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Discovering the true value add

Week 7: Mission Achievement

 

This week we wanted to make sure that we were headed in the right direction and continued to ask our target beneficiaries, 18D’s, about our MVP. We were even able to show the MVP to an 18D in person this past weekend. The responses to the MVP were great ranging from they would absolutely use it or it would make their process of evaluating medical assets so much easier. One quote was “I think what you have is going to be a very simple but effective fix to a problem we have”. This app could solve many problems from minimized work hours to the larger equipment problem. In terms of mission achievement, 18D’s reported it takes them days to come up with a medical plan for these operations and the medical slide has to be presented to the commander before going on a mission. Instead of going through old paperwork, and many do not, 18D’s can look through this app and immediately translate it into the mission. The app can also improve the larger equipment problem because 18D’s can see the equipment available in the region and go without packing it. In terms of access to the app, we still want to make it open source with a veritability option. Our main goals of this MVP is for 18D’s to have easy access to medical asset information and easier collaboration and information flow with medical planners and commanders. We will also address how we are adapting to feedback from 18D’s in our presentation.

 

Interview 1: CPT Stephen, Battalion PA

  • Spoke about this web portal where medical reports would go and it was a shared website for everyone to pull information. However, it was deleted because the person who made it left. This was pretty helpful, but not there anymore.
  • A different thing: MEDSOC is a medical operating document that is supposed to have every medical asset on the ground. It only has US assets on the ground. No communication between NGOs and US military. Also, it didn’t have any information on local national capabilities.

 

Interview 2: CPT James, Former Alpha on JED, Current Student at Fuqua

  • Talked about Palantir-Gotham which is a live time track of where everyone is in a general area (this was a new software we were unfamiliar with).
  • Likes the idea of it being open sourced but there are some dangers with that – who runs it?
  • Said it would be great for planning purposes for every team.  All medical planning is deferred to 18D.

 

Interview 3: CPT Chris, First Group 18D

  • Talked about SODARS which are medical assessments filled out after a trip. They break down everything from where the team stays and lives to partner forces they worked with. However, he never used it and said that people usually want to figure it out for themselves.
  • Feedback on MVP: Said he would 100% absolutely use it. Capabilities is the biggest issue and finding the next best place to go. One of the biggest tasks is going back to assets and validating that this information is still correct. Talked about if we incorporated with telemedicine, would be great.

 

Interview 4: Paul Loos,

  • Incentivizes the 18D’s who don’t usually keep this information updated because this app makes it so much easier.
  • Sometimes the same clinic is evaluated by multiple 18D’s or teams so the head of surgery or doctors in those clinics become frustrated they see guys in uniform every few months. If there was a way to share this information so it wasn’t always questioned, it eliminates potential of damage to relationships.

 

Interview 5: SGT Conner, 18D

  • Building trust through efficiency will be key. Show me how I can trust a serviceman/woman’s life with this resource.
  • Accuracy will be the easy-to-understand way to build trust with me. This can decrease inaccurate diagnoses, reduce prescription errors and eliminate many other confusing scenarios. Accuracy also avoids medical malpractice, which is always desirable.
  • My favorite part about the app is the promise of convenience. I want it accurate and efficient, but to have it available right at their fingertips….wow. No longer do they have to travel, search through huge textbooks or run back and forth from patients to computers to access data.

 

Interview 6: Kevin Iskra, 18D

  • This kind of app makes medical planning much easier because of how easy it is for information to become outdated. The process for verifying medical assets before deployment is very lengthy.
  • The app should have a filter that includes helipad (and other helicopter landing zone locations, i.e. soccer fields) because a huge issue with evacuation is transportation to facilities. Have capability to charter a private helicopter — just need to know where they can land it.

 

Interview 7: CPT Liz, Special Forces Surgical Team, Air Force ER Doctor

  • This kind of technology has the potential to vastly improve information management which is extremely slow running in the military. Just need to be able to trust it is current and accurate.
  • Security concerns with open-sourcing: minimal, although there should maybe be a barrier to posting information (outsourced verification?) to again keep it accurate. Verification of assets is what takes a long time on medical planning side— so this is crucial.

 

Interview 8: CPT Bauer, 18D, SOCM instructor

  • The benefits of this technology are quite impressive. I’d want to volunteer my trainees to be end-user testers of this product in a pilot controlled and small setting first before trying it overseas.
  • It would incentivize me to update/contribute data to the database if we could somehow get priority treatment or status at the hospitals/clinics/resources that I endorse. Can my patients be seen faster there? That would be great for us.

 

Interview 9: CPT Sichel, 18D

  • It would incentivize me to keep the data refreshed in the app if I saw the difference it made if I did so. Show me how a pilot is working well and what benefits I would see with the updated data. That is all it would take to win me over.
  • This app would be a homerun tool if it were translatable to several languages so that we can use it as a training tool with our joint allies. Many of their medics speak only broken English and this would bridge cultural and language gaps.

 

Interview 10: Sean Harrison, CEO of Wizeview

  • It would be more competitive if you can add AI on the dual-use of MVP
  • The average cost of develop AI could under 30,000 dollar based on a open source service.

 


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