#19 | Alex Farahmand: A Hot-Glued Prototype Became an FDA Device

A friend hot-glued a sensor onto a plastic breathing device over a weekend. That prototype cleared clinical trials and went to the FDA.More on Alex Farahmand and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/alex-farahmandDr. Alex Farahmand is an emergency medicine physician and the co-founder and president of Tidal Medical Technologies. After his fellowship he spent six months reading and rebuilding his sense of what he was actually good at, then launched and scaled a group of urgent care clinics before turning to devices.The business mechanic is what makes the product valuable. When a patient leaves the hospital without pneumonia and comes back inside 30 days, it counts as hospital-acquired pneumonia, and Medicare treats that very differently. His connected incentive spirometer sits directly on that reimbursement line, which is why a hospital will pay for prevention.He is candid about building a device category that did not exist: proving a brand new patented product through trials from scratch, why bedbound patients carry the highest risk, whether to integrate with hospital records or stand alone, and a go-to-market of smaller hospitals first, founder-led sales and American manufacturing.Dr. Alex Farahmand is an emergency medicine physician and the co-founder and president of Tidal Medical Technologies, which makes InSee, a connected incentive spirometer built to reduce postoperative pneumonia and hospital readmissions. He previously launched and scaled a group of urgent care clinics.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The weekend hot-glue prototype05:10 The identity crisis after fellowship11:00 Scaling urgent care clinics19:00 How the smart spirometer was born21:30 The Medicare readmission incentive28:20 SaaS plus risk reduction32:00 Integrate with records or stand alone39:40 Trials, FDA, and revenue44:00 American-made, founder-led sales53:00 Smaller hospitals firstNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.