How Physician-Inventors Create New, Life-Saving Products

By Alexandra Frost

WakeMed emergency room physician and medical director, Graham Snyder, MD, has seen his fair share of deaths: an average of one or two per day. That's part of the job. Some of the deaths were the result of risky behavior, ongoing health problems, and other natural causes.

But what he didn't find acceptable was losing a 6-year-old girl in a backyard pool drowning at what was meant to be a celebratory birthday party and family reunion.

"There were aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins, and the pool was packed, and they're having a great time. One of the parents looked over and saw that she was swimming around underneath but acting weird. A relative pulled her up by the arm, and she was dead," he says. "What nobody could tell me, and what they'll live with the rest of their life, is how long was she under water?"

So Snyder invented a solution. The catch: He's among an interesting set of doctors whose side gigs are solving critical problems affecting patients where they live. These are not medical devices for clinical use. They're innovative products that everyday folks can use to make their lives safer and healthier. The goal: Improving systemic and "unsolvable" issues that harm society.

The cool part: Any MD with an idea can get in on the game.

Keeping Little Heads Above Water

Drowning is the leading cause of death in young children ages 1-4 years, and the second leading cause for children ages 5-14 years. The issue, Snyder explains, is not that rescuers couldn't get to these kids in time. "It's that nobody knew to start looking."

Snyder created a collar that alerts those around the swimmer that they are in trouble. The SEAL SwimSafe drowning prevention technology sets off an alarm system if a child is under water for too long. The necklace has been used to protect more than 10,000 children, including at larger swim facilities, such as the YMCA.

When Snyder first started pursuing his invention, he asked himself two key questions: "Has someone already tried this? And if they did, why did they not succeed?" These questions help counteract the potential arrogance, he says, with imagining that you are the first person to have a certain idea. And using whatever reason others didn't succeed as your "secret sauce" helps lead to more success. He also had to consider obstacles. People might resist wearing a collar or necklace while swimming or putting one on their child, like the reluctance around wearing bicycle helmets when they gained popularity in the 1980s. He concluded that the collars would work best at larger facilities, where they were mandated.

Another obstacle was false alarms. "It was possible to trigger a false alarm, and that could really scare people," Snyder says. He is still considering systems to prevent the collars from being stolen or from "13-year-old boys hiding them in the water drain and making everyone really scared when an alarm is going off."

The demand is real, however, and is based on alarming data. Safe Kids has reported that 66% of natural water drownings and around half of pool drownings happened with an adult supervising. They add, however, that supervision is often lacking or insufficient, such as a parent not being within arm's reach of a young kid. As Snyder told reporters in a 2018 story, even the most well-intentioned parents still "miss something" sometimes, and this technology is for that moment.

"This is a completely solvable problem, but not a flip-a-switch, one and done," he says, pointing to his product as a part of a more comprehensive approach, such as in Europe, where mandated public school swimming lessons are helping to decrease drowning deaths.

The pandemic slowed progress for the SEAL SwimSafe collar, which is currently waiting on a new funder or investor to take the reins. But the concept is alive and well with competitors pursuing related ideas. Snyder is holding out hope that entrepreneurs, scientists, public health workers, researchers, and others will be interested in continuing this work.

Eliminating the Stigma of Incontinence

Ever had an accident before making it to the bathroom? So have two thirds of adult women, and almost one third of older men. Incontinence is linked to a wide variety of conditions, from pelvic-floor trauma to neurological issues to diabetes, and others. Urologist Jessica Lubahn, MD, in Portland, Oregon, saw one too many patients feeling this type of shame, unaware that the condition was so common. In addition, she personally experienced childbirth-related incontinence, and helped a relative who was having incontinence after prostate cancer surgery.

"He had a great result, but he had confided in me…it was one of the only times in his life that he's been truly depressed," Lubahn says. "It's not even the amount of leakage, but the smell, the stigma is so embarrassing, that not only is it an inconvenience, but [it affects] your entire psyche." She thought there had to be a better solution than the "demeaning" act of wearing adult diapers.

Noting the explosion of the period panty industry in the past decade, Lubahn wanted to "destigmatize" incontinence in the same way menstruation education and products have been. She created ONDR incontinence underwear, specifically meant for urine, to ease the mental and physical burden on her patients and many others.

Lubahn says a process happens when you decide to start talking about the product you want to make rather than trying to find answers on your own. "A lot of people are so afraid to talk about their ideas because they're afraid it's going to get stolen or scooped, or it might fail," she says. "I just openly discussed it, kind of like cocktail party conversation — 'Wouldn't it be funny if you just pee into your underwear?'" She noticed each connection led to finding more people to help her along her journey.

Lubahn studied the apparel industry, learning that overseas manufacturers were more helpful and cost-effective. She navigated issues like a special stitch that prevented leakage and other details. She was also intent on using eco-friendly products that offset the environmental impact of pads, liners, and diapers. She says there's a strong entrepreneurship community that can help other physician-inventors get grants, be part of accelerator programs, and receive support.

Six years after the original idea, Lubahn's product was released in 2020. She now sells eight types of underwear for women and men's boxer briefs. She wears them herself daily.

Deterring Carjackers, Saving Lives

In 2022, carjackings tripled in Chicago and Memphis. The areas have the highest rates in 30 cities that the Council on Criminal Justice analyzed in a report on pandemic crime rates. According to the report, nearly 40% of offenders used a firearm, more than a quarter of victims were injured, and only around half of the vehicles taken were recovered. In addition, vehicles are sometimes used in secondary crimes, such as drive-by shootings. William Yates, MD, former trauma surgeon, now turned hair restoration surgeon in Chicago, saw the evidence of those crimes daily.

"I was perplexed by carjacking because there wasn't any answer, and it just kept getting worse and worse. A lot of innocent people were being affected," he says. "I was seeing deaths — needless. If you give them any push back at all, they will shoot you."

As a deterrent to counter this "easy crime," he invented the Yates Device, an alarm system designed to prevent or interrupt carjacking. The driver can activate a switch located beneath the foot pedal or an app on their phone to trigger a programmed high-decibel alarm. Critically, it allows the carjacker to drive a safe distance away from the victim before it starts going off.

The alarm "turns your car into a very noisy Christmas tree on a time delay," Yates explains. An external siren blares "stolen vehicle" repeatedly. A camera records everything in the car. Lights flash. Only the original driver can turn off the system. Later, once the car is abandoned, the police can help recover the vehicle.

In Yates' experience, the invention process takes longer than you think. He worked through earlier iterations with strobe lights, but these could lead to bystanders getting hurt if the carjacker couldn't see, for example. Developing the final product and applying for patents was a two-part process.

"The first is part is a pending patent phase which secures your place in line," he says. "After 1 year, we filed the Utility Patent as the final documentation that the invention is truly unique. That has been in process for a year now and the attorneys say we should receive approval soon."

The product has initially been tested in seven cars for about 1 year. Yates is measuring how the system performs in all types of weather, including Chicago's below-zero temperatures. The product is not available to the public for purchase yet because Yates is still seeking funding to have it mass produced, but it is currently being evaluated by Korean automakers for their car manufacturers.

"Everybody was saying 'Let's do something about this,' but I didn't see anybody doing anything yet," Yates recalls. In the surgeon's lounge, everybody has ideas. "You go around the room, and every doctor would have five ideas that would make them the richest doctor, but nobody takes it beyond that stage — talk. You have to synthesize that into a plan, to take action."

Yates feels that many doctors have the intellect to invent, but they aren't in a network like entrepreneurs to bring their idea to life.

For Yates, it takes a curious mindset to solve these daunting problems. "I'm always curious, always looking for how to improve something, to get better outcomes you have to be asking questions and just never let it go."

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