Sharon Conley, MD was a practicing medical oncologist at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, FL in need of a change. She had a successful clinical practice that included directing the transplant program in her hospital and conducting clinical research trials. But she was tired, a bit weary of the health care delivery system, and frustrated that she could not do more for the cancer patients she treated.
Dr. Conley envisioned work on a larger scale to comfort and improve the experience of hospitalized patients. Hers had often complained that they could not directly access their prescribed pain medications in enough time to alleviate their often excruciating pain. In her numerous years of medical practice, Dr. Conley developed many ideas of ways to improve the bedside care of hospital patients – to make their experience safer and more satisfying. To address this particular concern, she designed and secured a provisional patent on a device she called the MOD®, short for “Medication on Demand,” to allow hospital patients the ability to self-administer their own pain medications instead of having to call already too-busy nurses to have each dose delivered.
She dreamed of seeing her medical device, the first-ever oral PCA (patient controlled analgesia) device, serving patients in hospitals all over the world.
A physician colleague recommended that Dr. Conley talk to a Professional Coach with whom she herself had been working. So, not sure what would happen, she contacted Dolly Garlo, a former nurse and attorney, now a trained International Coach Federation certified coach, with a business called Thrive!! (www.allthrive.com). Together they began to explore the possibilities of accomplishing the seemingly insurmountable task of bringing the MOD® device to market. “Persistence and consistency, Sharon,” she would hear repeatedly. “Just put one foot in front of the other and let’s see where you go next.”
Since that start, Dr. Conley figured a way, one step at a time, to close her medical practice and leave her physician partnership, while finishing the patent for her device and exploring the world of business – which she discovered happily, was not the mystery she thought it was.
She took business seminars specifically devoted to topics like raising venture capital, working through the maze of medical device manufacturing and mastering applicable government regulations. She created bridges to stay connected to her former medical colleagues, took on clinical research consulting projects to maintain interim financial income while restructuring her finances, and learned to network with anyone having a focus related to the MOD®. She produced a prototype device and was granted a National Institutes of Health grant to pursue a clinical trial of the MOD® at Halifax Medical Center, successfully completed in 2006.
In the clinical trial of Dr. Conley’s MOD® device, 95% of patients reported satisfaction with pain management and ease of use and 84% of nurses reported saving valuable nursing time. Impressive initial results called for a coach-encouraged celebration to maintain momentum with an increasingly busy to-do list. And there have been many such celebrations with each milestone she completed.
Dr. Conley used her great skills at sizing up people and working with multi-disciplinary professionals to assemble a crackerjack business team – a COO with significant business start up experience and a fabulous CFO, not to mention teams of legal, accounting, design and software engineering, nursing, pharmacy and other healthcare professionals – always including her trusted coach to help keep her moving forward. As a result, her company, AVANCEN, LLC: Improving Patient Care at the Bedside (www.avancen.com) was born.
And after developing a sound working business plan and raising close to $3 million of private funds the first MOD® devices rolled off the manufacturing line. An ever-evolving business and marketing campaign is being systematically implemented to bring them to hospitals throughout the US, and ultimately the EU, Asia and even Saudi Arabia. Non-exclusive distribution agreements have been put in place with other vendors who serve the healthcare market from a different perspective.
As she was making this uncharted journey, Dr. Conley was encouraged to stay in touch with the “heart” of her activities — the reasons she was making these big changes. So she went to clown camp to perfect her Dr. FeelGood character – a sort of Groucho Marx in a white lab coat with a magic wand and jelly beans in a jar as feel good pills – her own Patch Adams approach to medical practice. Dr. FeelGood, certainly her alter ego, is one with whom she is encouraged to stay in touch, along with the pursuit of rigorous self-care to maintain the energy for her ambitious projects.
While attending a magic show as chosen way to fulfill that coaching request, Dr. Conley met Gerry, her “Irish Angel,” who has become one of her many mentors. Gerry is also an entrepreneur, with considerable business success and he has introduced her to others in Ireland who may someday play a role in AVANCEN’s mission. There have been many more such “chance” meetings of the right people in all areas of her projects, just as she needed them.
Magic indeed. These are but examples of the series of serendipitous events that have occurred since Dr. Conley committed to work with a coach to bring her large dream to life – a dream that will leave an incredible legacy in the medical world.
“One of the wonderful benefits of coaching,” adds Dr. Conley, “is the ability to have somebody to talk to on a regular basis who can help you reflect and discover what your your real talents and passions are all about. Then your coach can help you find the courage and patience within yourself to develop those dreams into reality so you can live life to its fullest.”
Written by: Dolly M. Garlo, RN, JD, PCC & Sharon Conley, PhD, MD