November 24, 2022 • 37 mins
Widy is the Co-Founder and CEO of two technology companies with vast experience ranging from robotics, product design, fabrication, and automation to the electronic assembly of consumer products, food and beverage tech, biotech, medical devices, and pharmaceutical industries. Widy spent 40+ years living in Puerto Rico, and 20+ supporting pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies with a presence in multiple Latin American locations. He led an automation firm that exposed him to FDA regulations, manufacturing, and compliance during that time. Today, he leads a medical device company with a unique RPM product to capture biomarkers and allow those to be maintained in a safe digital format for exchange with healthcare professionals or as a personal health tracking system.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Latin MedTech Leaders podcast, a
conversation with MedTechleaders who have succeeded or
plan to succeed in LatinAmerica.
Please subscribe on yourfavorite podcasting platform.
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Amazon Music is teacher.
Tune in.
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Latin MedTech Leaders podcast, a
conversation with leaders whohave succeeded or plan to
succeed in Latin America.
Today our guest is Wii Medina,co-founder and CEO at teleios,
the company developing theremote sense, the first all in
one biometric device forpersonal monitoring and
(00:44):
telehealth power by artificialintelligence to measure multiple
biomarkers such as SPO two,heart rate, blood pressure, body
temperature, ecg, and its pHscope.
Widy has a track record ofsuccess of companies like Tesla,
motors, C Board, and others.
So, Widy, I'm really, reallydelighted to have you here in
(01:06):
the show.
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me, Julio.
I'm, um, super glad to share,uh, a a very beautiful morning
with you,
Speaker 2 (01:15):
.
Excellent.
All right, Widy, so let's getstarted with your journey.
How is it that you got to whereyou are today?
I know you are from Puerto Rico,you're a personal, uh, link and,
and involvement with LatinAmerica, but, uh, uh, tell us
about it.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You know, holy, I'm still trying to understand that
myself.
How did I end up here?
, it's, uh, I mean, uh,it's, it's, it's such a, I don't
know.
It's such a road that, that Itravel.
Um, and then, and yeah, I'll bemore than happy to share humble
beginnings, uh, like you said,from, uh, from Puerto Rico, um,
(01:52):
family that has been, uh,working very hard, um, second
generation of, uh, of, uh,higher education.
Um, so, you know, we are, we'rethat kind of family that's
trying to, to come up in the, inthe, in the, in the ranks to see
what we can do in society tohelp.
Um, I, it started, started with,uh, with something that was as
(02:14):
distance as you can imagine to,to healthcare.
Our family business was amachine shop, so that's the very
basics of, of industrialsupport.
Right.
Um, so we started a, a smallmachine shop operation in Puerto
Rico.
Um, I, um, as, as every, asevery, uh, young, young kid,
right.
(02:34):
My dad kicked me out and say, goahead and get some, some, uh,
higher education.
I came back from, uh, fromGeorgia Tech with, uh, um, ideas
of, uh, crazy ideas ofautomation, crazy ideas of
robotics.
And, and I was very lucky to, tohave a, you know, receptive
family that said, yeah, let's,let's grow with it.
(02:56):
Right?
Let's grow with it.
So we did.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
And so, but yes, for the audience, I mean, to come
out of Latin America and getaccepted to Georgia touch,
that's quite an accomplishment.
Yeah.
Language barrier.
The cultural barrier, the costinvolve on all that.
And the, the vision.
The vision,
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It was a, it was a burden to the family.
Thank you.
It was a burden to a family was,uh, it was, uh, a great
experience.
Like I said, you come back with,uh, ideas that, that, that, you
know, everything in the world,right.
Uh, and how far away fromthe truth.
But anyway, you, you youapply those ideas, like I said,
(03:36):
very receptive, uh, uh, um,parents and, and family overall.
They, they accepted the, the newcraziness and, and we, uh, we
were able to convert the machineshopping to an automation house.
Right.
Wow.
So, so that was, that wasincredible and incredible
achievement.
After a couple of years, uh, um,working, and I say a couple, not
(03:56):
to mention like 20 or so, uh,working there, um, I, that's as
expected, you know, I, I rosethe ranks from sweeping the,
sweeping the floors, paying mydues
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
From sweeping the floors to managing the company
at some point, um, we, uh, wedecided to sell the company.
Uh, we sold it to the employees,and the employees are, are, are
today running the company, whichis a beautiful thing.
Um, so, so that was, that was agreat experience there.
And, uh, and then I move andpursue a, a opportunity in, uh,
(04:35):
New York, um, company called,um, universal Instruments.
And they are focused on, uh,electronics assembly for high
speed assembly for electronicsand automation for electronics.
Um, that gave me, that gave mesuch a view of, of, uh,
technology and teams, uh, aroundthe world, right?
(04:56):
Like you said, um, um, Tesla,um, I worked there as a, as a
contractor for they're verylucky to, to, um, to spend a lot
of time, uh, developing someproduction lines for them.
Then the same thing for, forApple, which kind of pushed me,
um, about four years going backand forth between, um, China
(05:19):
and, and us.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah.
Extremely interesting.
That was, that was such an, youknow, eye opening experience,
not only personally Julio, but,but, um, professionally, you
know, you get to see the, the,the, uh, the great design, um,
of, of wearables, the greatdesign of, of, uh, high tech,
right?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's a peak of human
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Technology and innovation and design.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, exactly.
And then, and then get to get,to go to the contract
manufacturers and, and not onlycome with that design idea, but
then implement, right.
Implement, uh, design formanufacturing, help manufacture
a couple of their products, um,in, in a very competitive
environment.
Um, that, that really was the,the, the, the university, I
(06:11):
would say, of life, right?
That was, that was, I thinkwhere I really learned a lot.
Um, uh, the true engineeringwas, was applied and learned
there.
Um, and, and it opened doors, itopened doors to, um, to meaning
the team that I have today, toengaging with people that, that,
that had the same mindset.
(06:31):
Um, and, and eventually we foundourself, um, in the, uh, in the
pandemic situation, andeverything got shifted, right?
Um, when we got to that, to thatposition and, and, and
everything just stopped foreverybody in the world, we had
the opportunity to, to discuss,uh, among the team and, uh, and
(06:54):
find what can we do to help,right?
What, what can we do that isdifferent?
And that's how Teleios andresins are born from, from
answering that particularquestion, which I know
eventually in this conversationwe're gonna touch more on.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Sure.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Uh, wi fascinating journey.
I mean, I, I, I totallyunderstand, uh, where you're
coming from and the strugglethat we have to sometimes go
through from Latin America tojump to, to, to the places where
you are now.
So, again,congratulations.
I'm very proud of, uh, being incontact with you today.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Thank you.
All right.
So Willie, let's talk about, uh,Latin America a little bit.
Let's talk about the region.
Let's talk about trends.
Uh, what do you see happening inLatin America that is relevant
to our discussion today about,um, commercialization and
innovation of medicaltechnologies?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I think that when we talk about Latin American, we
need to talk about culture, andthen we talk about everything.
We're unique.
We, we are definitely unique,and, and it doesn't matter if
you're from Argentina, but asColombia oli from, uh, include
Mexico and all central American,right?
It, it's, we, we are unique.
We are unique in a sense that weare extremely passionate about
(08:09):
what we do.
That being from politics, socialsports,, business,
whatever you think about, we inthat, in America, I have, I've
been lucky to, to travel theworld and, and every Latin
culture, it's the same.
We're extremely passionate.
And that's, that's, I would liketo start there because that
(08:30):
definitely defines the rest ofthe conversation.
Um, I, I see Latin American asa, as a true land of opportunity
right now.
The, it's, it's, it's really aland of opportunity, and it
depends on, on, on people in, inthe positions like where I find
myself today to make sure thatwe make the best out of that,
(08:53):
right?
Um, um, we have the res wecannot continue to, to, uh,
chief the responsibility of thefuture of Latina American to
politics, to, um, um, to, to,um, the, the social thing.
We need to have people that arein positions of, of that can
help, that can impact to lookedat Latino-American as a true
(09:17):
opportunity and then add valueto it, not, not only take value
from it, right?
Which, which has been ahistorical downfall of the
purpose in Latin-American, butto add value to it.
So, so, uh, I think that, that,like I said, seeing it as a line
of opportunity is, is key, um,people that, uh, that are in, in
(09:41):
management positions that cansee the opportunity to, to
create, to create markets, todesign markets, to, to open
markets, right?
The, the difference from before,before the pandemic is that, um,
the, the overall world marketwas apparently understood by
(10:02):
everybody, right?
And, and Latin America was, waskind of not at the forefront of
what was happening globallyright now, when after the
pandemic situation, I think thatthe complete understanding of
how world and global economicsworks, it is just shifted
completely.
(10:23):
And I think that Latin Americahas an opportunity to become one
of the major players in that.
I mean, the richness of thepeople that are, are in, in
their, of the technicalknowledge that it's in, in Latin
America, um, the, theopportunities that, that the
governments are, are nowopening, right?
(10:44):
To, to allow companies like mineto come in and, and, and truly
work together developing, uh,opportunities.
That's why I said Latin America,we need to look at it as, as
some, some fertile ground wherewe can define new markets for
healthcare for, for, um, youknow, automation, robotics from
(11:09):
tech, high tech, uh, technical,um, um, um, applications from
different types ofmanufacturing.
So it's not only in, in, in mycurrent vertical that it's the
health healthcare vertical, butoverall, it's, it's a key area
to focus on.
That's how I see it.
That's how I see in Americatoday.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Willy, I, I agree with that ahundred percent.
Um, I think the region ismaturing or has mature now.
Yeah.
Is, is ready for the world.
It's ready, it's ready.
Be plane.
You got it.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You got it.
It is ready now.
Go ahead.
That definitely you hit the, the, the nail on the head when you
say the maturity, right?
Um, um, I think that the,regardless of, of, of, of
politics, regardless ofeverything else, the social
(12:03):
maturity, now, it's there,right?
The, the professional, um, baseground that you need to create
the infrastructure, right, tocreate the, the, the markets to
create the opportunity is there,right?
And it's not only one country.
It is not only one section inLatin America and the whole, the
(12:25):
whole area.
It's now more cohesively readyto do that.
There will always bedifferences, there will always
be differences in opinion, butthe focus of seeing the, the
area as a, as, as, like I said,again and again, line of
opportunity.
Now it's the time.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yes.
Yes.
Uh, and you can see that withthe, the impact.
You can see that with, uh, the,um, Pacific Alliance.
Not so much with mer se,unfortunately, but, uh, the
Indian pack.
I'm, I'm, I'm so happy to seethe progress they're making.
And for listeners, the Indianpack is the trade block of the
(13:04):
Indian countries, Columbia, uh,Peru, Bolivia, ECU War.
And Venezuela, of course, is notpart of it for obvious reasons,
but it's, it's an Indian countrythat used to be part of the
Indian pack.
But now there's, and this isnews.
I mean, this just happened lastmonth.
There is free circulation ofpeople.
(13:24):
Uh, there is, uh, recognition ofacademic, um, titles, I mean,
diplomas, uh, you can movefreely with just one ID card,
uh, among all these countries.
You can live in Peru tomorrow ifyou're a Colombian.
If you are any Corian, you canlive in Bolivia tomorrow without
(13:45):
any immigration rate tape oranything.
So that says a lot about whatthese countries are, are doing
together to, to move ahead.
And in terms of regulatory, um,homogenization, they are putting
together for cosmetics and forfruit products, the same set of
(14:05):
requirements and everything.
And eventually, if you getapproval in Bolivia, you're
gonna get a regulatory approvalin Peru or equator dramatically.
So, and that's fantastic.
Eventually we'll go to drugs andmedical devices and, and the
Pacific Alliance is somethingsimilar.
And in terms of the PacificAlliance, you have O E C D
countries, Chile, Mexico,Columbia.
(14:28):
Correct.
Uh, Costa Rica just became an OE C D member in May.
So the region is maturing.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's, it's, it's showing that, and, and all of
this was due 40 years, but I'mso glad to see it happening.
Right.
I'm so glad to finally see thatstep.
Um, because it works.
I mean, when, when countriesdecide to, to join forces to
work together, to, to agree onbasic terms of, of trade ship,
(14:55):
basic terms of, of, you know,um, um, professional exchange
of, of, uh, you know, it, it, itreally, it really sets the, the
base cement to, to createsomething wonderful.
So, so that's, that's the,again, to to continue with the
same sentence line ofopportunity, people seeing that,
(15:17):
working towards that,government's working towards
that.
And, and yes, like you said, thein the impact opens to, to
things outside of my verticalmarket, but I see a, I see light
at the end of the tunnel, right?
The US as, as the lead in mycompany, instead of saying, oh,
they forgot about the, the, themedical device.
No, no, that's coming because it, it, it just makes sense,
(15:38):
right?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, exactly.
It
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Makes sense.
So I'm so glad to see itstarting.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah.
Because one of the problems ofthe region really is a
fragmentation.
The region has over 600 millionpeople is double the size and
probably more than thepopulation in the United States.
But you have 33 countries,different, uh, regulatory
pathways, et cetera, et cetera,different markets.
So it's about time that we getour act together.
We all get together in the samebus, not different bosses,
(16:04):
, we all get together inthe same bus going to the same
place, because we'll, going tothe same place, eventually we'll
want progress and, and, and tohave, uh, the best for our
citizens.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
We definitely, as a Latino, I identify with that.
I, I want the region to, to proto progress.
I want the, the region to havethe opportunity to show, to show
what it can do.
Cause I know what it can do.
We just need to show the worldwhat it can do.
Right.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And, and, and one of the, the major problems that
we're gonna address, uh, uh, ina second with your product and
everything, is that patients inLatin America have delayed
access to medical innovation.
It will probably be 10, 15 yearsbetween a product is approved in
the United States or WesternEurope, and that product, and
(16:53):
the time that that product isavailable, uh, to, uh, a, a
patient in Puerto Rico or inPeru and Ecuador.
And that's sad.
I mean, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Completely.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It's the same product.
It's just a matter of havingsomebody look the other way and
say, Hey, there are, there's amarketing in Colomb, Peru, and
Chile.
Yep.
And patients need this too.
I mean, they all get
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Sick.
Same humans.
Same
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Humans.
Same humans.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Humans same
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Needs.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I agree with that.
And, and, and that's why I saidthat, that people, people that
are in, in, in very, um, uniquepositions, like the one that I
find myself is, is ourresponsibility, especially,
especially Latino, uh, uh, uh,uh, people that, that find
themselves in, in, in, in placesof power.
(17:41):
And I hate to use that, thatword, but it's, it's truly what
it is in places of power to, tomake it happen, right?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Where you can influence this issue,
Speaker 3 (17:49):
You can influence the situation.
You can work with thegovernments, you can work with
the entities, you can work withthe hospitals, with the, with
the distributors, with theeverybody that is in that supply
chain of solutions.
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And also, I'm sure maybe wrong, but correct me if
I'm wrong, but I'm sure theminority of your team, the board
of directors, the investors,people you work with are white
Anglos, or primarily whiteAnglos, and they don't have the
same passion and same knowledgeabout the potential of Latin
(18:22):
America that you have.
So if you can show them thatthat's in itself, uh, uh, uh, a
a again, for
Speaker 3 (18:30):
A, in a lot of these cases, if not almost every case,
it's, it's not that they don'twant to, it's they don't
understand, right?
They, they, they understand itbecause they have never been
exposed to it.
So, so it's not, it's not theirfault, it's their fault of the
circumstances that are aroundthem, right.
That, that surrounds them.
So, so when you start talkingabout the, the opportunities,
(18:51):
passion opening about, you know,there's the true chance to, to,
to not only, not only make greatbusiness, but also helps the,
the area overall, which in termsthe whole continent is, is the,
all the all three, uh, uh, ofthe major areas in, in Americas,
we'll, we'll gain out of that,right?
(19:13):
Um, so, um, so when they, whenthey hear me, uh, passionately
talk about the, the cultureopportunity and the
possibilities, um, in LatinAmerica, slowly they start to
understand, right?
Um, and, and, and the languagethat is universal is when you
bring numbers to the table,right?
When you start bringing numbersto the tables, then, then
(19:35):
everything makes sense, right?
Then they were like, exactly,yeah.
Why didn't I heard about thisbefore?
It's like, well, cause we didn'tgive you the opportunity,
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's true.
That's a, that's a great way toput it.
I like, I like that.
I like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So let's talk about what you'redoing today.
Uh, Widy.
Uh, let's talk about your, yourcompany, your product, what
problem you are addressing,you're solving, and how can
patients in Latin Americabenefit from it?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Oh, great question.
Um, like I said at thebeginning, right?
What are the pandemic, um, um,with everybody from themselves,
you know, at a hope enough timeto start thinking and to start,
um, reviewing your decisions upto this point, and, and making
sure you, that you make good,good decisions for the future,
(20:21):
right?
So, so it was, um, it was a verydifficult time, but at the same,
at the same time, it gave, um, alot of us the opportunity to
hone in what are we gonna do,right?
Um, in, in, in my personal case,um, it was, uh,
transformational, right?
Uh, uh, it hit me personally.
(20:42):
Um, we, we lost, uh, uh, people,um, um, close family members.
We, we, we, we found ourself,you know, with, with family
members struggling, with, with,uh, being, being in, in a
confined space, we found ourselfnot having access to, to
healthcare, um, in a, in areasonable way.
(21:03):
Um, everybody's scared aboutgoing directly to, to, uh, to
get the, the, at least even evenbasic checkups, right?
Um, um, um, ladies that, that,uh, pregnant, uh, ladies that,
that were afraid to go and, andcheck, check themselves the
regular checkups.
Um, you know, um, the same thingwith, uh, geriatric patients,
(21:25):
the same thing with, I mean, it,we saw it all, right?
So the team got together, westarted interviewing, um, to
understand better interviewingthe, uh, the, uh, first
responders, the people in thefront lines, the, the doctors
working, um, with, with thesituation.
They, they were the ones feelingthe situation.
And luckily, we had a couple ofminutes of the time, and, and
(21:48):
after hundreds of interviews, Imean, hundreds of interviews,
uh, Julio, it was crazy.
Um, it, no, it, it was, it wascrazy.
But people were so, so hit and,and, and so, uh, in a, in a new
space that, that they werewilling to talk to us just
because they wanted to bend onwhat situations they were
(22:10):
having.
So it was very easy to get, toget these people that were
working 20 hours, 24 hours, youknow, on on, on Sundays
continuously to even spare anhour of their time to tell us
what, what was wrong with thesystem at that point, what they
were seeing that was new, right?
(22:30):
Um, and, and what we found outis that if we gave the, the
healthcare providers, the, the,and when I say providers is
institutions, people, doctors,nurses, first responders, er
people, the, the, the, the, youknow, everybody in that if we
(22:51):
gave them a, a tool that canallow them to interact with
patients remotely, um, that willgive them the opportunity to
manage, to triage, to, to, touse resources better, right?
The first resource beingthemselves, and then everything
(23:11):
else that gets, gets attached tothat, right?
Um, so, so Teleios was born outof, out of all of those
interviews and a, a commonground, we need to solve the
current telehealth andtelemedicine approach.
We need to improve it.
(23:31):
We need to allow remote patientmonitoring best, the, the best
possible way.
There is a, there is anopportunity to do a product that
yes, it will definitely, uh, um,generate, generate revenue.
That's great.
But that can impact society,right?
So to have that opportunity iskind of, we, we saw it at once,
(23:54):
once in a lifetime, right?
How many people have theopportunity to say, we're gonna
start a business, by the way,where can impact every life in
the globe with this product?
I mean, that's an amazing thingto say, right?
So that's Ramsen, ramens beenour first, uh, medical product.
And what we did is we filled thegap that is, is currently
(24:17):
assisting in, in your telehealthconsultation or remote patient
monitoring consultation.
As of today, it was what we hadtoday, a great conversation, uh,
via video, video call.
And that's what we have.
And, and, and, and that isgreat.
But if you are the doctor, andI'm your patient, and I'm
telling you all thisinformation, you're, you're
(24:39):
there thinking, gosh, if I hadthe data, right, not only what
he's telling me, the, thebiometric data, right?
To back up the, what I'm, whatI'm sensing from this
conversation, right?
And that is what exactly weprovided.
We provided, like you mentionedat the beginning, a device is
capable of, of, uh, uh, sensinga lot of your vital signs,
(25:02):
right?
We call them biometrics.
Um, so s p two or, or the samething as, as, uh, blood oxygen
levels, um, the bodytemperature, the, uh, uh, your
digital stethoscope, which is anincredible feat just to, to have
that there, right?
And then, um, we are also takingheart rate, and we're also, uh,
(25:24):
making sure that we have costcostless blood pressure.
I mean, that, that, on its own,that's
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Quite an innovation.
That's a breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Great breakthrough.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Even think Apple is working on that.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
It's a, it's a, well, and, and, and, you know, I have
a lot of respect for that teambecause I, I work with that team
for a long time.
So, so, you know, my hats off.
I know what they're capable of.
Uh, we have the, the advantagethat we're picking up the
information where it's best topick up, right?
And that's giving us a littlebit of an edge.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay?
And they, they can only pick it
Speaker 3 (25:57):
From here.
Exactly.
They, I see right now they haveit here.
We're picking the informationexactly where, where we can take
advantage of that, of thatposition in the body.
Um, and, and, and yeah, we, we,we work very hard.
Um, usually a product like this,Julio, takes about two and a
(26:18):
half years, or, or, or eventhree years to, to develop and
put together.
I cannot stress enough that,that my, my teams are either
mean just, or special forces, orI don't know what they are, but
they are an amazing team thatput this together in about 10
months, I mean, in about 10months with every test, with
(26:39):
every process, with everythingthat, that, that we could do,
um, to confirm that, that wewere going in the right
direction.
Today, we ended up with an mvp.
We went through a proof ofconcept.
We have a minimum viable producttoday working store that, that,
uh, FDA approval and, uh,possibly I
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Thinking,
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Right?
Yeah.
And, and five 10 K, that'scorrect.
Uh, is a class to the ui.
It's, uh, non-invasive.
We're going focused on that, onthat ul and, and see Mark, I
mean, we're, we're super focusedright now to comply with, uh,
with the regulatory, um,agencies and put this in every
home that we can't, um, it, it,it will be good business, but it
(27:26):
will be a game changer in howcountries can provide for their
people the healthcare that isneeded.
That that's, I mean, that's apowerful statement when you have
a, you know what I mean?
It's, it's a powerful statement.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah.
Especially in Latin America,where you have these remote
locations in the jungle, in themountains, even in cities.
I mean, Bogota is a metropolitanarea of 10 million people and
traveling, the traffic is hell.
So people are stuck in theirneighborhoods or their houses
and, and, and, and the best careis not necessarily where they
(28:04):
are.
So That's right.
Its, that's right.
The cell.
And there's a saying, now thecell is a new clinic.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
the cell is a
new clinic.
So if you have devices like thisclose to where people live, I
mean, ideally in their houses,but, uh, I don't know if that's
gonna be possible or not, but,uh, at, at a, at a certain, at a
location close to their housewhere they can walk to and have
access to medical care,
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And even that, we, we want to go at every house
because we want to make surethat people can tend not only
themselves, but their families,and give them
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Sure.
Give
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Them, I want to want access to premium healthcare
service.
That is not a a, that's not aluxury, that is a human.
Right.
And we need to work for that.
We need to give everybody thehuman right of getting good
healthcare.
Right.
And you say Latin American, justreal quick, um, in the us in the
(28:59):
us, 47% of the people in us, 47%of the people live in rural
areas away from healthcare.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
That's a good way to put it.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So, I mean, it's, they're not in any, in any
advantage in this thing.
We're all in this together.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
They have the same problem go that far to Peru, to
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They have the same problem.
They're not far from Bogota,they not from Argentina.
It's the same problem.
People Yes.
53% work are are in cities with,with an overcrowded city, by the
way.
But then you have 47% that, thatare 20 miles plus away from the
closest, uh, medical services.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's true.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Regardless, even if you're in amajor urban area, you still
wanna be at home with yourfamily.
I mean, you are, between Zoomcalls, everybody's working
remotely.
I mean, the,
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The convenience, right?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
The, the, the thought of getting out in your car,
waiting for the doctor to cometo you in a waiting room, in a
hospital, in a small clinic, Imean, yeah.
And
Speaker 3 (30:08):
It's easy for us, uh, Julio, it's easy for us because
it will be that for us, it willbe for us will be sitting on a
car, going there sitting.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah.
We have an option.
So people don't even have thatoption.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Imagine those that do not, and imagine those that have
very, uh, very delicate healthconditions that if they go to
these offices, they get exposedto other things that they
shouldn't.
Right.
Um, like I said, in geriatrics,in the case of my dad, I wish I
had this already solved, um,before my dad passed away,
(30:37):
because my mother, which she,she's all, that's my dad, you
know, 74 years old.
And, and, and, you know, takingmy dad was a, a a, an Alzheimer
patient.
And, and as, as everybody knows,as soon as you take a patient
like that and, and you put themon a, on a new environment, the,
the, it's so difficult to managea patient.
(30:59):
Imagine for a 74 year old tomanage a patient that is seeing
himself completely lost.
Right.
Just to get a regular biometriccheckup, check your pressure,
check your temperature,
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Come on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't have to travel half anhour, an hour and go through
that, or be to Right.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Take, there are alternatives.
And we, and we have thetechnology for that.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's true.
That's true.
And, you know, we, another trendgoing back to Latin America,
another trend that, uh, wedidn't talk about that I, that I
seen, that I've noticed fromspeaking with, uh, people, uh,
in the industry, is that becauseof the pandemic, our countries
are changing their laws.
(31:40):
Just last week, I received thenew law of Panama, the Republic
of Panama, because I'm workingwith a distributor that, um, is
involved in setting up what thelaw says.
And that law specifically says,for now on, we're gonna have a
national, nationwidetelemedicine system.
(32:04):
And this law just passed a fewmonths ago, and they have a year
to implement this.
So other countries in LatinAmerica are adapting to this.
And this is all because of thepandemic.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
That is correct.
Digital health.
People are seeing digital healthas, as the, the solution of not
finding ourself in the samepredicament, the same situation
we did.
I mean, at least I'm very gladthat the people leading the
countries, uh, got shook up tothe point that they say, this
cannot happen again.
(32:36):
We need to do something.
I, I, I pray Panama for takingthat step.
I mean, that's a, a wonderfulvision.
Uh, I hope that the rest of the,of, of the countries in Latin
America, see, see this, we gotthe same thing from Germany, for
example.
Such a conservative country,right?
Basically pass a law sayingdigital health is the mission
(33:00):
for the country.
We're pushing this.
We're giving the doctors the,the, the power to prescribe
digital health.
The prescribe devices, prescribethe, the memberships of, of, of,
uh, of having the service fortelemedicine and, and remote
care, remote patient care.
Uh, the US also did that.
I mean, so, so for Panama to bein, in, in those countries that
(33:24):
take the first step.
I mean, my, my, my hat's off.
I, I, I'm so happy.
I'm so happy to see that.
You see, we are, we are, we aregrowing, we're growing.
The area is growing andunderstanding that we can, that
can take those bold decisions.
We don't need to wait foranybody else in the world to
(33:45):
take them.
We can take those bold decisionsand move forward.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Like, I, I like to say, uh, we are upgrading our
thinking as a region.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
You got that.
You got that right.
You got that right.
You got that right.
I wanna see, I wanna see LatinAmerican 2.0 right now.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
2.0 be, I'm
gonna use that.
Gonna steal that from you.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
America
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Podcast America 2.0.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
We're gonna make a mark.
We're gonna make a mark.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
All right, Widy, we're close to the end of the
show, but, uh, before we close,uh, tell us about your plans.
What traction are you getting inLatin America?
What plans you have?
Are you talking to distributors?
When are you planning to startselling or getting regulatory
approvals in different countriesand
Speaker 3 (34:31):
All that?
Definitely, definitely.
We are, we, we are creating thatplan.
So I can, I can only tell youthat we are super focused in, in
, uh, Latin America as a choice.
Um, we are, we're making surethat we are getting, um, all of
the, all of the, um,requirements and certifications
that will allow us to convert tothe local certifications.
(34:53):
For example, with this UL andthis, this fda, we know that we
will easily go and, and go intothe, the Indian pack countries
that we can go, uh, furthersouth into, into Hawaii,
Argentina, the rest of thecountries.
You know, we know that once weget that our path forward is
going to be smoother.
(35:13):
At the same time as a company,we're looking for, for, um, um,
people that know the market,that understand the market, that
are willing to, to promote aproduct like ours and push it
inside those markets.
So, so we're open to haveconversations with, um, local
distributors that, that want totalk to us.
(35:34):
Uh, um, they can contact medirectly.
Uh, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'mvery accessible for this because
it is the main mission.
Um, and yeah, we're, we want tostart those conversations.
Um, and as the lead of thecompany, I am committed to
making sure that this product isavailable for my Latin American
(35:56):
community.
That you serve that so much.
Very
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Good.
Very good.
Very good.
Excellent, Willie.
So it's been a, a greatconversation.
Same here.
You, thank you again, of course.
For being the show today.
How can people get in contactwith you?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Um, they can go directly to our webpages as www
dot teles.
That's with an x@theend.com.
Um, and, and from there, all ofour contact information, it's,
uh, it's good.
The same thing with, uh,LinkedIn.
We have a channel there.
We also have a YouTube channel,and I think that, uh, Twitter
and Facebook.
(36:30):
So we are trying to spread themessage of the company.
Um, we want to make itaccessible for people.
We want people to know whatwe're doing.
We don't want to come up as asurprise in the market one day.
We want people to get involvedand know our names.
So when we come out there, um,we are a familiar face, right.
And that they trust us with, uh,being part of their healthcare
(36:54):
solutions at a family andpersonal level.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
, and you just
got your first round of funding,
so you're ready to roll.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I'm super excited.
We're ready to roll.
We, we have, uh, a lot of workto do.
That gives me an immense levelof responsibility to my
investors, making sure that wehave that ROI from them.
But not only that, but that wecan definitely also work with
the founding team and get themto see this happening.
Right.
Everybody's excited.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Excellent, witty.
All right.
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Thank you so much, Leo.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
.
Bye.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Bye.
Bye.
Welcome to the Latin MedTech Leaders podcast, a
conversation with MedTechleaders who have succeeded or
plan to succeed in LatinAmerica.
Please subscribe on yourfavorite podcasting platform.
Apple Podcast, Spotify, GooglePodcast.
Amazon Music is teacher.
Tune in.
I heard radio, Pandora, or theseare
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Latin MedTech Leaders podcast, a
conversation with leaders whohave succeeded or plan to
succeed in Latin America.
Today our guest is Wii Medina,co-founder and CEO at teleios,
the company developing theremote sense, the first all in
one biometric device forpersonal monitoring and
(00:44):
telehealth power by artificialintelligence to measure multiple
biomarkers such as SPO two,heart rate, blood pressure, body
temperature, ecg, and its pHscope.
Widy has a track record ofsuccess of companies like Tesla,
motors, C Board, and others.
So, Widy, I'm really, reallydelighted to have you here in
(01:06):
the show.
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me, Julio.
I'm, um, super glad to share,uh, a a very beautiful morning
with you,
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Excellent.
All right, Widy, so let's getstarted with your journey.
How is it that you got to whereyou are today?
I know you are from Puerto Rico,you're a personal, uh, link and,
and involvement with LatinAmerica, but, uh, uh, tell us
about it.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
You know, holy, I'm still trying to understand that
myself.
How did I end up here?
know.
It's such a road that, that Itravel.
Um, and then, and yeah, I'll bemore than happy to share humble
beginnings, uh, like you said,from, uh, from Puerto Rico, um,
(01:52):
family that has been, uh,working very hard, um, second
generation of, uh, of, uh,higher education.
Um, so, you know, we are, we'rethat kind of family that's
trying to, to come up in the, inthe, in the, in the ranks to see
what we can do in society tohelp.
Um, I, it started, started with,uh, with something that was as
(02:14):
distance as you can imagine to,to healthcare.
Our family business was amachine shop, so that's the very
basics of, of industrialsupport.
Right.
Um, so we started a, a smallmachine shop operation in Puerto
Rico.
Um, I, um, as, as every, asevery, uh, young, young kid,
right.
(02:34):
My dad kicked me out and say, goahead and get some, some, uh,
higher education.
I came back from, uh, fromGeorgia Tech with, uh, um, ideas
of, uh, crazy ideas ofautomation, crazy ideas of
robotics.
And, and I was very lucky to, tohave a, you know, receptive
family that said, yeah, let's,let's grow with it.
(02:56):
Right?
Let's grow with it.
So we did.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
And so, but yes, for the audience, I mean, to come
out of Latin America and getaccepted to Georgia touch,
that's quite an accomplishment.
Yeah.
Language barrier.
The cultural barrier, the costinvolve on all that.
And the, the vision.
The vision,
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It was a, it was a burden to the family.
Thank you.
It was a burden to a family was,uh, it was, uh, a great
experience.
Like I said, you come back with,uh, ideas that, that, that, you
know, everything in the world,right.
Uh,
But anyway, you, you
(03:36):
very receptive, uh, uh, um,parents and, and family overall.
They, they accepted the, the newcraziness and, and we, uh, we
were able to convert the machineshopping to an automation house.
Right.
Wow.
So, so that was, that wasincredible and incredible
achievement.
After a couple of years, uh, um,working, and I say a couple, not
(03:56):
to mention like 20 or so, uh,working there, um, I, that's as
expected, you know, I, I rosethe ranks from sweeping the,
sweeping the floors, paying mydues
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Speaker 3 (04:12):
From sweeping the floors to managing the company
at some point, um, we, uh, wedecided to sell the company.
Uh, we sold it to the employees,and the employees are, are, are
today running the company, whichis a beautiful thing.
Um, so, so that was, that was agreat experience there.
And, uh, and then I move andpursue a, a opportunity in, uh,
(04:35):
New York, um, company called,um, universal Instruments.
And they are focused on, uh,electronics assembly for high
speed assembly for electronicsand automation for electronics.
Um, that gave me, that gave mesuch a view of, of, uh,
technology and teams, uh, aroundthe world, right?
(04:56):
Like you said, um, um, Tesla,um, I worked there as a, as a
contractor for they're verylucky to, to, um, to spend a lot
of time, uh, developing someproduction lines for them.
Then the same thing for, forApple, which kind of pushed me,
um, about four years going backand forth between, um, China
(05:19):
and, and us.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah.
Extremely interesting.
That was, that was such an, youknow, eye opening experience,
not only personally Julio, but,but, um, professionally, you
know, you get to see the, the,the, uh, the great design, um,
of, of wearables, the greatdesign of, of, uh, high tech,
right?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's a peak of human
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Technology and innovation and design.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, exactly.
And then, and then get to get,to go to the contract
manufacturers and, and not onlycome with that design idea, but
then implement, right.
Implement, uh, design formanufacturing, help manufacture
a couple of their products, um,in, in a very competitive
environment.
Um, that, that really was the,the, the, the university, I
(06:11):
would say, of life, right?
That was, that was, I thinkwhere I really learned a lot.
Um, uh, the true engineeringwas, was applied and learned
there.
Um, and, and it opened doors, itopened doors to, um, to meaning
the team that I have today, toengaging with people that, that,
that had the same mindset.
(06:31):
Um, and, and eventually we foundourself, um, in the, uh, in the
pandemic situation, andeverything got shifted, right?
Um, when we got to that, to thatposition and, and, and
everything just stopped foreverybody in the world, we had
the opportunity to, to discuss,uh, among the team and, uh, and
(06:54):
find what can we do to help,right?
What, what can we do that isdifferent?
And that's how Teleios andresins are born from, from
answering that particularquestion, which I know
eventually in this conversationwe're gonna touch more on.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Sure.
Yeah.
Excellent.
Uh, wi fascinating journey.
I mean, I, I, I totallyunderstand, uh, where you're
coming from and the strugglethat we have to sometimes go
through from Latin America tojump to, to, to the places where
you are now.
So,
I'm very proud of, uh, being incontact with you today.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Thank you.
All right.
So Willie, let's talk about, uh,Latin America a little bit.
Let's talk about the region.
Let's talk about trends.
Uh, what do you see happening inLatin America that is relevant
to our discussion today about,um, commercialization and
innovation of medicaltechnologies?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I think that when we talk about Latin American, we
need to talk about culture, andthen we talk about everything.
We're unique.
We, we are definitely unique,and, and it doesn't matter if
you're from Argentina, but asColombia oli from, uh, include
Mexico and all central American,right?
It, it's, we, we are unique.
We are unique in a sense that weare extremely passionate about
(08:09):
what we do.
That being from politics, socialsports,
whatever you think about, we inthat, in America, I have, I've
been lucky to, to travel theworld and, and every Latin
culture, it's the same.
We're extremely passionate.
And that's, that's, I would liketo start there because that
(08:30):
definitely defines the rest ofthe conversation.
Um, I, I see Latin American asa, as a true land of opportunity
right now.
The, it's, it's, it's really aland of opportunity, and it
depends on, on, on people in, inthe positions like where I find
myself today to make sure thatwe make the best out of that,
(08:53):
right?
Um, um, we have the res wecannot continue to, to, uh,
chief the responsibility of thefuture of Latina American to
politics, to, um, um, to, to,um, the, the social thing.
We need to have people that arein positions of, of that can
help, that can impact to lookedat Latino-American as a true
(09:17):
opportunity and then add valueto it, not, not only take value
from it, right?
Which, which has been ahistorical downfall of the
purpose in Latin-American, butto add value to it.
So, so, uh, I think that, that,like I said, seeing it as a line
of opportunity is, is key, um,people that, uh, that are in, in
(09:41):
management positions that cansee the opportunity to, to
create, to create markets, todesign markets, to, to open
markets, right?
The, the difference from before,before the pandemic is that, um,
the, the overall world marketwas apparently understood by
(10:02):
everybody, right?
And, and Latin America was, waskind of not at the forefront of
what was happening globallyright now, when after the
pandemic situation, I think thatthe complete understanding of
how world and global economicsworks, it is just shifted
completely.
(10:23):
And I think that Latin Americahas an opportunity to become one
of the major players in that.
I mean, the richness of thepeople that are, are in, in
their, of the technicalknowledge that it's in, in Latin
America, um, the, theopportunities that, that the
governments are, are nowopening, right?
(10:44):
To, to allow companies like mineto come in and, and, and truly
work together developing, uh,opportunities.
That's why I said Latin America,we need to look at it as, as
some, some fertile ground wherewe can define new markets for
healthcare for, for, um, youknow, automation, robotics from
(11:09):
tech, high tech, uh, technical,um, um, um, applications from
different types ofmanufacturing.
So it's not only in, in, in mycurrent vertical that it's the
health healthcare vertical, butoverall, it's, it's a key area
to focus on.
That's how I see it.
That's how I see in Americatoday.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Willy, I, I agree with that ahundred percent.
Um, I think the region ismaturing or has mature now.
Yeah.
Is, is ready for the world.
It's ready, it's ready.
Be plane.
You got it.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You got it.
It is ready now.
Go ahead.
That definitely you hit the, the, the nail on the head when you
say the maturity, right?
Um, um, I think that the,regardless of, of, of, of
politics, regardless ofeverything else, the social
(12:03):
maturity, now, it's there,right?
The, the professional, um, baseground that you need to create
the infrastructure, right, tocreate the, the, the markets to
create the opportunity is there,right?
And it's not only one country.
It is not only one section inLatin America and the whole, the
(12:25):
whole area.
It's now more cohesively readyto do that.
There will always bedifferences, there will always
be differences in opinion, butthe focus of seeing the, the
area as a, as, as, like I said,again and again, line of
opportunity.
Now it's the time.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yes.
Yes.
Uh, and you can see that withthe, the impact.
You can see that with, uh, the,um, Pacific Alliance.
Not so much with mer se,unfortunately, but, uh, the
Indian pack.
I'm, I'm, I'm so happy to seethe progress they're making.
And for listeners, the Indianpack is the trade block of the
(13:04):
Indian countries, Columbia, uh,Peru, Bolivia, ECU War.
And Venezuela, of course, is notpart of it for obvious reasons,
but it's, it's an Indian countrythat used to be part of the
Indian pack.
But now there's, and this isnews.
I mean, this just happened lastmonth.
There is free circulation ofpeople.
(13:24):
Uh, there is, uh, recognition ofacademic, um, titles, I mean,
diplomas, uh, you can movefreely with just one ID card,
uh, among all these countries.
You can live in Peru tomorrow ifyou're a Colombian.
If you are any Corian, you canlive in Bolivia tomorrow without
(13:45):
any immigration rate tape oranything.
So that says a lot about whatthese countries are, are doing
together to, to move ahead.
And in terms of regulatory, um,homogenization, they are putting
together for cosmetics and forfruit products, the same set of
(14:05):
requirements and everything.
And eventually, if you getapproval in Bolivia, you're
gonna get a regulatory approvalin Peru or equator dramatically.
So, and that's fantastic.
Eventually we'll go to drugs andmedical devices and, and the
Pacific Alliance is somethingsimilar.
And in terms of the PacificAlliance, you have O E C D
countries, Chile, Mexico,Columbia.
(14:28):
Correct.
Uh, Costa Rica just became an OE C D member in May.
So the region is maturing.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's, it's, it's showing that, and, and all of
this was due 40 years, but I'mso glad to see it happening.
Right.
I'm so glad to finally see thatstep.
Um, because it works.
I mean, when, when countriesdecide to, to join forces to
work together, to, to agree onbasic terms of, of trade ship,
(14:55):
basic terms of, of, you know,um, um, professional exchange
of, of, uh, you know, it, it, itreally, it really sets the, the
base cement to, to createsomething wonderful.
So, so that's, that's the,again, to to continue with the
same sentence line ofopportunity, people seeing that,
(15:17):
working towards that,government's working towards
that.
And, and yes, like you said, thein the impact opens to, to
things outside of my verticalmarket, but I see a, I see light
at the end of the tunnel, right?
The US as, as the lead in mycompany, instead of saying, oh,
they forgot about the, the, themedical device.
No, no, that's coming because it, it, it just makes sense,
(15:38):
right?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, exactly.
It
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Makes sense.
So I'm so glad to see itstarting.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah.
Because one of the problems ofthe region really is a
fragmentation.
The region has over 600 millionpeople is double the size and
probably more than thepopulation in the United States.
But you have 33 countries,different, uh, regulatory
pathways, et cetera, et cetera,different markets.
So it's about time that we getour act together.
We all get together in the samebus, not different bosses,
(16:04):
place, because we'll, going tothe same place, eventually we'll
want progress and, and, and tohave, uh, the best for our
citizens.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
We definitely, as a Latino, I identify with that.
I, I want the region to, to proto progress.
I want the, the region to havethe opportunity to show, to show
what it can do.
Cause I know what it can do.
We just need to show the worldwhat it can do.
Right.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And, and, and one of the, the major problems that
we're gonna address, uh, uh, ina second with your product and
everything, is that patients inLatin America have delayed
access to medical innovation.
It will probably be 10, 15 yearsbetween a product is approved in
the United States or WesternEurope, and that product, and
(16:53):
the time that that product isavailable, uh, to, uh, a, a
patient in Puerto Rico or inPeru and Ecuador.
And that's sad.
I mean, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Completely.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It's the same product.
It's just a matter of havingsomebody look the other way and
say, Hey, there are, there's amarketing in Colomb, Peru, and
Chile.
Yep.
And patients need this too.
I mean, they all get
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Sick.
Same humans.
Same
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Humans.
Same humans.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Humans same
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Needs.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I agree with that.
And, and, and that's why I saidthat, that people, people that
are in, in, in very, um, uniquepositions, like the one that I
find myself is, is ourresponsibility, especially,
especially Latino, uh, uh, uh,uh, people that, that find
themselves in, in, in, in placesof power.
(17:41):
And I hate to use that, thatword, but it's, it's truly what
it is in places of power to, tomake it happen, right?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Where you can influence this issue,
Speaker 3 (17:49):
You can influence the situation.
You can work with thegovernments, you can work with
the entities, you can work withthe hospitals, with the, with
the distributors, with theeverybody that is in that supply
chain of solutions.
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And also, I'm sure maybe wrong, but correct me if
I'm wrong, but I'm sure theminority of your team, the board
of directors, the investors,people you work with are white
Anglos, or primarily whiteAnglos, and they don't have the
same passion and same knowledgeabout the potential of Latin
(18:22):
America that you have.
So if you can show them thatthat's in itself, uh, uh, uh, a
a again, for
Speaker 3 (18:30):
A, in a lot of these cases, if not almost every case,
it's, it's not that they don'twant to, it's they don't
understand, right?
They, they, they understand itbecause they have never been
exposed to it.
So, so it's not, it's not theirfault, it's their fault of the
circumstances that are aroundthem, right.
That, that surrounds them.
So, so when you start talkingabout the, the opportunities,
(18:51):
passion opening about, you know,there's the true chance to, to,
to not only, not only make greatbusiness, but also helps the,
the area overall, which in termsthe whole continent is, is the,
all the all three, uh, uh, ofthe major areas in, in Americas,
we'll, we'll gain out of that,right?
(19:13):
Um, so, um, so when they, whenthey hear me, uh, passionately
talk about the, the cultureopportunity and the
possibilities, um, in LatinAmerica, slowly they start to
understand, right?
Um, and, and, and the languagethat is universal is when you
bring numbers to the table,right?
When you start bringing numbersto the tables, then, then
(19:35):
everything makes sense, right?
Then they were like, exactly,yeah.
Why didn't I heard about thisbefore?
It's like, well, cause we didn'tgive you the opportunity,
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's true.
That's a, that's a great way toput it.
I like, I like that
I like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
So let's talk about what you'redoing today.
Uh, Widy.
Uh, let's talk about your, yourcompany, your product, what
problem you are addressing,you're solving, and how can
patients in Latin Americabenefit from it?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Oh, great question.
Um, like I said at thebeginning, right?
What are the pandemic, um, um,with everybody from themselves,
you know, at a hope enough timeto start thinking and to start,
um, reviewing your decisions upto this point, and, and making
sure you, that you make good,good decisions for the future,
(20:21):
right?
So, so it was, um, it was a verydifficult time, but at the same,
at the same time, it gave, um, alot of us the opportunity to
hone in what are we gonna do,right?
Um, in, in, in my personal case,um, it was, uh,
transformational, right?
Uh, uh, it hit me personally.
(20:42):
Um, we, we lost, uh, uh, people,um, um, close family members.
We, we, we, we found ourself,you know, with, with family
members struggling, with, with,uh, being, being in, in a
confined space, we found ourselfnot having access to, to
healthcare, um, in a, in areasonable way.
(21:03):
Um, everybody's scared aboutgoing directly to, to, uh, to
get the, the, at least even evenbasic checkups, right?
Um, um, um, ladies that, that,uh, pregnant, uh, ladies that,
that were afraid to go and, andcheck, check themselves the
regular checkups.
Um, you know, um, the same thingwith, uh, geriatric patients,
(21:25):
the same thing with, I mean, it,we saw it all, right?
So the team got together, westarted interviewing, um, to
understand better interviewingthe, uh, the, uh, first
responders, the people in thefront lines, the, the doctors
working, um, with, with thesituation.
They, they were the ones feelingthe situation.
And luckily, we had a couple ofminutes of the time, and, and
(21:48):
after hundreds of interviews, Imean, hundreds of interviews,
uh, Julio, it was crazy.
Um, it, no, it, it was, it wascrazy.
But people were so, so hit and,and, and so, uh, in a, in a new
space that, that they werewilling to talk to us just
because they wanted to bend onwhat situations they were
(22:10):
having.
So it was very easy to get, toget these people that were
working 20 hours, 24 hours, youknow, on on, on Sundays
continuously to even spare anhour of their time to tell us
what, what was wrong with thesystem at that point, what they
were seeing that was new, right?
(22:30):
Um, and, and what we found outis that if we gave the, the
healthcare providers, the, the,and when I say providers is
institutions, people, doctors,nurses, first responders, er
people, the, the, the, the, youknow, everybody in that if we
(22:51):
gave them a, a tool that canallow them to interact with
patients remotely, um, that willgive them the opportunity to
manage, to triage, to, to, touse resources better, right?
The first resource beingthemselves, and then everything
(23:11):
else that gets, gets attached tothat, right?
Um, so, so Teleios was born outof, out of all of those
interviews and a, a commonground, we need to solve the
current telehealth andtelemedicine approach.
We need to improve it.
(23:31):
We need to allow remote patientmonitoring best, the, the best
possible way.
There is a, there is anopportunity to do a product that
yes, it will definitely, uh, um,generate, generate revenue.
That's great.
But that can impact society,right?
So to have that opportunity iskind of, we, we saw it at once,
(23:54):
once in a lifetime, right?
How many people have theopportunity to say, we're gonna
start a business, by the way,where can impact every life in
the globe with this product?
I mean, that's an amazing thingto say, right?
So that's Ramsen, ramens beenour first, uh, medical product.
And what we did is we filled thegap that is, is currently
(24:17):
assisting in, in your telehealthconsultation or remote patient
monitoring consultation.
As of today, it was what we hadtoday, a great conversation, uh,
via video, video call.
And that's what we have.
And, and, and, and that isgreat.
But if you are the doctor, andI'm your patient, and I'm
telling you all thisinformation, you're, you're
(24:39):
there thinking, gosh, if I hadthe data, right, not only what
he's telling me, the, thebiometric data, right?
To back up the, what I'm, whatI'm sensing from this
conversation, right?
And that is what exactly weprovided.
We provided, like you mentionedat the beginning, a device is
capable of, of, uh, uh, sensinga lot of your vital signs,
(25:02):
right?
We call them biometrics.
Um, so s p two or, or the samething as, as, uh, blood oxygen
levels, um, the bodytemperature, the, uh, uh, your
digital stethoscope, which is anincredible feat just to, to have
that there, right?
And then, um, we are also takingheart rate, and we're also, uh,
(25:24):
making sure that we have costcostless blood pressure.
I mean, that, that, on its own,that's
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Quite an innovation.
That's a breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Great breakthrough.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Even think Apple is working on that.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
It's a, it's a, well, and, and, and, you know, I have
a lot of respect for that teambecause I, I work with that team
for a long time.
So, so, you know, my hats off.
I know what they're capable of.
Uh, we have the, the advantagethat we're picking up the
information where it's best topick up, right?
And that's giving us a littlebit of an edge.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay?
And they, they can only pick it
Speaker 3 (25:57):
From here.
Exactly.
They, I see right now they haveit here.
We're picking the informationexactly where, where we can take
advantage of that, of thatposition in the body.
Um, and, and, and yeah, we, we,we work very hard.
Um, usually a product like this,Julio, takes about two and a
(26:18):
half years, or, or, or eventhree years to, to develop and
put together.
I cannot stress enough that,that my, my teams are either
mean just, or special forces, orI don't know what they are, but
they are an amazing team thatput this together in about 10
months, I mean, in about 10months with every test, with
(26:39):
every process, with everythingthat, that, that we could do,
um, to confirm that, that wewere going in the right
direction.
Today, we ended up with an mvp.
We went through a proof ofconcept.
We have a minimum viable producttoday working store that, that,
uh, FDA approval and, uh,possibly I
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Thinking,
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Right?
Yeah.
And, and five 10 K, that'scorrect.
Uh, is a class to the ui.
It's, uh, non-invasive.
We're going focused on that, onthat ul and, and see Mark, I
mean, we're, we're super focusedright now to comply with, uh,
with the regulatory, um,agencies and put this in every
home that we can't, um, it, it,it will be good business, but it
(27:26):
will be a game changer in howcountries can provide for their
people the healthcare that isneeded.
That that's, I mean, that's apowerful statement when you have
a, you know what I mean?
It's, it's a powerful statement.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah.
Especially in Latin America,where you have these remote
locations in the jungle, in themountains, even in cities.
I mean, Bogota is a metropolitanarea of 10 million people and
traveling, the traffic is hell.
So people are stuck in theirneighborhoods or their houses
and, and, and, and the best careis not necessarily where they
(28:04):
are.
So That's right.
Its, that's right.
The cell.
And there's a saying, now thecell is a new clinic.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So if you have devices like thisclose to where people live, I
mean, ideally in their houses,but, uh, I don't know if that's
gonna be possible or not, but,uh, at, at a, at a certain, at a
location close to their housewhere they can walk to and have
access to medical care,
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And even that, we, we want to go at every house
because we want to make surethat people can tend not only
themselves, but their families,and give them
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Sure.
Give
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Them, I want to want access to premium healthcare
service.
That is not a a, that's not aluxury, that is a human.
Right.
And we need to work for that.
We need to give everybody thehuman right of getting good
healthcare.
Right.
And you say Latin American, justreal quick, um, in the us in the
(28:59):
us, 47% of the people in us, 47%of the people live in rural
areas away from healthcare.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
That's a good way to put it.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So, I mean, it's, they're not in any, in any
advantage in this thing.
We're all in this together.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
They have the same problem go that far to Peru, to
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They have the same problem.
They're not far from Bogota,they not from Argentina.
It's the same problem.
People Yes.
53% work are are in cities with,with an overcrowded city, by the
way.
But then you have 47% that, thatare 20 miles plus away from the
closest, uh, medical services.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's true.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Regardless, even if you're in amajor urban area, you still
wanna be at home with yourfamily.
I mean, you are, between Zoomcalls, everybody's working
remotely.
I mean, the,
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The convenience, right?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
The, the, the thought of getting out in your car,
waiting for the doctor to cometo you in a waiting room, in a
hospital, in a small clinic, Imean, yeah.
And
Speaker 3 (30:08):
It's easy for us, uh, Julio, it's easy for us because
it will be that for us, it willbe for us will be sitting on a
car, going there sitting.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah.
We have an option.
So people don't even have thatoption.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Imagine those that do not, and imagine those that have
very, uh, very delicate healthconditions that if they go to
these offices, they get exposedto other things that they
shouldn't.
Right.
Um, like I said, in geriatrics,in the case of my dad, I wish I
had this already solved, um,before my dad passed away,
(30:37):
because my mother, which she,she's all, that's my dad, you
know, 74 years old.
And, and, and, you know, takingmy dad was a, a a, an Alzheimer
patient.
And, and as, as everybody knows,as soon as you take a patient
like that and, and you put themon a, on a new environment, the,
the, it's so difficult to managea patient.
(30:59):
Imagine for a 74 year old tomanage a patient that is seeing
himself completely lost.
Right.
Just to get a regular biometriccheckup, check your pressure,
check your temperature,
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Come on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't have to travel half anhour, an hour and go through
that, or be to Right.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Take, there are alternatives.
And we, and we have thetechnology for that.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's true.
That's true.
And, you know, we, another trendgoing back to Latin America,
another trend that, uh, wedidn't talk about that I, that I
seen, that I've noticed fromspeaking with, uh, people, uh,
in the industry, is that becauseof the pandemic, our countries
are changing their laws.
(31:40):
Just last week, I received thenew law of Panama, the Republic
of Panama, because I'm workingwith a distributor that, um, is
involved in setting up what thelaw says.
And that law specifically says,for now on, we're gonna have a
national, nationwidetelemedicine system.
(32:04):
And this law just passed a fewmonths ago, and they have a year
to implement this.
So other countries in LatinAmerica are adapting to this.
And this is all because of thepandemic.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
That is correct.
Digital health.
People are seeing digital healthas, as the, the solution of not
finding ourself in the samepredicament, the same situation
we did.
I mean, at least I'm very gladthat the people leading the
countries, uh, got shook up tothe point that they say, this
cannot happen again.
(32:36):
We need to do something.
I, I, I pray Panama for takingthat step.
I mean, that's a, a wonderfulvision.
Uh, I hope that the rest of the,of, of the countries in Latin
America, see, see this, we gotthe same thing from Germany, for
example.
Such a conservative country,right?
Basically pass a law sayingdigital health is the mission
(33:00):
for the country.
We're pushing this.
We're giving the doctors the,the, the power to prescribe
digital health.
The prescribe devices, prescribethe, the memberships of, of, of,
uh, of having the service fortelemedicine and, and remote
care, remote patient care.
Uh, the US also did that.
I mean, so, so for Panama to bein, in, in those countries that
(33:24):
take the first step.
I mean, my, my, my hat's off.
I, I, I'm so happy.
I'm so happy to see that.
You see, we are, we are, we aregrowing, we're growing.
The area is growing andunderstanding that we can, that
can take those bold decisions.
We don't need to wait foranybody else in the world to
(33:45):
take them.
We can take those bold decisionsand move forward.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Like, I, I like to say, uh, we are upgrading our
thinking as a region.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
You got that.
You got that right.
You got that right.
You got that right.
I wanna see, I wanna see LatinAmerican 2.0 right now.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Gonna steal that from you.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
America
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Podcast America 2.0.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
We're gonna make a mark.
We're gonna make a mark
Speaker 2 (34:16):
All right, Widy, we're close to the end of the
show, but, uh, before we close,uh, tell us about your plans.
What traction are you getting inLatin America?
What plans you have?
Are you talking to distributors?
When are you planning to startselling or getting regulatory
approvals in different countriesand
Speaker 3 (34:31):
All that?
Definitely, definitely.
We are, we, we are creating thatplan.
So I can, I can only tell youthat we are super focused in, in
, uh, Latin America as a choice.
Um, we are, we're making surethat we are getting, um, all of
the, all of the, um,requirements and certifications
that will allow us to convert tothe local certifications.
(34:53):
For example, with this UL andthis, this fda, we know that we
will easily go and, and go intothe, the Indian pack countries
that we can go, uh, furthersouth into, into Hawaii,
Argentina, the rest of thecountries.
You know, we know that once weget that our path forward is
going to be smoother.
(35:13):
At the same time as a company,we're looking for, for, um, um,
people that know the market,that understand the market, that
are willing to, to promote aproduct like ours and push it
inside those markets.
So, so we're open to haveconversations with, um, local
distributors that, that want totalk to us.
(35:34):
Uh, um, they can contact medirectly.
Uh, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'mvery accessible for this because
it is the main mission.
Um, and yeah, we're, we want tostart those conversations.
Um, and as the lead of thecompany, I am committed to
making sure that this product isavailable for my Latin American
(35:56):
community.
That you serve that so much.
Very
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Good.
Very good.
Very good.
Excellent, Willie.
So it's been a, a greatconversation.
Same here.
You, thank you again, of course.
For being the show today.
How can people get in contactwith you?
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Um, they can go directly to our webpages as www
dot teles.
That's with an x@theend.com.
Um, and, and from there, all ofour contact information, it's,
uh, it's good.
The same thing with, uh,LinkedIn.
We have a channel there.
We also have a YouTube channel,and I think that, uh, Twitter
and Facebook.
(36:30):
So we are trying to spread themessage of the company.
Um, we want to make itaccessible for people.
We want people to know whatwe're doing.
We don't want to come up as asurprise in the market one day.
We want people to get involvedand know our names.
So when we come out there, um,we are a familiar face, right.
And that they trust us with, uh,being part of their healthcare
(36:54):
solutions at a family andpersonal level.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
so you're ready to roll.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I'm super excited.
We're ready to roll.
We, we have, uh, a lot of workto do.
That gives me an immense levelof responsibility to my
investors, making sure that wehave that ROI from them.
But not only that, but that wecan definitely also work with
the founding team and get themto see this happening.
Right.
Everybody's excited.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Excellent, witty.
All right.
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Thank you so much, Leo.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Bye.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Bye.
Bye.
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