Paul Summers, VP of Product Strategy at MediGO, is dedicated to driving innovative solutions for valuable outcomes in transplant. “I like being out front and meeting with transplant colleagues and customers to stay focused on their needs,” he says, and adds that he wants to “guide MediGO in building products that are straight forward to use while making a valuable impact in transplant and to patients.”
In 2019, MediGO co-founders Dr. Joseph Scalea, a renowned transplant surgeon, and Scott Plank began planning how best to address the need for transparency in organ shipment deliveries. They recruited Summers for his extensive experience in project management and background in computer systems.
“One of my strengths is my ability to understand and manage research and collaboration with industry stakeholders to inform the foundation of a successful product,”
Summers says. Before moving forward with any supply chain technology design, the trio spent 15 months interviewing industry leaders from all 58 organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and many renowned transplant surgeons to build what is now MediGO’s award-winning ScoutlineTM engine. Summers was able to quickly translate his project management background to set in motion the technical building blocks needed for the digital transformation of supply chain and logistics within the transplant community.
“We were able to move quickly based on the feedback we received from meeting with OPO leaders and incorporate it into a first-to-test beta design,” Summers says. “I approached an industry leading computer research firm to help build a minimal viable product (MVP).” Six weeks later, equipped with the MVP, Summers and team shipped the first tracked human organ from a donor hospital to Dr. Scalea’s transplant center in Baltimore. In partnership with leading surgeons and OPO executives, MediGO then embarked on guiding a white paper which proved the market need for this technology and informed future demand for logistics and supply chain within the transplant community. Stemming from this due diligence, MediGO was incorporated in 2020, just one year after the vision was born.
One thing Summers understood from the start was the need to get the right colleagues on board. MediGO has an incredibly talented multidisciplinary team who share the mission of stewarding donors’ gifts. Today, MediGO’s ScoutlineTM engine is trusted by OPOs and transplant centers across the country. Summers and team have launched four new product solutions to help organizations manage organ referrals, organ shipments, surgical recovery teams and synchronization of transplant center operations.
What’s next? MediGO is working to expand their transplant center products with what Summers refers to as “team synchronization” for transplant center and hospital teams. This will help transplant centers manage the dynamic changes the industry is imposing on its OPO and hospital teams. MediGO’s solution allows transplant stakeholders to communicate critical information with their partners within one HIPAA-compliant secure platform, and in real time, while eliminating the need for time-consuming phone calls and partially populated group texts that allow room for error.
MediGO’s mission is to optimize the journey of every organ and tissue donor. “Our work isn’t work, it’s collaboration. We’re not doctors or clinicians or patient care professionals, but we can become critical to their success by enabling them to do what they do best,” Summers says. “We’ve spent time listening to the transplant and donation community and I can feel the momentum now. People want to meet with us to discuss our platforms and what’s possible because they know our heart is in the right place.”
The MediGO team is focused on its value proposition which is to empower the donation and transplantation industry to manage resources and communications, increase access to transplant, reduce inequities and save more lives.
MediGO remains focused on its collaboration with industry partners who are working on a dedicated basis to make the necessary improvements to maximize organ donation and eliminate the organ waitlist. There is a growing network of dedicated professionals who believe that the wait list could be reduced, and even eliminated for certain organs, with simple technological and process improvements.
Summers and MediGO share this goal and are part of the solution.