This episode is brought to you in part by our Co-Sponsor Trevelino/Keller
Dana Weeks is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MedTrans Go, a healthcare technology start-up based in Atlanta, GA. Prior to joining MedTrans Go, Ms. Weeks co-founded the Black Angel Tech Foundation, created to support and increase the number of underrepresented minorities in technology, and served in her role as President from April 2016 to September 2019. Ms. Weeks has also held leadership positions at AT&T, Pfizer, and in several innovative entrepreneurial ventures.
Ms. Weeks is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Owl Capital, a member of the Board of Trustees of The Westminster Schools of Atlanta, the Treasurer of the Atlanta Chapter of Jack & Jill, an advisory board member of Stride: Win Your Way, and a Board Member for the Alliance Theater of Atlanta. She also serves on several Task Forces and Committees at both Stanford and Columbia Business School, including serving as a co-chair of the Stanford LEAD Council, a member of the Stanford Humanities & Sciences Council, and a founding member of the Women’s Circle at Columbia Business School. Ms. Weeks earned a B.A. with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:07] Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for another episode of Tech Talk with your host, Joey Klein.
Joey Kline: [00:00:16] Welcome, everyone. All right. We have a health care I.T. episode of Tech Talk today. We’re going to be chatting with Dana Weeks, the CEO of MedTrans Go. Dana, how are you today?
Dana Weeks: [00:00:26] I’m doing well, thank you.
Joey Kline: [00:00:27] Excellent. Okay. Well, you know, normally we have two or three guests on this show, but we have a very special show where we have you all to ourselves. So we are totally focused on med trends. Go. We’ll get to deep probing questions later on. But just for someone who’s just tuning in and wants a sense of what is med trends go high level. What is the company do? What is your mission?
Dana Weeks: [00:00:53] So just on a high level med trends go is solving the problem of cancellations in health care by providing a technology platform that helps doctors, health care providers and others providing health care services to a range of options, including transportation and interpretation, and the other reasons why cancellations happen.
Joey Kline: [00:01:15] Okay. And so let’s look, I think we’re all familiar with we’ve all canceled doctor’s appointments before. And I think that some people might be listening to saying, well, you know, is it really that big of a deal if I, you know, move my internist checkup or whatever it might be? So help us understand what type of cancellations we’re worried about, why it affects doctors and hospital systems and why it affects outcomes for patients as well.
Dana Weeks: [00:01:42] So I mean, it affects both the patients, but also the health care community. It’s a very disruptive situation when health care providers, if you’re looking at, for example, my co-founder who is an orthopedic surgeon and he dealt with cancellations and he actually still deals with cancellations where people are not able to get to surgeries or procedures. And ultimately it disrupts the flow, makes it hard for surgery centers and other facilities to do what they need to do. So in addition to having to reschedule potentially or in many cases, people don’t come back and actually get their the care that they need. And so the challenge to health care providers is that especially during these times, you want to be able to provide the care to patients and in the time that they need him. And if you then look at the most vulnerable patients, many who are, for example, on dialysis or those that need maternal care, really the the challenge becomes not only do they not get to appointments, that these could be life saving and or life altering situations if you don’t get to your appointments.
Joey Kline: [00:03:07] Okay. So, so we’re talking about a population. So so let’s let’s look at it from the surgery center, right. If you have a surgery scheduled, obviously, that surgery center has a certain number of staff they’ve allocated. They have reserved that spot for several hours. It’s not like you can easily fill it like someone waiting for a haircut. And so if someone doesn’t show up, that is simply lost time and loss of revenue, then you’ve got the person that hasn’t showed up. And if they reschedule, well, the schedule’s probably packed. They’re going to have to wait. Situation might get worse. Or if they don’t, if they don’t have reliable means of transportation, that’s just more time for whatever issue is occurring to fester, I’m assuming.
Dana Weeks: [00:03:50] Yeah, I mean, that is exactly the case. And in many cases you really should be able to get the health care you need when you need it. And if it is a solvable thing, like a transportation or other access issues or not being able to understand your doctor or health care worker, which is required by law, these are things that we should be able to easily access. And the great thing about our platform, it’s not just getting access to a car ride to get to an appointment. So potentially just a sedan ride if you just need to get in and out. But if, for example, you need access through a wheelchair enabled car or a stretcher or we have interpretation in over 100 languages, this allows the health care facilities to have everything at their disposal in one place that can adapt to any needs of patients and patient care. And the additional thing that has been a challenge for many patients are patients that are living in rural areas that are coming into urban areas to get care because they really don’t have access to those health care providers in their local community. And so the fact that they are outside of these urban centers or outside of a close proximity makes it even more challenging. If their transportation is not accessible to them and they often do not go back and just reschedule.
Joey Kline: [00:05:29] That’s that’s right. And I guess, you know, for some listening to this and I think certainly for those sitting across this table, we can sometimes take for granted the flexibility of life that we have and those around us friends, family, peer, group, whatever might be that can help us to an employment if we actually needed it. There are plenty of people who do not have a support network that can easily take them. There are plenty of people who cannot get the time off to do it. And like you said, you know, the rural issue of let’s say that you live in Vidalia, Georgia. Right. And you just do not have the specialty you need. You have to come in to Emory Midtown. That is I mean, that’s basically planning an out of town trip. That’s not just, you know, down the street, you know, easy sort of trek.
Dana Weeks: [00:06:16] Yeah. And even if you had a friend or family who could could take you, potentially, that’s a procedure that you need to do either multiple times or that you need to stay overnight. And folks don’t necessarily have that flexibility to be able to to do that here in Georgia. It’s it’s specifically it’s been a real challenge. We we ranked 40th in the United States when it comes to. Adequate distribution of doctors by specialty and geographic location. So increasingly, many patients who are who are not in reach of of doctors and facilities that can help them get that care.
Joey Kline: [00:06:58] Well, and it seems like, you know, we have to say we have we have an urban rural divide in this country. And there’s plenty of places that we’re not going to talk about on this podcast. But, you know, let’s let’s think about it. You could essentially transplant that situation onto any state. Right? You know, at the end of the day, yes, states are different, but most of them look like 1 to 3, maybe large metropolitan centers and then a bunch of areas spread out. And increasingly, if you’re a talented physician, are you going to go for the big city job or the small rural community that might be shrinking? And so in a world in which we have rural communities which either are staying the same or declining, then how do you get people access to the right health care they need? So I obviously totally get why this is needed. Let’s back up a little bit and talk about how did you discover that this was a problem and that you were the one to solve it?
Dana Weeks: [00:08:00] Well, I think it’s a twofold. So my co-founder, as I mentioned, is a board certified orthopedic surgeon, not only cares to do his orthopedic practice in a in a great way, he cares a lot about the patients. And about six years ago, he had two back to back surgeries canceled in one day. And in one instance, a neighbor had canceled at the last minute the ride that they were going to give. And and the other Spanish interpreter just didn’t show up. And he really didn’t have a one location that he could go to to solve these cancellation issues. And he and I discussed it and we looked into it and we realized this actually a huge challenge in the United States with cancellations in health care. As I’ve said many times in any other industry, 30 to 40% cancellation rates would not is that would not hold.
Joey Kline: [00:09:04] Well, 30 to 40%. Yes, that’s.
Dana Weeks: [00:09:07] Incredible. You know, and depending on where you are, the average is around 30%. And this is an over $150 Billion a year is lost every year on cancellations. And so for him on that particular day, these were high expensive surgeries and it was over 100,000 lost. When you take into account all of the staff that were there that were sitting idle, you were you’re taking into account the doctor’s time not being able to do that surgery. And then, of course, you know, other people could have used that time as well. Sure. And for what he saw and what we see as a majority of this is that these are solvable issues we can we can solve for the cancellation problems of transportation. We can solve for interpretation. And so we set out to build that very platform for health care providers to be able to get that on demand solution with the the safety and security of safe, reliable and predictable services.
Joey Kline: [00:10:11] Okay. All right. So there’s we have an aha moment from a real life example and the journey begins. What is your value? A serial entrepreneur? Are you a health care nut? What is your background that you said? You know what, I’m going to solve this. I’m going to dedicate myself to solving this.
Dana Weeks: [00:10:30] Well, for me specifically, yes, I am a health care nut. I am a technology nut, and I am a serial entrepreneur. I’ve done a number of different ventures where I have, I think from my young age, have looked at situations and think there are solutions to things when when I when I’m encountered with a problem, and especially when it comes to technology. And I think the deeper additional story that I have is my mom about 12 years ago now, was diagnosed with breast cancer and she needed a series of radiation and then chemotherapy appointments. But she lived in New York. I live in Georgia. This is one of those luxuries that I understood that I had where I could go up and help get her to appointments. And I had other family members who could assist her and go with her to be able to do that. And fortunately, now she’s cancer free. And but, you know, just going in and going through that process and understanding the vulnerability, I realized how important just being able to have some. That you can trust that is reliable, that can get you to and from appointments, whether or not your family members are there or are not able to get there. And, you know, it just was one of those real world experiences that matched my background and desire to kind of explore and create and solve for health care and technology problems.
Joey Kline: [00:12:12] Yeah, I mean, you know, some of the best companies are born of the seemingly well, that’s obviously not not a mundane experience. But I think you get these these these daily things that we sometimes don’t connect to larger problems or events. And he’d do a little bit of digging and you say, oh my God, how is no one solved this before? And that’s where great companies are born from.
Dana Weeks: [00:12:36] Yeah. And you know, I mean, I think in some senses we’ve seen solutions in in some of the the verticals. So you’ve seen some transportation solutions, you’ve seen some interpretation solutions. But this really combines all of them into one. And we really believe, because we have a health care DNA, that we’ve built a better mousetrap, that we’ve been able to create a very easy to use solution that allows those who are in health care an easy access to a platform that makes sense, that does the billing and invoicing, does the types of fulfills the needs of these customers. And our customers that we have believe this to be true as well. And that’s why we’re growing.
Joey Kline: [00:13:26] And so is your typical customer a regional hospital? Is it a kind of local multi office practice? Is it all across the board?
Dana Weeks: [00:13:37] It really is all across the board. And in some senses, we have now gotten to the stage of the business where we’re really able to focus on some of these industries and areas that are of most need surgical practices and facilities, hospitals. We’re starting to look into payer systems and health insurance companies, but the opportunities are so great if you’re looking at the demographics, the the needs, anything from assisted living care to another area that we really focus in is personal injury and worker’s comp and the ability to really solve for with this network of transportation interpretation providers the cancellation problems for many and it doesn’t matter if you’re a large hospital or a one or two person practice, this gives you that access, the ability to have the top interpretation and transportation providers that are vetted, HIPAA compliant and has that safety and reliability that really you have to be able to have for your patients. And ultimately, the patients want that as well.
Joey Kline: [00:14:56] So let’s let’s talk about the vetting. That’s an interesting topic, right? Because these are you know, this is not just someone signing up to be an Uber X driver. Right. And so how do you go and find the crop of folks, interpretation or transportation that are going to be right for this? What sort of checks do you undergo to make sure that they’re the right partners?
Dana Weeks: [00:15:17] So on the transportation side, we have a ten point certification that they require from everything from background checks to the HIPAA compliance to just a minimum age of of those drivers. And then we continue to do compliance so that we ensure that they have that as well as insurance requirements. And that’s for mainly non emergency medical transportation providers. We realize it’s a fragmented market and they fulfill a need, especially when it comes to wheelchair and stretcher where you can you don’t necessarily need an ambulance, but you definitely don’t need a a taxi that will drop you off at the curb or down the down the street. Sure. However, we want to be able to provide all different options. And so we have a partnership with Lyft where we also for if you only really need a curb to curb solution, that we have access to those as well. But it allows our platform allows you to be matched with the right type of service.
Joey Kline: [00:16:30] That’s very cool. So so let’s I’m curious about the economics. Is this a SAS license where someone’s paying a month a a health care system or doctors? A monthly fee to use it. Is this something where sort of per ride or per transportation session, for lack of a better term, you’re taking a piece of the fee. How does that work?
Dana Weeks: [00:16:51] Yeah, the revenue model is really transactional, although we do have a subscription based so that you are able to access our platform. But that subscription is way the fee is waived if you reach a certain threshold of transactions.
Joey Kline: [00:17:07] Okay. Okay. So you’re you’re going to let’s let’s take your orthopedic surgeon example, right. Or orthopedic surgery center there slice. There’s four offices in a metro area. And as long as they can provide the requisite volume of transactions, essentially you’re making enough off of that that the license fee from them isn’t really necessary. And of course, from their mind, they’re saving all this money in wasted no shows.
Dana Weeks: [00:17:38] Yeah, absolutely. And really, the other part about our platform is we we developed a video interpretation platform to be able to provide American sign language interpretation to our clients who needed it. And it was in the middle of March of 2020 that we were launching it. And the timing from a health care perspective couldn’t have been better, as you know, as that time was becoming one where all these facilities were closing. Telemedicine was becoming increasingly used and utilized overnight. And so in some senses, it really boosted the health care industry’s comfort with using technology solutions and then finding that the technology solutions in some senses can complement what they are doing in person, but also be a very viable option. And so having a telemedicine platform that allows for an interpreter to also be on there in this number of languages that you need, it’s turned out to be a really great access point that people wanted to be able to have the subscription model just to have that platform. If there is a closure for a week, if potentially a patient gets sick with COVID. And so you have to switch that online. And then there’s a real model where many follow up visits don’t necessarily need to be in person. And so this allows for our customers to not necessarily have to invest in another telemedicine platform if their usage of telemedicine is not that great and that they can kind of complement that.
Joey Kline: [00:19:26] So so that’s an interesting, albeit not entirely unexpected with two years of hindsight development, I have I have a health care client and obviously wasn’t planned this way. Right. But I mean, COVID just catapulted their business like they could have never imagined. I would guess that as an entrepreneur with a young company that at the beginning stages it was a bit scary. But, you know, talk to me about how the last two years have been for your company. Kind of once you got your sea legs under you has I’m assuming that it’s been pretty decent growth for the past couple of years.
Dana Weeks: [00:20:02] Yes. I mean, in in many ways, COVID validated the need for health care providers to understand the impact of cancellations. And more so, they’re realizing if, for example, their facility had been shut for a long time, then every single person when they’re actually opening, every single patient was more critical than ever. And so they couldn’t just ignore cancellations. And I think it was one of those stopping moments similar to what Dr. Abagnale had, which was he he had these back to back surgeries canceled where it was happening maybe once each day or something. But when it was that long period of time and these really complex surgeries, then all of a sudden he was like, wait a second, right? How is this really impacting my business? And a similar thing happened, I think, to health care. At the same time, the technology regulations, the technology usage became more prevalent within health care. And so those two things combined really made our solution. One that was here for the times and access to health care. A lot of the issues of cancellations, the reasons for these cancellations were were growing and increasing and we were getting there. But this really catapulted the need in in a way that I think is makes me feel good, because if we can address these issues, we can look at long term. Societal challenges of health disparities and others that in some senses seems daunting. And if we can use this as one particular way that we can solve for and get better care, better solutions for all, then it it’s a win win all around.
Joey Kline: [00:22:03] It does really seem like you’re just scratching the surface here. And obviously, at this stage of your company, it’s it’s important to be focused, you know. You know, lest you sort of get distracted by so many shiny things out there that you’re, you know, nothing to no one. But, you know, I’m curious about the go to market strategy at this point. Has this been doctor a referral doctor network? Has this been an outbound sales team? What is the next 12 to 24 months look like from a growth perspective? Both, you know, pulling people in and kind of pushing out.
Dana Weeks: [00:22:41] So we really have seen how many opportunities there are. And so we’re really looking at data and looking at especially our presence here in the Southeast and Georgia to find those right models and to look at the areas to go to first. And, you know, we’ve we’ve discovered a number of those areas and really want to focus on them here in Georgia and then replicate it. I mean, we’re right now we’re in 11 states, but our strong presence and growth in terms of our go to market strategy is here in the southeast because we can expand in different types of surgical facilities. So to your to your question, we have a sales team. We actually have a strong customer success team. And a lot of that is sort of matching not only do we want to have the sales to to get agreements in place, but to actually have them use us, especially given that it’s a transactional model. And I think that the opportunities are are growing and we get a lot of referrals even from our current customers. And that has been another really great advantage.
Joey Kline: [00:23:59] Yeah. From a geographic standpoint, I mean again, it’s just the universe is so wide. Are you prioritizing going really deep into the states in which you are operating or at this point, it’s let’s let’s get a toehold in as many states as possible and then we can kind of dig in, you know, past the surface from there.
Dana Weeks: [00:24:21] We really have have remained true to that focused approach. And but we have been able to explore new opportunities because we have customers who have a strong presence here in Georgia that are national. And they say, okay, well, we love what we’re doing here with you in Georgia. Can you set up a network in Massachusetts? Can you set up a network in Colorado? And we’ve been able to be successful in that. But one of the exciting parts about having a double sided marketplace in having to find matching service providers of transporters and interpreters to those clients, is that it’s a it’s kind of a lever. It’s a balancing act. So you have the demand, then you have the supply, and then once you have the supply, you want to find more demand. So in many ways, it’s it’s a great way to continue to feed back into what you have. And so that’s where having that focused approach is good so that we if we’ve built up our network of transporters in the Houston area, for example, then we are now looking at getting more clients in that area because it will feed onto each other.
Joey Kline: [00:25:43] I have always been fascinated by companies that have this unique marketing. You can call it a challenge or an opportunity depending upon your mindset where you’re sort of B-to-B to see you. Your product is touching both a business and a consumer. And in addition to that, you, of course, have a network effect that you have to be concerned with. And finding that equilibrium is and there’s no question here, it’s more just it is a very complicated balance and challenge. And I imagine that it is, you know, intellectually rigorous as well as somewhat. You know, it’s hard it’s hard to get right.
Dana Weeks: [00:26:22] I imagine it’s hard to get right. But when we’re talking about health care, it’s a lot easier. And I and my background is in marketing and in management. So in some senses this is for me really fun. Yeah. Because you have the opportunity to impact not only the health care community, but you have the opportunity to impact and disrupt the non-emergency medical transportation market. You have the opportunity to disrupt interpretation and the interpretation market. And the need is so there and so being able to connect those who need those services, those who need the business with the right patients, the right customers, it’s a win win for everybody.
Joey Kline: [00:27:11] So if if you came back here in 12 months and we were to sit down and say what what has happened in the last 12 months, what has changed with that Transco? What are the top couple of whatever? Choose one, two, three, everybody you want that you want to be able to say you have accomplished product funding team, whatever it might be in the next 12 months.
Dana Weeks: [00:27:34] Well, in the next 12 months, we are looking to go bigger and scale more. And a lot of that has to do with some of the customers that are in our pipeline. We are about to close a big hospital deal and we will be looking at and talking to a couple of insurance companies and payer systems. And the ability to adapt our technology to these larger customers is in the pipeline. We have a number of compliance upgrades to compliance, others that will make our platform easily plugged into some of the larger systems. And we see that as tremendous opportunity to not just continue to see the growth that we’re seeing, but really accelerate that growth and and seize upon a real need. And in talking to those that were that are in our pipeline, they they see how our product can really help them reduce costs, increase revenue, help provide better patient care, help in terms of hospitals, really make the the process more efficient.
Joey Kline: [00:28:54] Yeah. I mean, as I’m thinking about this, okay, so I’ve heard of transportation matters is not the right term, but I’ve heard of, you know, you know, companies that can help augment transportation. Right. I’ve heard of companies that can do some interpretation work. I’ve never heard of a company before that really focuses on no shows, is there I mean, is there really anything out there, one that focuses as much on cancellations and two, combines all of these things together?
Dana Weeks: [00:29:25] I don’t know. One that combines all of these things together. Yeah, but there are definitely folks who are looking at no shows and in a number of different ways, I mean, there are other ways that to to look at it. But transportation and interpretation are the two. Number one, reasons why cancellations in health care happen. Over 54% of cancellations are due to those two reasons. And so that’s why we focus on them. And in many ways, people who are not necessarily in health care, they’re like, well, that’s an interesting marriage. Why would you have interpretation and transportation? They seem so dissimilar, however, for a health care provider that are increasingly taxed, burdened, busy, tired with potential staff transitions, they really need a an all encompassing solution that doesn’t matter what the patient is, the cause of that cancellation, we have an easy solution that’s all combined into one.
Joey Kline: [00:30:24] Well, and I imagine that there is a decent. Okay, so if you if you take the whole pie of cancellations right there is I’m going to guess some significant minority for whom both the translation as well as transportation are acute issues. Right. You’ve got some folks that you know, it’s an either or but you know, I imagine the population that you see that is vulnerable to this sort of thing. There’s going to be a decent number of folks in there that need both of those and more.
Dana Weeks: [00:30:55] I mean, I, I totally agree. And, you know, when it comes to health care, you really want that trust factor. You really want to be able to get there, understand your customer, I mean, understand your health care provider, and then trust that you can get home safely and reliable reliably. And so having a network that has done. That has been and done the vetting for you really does help the patient primarily, but also those health care providers provide better care and better solve the the more the bigger challenges of running a practice in today’s world.
Joey Kline: [00:31:40] That is all super exciting, challenging, but a very good challenge. So anyone listening that has this has piqued their interest. They want to learn more. How can they get in touch with you or and or learn more about med trends? Go.
Dana Weeks: [00:31:54] So you can find us on the web at med trends. Go Med Trans Geo or geo and or you can call us at 400 4826 7300 and we’re excited to provide more information, connect you with someone on the team. And, you know, we do get a lot of referrals, sometimes patients and you know, again, we are right now a business to business operation, but the patients are really the ultimate end user. And so if patients also hear about this, too, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, we want them to be asking their health care providers as well how they can partner with med trends. Go.
Joey Kline: [00:32:46] That’s great. Well, Dana Weeks, CEO of Med Transco, solving health care, one cancellation at a time. Thank you so much for coming.
Dana Weeks: [00:32:54] Thank you so much. Nice talking to you.
