Podcasts about sandstone diagnostics

Despite being responsible for nearly half of all cases of couples' fertility struggles, men are largely left out of the equation. There are a plethora of resources for women, from educational material to psychological support, yet very few of the same support systems exist for men. Along with this, going to a male fertility clinic can be a vulnerable experience, leaving men feeling exposed. Our guest today, Greg Sommer, is the co-founder of Sandstone Diagnostics, a Bay Area diagnostics company that develops sophisticated wellness products that allow consumers to measure, monitor, and improve key health markers at home.

A tricorder, a centrifuge that fits in the palm of your hand, stick-on thermo patches that can detect early stage breast cancer… What used to be considered sci-fi are now existing technologies that are helping medical professionals meet patients where they're at – in their home. Tune into this episode of the StartUp Health NOW podcast to learn how the founders of Welwaze, Sandstone Diagnostics, and Aidar Health are using these devices to bridge the access to care gap and why tech like theirs is paramount to an effective pandemic response. Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/ Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content. Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Pushing for preventative and proactive steps to improve health https://outcomesrocket.health/trak/2019/01/

In today's episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast Jon Speer welcomes Sara Naab to the show. Sara is the co-founder and director of quality and marketing for Sandstone Diagnostics. Sara shares with us insights into what it's been like going from idea, to raising funding, to being name one of the 40 most innovative life sciences companies in the Bay Area. Pretty impressive and interesting. It all started in the summer of 2012. The company makes consumer wellness products to help people better understand their health. They provide over the counter results of tests to patients and physicians. Sara begins the discussion with the company's first product, Trak. Trak is an app that will help men monitor their sperm count and how to improve their fertility. Medical devices are expensive for a reason. Getting started is hard. Money will always be a challenge. That is her opening advice to startups. At the beginning of Sandstone, Sara was pregnant. Her first suggestion to her co-founder (her husband) was a pregnancy test. This suggestion lead to the idea to create a sperm counter. After researching the topic, they learned about a void in the market that was not being addressed. Not too surprisingly, sperm testing is a very delicate and private subject for most men. Turns out sperm count is a sign of good health and being able to monitor it is very empowering to the patient. A number of factors can affect sperm count such as diet, stress, and even weight gain. Sara says humor is actually very important when handling patients and being non-judgement is key to helping men talk and think about their health. Trak is a mini centrifuge that will take a sperm sample from a patient and spin it so the cells can be analyzed. Then the app is used to track the progress. The service is in the trial stage right now. Manufacturing, investors, and regulations are among the obstacles Sara lists as the biggest challenges. The design control, risk management and production seem to be the positives Sandstone has going for them. Sara thinks the importance of education has played into their success and the quality of their team. She advises other medtech startups to consider the customer and remember who you are helping. You can find Sara on Linkedin, Sandstonediagnostics.com, or dontcookyourballs.com.

Show Highlights  Terri talks about what the JP Morgan Life Sciences conference is all about, what she learned, who she met, and some of the trends and innovations in women’s health.   Terri talks about the importance of normalization language and conversations around women’s health and wellness, including sexual health and wellness.    Terri and Jacqueline talk about changing the norms around aging, especially around body image, and taking charge of our health in our midlife in setting ourselves best for life after 65.    Terri is excited about how digital health is being embraced within biotech and pharma in various areas including medication adherence, better patient targeting, better clinical trial design, and better leveraging of data to optimizing drug development and delivery.    They talk about data and data ownership being a big topic in 2019 and the ramifications of deals like 23andMe and GSK.    Terri and Jacqueline discuss the $8.1B invested in digital health in 2018, and what is included in digital health including the blurring of lines between health and wellness.        Terri’s Key Takeaway  We need to normalize the language and conversations around women’s health, wellness, and body parts.      References in the Podcast  TechCrunch article on CES / female sex-tech:  https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/08/ces-revokes-award-from-female-founded-sex-tech-company/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage  More Men Named Michael Present at JP Morgan (2018):  https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/07/jpm-gender-diversity/  JP Morgan Life Sciences conference: https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/healthcareconference  Panty Prop: https://www.pantyprop.com/  RESI: http://www.resiconference.com/  Startup Health: https://startuphealthfestival2019.splashthat.com/  Healthcare Innovation Popup: https://medium.com/humble-ventures/teaming-up-with-mount-sinai-co-lab-for-open-innovation-in-healthcare-pop-up-ec3852b4bcb5  Humble Ventures: https://humble.vc/  Ogilvy: https://www.ogilvy.com/  Biotech Showcase: https://ebdgroup.knect365.com/biotech-showcase/  Springboard: https://sb.co/  True Wealth Ventures: https://truewealthvc.com/  Lisa Health: https://www.lisahealth.com/  Genneve: https://genneve.com/  Mighty Menopause:  https://www.mighty-menopause.com/  Madorra: http://www.madorra.com/  Pulse: https://lovemypulse.com/  B8ta: https://b8ta.com/  Astarte Medical:  http://www.astartemedical.com/  Watkins-Conti Products:  http://www.watkinscontiproducts.com/  Prima-Temp:  http://www.prima-temp.com/  Ceek Women’s Health:  https://ceekwomenshealth.com/  JLabs:  https://jlabs.jnjinnovation.com/  Saama:  https://www.saama.com/  Rock Health article on digital health: https://rockhealth.com/reports/2018-year-end-funding-report-is-digital-health-in-a-bubble/  Sandstone Diagnostics: https://trakfertility.com/  MyHealthTeams: https://www.myhealthteams.com/    Contact  You can follow Jacqueline Steenhuis on Twitter @TipsyCopilot or through her website https://www.jacquelinesteenhuis.com/.    You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com.  Check out Terri’s new Medium publication:  https://medium.com/terri-hanson-mead  Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife. 

Pushing for preventative and proactive steps to improve health

The Augmented City is at AI Med in Laguna Niguel, CA. We sat down with Karen Drexler to talk the growing role of AI and Machine learning, and how they are impacting the medical world.

In this episode, we dive into a topic that is changing rapidly and that is the topic of reproductive health. I invited the founders of two companies that have developed technologies to help women and men to measure and improve their reproductive health, and they made a terrific duo on this topic. Lea von Bidder is the co-founder and president of Ava Science, which is the company behind the women’s wearable called Ava Women. Also on the call is Greg Sommer, he’s the founder & chief science officer at Sandstone Diagnostics, that’s the company behind the men’s health product Trak. Between the two of them we cover both sides of the reproductive health equation. They share some great insights on the topic, and the new solutions available to help women and men with easy-to-use, discrete, home-based products that you’ll find interesting. I always learn something from our guests, and one of the things I learned on this episode is that for men, our overall health is so closed tied to reproductive health that sperm count is actually being called by some the sixth vital sign. Even if you’re not trying to conceive and those days are ahead of or behind you, I’m sure you’ll also learn something from our guests. You can find all the show notes and the links we discussed on our website at digitalhealthtoday.com/55   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terri and her producer Jacqueline sit down over some champagne to talk about how she made her first angel investment in MyHealthTeams and realized after her second, third and fourth investments (Sandstone Diagnostics, Zum and TomboyX) that her investment thesis was to invest in companies with products or services that improve people’s lives. Now she is focused exclusively on digital health which is a narrowing of her original thesis.   Show Highlights Terri makes the intro as to the topic and why this week she is talking about her angel investments Terri is going to be on a medtech angels panel at RESI in San Francisco this week and will be focused on her investment interest area of digital health while the other panelists will most likely be focused on Terri talks about the need to leverage data and technology to flip healthcare on its head and put information in the hands of patients Terri talks about how optimistic she is about Apple’s approach to changing healthcare versus how disappointed she is with Google and Verily and her experience with Project Baseline Terri’s first angel investment was in: MyHealthTeams: social networks for millions of people living with chronic illnesses. They currently have 28 conditions including MS, Lupus, HIV, diabetes, Parkinsons. Female co-founder based in San Francisco. Terri has doubled down on this company in their Series B and Series C raises. Jacqueline asked what an investment thesis is and Terri responded that she sees it as the criteria under which she chooses in her investments. Her investment thesis is to invest in companies that have products or services that improve people’s lives. Terri talks about not actively looking for diverse founding teams but gravitating towards Sandstone Diagnostics: home sperm count device and kit with an application for men to monitor their sperm count from home with guidance for improving the count from the application. The product is Trak and is FDA cleared. Founder was male but they brought in a new CEO, Karen Drexler shortly after Terri’s first investment (she’s tripled down on this one). They are based Livermore, CA. Zum: on demand and scheduled rides and care for kids ages 5 and up. Terri has tripled down on her investment with them. Female CEO and co-founder. If this had existed when her kids were little, her husband could have continued to work. Sequoia led a $5M Series A in early 2017 which is a good signal. Jacqueline asks Terri how she decides to invest in a company. Her response: She listens to her gut It has to be something that the world needs She has to believe the management team is going to take the company far There has to be a big enough market opportunity The company needs to have a big enough opportunity that a VC will invest to help the startup grow It has to make sense and be reasonable and rational She looks for revenue opportunities and the possibility of getting profitable Terri is an EIR (advisor) with Tech Futures Group and sees a lot of people looking for angel investors to invest in their research projects. This doesn’t resonate well with Terri; she needs to be able to see a path to revenue. TomboyX: underwear, swimwear, socks and hats designed for people regardless of where they fit into the size or gender spectrum. Terri knows many women who have been buying men’s underwear that doesn’t quite fit them. The female co-founders saw this as an opportunity and have created a fabulous brand and product. Terri’s daughter and one of Jacqueline’s daughters loves their underwear. Terri has tripled down on this one. They are based in Seattle, WA. Terri loves the brand play and sees them as an early exit to a company like Calvin Klein, Nordstrom, Fruit of the Loom, or Hanes. Terri talks about the shift in demographics and how women would much rather buy, and pay a premium, for products made for them. Jacqueline asked why Terri invested in TomboyX again. Terri continued to believe in what they were doing, was impressed with their growth, and she wanted to continue to support them as they encountered cash crunches due to their growth. Terri is frustrated by the lack of funding opportunities for some of these companies. Terri was asked to contribute an essay for a book that Jenn LeBlanc is writing about supporting female founders. Terri is determined to work with other like-minded women looking to invest in some of the overlooked opportunities by creating a mesh network of investors across the country and around the world. Tactical Haptics: tactical feedback controller, initially for VR. Long term, medical training. All male team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Terri believes that women need to take bigger financial risks to achieve the rewards that men are able to achieve. Terri was looking at between 250-500 deals a month between January and August 2017 and didn’t feel the need to invest in any of them. Tueo Health: digital health solution to improve the monitoring and management of children’s’ asthma. Female CEO/Co-Founder: Bronwyn Harris…she is totally kick ass. They are based in San Francisco. Terri talked about the importance of having healthcare solutions for kids that make the lives of parents better as most of the impact is on the mom. It’s also important to get ahead of the diseases because they turn into more significant issues when the kids become adults. Magnetic Insight: they are bringing clinical imaging into the 21st century. They do magnetic particle imagining which is a new ultrasensitive high resolution molecular imaging approach that detects nanoparticles in the body over a great length of time. Female CEO and Co-Founder; based in Alameda, CA.   Call to Action Get outside of your comfort zone. Take a risk. And share with me your mini-adventure at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.   References in the Podcast RESI: http://www.resiconference.com/medtech-angels/ Wings: http://medtechwings.com/ Patricia Beckmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-beckmann-phd-3b28256/ Project Baseline: https://www.projectbaseline.com/ Bella Beat: https://www.bellabeat.com/home MyHealthTeams: https://www.myhealthteams.com/ Maryanne Morrow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannemorrowsurgexlr/ Shauntel Poulson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauntelpoulson/ Reach Capital: http://reachcap.com/ Sandstone Diagnostics: http://sandstonediagnostics.com/ Karen Drexler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karendrexler/ Frog: https://www.frogdesign.com/ Kate McAndrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateprestonmcandrew/ Sarah McDevitt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmcdevitt/ CoreWellness: https://www.corewellness.io/ Zum: https://ridezum.com/ Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/ Tech Futures Group: http://www.techfuturesgroup.org/ SBIR: https://www.sbir.gov/about TomboyX: https://tomboyx.com/ TomboyX Rain Dove commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKnbum7v1aw Tactical Haptics: http://tacticalhaptics.com/ Gretta: kim@gretta.com CubbySpaces: https://www.cubbyspaces.com/ Wealthfront: https://www.wealthfront.com/ Ellevest: https://www.ellevest.com/ Accredited investor: a person or entity that can deal with securities not registered with financial authorities by satisfying one of the requirements regarding income, net worth, asset size, governance status or professional experience. Tueo Health: http://www.tueohealth.com/ Bronwyn Harris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwyn-harris-0a6ba4a2/ Stanford Biodesign: http://biodesign.stanford.edu/ Children’s Health Moonshots: Transforming the Way We Care for Children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS99wSHMXGc Magnetic Insight: https://www.magneticinsight.com/   Contact You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter at @jacquelineStee or find her on her website at www.jacquelinesteenhuis.com. You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.  Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

From the number of steps we take to the hours we sleep, it's clear we are obsessed with tracking their bodies' data. So why not track sperm? The average sperm count in men has fallen significantly and continuously over the last several decades due to biological, environmental, and lifestyle shifts. Now, men will be able to take control of their health with a new, FDA-cleared, at-home device called the Trak Male Fertility Testing System. The test allows men to measure and track their sperm counts as "low," "moderate," or "optimal" based on World Health Organization guidelines. The award-winning system allows men to measure and improve reproductive health addressing the growing problem of male fertility, which accounts for 30-50% of all infertility cases…all from the comfort of their recliner. The Trak Male Fertility Testing System from Sandstone Diagnostics uses centrifugal force to isolate and quantify sperm cells using specially designed disposable cartridges. I chat to Sandstone Diagnostics Founder & CEO, Greg Sommer, PhD about the Trak Male Fertility Testing System and the label of Fitbit for Sperm

In today’s episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast Jon Speer welcomes Sara Naab to the show. Sara is the co-founder and director of quality and marketing for Sandstone Diagnostics. Sara shares with us insights into what it’s been like going from idea, to raising funding, to being name one of the 40 most innovative life sciences companies in the Bay Area. Pretty impressive and interesting. It all started in the summer of 2012. The company makes consumer wellness products to help people better understand their health. They provide over the counter results of tests to patients and physicians. Sara begins the discussion with the company’s first product, Trak. Trak is an app that will help men monitor their sperm count and how to improve their fertility. Medical devices are expensive for a reason. Getting started is hard. Money will always be a challenge. That is her opening advice to startups. At the beginning of Sandstone, Sara was pregnant. Her first suggestion to her co-founder (her husband) was a pregnancy test. This suggestion lead to the idea to create a sperm counter. After researching the topic, they learned about a void in the market that was not being addressed. Not too surprisingly, sperm testing is a very delicate and private subject for most men. Turns out sperm count is a sign of good health and being able to monitor it is very empowering to the patient. A number of factors can affect sperm count such as diet, stress, and even weight gain. Sara says humor is actually very important when handling patients and being non-judgement is key to helping men talk and think about their health. Trak is a mini centrifuge that will take a sperm sample from a patient and spin it so the cells can be analyzed. Then the app is used to track the progress. The service is in the trial stage right now. Manufacturing, investors, and regulations are among the obstacles Sara lists as the biggest challenges. The design control, risk management and production seem to be the positives Sandstone has going for them. Sara thinks the importance of education has played into their success and the quality of their team. She advises other medtech startups to consider the customer and remember who you are helping. You can find Sara on Linkedin, Sandstonediagnostics.com, or dontcookyourballs.com.