Blythe Karow on alleviating PTSD using a wearable Vagus nerve stimulator

Blythe Karow is a medical device veteran who is now the cofounder and CEO of Evren Technologies, a medical device company making a wearable Vagus Nerve Stimulator to help with the problems brought about by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Top 3 Takeaways

• Not only veterans but first responders often get PTSD and 1/9 women will have it at some point in their lives
• Stimulating the auricular (ear) branch of the Vagus nerve has fewer side effects but with a calming effect on the body
• Diagnosing and curing PTSD is very difficult and subjective

1:15 "Do you want to introduce yourself and the technology?"

2:30 "You spun out of the University of Florida and then you were able to license it, what did that look like? "

3:30 "So you have some background in medical devices, you saw the potential in this and then you were looking to do something new?

5:00 "What were you looking for and what were the acceptance criteria?"

6:00 "So how does this work? What are some of the effects of vagus nerve stimulation?"

9:00 "So it is this calming effect, you're able to flip that stress response back to normal with the PTSD patients. Is that a one-time thing? Is that a one-time flip or does it have to be re flipped?"

11:00 "PTSD is very hard to quantify, right? How is that currently done?"

13:00 "So what are the current treatments for it?"

15:30 "So what's your device and how does it work? And how do you know that you're stimulating the Vagus nerve? "

19:30 "You guys are still in the prototyping phase and then you have to get FDA approval for this, what are the next steps for the company?"

21:15 "What are some I guess are your biggest challenges?"

23:30 "Would they have to get it as a prescription through a doctor? Would they be able to buy it on Amazon?"

24:15 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"