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Rosendo Garganta, Founder and CEO, Devicare

Devicare: Improving the Quality of Life by Leveraging Cutting-Edge Technology

Chronic diseases like kidney stones take a toll on the quality of life of the patient. Even after recovering from the disease, the patient needs to exercise utmost caution and follow a lifestyle to prevent recurrence. Yet, one cannot guarantee that it will not recur. These diseases and its recurrence leave the patient and the family exhausted.
This is where companies like Devicare come to the rescue, a respite from the monotonous treatments and fragile quality of life. A biotech company, which focuses on innovative solutions for the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of chronic diseases, Devicare improves the quality of life of such patients with cutting-edge technology.
We had the opportunity to learn more about this company. Following are the extracts of the interview:
Please brief our audience about your company, its values, and how the company has been positioned as a leading player in the nutrition space.
Devicare is a specialty biotech company dedicated to developing pathbreaking medical treatments in Urology combining the most recent scientific advances in nutritional therapy with digital technologies. This is the reason why Devicare is also known as the first digital therapeutic company in Urology.
Devicare was founded in 2012 in Barcelona with the aim to develop the most comprehensive and effective medical treatment for Kidney Stones; a chronic and metabolic disease that affects +10% of worldwide population with +80% of recurrence in a period of 10 years. Today we have an extensive product portfolio in Urology—ready to license—to manage Kidney Stones, and other urological conditions like Urinary Tract Infections or Urinary Incontinence.
What products does your company offer, and how are these making an impact on the industry and your customers?
The most important products are those intended for the management of Kidney Stones, known as Lit-Control®.
Lit-Control® combines patented and clinically validated nutraceuticals intended for each type of stones, with a medical mobile app connected to smart medical devices intended to help the patient to change behaviors and monitor some key biomarkers to avoid the recurrence of the disease.
Today, Lit-Control® products are protected by 35 patents, are clinically validated by +20 clinical trials and +10 case reports, and are present in +50 countries through exclusive licensing agreements with Pharmaceutical Companies.
Lit-Control® is changing the way both doctors and patients are managing Kidney Stone Disease to prevent its recurrence and reduce its burden. Our customers (i.e. Pharmaceutical Companies) are enthusiastic to promote the most comprehensive and effective medical treatment for Kidney Stones and bring something innovative and revolutionary to their respective markets.
Rosendo, please brief us on our journey in the industry, and how you have contributed towards the company’s success.
I, Rosendo Garganta, am the Founder and current CEO of Devicare. I studied Industrial Engineering, and then a second bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering. After that I did an MBA and other professional Masters in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Investment, and International Commerce.
I started my professional career in the Healthcare industry commercializing Medical Devices, Laboratory Equipment and Medical Software to Hospitals. After some years observing and learning how to use the technology to manage patients inside the Hospital, I decided to start a company with the aim to develop technology to manage some of those patients outside the Hospital.
I decided to start in Urology because it is a very technological and innovative therapeutic area, and in Kidney Stones because it is a highly prevalent chronic disease with a lack of effective medical treatments and preventive measures.
The journey until here has been difficult and full of unforeseen obstacles for all of Devicare’s team, but we are proud of what we have built, and we have the ambition to bring our products to every corner of the world.
Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adaptation of modern technologies such as AI, big data and machine learning have transformed the health and wellness industry and what more could be expected in the near future?
AI, Big Data and ML are changing many sectors, and of course the Health and Wellness industry is one of them.
These technologies are allowing us to simplify processes both for patients, doctors, healthcare providers and payers. They are reducing costs, time, and human effort. They are increasing efficacy, productivity, and care delivery. They are empowering doctors, enhancing their performance, and reducing their burnout.
In our case, we have some experimental applications using these technologies to predict the recurrence of stone-former patients depending on their behaviors, to predict the type of the stone (i.e., uric acid, calcium oxalate, struvite or cystine) depending on their urine parameters, or even to predict their urinary pH (a very important marker in Kidney Stones Disease) depending on their diet and water intake.
Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your company to sustain operations and ensuring safety of your employees at the same time?
Now everything is coming back to the normality, but during the worst part of the pandemic in 2020 we had to change a lot of processes and procedures to ensure the safety of our employees. This was always our main priority. And of course, as many other companies we were forced to start to work remotely almost 100% of our time.
In parallel, we decided to increase our stock of products substantially to ensure the supply to the channel and our customers. And we focused our efforts on R&D. The pandemic has been a very creative time for our team, with a lot of innovations both in processes, services, and products that we are looking forward to offering to our clients very soon.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the health and nutrition space?
My first advice would be that you should create a unique asset. It may be a technology, a patent, an outstanding clinical result, a specific regulatory category, or a brand. But it is very important to develop and expand your assets.
My second advice would be that all new entrepreneurs in health and nutrition should have a patient/consumer-centric vision and develop their online sales. E-commerce in nutrition and digital native vertical brands (DNVB) are booming.
How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2021?
In 2021, we are focused on giving the best possible support to our international distributors in these very difficult times. And in parallel, we will continue investing in R&D and increasing our digital capabilities.