This is the second to last week of my internship at Establishment Labs. I took a moment to reflect back on my experience and thought about what I have done. The company is making strides in developing the future of medical devices. As part of that future, they are ensuring top regulatory compliance, something that gives me pride in the work I’m doing. The work I am contributing will help provide beneficial medical devices to even more people. Throughout my internship, I had the opportunity to inspect every step of the design control process, ensuring that only the best results are produced, and the best medical devices are made. It is an immensely rewarding experience that I value.
On a personal level, witnessing this exciting event inspires me to work on medical devices even more. There are several pressing medical challenges waiting for disruption. I hope to join in the efforts to disrupt the medical industry and revolutionize healthcare. Seeing how a modest company like Establishment Labs had the moxie to take on the implant industry and achieve great success is fuel for personal ambition.
One way I can realize the need for disruption is through Consultika. As part of the GMI program, we are implementing projects developed by previous cohorts of the program. Consultika is a project aimed at improving the way doctors discuss patient information electronically while maintaining the ease of modern communication application. Currently, due to lack of a better, more efficient solution, Costa Rican doctors send information for consultation by doctors several hours away via WhatsApp. Yikes. That is not secure and risks patient privacy. Secure communications can allow far away doctors to decide which patients should make the long trip to see them and which patients can be treated where they are.
You may remember Luis, GMI ’17 and Tico Owl extraordinaire. He and the Consultika team of the previous cohort constructed the app for secure physician communication. When he walked us through the development, it was extraordinary how many factors were considered in designing the project. Current solutions, patient population, and even weather were considered in how the final solution would be used and developed.
Consultika Screenshot
With a “beta” prepped and ready, it is up to the GMI 2018-2019 Consultika implementation team to get the ball rolling on a clinical trial in the Costa Rican hospital system. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of paperwork to handle for that. We’ll spend the year filing for IRB approval and (hopefully) starting the clinical trial. But thankfully, we have some Tico engineers and doctors collaborating with us to make this a reality. This project relies on Tico power as much as (or even more than) GMI power. Without the legendary dedication and kindness of Ticos, this project would not even be possible.
Consultika is a huge endeavor. There are definitely many points where we’ll want to pull our hair out. It can be challenging to work on something novel like this, but when the going gets tough, it can help to imagine those who will be impacted by the project: doctors, who will be able to communicate better with other doctors to improve patient care; the Costa Rican healthcare system, which will be able to deliver higher quality care; and, most importantly, the patients, who will be able to receive the best medical care possible.