Welcome.
With Bronwyn Spira, CEO & Founder, Force Therapeutics,
and one of the original Health Transformers.
Been with us since the beginning at StartUp
Health.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Good to see you.
So, what's the update with Force and how are
you doing?
Well, Force is a very exciting place to be
right now.
We've certainly seen a huge growth spurt in
the past year and a half or two years, I'd
say, and I think a lot of it has to do with
the readiness of the industry and the acceptance
that digital health is the future.
And I think that combined with where we are
as a company which is, you know, a fully developed
platform that's deployed.
We have a lot of data underneath us which
helps to support our value proposition and
also gives us kind of the gravitas to talk
to large enterprise healthcare organizations.
So, give the audience a quick overview of
what your platform is and who it serves?
Sure.
So, Force is an episode of care management
platform that connects patients to providers
throughout an episode of care.
So we typically get involved with a patient
preoperatively.
Prepare them for surgery and then guide them
through their full recovery with prescriptive
care plans.
And for us, the care plans can be exercises,
if they're getting rehab, education, and a
lot of monitoring.
So we take multiple data sets of patient generated
health data as well as outcomes, patient satisfaction,
and feed that all back to the care team in
real-time so that they have visibility into
their patient’s progress and can take action
as appropriate.
I remember years ago it was just educating
the market.
You know, why would providers need a solution
like this?
Would patients even have the screens to be
able to use these, to use your solution in
their home?
All those things have gone away.
Everybody has screens.
Everybody has iPads.
People are used to connecting with their providers
in this way and it's a great service for the
providers to interact with their patients.
Absolutely.
And not only are the providers now welcoming
these kinds of technologies, but they're also
almost mandated to use them by the government
and payors.
And you know they're now more and more as
we shift from fee-for-service to fee for value
provider organizations have to actually provide
quality metrics.
And so, as a platform, you know our core access
is patient engagement, but the kind of byproducts
of that are all of these rich quality metrics
and data points along the way, as well as
the patient experience, which is so enhanced
by having a platform like ours.
But you mentioned access and I think that's
interesting.
We recently pulled data on about 23,000 patients
that have used our platform in the past year
and we're able to show that the 80 to 89-year-old
age group uses technology exactly the same
amount as the 40 to 49-year-old age group.
Incredible.
So there's this incredible leveling effect.
They might use it slightly differently.
You know, a lot of our platform is around
delivering video-based content.
And so, the older patients tend to watch the
videos more, whereas the younger patients
who have a shorter attention span will log
in and send a quick message or review their
to-do list for the day.
But the 80 to 89-year-olds are power users
on our platform which is really interesting.
That’s really interesting.
Are there are other big trends or things that
have stood out that are maybe different now
than four or five years ago?
Definitely.
And a lot from the provider side as well.
I think in the beginning when we started we
had a few very innovative systems that chose
to use us because they saw healthcare technology
is the future of delivering care, like the
Rothman Institute and NYU Medical Center,
who are very innovative.
But as we've moved on through our pipeline,
now the systems are realizing not only are
they incentivized to use it by payor models,
but it's actually enhancing their own experience
and their own engagement as a provider in
their patient's care.
And making their workflow easier.
You know, all providers are incredibly busy
and at first, they look at technology as just
another thing to do.
And now, it's come around to the fact that
we need technology to help us streamline our
workflow and as we increase our kind of scale
and scope how could we do that without technology?
You know, the other solution is adding people
and that's becoming less of an option today.
So, I think the embracing of technology from
the provider side has been a big sea change
that we're seeing now.
So you're at the stage where you're really
scaling your business, which is very exciting.
What are some of the big lessons learned for
you as CEO of a growing company?
And, you know, maybe things that you've learned
over the last few years of your journey of
being an entrepreneur?
I like to call you a doctorpreneur, because
you're a health professional who became a
CEO and founder of a company.
Yeah.
What have you learned?
Starting a digital health company is difficult.
There are a lot of areas that one wouldn't
have predicted.
But if you are kind of, if you stick to your
vision and your mission and you have a strong
vision and mission that you truly believe
in, I think anything's achievable.
And you've been consistent from day one.
Yeah.
From day one.
We've had a few little shifts in go to market
strategy, but the mission has been the same.
We have always believed that patients need
tools to help them recover in the home and
that making patients successful in their home
environment is the best thing we can do for
patients.
I found this in my own practice and that's
kind of the genesis of why we started Force
in the first place.
But one of the big learnings I think is, you
know, as an entrepreneur starting in a new
space and almost defining a space in an industry,
you can be very alone.
For me, the learning, as I look back over
the past five years is the importance of team.
And it's about choosing the right people,
growing with those people, and developing
a relationship of trust.
Because you can't do this alone.
It's too big.
It's too hard.
And, it really requires a lot of different,
you know, series of eyes, you know.
A lot of people looking at the problem to
solve it.
And so, I think the most important thing as
an entrepreneur building a business is to
take care and time finding your team, growing
your team, nurturing your team.
And that's really what I think has helped
this company become what it is today, which
is, you know, very you know, market leader
in delivering care to patients.
How much of your time is focused on internal
development?
Meaning building and growing that team, vs
as a CEO external, where you're growing your
business, you're getting new customers, raising
capital.
What's the balance for you?
You know, it varies according to the phase
of the company.
When we're raising capital I spend more of
my time doing that.
But, you know, the past year has been a great
time because I've been able to focus on growing
the business externally and also growing the
people internally.
I'd say I spend about 60% of my time on growth
and development of our existing staff,
recruiting, hiring, making sure we have the
right people in the house, and making sure
that everybody has a career path and a direction
forward.
That everybody feels that they are important
to the company, which they are, and that they
have a personal growth plan that fits in with
the company's growth plan.
So, I spend a lot of my mental energy making
sure that that's happening and then getting
the right people in the door.
And, you know, not only A players, but people
that will fit with our existing culture.
And so, you know, I think that's been a really
rewarding part of my job, I would say.
Seeing that kind of take on a life of its
own and understanding what our culture is
about and what kind of people work within
that culture.
What's your experience been being a woman
founder in this industry?
Personally, I haven't had any situations where
I felt that I was undermined because I'm a
woman.
I actually think that women bring a softer
side to technology.
And that may be a gender thing or it may be
just somebody who comes from a clinical background
who's spent most of their life caring for
patients.
But I do think that more women in tech is
a good thing.
And how about being a clinician?
How has that played?
You sort of mentioned it, but has that been
very helpful during your journey of building
a company in this sector?
I think it's one of our most differentiating
factors in the space.
Understanding the patient experience by living
it is probably palpable in our platform.
I hope it is.
And so, whenever we're trying to solve a problem
and we have a lot of clinicians now on our
team.
We kind of go in a room and say, well picture
a patient and see, think about how they would
have responded to this thing.
And that's a lot of how we make decisions.
You know, who are our main stakeholders and
how will they respond to this?
So, I think having a clinical undercurrent
in the platform is very powerful and I think
patients feel it, you know?
In a sales process I think it gives providers,
we, you know, we're selling into CMO’s a
lot of the time or surgeons that are head
of a service line.
It's helpful to be able to talk the talk.
And where do you see things going, just with
this trend of home care or care wherever the
patient is?
What's your outlook over the the next five
years?
We’ve published a lot of research that looks
at outcomes in the home.
And the outcomes and the patient satisfaction
is consistently higher in patients who go
to a facility.
So, it's actually not even an opinion.
It's actual research-based evidence.
Yeah.
So there's no doubt in my mind that as much
as possible care will be pushed into the home.
And I think it's our responsibility to make
sure that that care is delivered responsibly
and effectively, and the only way that we
can do that and know that we're doing that
is to continually monitor outcomes.
And it's all kinds of outcomes.
You know, what patient’s goals are may be
completely different to what the surgeon’s
goals are for that patient.
And so, taking that into consideration is
very important and really supporting the patient
towards that goal.
So, nine times out of ten patients want to
be in the home.
They're just afraid.
And so, if we can set their expectations and
reduce their anxiety and be that virtual hand
that they hold, I think that we're doing a
great service to patients and to the industry
as a whole.
Last question.
I always like to ask this of entrepreneurs.
What do you do to stay healthy during your
journey of building?
It's high-stress, hard work.
How do you stay healthy?
Well, it ebbs and flows depending on how much
time I have for myself, but I think it is
important to have an outlet.
Whether it's working out or spending time
with your family, you have to build it in
and make it a priority and sometimes when
it slips I think it's important to have somebody
else who's saying, you know, you seem like
you're really stressed out.
Let's figure out a way to get around that.
You need a partner.
Partner in crime.
Yes.
Partner in crime is very important.
Well Bronwyn, thank you for everything that
you do to sort of bring us all into the future.
Hopefully keep us all in our homes where we
all want to be.
When we're cared for and thank you for your
vision as well.
You are one of the early Health Transformers
and it's been great to have you part of the
StartUp Health family for, really since the
beginning.
Yeah, it's been a great journey, I have to
say.
Who knew we'd be here today, right?
Exactly.
How far we've come.
