thanks for visiting our new blog!

Tags: Medical Product Distribution, Medical Device Innovation Read More