Sunday, February 06, 2011
Doctor of invention
Dr. John Davis spent years and thousands of his own dollars creating a "revolutionary" pacifier. He took a different approach when he developed and marketed a second invention.
Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
At Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Dr. John Davis (left) and anesthesiologist Dr. Scott York intubate a pediatric surgical patient using the Rhinoguard, the device designed by Davis to keep the breathing tube from harming nasal passages as it is being inserted.
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Dr. John Davis invented the PreVent pacifier (left). The groove in the pacifier's nipple is designed to reduce the pressure on a baby's developing palate. Davis also designed the Rhinoguard (right), which makes nasal intubation for surgery patients safer and easier.
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Dr. John Davis invented the PreVent pacifier (left). The groove in the pacifier's nipple is designed to reduce the pressure on a baby's developing palate. Davis also designed the Rhinoguard (right), which makes nasal intubation for surgery patients safer and easier.
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Dr. John Davis demonstrates the Rhinoguard on a mannequin. Instead of bankrolling the nascent Rhinoguard himself, Davis turned to friends as early investors.
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A Roanoke pediatric dentist has turned problems he has encountered with his patients into new products that soon will be sold internationally.
The first product is aimed at retail consumers. It's a new pacifier with a patented groove designed to reduce the pressure on a baby's developing palate.
The second item is being marketed to anesthesiologists, hospitals and the medical community as a tool to reduce complications associated with nasal intubation.
While each product had a different pathway to development, both originated in the mind of Dr. John Davis. And, coincidentally, both began to hit their respective markets last month.
Davis is a private practice pediatric dentist with strong roots in the Roanoke community. He has lived nearly his entire life in the valley, where he graduated from Cave Spring High School and then Roanoke College. He left the region only while studying to be a dentist in Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia.
While his days are filled with caring for the teeth of the area's smallest residents, those who know him well know he is an inventor.
"I call him the nutty professor," said Dr. Scott York, who as an anesthesiologist has worked with Davis for years during oral surgeries at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
The making of a pacifier
For more than a decade, Davis has spent countless hours on weekends and evenings fine-tuning the new pacifier that he says prevents deformities to a baby's developing palate and teeth.
The idea originated after Davis saw children develop various problems related to pacifier use. The suction created by pacifiers pushes and pulls a child's developing bone structure. In the worst cases, he said, he has seen pacifier use lead to collapsed palates.
From developing the initial concept to designing a prototype, Davis poured thousands of dollars of his own money into pacifier.
"It's 10 years of my life," he said holding one of the pacifiers. "That's really knocking on doors and going anywhere to get people interested."
He estimates he spent $25,000 initially to get the development of a prototype under way. Ultimately, he said, his total personal investment was probably about $40,000.
Finding a buyer for his pacifier wasn't easy, either. Initial discussions with a large player in the baby products business fell apart after eight months of work and negotiations, Davis said. He didn't want to disclose the company.
Then, about five years ago, he connected with Missouri-based Handi-Craft Co., the privately held company behind the Dr. Brown's brand of bottles. At the time Handi-Craft wasn't selling any pacifiers, and the company was interested in identifying one that offered something unique in the marketplace.
"Basically, I had never seen anything like it," said Handi-Craft President Carolyn Hentschell. "I'd never seen anything with the channel cut down the middle, and he had this design patented."
Handi-Craft and Davis signed a licensing agreement, the terms of which neither disclosed.
Then they spent years perfecting the product.
"This was a long development process, a very long development process," Hentschell said.
She wouldn't provide exact development costs but said they were substantial and included paying a Virginia Tech engineering professor to test the theory that the groove in the pacifier's nipple would reduce the suction pressure in a baby's mouth.
The theory was proved, Hentschell said. But the tests were done on a solid plastic nipple. Product testing later revealed that babies preferred a hollow soft nipple. Each time, the company continued to refine the pacifier.
The pacifier was completed in time for last fall's ABC Kids expo in Las Vegas, one of the largest industry trade shows for children's products. Davis joined Hentschell at the expo and prepared to sell the pacifier, which is called PreVent.
"That was my Super Bowl, going to meet the buyers at the ABC show," Davis said.
The buyers liked it. By mid-January Babies R Us had packages of PreVent pacifiers hanging in its stores, including the one in Roanoke.
"It was really well-received," Hentschell said. "I think the PreVent is just going to be a revolutionary player in the pacifier market. This was really something that is very, very different."
But Hentschell said it was too early to say if the financial and time investments would pay off for Handi-Craft.
Within the next three months, Hentschell said, it will begin to be sold internationally.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price for a two-pack is $6.99, Hentschell said. Internationally the pacifier likely will be sold in single packs, she said.
Time for a new invention
As Davis worked with Handi-Craft to bring his idea to market, he also was dreaming up other pediatric products.
For years Davis had observed first-hand the problems associated with sticking a breathing tube through a child's nose.
Nasal intubation is something his patients often need when he has to perform oral surgeries. He said he's likely seen 3,000 of these intubations done and performed hundreds himself.
The problem is that the end of the tube is hard and pointed, so it can easily scrape, cut and pierce the nasal passages as it is being blindly inserted. The result is often bleeding and infection.
Doctors have tried numerous tricks to reduce the harm associated with the procedure. Among the tricks Davis has heard of is using nasal spray to open up the nasal passages, or using a small amount of medical cocaine to stop the bleeding. Davis and some of his colleagues, such as the anesthesiologist York, have jury-rigged a small rubber urinary catheter tube to guide the nasal tube through the nose.
"Everybody has their own little recipe," Davis said. "But there is no standard out there."
His idea for a flexible rubber tube was generated from the use of the catheter. He started developing the product about four years ago.
In the end, he had invented a one-time-use product called Rhinoguard. It comes in various sizes, depending on the size of the child (an adult version is now being made as well) and it slips over the end of the intubation tube. Once the tube is guided safely through the nose, the Rhinoguard is removed and the intubation is completed.
York said the product makes nasal intubation easier and faster.
"It was smooth, like hot butter," he said after using the Rhinoguard for the first time during an oral surgery that Davis did on one of his patients at Roanoke Memorial.
While Davis is using the product, it is still being rolled out and is not currently being sold. Distribution is likely to begin within the next two months, Davis said.
'A good marriage'
There are some stark differences between Davis' experiences in developing Rhinoguard and PreVent. With Rhinoguard, he didn't self-fund the development. Instead he sought investors by turning to friends. In his first attempt he raised $60,000 in less than 30 minutes by asking friends for support.
"I said, 'We're going to need to stay friends, so don't invest if you can't afford to lose it,' " Davis said.
In total he has raised about $100,000 for developing the product.
Besides learning to reach out to others to fund his inventions, Davis also learned how to more efficiently find a company to license the product.
With a completely different market focus, this time Davis reached out to a medical device manufacturing company. He ultimately signed an agreement with Westmed Inc., which focuses on the respiratory and anesthesia markets.
"The pacifier experience drove my confidence," Davis said. "I had the confidence to get it going faster and to know who to talk to."
Davis has formed two limited liability corporations to manage his inventions, Oralign LLC in May 2010 and Davis Medical LLC in 2008.
He said one of the key lessons he has learned is the importance of identifying good companies to license his ideas.
"I am so very fortunate to have ended up with Handi-Craft and Westmed," he said. "These are both companies that not only chose my products, but I also had to decide if I wanted to sign on with them. ... Both companies have also included me in on meetings and in conventions and shows. They both do not, and did not, have to do that, but they made me feel part of the team."
That experience, he said, has made his effort and time commitments worthwhile.
"It's like a good marriage," he said.
