Erik Gillsbro began his employment at iZafe Group as product owner for Dosell in April 2021. He has had an intensive learning period and has already been maximally involved in the upcoming launch of Dosell Consumer, the development of Dosell 2.0 and the work to obtain MDR certification when MDR replaced MDD (which means that Dosell continues to be approved according to the EU regulation on medical devices that ensures the safety and performance of medical devices). Erik is 29 years old and has previously worked as an IT consultant in e-health, primarily in national projects to streamline and improve Swedish healthcare. He has studied the Medicine and Technology program at Lund University. In addition to working with Dosell, Erik enjoys cooking and sports, particularly football.
What made you apply for the job as product owner at Dosell?
I have had similar assignments as a consultant before and really enjoyed the role where I got to touch the areas of technology, project management, business development and strategy. Dosell as a product appealed to me a lot in that it facilitates everyday life and gives people a safer life. In addition, iZafe Group is a small company with big ambitions which I found extra exciting. I really look forward to being part of the journey and build the company.
What have been your focus areas?
It has been a lot of new exciting things to learn, but above all, the MDR certification and production of Dosell have been my biggest focus areas during the spring.
What challenges do you see that the introduction of medication robots in healthcare solves?
One of the most important challenges that Dosell solves is the adherence to medication, where Dosell is an excellent tool for taking the right medicine at the right time. Wrong medication is a common cause of hospitalizations today. In addition, Dosell also facilitates the daily work of, for example, home care staff by freeing up valuable time from medication handling.
What are your prospects for what the autumn will be like? What are you most looking forward to working with?
During the autumn it will be very fun to launch Dosell Consumer in Sweden, it is a big milestone for us to be the first business to launch and offer a medication dispensing robot for private individuals. I also look forward to developing new and innovative features for Dosell users.
How do you see the market in general with medication dispensing robots? Is it a market that is growing in the future and is now beginning to mature for digital aids?
The market for digital aids has grown strongly recently, not least during the pandemic we are still in, where the need has become even clearer. Even in the future, the need will remain as the demographic development means that we need to develop more innovative solutions to offer independent and humane healthcare to an aging population.
What is the useful effect of the product development that has been done since you entered the company? What results have been achieved after the first months?
The biggest challenge for me since I started has been to get Dosell 2.0 ready for launch and scale up production, which we succeeded in the spring. It has been an extremely intense and fun job to reach the goal. Concrete product development that we have done is to develop support for three more types of sachets in the Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish markets and launched our application for the consumer version. So far, it has been a steep learning curve and I look forward to helping make Dosell the simplest and best medication robot on the market.
Why are sachets the safest way to medicate and would you describe the mechanics behind Dosell?
By taking medication through sachets, the user can be sure that they always contain correctly prescribed medicines, which creates security and reduces the administrative work around medicines. Together with Dosell, which ensures that the dose is delivered on time, you as a user get a system with high reliability.
How do you see investments and future developments to further develop the concept of automatic dose dispensing?
Compliance with prescribed drugs is generally low, where it would have been interesting to be able to offer additional solutions to more target groups where I mainly think of younger people with many prescribed medications.
How has the response been from the pilot project with consumers for Dosell?
I am happy to say that it has been thoroughly positive. Above all, we have noticed that the people who participated in the first test period during the spring and winter also wanted to participate during our second and most recent test period and expressed that they have missed their Dosell between the two test periods. It is this kind of feedback that makes me feel that we contribute to making people's lives better. We have also received concrete and good feedback from our test participants, which is incredibly valuable in our upcoming launch of the consumer version of Dosell this autumn.
What value do you think Dosell can create for the target groups relatives, care recipients, care providers and for pharmacies / partners who are resellers?
Dosell creates value in different ways for the different target groups, which makes it a very exciting product.
- For relatives, security is created in that the right medicine is taken at the right time and if something goes wrong, you are made aware of it directly through Dosell's alarm functions.
- The patient receives a simpler medication routine where you do not have to keep track of time and have the sachet cut straight away without having to use scissors or tear off the bag yourself.
- Caregivers can remotely monitor the medication and can free up valuable time from medication management.
- For partners, Dosell is a perfect piece of the puzzle in a larger ecosystem of growing welfare technology products where Dosell's price picture gives them a unique position in the market.