Neil Verdal Austin: Innovating a Pathway to Better Sleep

The healthcare sector in the United States, as well as other developing countries, is in need of help. Despite the medical advances in treatment facilities that have taken place over the years, treatment delivery remains consumer-unfriendly. Not only are there medical errors, but consumers spend a heavy load of money out of their pockets in meeting their medical needs.

Such problems beg for innovative solutions. Solutions that are not only cost-effective but also provide a satisfactory delivery to their consumers. Neil Verdal-Austin, the CEO of SomnoMed, is yet one of those leaders who has brought about change in the healthcare sector through his own innovative solutions.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that around 70 million people, only in the United States and one billion people globally, suffer from chronic sleep problems. Concerns such as snoring and sleep apnea are growing common among both men and women, which when untreated, is leading to chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes. But Neil has innovated a pathway for the patients to sleep better.

Through SomnoMed, Neil delivers clinically researched oral appliances that have proven to be a long-term solution in treating sleep apnea and snoring concerns. Their oral appliances are not only FDA-cleared, but also a customfitted dental device specially designed to be a comfortable alternative to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy in treating sleep apnea. With this innovation, Neil has managed to help more than 750,000 patients in having a comfortable night’s sleep.

Let’s dive in to know more about Neil’s innovative pathway in the betterment of healthcare.

Kindly tell us the source of inspiration? What led you to venturing into sleep conditions such as Sleep Apnea, Snoring and Grinding Teeth.

I have always been passionate about healthcare and, through innovative solutions, changing people’s lives. My first foray was in orthopaedics, where mobility was a lifechanging gift. This gift is better sleep – a critical function that enables all that we do. I stumbled across the opportunity when moving to Australia and have loved the challenge ever since.

Can you elaborate upon the core values on which SomnoMed is built and what is the mission of the organization?

I am an authentic business leader who builds opportunities through a vision-inspired passion to change people’s lives for the better. Although I’m trained in finance, but I’m also business oriented, and people driven. Thus, at SomnoMed, people and culture come first. With this vision, I’ve guided the SomnoMed story so far. Everything that takes place, revolves around that.

In what ways, do you think SomnoMed’s products and services will help the patients and customers in resolving their sleep conditions?

SomnoMed is the global, oral appliance industry leader with a dedicated team of professionals determined to bring the most comfortable treatment solution to those OSA patients who desperately need help – help to sleep better, to function better, to live better.

We are inclusive and we care about the long-term outcomes in the treatment of the disease. Sleep Apnea is a degenerative long term chronic medical condition where breathing stops involuntarily for several brief periods of time during sleep. That means that remaining in treatment is probably more important than any theoretical efficacy discussion. While efficacy is a factor, compliance is of significant importance due to the nature of this debilitating disease with so many linked co-morbidities.

When left untreated, the disease can lead to multiple co-morbidities. These co-morbidities are far worse than sleep apnea itself, and for that reason, a long-term solution is important. Through our multi-disciplinary approach, SomnoMed delivers products that are most suitable to the patients’ needs. They are the most clinically researched oral appliances on the market, and the company’s proprietary bflex Comfort Liner provides best in class retention and comfort for those patients.

How has SomnoMed’s treatment become an alternative to CPAP therapy?

Since SomnoMed’s oral sleep apnea devices run on a technology that effectively addresses the poor compliance of other treatments, they have fast become a viable alternative to CPAP.

We have identified that although CPAP works 100%, if the patient isn’t compliant to wearing it, then it has no chance to treat the disease. The industry has finally concluded that enough is enough – we have to put patients first and they need a solution they can tolerate.

Contrary to CPAP, our devices will run on a future technology, Rest Assure® that will provide connectivity to the digital range whereby the devices will be able to record sleep data overnight and forward it to the sleep doctor, dentist, and patient.

What technological support do you find to be essential in conducting the operations of SomnoMed?

The Rest Assure® technology will provide this transformational “first” to the healthcare industry – an ability to provide all night every night data that is collected by wearing the device. This will be an intelligent, connected, technology enabled oral appliance. The measure will bring both efficacy and patient compliance data together such that the treatment pathway will become a clinical reality, enabling better patient phenotyping and personalized medicine.

What challenges do you face in the industry, and how are you turning them into opportunities for growth?

To implement the future plan, the business needs a strong IT and operational system framework to appropriately deliver these solutions to the customers—the dental professionals. We pay a lot of attention to every process, to ensure that SomnoMed’s valuable customers and their patients receive the best service.

But in the process, the challenges are many.

The medical and dental communities must be brought closer together to enable this treatment to be core to the sleep ecosystem. To do that, we host global events such as the Medical Masterclass APAC and SOMSummit North America to discuss current topics, research, practical treatment protocols, and the latest trends in technology. This sets a new standard of cooperation that is research based, clinical, and patient-focused. At SomnoMed, this approach is called the Medical Initiative and is becoming a highly visible, successful, and recognized brand.

Secondly, we are faced with various complex insurers, payors, and reimbursement systems globally that will require ongoing work with those authorities to validate the inclusion of oral appliances as a first-line treatment for mild to moderate OSA patients.

Lastly, equating the oral appliance technology with CPAP will enable faster adoption by the medical community. This will be achieved by SomnoMed through the Rest Assure® connectivity platform.

How do you envision scaling your organization’s services and operations in 2023 and beyond?

We are building our digital manufacturing platform, which will allow volumes to double over the next few years. Such a digital milling process will bring scalability to the business and durability to the products.

What advice would you like to give to budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who desire to explore treatment alternatives for sleeping conditions?

Don’t give up! This is not easy, and the hurdles are many, but we need credible alternatives for patients that ensure that patients remain in treatment and avoid the nasty co-morbidities that are coming down the line.