Dr. Sharat Kusuma, who is senior vice president of business development and chief medical officer for Alachua, Florida-based Exactech, Inc., has agreed to join London-based vTail Healthcare Communications, Inc. as the newest addition to the company’s recently formed strategic advisory board.
A fellowship-trained, board-certified ortho surgeon with education from Vanderbilt University, University of Pennsylvania, and Rush University medical schools, Kusuma’s background includes full time academic and clinical ortho surgical practice, published work in ortho publications and peer-reviewed journals, and a healthcare consultant career at McKinsey & Company.
A newer presence in digital healthcare communications platforms, vTail connects healthcare professionals (HCPs) with stakeholders across the pharmaceutical, med tech, medical diagnostics and biotechnology industries. The company has initially focused on a launch in medical technology, with planned launches in the dental and ortho markets upcoming.
The company’s software is unique in that it keeps HCPs in control of the flow of platform communication, with free use, no requirement to share their personal contact information and only info from user-selected companies appearing on the app. As medical treatment becomes more virtually focused the platform will, according to the Company, foster increased efficiency.
The vTail program was recently by MD Tech Review as a 2021 Top 10 Clinical Communications & Collaboration Solution.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Kusuma to this critical Strategic Advisory Board supporting our efforts in the Orthopedics market. We are excited to leverage Dr. Kusuma’s unique background and experience that spans clinical orthopedic practice, academic medicine, elite healthcare management consulting, and senior operational roles in the medical device industry to help accelerate vTail’s growth and market presence,” said vTail CEO Barry Wolfenson.
Dr. Kusama explained to OTW why he joined vTail’s advisory board, “The novel physician customer-Medtech company two-way communication platform that the team at vTail has conceived is long overdue in the medical device industry. Having been a full-time practicing academic surgeon earlier in my career and now serving in a leadership role within an orthopedic medical device company, I’ve experienced first-hand, and from both sides of the aisle, the significant inefficiency that has traditionally existed when a busy, time-constrained surgeon wants to learn more about a specific new technology from a company, and the company wants to interact with the surgeon conveniently, and put their best foot forward to introduce the new technology.”
Dr. Kusama continued, “In the previous model, the surgeon contacted their local sales representative (which is often their primary contact within the company). That front-line sales rep, who often has limited expertise in new technologies, then needs to contact a corporate product manager within the company, who is often unknown to the surgeon, and share the surgeon’s contact information with the product manager. Then, if the logistics align, the surgeon and product manager may actually connect after three or four weeks of back and forth communication. The preceding is a terribly inefficient model.”
“In the new vTail world, surgeons can create profiles in which they curate their clinical interests, while companies can place their best technology-specific corporate content experts on the vTail portal. In this way, we are bringing the customer and the seller in an asynchronous way that significantly streamlines their connection.”
“This type of novel platform that vTail has brought to the market is going to be essential for Medtech companies moving forward. The reason? In recent years, surgical procedures and devices have become increasingly technical and involve advanced technologies (e.g., robotics, surgical navigation, wearables, remote patient monitoring apps).”
“It will become increasingly difficult for front-line sales representatives to have all the necessary content knowledge on these topics to introduce or onboard a customer to a new technology. vTail can help make the front-line sales representative’s job easier by enabling them to connect their surgeon customers directly with the best corporate expert on a given technology. Now that I serve in a leadership role in the Medtech industry, I see a huge need for this type of technology and commend the vTail team for being ahead of the curve and bringing this long-overdue technology to the market.”
