3 min reading time

God bless Michael Seres.

He was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an incurable bowel condition, at age 12. His first surgery at 14, he’s 25 further surgeries stronger, having weathered intestinal failure and two bouts of cancer. He’s now awaiting a stem cell transplant.

So what does Michael do with all his free time? As a patient, he says,

I don’t actually want to consume health. I want to consume life. I want to have the tools and the equipment and the technologies and the devices around me to allow me to engage in life, not think about health the whole time.

The Ostomy Market: Size, Problems, and Michael’s Solution

Michael wove a deeply personal story into his narrative. I heartily encourage you to learn more, here presented in a beautifully edited presentation.

His slides and transcript are also available for you now.

Did you know?

• Ostomy $14 billion market and part of a wider medical bag market, with five million patients (1.5MM US), and every year 130,000 US citizens have a bag attached to their body.

• Ostomy bags burst, leak, and spill. Your nerve endings are cut, so you don’t know when it’s going to happen. Quality of life suffers.

• The #1 and #3 three most readmitted surgeries in the United States! Colostomy (closest to colon) and ileostomy (further up the body).

• 2.1 billion dumb bags are produced annually. So Michael made a smart bag.

The 11Health Solution

11Health added sensors and technology in ostomy bags to measure real-time output. Doing so gives you early warnings of leaks, spills, infection markers and more.

It’s quite genius, actually, added your humble editor.

If you’re interested in the ostomy market, as a patient, future employee, investor, or strategic partner, you’re going to want to access the replay, slides, and transcript.

Michael, congratulations. I’m honoured (the “u” in your honour) to call you my friend. 🤗

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The Combination Products Market

Here’s a copy of the Combination Products Market Report, which is very timely ahead of EU MDR!

The report covers medical device and pharma company cases on managing combination products through development, implementation, launch, and post-market surveillance.

Related: This year’s Combination Products Forum will be 22-24 October 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

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So what else?

No matter what story I told, my mother-in-law’s next question would be, “So, what else?”

Here’s “what else,” Mom:

1. Need a job, distribution, or financing? This post was well received. Check it out.

2. Medical Device Website Design and Revisions | What to Know in 2019. I really enjoyed our webinar with Todd Hartley last week. Click here for the slides and/or here for 8 key takeaways.

3. For fun. This week I discovered Yue Minjun, a contemporary Chinese artist known for his self-portraiture. Here’s my screensaver today. Are you intrigued?

   

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Thank you for being part of our Medical Devices Group community!

Please  to educate your network.

Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Founding Principal,
Medical Devices Advisory Group

P.S. Group member Susan Hartman wrote me, “The suggested ‘get around’ for MDR will not work for the UK, at least. NHS announced it will not accept product that is not MDR compliant from April 2020 onward. We’re learning as we go, Folks! Here’s the original discussion about the MDR workaround.