At a time when infection concerns have never been higher, medical device start-up AseptiScope® is introducing uniquely effective solutions

In 2016 Scott Mader, Founder and CEO of AseptiScope was conducting an analysis on digital stethoscopes, and noticed that the medical literature was full of information on how the stethoscope was a very efficient vector (meaning it collects pathogens from one patient and transmits it to another patient) just as efficiently as unwashed hands. He confirmed the reality of this problem with his long-time colleagues and medical experts, then developed a business case to resolve this problem. . A few months later, AseptiScope was born. 

Today, AseptiScope is a California based, medical device start-up. The company has developed, patented, studied, and validated how touch-free technology can provide unprecedented efficiency in protecting patients from Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI). AseptiScope has just launched its first innovation: The DiskCover^® System.

In conversation with Scott Mader, Founder and CEO of AseptiScope

Q. What are the challenges you had to face while developing solutions for AseptiScope?

A start-up company faces many key challenges in moving from concept to commercial revenue, and we’ve faced them all. More than that however, medical device start-up community was disproportionately traumatized during the pandemic from 2020-2022 and many perished during that time period. This is ironic, as our innovation promises to bring unprecedented infection protection to patients and healthcare providers in the long term, but during that time we were dealing with unprecedented barriers to success. Suppliers prioritized their large customer base during shortages, our engineers were unable to work together in development, and our hospital customers were closed to research and business access while they prioritized keeping COVID-19 victims alive. 

Q. How did you overcome them?

Like most successes associated with innovation, our people are our greatest asset. During the pandemic, we had to move our concept into a commercial reality. Our internal mantra, though not an official tagline, is “work lean and lean-in”. We always operate under cost containment, which means you spend judiciously on items that require it, and you use zero-budget principles in areas where this can still yield value. The spirit of this internal slogan safeguards our investment dollars for critical items, and rewards our team for their efforts with corporate equity. We have engaged executives who have the capacity to operate in a lean, lateral structure today, but transition into leaders of a multi-level corporation tomorrow. This team is positioned to take AseptiScope to the next level.

Q. How do your novel aseptic solutions align with the existing medical practice?

The answer to this question is that our innovation fits existing medical practice like a glove. Our new DiskCover System is preferred by both clinicians and patients vs. the current standards that exist today. The founders and I have introduced clinical innovation in the past together with great success, and the most important reason is that we ensure our innovation is designed through “market-driven science”. This is a method by which true clinical innovation is ensured success in advance being created.  We design innovation first by having our customers identify the critical attributes of a solution that they want.

In healthcare, there is a standard framework for keeping items free of contaminants and pathogens known as “aseptic” or “clean” process; and one of the core tenets is known as “non-touch technique”; meaning you touch nothing in preparation for a procedure or patient examination. This ensures that transmission does not take place by touching things or each other. It is successful when deployed, but it is too onerous and time intensive for application across healthcare. 

At AseptiScope, we have automated non-touch technique and made the process immediate. The DiskCover System provides the world’s first touch-free delivery of an aseptic barrier to its target vector (an intermediary for transmission); in this case, the stethoscope.  We have brought infection control experts together with leaders in polymer science and engineering to create a solution that is intuitive to use, is compatible with fast workflow, and has unprecedented efficacy.

Q. Where do you stand as a company in the current market landscape? And what are you doing to stay ahead of the curve?

As healthcare providers reopen following the pandemic our technology is being introduced with a very strong response. and the DiskCover System also arrives to healthcare published clinical studies proving its unique value. No technology has protected patients from transmission of pathogens like this before. The medical grade products are not only effective barriers to pathogens; they also allow the clinician to exam the patient perfectly as they are “acoustically invisible”.  Studies have also demonstrated that both patients and care givers perceive that the system is easy to use and time efficient while improving patient safety.

Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful leader?

Leadership skill sets are wide ranging, and the top three skill sets required for a start-up company may not be the same as they might be for leading a Fortune 50 corporation. Here are a few leadership axioms that I’ve learned from mentors that have always served me well. First, drive your company to be customer centric. Everyone in your organization should be aware of who the company is serving, and why our solution has unique value. This embeds customer focus into everything from quality, to life-cycle planning, to finance and manufacturing. Second, set cultural tone by example. If you desire a team that is dedicated and tenacious, with a bias for action, you need to embody those same principles in how you lead. Third, it is important to be direct and honest with those around you. Everyone knows that honesty and directness is a good policy but implementing this is not without risk. The goal should be to improve the company, and this requires you to be open to receiving feedback that is direct and honest.

Q. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

When I was a boy, I often did things that had risk without thinking about the consequences. My mother’s constant advice was “learn to foresee disaster”, hoping that this would keep me from jumping out of a tree and breaking a leg, or impaling myself on a fence post. She has repeated this to me in the same, simple terms now for decades. It now echoes in my head every time I encounter risk, and it has saved me from disaster in sports, travel, relationships, and work.  

In its most rudimentary form, this guidance means that you should be measured in any undertaking that requires significant risk to yourself or others. It doesn’t imply that risks are not taken, it simply acknowledges that risks are everywhere. Avoiding disaster is the outcome of seeing circumstances that may lead to it, and navigating the path successfully. Starting a medical technology company confronts potential disasters routinely, and my mother’s advice still guides me as we navigate our way through to success.

Q. How do you market your services? 

We utilize e-commerce, digital promotion, online medical education, as well as more traditional offline methods, including personal promotion through territorialized sales people. It goes well beyond this, however. I have spent my career in the development, commercialization, and growth of first-in-class clinical innovation. Bringing first-in-class technology means you need to develop the market in tandem with product development. For the last several years we have engaged the top medical leaders in this field, conducting research, publishing and educating on the impact of touch-free, clean barrier systems. Healthcare providers now recognize our infection control standards need to improve, and we are thrilled to be delivering innovation that will help accomplish optimal patient safety.  

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

Yes we do. We are just in our initial launch of our first innovation; The DiskCover System for stethoscope contamination. This launch also triggers the birth of our commercial life, and a wealth of enabling systems including our online e-commerce store, our installation services, and seamless transactions from order to fulfillment, and cash flow between all intermediaries.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

The future is very full and approaching at light speed. Our touch-free technology platform and intellectual property family supports a full portfolio of infection control innovations, and these range from the rapidly emerging infection control needs for ultrasound probes, to the age-old need for hand hygiene that is effective, immediate, sustainable, and affordable. All of these systems will integrate remote monitoring capabilities, and we will pilot this capability with The DiskCover System next year. It’s an exciting time for everyone at AseptiScope and I’m privileged to be a part of it.

Meet frontline leaders behind the success of AseptiScope.

Kevin DelSignore, Engineering Director:  In a short time, Kevin has demonstrated an ability to stabilize touch-free technology, design line extensions and portfolio products that improve healthcare provider experience while elevating patient safety. 

Kevin Burns, Vice President, U.S. Sales is a seasoned sales manager who came to AseptiScope specifically to ensure every patient gets the value of stethoscope exams while being safe from contamination.

Anthony Pham, Product Manager who joined AseptiScope straight out of college, but has engaged and learned at a rate consistent with artificial intelligence.  Though he heads the marketing of The DiskCover System, Anthony truly personifies the ideals of the lean start-up, and has had contribution in engineering, quality, operations, sales, public relations, and clinical development.

“As the cloud of the pandemic lifts, healthcare providers are opening up their doors again with an enduring need for higher infection control standards. The DiskCover System represents that higher standard.”