Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Hospital Isolation with Alex Laskey of CareCubes

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Transforming Hospital Isolation with Alex Laskey of CareCubes · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Healthcare
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  Podcast.
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  We're joined today by a fascinating and brilliant
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  leader. We're joined today by Alex Lasky.
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  And and Alex has the fascinating position of
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  being CEO of a of a company that's
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  not so new anymore
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  called CureCubes.
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  And he's gonna talk to say about what
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  problem CureCubes
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  solves, how it came to be, trends he's
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  watching, and a lot more. Alex, can you
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  take a moment and introduce yourself and tell
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  us about CureCubes?
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  Hey, Scott. Thanks so much for having me
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  on the program.
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  I really appreciate it. I'm Alex.
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  I'm in Northern Virginia.
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  Based I I have spent my career, I
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  guess, focusing on thorny problems.
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  Started a software company called Opower, worked with
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  utilities, electric and gas utilities all over the
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  world to help people save energy in their
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  homes. We took that company public, and it
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  now is a large part of the Oracle,
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  business.
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  And,
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  I've been focused for the last six years
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  on infectious disease. As we all saw what
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  happened to our country and to health care
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  in this country with the pandemic, I figured
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  there's gotta be a better way
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  to solve the problem of infectious disease. And
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  the notion
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  that, we send people to the hospital to
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  get treated for one thing and they come
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  home sick with something else
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  seemed to me to be something that we
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  should make
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  a a problem of the past rather than
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  a problem of the present.
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  And so,
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  we developed CareCubes to directly
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  go at that problem, to increase throughput for
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  hospitals, to increase their ability to effectively treat
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  patients,
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  and to, at the end of the day,
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  make sure that if somebody is sick in
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  a hospital, they're able to be treated in
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  such a way that allows nurses and doctors
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  to do their jobs
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  and reduces the likelihood of spread inside the
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  hospital.
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  Well, thank you. And talk to us about
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  the core of what a CareCube is and
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  and how this developed during COVID and and
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  sort of where you're at in the company
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  now. Thanks. Yeah. So,
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  CareCube, the initial product we put into the
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  market that was being acquired by hospitals today,
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  has five ten k clearance,
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  is a negative pressure tent
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  that, Scott, you have and having never seen
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  it in person, I don't think yet, you
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  and anybody else, any one of your listeners
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  could put it together in fifteen minutes having
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  never seen it before.
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  Put it together in fifteen minutes. You create
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  a negative pressure environment that meets FDA standards.
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  You put, a
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  highly infectious patient in there, whether that patient
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  has, heaven forbid, some emerging pathogen like Ebola
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  or more run of the mill thing like
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  the flu. You put a patient in it.
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  You zip the the canopy closed. You plug
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  it into a the fan and manometer, and
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  all of a sudden, you have a negative
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  pressure room, the type that, hospitals build for
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  a million dollars. Here's a deployable negative pressure
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  unit that you can put together in fifteen
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  minutes and put it up anywhere you need
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  it. Once you have it up and the
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  patient inside,
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  nurse or doctor can take care of the
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  patient without having to wear PPE.
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  So the basic idea here is we're inverting
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  the paradigm. And instead of wrapping PPE around
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  the provider,
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  we're wrapping the patient in PPE and therefore
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  liberating the nurse, liberating the doctor
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  to take care of multiple patients without having
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  to don and doff PPE and without having
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  to worry about their own health and just
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  do what they're trained to do and passionate
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  about doing, which is worrying about and taking
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  care of the health of each and every
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  one of us.
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  Yeah. Alex, let me ask this question. You
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  you you've built this great technology with some
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  of the leading infectious disease people in the
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  entire world.
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  Incredibly important. COVID proofs for the use case
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  for this and so important going forward.
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  How is it being deployed so far? Are
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  you in the pilot stage with some hospitals
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  and health systems? What does what does this
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  look like and and any examples of of
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  where you're, you know, where where you're focused?
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  Yeah. It's been really encouraging. We have some
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  of the leading hospitals in the country who
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  are purchasing from us,
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  rural centers, urban centers, large networks, stand alone
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  academic institutions.
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  We're in a dozen hospitals across 10 states,
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  and, and they're very different kinds of hospitals,
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  and they have different use cases for it.
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  Then we've got a hospital system, Scott, that,
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  40% of their beds across the country are
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  in semi private rooms. And what does that
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  mean? It means, you know, you got a
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  two bed room,
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  and, you know, we have hospitals are reaching
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  capacity right now. But it but if you
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  have a flu patient even, forget about a
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  TB patient or a measles patient, even have
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  a a flu patient come into the hospital,
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  and you have only two patient rooms available,
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  you know, what that means for the hospital
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  is
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  they have to they have to kill one
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  of the beds in order and they turn
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  a two patient room into a one patient
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  room. So from a financial perspective, it's it's
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  devastating for them. For their inability to care
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  for people, it's really bad. So in this
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  hospital system, they're gonna they're gonna be using
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  the product to,
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  maintain,
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  occupancy rates in the in the hospital. So
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  that that's just as a as a as
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  a single example of this. So there are
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  lots of different examples of another place
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  we have and I was in a hospital
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  on Tuesday morning
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  in a small sized city, and we walked
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  through the emergency department, and there are patients
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  boarding in the emergency department,
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  patients who have been admitted and don't yet
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  have a bed. And so in this hospital
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  and there are other hospitals like it, they're
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  they're they're using our product to extend and
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  expand the number of beds they can they
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  can comfortably and safely treat patients in,
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  because,
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  they just don't have enough surge capacity to
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  meet the current demand
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  across their emergency departments.
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  Alex, as you look at sort of the
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  evolution of what Cure Coupes
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  is doing, let me really ask you two
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  questions. How do you look at this in
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  terms of where it's going and what it's
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  doing,
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  and different metaphors or how you think about
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  it? And then second, anything else that you
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  think we'll we'll get to a bunch of
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  questions on trends and where you're focused and
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  emerging leaders. But before we do that, any
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  thoughts on what you see as a potential
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  growth case scenario for what you're doing,
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  and also any other thoughts, key thoughts you
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  wanted to share with the audience?
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  Sure.
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  Scott, you and I are both I appreciate
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  that question. You and I are both old
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  enough to remember,
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  you know, pre 09/11 world where we used
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  to go to the airport
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  and,
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  sometimes we wouldn't even have any need to
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  go through security and certainly get to the
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  gate without having anybody looked at our boarding
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  passes.
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  And you tell that to a young person
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  today, or they don't even have to be
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  that young, But, you know, that person in
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  their twenties today, and they look at you
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  like, what are you talking about? That couldn't
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  have been the way it used to be.
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  And, of course, it was. And I kinda
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  think for us, as I think about what
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  does CareFuse look like in the future and
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  what does the world of medical health care
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  look like in the future,
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  it will for my young kids,
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  when they grow up and they look back
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  and say, wait a second, dad. It used
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  to be the case that somebody with a
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  hacking cough and a fever would just walk
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  into the emergency room and you would sit
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  them down next to grandma.
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  What were you thinking?
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  Why when somebody gets sick in a nursing
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  home, do we just expose everybody in nursing
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  home and everybody gets sick? Why don't you
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  isolate the person
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  who is sick,
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  give them the treatment they need, but do
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  it in a way that allows everybody else
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  to remain healthy? Why do we allow thousands
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  of people
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  tens of thousands of people to come home
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  from the hospitals with infections they didn't have
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  when they went to the hospital? A hospital
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  should be a place where you're getting healthy,
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  not a place where you're getting sick. And
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  so I think, you know, health care has
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  done this kind of stuff before, Scott. You
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  think about defibrillators.
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  Also, when we were earlier in our careers,
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  defibrillators were only in hospitals.
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  Today, there's a differ defibrillator,
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  you know, in our office. There's a defibrillator
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  at the behind the front desk at my
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  kid's elementary school. And defibrillators,
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  these AEDs are easy to use. They're inexpensive
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  to use,
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  and they're responsible for saving the lives of
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  thousands of people every year. We believe deployable
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  isolation
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  should be like that. Easy to use, inexpensive
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  to use, delightful to use,
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  do it in a way that expands
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  health care, allows nurses and doctors to do
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  their jobs without burning out. And that to
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  me, that's like that's the model. That's where
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  we're headed.
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  Every place, every institution responsible for housing and
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  caring for people
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  should have deployable isolation care available where they
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  need it, when they need it.
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  And so I'm super excited about that. And
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  I and I I look with you know,
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  I think about my own parents,
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  who are not old. I don't wanna get
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  that get myself in trouble. But, you know,
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  if my mom got sick today with something,
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  I wouldn't want her to go to the
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  hospital. I'd be worried about her getting getting
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  there and getting sick with something else. And
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  so, you know, for for your mom, for
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  my mom, for everybody who's listening's mom, and
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  for our future selves, like, you know, we're
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  all gonna get sick at some point.
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  Let's make sure that when we get treated
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  for for what we're sick for, we don't
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  we don't get somebody else sick and we
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  don't come home sick with something else.
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  No. Absolutely. Fantastic
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  what you're doing.
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  Take one moment on advice that you would
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  give to emerging leaders,
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  whether health system leaders or business leaders, any
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  advice that you think about when you when
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  you talk to emerging leaders.
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  Oh, that's a good question, and I feel
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  funny giving advice. I still feel like I'm
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  seeking advice all the time. Which is a
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  great place to be and a great way
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  to be. So we appreciate that. It's the
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  only way to be. You know, for me,
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  I guess, I I built a pretty successful
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  business in the energy space selling to large
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  utilities. And, people ask me, well, what, you
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  know,
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  what business do you have going into health
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  care and,
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  selling to hospitals? And and,
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  look, we're at early stages still. We just
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  raised our series a, and we've got great
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  investors on board. But but at the end
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  of the day and we have great customers.
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  But the the advice that I've taken to
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  heart that I would recommend to others is
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  when you're exploring a new space or even
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  if you're just exploring an old space that
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  you know quite well or think you know
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  quite well,
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  surrounding yourself with people who have different experience
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  than you,
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  who have different
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  expertise,
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  different
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  temperaments,
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  I think is a critical is a critical
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  part of being an effective leader and and
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  and having success. So in my case here
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  at CareCubes,
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  I've built a team we've built a team
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  that is have people who have spent their
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  careers selling to hospitals,
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  building medical devices,
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  working at some of the best,
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  companies in this space. I have a board
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  and investors who have spent their entire careers
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  investing in companies and and building and operating
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  companies.
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  Mark Bernalini is an investor. He runs Oscar
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  Health. He ran Aetna before into the merger
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  with CVS. I mean, the the amount of
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  of information that guy knows about hospitals, about
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  payers, about how health care is delivered in
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  this country,
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  I could never hope to learn it. But
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  I get to surround myself with people like
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  him, with Bill Hawkins who ran Medtronic,
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  as the CEO.
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  You know, I call them for advice. It's
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  they they, you know, they're ready to give
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  it. They're eager to give it. They're thrilled
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  to be a part of what we're doing.
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  And that to me is is a is
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  a huge gift to me, and I couldn't
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  do it. I we we couldn't be doing
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  any of it without people like them, without
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  the Dan Grotto who runs quality engineering for
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  me. I I didn't even know what quality
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  engineering was,
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  when we started this company. So,
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  I think a critical part of being a
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  great leader is recognizing all the things you're
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  not good at. And,
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  and, you know, it's one thing to try
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  and work at getting better at the things
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  you're not good at. That has limited
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  my experience,
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  I'm not gonna get that good at the
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  things I'm not good at. I I can
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  get a little bit better, but the the
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  most important thing is recognizing what I'm not
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  good at and surrounding myself with people who
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  are good at those things,
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  and who I can trust
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  and, and and over time maybe learn from,
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  but but most importantly lean on,
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  to do their jobs.
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  No. Just absolutely fantastic. Alex, I wanna thank
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  you for joining us today on the the
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  Becker's
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  healthcare podcast. Just remarkable what you're doing, remarkable
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  team you established around yourself to do this,
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  and we're looking forward to continued success and
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  growth.
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  Al Talasky, thank you so much for joining
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  us today on the Becker's HealthCare podcast.
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  Thank you so much, Scott. I really appreciate
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  it.