Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1108006
APRIL 2019 I FLEX007 MAGAZINE 33 open to dialogue and be willing to say, "We definitely know what our core business is and what we're trying to accomplish with this product, but we're interested in your insights on how to get there." Even if you talk with a vendor that you decide not to use, if you listen and you're wise, you can still pick up bits of knowledge that are useful for you as a product developer. Matties: Dave, do you have any advice that you would like to share? Moody: To work in a collaborative effort like this, you have to be willing to sit down and listen. You cannot approach the table think- ing, "I've done this before. I know exactly what they need. I'm going to give them this," because every project has different drivers. Rushi: It's all about investing in the partner- ship. We're the right size for that. We're not so big that you're not going to have our attention, but we're large enough that we can handle the volumes when projects like this do start to ramp up. Matties: Happy, you have any comments or questions you want to say add? Happy Holden: Having to wear a medical elec- tronic heart sensor for three weeks, I was won- dering if your product is disposable or can it be recycled? Flannery: The current version has a three- month lifetime; then, it's disposable. There is a roadmap to reduce that impact, but the cur- rent version is disposable after three months. We've seen those heart monitors people wear before. Do you have to send it back in the mail? Holden: Yes. Flannery: It baffles me that you have this criti- cal piece of hardware you're wearing to get your heart performance, but then you have to mail it to receive the data. If you were wearing it in a way that you're not going to get useful data—such as putting it on wrong, not cou- pling to your skin correctly, or having a prob- lem with the device itself—they're not going to find out until it comes back in the mail. My only response is, "Did you think about that when you were designing your product?" Goldman: Not to mention it could get lost. Holden: At least it didn't come off in the shower or anything like that. In my case, I didn't apply it—a specialized nurse did. Is your device wireless? Flannery: Yes, we use a Bluetooth-based link. It connects to a small home device that we call our Bridge-to-Health (B2H) medical data relay. It has no buttons or anything to configure; you just plug it into the wall. It connects via the cellular network to our back-end cloud. Any time that the patch is in range and has data to transmit, it wakes up and talks to the hub that transmits it to the cloud. You don't have to do anything; it's fire-and-forget. Also, if you were to wear our patch—or in your case, a heart monitor—and a problem arose, we would find out immediately and remotely light up an indicator on the Bridge to let you know you should change or re-apply the SmartPatch, which saves so much time. Sending that kind of feedback to the patient earlier is critical. Goldman: Well, excellent. Thank you all so much. This has been very informative. Flannery: Absolutely. Matties: Yes, thank you very much. Flannery: You're welcome. FLEX007 You don't have to do anything; it's fire-and-forget.