Speaker 1: 0:00

How can we bring healthcare technology to underserved populations? We'll find out on this episode of Shift.

Speaker 2: 0:06

Shapers Change either energizes or paralyzes. The choice is yours. This is the Shift Shapers podcast, bringing the employee benefits industry interviews with individuals and companies who are shaping the industry shifts. And now here's your host, david Saltzman.

Speaker 1: 0:29

A couple of months ago I was in Savannah doing a speaking engagement and I ran into today's guest, cornelius Bankston, and we got to chatting a little bit and I was fascinated by the work that he and his firm, techplug, are doing and, more importantly, the places and the populations with whom they're doing the work, and I thought it'd be a great conversation to have on the podcast, and so we welcome Cornelius. Thanks for being here today.

Speaker 3: 0:56

Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:59

So let's level set, Cornelius what is TechPlug? And, maybe more importantly, why is TechPlug?

Speaker 3: 1:05

Sure, techplug is an innovation firm and we were founded under this idea that everyone should have healthcare and technology should not be a barrier of entry, right? So we understand that there are populations here in the US that can't afford a thousand dollar phone and the way that this tech revolution is occurring within health. You need access to some type of innovation, some type of tech and understand it. And we understand that this population really kind of have issues with getting the connectivity or getting the device, and so we work with emerging companies to address those concerns within the underserved and marginalized communities so that we can close this gap as it relates to health care access to underserved and marginalized communities.

Speaker 1: 1:52

OK, so again, in the interest of level setting, let's define underserved and marginalized communities.

Speaker 3: 1:59

Sure. So when you look at the federal poverty level, this can be black and brown people. So when you look at the federal poverty level, this can be black and brown people. It can be individuals that are low income, and low income is defined here in the US individuals that make 150 percent less than the poverty, the federal poverty line. So those are individuals one person making probably twelve thousand dollars a year, a family of two making fourteen thousand dollars a year. So these are individuals that have some challenges as it relates to generating income.

Speaker 1: 2:28

It's also a geographical problem, isn't it?

Speaker 3: 2:31

Yeah, so when you think through geographical, in the sense of this, impacts urban and rural populations. When you look within urban centers, there are individuals that are making money within their household. Income is within that range. When you look in rural populations, individuals are still struggling to pay their bills as well or trying to survive. So it's not just a Southern thing or Northeast thing or West Coast situation. It's a situation that impacts rural and urban centers.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Relative to healthcare. Is it more rural than urban, or is it about an even mix?

Speaker 3: 3:08

That's a great question. We haven't looked at that data of how you're comparing from rural to urban centers, but what the data that we are seeing is individuals within these populations, within these centers. I can't really give you a strong percentage it's 50% in rural and 50% in urban centers, but we just know that there's a situation that is disproportionately impacted by these individuals within these cities.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Well, okay, let's take it from another perspective. Are the needs the same or are the needs different in those two different populations?

Speaker 3: 3:39

Oh yeah, yeah, the needs are the same. So when you start thinking through social determinants of health, individuals within these populations struggle with transportation. So how you know if you have a chronic disease, maybe diabetes and a heart condition, and you fall within this category, you know transportation could be an issue, right? How do you get back and forth to the doctor? Prescription adherence is another situation. If you don't have transportation then you probably can't get to the pharmacy to get your meds. And there's also food security issues as well.

Speaker 3: 4:10

So people that are in this population are in areas where, if you're in New York City, there's a bodega down the street and they only have maybe spam spread and some other things that aren't really healthy for you, especially if you have a chronic disease. And you look at rural populations, you can also see that with corner stores that are there right on the edge of the, some cases housing projects that serve and I know I've been to one community here in Atlanta you know a gallon of milk is over two to about three dollars at these little corner stores. So you know those are the things that are impacting this population at disproportionate rates.

Speaker 1: 4:54

So transportation prescription adherence, you know, food securities and all these things are needed for individuals to be in compliance with their medication or get the health care that they need. So how does technology help address these couple of examples of how?

Speaker 3: 5:01

technology helps address those issues? Sure, so we have a company that's within our portfolio called SensorMed, and they are a remote patient monitoring platform and they look at a couple of chronic diseases diabetes and COPD and some of the innovation that they are doing is that the clinician can remotely monitor the individual from their office to their home with the technology that they have. They provide them with a remote monitoring device. Their home, with the technology that they have. They provide them with a remote monitoring device and also on their platform, they have the ability to help the client or the patient get access to transportation to identify healthy food options within their community. So that's one example of a company that has technology that's addressing some of these social determinants of health within this population.

Speaker 1: 5:48

So how do you go about assessing communities and their needs? Obviously there's that income floor that you talked about. Are there other criteria that you guys look at when you decide to target a particular community or find solutions or build solutions?

Speaker 3: 6:01

Sure, that's a great, great question. I can lean on what we did back in July in New Orleans. So in New Orleans, they are disproportionately impacted by chronic diseases diabetes, heart disease, and the list goes on Late stage cancer diagnosis. So we partnered with the city of New Orleans Department of Health and so they were able to give us more information around what are some of the things that that population is dealing with. And so we went into the community, hosted an event called Beyond the Divide, which was an opportunity to bring in health or innovative companies that could localize their innovation to meet the needs of that population.

Speaker 3: 6:43

So back to your original question how do we identify? So we look at centers that are just disproportionately impacted by health. So the next city that we're looking at is Detroit. And how did Detroit rise to the top? Well, we looked at the data that the Department of Health put out. So they are disproportionately impacted by diabetes. Their obesity rate is above the norm for the state. As it relates to white populations, their infancy mortality rate is extremely high. So we actually go into a city and we look at their health department data to see what are some of the problems or obstacles and challenges that these populations are facing.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Now, do you look for firms in those areas to partner with, or how do the mechanics work?

Speaker 3: 7:28

Sure, so you know it's. You know we are located here in Atlanta, georgia, so you know doing work in New Orleans can be a challenge. So we partner with the city of New Orleans, so we reach out to you know they will be our conduit into the city and its resources, because they have a mission at the end of the day, right in order to keep their citizens healthy. Get them the resources they need to stay healthy. Citizens healthy. Get them the resources they need to stay healthy. So we identify an ambassador in the city and typically it's the Department of Health to partner with to bring these innovative solutions to the community.

Speaker 1: 8:01

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Speaker 1: 8:38

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Speaker 3: 9:35

We're still a little early. We're still collecting data around that. We are heading back to New Orleans to do a food hackathon to collect more data, more qualitative and quantitative data around engagement of the population. So it's still a little early for us but, to your point, we are collecting that information so hopefully, from a year from now, we'll be able to share that information.

Speaker 1: 9:57

So does TechPlug. After you get all that information and you analyze it and you find your baselines that you want to work with, does TechPlug ideate solutions or are you looking for solution partners? How does that part of the process work?

Speaker 3: 10:11

Sure, that's a great question. So, once we identify what these needs are, we at TechPlug want to ensure the companies that we're working with are addressing those needs right. So a lot of people innovate in a vacuum. One of the things, that things when you think through Silicon Valley, which is an amazing place people say they live within a bubble and they innovate based on where they sit right, and that's where we are addressing this unmet need. With these health challenges and within underserved and marginalized communities. We go in to understand truly understand what it is, and then we consult with the innovators that are within our portfolio to help them understand. Well, no, this is the challenges that they're facing in New Orleans. This is a challenge that they face in Metro Atlanta as it relates to these chronic diseases and within health systems, and this is what they're seeing in Detroit. Opposed to developing solutions in a vacuum, we're able to bring real data, real-time information, quantitative and qualitative information back to the companies within our portfolio so they can provide the best possible solution to these populations.

Speaker 1: 11:13

So would it be fair to call you guys a specialized tech incubator.

Speaker 3: 11:18

Hmm, I never thought about that word, but I guess you could consider us that.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Interesting. That's interesting yeah. How did you get involved in A this line of work and B focusing on these particular communities?

Speaker 3: 11:31

Sure, well, for the last I guess 20 years, I guess I'll walk you through my experience a little bit Started school and wanted to be a physician but I realized I was a little too emotional to be a physician. So I think if someone had died on me I would just die. I could not just handle it emotionally. So I tried to figure out what could I do in this space to help bring about healthy outcomes. So I then started thinking through. You know I could potentially lead a company in the medical device or health IT space. And so I went to school at Morehouse, studied chemistry, went to Emory University, got a graduate degree in biomolecular chemistry with the whole idea of trying to understand how do you build innovative companies within the health space, and then got an opportunity to recruit biotech firms to the state of Georgia and that was beneficial because it helped me to understand the nuances of how do you grow a company and why they're in particular areas. So I did that for a number of years and then went back to school and got an MBA from Georgia Tech on their track called Management of Technology. So that can help me to understand how do you take an idea from just concept all the way to market. So I went back and did that and then had an opportunity to work for a school of medicine that dealt with or deals with populations of color that are marginalized and underserved, and I led their tech transfer office for a number of years or managed their tech transfer office for a number of years, and that was very instrumental because I could then see what clinicians and what principal investigators are working on, some of the challenges that they're working on from a medical school perspective, and then how do we sell that and present that out to the world so that one a company could acquire it, that innovation, or the PI or principal investigator could take that knowledge and build a startup around it. So did that for a number of years and then did some clinical trials, worked with them to understand how do these populations engage with clinical research. So that was very valuable information and kind of developing where I'm to go next.

Speaker 3: 13:25

And then went back to economic development, recruiting companies here and then had an opportunity to well here in Atlanta. Then had an opportunity to work for a biotech startup out of Silicon Valley, which was very, very interesting and a great opportunity. It was like a crash course, like an MBA crash course that I had because learning how to raise money. What are the challenges? Market, product market fit, etc. Within the Silicon Valley backdrop. And so all those experiences, if you pull all those together and you have tech plug. So we look at you.

Speaker 3: 13:56

Take my experience from economic development how do you grow a company right? Why do you attract them to a particular area? Then the clinical research arm. You know, why are patients not engaging with this particular product? What are some of the challenges from a social perspective and as well as in how do you take an idea from the bench all the way to to its you know, to be into market or to bedside. This is a concept of bedside to, from the bench to the bedside, I'm sorry. And so that's kind of what you get with TechPlug. And so you look at my background. It's kind of like stacking bricks, or no one say stacking bricks. Yeah, I like to build. So building, building up a nice structure, and that's how we got to where I'm at with TechPlug.

Speaker 1: 14:37

On the softer side of what you guys do, I wonder. You know these communities have oftentimes seen every shiny new toy that somebody wants to talk about, for whatever reasons. Do you encounter any skepticism in the communities when you go to actually roll out something like a sensor mat or whatever, or do you avoid that by working through municipalities and having those kinds of local partners?

Speaker 3: 15:02

Amazing question, because that was one of the things that we had to address in New Orleans.

Speaker 3: 15:06

They are very, very protective of their population. They do not want companies coming into their communities to take advantage of the population, and so they are like the. You know, you have to really overcome or create trust there so that they can trust the innovation that's coming into the community, which I think is amazing, right, because they have the best interests of the population at hand. So, yes, we really have to develop trust and respect with the entity, ie the health department, before we are then able to enter the population to present some of those solutions. And then, on the other end, when you're looking at a company like Sensormed or a company like Project Tyrone that's part of our portfolio you really then have to, like, address some of the concerns that these hospital systems might have with your innovation, right, does it really work? Do you really have the data to support what you're doing within this population? So, yeah, there's a lot of trust building, a lot of relationship building in order to, you know, introduce the new innovation to this population that we think needs it the most.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So we've got a few minutes left. I wonder as you look out over the horizon. I know you guys are kind of just getting your feet underneath you and working on a few projects, but what do you see the future? How does that look like, both in terms of firms such as yours and also in terms of how these populations are ultimately going to be impacted on a longer term basis?

Speaker 3: 16:57

Great question. I feel like TechPlug is in a unique position. I really don't think a lot of innovative solutions or companies respond to tech differently, and so I think that creates a unique opportunity for TechPlug to be that go-to entity for a large company like an Apple or like Google's Verily, to understand how do you work with this population in order to get them the most effective health solutions to change health outcomes?

Speaker 1: 17:23

Populations responding differently to tech. I'm interested in what your findings have been in that regard.

Speaker 3: 17:25

What have you seen? Yeah, so it's a historical, you know situation with populations of color. There's a lot of distrust within the healthcare system. You know, we look back at the Tuskegee experiment, we look at the Henrietta Lacks story that we saw in Baltimore and you know people of color have historically been taken advantage of as it relates to health and so there's a lot of mistrust from you know, from a government perspective to even to clinicians. If your clinician doesn't look like you, if it doesn't come from your background, there's a lot of mistrust and distrust there.

Speaker 3: 17:59

So it's just a historical question that we're trying, a historical problem that we're trying to address within this population. So if we can decrease these barriers of entry, one get more clinicians that look like you. That might increase your uptake of trusting the system. You know doing the work that we do at TechPlug in order to find ambassadors within the community to build trust, to overcome some of these challenges as it relates to health. But in tech, there's this whole idea around privacy and data security and a lot of populations of underserved and marginalized communities really don't understand where the data is going and who's keeping the data and how do I get empowered by the data. So there's just a lot of challenges as it relates to not only the healthcare side, but now, as we integrate tech into this, that makes this a very real problem that we need to address for these populations that typically are voiceless.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Overcoming the concerns about privacy and data security. Is that just a slow, grinding, brick by brick solution? Or I mean, how do you, what kind of conversations do you have around that? Because I think, frankly, all populations are concerned about this and I suspect, much more so the populations you guys deal with.

Speaker 3: 19:02

Yeah, and so that is that's around getting into the community, right? This isn't, you know, sitting behind a wall in your desk and you know, and just sending out information. This is really doing grassroots work getting into the community, helping them, helping individuals to understand what is the cloud and how does this operate as it relates to healthcare and what is remote patient monitoring and what are HIPAA laws and how do you protect my data and my PHI? From that perspective and you're right, it's not just from an underserved and marginalized community perspective All populations are questioning is my data secure and how do I keep it, especially as it relates to my personal health information?

Speaker 3: 19:42

It's a big challenge, but I think you really have to address it from a grassroots perspective. Get into the communities, work with the individuals there on the ground to help them to understand and hopefully, create trust or even create more questions that need to be answered, because nothing today meets everyone's need, right? We're not in this system that. You know. I put out a product and it addresses everybody's pain, everyone's pain points. You know it steals a lot of discovery, a lot of innovation that needs to occur.

Speaker 1: 20:07

That's a great place to end our conversation today, but I do hope you'll come back as TechPlug grows and addresses some of these problems. Cornelius Bankston, Managing Partner at TechPlug. Cornelius, thanks for being a Shift Shaper.

Speaker 3: 20:18

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2: 20:22

It was a pleasure. Shout out to the crew at Grand River Agency for their awesome post-production. This Shift Shapers podcast is copyrighted content and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of Shift Shapers Solutions LLC. Copyright 2024.