In this episode of the Pharmacy View Podcast’s Rx to Riches stream, international host Michael Alexander, a Pharmacist, entrepreneur, digital health enthusiast, Co-Founder of Audrie, and the Regional Vice-President of Health Plans at Omada Health, interviews Nicole Cathcart and Sean Karbowicz from MedSavvy.
Nicole, drawing from over two decades of experience in design, marketing, and product development, narrates their journey from design to marketing and eventually becoming the Chief Marketing Officer for emerging tech and blockchain companies. Sean, a Pharmacist and self-described professional skeptic, shares their dedication to evidence-based medicine and the challenges of navigating vast healthcare information. This episode, part one of a two-part series, explores the genesis of MedSavvy and its transformative journey.
The narrative unfolds with Sean recounting their pivotal encounter with a cancer patient who expressed the need for accessible healthcare information. This emotional moment became the catalyst for MedSavvy, a revolutionary platform aiming to empower patients with valuable insights. Nicole details the meticulous process of evaluating proposals during a leadership summit, highlighting Sean’s unwavering dedication and the team’s collaborative approach to cultivating selected ideas.
The duo then sheds light on the challenges of navigating a large corporate environment with innovative ideas, emphasizing the importance of executive champions. Sean underscores the need for individuals with an exceptional “bullshit detector” to identify valuable concepts. Nicole draws parallels between internal corporate innovation and entrepreneurship, emphasizing the common thread of resistance and the importance of executive sponsorship.
Nicole also provides a concise overview of MedSavvy as a medication choice management tool, uniquely incorporating scientific evidence, user reviews, and pricing. Sean details the core engine of MedSavvy, highlighting its evidence-based methodology and the tool’s role in bringing clarity to healthcare decisions. The focus on democratizing healthcare information emerges as a central theme in their mission.
The discussion pivots to the underutilized trust and expertise of Pharmacists in healthcare decision-making. MedSavvy, recognizing Pharmacists as trusted healthcare providers, offers a platform to leverage their expertise privately. Sean emphasizes the collaborative nature of innovation, highlighting the value of opening up ideas to colleagues and enhancing the patient experience through a team-driven approach.
The narrative has expertly woven together the personal and professional journeys of Nicole and Sean, offering a glimpse into the world of innovative healthcare solutions and the transformative potential of collaborative, evidence-based decision-making.
Note: There is a part two of this episode, which will air in the coming week.
Topics Covered
- Nicole Cathcart’s Journey
- Sean Karbowicz’s Passion for Evidence-Based Medicine
- MedSavvy’s Inception and Backstory
- Challenges in Corporate Innovation
- Similarities Between Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Overview of MedSavvy
- Importance of Pharmacist Expertise
- Collaborative Nature of Innovation
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
- “So, I am a mix of design, marketing and product. I have about 20 years of marketing experience specifically, started in design and moved to marketing.” (3:01 – 3:17) – Nicole
- “My focus has always been on user experience and consumer experience and using insights that I get from listening to people and doing consumer research and turning that into an experience that’s engaging or answers kind of an unmet need.” (4:32 – 4:48) – Nicole
- “The reality is I’m just sort of an evidence-based medicine nerd, and I love to dive deeply into the evidence and to really understand what’s going on and how we think about science, the scientific studies that the evidence that we have available and really understand what’s true and what’s potentially misleading,” (5:14 – 5:33) – Sean
- “There’s so much information we have as health care professionals at our fingertips. The real dilemma is how do you make sense of it. How do you make heads or tails of it and then make it applicable to the patient that’s in front of you?” (6:18 – 6:30) – Sean
- “We did a lot of consumer research up front, and a lot of the people I talked to early on about this were women who were making health care decisions for their family, in particular, their kids who were sick. And I think for me, that’s when my heart really joined this product—when I saw how difficult those choices were, even if they were small.” (11:51 – 12:12) – Nicole
- “I think having that fast-track in that support was critical because otherwise, it’s just so challenging to be able to prioritize innovative ideas in that setting of a large corporate environment.” (17:26 – 17:38) – Sean
- “Our health care system is extremely complicated, even for professionals who live and breathe in it every day. And so, to have that assistance to help someone navigate through was also critical. And again, at the end of the day, it was really an extension of that Pharmacist. And that was a big part of our brand and the value that we provide.” (24:58– 25:20) – Sean
- “People knew that we weren’t just a database. We’re actually a group of Pharmacists because we were—who were trying to help people and share our knowledge—which is exactly what we were and what we did.” (25:21 – 25:31) – Sean
- “People really trust their pharmacist. They’re one of the top-most trusted providers.” (25:45 – 25:52) – Nicole
- “I learned very quickly that it gets so much better when other people contribute their best thinking and their best efforts, too. And then as long as we’re keeping our eye on the patient and the patient experience, then it’s going to just get better.” (30:06 – 30:20)
Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)
- Code, Care, Create: Nicole’s Entrepreneurial Healthcare Journey (3:01 – 4:48)
- Skeptic to Savior: Sean’s Prescription for Evidence-Based Healthcare (4:49– 6:50)
- Healthcare’s Eureka Moment: Sean Talks About the Birth of MedSavvy (7:11 – 10:18)
- Igniting Innovation: Nicole on Sean’s Unstoppable Passion for MedSavvy (10:30– 12:52)
- Navigating Corporate Labyrinths: Sean on Fast-Tracking MedSavvy’s Revolution (13:36 – 17:38)
- Innovation Battle Royale: Nicole on Corporate vs. Entrepreneurial Struggles (17:52 – 20:15)
- MedSavvy Explained: Sean and Nicole Break Down the Heart of Healthcare Decisions (20:36 – 25:44)
- Behind the Counter Wisdom: Nicole on the Power of Pharmacist Trust (25:45 – 26:48)
- Sean on Balancing Ownership in Innovation’s Team Sport (28:05 – 30:20)
