Latest / Zero Friction / Revolutionizing Patient Mobility with Sheila Buswell || Zero Friction Podcast
Transcript
- Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Well, welcome to Zero Friction. This is Terry Coutsolioutsos So glad to have you today. And I have an exciting guest. Her name is Sheila Buswell, and she is the co-founder and CEO of Buswell Biomedical, which is developing a phenomenal technology. It's called UpMo, and it's about upward mobility. And it really is a game changer when it comes to there people who can't get around and need to be, whether they're in a hospital or a nursing care center, this is a life-changing technology that we're all excited to learn more about. So Sheila, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your personal journey, and then let us know about Upmo. Sheila Buswell: Thank you, Terri. It's great to be here. Just about myself, I graduated from a high school in the West Desert of Utah, Dugway High School, and I had graduated third of my class. I was third of my class, and I had a scholarship to University of Utah that I did not keep, and I ended up joining the US Army. In 1997, I joined the US Army, and in 1998, I deployed to Bosnia. And in Bosnia, I had a generator fall on my foot and I received a medical discharge for that injury in 2001. And after my injury and my medical discharge, I completed my education, ultimately obtaining a MS in engineering and working for a lot of great companies. And when I was injured in Bosnia, I rehabbed in Bosnia and I was at a UN hospital. And then 20 years after my injury in 2018, my mom fell in Arizona and she had all the challenges I had and more. unlike previous you had Natalia Mamana on here. ⁓ And she talked about identifying a problem or no, had experienced the but she went to business school and they said the best businesses are, you Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Good morning. Yeah. Sheila Buswell: create a solution to the problem. Well, I didn't know that problem existed. I just saw my little mama suffering. Like she had to wait hours for activities of day living like toileting it frustrated me and I'm problem solver. So I'm not a caregiver. I there every day and just first my instinct was to burn that place to the ground. I'm not an arson and I was mean to the care, the healthcare workers that really wasn't fair to them. But I realized, there's a systemic problem. And then ⁓ had worked mostly in automation, because my bachelor's degree is mechanical engineering and my master's degree is biomedical engineering. And had worked in research and development and automation, and I ⁓ used knowledge. And I was like, ⁓ this could be solved. So I'll just go work for whoever's solving this problem. And then, It was a very frustrating thing for me when I found out nobody's working on this problem. So 2018, I solved the problem. And in that year, I did research to find out nobody's working on this problem. It needs to be worked on. Gave myself a pep talk. If not now, then when, and if not you, then who? So I created Buswell Biomedical with my husband, Greg, and the rest is history. We've been working ever since. Got a patent and been trying to... get funding, have a full-size prototype and not looking back. We think we know that we have a solution to a problem, but you know if there's a better solution out there, great. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Cool. Well, tell us a little bit about UPMO and what it does and like, you know, it works and, you know, the value that it brings patients every day. Sheila Buswell: That's a good question, Terry. Currently, the standard of care is if you're in the hospital rehabilitation center, you call a nurse by pressing a button. This you would press. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: So this is you're like, you're stuck in a bed, right? So you're in the hospital and you're in a bed, right? Sheila Buswell: It doesn't have to be in a bed, it be. This is the way I envision it, because my mom was in a bed. But you call this device, it comes to you autonomously, autonomous motion, using or LiDAR technology a Roomba or a self-driving car. And then you have ⁓ a personalized that you would attach to it. It would lower a nylon strap into your lap. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay. Sheila Buswell: Not everybody is going to be able to use this device, but the ones who can, would alleviate the need. Like those people who can use it would take the, healthcare workers could focus on the people who do need, you know, who need everyday care. It lower the device, lower the nylon strap into your lap. You attach your harness on, put the harness on like a jacket. And then allows you to conduct the activities of day living without falling or... injuring yourself in that way. You move under your own power, build strength. It fits through a doorframe in a hospital. That's why it's for use in hospitals and rehabilitation centers and around the toilet. And then it would work in reverse. You'd come back to your bed and then you'd unhook your device, from the device and then take the, harness off and like unhook it and take it off like you would a jacket. and go back to whatever. Whereas now it would go charge itself and whereas now, you you're waiting hours, you just wait for that to navigate. Sorry, Terry, you were talking and. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Right. You know, know that... Go ahead. Sorry. No, it's good. just think that like, you know, I one of the biggest complaints you hear about people that are in the hospital is the whole aspect of needing to go to the bathroom, right? And, you know, needing to like hide your dignity because they ask you to go to the bathroom in your bed and they'll put a pad down and, you know, having a technology that allows people to ⁓ up and from their bed into the bathroom, do what they need to do, and then get back into the bed autonomously, because what typically happens is they're ringing a bell and somebody says, we'll be there and we'll be there. If not, they just tell you to go to the bathroom in the bed. that's probably not a great experience for anybody, by the way. So having a technology like this sounds like it's a win for everybody. The hospital has an autonomous technology that handles it, the patient has support that they want and need and it gets taken care of in a fairly fast fashion. So it just sounds like what a wonderful thing to do. Sheila Buswell: I even if you go to the bathroom and you have that pad, first of all, yes, that's humiliating, but also you're sitting in your own mess for like hours until somebody can come and change. And who wants to be changed? When I was in 1998, I was in that UN hospital and I had a cadre of Norwegian nurses. It was a peacekeeping mission and UN peacekeepers. And there wasn't that many women military people. The challenge wasn't I had didn't have to wait they were sitting there waiting for me to need them But it was a mental hurdle for me to have to have an audience When I did anything You're trained as a little kid. This is private. wanted you know, you can't do it's a whole thing to and It was hard enough for me, but when I saw my little mama Having to I mean she's an Irish woman and she's 110 pounds. She went into that Facility 110 pounds she came out 99 but it's not that Those people weren't nice to her or not willing to help but there just wasn't enough of them and that was in 2018. So there's a two-fold thing there. It's just humiliating and it's just it's a high priority to you or to the person, the patient, but really somebody going to the bathroom is not as important as list all the other things that healthcare workers have to deal with. High blood pressure or bleeding or I don't know and then like Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Right. Sheila Buswell: when people get a knee replacement, had a, or you had the orthopedics person. So hopefully that's a thing of the past. if have to walk in the hallway, that's not a high priority for a healthcare worker to be on each side of you to help you walk or to be in case you fall, but you have to build strength and they tell you to do that. it's this, up mode would allow people to walk under the build strength, but not compromise other people's recovery by needing healthcare workers that don't exist or that do exist but they're spread too thin. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: pretty cool. So where do you stand today with the technology? Where are you trying to go? most importantly with things like this hat, what's the path of getting it in the hands that can actually benefit from the value? Sheila Buswell: That's a really good question. We have a full-size mechanical prototype that can lift 500 pounds and we have harness with sensors in it that we have. have, it was awkward as I'll get out during the pandemic and since then it's been awkward to go to people and be like, stand up and sit down for science, especially young men. I'm a middle-aged woman. So that demographic was easy to cover, but there's no way to not be awkward. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Nice. Sheila Buswell: But we know that it's predictive. We know that there's a huge library of certain activities, not every activity. So we just need to cover down on the activities that aren't covered and then compare that motion with what we have and then integrate it as a control system. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: So what's been your biggest obstacle up until now? are you going with it? Was it building it? Was it developing it? Tell me a little bit about the friction points in your journey so far. Sheila Buswell: I think that friction points, biggest one has been ⁓ out the raising of funds and how to go about that. But also a friction point has been artificial intelligence and people being if that's the right word. They're intimidated by that, because they don't really understand how it help. They just think the Terminator and they don't think Big Hero 6 and it could help improve everybody's lives. They just think... Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Unraisingly. Sheila Buswell: it could this alternate where, or this alternate, ⁓ where could be fought or somebody could go back in time and kill somebody and it's ridiculous. But they don't see how it could benefit mankind. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: got it. you have a robotic AI intelligence inside the machine, correct? It operates and will it learn in a new environment? Will it teach itself where it's at and how to navigate? Or is it kind of like a Roomba that you have to set up these sort of, you you stage it with certain boundaries and things like that? Sheila Buswell: Well, that would depend on the environment that it's put in, but like everybody is self-driving cars like Waymo, right? Like you can, that technology exists. You just have to get, you have to obtain it so it can navigate through a busy hospital setting. And there would be situations where you would want to block off certain areas. Like for instance, I'm just going to throw this out there, the nurses station at the hot, the local hospital, you know, it wouldn't even come near that. And it would use the like Waymo technology. of like not allowing it to run into people. The sensors are the control system and it compares your, like for instance, I walk with a limp. So it would know that I walk with a limp and that's normal for me. But if I, it's got a fail safe so that I wouldn't be able to like, the local hospital in St. Louis says unplanned descent with or without injury. I couldn't unplanned descend. couldn't, the accelerometers would notice that I'm descending and then restrict that motion. Now the response, you're not gonna hang there like a pinata. It might lower you slowly to the ground. might, you know, allow, pick you up like a little kid to let you get your feet under you to, you know, to, but it will not allow you to like fall and hit your head. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Thank Right. Well, that's pretty cool. It sounds like I love the fact that doesn't let you hang like a pinata. That was a good one. have to remember that. So, so fundraising has been a challenge. And what do you think, like, what's the pathway to market? So if you had funding today, what does that path look like? Is it, is it 510 K? Is it, is there, you know, like, how long does it take to get to market? What are the challenges in getting it to market and approved? Sheila Buswell: So there's not, it's not real, 510K depends on a predicate device. There is not really a predicate device because even the devices, like for instance, the closest device to ours would be, I don't want, Locomat, I think it's called, but it's a physical therapy device that goes around a treadmill so that you can build strength. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Correct. So you don't have one. Sheila Buswell: But it requires a healthcare worker to use. You can't use it independently and it doesn't have this ability to self-correct or like to allow people to not fall. You need a healthcare worker there to, they're not easy to use and all these things. So it would be a de novo path. I think I'm pretty sure, 85 % sure that it would be a de novo path and it would require, that could be 90 days. It could be ⁓ years. And I think that scares some investors off because it's very uncertain, but it's also needed. the shortage is not a secret. So the healthcare worker shortage. So there incentive there to find a solution ⁓ to problem. And if this offers a viable solution, we have to be able to prove that and make that argument. Then that moves us more towards that 90 day. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: process. Sheila Buswell: So yeah, now we're in the pre-seed round of funding and is what we're looking for. ⁓ And would get us to start the FDA process and the integration of the control system to the mechanical device. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay. That's pretty cool. then, and then from there, this sort of, you just stack on next sequence after that or. Sheila Buswell: we would like to do is have, we had a healthcare advisory board before the, we started this company in 2019. 2019 and 2020, we had the healthcare advisory support and standing up and sitting down was the most important scenario to figure out. And that's what we have. And the walking is the but there's ⁓ a huge of walking thanks to. the Apple Watch and Fitbit and all that stuff. So we need to if those will work and will make the algorithm much easier for us. There's a lot less development time. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: So you're on a journey for funding. What has that journey been like so far? Like who do you typically target for funding? Sheila Buswell: Well, we have initially we've bootstrapped from winning pitch competitions and like self friends and family and then self funding and things like that. We've like kind of been very creative and very resourceful, I guess is the word. However, what we're looking for in the like ⁓ going ⁓ is have ⁓ realized time that it's not We're not looking for just dumb money. We want a partnership. We want somebody who. And that to have come, seems mostly to be investors that have experience in this, like not business investors, but they have experience with either a family member or they the problem existing, right? They've been a patient themselves. Like our COO. ⁓ Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Right? Sheila Buswell: was a fan of Sheila, but he had a knee replacement and he understood that, okay, the need for the upward mobility and the benefit that it offers. So I think that there is definitely a space there where funding needs to come from somebody who understands the benefit that we offer and has the experience to be like, okay, this is who else you need to work with, whether that's a group family practice, angel investors or traditional VCs. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay, cool. So once you get the money, then you have a six month to get to the next phase. Sheila Buswell: Ideally, it'd be six months, but yeah, we have certain tasks that are associated with that. So if we get those tasks done in six months, or if it's longer than six months, yeah. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay. Then you move to the next phase, right? That's cool. And so you have a prototype built now. I you've got like something that maybe we can show like a visual. Do you have anything with you that we can? ⁓ there you go. How about that? Sheila Buswell: This is a 1-12 size. A doll fits in here and we have a doll that is naked and it grosses me out. and we have a toilet and that's with the doll somewhere. is, this got room to fit through door frame that's 42 inches. The real, I don't know what, 1-12, ⁓ 42, math hard. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay. Got it? Okay. Okay. That's a framework that you can sit inside of that, right? Is that, and there's straps in there that hold you up? Sheila Buswell: There's handles here, but I hulk those. I broke, it's unidirectional. So you could take it into the bathroom and then it, you don't have to turn it around. You just use it the other way. So it's got four handles and you stand in it, but it would allow you to sit and stand up. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Got it. Yeah. And there's a strap there that helps you get out of bed. So I remember the story about like trying to get your mom out of bed. Is that a strap that pulls you out or how does that work? Sheila Buswell: So the strap would, I'm pointing here and it's a podcast so people would hear me. I listened to the ones, I didn't watch them. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Well, that's a visual too, so you get a white-fronted video with YouTube, so you'll see it. Sheila Buswell: So it would drop the nylon strap from the thing and then from here, and then you would attach your harness to it. And your harness would have the inertial measurement units in it, the sensors, and healthcare worker would know which patient is attached to which device and then where they're at. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay, ⁓ I see. End. Okay, that's pretty cool. That's nice. So, and they can just kind of maneuver theirself throughout the hospital in that little up-move, you know, pretty cool. Sheila Buswell: It is pretty cool and it's If I say air like an air hockey table, like you don't know how much and like it moves effortlessly. It moves floats, but it's, ⁓ like a wall. If you need it to be a wall, it stops ⁓ it, the frame will work like a, and pick you up if you, yeah. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Okay. solid frame. Yeah. So like, that's pretty interesting. And I'm guessing from a health worker perspective too, that, you know, it probably is good for preventing injuries, possibly like lifting people out of the bed and things like that. Sheila Buswell: Yeah, every year there's 13 or 14 billion dollars in healthcare worker injuries that are mostly lower back and you can't recover for those. like registered nurses have a lot of education and they can work with patients for an average 12 years. There's a lot of injuries that happen that if we had a better way, an easy way to manipulate people and for them to do stuff on their own, Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Wow. Sheila Buswell: That would be better for everybody. No, but like the patient doesn't want the healthcare worker to get injured. And 300 pound middle-aged person doesn't want the 22 year old CNA to get injured trying to help them go to the bathroom. ⁓ Nobody wants that. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: That's pretty cool. So good safety for hospital workers too. That's awesome. So any closing words on your end before we kind of wrap things up? I have one more question for you when you're done, but I just want to make sure anything that you want to leave us with before we go. Sheila Buswell: I think I just generally want to say this. speaking, I've about the entrepreneurship spirit and like people want to work for themselves. I have been doing, and that was never my plan, but I have learned and I have experienced firsthand that it's an illusion to think there's security in working for somebody else and working for yourself being insecurity or like not secure. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Right. Sheila Buswell: At least you know all the things, right? Like you don't get a year away from retirement and be like, and you're fired. Like that's not something that happens. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Well, cool. That's a great closing statement. So I'm going to ask this question really slowly for you. don't think we discussed it before, but I asked this question to every guest. so ⁓ we can have, ⁓ know, current day Sheila go back ⁓ give advice to 18 year old Sheila when she was graduating in high school and going into the military. What advice would current day Sheila give 18 year old Sheila about life? Sheila Buswell: think just in general to listen to yourself more than other people. like your gut instinct or your intuition or whatever you want to call it. I think that's for you. That's your own. Other people, it's not that they're bad or ill intentioned or don't want the best for you, but their experience isn't your experience. And I think as I get older, I'm more appreciative ⁓ how sometimes it's... It's just not, the world is not the same, right? Like my experience is not the experience of somebody 10 years older than me. it's to think that it used to drive me crazy when somebody who was on this earth prior to me being on the earth thought that they had all the answers. That's ridiculous. And it's not that not to to that advice, not to consider it, but If your gut or your intuition tells you to do something else, navigate it differently. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: That's good advice. favorite thing I do about the podcast, the way, is ⁓ day I hope to have like 100 different answers on a podcast of just that answer by itself ⁓ and over again. So Sheila, Buswell, thank you so much. You great energy, you bring great frequency, you're trying to solve a big problem with a great technology. And I just want to say thank you so much for being with me today. Sheila Buswell: Thank you, Terri. I really liked being here and I enjoyed our conversation. Terry Coutsolioutsos/RevRx AI: Great, thank you so much. Have a great day. Sheila Buswell: You too.