03: Creating a Revolutionary Handheld Ultrasound Device with Dave Willis

15 Minutes With The Doctor: Learn from Healthcare Entrepreneurs and Innovators

Today’s guest shares his expertise from years of working in the ultrasound industry. Their unique handheld ultrasound device can link directly to a smartphone or tablet. Dave Willis, the co-founder of Clarius, tells us how their mobile device can change the way doctors work, how they created the device, and their unique sales strategy. 1:00 Dave introduces his company Clarius and his product, which is a groundbreaking ultrasound device that connects to any tablet or smartphone running iOS or Android. 1:30 He was inspired to create the device when he visited a hospital department and heard how the number of consultants was much greater then available ultrasound ma-chines. 2:58 Dave’s company has removed typical hardware that ultrasound machines use and has enabled consultants to literally work with whatever mobile phone device they have in their pockets. 3:48 At the moment, the device is limited to Android and iOS as the vast majority of physicians are using devices with those systems. 4:42 Dave’s background is in ultrasound and working directly with physicians. 5:45 He feels the big advantage of his device is accessibility and affordability. 6:53 In the past, anything sub $10,000 with good image quality was difficult to find. Image quality is extremely important to new users. 8:00 The device doesn’t remove the need for training. That is still required, but it makes a range of diagnosis and treatments much more accessible to physicians. 9:20 Dave feels that this technology could be a good fit in quite a number of developing nations. 9:48 A good friend of Dave’s had developed his own ultrasound product previously, so when Dave relayed the earlier story about the hospital department with limited ultrasound equipment, they began working to create a device. A three-year window followed with development of an open source wireless system to talk to any operating system. 10:57 The product was primarily funded internally. 11:39 Dave discusses acquiring FDA and CE approval. A key tip is not to make any outrageous claims about your product in this process. The process of approval is typically six months from starting tests to final submissions based on feedback from the authorities. 13:30 Dave recommends newcomers to engage a third-party reviewer to help them with getting a product ready for the approval review. 14:23 Dave discusses their sales strategy which involves direct sales to end-users which is atypical of the industry. This can allow a dramatic cost reduction for the customer. 16:19 Clarius’s focus is point-of-care. They don’t plan to replace the big ultrasound ma-chines in the radiology department - getting smaller machines into point-of-care departments is where the biggest growth will occur in next few years. 17:45 Dave shares his personal experiences to show how ultrasound can improve accuracy for simple procedures. 18:36 The best point of contact for Dave is www.clarius.me where there is information and testimonials about the product. I hope you enjoyed the conversation today - Please leave a review and subscribe on iTunes. It really does help the show! Thanks for listening! Read on to see how Dave answered my final question: Vinay: What advice would you give to aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs and innovators? Dave: I think a couple of things. One is certainly a clear understanding of the end user. I've seen a lot of devices get on the market and fail because they miss the fundamental use model. Either they were too expensive or the image quality wasn't good enough. I think it's imperative to really understand the marketplace that you're trying to address. Then of course just having a passion for that. We were quite lucky, the founder and myself, that our whole background has really been ultrasound for a lot of years. So it was fairly easy for us to step in and we did come up with a very good product to address the mar...