SPEAKER_01 0:00

You're listening to Confidence to Thrive, the podcast for ambitious healthcare practitioners and entrepreneurs, brought to you by our LD Advisors. Welcome to Confidence to Thrive, the podcast helping growing practitioners and healthcare entrepreneurs navigate the challenges and risks of regulation while building brands that matter. Every episode, we tackle a different issue facing healthcare practitioners or entrepreneurs, or we interview a guest who is working on the leading edge of private healthcare, building something that matters in their sector or profession. On today's episode, Christopher Cloak Brown, Director at Our Litertity, speaks to Jason Ram, Chief Executive Officer at Airglove Medical Limited, a medical innovations company who manufacture and distribute Airglove, a patented technology designed for difficult intravenous access and venipuncture. Chris speaks to Jason about the technology, how it is improving patient outcomes, and how the company is working with the NHS and private healthcare to meet its goal of 1 billion separate cannulations globally.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Jason, thanks very much for joining us on our podcast. You are the new CEO of AirGrub Limited. Maybe you could just give us a short introduction of your background and how you first got involved with AirGlove.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks very much for inviting me on. It's something that we need to do in terms of medical companies, medical devices, but showcasing what is out there in terms of innovation. So my background is vascular access. The last 16, nearly 17 years now has been looking after medical devices within UK. I started off in Scotland, covering Scotland, Northern Ireland, and then was looking after the whole of the UK for specifically vascular access for a large medical company. I found my love for vascular access very quickly, and somewhat surprisingly, my background is sports injury management and physiotherapy. So being in the hospitals was one thing, but really understanding vascular access and the nature of it and the difficulty has always been there. So I dealt with from cannulas to midlines to central lines, things that go to your heart and through your neck, so short-term ones. Looking around in my recent background, which is international, covering many countries, is that sometimes the only option you have is a cannula. So a short cannula going into your hand or a big line going into your neck, and there's no other options in between. So we have to I say the mission is trying to make sure that all of those options are helpful and they're safe. So that's was a personal mission, I would say, from my point of view, is to try and help in any way that was possible. But from a company point of view or uh a health care point of view is trying to provide safe options that keep the patient or the person at the center of all decisions. So that's how we got to mark my background. But looking at Airglove Medical, um, this was something that was really interesting in terms of peripheral vassal access from about 2020, 2021 for me. But this device has been around since or the inception was in 2009, if you believe it.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Um my understanding is you're now on air glove version two, and I think that's a little bit of sort of you've been brought in to really help drive that product. So, really, what is what's the transition in product, and what are you personally trying to achieve with that product?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Absolutely. It's um so from from 2009, it was actually NHS Innovation and NHS major and Tunbridge Wells that asked the founder Gio Benedetti to come up with something to help with this issue around problematic cannulation. From then there was lots of RD that was done, lots of testing, lots of engineering. And then in 2018, the version one was ready for usage and for data capture. So, in the first instance, it was around RD and really understanding does the product work, how beneficial is it? And then when it was out there, it turned out that the nurses and the teams didn't want to give it back. So that started that commercial cycle. So when I got involved, a version two was needed. We had to take all of that feedback in, keep the good things and change the things that needed to be changed to make it a truly ubiquitous global device that would last the time that was needed. So what was needed was how and where to deploy and to use this type of device. What was the clinical need and the clinical application for this device, and then how to commercialize internally? How do we build the operational nature of the business and keep it balanced with our mission and goals, which is to have the person at the centre and to challenge the status quo?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

And my understanding is at the moment your main target is cancer oncology. But I think we were discussing just before we started the recording that the application base would seem to be very broad. So maybe you can just touch upon what your current target is and then how you look at maybe that it expands to further applications because at the end of the day, as you're saying, vascular access is a ubiquitous problem.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Exactly. So the initial request came when we talk about Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells came from the oncology department. So that was the first view that Airglove took in terms of trying to help. So what we do know is within oncology hematology and aphresis and all of those associated departments is that when you go in, you are going to need multiple accesses. You're going to need access over a number of months and unfortunately a number of years. So you are either already difficult IV access or you are going to be. So there's no getting away from it. So the number of difficult IV access patients is greatly increased in certain groups, including oncology hematology, where we see there is the greatest benefit and let's say the quickest win. But difficult IV access is across all departments, all healthcare in all countries. So the more and more patients go in and the more access they need, and the more times they're accessed, this is where we see venous depletion. So we can start including respiratory and CF patients, we can start including care of the elderly, pediatrics, cardiology, and orthopedics. These kind of areas where you are going to see a lot of patients going in and the same patients again and again. And that's where vessel health and preservation is really, really important.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

It's just the inject we do quite a lot of work with the aesthetics industry, and I can't quite remember where it was, but I remember somebody telling me just recently that when they're injecting somebody, they can tell whether they've had a Botox or not just by the feel of putting the needle in.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Absolutely. And the idea around this is that, and I think it was Dutton that said it in 1924 in a medical textbook to say you should be able to place a needle in a person, give an infusion, and take that out without any mark or hint that you were ever there before. And I think that's going to still be the goal for IV access and for healthcare, is that you want to do as much as you can for the patient without causing any more harm. So anything that we can provide as a healthcare industry to reach that goal has got to be worth looking at.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I was just thinking that actually, in terms of your product, patient safety is very much at the center and heart of what we're about, and strong supporters of it. And it basically improving that vascular outcome must really improve patient results. It's awful where you hear all these stories of poor patients that go in and somebody has about 10 goes and doesn't manage to extract blood or whatever they're trying to do, and uh must be quite traumatic for the patient, frustrating for the entity, and so on. So actually, having that improvement must be a huge support for the whole process.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Absolutely. I think when we break down all of those causal factors around, let's say, the unintended consequences of IV access, it does create a bit of a snowball effect. So you have access is an attempt. What does that mean for the patient? There is multiple stabs within their skin, there is pain, there is frustration, there is the rise of needle phobia that's happened in the last number of decades. So the patient experience is definitely reduced, and you do have some consequences around every time you miss an attempt, what happens is the percentage chance of problems afterwards do increase. And the studies show that. So you do get more chance of phlebitis or infiltration, exvisation, and just general venous depletion. And what was interesting is that patient view that's come out very recently around clinical studies talking to the patient and the lived experience has been around not wanting to have multiple accesses or attempts or having that feeling of PTSD around the needles. So it can't be minimized anymore because that patient voice and that lived experience is increasing. But then you look at the clinical point of view, which increases as well, where you have delayed treatments, more time around trying to attempt, calling different people in an easy to try and help. So all of that just causes frustration and increases that operational workflow when we want to try and reduce that or make it more efficient.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Yeah. Perfect. So you've talked and you started very much off in an NHS world with an NHS-driven need and NHS-driven research, but there's a lot of private health care going on. There's cancer care is going out into even more integrative, supportive models and so on. Different countries have different models. So can you give us a little bit of a vision of where you see this going for the private market as well as the NHS?

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, they kind of cross over in some aspects, even in the UK at the moment. We are working with a couple of the private healthcare groups and see that moving forward. The key thing for us is that this is something that's available for everyone. When we look at different healthcare markets, you do see either a blended model or more private healthcare, which is delivered and offered. The key thing for us is that making sure that this is available across all healthcare systems. The private system, let's say, for example, in the US or Australia, is heavily driven to the end users. There is a necessity to have private healthcare. And then you build in the insurance companies, and who are the payers, how is that rolled in, and who has to put the cost or the bill of any of the unintended consequences, so complications. So it becomes even more important to get it right first time. And this is part of our adage as well, is really driving into this idea of getting it right first time to reduce the issues afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Absolutely. That's music to our ears.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Yeah. And I think it depends who starts making decisions as well. I think there is a joint decision-making process around some of these healthcare systems and private versus public, and then maybe a drive to say if you're not using all of the equipment available to get it right first time, does that have an impact on the paying and the pay or around uh private healthcare? Becomes very interesting on that point of view.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Absolutely. I mean, there is one of the benefits, in a way, of the private market is they're more willing to adopt new technologies that are going to bring benefits. The NHS is a wonderful organization and we must protect it, but it is a huge bear myth that takes a while to adapt.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Absolutely, yeah. Decision making is it take does take a long time and that can be reduced in the private market for sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Perfect. So uh sounds like, and we were talking before we started the podcast. Sounds like you've just had a great show, and December's a busy month for you. Uh so it looks like Airclub's doing great. Where do you see the company going, let's say, across the next 12 to 24 months?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

The key thing for us is to put two feet very firmly into the NHS. We've got a lot of key partners and a lot of partners soon to be on board around the NHS, but the key thing for us now is more data. We're collecting more data to be able to help with our mission. Our overall mission for the business is to assist and to help with one billion cannulations globally. It's a big statement, it's a big statement, but that's what we want to aim towards is how can we help one billion separate cannulations? To that end, we will be looking to launch in the US to relaunch in Australia and some specific European markets as well. So all of the work that we're doing is gonna be around more regulatory and compliance, more data capture, and launching to those specific markets as well. So that's gonna be an interesting and fun time.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

And Jason, thank you very much for your time. And sounds like you're gonna be a busy man for the next couple of years at least.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think what we want to do though is try and keep it as as simple as possible. So if my closing remark can be simplicity, we've built simplicity into the airglove system, and I think that just allows a bit of equity in healthcare, is to make sure that if it's simple, as many people can access it and as many people can use it as possible. So, yeah, that's the key message we want to push forward from Airglove Medical.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah, I must admit, that's the thing that struck me when I looked at your website. I mean, you you see all these technologies coming out, and MedTex is a huge growth area, and there's all sorts of bits and pieces, and the complexity is going through the roof. Your product is desperately simple, but solves a really real problem.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Exactly, exactly. And that's what we're hoping. That's what we're hoping, and we'll continue to push that as far as we can.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Thanks very much. Thanks for your time.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Perfect. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

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