Cómo escuchar a un paciente me llevó innovar en biomedicina | Ana Ye Zhang | TEDxAlbacete

Quick Overview

Ana Ye Zhang transitioned from being a nurse to an entrepreneur by founding Ownmed Innovation to address the lack of discreet, high-quality containment devices for ostomy patients, driven by the personal story of a patient she cared for who suffered social isolation due to inadequate ostomy supplies.

Key Points: Ana Ye Zhang's initial dream was to be the first in her family to obtain a university degree, achieving this by graduating as a nurse in 2014. Her path shifted to entrepreneurship after encountering a patient with an ostomy who lacked adequate supplies, leading to skin irritation and social isolation. The speaker realized there was no discreet, high-quality alternative to ostomy bags for controlling continence, noting that 200,000 people in Spain alone require ostomies. Her company, Ownmed Innovation, was founded in 2019 to develop an anti-reflux device that sits inside the stoma, giving patients control over waste expulsion. The company received validation from key Spanish associations (SEEO, FAPOE, ASOE) and secured funding rounds, though facing a tough financing environment in 2023. The core belief driving the innovation is that entrepreneurship means creating impact by solving real problems, emphasizing the need to challenge assumptions (like the lack of existing alternatives).

Context: Ana Ye Zhang shares her journey from being a nurse to founding Ownmed Innovation, a company dedicated to creating better solutions for ostomy patients. Her motivation stemmed from witnessing firsthand the challenges and lack of dignity faced by patients relying on existing, inadequate containment devices, which often led to social anxiety and poor quality of life.

Detailed Analysis

Ana Ye Zhang recounts her transition from a nursing career, which she pursued to be the first university graduate in her family, to becoming an entrepreneur in biomedicine. This shift occurred after an encounter with a patient suffering from an ostomy who experienced skin irritation and social isolation due to inadequate containment solutions. Realizing that 200,000 people in Spain alone rely on ostomies and face these issues, she questioned why no discreet, high-quality alternative existed. This realization sparked the idea for Ostofix, an anti-reflux device designed to be placed inside the stoma, allowing patients greater control and discretion. She highlights the difficulty of securing funding for a health-focused startup, noting that 25% of startups fail in their first year, and only 3% of total funding goes to women-led startups. Despite these challenges, she secured support from Spanish nursing and patient associations (SEEO, FAPOE, ASOE) and managed to secure funding after two years of effort, culminating in the successful patenting of Ostofix in Europe (2022) and globally (2024). The core message is that true innovation requires taking risks and challenging existing norms to create real-world impact.