Ready Teddy Prepares Children for MRIs
For recent USC graduate and Blackstone LaunchPad Fellowship participant Max Orozco, nearly everything about the MRI experience for children seemed problematic. When working at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, he saw first-hand the fear and trepidation that young patients had for this diagnostic procedure. Resulting movement while in the machine leads to 30% of research data lost from incomplete scans, and mock fiberglass models designed to help prepare patients for the experience take significant space, are difficult to use and are therefore often under-utilized.
The result? On average nearly half of children are sedated, with propofol, ketamine, and fentanyl, an experience that is both more expensive and carries a higher risk. For children in lower-income, non-English speaking, and minority communities, the sedation rate increases (at one institution Max is familiar with, to nearly two-thirds). According to Max, “I just knew, there had to be a better way.”
The Power of Virtual Reality
“There’s a ton of research from all over the world about how exposure therapies using VR are helpful in preparing people for claustrophobic situations and treating veterans with PTSD,” said Max. (Another Blackstone LaunchPad student from UT Dallas, Veena Somareddy, cofounder of Neuro Rehab VR, is using the same technology to help people who have had strokes or traumatic brain injuries with VR-based therapy exercises.)
The best part? A VR-based MRI preparation tool doesn’t take much space, doesn’t need to cost a lot, and can actually be a fun experience for children. With Ready Teddy, which launched in late November, the simple plug-and-play Pico VR headset implementation introduces patients to the sights and sounds of an MRI in an enjoyable, engaging, and interactive way. The advanced technology tracks movement and gently reminds patients to stay still throughout the experience, and to ensure its ease of use with diverse patient groups, programming is available in Spanish and other languages.
“One of the key benefits of the solution using a VR headset, is that it measures head movement perfectly,” said Max. “That head motion is the primary concern in an MRI, so it’s really two tools using the exact same metric.”
The Entrepreneurial Gene
Max’s cofounder, just so happens to be his brother, Noah, himself an entrepreneur who began Zine-o-matic, an independent Art Book distribution company. “Back in early 2019 I pitched him the use case for Ready Teddy, and he instantly bought in. We developed an MVP and submitted it to the Medical Capital Innovation Competition at the Cleveland Clinic, and won!” From there, the family team continued refining the design and user experience, and before long Max was invited to participate in the Facebook Oculus Launch Pad Fellowship, a program to support 100 promising VR content creators from diverse backgrounds with hands-on training, support, marketing, and sales, so they can iterate on their ideas and bring them to market.
But Max and his brother Noah aren’t the only entrepreneurs in the family.
“My grandfather, who immigrated to this country from Mexico, actually started a bakery, and a tile shop, and an income tax business!” said Max. “I think it’s just in our blood.” As for himself, Max always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, “I’ve always been attracted to creators — whether they’re researchers in the lab creating knowledge or builders and artists I met while a member of a local maker-space.”
Rapid Success Leading to LaunchPad
Since finishing the Oculus program, Max and Noah have achieved more, rapid, recognition for their idea. In early 2020, they won the Graduate Development prize in USC’s Iovine and Young Academy competition, won the Entertainment Technology Center Immersive Media Challenge at USC, received a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and after meeting the Director of Healthcare for Hewlett Packard at an industry conference, have been provided with development tools and hardware to build on by that corporation. Continuing with their progress, the team brought on expert advisors in pediatrics, anesthesiology, and game design specific to healthcare.
“The LaunchPad Fellowship has perfectly aligned with a pivotal time in our company’s trajectory: product launch,” said Max. “The launch on Product Hunt has resulted in 5 potential leads reaching out to us from medical institutions around the world to find out more about our product. And then Fellowship’s ‘Mentor Week’ was incredibly helpful in prompting conversations with amazing entrepreneurs and clinicians that really instilled confidence in our team and lit a fire under our bellies to keep pushing forward.”
The Fall 2020 Blackstone LaunchPad Fellowship, offered in partnership with Techstars and Future Founders, supports 40 social impact-focused student startups with eight weeks of coaching, goal-setting, workshops, and a $5,000 non-dilutive grant. Alumni of the LaunchPad Fellowship also benefit from complimentary student membership to Startup Grind giving them access to Startup Grind events, additional mentorship opportunities, curated content for young, early-stage founders and student entrepreneurs, and more.
Advice for Future Student Entrepreneurs
Max offers two lessons to future student entrepreneurs:
“First is finding resilience,” he said. “Be prepared for a difficult journey. And cultivate any support you can get — it is huge. Whether that’s a cofounder, like my brother, that I know I can trust, or listening to mentors’ advice. In my experience, the winner is the person that can last the longest, and that network can help you sustain.”
“Second is to find a way to enjoy the journey. When all the odds are stacked against you, especially as a young entrepreneur, it is easy to get discouraged. If you can ‘find the fun’ and make the process enjoyable, it adds much-needed levity to the experience, and helps with your own mental health.”
This post is part of a series of interviews and resources from Blackstone Launchpad & Techstars. Want more great reads? Head over to our Student Corner column to keep up with new releases!
