Ateneo Professional Schools
Makati City
July 11, 2016
The chairman of the Central and Marketing Cluster Dr. George Fong who attended last Saturday's forum on Medical Innovation was amazed at the quality and depth of the discussion by the speakers on Medical Innovation sponsored by the MBAH Entrep Class PM session. He said we should have held this with more preparation more marketing and did this at the auditorium (I was emailing him early on, but for some reasons the emails did not get through. Prof Larry Grey, IT professor, was amazed and asked who did this? I said it was the class. They planned it and financed the event.
Those who attended from the school top management were Dr Tony Del Carmen, program director for Ateneo Center for Entrepreneurship (we were together in at least 2 forum on entrepreneurship abroad) Dr. George Fong and Prof Larry Grey. Dr. Gloanne Adolor did not not make although Scientist Kim and yours truly talked to her noon time before the forum for the signature of the certificates
The program/forum is part of the requirement for the class, entrepreneur presentation. Bring the entrepreneur to the class for a talk
The forum was spearheaded by Dr. Dominic Velasco, MD and Scientist Kim Semon.
The emcee for the afternoon was Dra Lindsay Gail Winston Torralba - Garcia. The tokens expenses was shouldered by the Class
The speakers were:
Mr. Cedric Ng CEO of Ominifab
Dr. Rene Catan - President of Arthologic, maker of of knee implants It is significant to note that Dr Catan is an MBAH graduate, and of this class, and took up the same exercises and activities just like the others. Ii is hoped that what he took here honed him to be a great entrepreneur.
Dr. Francis Chung Jr. Co Director of MM Regenerative Center
As this was a prono bono affair, the class gave the speakers token of appreciation and Certificate of Appreciation from the Ateneo Graduate School of Busiiness
Some summaries of the talk:
Cedric Ng CEO of Omnifab
He is the grandson of HK Chinese immigrant who went to Naga City, established a lumber trading business, eventually moved to Manila where they set up hardware business. They lived in a entreswelo: living space at the top floor and business at the ground floor.
His talk is a superb education/learning on 3d printing. He said there are 3 types of printer:
1. fused deposition modeling
2. multi jet printing
3. direct metal laser sintering (the metal parts are done layer by layer)
The uses are mostly implants, prosthesis and surgical guides.and in the future bio printing Surgical guides are models of the body parts to be operated on and a 3d model is made so as to practice the procedure and He mentioned the doctors who use such technology: Drs. Rafael Bundoc and Rene Catan (the guest for the afternoon) and the President of PDA (who use this in braces and other dental procedures. (In private he mentioned that a technology department is proposing to invest in such a printer for use in metallurgy, defense, medicine, aerospace and rapid prototyping (for entrepreneurs)
His theme is enabling others to become extraordinary (doctors, manufacturers, entrepreneurs.
Dr. Rene Catan, MD, MBAH
The talk of Dr. Catan is a fusion of business (entrepreneurship, strama) and medical science, technology and mechanical engineering. His passion for nation building is seen from his theme of "democratizing knee surgery/implant. Being a man for others, magis, heroism (Ignatian spirituality must have been truly internalized by him. That he started his talk with a woman disabled by knee and then walking again normally (at the end) shows a remarkable concern for the lessening of pain of patients at a lower cost. True Atenean and nation building.
Business/entrepreneurship
Opportunity screening and seizing
1. He chose knee surgery although they do hip joint replacement because it is highly competitive and the prices has gone down. He went into knee joint replacement and implants because it less crowded/competitive. Their next competitor is much higher and they can still lower their cost
2. He is currently serving the top of pyramid where there are only 2% of the total population. He plans to go and get the business at the bottom of the pyramid. By halving price from P80t to P40t reaching target surgery of 8,000 per year, sales can double up to nearly half billion (from current P200 million at 1, 800 number of surgeries
Business model/innovation
His current business model is to search and properly identify who are his PTM: the hospital or doctor. He identified the doctor as the PTM. He must link to the doctor to adopt his technology (In the audience, a colleague disagreed on his removal of the axis on the implant which makes the implant according to the latter less stable.
His bond with the customer is offer advice and training so that his implant will be used. Thus when Dra Jane asked question with regards to collaboration he made it clear that the doctors who will be the procedure will be the PTM
Business Process Innovation
His secret is actually not a secret. By employing KIS (Keep it simple, he developed this innovation under Arthrologic:
Less is simpler
Reducing the number of parts of the knee joint from 4 to only 2 (the stats show that it is possible)
Easier surgical procedures
Think less great results.
Less inventory
Less cost
Less operation time from 3 hours to 1.5 hours (more productivity)
Less operating tray (from 7 to only 3)
Importance of research and innovation
There is less growth of research in the Phil and some ASEAN countries show even more growth. But PHL is ahead of the world. We need to increase the number of research output as what MBAH wants it graduate to do. and this post is happy that Dr. Rene Catan answered that call.
All the things that Dr. Catan true to scientific process and business plan and strama are to be buttressed by data both primary and secondary.
The NU 10 the serendipity walk (finding opportunity) assignments are remembered fondly(in private as some of the memorable moments in entrepreneurship. NU 10 if practiced with disiciplined approach and internalized can generate a lot of ideas for research
Motto: "Democratization of TKA" Making knee joint accessible to many to the bottom of the pyramid
Outsourcing
Outsourcing lessens your inventory and you can focus on your key competency. As a doctor, he does not have to make his own parts. Thus he spent more time with machine shops. He was able to convince Armscor, the gun manufacturer to do the precision metal parts of the knee. They initially refused by Dr. Catan did not give up and made the pitch that by making these part, they can make up for the time they were making machines that hurt and kill.
The plastic parts are made by CNC Manufacturing in Laguna, which make \parts for Airbus. There are experts who can do this better.
He says Filipinos are not wanting in excellence and creativity. He knows of a lab that exports dentures to Germany.
Funding for start ups and exit
He got funding from Idea Space a foundation founded by MVP. From a 1,000 they were down to double digit and and then to only two. He got a funding for P5 million and for the final meeting, he still had to make the pitch (the importance of making a pitch.)Remember the pitch for the dry cooking
His company is now worth P250 million and he selling he shares not in an IPO way but tingi to doctors.
Dr. Francis Chung Jr.
He talked about stem cell tourism and the risks involved for the patient, the need for regulation and his pitch even as a scientist to obtain P60 million for upgrade of research at MMC Regenerative Center. He also talked about the status of research in the Philippines vs the rest of Asia and the world. And maybe we need more.
May this encourage the MBAH gradutes and students to do more research to show that MDs in the Philippines can hold their own vs the rest of the world.
He discussed two cases on use of stem cells on a cardiac patient who had exhausted all possible treatment on his heart. Some months later, the scarring was reduced. And then use of stem cells on a patient with psoriasis. She showed a very remarkable improvement.
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