Creating the Next Generation of Auto-Injectors w/ Jessica Walsh

Erik Sunset: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back. I’m Erik Sunset, your host of the DocBuddy Journal. Here at DocBuddy, of course, we deliver healthcare solutions that take the pain and cost out of broken workflows. You can learn more about our solutions like On Call, Op Note, and Enterprise at DocBuddy. com. And today we’ve got a special guest, which is Jessica Walsh.

Erik Sunset: Jessica is the CEO and founder of RXBands. And just for a little bit about her background, Jessica is an innovator and seasoned entrepreneur with wide ranging experience that includes project management for a world leading construction and engineering firm. And she is now focused on the next generation of patient centric auto injectors to deliver a wide range of injectable medications by anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Erik Sunset: Jessica, thanks so much for joining us.

Jessica Walsh: Oh, my God. I appreciate it. Thank you. It’s such a pleasure to be here.

Erik Sunset: We’re really glad to have you. And we love to share a little bit of the spotlight with those in [00:01:00] healthcare that are, that are truly changing the game, shifting the paradigm. If I can use a really tired cliche, but it sounds like that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Jessica Walsh: Yeah, I’m really, I mean, our entire team has come together to make such a huge difference for patients around the world who need to carry emergency injectable medication. Maybe first I should tell you I carry an auto injector. That’s how ARC spans came about. I was prescribed to carry an auto injector with me at all times and I found that they’re really big and bulky and there’s just no great way to carry them.

Jessica Walsh: So when I went running, I ended up duct taping it to my arm. I looked ridiculous. It was so embarrassing and I knew there had to be a better way and sometimes you need to drive the change [00:02:00] you want to see in the world. So I created ARXpans and, and here we are today with just so fortunate to have brought together such an amazing team that has been able to get us to where we are.

Erik Sunset: Well, it’s this is going to be a terrible double entendre so early in the show, but you’ve got literal skin in the game, literally and figurative skin in the game, needing to haul around an auto injector, um, that’s. You know, that’s a point of focus here at DocBuddy and for our podcast. And there’s, there’s sort of an old way that people just kind of accept.

Erik Sunset: This is how it is. I don’t really have a choice

Erik Sunset: and it may not be a good way, but I’m stuck with it. But that’s fixed mindset, not growth mindset. So tell us a little bit about the path to what you’re creating. You know, you have the big, bulky, and for those that are just listening, Jessica flashed a gigantic auto injector but that’s the old way.

Erik Sunset: There’s a new way. So tell us how you got to that point.

Jessica Walsh: right. So going way back [00:03:00] when our auto injectors expire each year and when mine did, I’m the type of person that likes to take things apart. And, and I thought, why is this? So expensive. What’s inside of it? And I realized that our needle is about this big and our glass cartridge that there’s got to be a better way.

Jessica Walsh: It’s just like this is designed to Really, back in World War II, the design hasn’t substantially changed since then, and if you think of it as, like, if that was your phone booth, like, we have iPhones now, like, we need to update our technology to, to increase patient compliance and, and ultimately save lives.

Jessica Walsh: So, at least for For people who have anaphylaxis, having your autoinjector close at hand, it means the difference [00:04:00] between life or death. And also for conditions such as for people with pain or diabetes or risk for overdose. I mean, seconds count. So we want to give People, something that they can carry and have with them in, in a time of need.

Erik Sunset: And obviously when we’re, we’re considering patient compliance to not only carrying, but using their auto injector in the case of something like anaphylaxis, you know, there’s only one good outcome there, and that’s that you use your auto injector of course. I want to, I kind of keyed on something you said though, around patient compliance where the stakes are maybe slightly less than life or death, and I’m certainly a layperson, correct me if I’m not using the correct terminology there, but what do you see, or what’s the aim for a more portable auto injector for patient compliance, like what do you expect the outcomes to be there?

Erik Sunset: so

Jessica Walsh: [00:05:00] Right. So, okay, with, if you look at something like anaphylaxis, you have five minutes or less to have a shot of epinephrine for it to be most effective. thE same things of where so our company is developing. auto injectors. We’ve developed a platform of auto injectors, but also life saving formulations.

Jessica Walsh: So if we’re working on a reformulation of T. X. A. So it’s our own proprietary formulation that can stop. non compressible hemorrhages. So when you’re thinking about the dynamics of that, someone is bleeding to death. Is 14 million women develop postpartum hemorrhage at 55, 000 of them die. each year.

Jessica Walsh: So when you, when you can make that change and save those lives from moving from [00:06:00] a drug that’s delivered through I. V. I mean, I can imagine both of us would want to help you see someone bleeding to death and I can’t start an I. V. Maybe you can, and I’m sure a lot of your readers can, but can you deliver an an auto injector, a shot of TXA faster with an auto injector.

Jessica Walsh: And most people can, especially even for the military, when they’re in the back of a Blackhawk or a tank. It’s as simple as just, like, pulling off a cap and pressing it against their leg. And we thought, wow, it’s like If we do this work, how many lives can we change, not just for the person who’s at risk, but their entire family, where it takes generations to recover? So that is our goal. We started off with epinephrine, but then we said, who else can we help? We were fortunate enough that the military reached out to us and they said, What? What can you put in here? I’m like, [00:07:00] really, we can deliver anything short of peanut butter. Listen. Okay. Anti chemical warfare agents, right?

Jessica Walsh: Hydromorphone, ketamine, TXA, non compressible hemorrhages, and the, and the list goes on and where they need something that’s on. Lighter and easier to carry. I mean, for them, ounces equals pounds. And you look at that correlation between the military and then also patient compliance. It’s like kids are bullied for having to carry their auto injector.

Jessica Walsh: I mean, like moms are fighting with their kids. The kids are like, I don’t want to carry it. And we’ve gotten letters saying soon as my child goes off to school, he’s gonna ditch his auto injector. But by making something that’s so small that will fit in the tiny pocket of your jeans, you remove that stigma and just make it so easy for it to be there.

Jessica Walsh: When when you [00:08:00] need it most. And then there’s also the environmental compliance part of it as well, too. If you look at the waste and the plastic that’s going into our waters, let’s reduce the overall footprint. Let’s reduce the size. Let’s think about medical device innovation in an Different way that can make a difference and and be impactful and and that’s really the Crux and the core and the ethos behind what we’re doing.

Jessica Walsh: All

Erik Sunset: Let’s, let’s dial into that a little bit too, because the old way sounds like maybe some of these drugs are more readily available as an IV injected solution, and sometimes that’s not an option, either for lack of expertise or in exceptionally austere conditions. You, you spoke before recording that in some cases that might be the battlefield, as you said.

Erik Sunset: That may also be the delivery of, of medicine [00:09:00] in a very rural environment, maybe with no healthcare infrastructure, maybe not in America. So can you speak to that? What’s the alternative? What are people doing now in those

Jessica Walsh: right So for example, you if you look at non again, postpartum hemorrhage so number one preventable deaths in the military and maternal deaths worldwide, right? So You have medullas who who aren’t able to start IVs. So that time starts ticking and every minute that passes, the person’s life is at risk.

Jessica Walsh: So they have to, you look at ambulances, EMS system in the United States, we have paramedics, they can start IVs. EMTs can’t. So by taking that shift and saying, let’s reduce the need for that advanced medical training for point of care injury, get them to a hospital, get [00:10:00] them to that facility where they can be properly cared for.

Jessica Walsh: But we always talk about this golden hour and in some cases it’s less. So we want to be able to get patients to a place where they have a chance of survival because right now they don’t have appropriate options. I mean, carrying an outdated autojector, people get laxed. I almost like to think of it as when you first have a child, the first child, people sterilize everything, but the second child, the binky drops in the ground.

Jessica Walsh: They’re like, They brush it off. It’s that’s what patients are doing with their auto injectors. They carry it. Patient compliance is is a little bit higher in the beginning, but then it drops off. They’re like, No, I’ll just I’ll be careful. And we hear stories of and they’re heartbreaking of of I’ll share a [00:11:00] story of a teenage boy who was going out on a date and he wanted to look cool, and he didn’t have his auto injector with him, and it was exposed to an allergen. They went back to his place, and by then it was too late, because he needed to get his auto injector. And he didn’t make it. And he’s like, if we can, we can take this, and we can make it so it like, it fits in the, the tiniest pocket of your like, of your littlest jeans. It just slides right in, right? It’s like now I can carry this in a yoga pants pocket or we’ve given it accessory attachments so that, um, it, an alligator clip for an active kid who has sport shorts who doesn’t want to carry it.

Jessica Walsh: So if you look at what our current options are now versus where we could be, [00:12:00] it’s leaps and bounds. And, and I see. such a huge opportunity for for so many injectable medications to move there. But also for for doctors when they’re looking that then when you’re prescribing to patients is, is this, is this something that they’re going to carry?

Jessica Walsh: Are they going to understand how to use it? I mean, currently auto injectors can be so confusing and it’s intimidating. And then you have to be asked, you know, which one hurts last. Right. And they always say it, let the large one. And I’ve been there where you say maybe it won’t be that bad. I’ll just wait.

Jessica Walsh: Maybe it will go away. And then that’s where people risk their lives.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, and that, that patient compliance aspect is, is so critical across all phases of care, whether that’s [00:13:00] your doctor advising you that maybe fast food 10 times a week is too much, you know, you need to be accountable to your own outcomes to some extent. And that the tragedy you shared of the the boy on the dates that happened even this week, I believe the story came out of Texas and it was a prank gone wrong, peanuts in football cleats and didn’t really think this kid was allergic, but he was, I believe he received the care that he needed to avoid dying, but you know, you’re in control until you’re not

Jessica Walsh: Absolutely. People who, um, who say, Oh, eat around it or or wait staff that just isn’t properly trained. There’s there’s so many ways that this can happen unexpectedly and you, you start to feel for a while safe. Oh, I haven’t had an anaphylactic reaction for a while. And I think that’s where where we need to be sure people at [00:14:00] least have an option to be able to keep themselves safe.

Jessica Walsh: It should be easy. Life itself is, is difficult enough. And the fact that they have to be kept at room temperature, I was like, what is that like five days out of the year? I was like, no, I like, I want something that’s, that’s, built for health and, and, and also design for my life. That then currently that when I saw that that doesn’t exist, it’s, it’s such a huge need.

Jessica Walsh: And, and we in life sciences, can do better. And I think that’s, that’s really the core of, of what we’re trying to do to ultimately save those lives for patients to make EMT’s lives. easier for third world countries who don’t have access to the proper or [00:15:00] advanced medical training to be able to give an IV or even drop the proper dose in a needle and syringe and also for a military.

Jessica Walsh: who who put their lives at risk for us, they should, they deserve, um, the proper equipment.

Erik Sunset: Absolutely. And with the device that size, there’s no excuse that you couldn’t have one in a cargo pocket or, you know, handy in your, your, your first aid kit, no matter where you are. And I Jessica, I want to be sure we get it on the record. I think most of our listeners will be familiar with TXA and the acronym there.

Erik Sunset: Can I, can I put you on the spot? What does TXA stand for?

Jessica Walsh: Tranexamic acid, so it it stops non compressible

Jessica Walsh: hemorrhages.

Erik Sunset: Okay. Thanks for, thanks for humoring me on the quiz there.

Jessica Walsh: no, happy to explain.

Jessica Walsh: It’s,

Erik Sunset: As an adult, I would imagine, you know, like it stinks to carry around a huge auto injector, [00:16:00] but I don’t want to pay that huge price. I got to imagine that’s a huge sort of peace of mind for parents, or like a kid, you know, to be trusted with their own backpack full of school supplies, let alone a life saving auto injector.

Erik Sunset: I mean, that’s, through the lens I’m looking at, that’s truly a shift to the new way, as opposed to the old way of, you know, here’s the thing, as big as a ruler, I got to give my six year old, leave my six year old in charge of it, right? Like that’s got to be a huge value add.

Jessica Walsh: oh, absolutely. We need to be cost effective. People need to be able to afford this. And also you look at some of the new family dynamics. Now you have one needs to be at mom’s home. Maybe one needs to be at dad’s home. You have to have one at the school and That starts to add up to be a mortgage payment for some people and families shouldn’t have to make the choice [00:17:00] between Keeping their children safe or keeping a roof over their head So often parents like they they forgo Or push past the expiration date.

Jessica Walsh: So one of the things that we’re doing with our autojectors we really we we spoke with patients to find out what the real needs were and to build that into our our device. So we wanted to make it affordable. It has to be reliable. It has to be easily carried. We know that people drop things in puddles or worse places than that, right?

Jessica Walsh: Like it needs to meet our military special forces needs. You look at the needs for like a 12 year old child or special forces. It’s, there’s a lot of similarities there, but it’s, that’s where like our devices should be designed from. And some, how I feel like the products that [00:18:00] we’ve been traditionally getting have been coming out of the lab.

Jessica Walsh: And yeah, sometimes they make them a little bit less expensive, but I’m like, that’s not innovation. Like I, I. I, like other parents, this is a groundswell of, of frustration with what we’ve been, we’ve been getting. So I thought, this is really, you know, it’s, it’s a time for a change. And I think this parallels to other areas of our healthcare system.

Jessica Walsh: When you really start to question things and, and ask. Why? Like, this doesn’t make sense. Why are we doing this? And sometimes you have to be the change you want to see in the world. And not give up. Because obviously making these changes, especially in life sciences, is not easy. And it’s not fast and it can be really expensive and it requires [00:19:00] an incredible team, but I don’t think any of us wouldn’t be in it if we didn’t love it.

Erik Sunset: Why do you think that is? And I can try my hand at a cynical guess. Why do you think it is that change hasn’t happened yet? Cause to your earlier point, we walk around with a mini computer every day. That’s also a digital camera. You can talk to anybody on the world with it. And that change happened pretty rapidly, right?

Erik Sunset: And there’s a big difference between consumer and life sciences. Absolutely. Is this, so here’s the cynical try that the mega manufacturers say, Hey, you know, we’ve got a production line set up. We have 10 million units of plastic that we already have accounted for through the next five years. And this is what people are getting, or is it something else?

Jessica Walsh: Yeah, it’s it takes a lot to be able to innovate, I can tell you we found many ways Not to do it. It is [00:20:00] not easy and and it’s, and it’s a long haul to get through FDA approval to validate manufacturing lines to assist us, just like so many steps to make sure that you can clear through human factors that you are, your device is safe and effective and easy to use.

Jessica Walsh: So there’s so many steps. And then at any point in time, there’s there’s always those risks where you may have to go back and say, okay, we need to fix this. So it When you look at it, you’re like, Oh, you know, this, we’ve created the world’s smallest auto injector, but to the path to get there was not overnight.

Jessica Walsh: And I think in many ways, it’s really easy for people to say, Oh, well, we’re, [00:21:00] this is what an auto injector looks like. It, we’re going to make. Slight innovations. There’s less risk. And and a little less innovation. It takes a lot. I have to applaud the all companies out there who are trying to make substantial changes to the way the status quo and how things have always been done.

Erik Sunset: Yeah. Well one of the things you mentioned just a bit ago is the the involvement for the US Special Forces and dealing with the DODI. I got a kick out of that because sometimes my, the Venn diagram of child and special forces use on an item is probably not a Venn diagram. It’s just a circle because they overlap completely.

Erik Sunset: buT that, that human factor mean, sure, you can design a very small autoinjector. But then what goes into ensuring that it’s going to work? Like that’s the, that’s the kicker, right?

Jessica Walsh: Right so testing and so much testing. So [00:22:00] for our autoinjector for epinephrine is emergency use. So we have to hit what we call five nines in terms of reliability, which means it has to be 99. 999 percent reliable. So we have to test that in the freezing cold and, and it’s hot out, we have to test it in elevations to make sure that it’s safe to fly.

Jessica Walsh: So there, there is a ton. of work. Drop testing. As you can imagine, with the military, the underwater sand grit. So it has to really withstand the rigors of what our military will put it through because it has to work, especially when your life depends upon it.

Erik Sunset: To your point, for any listeners who are maybe not so statistically minded, there ends up being a huge difference between 99.9 and then any [00:23:00] additional nines that that follow that is not hundredth of a point, thousandth of the points. You know, over time that ends up being a big number.

Jessica Walsh: Absolutely. And And when you when you think about that testing it someone’s life is at stake. So it’s you, your team has to be diligent and, and, and precise and unrelenting in terms of making sure that Performance will meet those standards.

Erik Sunset: And if I can, Jessica switch gears just a little before we recorded one of the other value ads of an auto injector, this size and this deployable, I guess, moving us away from these austere conditions are our warfighters may find themselves in. Was a hospital was a surgery center that for certain drugs you may not run them through the same IV line as other drugs or [00:24:00] maybe even any drug.

Erik Sunset: So would you, would you speak a little bit for our listeners that are in these more classic care settings in the U S where that will either save them time, save them money or both?

Jessica Walsh: Absolutely. So for, for TXA especially if you’re thinking about our, our medics and then also in hospitals as well too. So there’s, well, that’s just one example where you need to have. a dedicated IV line. You’re not going to run certain drugs through the same IV line. So having an autoinjector really becomes a workforce multiplier.

Jessica Walsh: It saves time and effort, especially when people are working in conditions where their hands are wet or bloody or muddy. And Again, trying to set an IV line in the back of a tank or [00:25:00] up in a Blackhawk, this is not always optimal. So if we can, if we can make it work out in these austere conditions, and then also in the hospital settings, it becomes a workforce multiplier for everyone involved in that life cycle.

Erik Sunset: Yeah. Just to keep our focus on the more classic healthcare setting. If we, if we can, if you have any thoughts, you mentioned earlier, some of the. Myriad of problems with, with health care in the US would, if you could wave a magic wand, what do you think you’d fix first?

Jessica Walsh: Oh, for in the traditional health care that I would love you, right? So right now we have we have an opportunity to change the way things are done. For example, if you look at what we just went through with Cove it we have one health care provider paired up with [00:26:00] One patient, and I get that’s like, and as you think of how many people had to be vaccinated.

Jessica Walsh: So I think there’s a real opportunity to think outside the box and say, if you look at that as like a manufacturing system or any other sort of system that is not optimal. So if we could do something like taking vaccines, putting ’em in autoinjectors, and being able to see. send them to people. You wouldn’t have people waiting and dying because they were not vaccinated or have received the proper care that they need.

Jessica Walsh: It gives us the opportunity to reduce the need for advanced medical training. So then those people can Focus on on things that are that do require those skills that that’s not a process that we should have been having to tie up people with that level of training. They could have been doing taking other actions to be able to save lives.

Jessica Walsh: So I think if we look at some of these larger [00:27:00] issues, such as how we vaccinate people around the world to get them the medications. that they need. It is just enormous opportunity to look at how we’re heart attacks. For example, in the crash cart where people are having to drop meds. Here’s another example where you can have someone who you say, give them.

Jessica Walsh: Red, a green and a blue and being able to help and in that way. So I think if we start looking, this is a workforce multiplier in areas that it hasn’t traditionally been used. There’s a real opportunity for to improve efficiency.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, the efficiency and adoption of a vaccine, that’s not the right phraseology, but it’s kind of, it’s kind of been odd. We want to walk a fine [00:28:00] line here that you are seeing more and more news, like there’s a measles outbreak, there’s a mumps outbreak, and we’ve had this MMR vaccine for how many decades now, and people are just saying, not doing it for my kid.

Erik Sunset: That’s the choice that they make. And I don’t have a lot to comment on there. Do you think there’s any value add though, that if something like an MMR vaccine was delivered to your house, maybe via Amazon, maybe prime same day. I don’t know. You know, we’re talking wild wave, the magic wand here. But if somebody could hold the auto injector device that delivers a trusted vaccine, something like MMR, do you think that would impact the adoption rate for the inoculation rate of a given vaccine?

Erik Sunset: Like, is that a path you see unfolding?

Jessica Walsh: Oh, absolutely. One of these, if you look at this, you don’t have to go anywhere that you took at the time and effort. And and then also, [00:29:00] oh, the for seniors who often had to have people drive them. There’s I really believe that if you can, if you can have something in your home and that, that you don’t see the needle.

Jessica Walsh: That’s another thing, that needle phobia. Or so you just see like grown men faint. I’m like, I could almost be there as well too. It’s just with an auto injector for at least for us, that was one of the things that injects fully retracts in under a fourth of a second. So it becomes its own sharps container.

Jessica Walsh: And it’s almost over and done with before you can even flinch. So that’s a benefit. Like how many people would rather not. see the needle, obviously, the healthcare industry, many, many people are just like, fine. You see it every day, but from the [00:30:00] patient side, it’s the kids when they see that needle coming,

Erik Sunset: Yeah, it’s a, it’s like a psychological torture experiment. You know, not only does the needle come out, but in a lot of cases you’re drawing from a vial and then we’re going to point it into your arm. Like that’s, if you’re not a fan of needles or having aversion to them, that’s like the worst case scenario.

Erik Sunset: You watch it happen in slow motion.

Jessica Walsh: it’s remove that fear, right? Let’s let’s give people a better option where it’s it’s so fast. It’s over with. You don’t need to see it. You can do it in in the comfort of your own home or wherever you happen to be in the in the world. It’s. It’s looking at not just the device, but though the whole process as a whole and saying, how can we do this better in the future?

Jessica Walsh: If you look at some of the processes [00:31:00] that you use and six sigma and and other areas and you apply that to what we how we’ve always done it there’s real opportunity for for change. For the better.

Erik Sunset: Yeah. And just to, to, to recap a little bit. So not only the administration of intravenous solutions, help me out with the category here. Injection drugs.

Jessica Walsh: Injectable medication.

Erik Sunset: category? Thank you. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m showing my ignorance a little bit there. So not only we’re talking about the future of injectable, injectable medications where conditions may not allow for the placement of an IV line or where you may not want to be dealing with IVs.

Erik Sunset: But also the broader distribution of either vaccines or other medications, you know, in a more direct to consumer sense, right?

Jessica Walsh: Oh, absolutely. There’s so often people need to come in for four shots. [00:32:00] And it’s it’s whether it’s a vaccine or or, um, for formulations that are focused on other areas of of their care. And you’re putting a patient at risk. Risk. It’s the time driving there. It’s the it’s at the cost to have them come in.

Jessica Walsh: It’s the inefficiency of a trained health care provider and the patient so Keep people at home. Let’s look at where we can move health care and into comfort of their own home to to reduce the burden of some of the things that are critical where you, where you need that advanced medical training to, to reduce costs and, and improve efficiencies.

Erik Sunset: I’m having a thought, I’m having a brainwave right here, and if I [00:33:00] put you really on the spot, I hope you’ll tell me. So in my estimation, the direct to consumer model, for lack of a better term, I know we’re not exactly talking about that, you need to have a provider involved at some level, I would expect. But I would imagine solving for that the vast majority of patients, especially those with kids. So rather than hauling them to the pediatrician for something routine, Let’s have it sent to the house. So we can get the provider aspects, all the delivery to the home solved. Both of those seem like pretty low bars to clear.

Erik Sunset: Have you given any thought to the paperwork side of this, that little Johnny can’t go to the next grade unless we show proof of vaccination here. I know we’re looking way down the line, but on the compliance side, just the administrivia side, have you given any thought to solving for that?

Jessica Walsh: Right. So yeah, prescriptions, right. And documentation of that. And there’s so many [00:34:00] ways that we can. Document now through given even just through iPhones and whatnot. I think of how I document to return a motorized scooter. It’s just like, that you really, I’m like this. So there’s, it’s like, really you can get so creative with what you’re able to do with other supporting technology.

Jessica Walsh: For all of our auto injectors, you have serialization on it as as well to there’s so much that we can do with with barcodes. So there’s a lot that we can do. When we want to get creative in, in terms of documentation, that this has actually really happened, you can addition of AI as well. It’d be like, you bring people in all on a video conference, everyone, like.

Jessica Walsh: 30 people all at once, pull out the cap, [00:35:00] press it against your leg, right? So there, there’s, there’s no shortage of ways that we could we could capture that.

Erik Sunset: Okay, well, you’ve thought much more about it than me. I saw that as like, Oh, maybe we’ll have to figure out a good way to ensure that the schools are happy and the state registries for standard immunizations are happy. It doesn’t sound like too big of a deal. And you actually hit on a dog whistle for me.

Erik Sunset: AI. Have you been keeping up with any of the AI and healthcare news? Are you tracking any of this stuff?

Jessica Walsh: AIM is just it’s incredible and what we’re, Able to do with a I know I love innovation. I love to see where things are going. I through some of the conferences I’ve been in. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with other founders who are doing some really amazing work with our auto [00:36:00] injector because it’s so small.

Jessica Walsh: We’ve added accessory attachments so it could snap to the back of your iPhone. It could snap to an alligator clip to children’s sports shorts. So the nice thing about that is people can carry it in the way that they want. But it also allows us to add in, additional technology to be able to provide a more of a holistic user experience.

Jessica Walsh: So more to come on, on that, where first thing is to get it in people’s hands. And then there’s a lot that we’re going to be able to do in the future that we’re super excited about. But I I love where AI is heading into being able to help innovation from the formulation development to capturing patients needs to at home health care.

Jessica Walsh: It’s just, it’s what what [00:37:00] we’ve what we’re seeing.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, we’re starting to see some really, really neat stuff. There’s been a few less impressive displays of it over the last week or so. But the Sora product, the video AI generator from the folks that made ChatGPT, that is Mind blowing what that can do. And I know we’re really just scratching the surface.

Erik Sunset: Have you seen any of those clips from Sora?

Jessica Walsh: it’s it’s really incredible. And and hearing about some of the additional innovation that’s coming is yes, there is an opportunity for as for anything for it could be used. And I know that there’s concerns on how things could be used in, in negative ways, but I really think that the overall trajectory for artificial intelligence is just limitless.

Jessica Walsh: It’s incredible what we’re, we’re going to be able to do [00:38:00] in the, in the future. Definitely.

Erik Sunset: I’m, with you. I’m I’m, I’m tuned in. I think in some, in some instances in healthcare, it’s kind of a hammer looking for a nail today. There’s certainly some really good applications for AI and healthcare. Some of it. On the provider documentation side is a little a little too new, I think, and we’re, we’re getting a little bit off topic to speak about physician documentation and the burdens that they face, but on the whole, it’s a, it’s something to stay tuned to for sure.

Jessica Walsh: I’m excited to see what’s coming.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, it’s, it’s coming every day to the coolest one. I saw bring us back to the point here was NYU created a tool that will scan or look at PDFs of scanned medical records that are just. Handwritten, and they’re able to create structured data out of what would be stacks and stacks of just paper forms.

Erik Sunset: And then you can have analytics on that and decide which patients need to see you now, as opposed to those that can wait. [00:39:00] So those types of things are especially exciting.

Jessica Walsh: Oh, it’s. So. Especially if you look at what people have having to do historically by hand and the time that it takes, like, couldn’t their time be spent doing something better? And it seems as though that’s bringing those efficiencies. Two providers is, is key

Erik Sunset: And we need them. And some of the value ads you’ve shared around our X bands is giving the power to administer injectable medications to those that don’t need the full fledged medical training, rather than specialized training, this, this lack of provider time spent on medicine is driving a mass extinction event in the career.

Erik Sunset: It really is. The doctors are retiring earlier than expected. They’re not entering, students aren’t entering medical school because they don’t want to deal with being their own administrator and physician. It’s just, [00:40:00] it’s scary. But with what you shared that, you know, I don’t really like this word, but democratizing the administration of injectable medications on an as needed basis, that definitely helps healthcare on the whole, no question about it.

Jessica Walsh: where we’re trying to, to help healthcare in the whole save lives, make a difference, not just for the people who are who require the injectable medication, but for the families who, who are impacted as well.

Erik Sunset: It matters for the whole value chain. And that’s not always a usual finding when you’re talking about healthcare, when it helps everybody involved, usually it’s two out of three sides, right? Either provider and payer or patient, but not usually all three.

Jessica Walsh: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re hopefully, you know, we’ll be in patient’s hands in the next couple [00:41:00] of years and be able to really Make that difference and save lives

Erik Sunset: To that point, Jessica, where can folks stay in tune either with you or the journey of RX bands? Do you wanna point them to a website or any social media? Where, where can they get more of you?

Jessica Walsh: absolutely, so at rxbans. com or You can also connect with me on on LinkedIn And

Erik Sunset: these links in the show notes, but that’s Rx B-A-N-D-Z. Dot com link visits.

Jessica Walsh: I can be reached by email at jessica at rxbans. com.

Erik Sunset: We’ll get that in the show notes for you to just get any final thoughts as we kind of close out our chat here.

Jessica Walsh: I Appreciate the opportunity. I just I wanted to say thank you for, for the work that you’re doing [00:42:00] to share people’s stories and, and innovation and progression in life sciences. So thank you from, from for me and all of your other listeners,

Erik Sunset: It is completely our pleasure to have innovators in healthcare on the show. And what you’re doing, as we’ve said, a couple of times, we’ll change the status quo across all different care settings for all different kinds of people. So that’s really cool. I’m glad you’re doing it.

Jessica Walsh: my pleasure.

Erik Sunset: And on behalf of the entire DocBuddy team, I want to thank you for listening or for watching. Be sure that you’re subscribed on Apple podcasts or Spotify. And if you like the video feed, be sure you’re subscribed on YouTube. If you’re seeing this on LinkedIn or on the artist formerly known as Twitter, which is X.

Erik Sunset: And until next time, I’m your host, Erik Sunset. We’ll talk to you again soon.