This week in our spotlight series on innovators, we interviewed Kevin MacDonald, co-founder and CEO of Kit Check.
Hospitals in the US alone spend more than $2B annually sorting through kits – OR kits, code trays, emergency boxes and others; nearly 20% of those kits have expired and incorrect medications. Kit Check provides web-based software and an innovative scanning station that is easy to install and use. It enables hospital pharmacies to manage kitted inventory by providing visibility into exactly what is in the hospital and where it has been, and management of consumables in the life sciences supply chain. According to the company’s website, Kit Check also reduces the time to process kits from 20-30 minutes down to a matter of seconds while simultaneously increasing accuracy.
We spent a few minutes with MacDonald to find out a little about his background, what inspires him, and where he gets his drive for innovation.
CTH Blog:
First, please tell us a little about yourself and how you became interested in health and technology.
Kevin Macdonald:
My background has been in technology. The underlying technology in Kit Check is RFID, and I’ve been working with RFID in one form or another since the early days of the Wal*Mart mandate.
I became interested in health technology (and specifically hospital pharmacy kits) after hearing about the processes that pharmacists go through every day. I suspected that by applying technology, we could free the pharmacists to do more valuable work. It was mind-boggling to think that someone as highly trained and highly compensated as a hospital pharmacist would spend huge amounts of time looking at tiny vials for expiration.
CTH Blog:
Being an entrepreneur must be very rewarding and exciting, but also quite challenging. What is the passion that drives you?
KM:
There’s something very rewarding about solving a problem that is widely experienced. When our customers tell us that we are making a huge difference in both safety and the satisfaction of their staff, that keeps me motivated to broaden our reach.
CTH Blog:
How did you get into your current field? How long have you been working on Kit Check?
KM:
I’ve been in software for more than 15 years, but started with RFID about 12 years ago at Sun Microsystems. It’s been an interesting ride seeing RFID both highly hyped and severely dismissed as being irrelevant.
I started Kit Check about two years ago. It all began with a conversation over dinner with a hospital pharmacist who was having a bad day checking kits.
CTH Blog:
What do you think is the most exciting innovation or trend happening in health care right now?
KM:
The emergence of “accountable care” in a more widespread sense across the United States is fascinating. It is really the first step toward creating real efficiencies in the system.
CTH Blog:
Describe your vision of the future of health or health care.
KM:
Health care needs to develop to a point where good care is delivered in an efficient way without waste. It means that reimbursement is based on actual improved health outcomes rather than raw delivery of service.
CTH Blog:
At Kaiser Permanente, we think of “total health” as a combination of mind, body and spirit. What does total health mean to you?
KM:
To me health is a state of well being where people are able to physically and mentally achieve what they want to.
Please note that Kaiser Permanente does not endorse the products featured in these discussions.
