April Update

Throughout the fall term, I conducted a lot of literature reviews about a variety of different topics in healthcare technology and the barriers that come with the industry. See Fall Term Final Reflection Essay for updates.

During the winter term, I had the opportunity to build on this literature review and move further with my project. The most significant achievement of this term was getting a final decision from the Institutional Review Board that I did not need to go through the human subject research process to conduct my interviews. I had been working on the IRB Application for this project without much look or insight since these research projects are usually in a research lab and a large group of people. After having a few conversations with some members of the IRB, we came to the conclusion that I could conduct interviews without going through IRB approval. This was my biggest obstacle in the fall and held my project at a standstill for some time while this issue was sorted out. Now, I am able to go ahead with my project and collect informational user stories and integrate them into my final project.

After the IRB Approval came through, I could focus my efforts on actually creating the content that will be in this toolkit. This term, I started my final toolkit entitled: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Entering the Market With A Healthcare Technology Startup. In this document, currently 11 pages long, there are a variety of resources that entrepreneurs can use to learn how to enter the market with a healthcare technology.

I started off this toolkit with an introduction to the guide. In this 2 page section, there are a variety of topics including:

• Personal Introduction
  • Who I Am
  • My Healthcare Technology Startup (The Kanya Project)
  • Why my technology failed including some of the barriers I faced
• Introduction to the Guide
  • Why this guide is important for any entrepreneur in healthcare technology
  • How people can use this guide
  • The importance of conducting market and feasibility studies

After the introduction, I thought it was important to have one or two pages defining the overarching barriers of entering the market in healthcare technology. In this I included the Barrier Map that I have been working on based on my literature review from fall term and ongoing research from winter term where I found real life examples of such barriers.

Based on these examples I found, I started to create the toolkit. As I first thought of what I wanted from this toolkit, I knew that I wanted it to be a resource that entrepreneurs could use 1) before entering a new market with healthcare technology or 2) when analyzing a current healthcare technology in the market. However, I wasn’t sure about the best way to accomplish these two tasks. I then did some research on existing entrepreneurship toolkits and found that most of them were formatted as worksheets that the user would fill out based on their specific startup. Based on this information, I started to create a list of questions that the entrepreneur should ask based on the barrier map I created last term. I have attached one page below of the cultural barriers as an example.

As you can see by this excerpt, there are a few items that go along with each question. Firstly, there are specific items to consider under each question. For example, in looking at the differences in gender, there are many factors to consider such as local gender roles, gender identity, and sexual orientation. While this is not an inclusive list, I am hoping that this section will serve as a guide for entrepreneurs to think about while they are answering this question. In the next part of each section, I have included an example of a barrier I have witnessed within this question. I thought both of these sections added value because they both serve as a guide for questions that are pretty broad on their own, but with the examples, there is a clear direction that I want the readers to go in terms of their thought process.

Currently, there are a few questions that I have not seen barriers specifically but I am sure that there are some. After conducting a few interviews, I am hoping to collect some examples for these questions. If I do not encounter any of these problems in my interviews, I will modify the questions because either that barrier is not as common as I may think, or it is not specifically addressing an issue that does in fact exist. This term, I have been compiling a list of people to interview and writing an extensive list of questions for each person. While I do have a master list of questions to ask during interviews, I usually do a bit of research on the person and ask questions that I expect them to have a good amount of experience in. I have noticed in the few interviews I have conducted in the past, that if people do not have a pretty good idea about the question, they will either 1) give an answer they are not too sure about or 2) feel disheartened that they do not have the answer and then continue to not answer other questions. After each interview, I also ask them to direct me to someone in their field that would also have insight into the barriers of creating a healthcare startup.

My biggest obstacle so far has been finding people with experience specifically in healthcare technology startups. I usually find people in technology startups, healthcare startups, or working with healthcare technologies. However, it is difficult to find people that intersect with all 3 categories. However, my advisor told me that the best way to find people was to use the snowball effect of networking where you ask someone to direct you to someone else, and therefore expand your network base. I have been using this approach quite a bit and have lined up at least 4 interviews over the spring term. Though not all of the individuals I am interviewing are directly in healthcare technology startups, I believe each has their own insight to offer in defining the barriers of healthcare and can offer unique advice in specific areas that I have already pinpointed and even help me define new barriers I have not yet thought of.

Overall, I believe I am in a good spot in my senior capstone right now. Going through the IRB process definitely took a lot longer than I had expected. However, I now have official word that I do not need to go through the IRB process which means I can move forward in my project without limiting myself in the future as to what I can do with this project. I have had one interview already and a few more informal interviews with friends that are currently working in healthcare technology startups. I believe I am in a good spot to create a toolkit that can help entrepreneurs in the industry.