Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Abbie Bonel and welcome to CEOs. You should
know Kara Egan with Teal Health is certainly one of them,
revolutionizing the way millions of women in America can be
screened for cervical cancer. The FDA recently approving the first
ever at home test of its kind in the US.
Thanks so much for joining me, Kara, and welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you, I'm super excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Well, women tend to dread that screening, no wonder. It
involves a speculum and medieval looking contraption. It's the same
device used on women since the last century. The Teal one, though,
is an alternative method offering ease, privacy, and the same
accuracy as a standard test in your doctor's office or clinic.
So how does it work, Kara? Could you explain?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? Happy to so. As every woman at least listening knows,
it isn't easy to get a cervical cancer screening what
we often call the pop smear, and it's not easy
both in terms of finding a doctor's appointment, but or
finding time in your own day or as you mentioned,
using the speculum is not comfortable or welcomed by most women.
So the way that we do it is we have
both a self collection wand that we ship at the home,
(01:08):
and then we wrap it with a telehealth solution. So basically,
a woman can speak with the doctor, get prescribed to
the kit. The kit comes at home, she screens comfortably
and privately as you mentioned, at home, sends it to
the lab. The lab runs the exact same test that's
being done in the doctor's office, the primary HPV essay,
which is on all the leading guidelines, and then the
results come back to the doctor who reviews them and
(01:29):
explains them to you. If you have a follow up,
if you're a positive for HPV, we'll explain the next
steps and refer you into the in person triage at
that point.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Well, women are applauding this across the nation. We have
waited for something like this. What really has spurred your
passion to overhaul the way things have always been done
for decades?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, I mean, I think for me, a lot of
it just comes back to women and women's health, right
And when we think about kind of this that we're
seeing today of Women's Health company starting, it's because women
haven't often not been listened to in terms of what
they needed or they're not included in how something is designed.
And so when you think about what is arguably the
most important part of a women's health visit, which is
(02:14):
the cervical cancer screening, as you mentioned, it's this archaic device.
It's uncomfortable, it's vulnerable, like, you know, why are we
still using it when we don't need to write? So
we really just kind of thought about it from that
angle of like what what would make a woman feel
more comfortable, more engaged with our health And we started
with the most important one and it you know, the
(02:35):
bar is incredibly low, but at Tiel, we really are
all about resetting the bar, right, So we went and
redesigned the whole product with this leading design firm called IDEO.
But a big piece of it was like women were
a part of every step of the way. They were
a part of the design of the wand they were
part of the design of the box and how we
welcome you and how we guide you through the process.
(02:56):
They're part of the design of how you receive your
results and how it makes you feel and whether or
not you feel alone or what are your next questions?
Like we just really included women the whole way through
because that's who we're designing for, and that's how you're
going to get the engagement and adherence on the screening,
but also the trust to take a step with teal
and do something different and new.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Well, a third of women are actually still behind with
their cervical cancer screenings for a host of reasons discomfort,
as we've mentioned, fear, family, work, commitments, accessibility. But this
screening method removes all of those obstacles and barriers. Do
you expect to see now an increase in screening rates?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, absolutely so. In our clinical trial, one of the
stats that we were most proud of was that ninety
four percent of women prefer it to the standard of care.
So when we say that, you know what, close to
one in three women are behind on their screening. This
is a problem that really everyone feels, whether or not
you're behind on your screening or whether or not you're
well screened, like it would just be easier to be
(03:56):
able to do this comfortably and conveniently at home. And
so we do really think this is an opportunity for
all women to kind of get engaged in their health
in a way that feels right to them.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
You shouldn't fear the process of actually doing the collection
yourself at home. It's very simple.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, it's very simple. We often say it it's like
a tampon, but often that confuses people and that they
think it stays in right, So it's into tampon in
the shape and the design. It's designed for all bodies,
so you really put it in as far as comfortable,
and then you just rotate the sponge ten times with
the handle and that's it. So on average, it takes
less than five minutes to complete the entire screening. And
(04:34):
another step that we're super proud of from the clinical
trial is that ninety seven percent of women said it
was easy or very easy to use. So it really
is just a much more comfortable option for women to
step to date on their screening.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And talk about that clinical trial. You did it in
mock speed and it was so effective. Normally it's so
difficult to get participants to take part in any kind
of study. You had no problem with this and no wonder.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think the no wonder piece. I think
a piece of it was that all women want something better, right,
Like every woman knows the current experience could be better,
even if you haven't thought to redesign it yourself, like
you felt that this feels archaic and uncomfortable and old.
And so I do think when it came to recruiting women,
(05:20):
they were happy to be a part of something new, right,
And so I wish we actually fully documented this. So
this these stats are anecdotal, but when we asked for
clinical sites, you know, what was the average uptake for
when they're being invited into the clinical trial? On average
it takes on average, it's about ten percent of those
invited participate. We saw it close to it and again anecdotally,
(05:40):
eighty percent of women were like, yeah, happy to be
a part of this study. So I think it goes
back to like we hit a nerve. We also designed
it in a way that when they saw what it
looked like, they're like, yeah, I'll be part of that,
Like it wasn't scary to be a part of the trial.
And then they also just want to help drive innovation, right,
We're all looking for more and happy to be a
part of that process.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And this isn't eradicating a visit to the doctor's office
at all, is just a convenient alternative.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, this isn't about replacing doctor's visits. This is about
a cancer screening, right and to your earlier stat one
in three women are behind on their cancer screening. We
just want to make that easier for women, and we
want to make it easier for all women. And so
as we've seen with you know, coarectal screenings have come home,
it just really increases engagement. So there are still many
reasons to go see your doctor, either your primary care
(06:27):
doctor or your obi giine, but this is the cancer screening,
and the cancer screening can just be much more easy
and accessible to do.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Your goal is to eradicate cervical cancer completely.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, okay, so this is super cool. Circle cancer. Even
though we call it a cervical cancer screening, the newest
way to test for it. So again the guidelines, even
though the device and experience of collecting a sample hasn't changed,
the actual way that we test has changed. And it's
gone from the papsmere which is what we colloquial call it,
which is around fifty percent accuracy, to primary HPV, which
(07:02):
is like ninety five percent accurate. So it's just much
more accurate. But what it's accurate at doing is detecting
pre cancer. So if you actually get screened regularly, we
can prevent cancer entirely, whereas some of the other screenings
have to identify cancer. Ours is pre and so the
idea is if you actually get regularly screened, we could
eliminate cervical cancer in the US and obviously globally would
(07:25):
be great as well.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Well, you did it in moxpeed, the FDA took this
on board, and you've already launched in California. Did you
ever expect it to move this fast?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, I come from a tech background, so I'm always like,
this feels slow. But no, our team is absolutely credible
and truly, I mean, there are no words because to
your point, this is so unheard of the speed that
we did it so and I think that it was
the speed that we did it, the women that wanted it,
the team, but also the quality of the data, Right,
(07:57):
I mean, to have the exact same accuracy as the
doctor made the process of going through the FDA much easier. Right,
It's the same test, same accuracy. They didn't have to
kind of make the same trade offs that you do
in other situations of kind of something that's lesser but
maybe increases access. So I do think the data was
really really helpful. And then we actually joke about this
a lot because we're a woman led company and we
(08:19):
have a lot of women on our team and women
just love to get stuff done and be efficient. And
so when we were doing the media tour around the
FDA approval, everyone's like, when is it coming, We're like, oh,
we're going to hopefully start shipping boxes in June, right,
and like we started shipping boxes July first, right, So
we were like right on that. But it was so
surprising to most people because normally, you know, there's a
(08:39):
whole other set of process after you come through the FDA.
But we kind of had the confidence once we saw
that data that we knew was going to come, and
we just wanted to make sure that women were able
to access it as soon as possible. So, yeah, we
have ourselves set out. Now, the kits came over and
we started shipping those. We have our own medical practice.
We're already in network with at Nastagna, Blue Prospertion and
(09:00):
United to be able to take insurance payment. So we
just had all that set up so that the second
we could go once the kind of boxes got built
with the new language from the FDA, that we were ready.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You quickly grabbed also the attention of investors due to
the market share. We're talking about a massive demographic here
that can't be ignored. Millions of women between the ages
of twenty five and sixty five.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, so all women ages twenty five to sixty five
should be screened regularly for cervical cancer. And so to
your point, like, that's a massive market that's ninety two
million women. And one of the nice things back to
like well nice in quotes. You know, we have this
experience that most people know. We do try to as
a country remind people to get screened, but we have
a known and hated alternative, right, and so the idea
(09:45):
that everyone knows they're supposed to get screened, but it
really isn't easy when you introduce something that's nice and easy.
That's a massive opportunity that you know, investors love. But
again to your point of women are so excited that
it's here.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
The rollout has started in California nationwide is on the agenda.
How's it all going.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's going great. So yeah, so we are launched officially
in California, so anyone who comes to our website can
take advantage of being a part of TEAL and then
nationally we'll be moving as soon as possible, hopefully in
the next month or two. Even so, it's been going great,
and I think for us, you know, we've always been
designing this and excited for bringing it to the market,
(10:25):
but to see the reception both in terms of the
media when we came through the FDA, but really of
the patients. Right so, we've been doing the wait list
since July, and the patients are so happy and so grateful,
and it's just very rewarding to know that not only
are we helping women prevent cancer, but you know, everything
(10:45):
that we built and all the care and all the
thought we put into it resonates right, like we did
it right. And that's kind of one of the things
we always say at TEAL, like we're not just doing
a cervical cancer screening, we're like doing it the right way,
Like we're welcoming a woman back into healthcare designed her
like it just should feel different, it should feel great.
And to have those customers like repeating back to us
(11:07):
those feelings has just been really incredibly rewarding for us.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
You call this a mission, the first step in a
movement to reset the bar in women's healthcare. You're off
to a resounding start here. The teal wand didn't just
improve the way women are screening for cervical cancer in
the US, it has turned it on its head.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Thanks it has, and I think again it goes back
to this designing for women, right, Like, this wasn't just
about cost savings or just about a cancer screening. It
was about showing women that they mattered, that they cared,
that their experiences matter, and really welcoming them into something new.
And all women want to be engaged in their health right.
(11:47):
We just have a lack of availability with doctors. We
have a lack of time in our day, and so
the more that we can kind of meet them where
they are, the better for everybody. So it's yeah, it's
been amazing, and it just comes back to it's always
been about the women and what they need.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Congratulations also in order after you were recently voted as
one of the top one hundred outstanding women executives by
Chiefs twenty twenty five New Era of Leader Awards. Quite
the accolade, Cara, thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I was super flattered to get that, and I do
think one of the things when we think about redesigning
healthcare for women, but how do we also think about
it in the workplace, and how do we make it
easier for mothers or women going through the sandwich generation
of having young children and old parents that are fail
aging and sick. How do we really kind of design
(12:39):
a workplace that also supports that and gets the best
out of everybody. So it is always a work in
progress and trying to figure out how to do things
better and take a new lens and approach. But yeah, super.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Flattered, congratulations and thank you Karra for sharing teel health
groundbreaking work in cervical cancer screenings, offering women the first
ever for at home testing. For more information, visit getteal
dot com. I'm habby Bonel and thanks for listening to
CEOs you should know