Remote Patient Monitoring with Mark Russell and Janson Lanier

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:08

Welcome to a virtual view.

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:10

A telehealth podcast brought to you by the upper Midwest telehealth resource center.

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:14

This is Danielle ley, your host.

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:16

And today I am joined by Mark Russell and Jansen Lanier from bat Telegraph.

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:21

Thank you so much for being here today.

Mark Russell: 00:00:23

Thank you for inviting us.

Danielle Renckly: 00:00:25

Could you both tell me a little about yourselves?

Mark Russell: 00:00:27

I'm Mark Russell.

Mark Russell: 00:00:28

I'm the marketing communications manager for vital Telegraph.

Mark Russell: 00:00:31

I've been with the company for five years.

Mark Russell: 00:00:33

I've been in healthcare for over 25 years and I joined the company.

Mark Russell: 00:00:38

At a really really exciting time right before COVID at least a year and a half.

Mark Russell: 00:00:43

We were involved in lots of conferences and trade shows

Mark Russell: 00:00:47

and then basically COVID hit.

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And we had to transition a lot of our marketing strategy to be more remote.

Mark Russell: 00:00:55

And and this year we've got a plethora of new products that

Mark Russell: 00:00:59

we're getting ready to launch.

Mark Russell: 00:01:00

Yep.

Mark Russell: 00:01:01

And I'm Jan Lanier national sales manager, respiratory therapist for vital Telegraph.

Mark Russell: 00:01:05

I've been in respiratory sleep diagnostics since 2006.

Mark Russell: 00:01:09

In every capacity you could think of for a couple different companies.

Mark Russell: 00:01:13

I joined vital Telegraph three years ago this week.

Mark Russell: 00:01:16

And like mark was mentioning lot of transitions and changes in.

Mark Russell: 00:01:21

Just from the view of the company to how do you change the outlook

Mark Russell: 00:01:26

of what you're doing on a day to day basis because of the pandemic?

Danielle Renckly: 00:01:29

So tell me a little bit more about VI Telegraph.

Danielle Renckly: 00:01:32

What do you

Mark Russell: 00:01:33

The Telegraph products and services are chosen

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by medical professionals over 113 countries for healthcare,

Mark Russell: 00:01:41

occupational and clinical trials.

Mark Russell: 00:01:43

We manufacture and supply quality spirometry and respiratory

Mark Russell: 00:01:48

medical devices, which are.

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Used as a to detection and diagnosis and control of respiratory conditions.

Mark Russell: 00:01:56

We also deliver successful clinical trials for many of the world

Mark Russell: 00:02:00

leading phar world leading pharmacy, pharmaceutical companies, biotech,

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and contracted research organizations.

Mark Russell: 00:02:07

Right now we have probably over 69 live Clinical trials worldwide.

Mark Russell: 00:02:12

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:02:12

I like to say, we started in 1960s as a respiratory diagnostic company, we were

Mark Russell: 00:02:17

in Occupational health is where we got started and branched out from there.

Mark Russell: 00:02:20

When I say respiratory diagnostics, it is everything from occupational

Mark Russell: 00:02:24

health to primary, secondary health, even into clinical trials.

Mark Russell: 00:02:28

So we basically provide.

Mark Russell: 00:02:30

The assistance to staff to help diagnose respiratory illnesses.

Mark Russell: 00:02:34

And we're based in the UK.

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That's where our corporate we're family owned company.

Mark Russell: 00:02:38

And we have offices in Germany, Japan, and of course here in the us, our

Mark Russell: 00:02:44

devices are manufactured in Ireland.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:47

Wow.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:48

Working from multiple countries.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:50

Sounds just a massive undertaking, like the U T.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:53

We operate in four states.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:55

And I know that even for us, like time zones are incredibly annoying.

Danielle Renckly: 00:02:58

So I'm sure that coordination and planning is really important

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:02

to make sure everyone's on the

Mark Russell: 00:03:03

Absolutely.

Mark Russell: 00:03:04

We're working with six and seven hour differences for meetings.

Mark Russell: 00:03:07

So we'll have something at 7:00 AM and it's their 3:00 PM, for their time,

Mark Russell: 00:03:11

they're getting ready to finish their day.

Mark Russell: 00:03:13

We're not even in the office yet.

Mark Russell: 00:03:14

So it's just those things that you have to logistically deal with.

Mark Russell: 00:03:17

But I think that we all work pretty well together.

Mark Russell: 00:03:20

As a company, whole because we have one goal, one mission and that's to

Mark Russell: 00:03:23

bring integrity to to the industry.

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:27

It's pretty cool.

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:28

So I have done the requisite amount of Googling over respiratory devices, cuz

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:33

I am not a medical professional in that sense, but I'm sure you could give a much

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:37

more succinct explanation of what exactly they are and what they do than I could.

Danielle Renckly: 00:03:42

So I will leave that

Mark Russell: 00:03:43

Respiratory diagnos.

Mark Russell: 00:03:44

Devices, basically they help diagnose everything from asthma to cystic

Mark Russell: 00:03:49

fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis, you can be used to help identify,

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cancer screenings, things like this.

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And it's across the board.

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It goes everywhere from.

Mark Russell: 00:03:58

Your home monitoring systems that are basically handheld pieces that people

Mark Russell: 00:04:02

take a deep breath in and blow into.

Mark Russell: 00:04:04

But overall respiratory diagnostics is lung function, right?

Mark Russell: 00:04:08

It's basically how the lungs are doing.

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And is there any restrictions in the lungs?

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So a patient can come in and do what we consider a maneuver or a.

Mark Russell: 00:04:16

They take a deep breath in and blow really hard.

Mark Russell: 00:04:18

Almost like you're doing a breathalyzer.

Mark Russell: 00:04:20

I hope none of you have done breathalyzers, but if you have you

Mark Russell: 00:04:22

get the idea, you've seen it on TV.

Mark Russell: 00:04:24

But it's also even as far as breaking it down for inhaler use.

Mark Russell: 00:04:28

So you know that people are diagnosed inhalers for any respiratory illnesses.

Mark Russell: 00:04:32

Whether it's allergies during, the fall and the spring or it's upper

Mark Russell: 00:04:36

respiratory infection, you get an.

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We have a device, that tracks that to make sure people are utilizing the inhaler

Mark Russell: 00:04:42

properly, getting the amount of medication they need because far too often a, an

Mark Russell: 00:04:47

inhaler is prescribed and the pharmacist.

Mark Russell: 00:04:52

Oh, do you know how to use an inhaler?

Mark Russell: 00:04:53

Oh yeah, of course.

Mark Russell: 00:04:54

Whatever.

Mark Russell: 00:04:55

Guess what?

Mark Russell: 00:04:56

More than likely they're not doing it.

Mark Russell: 00:04:58

Correct.

Mark Russell: 00:04:58

The device basically helps you walk through the typing mechanisms or if it's a

Mark Russell: 00:05:01

dry, powdered inhaler, making sure you're forcing, inhale fast enough and so forth.

Mark Russell: 00:05:06

So it's little things like this that we work with throughout either

Mark Russell: 00:05:09

pharmacy primary care, secondary care allergy asthma clinics.

Mark Russell: 00:05:13

I even said we work with occupational health

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:16

Gotcha.

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:17

So generally these are gonna be used for more chronic conditions.

Mark Russell: 00:05:20

possibly.

Mark Russell: 00:05:20

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:05:21

Yep.

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:21

Yeah.

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:22

Okay.

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:22

These devices, you mentioned briefly that some of them do function as

Danielle Renckly: 00:05:26

remote patient monitoring devices.

Mark Russell: 00:05:27

Absolutely.

Mark Russell: 00:05:28

So we've had remote patient monitoring devices for quite

Mark Russell: 00:05:30

some time in the late nineties.

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So they've been around for a long time.

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What hasn't happened until the pandemic was it wasn't really

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being adopted at a hospital level.

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It was more of the.

Mark Russell: 00:05:42

practice and allergy asthma care centers would provide a lung monitor that would

Mark Russell: 00:05:47

basically just track the patient post lung transplant or post asthma diagnosis.

Mark Russell: 00:05:53

But what happened is that when the pandemic came along remote

Mark Russell: 00:05:56

patient monitoring became a need.

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Before it was a luxury.

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Now it's a need.

Mark Russell: 00:06:03

And so now we're moving into the next stages of what are we doing

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to track set patients post COVID.

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Pulmonary fibrosis, post lung transplant patients and so forth.

Mark Russell: 00:06:13

We're working with a lot of different three PIs, which are third party

Mark Russell: 00:06:16

integrators that have apps for iPhones and Samsung, galaxy or whatever the

Mark Russell: 00:06:21

Google play, that, whatever newest applications there are out there.

Mark Russell: 00:06:25

Working with those guys to ensure that we're bringing the right options to the.

Danielle Renckly: 00:06:30

Yeah.

Danielle Renckly: 00:06:30

RPM is a, just a massive market right now.

Danielle Renckly: 00:06:33

I think it's something like 14 million users in the us alone,

Danielle Renckly: 00:06:37

and I know it's expected to grow and just continue to grow.

Mark Russell: 00:06:41

Attended the American telehealth association this year in may.

Mark Russell: 00:06:45

And it was the first time that we had attended the live show and so many big

Mark Russell: 00:06:50

companies there that are looking at remote patient monitoring which naming Amazon

Mark Russell: 00:06:56

Walmart they are all out there looking at for opportunities to help improve.

Mark Russell: 00:07:01

He.

Mark Russell: 00:07:02

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:07:02

When it comes to remote patient monitoring a lot of times it has been pulse Sox,

Mark Russell: 00:07:06

imagery things like this, the basics weight, scale temperature, things that

Mark Russell: 00:07:11

have been tying into an application.

Mark Russell: 00:07:14

Now it's gotten so far as they want respiratory rate, they want

Mark Russell: 00:07:17

FEV one and peak flow and so forth that are coming across.

Mark Russell: 00:07:20

So you can track true respiratory related in illnesses.

Mark Russell: 00:07:24

That's why since the pandemic that has come on quite strong, so respiratory

Mark Russell: 00:07:30

remote monitoring has been, or remote respiratory monitoring has

Mark Russell: 00:07:33

been quite popular the last two.

Danielle Renckly: 00:07:36

Oh, I'm sure.

Danielle Renckly: 00:07:37

And obviously it's not ideal for every device.

Danielle Renckly: 00:07:40

Some do need like a medical professional

Mark Russell: 00:07:42

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Mark Russell: 00:07:43

Absolutely.

Mark Russell: 00:07:43

So there is, so that's exactly why we call it a monitor instead of a spirometer

Mark Russell: 00:07:47

is something that they do in the lab with a technician that, that coaches

Mark Russell: 00:07:51

them to do a proper and maneuver.

Mark Russell: 00:07:52

It's it's like when you're lifting weights and you're pushing hard.

Mark Russell: 00:07:55

But when you have a coach over there trying to push you even harder and harder,

Mark Russell: 00:07:58

you're gonna actually get that weight up.

Mark Russell: 00:08:00

So imagine blowing out as hard as you can.

Mark Russell: 00:08:02

If you have a coach sitting next to you or talking to you over telehealth.

Mark Russell: 00:08:05

They're blowing it through.

Mark Russell: 00:08:06

They're telling you go.

Mark Russell: 00:08:07

You're gonna get more of an effort to get better numbers.

Mark Russell: 00:08:10

When we do the remote patient monitoring, when it's just a patient at home,

Mark Russell: 00:08:14

they're gonna get solid results, but they're just a monitor so they

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can tell their day to day numbers.

Mark Russell: 00:08:19

If they start to decline or a trend of declining, they know that

Mark Russell: 00:08:23

they can come into the, to the hospital and do a full workup.

Danielle Renckly: 00:08:27

right.

Danielle Renckly: 00:08:28

And that's good from the sense of we're saving the effort of those

Danielle Renckly: 00:08:31

patients having to come in every day and get tested, but there's still.

Mark Russell: 00:08:35

Especially during the pandemic when people are afraid.

Mark Russell: 00:08:37

I promise you, people are still on that leery edge, imagine first wave

Mark Russell: 00:08:42

COVID patients they were feeling ill.

Mark Russell: 00:08:44

They come in, they get diagnosed with COVID they're in the hospital for two

Mark Russell: 00:08:47

weeks, three weeks, whatever it may be.

Mark Russell: 00:08:49

And then all of a sudden they're discharge.

Mark Russell: 00:08:52

They're still having symptoms, but they're afraid to come back.

Mark Russell: 00:08:55

They're afraid to say anything because they don't want to be in the same boat.

Mark Russell: 00:08:59

They just.

Mark Russell: 00:09:00

Okay.

Mark Russell: 00:09:00

So we want to try to capture those patients again, to continue

Mark Russell: 00:09:05

to make sure they're doing okay.

Mark Russell: 00:09:06

And I've had this discussion with pulmonologists all across the country

Mark Russell: 00:09:09

on follow up post COVID follow up.

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What are you doing?

Mark Russell: 00:09:13

How are you making sure those patients are really taken care of.

Mark Russell: 00:09:16

And honestly, majority of the docs that I talked to said, there's not

Mark Russell: 00:09:20

enough time in a day for them to follow up with as many patients that came.

Mark Russell: 00:09:26

So it's one of those where we have to put more focus on it, or even put

Mark Russell: 00:09:32

the hospital systems more unchecked to get those patients checked.

Danielle Renckly: 00:09:37

Oh, for sure.

Danielle Renckly: 00:09:37

And I'm sure when we talk about quote unquote long COVID,

Danielle Renckly: 00:09:41

it's gonna continue to be

Mark Russell: 00:09:41

Absolutely.

Mark Russell: 00:09:42

It comes more prevalent than we know.

Mark Russell: 00:09:44

Because of the people that don't wanna say anything, there, there are patients

Mark Russell: 00:09:47

that I talk to on, on a frequently basis that they're saying they struggle

Mark Russell: 00:09:51

going up and down stairs when they're talking about six or seven stairs.

Mark Russell: 00:09:55

I'm like, have you talked to your doctor about it?

Mark Russell: 00:09:56

Not really.

Mark Russell: 00:09:57

I just, I don't wanna bother cuz it's not that bad.

Mark Russell: 00:09:59

That's the only time it happens.

Mark Russell: 00:10:02

Is it the only time?

Mark Russell: 00:10:03

How do you know if you're not just walking down the hallway and you're

Mark Russell: 00:10:06

getting breath, or what happens if something else is not going to work as

Mark Russell: 00:10:12

properly, if you don't get that Lu lung function going, if you're not using

Mark Russell: 00:10:16

your lungs, then everything suffers.

Mark Russell: 00:10:18

So

Danielle Renckly: 00:10:19

oh, for sure.

Danielle Renckly: 00:10:21

so I know that innovation is an important aspect of what you do

Danielle Renckly: 00:10:25

as well as an important aspect of just healthcare in general.

Danielle Renckly: 00:10:29

So how do you think that innovation will impact healthcare in the

Mark Russell: 00:10:32

think two words go together, innovation and evolving.

Mark Russell: 00:10:35

You have to evolve.

Mark Russell: 00:10:36

So if you look at, like I had mentioned if you came in.

Mark Russell: 00:10:39

To see vital Telegraph's business plan prior to the pandemic it is completely

Mark Russell: 00:10:44

180, it completely different direction.

Mark Russell: 00:10:47

But by doing so we've figured out what.

Mark Russell: 00:10:50

What is needed in the field, by us going out there and having customers that are

Mark Russell: 00:10:55

telling us, Hey, this is what we need.

Mark Russell: 00:10:56

This is how we need to evolve into the new healthcare.

Mark Russell: 00:11:01

So we bring the innovations to them.

Mark Russell: 00:11:03

They tell us what we need.

Mark Russell: 00:11:04

We put it on paper, we develop it and really release it.

Mark Russell: 00:11:08

So last year we introduced a new device this year.

Mark Russell: 00:11:11

We have four devices that we're introducing.

Mark Russell: 00:11:13

We just released one.

Mark Russell: 00:11:14

We're getting ready to release three more here at the end of the year.

Mark Russell: 00:11:18

So it's one of those where we have heard everything that's needed.

Mark Russell: 00:11:22

We are going to market with products that have been asked for.

Mark Russell: 00:11:27

And updated with the ATS standards.

Mark Russell: 00:11:29

Yes.

Mark Russell: 00:11:30

So 2019 ATS S came out with new standards for barometry, which they

Mark Russell: 00:11:36

hadn't been changed since 2005.

Danielle Renckly: 00:11:38

oh, wow.

Mark Russell: 00:11:40

Yeah, 14 years of change in healthcare.

Mark Russell: 00:11:42

If you can think of how you changed in 14 years.

Mark Russell: 00:11:45

I know I changed a lot.

Mark Russell: 00:11:47

Mark's the same guy as he is always been.

Mark Russell: 00:11:48

So but yes so the change that came was very much needed.

Mark Russell: 00:11:53

And as a manufacturer, you see these changes and you're

Mark Russell: 00:11:56

like, okay, let's grab it.

Mark Russell: 00:11:58

Let's make the adjustments and release products because we want.

Mark Russell: 00:12:02

Our end users the customers, the hospital systems, the doctor's offices

Mark Russell: 00:12:08

to have everything at their hands that's compliant as well as give the

Mark Russell: 00:12:12

options for the patients to, to have the tools available, to get better.

Mark Russell: 00:12:16

It's all about patient care.

Mark Russell: 00:12:18

Everybody wants to talk insurances and payments and whatever like that.

Mark Russell: 00:12:21

No it's about patient care.

Mark Russell: 00:12:23

It should always be about patient care.

Danielle Renckly: 00:12:26

and in the realm of patient care, I'd be interested in looking

Danielle Renckly: 00:12:29

at how medical devices, including like these respiratory diagnostic devices

Danielle Renckly: 00:12:33

could be used more as preventative care, at least early warning systems.

Mark Russell: 00:12:37

percent.

Mark Russell: 00:12:38

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:12:39

I think the pandemic has really opened up healthcare in a lot of different ways

Mark Russell: 00:12:43

because in one, one way it put a strain on In a sense that we had so many patients,

Mark Russell: 00:12:49

but in the other, it opened up other opportunities like pharmacies being more,

Mark Russell: 00:12:54

a part of the team and healthcare used to be, you just got your prescription

Mark Russell: 00:12:58

now, you get your shots and and.

Mark Russell: 00:13:01

There are some pharmacies that are doing spirometry.

Mark Russell: 00:13:04

Yep.

Mark Russell: 00:13:04

The mini clinics as well.

Mark Russell: 00:13:06

And so basically I think that because of this pandemic, there's a lot of good

Mark Russell: 00:13:10

things that have come out on it, test the system and open up our opportunities

Mark Russell: 00:13:15

in different industries to help the system because we've got, shortages.

Mark Russell: 00:13:20

We had shortage of nurses and respiratory therapists before this pandemic.

Mark Russell: 00:13:24

Now it's even worse.

Mark Russell: 00:13:25

It's even worse.

Mark Russell: 00:13:26

So I think you, you really hit it on the head Danielle

Mark Russell: 00:13:28

with, the preventative piece.

Mark Russell: 00:13:30

We really have been a reactive culture, if you will.

Mark Russell: 00:13:34

Not just in healthcare, but in the United States we're a reactive group.

Mark Russell: 00:13:37

But being more preventative on healthcare in general, whether it's with diabetic

Mark Russell: 00:13:42

patients or, whatever it may be.

Mark Russell: 00:13:44

It's not just a respiratory thing, but I think the pandemic

Mark Russell: 00:13:46

made light even more of.

Mark Russell: 00:13:49

Your preexisting injuries were preexisting illnesses or anything like that.

Mark Russell: 00:13:53

I think that we need to get back to healthy life develop instead of reactive.

Danielle Renckly: 00:13:59

And I do like earlier, how you said mark, about how it put

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:03

a strain on our healthcare system.

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:04

And I think while it did identify a lot of weaknesses that do exist, it

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:10

also identified a lot of areas for opportunity and a lot of areas for growth.

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:14

And I think RPM devices and just respiratory devices in general, there

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:17

was probably a lot of that there.

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:19

So we talked earlier about innovation.

Danielle Renckly: 00:14:22

So would you say telehealth is going to be part of that healthcare innovation in the.

Mark Russell: 00:14:26

I agree a hundred percent.

Mark Russell: 00:14:27

I think that going back to payers are gonna actually be putting more emphasis

Mark Russell: 00:14:31

on telehealth as your first line.

Mark Russell: 00:14:34

Instead of the patients coming into the office, they're gonna do a telehealth

Mark Russell: 00:14:37

visit to isolate what needs to come in the urgency of how bad it is and so forth.

Mark Russell: 00:14:42

I know that with our insurance, we can call doctors on demand and it's a free

Mark Russell: 00:14:47

service for us through our insurance.

Mark Russell: 00:14:48

Doctors on demand will do that triage appointment to see how severe it is.

Mark Russell: 00:14:52

And if it is severe, more severe than they're able to handle, they'll make

Mark Russell: 00:14:56

you a, an appointment with a local P.

Mark Russell: 00:14:59

I think also they also have other features such as they, they track a

Mark Russell: 00:15:04

lot of your your medical journey with physicals and screenings and such.

Mark Russell: 00:15:08

And they reward you with that.

Mark Russell: 00:15:10

Our insurance company gives points out, which you can re.

Mark Russell: 00:15:14

For gift certificates and such.

Mark Russell: 00:15:16

I have a Fitbit that I didn't think I'd ever had before, and it monitors

Mark Russell: 00:15:20

all my steps and I, basically utilize that as to, to be more healthier.

Mark Russell: 00:15:26

And then also it's an incentivizer for the gift certificates and I can

Mark Russell: 00:15:30

see telehealth doing the same thing in the future with our monitors and

Mark Russell: 00:15:33

such as the payers see the benefit.

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:37

Yeah, I think that's great from an standpoint

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:39

of health literacy as well.

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:42

Just understanding more about your own health.

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:44

Cause I know that's something that you would think people would be aware of their

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:47

own health, but really that's not the.

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:51

But innovation in telehealth, like we talked about, it's something that

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:53

I'm really passionate about from a standpoint of health, equity and access.

Danielle Renckly: 00:15:58

Like when we look about specialized care, like what you do with respiratory

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:02

diagnostic devices, that's something that can be inaccessible to folks who are

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:06

for whatever reason, unable to travel.

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:08

And that's everyone from aging populations who just are not able to travel

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:12

anymore or to rural populations where travel would just be unfeasibly long.

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:17

But we look at telehealth and RPM devices, and I think it's really promising from

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:22

the standpoint of access and getting folks just access to specialized

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:25

care that they might not have other.

Mark Russell: 00:16:27

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:16:28

We work with a few programs that actually do a lot of rural health screenings.

Mark Russell: 00:16:32

And so instead of actually sending somebody out on site to do a house

Mark Russell: 00:16:36

visit, they'll send a box of.

Mark Russell: 00:16:38

RPM devices.

Mark Russell: 00:16:39

Usually it's a blood pressure cuff.

Mark Russell: 00:16:41

It's a SPO two weight scale respiratory monitor and thermometer.

Mark Russell: 00:16:46

Okay.

Mark Russell: 00:16:47

So you do all those screenings and then they'll have a telehealth visit once

Mark Russell: 00:16:50

you've done those screenings in that day.

Mark Russell: 00:16:53

And it's pretty solid.

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:56

no, that's awesome.

Danielle Renckly: 00:16:56

From an access standpoint, I think so to go off topic a little bit.

Danielle Renckly: 00:17:01

This is something you mentioned earlier that I wanted to touch on.

Danielle Renckly: 00:17:04

I know that interoperability can be a challenge when working with

Danielle Renckly: 00:17:07

medical devices and like data systems.

Danielle Renckly: 00:17:09

Is that something you have to contend with in your work?

Mark Russell: 00:17:12

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:17:12

Yes.

Mark Russell: 00:17:12

It's one of those where we work with either the third party

Mark Russell: 00:17:15

integrators or working with the EMR systems and trying to get those

Mark Russell: 00:17:18

involved for formal communication.

Mark Russell: 00:17:21

But overall it's gotten a lot better than it has say, even five years ago.

Mark Russell: 00:17:26

Where at one point wifi and Bluetooth technology was shunned upon.

Mark Russell: 00:17:31

It was one of those where we can't control the data that comes across,

Mark Russell: 00:17:35

but Bluetooth technology and wifi technology has gotten so strong with

Mark Russell: 00:17:39

the securities that it groups are just asking, what's your wifi picture, if you

Mark Russell: 00:17:45

will, or what's your Bluetooth protocols.

Mark Russell: 00:17:47

And as soon as they see those.

Mark Russell: 00:17:49

They are putting the stamp of approval and moving it on to the next stage.

Mark Russell: 00:17:53

I promise you, five years ago, you come in and say, Hey, this is a wifi device.

Mark Russell: 00:17:57

Sorry.

Mark Russell: 00:17:58

We're not a wifi center.

Mark Russell: 00:17:59

And we partnered we noticed at ATA we partnered with about five

Mark Russell: 00:18:03

different companies that have apps.

Mark Russell: 00:18:05

Phillips is one of them and they've been around for a long time in medical field

Mark Russell: 00:18:10

and very lead the way and in technology.

Mark Russell: 00:18:13

And they have their own health.

Mark Russell: 00:18:14

Program we've worked with other companies such as vital flow and pull, manage.

Mark Russell: 00:18:18

They all have apps that are secure and have their specific information

Mark Russell: 00:18:23

that they're pulling from for whatever diagnostic they need for respiratory.

Mark Russell: 00:18:27

Yep.

Danielle Renckly: 00:18:28

Gotcha.

Danielle Renckly: 00:18:30

. And so what do you think the future of RPM and diagnostic devices as

Danielle Renckly: 00:18:36

well as telehealth and that kind of thing in general might look.

Mark Russell: 00:18:39

Oh, I think that technology such as this Fitbit, 10 years ago, wasn't.

Mark Russell: 00:18:43

Existence little company called Garin over here started here in

Mark Russell: 00:18:47

Kansas city has grown very vastly.

Mark Russell: 00:18:49

And I think that the technology in healthcare is gonna go right along with

Mark Russell: 00:18:54

it, with the apple watches and such.

Mark Russell: 00:18:56

I think that eventually we'll have monitoring.

Mark Russell: 00:18:59

On a daily basis.

Mark Russell: 00:19:00

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:19:00

And it'll be connected with a healthcare professional and we will have, daily

Mark Russell: 00:19:05

information going into them and then we'll be checking it probably in a hub center.

Mark Russell: 00:19:09

And it will go to your primary care doctor and keep you keeping posted

Mark Russell: 00:19:14

on, whatever element you may be having or could have in the future.

Mark Russell: 00:19:19

I think it, it may be even going a little further in the fact that a lot of.

Mark Russell: 00:19:23

Clinical time was in sleep medicine.

Mark Russell: 00:19:25

So it went from people going into a sleep lab, doing an overnight sleep study

Mark Russell: 00:19:28

to people doing home, sleep testing.

Mark Russell: 00:19:31

Okay.

Mark Russell: 00:19:31

So home sleep testing, they have a device they wear at home it's been delivered

Mark Russell: 00:19:34

to them or they go in and pick it up.

Mark Russell: 00:19:36

But I feel like respiratory diagnostics, maybe going this direction, where prior to

Mark Russell: 00:19:40

you coming into the lab and doing a full workup, we're gonna do a precursor test

Mark Russell: 00:19:44

on a lung monitor, whatever it may be just as a, give me a snapshot of your lung.

Mark Russell: 00:19:51

And this is, this could become a requirement by insurances like HST home

Mark Russell: 00:19:55

food testing is for sleep medicine.

Mark Russell: 00:19:57

So I see that this could be the way that insurance pushes

Mark Russell: 00:20:01

it, but also I see that as.

Mark Russell: 00:20:05

Know, the pandemic slows down and increases slows down and increases.

Mark Russell: 00:20:09

It's just one of those things that I don't feel like it's going away.

Mark Russell: 00:20:12

Yeah.

Mark Russell: 00:20:12

The future is gonna continue and we're gonna be more innovative on our offerings.

Mark Russell: 00:20:18

More streamlined, more cost effective as these things come out.

Mark Russell: 00:20:22

I think so.

Mark Russell: 00:20:23

I think with our air quality, is very questionable, in the future

Mark Russell: 00:20:27

asthma and C O P D on a rise.

Mark Russell: 00:20:30

You just, we've got the baby boomers on the end are really

Mark Russell: 00:20:33

getting hit hard on C O P D.

Mark Russell: 00:20:36

It's gonna be something that's gonna be a necessity.

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:38

I always like asking this question about future of

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:42

healthcare, because even with folks in very similar fields, you tend

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:46

to get really different answers.

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:48

The future of healthcare and technology in healthcare specifically is

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:51

something like that's just so broad.

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:54

And we talk about increased connectivity and more accurate and reliable technology.

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:57

And I.

Danielle Renckly: 00:20:58

That'll be great for all fields of healthcare in just so many different

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:01

ways that you could take a whole day and you wouldn't be done talking about it.

Mark Russell: 00:21:04

You get five people from five different healthcare industries and

Mark Russell: 00:21:08

talk about innovations that are coming out and talk about, oh, that's fantastic.

Mark Russell: 00:21:12

We should have thought about that as a market strategy or something

Mark Russell: 00:21:14

like that, which is fantastic.

Mark Russell: 00:21:16

I don't know why we don't do these more often as a manufacturer.

Mark Russell: 00:21:19

I would love to sit with other manufacturers outside of just

Mark Russell: 00:21:22

respiratory, but in other areas and say, Hey, how can we all come together?

Mark Russell: 00:21:27

For one global mission.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:30

Yeah.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:30

And it's yeah.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:31

It's like the invention of calculus.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:32

A lot of the time where you've got like a bunch of different people who are

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:34

probably inventing the same thing, even though they're working independently.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:38

But I always think that's interesting how folks are coming up with all these

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:41

different solutions for the same problems and addressing them in the different ways.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:46

Yeah.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:47

But I know you guys have a podcast as well.

Danielle Renckly: 00:21:49

Could you tell me a

Mark Russell: 00:21:50

We do.

Mark Russell: 00:21:51

Yeah, because of the pandemic.

Mark Russell: 00:21:52

We had to switch our, like I said earlier our marketing strategy and we

Mark Russell: 00:21:56

wanted to become more of a resource.

Mark Russell: 00:21:58

Our website is visited all over the world.

Mark Russell: 00:22:01

A lot of.

Mark Russell: 00:22:01

Great information on respiratory diagnostic and white papers and such.

Mark Russell: 00:22:06

So we developed a program where we have webinars that are C E approved by

Mark Russell: 00:22:12

arc for information out there on, on respiratory diagnostics and other issues.

Mark Russell: 00:22:17

And and then we developed a podcast.

Mark Russell: 00:22:19

Our podcast is called exhale.

Mark Russell: 00:22:21

With vital Telegraph, it's on all the platforms.

Mark Russell: 00:22:24

And again, it's just a resource of information.

Mark Russell: 00:22:27

We've had physicians on there that have written books to a respiratory therapist

Mark Russell: 00:22:32

to tell us about last year, about their day at in the hospital with COVID.

Mark Russell: 00:22:37

Yeah, that's one of my most proud features that we had of the podcast.

Mark Russell: 00:22:40

It was the follow the respiratory therapist and it was a.

Mark Russell: 00:22:45

Four or five part series where we talked to a director of respiratory

Mark Russell: 00:22:50

and ER, direct, ER, respiratory therapist travel a traveling therapist

Mark Russell: 00:22:55

as well as a ICU therapist during COVID and what their daily, routine

Mark Russell: 00:23:00

looked like and the burnout rate.

Mark Russell: 00:23:02

And it was just one of those raw.

Mark Russell: 00:23:04

Emotional times that I felt really compelled to get the message out.

Mark Russell: 00:23:08

And I still feel that way.

Mark Russell: 00:23:10

And when mark says resources, I am big since the pandemic is that

Mark Russell: 00:23:16

people don't want somebody to come in and sell them something.

Mark Russell: 00:23:19

Okay.

Mark Russell: 00:23:20

They don't want a rep to come in and say, Hey, or buy my product

Mark Russell: 00:23:23

because you need this product.

Mark Russell: 00:23:24

Guess.

Mark Russell: 00:23:25

Let's be a resource.

Mark Russell: 00:23:27

Let's be a resource for each other to grow.

Mark Russell: 00:23:29

Okay.

Mark Russell: 00:23:30

Whether I help you with something here, or if I put a, a.to dot connection

Mark Russell: 00:23:36

that this is a resource for you.

Mark Russell: 00:23:38

So with the podcast, it is across the board, respiratory related.

Mark Russell: 00:23:42

But it is, it could be an advertisement for a product.

Mark Russell: 00:23:45

It can be just a story of how somebody came from this point.

Mark Russell: 00:23:48

To this point.

Mark Russell: 00:23:49

It could be anything respiratory related, but I can promise you out of the 30 or so

Mark Russell: 00:23:55

podcast that we've done, anyone can find one of the subjects that they tie to.

Mark Russell: 00:24:01

That really relates to what their everyday life is.

Mark Russell: 00:24:04

And I want to continue that and I look for different podcasts and mark looks

Mark Russell: 00:24:08

for different podcasts on a daily basis.

Mark Russell: 00:24:11

We'll see somebody on LinkedIn that shares a message.

Mark Russell: 00:24:14

Facebook, Twitter.

Mark Russell: 00:24:16

Last one was TikTok.

Mark Russell: 00:24:18

There's a young lady that does, that has CF and she does her daily.

Mark Russell: 00:24:22

TikTok for CF and talks about her journey.

Mark Russell: 00:24:24

It's fantastic in, in really motivating and I love that story.

Mark Russell: 00:24:29

So it's one of those, we're gonna get a podcast with her later this year.

Mark Russell: 00:24:31

These are the people that I want to talk to and just like your group too.

Mark Russell: 00:24:35

These are pieces that I love to share with, and I never realized how much.

Mark Russell: 00:24:40

We would enjoy doing podcasts, but we really do.

Mark Russell: 00:24:43

If you go back to episodes, one, two, and three, we are raw.

Mark Russell: 00:24:47

Yeah, it is.

Mark Russell: 00:24:48

It's ugly, raw.

Mark Russell: 00:24:49

And I know you guys can attest, but it was a microphone and that was about it.

Mark Russell: 00:24:53

And we did our own.

Mark Russell: 00:24:54

And then we had a partner that we got in with that could do the

Mark Russell: 00:24:57

editing and Jade does a fantastic job with that and cleans it all up.

Mark Russell: 00:25:01

And we had a, we had just a share quick note.

Mark Russell: 00:25:04

We had a podcast with a a woman in Uganda and they Of course, you wanna

Mark Russell: 00:25:09

make sure you're in a secure, quiet room?

Mark Russell: 00:25:11

She had a rooster in the background and that rooster was growing about

Mark Russell: 00:25:16

two or three times during our interview and our editor sure.

Mark Russell: 00:25:19

Had a hard time editing that out.

Mark Russell: 00:25:22

Just like at first we had identify it.

Mark Russell: 00:25:24

It's what is that?

Mark Russell: 00:25:25

What is that sounded like a Kyle for a minute.

Mark Russell: 00:25:28

It was like, okay It happened to be just a rooster, but it was one of those amazing

Mark Russell: 00:25:31

things that they could edit it out.

Mark Russell: 00:25:33

And then time difference, it was early in the morning here

Marni: 00:25:41

technology

Mark Russell: 00:25:41

and in Uganda, it was late evening when rooster were.

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:46

no, that's incredible.

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:47

And I do like how you touch on how social media and.

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:51

Just connective platforms that we didn't have 20, 30 years ago are just helping

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:56

folks from all sorts of professions.

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:57

Just connect and share information.

Danielle Renckly: 00:25:59

I think that's so

Mark Russell: 00:26:00

I'll be honest.

Mark Russell: 00:26:01

When we first started the podcast, we only had LinkedIn is what we were doing.

Mark Russell: 00:26:05

We had Twitter, but we just weren't actively doing anything with it.

Mark Russell: 00:26:08

No Facebook, nothing else.

Mark Russell: 00:26:10

It became one of those places where we could expand out to and.

Mark Russell: 00:26:17

Even if it's just a post it's nothing, it's just a post, but it happened to be

Mark Russell: 00:26:21

reaching a lot more people than we expect.

Mark Russell: 00:26:24

They were sharing it and so forth and it meant a lot.

Mark Russell: 00:26:26

So we continued with that avenue.

Mark Russell: 00:26:28

I could see us doing, maybe not TikTok, but just, you know what I'm saying?

Mark Russell: 00:26:31

It's I would rather see mark do some nice dances and not at all.

Danielle Renckly: 00:26:37

me know.

Danielle Renckly: 00:26:37

I'll watch

Mark Russell: 00:26:38

My dancing days are over with, but yeah, it's, basically

Mark Russell: 00:26:41

it has grown and I'm sure you've seen the same thing in the last six months.

Mark Russell: 00:26:45

We, it took us a year to get so many downloads and in the last

Mark Russell: 00:26:49

six months we've doubled it.

Mark Russell: 00:26:50

And it's only.

Mark Russell: 00:26:51

Because of content, you have to get good content and interesting

Mark Russell: 00:26:55

guess, and it is a challenge.

Mark Russell: 00:26:57

And we like, I, like Janssen said, we get it from a lot of social media posts.

Mark Russell: 00:27:02

We've run into a couple of doctors uh, a doctor and a respiratory

Mark Russell: 00:27:06

therapist, a doctor who has a book.

Mark Russell: 00:27:08

Called exhale.

Mark Russell: 00:27:10

And and so we interviewed him, he was a transplant doctor and he

Mark Russell: 00:27:14

wanted to share his experiences with the challenges of transplant.

Mark Russell: 00:27:17

And then we just interviewed just recently a young lady that

Mark Russell: 00:27:21

has a website called exhale.

Mark Russell: 00:27:23

And it is a it's a respiratory.

Mark Russell: 00:27:27

It was a website where it's a training program training program for

Mark Russell: 00:27:31

respiratory therapy outta Oklahoma city.

Mark Russell: 00:27:33

Yep.

Mark Russell: 00:27:33

And and such, so its a popular name and I'm glad I picked it.

Mark Russell: 00:27:37

So I'm just waiting for Jada pig Smith and queen Latifa

Mark Russell: 00:27:41

from waiting to exhale to call.

Danielle Renckly: 00:27:44

You guys are the exhale family.

Danielle Renckly: 00:27:47

oh, I love it.

Mark Russell: 00:27:48

digress.

Mark Russell: 00:27:48

So again it's exhale with VI Telegraph.

Danielle Renckly: 00:27:52

Thank you so much for joining us today on a virtual view.

Danielle Renckly: 00:27:56

I think we had a great conversation.

Danielle Renckly: 00:27:57

I really appreciate you both taking the time to be here today.

Mark Russell: 00:28:01

that's great.

Mark Russell: 00:28:01

Thanks.

Mark Russell: 00:28:01

Thanks for inviting us.

Mark Russell: 00:28:02

Thanks.

Danielle Renckly: 00:28:03

Yeah, of course.

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:06

Thank you for listening to a virtual view.

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:08

You can find more information about today's episode in the show notes below.

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:12

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:15

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:17

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:20

If so, contact us at info at UMTRC dot org or through the

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:24

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:26

Also, we'd like to give a special thanks to our editor.

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:30

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:34

Also known as HERSA.

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:36

Our podcast series of virtual view is sponsored in part by hearses telehealth

Caroline Yoder: 00:28:39

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:44

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:46

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:49

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:53

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Caroline Yoder: 00:28:58

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