Richard "RJ" Kedziora | Co-Founder, Estenda Solutions | Digital Health Solutions, Bettering Lives, & People-First Cultures

Richard "RJ" Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda Solutions, dives into the inspiring world of digital health solutions, where innovative minds are not just developing technology, but also saving and improving lives. RJ shares his journey from early software development days to creating impactful healthcare technologies, highlighting the importance of understanding patient and provider needs. With a focus on people and process management, RJ's story is a testament to the power of technology in making a tangible difference in healthcare through human compassion and the drive to better lives.

Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjkedziora/ | https://estenda.com/ 

Charity supported: Save the Children

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host: Lindsey Dinneen
Editing: Marketing Wise
Producer: Velentium

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Episode 025 - Richard "RJ" Kedziora

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

[00:00:50] Hello, and welcome back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am so excited to welcome as my guest today, Richard "RJ" Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda Solutions, focusing on people and process management which also provides strategic technical direction, guidance, and innovative insights, creating digital health solutions that improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and improve patient provider satisfaction. RJ received an MBA from Westchester University and a BS in Computer Science from Duquesne University, where he received the excellence in computer science award. RJ is a frequent podcast guest, has spoken at numerous technology and healthcare conferences, and has coauthored articles in technology and peer reviewed clinical journals.

[00:01:37] Welcome to the Leading Difference, RJ. And RJ, I would love if you would start by telling us just a little bit about yourself and your background.

[00:01:46] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, Lindsey, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. I look forward to our conversation. My background is through software development. Graduated with a computer science degree back in, in the early nineties before web and mobile and internet. So crazy days. And came up through those software development racks. Started out programming, got into requirements analysis, understanding what a solution is about, project management, general management. And then in 2003, with a good friend, we were working with together at a large consulting company in the pharmaceutical space, we went off and started our own company called as Estenda Solutions and remain there today. We just hit our 20th anniversary, which is always crazy when I can talk about decades, but it has definitely been an interesting journey. So my day to day is, I think of it as a digital solution architect. So helping a mix of large companies and small companies, startups develop tools, technologies, algorithms, better ways of looking and dealing, handling data, to make a difference in the lives of people.

[00:02:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. That's incredible. So 20 years. Congratulations. That's no small task. . So I commend you for that. That's really exciting. I. Yeah. So how did the idea to start your own company come into being? Did you identify a gap basically in the market?

[00:03:15] RJ Kedziora: It's something probably even early on as I was graduating from college, always in, in the back of my mind to make a difference, to go off and try something new and really drive what I wanted to do. Even before starting my own company, as I worked in various different roles, I'd be hired by a company, I'd come in with a defined role, and then I'd always just find a niche. They'd be like, "okay, where does this company need help? Where can I make the biggest impact?"

[00:03:40] And that's how I went from software development into like more of the analysis and project management , 'cause I quickly realized software development, developing a digital product, it, you know, technology is important and you have to understand how to program and how to test, but it's very much about the people, the process, understanding what they're going through, and realizing those things. It was sort of a natural evolution of like, "okay, I need to strike off on my own and really drive projects and things like that with my talents and capabilities and now our team's talents and capabilities."

[00:04:17] We were fortunate in those early stages to have a Congressional grant for the development of a diabetes disease management application for military healthcare. That's how we got our start. So we worked with people like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Boston VA, the Indian Health Services, which is responsible for the Native American population here in the United States. Still working with 'em 20 years later, which is crazy that we have 20 year clients-- bunch of other clients that we've been working with, 10, 11, 12 years a across the board. So, it's been enjoyable from that perspective.

[00:04:53] And I always talk about, I've developed accounting systems, I've developed inventory management systems. And even a railroad car scheduling system, it's like, "Hey, great. We need to get that railroad from here to here. It's important!" You know, it's essential and the economy's important. But healthcare, there's that sense of giving back, of making a difference.

[00:05:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I, that is one of the things that I really enjoy about being in this industry is you're right all of those things matter that you could do with your skills, because obviously you have those skills and can use them in all sorts of capacities but in healthcare and med tech, it's this really great extra layer of feeling like you really are able to impact people's lives directly. And it, it just, it has a different sort of feel to it.

[00:05:46] RJ Kedziora: Yeah. And our projects are typically on the R&D side, work, working with the R&Ds, working with academic medical centers, work with PhDs, with doctors, where they'll have an idea. It's like, okay, here's a different way of treating a patient with diabetes. A different way of looking at the data that you can collect around diabetes or other chronic conditions. I, I wear the Aura ring. It's there's a lot of data that's available there now. And so as we develop those solutions, it's one thing for us and the doctors, the PhDs, the corporations we work with to say, "okay, yes, this really works." But they, you know, they have to go to clinical trial. They have to go and do, they work in the real world. So we also have a couple PhDs on staff to help drive those discussions and do the planning around those clinical trials.

[00:06:34] And ultimately, in certain situations, things then have to go to the FDA to be approved and validated. These days, there's a new terminology called digital therapeutics that we're getting heavily involved with. It's a relatively new term, probably 2017, 2018 that came around. And if there's probably 300,000 digital health applications out there. Systems, you know, some of which we've helped create over the years. But there isn't extensive clinical evidence that they work. There's some, but not extensive, and I think of it as the difference between, supplements and prescribed medications. And so there's lots of supplements out there. You can go to your CVS, your Rite Aid and pick them off the shelf, and there's some evidence they might work, but the evidence isn't exactly clear.

[00:07:25] But then you go to prescribed medications, go through a very extensive, rigorous process of development of clinical trials, and then the FDA or other global regulatory bodies look at these and say, "okay, yes, this does make a difference." And that's the idea of digital therapeutics today is there are lots of digital health applications out there, but now people are taking these digital therapeutic applications: evidence-based, clinically validated, approved by regulatory bodies that can be prescribed by your doctor, by your provider. And more importantly than reimbursed by the insurance company. So making a difference.

[00:08:05] You know, and we talk about health, healthcare, and being able to make a difference. There's not enough healthcare professionals out there, particularly in mental health. There's a mental health crisis in the United States. We just can't train enough people fast enough. Digital health is a way to approach that, to scale, to increase access and equity to these systems, to the care an