Hi Donald, What’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
Alright, thank you Founder Story. I’m the Co-founder of Meck Health. I have a Mechanical Engineering background.
We are digitalizing hospital operations to reduce medical errors. Primarily, medical error is the third leading cause of death. That means more people die from medical mistakes than many other diseases that take people to the hospital.
We are working to digitize hospital operations such as prescriptions, diagnosis, lab tests, and all of that to cut out the medical errors by as much as 60-70% for now.
What motivated you to get started with Meck Health?
That’s an interesting question. is very interesting. I visited the hospital sometime in 2020, I wasn’t feeling too well, I left the office at lunchtime hoping that in maybe an hour or two I’d be back to the office. When I got there, they couldn’t find the file containing my medical records. I kept waiting and they kept searching for about 6hrs. The nurse decided to open a new file.
So eventually she did that, took my vitals and it was time for me to see the doctor. When I sat next to the doctor, the doctor did not touch me, the doctor did not take blood samples, he essentially just asked me questions. So, I thought about why I went through all this stress. I mean, I’ve already spent 6hrs at the hospital just to have the doctor ask me all these questions and from the questions, the doctor asked me, he was able to diagnose and know what was wrong, and many other times the doctor could tell the patient when he/she needs to have a test.
So, I thought to myself, why can’t we have an app that can essentially assist the doctor.
Doctors are very busy, why have them ask five-seven repeated questions or maybe more than that over and over again. Your medical records should already be digitized in the first place instead of having papers files that take much time to find.
So, that’s like where this came from. And researching into the industry, talking to experts, professionals to know where the industry is and where we can begin to assist because it’s crucial. We eventually found out that more people die from medical errors.
So mine was not a very critical stage and I spent that much time, maybe for somebody else, it could have been something else and because of that need, it was crucial to start solving this problem.
What exactly is Meck Health?
MeckHealth is a digital health company that is focused on patient safety and we are working to reduce medical errors by at least 60%. As I mentioned, medical error is the third leading cause of death. More people die from medical errors than from many of the diseases we hear and know about that people suffer from.
When the pharmacist tries to transcribe the prescription the doctor has written that’s where 60% of medical errors come from. You see that by digitizing the prescription you’ve taken out 60% of the errors. You digitize the prescription and other aspects of the record to even make a better decision on a patient’s health. You’re cutting errors significantly.
We are patient-focused, essentially we partner with hospitals since we have support from Amazon Activate and a few other organizations. We focus on the patients for them to get the most value from hospitals.
Our product is a web app that is used by hospitals and patients.
From the web app, patients book their appointments, they can transfer their prescription to an online pharmacy that they trust and those recommended by the hospital.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
It’s about mindset and I believe that success is luck.
It’s really about getting ready to get lucky. When I was going to start, one mind said I should probably get an iPhone 12 (that was the latest then) and I thought about getting a new car this year. I just thought about those things and I had to put it into what we were doing and there are lots of challenges you couldn’t even expect.
But the thing is that you keep going for the right mindset and spirit of resilience.
When we closed our very first deal in a hospital. It was rainy. I walked into the hospital and I asked to see the medical director and they said the medical director was busy and he won’t see me unless he was done with patients. So I stood there at the counter, I was asked to sit but I said: “no I’m good”. I didn’t know that there was a CCTV camera at the counter that was connected to the medical director’s office.
So, this lady came out from the medical director’s office, she wasn’t a patient so I asked her if she could help me drop a “message” for the medical director and she agreed. I stood there for about 5 hrs.
The medical director came out of his office in anger. He said this young man has been standing there for over 5 hrs. He asked me, “young man, are you sick?”, I told him: yes I’m sick. I got a card and paid to see the doctor, just like a normal patient. So I got to his office, told him it’s not that kind of sickness. I needed him to adopt the solution that my team and I have been working on.
The interesting thing was that one of the nurses asked me to go home that the medical director does not believe in technology and doesn’t like anything technology and when I sat in front of the medical director, I’ve never seen a doctor pay so much attention to me. Eventually, we closed the deal. I came out in the rain and was shouting.
I updated my team and everyone was excited and that was the starting point for us to know that challenges are expected. If you condition your mind to say that if this doesn’t work, this will eventually work.
I recently gave a TEDx talk and one of the things I shared is this concept of putting all your eggs in one basket and watching that basket close (FOCUS). Whether you’re in health or agriculture, e-commerce or whatever industry, or dealing with the challenges you’d face with your team, your competitors, the customer or market is normal. If you’re distracted you’re probably doing like 20% of your capacity. You may not be able to navigate and move fast. Yes, there’d be challenges but the right mindset is very important. I learn how to improve in various aspects.
Entrepreneurship is many skills put together like sales, product, marketing, negotiation, etc. As an entrepreneur, you need to know as much as you can. I try to learn as much as I can. There’s a book I am currently reading called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini. It’s something that could help with working with people, relating with customers, and leadership.
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
We don’t do marketing. It’s more B2B, which is business to business. But we try to keep a marketing profile online for those who might be interested. We run sales campaigns not marketing campaigns.
The idea is we are looking to be able to assist people at that micro-level when they begin to experience symptoms so they can quickly report it and the hospital will know what to do. But right now the patient doesn’t really need to worry about the use of the software because the hospital does most of the work.
What motivates you?
That’s a very interesting question. Funny story, I have a favorite book from 2021 and I’ve read it like twelve times. The name of the book is Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier. It talks about identity and mindset. I see work as a way of showing my gratitude, I try to work as hard as I can and the thing is when you’re lucky to have something you’re doing then it’s important to try as much as you can to put your energy.
Coming back to the mindset, I don’t believe in passion, I believe in being passionate.
The difference is while I am waiting for that $1 Billion deal or something, whatever I have in front of me, I do it as passionately as I can. So many days I feel like I can scale a wall. Many victories mean many rejections as well.
But on many other days when I don’t feel excited, I take energy drinks or coffee when I need to, I look beyond myself, I look at my team, I look at how we can cut medical errors because the work has to be done and what we are trying to achieve at the end of the day. I also rest when I have the opportunity.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
I have an active subscription with Scribd. If anyone wants to have up to two months of access to try Scribd for free, I will drop my link with you. I hope that will help someone get started.
I’ve read Traction written by Gabriel Weinberg. He’s a billionaire, the co-founder, and the CEO of Duckduckgo search engine. I’ve read Skip the Line and Think Like a Billionaire both by James Altucher and it’s one of my best books. I’ve read How to sell to Nigerians by Akin Alabi.
I’ve read how to make people like you in 90 secs. This particular book helps with human relationships. It’s crucial that you look beyond yourself to see how you can connect with other people and find out the needs of other people and how you can meet them.
Sadly, I’ve read the 48 laws of power by Robert Grene. I read a lot of books on public speaking, communication, strategic analytics, and resilience. Some of the most successful people in the world, when they win they celebrate and get it out of their mind and get back to work and when they lose, they cry and get done with it.
One of my favorite authors is Grant Cardone and I’ve read all his books.
We need to be well-positioned to see how we can save more lives. For us, looking into 2022 we want to reduce medical errors for at least 1 million patients.
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Have you had any failed businesses?
Oh yes many! I fail often. In fact, let me mention one that I find very interesting. I put together a proposal on education technology software for secondary schools and primary schools. I paid and shipped the proposals through DHL. I got no replies. It was shocking for me and that’s one of the experiences that made me realize that money doesn’t solve problems. The fact that you have money to start a business doesn’t exactly mean that it’s going to be successful.
Success in business depends on a number of factors. Strategic planning, execution, and getting feedback from your customers are some crucial factors.
What is your typical day like?
I will start with how I end my day. I have a bedtime. I sleep by 10 pm and typically at 2 am I’m up and I try to meditate and have the right mindset.
Most of my mornings I write. I try to have my bath before 4:30 am and I read a little bit, I get some rest within 5:30-6:30 am. I communicate with my team. These days, my work revolves around creating/editing documents, strategies, designs, product development, sales, and relationship building. I try to have breakfast early as well. I spend most of my time working and I play games too.
Where can we go to learn more about you and Meck Health?
You can connect with me on Linkedin Here
You can also visit our website at Meckhealth.com to learn more about our products.
