Otolaryngologists as Entrepreneurs: Transforming Patient Care And Practice

Don Gonzales, MD, was a third-year resident when he started his first company.

His university’s technology transfer office wasn’t interested in his proposed nasal septal stapler because someone had previously patented a similar idea. But, Dr. Gonzales knew there were no devices for nasal septal stapling available to otolaryngologists.

“No stapler was on the market,” he said, “because the original device that was patented didn’t work. So, instead of stopping there, I contacted the original patent holder, who was happy to sell me the method patent. My company was then able to develop and patent a device that did work.”

ENTrigue, the company Dr. Gonzales co-founded in 2007 (https://www.cbinsights.com/company/entrigue-surgical), was acquired by ArthroCare in 2013 for more than $40 million (Healio. https://tinyurl.com/3wbczhac). Dr. Gonzales then founded Spirox Medical, which developed the LATERA nasal implant; Entellus Medical acquired Spirox in 2017 for $25 million in additional cash and 3.4 million shares in Entellus (MPO. https://tinyurl.com/muwary7t). He served as Entellus’s chief medical officer until the company’s 2018 acquisition by Stryker Corporation (https://tinyurl.com/4ypyu33b). Today, Dr. Gonzales is the founder and chief medical officer of Cryosa, a company developing a treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea.

As an otolaryngologist entrepreneur, Dr. Gonzales has impacted the lives and health of many people. His clinical experience helped him pinpoint problems that deserved solutions—and the solutions he helped create have advanced the practice of otolaryngology. Otolaryngologists are uniquely positioned to develop innovations that improve patient care (and ease physician stress), but the path to entrepreneurship isn’t easy or obvious.

Those who have navigated that path are eager to share their knowledge and experience with other would-be entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurship is like surgery: It’s not something you can figure out by yourself, learning completely on your own as you go. You really need to lean on people who’ve been there before you; let them show you the ropes,” said Subinoy Das, MD, chief medical officer of Soundtrace, a company that provides digital audiometric testing and hearing conservation tools for workplace safety compliance (https://www.soundtrace.com/).

Common Steps to Entrepreneurship

Although each entrepreneurial journey is unique, they share a few common steps:

Step 1: Identify a Problem Worth Solving

Every successful company starts with a problem that needs a solution. As a clinician, you encounter frustrations and challenges nearly every day. Think: Which of these challenges affects a lot of patients or providers? What kind of tool or innovation might help?

As a pediatric otolaryngologist, Steven Goudy, MD, knows that viral upper respiratory infections can turn into a medical crisis for a young infant who can’t yet breathe via their mouth. As a parent of three children, he knows that handheld bulb syringes aren’t particularly effective or easy to use. (This is a point his wife drove home to him when she said, “Hey, you’re a highly trained booger doctor. Why are you still trying to clean boogers out of people’s noses with a blue bulb?”)

Medicine is all about drilling down to the right answer and then executing it perfectly. Entrepreneurship is the opposite: It’s about keeping things broad and vague, at least in the early stages, and pivoting as necessary. — Steven Goudy, MD

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