(upbeat music) - Welcome to "At Issue."

I'm H. Wayne Wilson, thank you so much for joining us.

There's a way to predict when someone might fall out of a chair or out of a bed.

The process was developed here in Peoria.

If your dog has allergies, there's some food developed here in Central Illinois for your dog.

And also, we have a company here that is providing testing for blood samples for pharmaceutical companies, all of these right here in Central Illinois.

It shows that business is growing in Peoria and to have that discussion, we've invited Deepak Gaddipati here.

Deepak is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer for VirtuSense Technologies.

Deepak, thank you for being here.

- Thank you H, thank you for having me.

- Samm Hutchison is here.

She is the Owner and Founder of Bear's Bites, and that is the dog food company and it is four years old.

We welcome you, Samm.

- Thank you.

- And Mitch Johnson is here.

Mitch is the Founder or I should say Co-founder and Lab Director for Veloxity Labs, which is located on Main Street in Peoria, at the Peoria Next Innovation Center.

Thank you for joining us.

- Pleasure joining today, H. - So in doing my homework, Deepak, I have to admit that I read about your technology.

It uses AI and sensors to predict when someone may fall out of a bed or out of a chair and I don't know how this works.

(both laughing) What spurred this?

- So, my grandmother who was 68 years old, on her way to the bank, she fell, broke her hip and died within 10 days as a result of a fall.

So, this happened in almost close to 2010.

So, at that point I was working with US Army, developing technology for them.

So, I made it my life's mission to actually develop technology to prevent falls from older people, from falling.

- This is a new category.

I mean, are there competitors for you or?

- It's it's interesting.

Slowly they started coming up.

So, when we started doing this eight years back, so it was pretty much employed.

I mean, people fall and that's when healthcare really started.

And how do you take care of them and get them back to normal?

So, what we did is how do we prevent falls from happening in the first place?

So, that's where we use lot of LIDAR and AI technology to figure out movements of people and understand who's at risk for falls.

- So, when you use those terms, can you explain what's happening?

Let's say that there's a patient at a nursing home in a bed.

- Yeah.

- What are the sensors?

- So, what we actually have is a that's on the wall.

It uses a technology called LIDAR.

So, this is what is used in autonomous driving cars like Google's Waymo or Ford users.

And what we do is we put that on the wall and we figure the whole room in 3D and we figure out where is the bed, where is the chair, where is the patient?

where is IV pole and we understand the whole area and 30 times every second, we capture data.

And there is AI that took 2 million such hours of data and figured out what do people do before they get up from the bed and the chair?

So, as a result, today, we can tell 30 to 65 seconds before someone gets up that they're going to get up.

So, we talk back with them in multiple languages and at the same time, alert the nurses and the technicians on their endpoint devices.

So as a result, we are preventing like 70 to 80% of falls that happen in senior living.

- You're preventing 80% of falls?

- Yep.

- I wanna get more into that, but I wanna move over to Mitch Johnson because Mitch also has a technology company.

He is with Veloxity Labs and you are in... Because Deepak started a new category of industry, if I may say that, and Mitch, you're joining something that is not new.

There's lots of competitors for you because these are contract organization, Contract Research Organizations that test blood samples for pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Why would you wanna start in that field?

- Yeah, so it's very dynamic.

Pharmaceuticals are ever changing, ever growing.

The way that people look at drug discovery now is a lot different than they did 20 and 30 years ago and people are always trying to develop new ways to deliver drugs, new types of drugs, new modalities.

And so, just going to work every day and getting to work with all these different various organizations, it is just so dynamic and you just get engrossed in all the different new technologies that are going on.

So yes, it is a well-defined business model.

These services used to be performed internally within the pharmaceutical organization and then in the early 2000s, maybe even late 90s, this emergence of Contract Research Organizations started to happen where these organizations had a core competency, a specialty and so now they could really service, not only the large pharmaceutical companies, but smaller and medium emerging size pharmaceutical companies as well.

- Now, you're relatively new.

You have five employees.

- Yeah, we have five FTEs at this point, we just opened officially, January 1st, we were founded in the fall but just opened our doors to our lab on January 1.

- And the prospects for clients?

- It's very good so far.

So, we've been engaging a lot.

We've been doing a lot of marketing and been doing a lot of telephone calls and video calls with potential clients, and there's a big backlog right now in this type of industry to get studies performed.

I think part of that is twofold.

One is just with the emergence of obviously COVID 19.

A lot of this work was done overseas before and a lot of that's coming back just because of the ability.

I think the United States has realized that we need to do a lot of this stuff in-house here as opposed to outsourcing it.

And so, a lot of people are bringing their back.

And then as well as there's been a lot of time with people working from home for pharmaceutical companies, they've kind of had a resurgence and got into some of their programs and realized they had more time to get into some of these things.

There's more funding for it too.

People are very aware of our health now in this pandemic era.

So, there's just a lot of resources being pushed towards type of development work.

- You have proposals out to numerous companies, biotech pharmaceuticals, but I assume that you're not trying to tackle Big Pharma.

You're not going after Moderna or Pfizer.

- That's correct.

So, our target ideal client is that small and emerging pharma that wants an expert on their studies as well.

They want guidance, they consultation.

They may not have this expertise in-house and so they want someone that they can talk to and discuss their issues with, and also somebody that's very flexible.

So, that's kind of our competitive advantage, is our speed and our flexibility to support the discovery and development efforts.

- I wanna talk more about how the system works, but let me turn to Samm because this is not high tech.

- No.

But it's equally important.

You provide, may I say allergy-free foods to dogs.

So, why did you do that?

- So, we started Bear's Bites.

My dog Sarge, 15 years ago had horrible food allergies, and it wasn't really a known thing in the dog world because it was kinda like, "Oh, we know people allergies, but you know dogs?"

So, the vet told us, "You gotta put him on a special dog food, it's hydrolyzed chicken."

He was allergic to chicken.

It doesn't matter how it's made, he's still allergic to it.

So, I got him on the food, started researching treats, everything had chicken in it or something that I couldn't pronounce well, if I'm not gonna eat it, I'm not gonna give it to my dogs.

My dogs aren't on kibble.

So, we started their treats.

We did banana and sweet potato, all organic, all high quality human grade ingredients, and our dogs have loved them.

Tank come along, he was on the same problems.

He couldn't have chicken.

So, after we lost our boys, I adopted Bear.

And Bear, same food allergies, can't have chicken.

And I knew if I would is having the problem, there were a lot of people out there having the same problems.

So, Bear would eat the sweet potatoes or the bananas.

So, we had to find a company that did all hormone-free, steroid-free and organic meat.

So, we did and here we are, making Bear his treats because like I said, he won't eat the of fruits and vegetables and then we've moved into dog food also.

- So, you did this out of your own kitchen for your own animals?

- Yes, we started in- - Why did you say, "Well, I can this for a lot of people."

- Why did I say that?

- Yeah.

- Well, I knew other people had the same need that I had.

- But you're in accounting.

- Yeah, but dogs are my life.

(chuckles) So, I wanna make sure that they're taken care of.

So that's why we did it.

I had a lot of friends asking me to make them treats and I was like, "Okay, well, I'm gonna expand this."

And within our first year, we were supporting ourself in doing well at Bear's Bites.

- Well, we'll talk about how you expanded in just a moment but let me come back to Mitch because people are sitting there going, "Okay, let's now get technical, Mitch."

(both chuckle) But there's a few terms we may have to use like LC-MS, and that's basic the technology that you're using to test blood samples for these biotech and pharmaceutical companies to see what the level of drug is in the blood sample in these preclinical trials.

Explain LC-MS in my terms.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So in short, the summary is that a technique stands for Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.

So, the liquid chromagraph separates the drug from other things present in the sample.

So, proteins, lipids that are present in the sample, so they don't interfere with the measurement that's done by the mass spectrometer.

So, the mass spectrometer basically hones in on that specific molecule based its molecular weight.

So, then that can detect only that specific drug in the sample.

And from there, you can determine what the concentration of the drug is.

We do that as a function of time.

And so, if you've ever been prescribed a medication before, you'll see something like take 200 milligrams every four hours.

Well, the reason for that regimen was based on these types of measurements that were done because of the drugs properties in the body.

Some drugs are cleared by the liver quicker, and then in essence, if that happens, you would have to be dosed more frequently, but some drugs will actually stay in the system longer and have a very long half life, and that's a case you may only have to take a drug once a day or once a week, for example.

- So, you're getting various blood samples from the same company, the same pre-clinical trial.

- The same animal over a function of time.

- Yeah, and pre-clinical indicates animals being tested.

- Correct, yap.

- Okay, and then it would move on to clinical later on- - So, it really starts in a cellular system.

And so, somebody had some type of model to a very common example is an inhibitor of some type of enzyme or protein that will accumulate and cause a disorder.

And somebody has a drug that they can kind of think of like a lock and a key, that drug kind of fits into that key and disrupts that process from happening, hitting its target.

And that's the drug that would be dosed.

And so, it kind of starts in that cellular model of that disease and they can see whether or not that happens.

And then it kind of scales up from small animals up through large and then eventually if it gets far enough and is safe enough, that's when it makes its way into human model.

- And Deepak, your company has three different products.

We'll go down the list.

There's VST, which I assume stands for VirtuSense Technologies, but VSTBalance?

- Yep.

- And what does that do?

- So, as I said, I mean, first I started this company because my grandmother meant she never fell in her life, and her first fall was a terrible fall, which ended up costing her life, right.

So, when I spoke with a lot of my family members or physicians, why didn't we know grandma was a fall risk?

The number one thing they said is she never fell before.

So, I thought that something is wrong with this whole approach of using fall to identify someone to be a fall risk.

So, what we did first is we developed a product that can identify somebody at a fall risk months before they fall.

So, what we do, as I mean, we have computer vision and AI technology that look at balance, gate and function of a person and can identify someone is at a high fall risk probably months to, actually a year before they even encounter fall.

So, this is typically that is VSTBalance used preliminary in primary care settings in skilled and assisted independent living by physical therapy and occupational therapy.

- So, you look at balance, which might be an inner ear function.

- Yes.

- Gate would be how they walk?

- Yes.

- You can tell a change in the way they walk?

- Exactly.

So we look get three things.

I mean, basically, we look at musculoskeletal movement, how it happens, like various muscles and skeletal movements in the body.

And we also look at visual, vestibular, which is inner ear and appropriate sensation on the feet.

What kind of deficiencies a person has and all this is done within less than one minute.

And it's super simple and it's just done while you're walking into the physician's office.

That's how quick it is.

So, as a result, I mean, we can identify the deficits and we help design a care plan and work with whoever is a clinician, they use this data to track to see if they're getting better, if they're not getting better.

And as a result, we are preventing significant amount of fault.

- That's VSTBalance.

You have VSTAlert and VSTOne.

- Yes.

- Do they work in conjunction with one another?

- They do.

So if you identity...

So, balance is more like a community screening tool.

So, this is one you have for, I mean, in a primary care setting, more of your ambulatory care or in your skilled nursing or assisted independent living communities.

So, what it does is if you have like, let's say a hundred people, it identifies those 30 or 40 who are going to be at high risk.

And it actually works on de-risking them.

But our studies so far have shown about 60% of them can be de-risked by providing some clinical intervention.

But there is 40% of the 40 who are going to be always about 16 in every hundred.

Aging is a natural process, you can't stop it.

So, I mean, there is no way we can get them better.

But how do we take care of them?

Right, so that's where, I mean, these are the patients in hospital rooms or in nursing homes or Alio situations.

So, this is where we develop sensors that go on the wall.

So, the use a technology called LIDAR, I was talking about which what it does is that 3D reconstructs the whole room and figures out where is the bed, where is the chair and figures out if a patient is about to get up before they get up.

So, to do that, we got 2 million such hours of data.

And we developed the AI that understands the intent.

So, that's what we did nursing homes with VSDAlert.

And now, we are actually doing the same thing for (indistinct) memory care to address patients who are in memory care with the same technology.

So, when we moved into hospitals, it's called VSTOne.

So, it does three things.

It does fall prevention, it does telehealth, so at any point in time, I mean, a clinician can come on your TV in the room.

So, it has built in 4K camera and bunch of microphones as well and provide telehealth experience inside the patient room, and we also measure vitals.

So we have a bunch of FDA approved patches that go on the chest, no wires measures vitals like heart rate, respiration rate, pulse ox, core body temp, ECG and blood pressure.

- So this saves money and it also in proves health.

- It's being proactive, right.

So, the entire health system today we talk about is whenever you feel sick, you think of a doctor and when you're in a hospital in nursing home, you are in a pretty bad state, right.

I mean, there's a lot of things that are triggered.

So, what we are looking at is how can we be proactive and figure out before a fall happens, before a pressure also happens, before sepsis happens inside hospitals because we are measuring these vitals once every second, not once every eight hours.

And so, we have the AI that can understand and figure this out way ahead of time.

- I wanna turn to Samm again.

Because you started this in your kitchen, you had to do your homework.

- Oh yes.

- And you've expanded.

If you look at the map that's on your website, you're selling your product in Los Angeles, in Oklahoma City, in Pennsylvania.

How did you grow from your kitchen to distribution like that?

- So, a lot of it is word of mouth, but I also travel a lot.

I go to a lot of trade shows.

So we got picked up at Camping World before our two year anniversary and I had an email to my personal email asking me to apply to meet with them and they wanted to meet with me.

So, that was the big expansion.

When we went just from treats to food, thank God for COVID on that one because I had a lot time to learn.

So, I did a lot of courses on animal nutrition and that's how we've gotten to expand into dog food 'cause that's not easy, it's not just throw some stuff into a bowl and feed your dog.

- You also have some cat product?

- I do, I have cat treats.

When we got our freeze dried machines in, we were able to start doing cat treats and my cat people are amazing.

They sell me outta cat treats all the time.

(chuckles) - So, you've expanded out of your kitchen into a East Peoria store?

- We actually moved to a Peoria facility first and we outgrew that.

And that's when we moved over to East Peoria, we moved back in November of this past year.

- I wanna turn to both Deepak and Mitch, Mitch, first in terms of this is high tech stuff.

You have five employees, but what are the prospects?

I mean, as you grow, you're going to have to have some employees who have certain high levels of expertise.

What is your concern about finding enough qualified candidates to fill those roles?

- Yeah, I mean, there's definitely some concern, but also there is a very highly educated workforce talent pool to draw from in Illinois.

I mean, Bradley University, University of Illinois or (indistinct) Illinois State, my alma mater, Monmouth College.

I mean, there are a lot of people.

Our target person has a background, a bachelor's degree, maybe master's degree in chemistry, biochemistry, eventually will wanna bring on PhD levels as well.

But my issue was when I graduated from undergrad, was looking for this type of type of work and there really wasn't a whole lot of this in the area.

So, I anticipate that we'll be able to bring on a lot of entry level employees to start with.

We may face some challenges when we bring in more advanced leaders, bringing them and getting them into Peoria, but I think we'll be able to have some strategic ways to do that.

- Deepak, you've had eight years of experience.

How do you attract 120 employees.

So, you have a track record.

These people to a degree, are not coming from Central Illinois.

- They're not.

- So, how do you convince them that, "Hey, Peoria is a good place to be and this is a good company to work for."

- So, I mean, it used to be relatively not that hard.

I mean, like five years back compared to what it is right now.

Because the pandemic, people wanna be wherever they wanna be, right.

So, initially, I mean, initial days, we were able to attract a lot of research masters and PhD equivalent pretty quickly because we were doing some cutting edge work and most of them were doing research in the area and we made offers and they really moved in pretty easily.

So, as we expanded beyond the PhDs and dual production logistics, Peoria has pretty good pool of workers in that area, so we've been pretty blessed in that sense but as we are growing more and more, so just to give you a perspective, every month, we are adding six to 10 jobs.

- Every month?

- Yeah.

So, it's been tough.

What we started doing of late is we are saying, "I mean, we'll make you an offer.

We want you to come and spend time in Peoria.

And if you think it's great, you love the city, you love working here, be here, or you can work from remote."

So, we are giving them the option.

So, that way they can just get to experience Peoria and the company in person.

And if they decide to go back to New York City or California where they're from, they can go back and still work for VirtuSense.

- You don't have the same challenge, but you are expanding.

- I am, we're looking at hiring two employees right now, and that is mainly to help us out at farmers markets and at other events that we're doing, and hopefully I find somebody to travel with me to go to trade ship hours.

- What are the prospects for Peoria becoming a technology center, if I may use that terminology, Deepak?

- We have all the right ingredients here, right?

We got engineering/stem-based University Bradley that is producing really good students.

And we have, I mean, both the hospitals that are churning in a lot of core research and solving some real problems in the world.

And we have caterpillar.

There is quite a bit of good pool of people here.

It's just, I mean, we need to start encouraging people to take more risks and in the sense and don't be in your comfort zone.

If you want to do something, go and do it, right.

This is the time.

- Your thoughts on that Mitch?

- Yeah, I agree completely.

- I mean, a lot of apprehension and nerves before you start business, but I can't echo Deepak sentiments anymore.

Go for it.

If you're on the fence, you have a technology or any type of idea for that matter, this is a great, Peoria has such a great ecosystem to get something going.

There's a lot of resources here, there's a lot of people with experience that will help mentor you along the way.

- We know that the economic development council exists and they're supposed to help start up businesses.

(indistinct) is the Director there.

Has EDC been helpful?

- Oh, they're fantastic.

Anytime I have questions, I have them or the SPDC on the phone because when I started my business, I did it all myself.

I did my LLC, I found my...

I did everything on my own.

Now, I don't feel like I have to go in researching business questions.

I can just make a phone call and they're right there for me.

- Your reference to the small business, the SBDC?

- At Bradley.

- Oh, that's at Bradley.

And it stands for- - The Small Business Development Corporation.

- Yes.

(chuckles) - Once again, going back to Bradley - I Call them a lot?

- So, the support of the EDC.

- Absolutely, I mean, moreso to where I'm at right now at the Peoria Next Innovation Center and that's with Bradley University and just their ability.

So, I'll give you an example like utilizing the wet lab space at the Next Innovation Center.

For us to go and start from scratch somewhere, find a facility and just get pool permits and find contractors to do this type of work to have, we need specific ventilation.

We need specific electrical, all of that is already there at the Next Innovation Center.

So, we're able to take our equipment, bring it in, get it installed and we're up and running in a month, as opposed to a year.

So, not only is it help, but it's also the ability to get you up and running quick.

- And with that, the conversation must conclude here.

We hope you continue the conversation at home with regard to the future of new business in Peoria.

Let me say thank you to Deepak Gaddipati, to Mitch Johnson and to Samm Hutchison.

I appreciate the conversation and we'll be back next time on "At Issue" with another conversation.

This time about, we know about the United ways but there are smaller groups.

METEC Resource Center, LISC Central Illinois, that help those in need.

We'll talk about helping those in need on the next "At Issue."

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