Breaking Into US Healthcare: HealthTech with Purpose ft. Ayush Jain & Vicenc Ferrer

Ayush:
Hello everyone, welcome to HealthTech with Purpose podcast, and my guest today is Vicenc, Managing Director of Mediktor, a company that has been doing great things in healthcare—especially around patient engagement and patient experience.

So Vicenc, welcome to the podcast. I would love to know more about Mediktor right away, and also a bit of your background.

Vicenc:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us, Ayush. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Ayush:
The pleasure is all ours. So Vicenc, why don’t you start by providing a bit of background about Mediktor—what it stands for, what is the problem Mediktor is solving today—and let’s go from there.

Vicenc:
Sure, absolutely. Mediktor is a global Spanish company headquartered in Barcelona. We have an office here in New York City as well, and we are present in over 30 countries worldwide and cover 50 million lives. We have partnered with top companies worldwide including health plans such as AXA, Munich, Bupa/Sanitas, Mafre, and here in the States with hospitals and health systems like Albany Health, Kaiser Permanente, etc.

Right, so you may be wondering why all these awesome and leading companies decide to collaborate and do business with us. I would say the main reason is because we address a problem—an issue in the healthcare industry—which is patient access. Basically, the right patient, the right time, and the right care.

Typically, healthcare organizations have been tackling this problem by hiring staff—clinical staff, non-clinical staff, etc. But nowadays we are in a situation that has been ongoing for four years now, which is a staff shortage in the industry. So there is no way, no option for those healthcare organizations to keep pushing in the same direction. This is where our all-in-one platform—empathy-driven, AI-based medical assistant—can give them a helping hand.

We basically empower patients by offering them on-demand, personalized healthcare guidance at the first onset of symptoms. At the same time, we enable healthcare players such as hospitals, health systems, and health plans to direct those patients to the appropriate level of care in a safe, convenient, and cost-effective way, anytime and anywhere. So this is basically, in a nutshell, who we are and what we do.

Ayush:
Great, great. I believe it’s easier said than done, of course. Looking at many startup stories, and from my own journey as well, it takes a lot of grit to be able to figure out eventually what your product-market fit is. So tell us more about the early years of Mediktor. Where it all started. Like you said, it’s a Spanish global company, so I imagine you must have been solving something else at the start, and this whole thing evolved as you kind of met your customers, figured out what they really want, and so on. Tell us more about that part of your story.

Vicenc:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to focus on the American market, which is what I know and have been coordinating. The early years—we have to go back to over six years ago—they were very, very challenging. At the time, Mediktor already had a footprint among health plans in Europe, and to be honest, a very successful one, dealing with the largest health plans in Europe.

I was the first hire here in the States, and obviously, what came to our mind as a team was, “Well, if this works for health plans, let’s do the same. Let’s approach American health plans and do the magic,” right? It was totally the opposite of what happened.

The first year was very challenging. We ended the year with zero sales, which was very frustrating, because on paper it made total sense. We had a strong value proposition around ED deflection for health plans—basically generating huge savings for those health plans, making sure that only those members that needed to go to the emergency department got there. The rest of the members, which was the majority, could receive the same quality care at a lower cost through telemedicine, asynchronous care, PCP, etc. So the value proposition was there.

It was very challenging and frustrating to face a situation where we saw no traction. I think that one of the challenges we faced was that, here in the States at the time—and this has changed over the years—there was little to no appetite from American health plans to generate efficiencies around ED deflection. On top of that, there was a local player in our space that had support from a large health plan that invested a big stake in them and introduced them to other health plans that were basically covering that space.

Little did we know at the time that this competitor not only took those clients, but also was kind of poisoning the space because they were not delivering on the value proposition they promised. So even if we were not competing with them directly, the whole thing was poisoned. Nobody wanted to talk about or discuss our solution because of this company’s bad delivery.

The most important piece, I believe, is that since Mediktor is a truly capital-efficient company, we got the chance—after the first year—and the time to pivot. It’s true that we focused our efforts on health plans, but at the same time, we also kept an eye on other players, mainly hospitals and health systems. And this was a safeguard for us, to be honest. Now looking back, it was a great decision.

Ayush:
Great, great. I mean, it must be a great feeling now, right? Looking back—you know, what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. I think you must have just accumulated great advice over the years from doing it firsthand and building the whole market.

So maybe can you elaborate more about that strategy part you just said—like that one year you repositioned your strategy to start selling to providers and hospitals? In fact, one thing I liked was you mentioned some of the large names today like Kaiser and Albany, etc. So how were you able to get such partnerships, and what were some lessons there?

Vicenc:
Absolutely. It’s been a long road—a bumpy road, I would say. First of all, as you can imagine, when we realized we needed to pivot, we had to adjust the value proposition, the messaging, the collateral, marketing material, etc. All of a sudden, we were not an ED deflection tool, but a solution that would allow hospitals and health systems to identify qualified patients and direct them to their care venues.

It’s the same technology, but it’s like the other side of the coin—working for hospitals here in the States in a hyper-localized industry where they compete among each other. Where fee-for-service is still the preferred formula under which those hospitals operate, being able to attract patients to their facility is very important.

As mentioned, we always kept an eye on hospitals and health systems. We saw their predisposition to do business with us at events, conferences, and by discussing with associations whose members were hospitals and health systems. Here, I’d like to point out two that helped us a lot to find our way in this space.

The first one is NODE Health. It’s a well-known association located in the Northeast whose main goal is clinical validation of digital health solutions like ours. Their mantra is basically: look, the same way medical devices or new drugs have to go through a process of validation, digital health companies should do the same. And this has actually been part of our DNA since inception.

One of our co-founders, Dr. García-Sicilia, was very clear: this is not a toy, this is not a game. We want to put something into the hands of patients that truly works and is validated. They had already done some clinical studies, and we presented one of those to the NODE Health Awards—and we won. That was very impactful. There was a lot of promotion around this award here in the States. Hospitals and health systems that were members of NODE Health were the first to say, “Wow, this is very interesting.” One of the first hospitals we started working with—Yale New Haven Health System—is part of that association.

The second one was AIA Health, based out of Chicago. They did, five years ago, a cohort of AI-based care navigation assistants and analyzed 40 of them worldwide. They invited everyone they could find online. After a thorough process of due diligence, meetings, etc., they shortlisted four—and Mediktor was one of them. We were the only non-American company invited to present before the member hospitals and health systems. That again generated a lot of awareness and trust around our solution.

And the rest is history. Now we are working with companies like Albany, Bluestem Health, Hawk Health, Kaiser Permanente—one of the largest dual systems in the States. Maybe we can do a deep dive into Albany Med just to provide you and the rest of the audience a bit more about this project and how it helped us reposition ourselves

Vicenc:
Albany Med is a project that is very close to my heart, and I think it’s paradigmatic of that repositioning. It was the first true project that we deployed here in the States. It’s true that before, we did some business with Austin Renal Clinic during COVID. Before COVID, as mentioned, we were with Yale New Haven Health System. But Albany Med was the first one where we sat down with them, said, “This is what we can do for you guys,” they bought into it, implemented it, and we’re still doing business together.

On top of that, this project got attention from Gartner, who did a report on our project with Albany Med. This project is basically about driving business to the hospital. I want you to picture a patient somewhere in upstate New York—because Albany Med Health System is located upstate—who is googling symptoms because they’re feeling under the weather. After this research, information about Albany Med, St. Peter’s Hospital, and other regional hospitals is going to pop up. Based on this research, this patient will decide where to go.

What Albany Med did, which was very clever, was to integrate our solution on their website, their app, and condition-specific landing pages. They also launched very intelligent Google ad campaigns to put Albany Med’s information in front of the right people at the right time.

Ayush:
Microsites?

Vicenc:
Exactly. Microsites, in this case focused on pulmonary conditions. Because we know that it’s very seasonal. In winter, you have everything that has to do with common cold, flu, COVID. Then in the spring, you have allergies. So they created this educational content that patients could access, and they would be prompted to complete the care navigation assistant—the intelligent intake.

From there, this is how we identify that patient, how we qualify them, and how we direct them to the appropriate level of care—avoiding wait times and unnecessary steps. That’s basically our value proposition as a whole, or at least one of the value propositions we have for hospitals and health systems, and the one we’ve been pushing ever since.

Ayush:
Great, great. No, fantastic. I’m learning something every minute here. So, another follow-up question that comes to mind—you mentioned your work with NODE Health, and how you were able to do a clinical study about the effectiveness of the solution. What KPIs did your customers primarily look at after implementing Mediktor? Was it more on the revenue side or more on the patient experience side?

Vicenc:
Absolutely. It’s all about KPIs. I think we can take the same example of Albany Med, because we have some interesting KPIs there.

As you can imagine, it’s a combination of revenue and patient experience. The KPI regarding revenue is a 3x ROI. So if you compare the investment Albany Med made in our solution against the income that it’s generating through our channel, we are basically paying for ourselves and generating a return of three times.

It’s true that for health plans, where our business model is more about ED deflection and efficiency, we have higher ROIs—between six and ten times. But even for providers, a 3x ROI is very impressive.

When it comes to patient experience, in Albany we are seeing a Net Promoter Score of around 72, which is an average of three times the industry standard. That’s a steady number over time. And when it comes to NPS, anything above 70 is considered excellent—which means that friends and family are recommending this solution because it’s worth using.

There’s another one that’s very important for us—user retention, which is around 40%. That means four out of ten people use Mediktor repeatedly, which shows they feel empowered and supported by the solution. That’s why we’re here—and it makes us very happy.

Ayush:
Amazing. Moving forward, I’d like to continue on this topic—selling to hospitals and providers. It’s well known for having a long sales cycle, and you already shared some insights around building trust with certifications and credibility. What are some other strategies, conventional or unconventional, that you’ve seen working—or not working? Happy to also hear about failures.

Vicenc:
There’s no way around trust, personal relationships, and long sales cycles. That’s the truth. Especially when it comes to introducing innovation, these organizations would like to see you around—not truly engaging with you—just being around for a year. Because they’ve seen a lot of companies appear and disappear.

So it’s a protective mechanism. They want to make sure the companies they engage with are committed. There are strategies to cope with this. First, it’s very important to have a balanced pipeline—a mix of big projects with large Tier 1 hospitals and smaller projects with Tier 2 or Tier 3 hospitals. The big ones consume more time and resources, and the process takes forever. But the smaller ones might give you a chance to talk to the C-suite directly and move faster.

Second, be prepared to present multiple times to different departments. And make sure your message is tailored for who you’re speaking to—doctors, IT, marketing, compliance—they all have different priorities.

Third, leverage channel partners—consultancies or integrators who already have a network and relationships in place. If they see you’re offering value, go hand in hand with them. It’s a shortcut to piggyback on their trust and reputation.

We tried everything the first year. I think we succeeded in two “out-of-the-box” strategies. One was focusing on trust instead of sales. We knew we were a foreign company entering the U.S. market. Going after sales directly would fail. So we focused on trust—NODE Health, AIA Health, and other initiatives helped us a lot.

The second was bottom-up strategy versus top-down. Usually, people go top-down—look at what the CTOs are saying, and build the strategy from there. But what we did was start with individual conversations with Yale New Haven, Austin Renal Clinic, Albany Med, and we built our strategy based on their real needs. That worked very well.

Ayush:
I can imagine these small things keep adding up over the years, and gradually the magic happens. I can echo the thought that everyone in health buys through reference, and that trust builds over time. So, first they want to find someone they can trust, and once one does it, others follow.

Vicenc:
Yes, and it’s true. Even if someone doesn’t want to do business with you, they’ll always find an excuse. But the more footprint you have in the States, the better your go-to-market speed becomes. Still, some will say you lack experience in a specific state or region. But overall, yes, what you’re saying is true.

Ayush:
Thank you so much for revisiting all these sales concepts. Moving forward, I’d like to know more about Mediktor’s overall strategy—especially today, what Mediktor is doing, and what the future looks like. What changes are you seeing in the market?

Vicenc:
Since we started doing business in the States, I think we’ve seen two major shifts. One was COVID-19, which changed the landscape for virtual care and virtual triage forever. Before COVID, telemedicine and chatbots were “nice to have.” Now, they’re a must.

The second is the explosion of generative AI, which started gaining traction a year or two ago. While it’s not focused heavily on healthcare yet, that wave is impacting our industry too.

So, we’re doing two things. First, we’re chasing use cases that generate real, measurable value—like helping providers attract patients, post our acquisition of SENSY, or deploying conversational avatars that patients can talk to. People find that easier than typing in chat.

Second, we are differentiating ourselves—both from existing competitors and those who are coming. We have a clear product roadmap that focuses on user experience. In our space, UX is measured in the number of questions and time it takes to get care recommendations. We’re averaging 14 questions and two minutes—thanks to our in-house NLP.

It understands any symptom-based conversation—even when patients use their own words, even in multiple languages. We support over 18 languages and distinguish dialects—Mexican vs. Spanish, American vs. British English, Brazilian vs. Portuguese. These nuances matter in healthcare.

We also use white-box AI instead of black-box models. That means for every recommendation Mediktor makes, you can trace it back and understand why. In healthcare, this matters a lot.

We recently launched an avatar you can speak to, which is unique in the market. It helps build empathy and trust, making patients feel heard.

Lastly, data is becoming more important. Healthcare is shifting from provider focus to patient focus—and now to data focus. We collect actionable, real-time insights that can help hospitals make smarter decisions.

Ayush:
I think that’s exactly where the market is headed. While doing AI is becoming easier, having a unique value proposition and clear advantages makes all the difference. Great to hear your go-to-market perspective.

One quick question: what are the biggest dos and don’ts when selling to healthcare providers, if you had to summarize?

Vicenc:
I’ll pick one for each.

Don’t ever be the change agent inside the organization you’re selling to. Even if your solution matches their needs, if they don’t have a champion leading the initiative internally, walk away. You’ll end up in endless conversations that go nowhere.

Do involve nurses early on. Whatever project you’re offering, there should be an angle that helps nurses. They are the lifeblood of the organization. They can make or break a project—and they’re good at convincing others too.

Ayush:
Great advice. And lastly, if you had to start over in the U.S., what would you do differently?

Vicenc:
It’s a tricky question. But obviously, one thing we already discussed—we put too much focus on health plans the first year. That wasn’t right.

The other is something I’ve been thinking about lately. I would have augmented our sales and SDR teams sooner with AI tools. These tools help with profile enrichment, hyper-personalized messaging, and make your teams more efficient. They haven’t been around for long, but even two years ago, we could’ve started. They help a lot.

Ayush:
Great, thank you so much Vicenc. It’s been so lovely talking to you. I really appreciate the way you opened your heart to share all these lessons. I think our listeners will find great value in the wisdom you’ve shared.

Lastly, what’s the best channel to reach out to you? Is it LinkedIn, email, Twitter?

Vicenc:
LinkedIn is good. I may take some time, but I tend to respond to every inbound message I get.

Ayush:
Awesome. Thank you again for being a guest on HealthTech with Purpose. We wish you all the best!