Micro-Tech Endoscopy – March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – Get Screened with Ron Perry

Shining Brightly Intro/Outro: 00:00:09

Welcome to the Shining Brightly show. I'm Howard Brown author, speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, international peacemaker, and yes to time stage for cancer patients, survivor and advocate. Each episode will take you from resilience to hope, and a whole lot more. Because shining brightly does make the world a better place. Be prepared to be inspired.

Howard Brown: 00:00:37

Welcome to shining brightly, it's Maestro with the mic. Howard Brown, excited to be with you today. And I got a really important guest. He's not only important, he's a good friend of mine. Hey, Ron, how you doing?

Ron Perry: 00:00:50

I'm doing great, Howard. Thank you so much for having me.

Howard Brown: 00:00:53

Yeah, it's great to see you. It's, it's unbelievable within 45 minutes apart, and I haven't seen your during the whole COVID thing. But I gotta make plans to to meet up real soon. This is, this is an important one for me. As many of you the audience knows, you know, I'm a stage for colorectal cancer patient, survivor and advocate. And I wanted to bring Ron and his company microtek endoscopy on this podcast. And I'm selfish about it. But this is to save lives and to help people. And so Ron, please introduce yourself a little bit on your bio and tell people about yourself. Sure.

Ron Perry: 00:01:33

So thanks again for having me on. Howard. My name is Ron Perry. Microtech endoscopy is, is a global company that's been around for over 22 years in the field of medical devices. And we make products that treat patients that assist gastroenterologist to look inside of the GI tract of the human body form diagnosis and perform procedures. And I've been with this company for over seven years, the company itself has been around for over 20 years, but seven years here in the US. And my background has been in all types of sales and business development and management roles within medical devices. For the majority of my career, I was actually with Medtronic for a while in their primary cardiovascular business. And I've been in this gi business for the last seven years and being part of Microtech, which is still fairly new in the United States. As I mentioned, seven years has been very, very exciting to help build this business. And now I'm supporting and overseeing commercial operations for our business throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Howard Brown: 00:02:50

Yeah, it's really great. I mean, it's really amazing. But you've really grown out of growing a big foothold here in the Western Hemisphere. And it's so important. I gotta tell you, I don't even know which products go inside me. But all I know is that they're there to help me and we'll talk more about that. Tell it tell everyone here, something we don't know about yet.

Ron Perry: 00:03:10

something most people don't know about. So completely unrelated to Gi, something geeky and nerdy about me. I've always been a lifetime James Bond fan to the extent that I've actually attended James Bond conventions before. That was a long time ago. And now and just more of a normal fan. But that's definitely one of the things that gets me. You know, all excited. Even in this day and age, I still feel the character and the movies are evolving. So I love it.

Howard Brown: 00:03:46

I love it. Rodney Perry double Oh, seven Shaken, not stirred. Logan, I love it. I love it. We're gonna get serious there for a second. So I have to tell you that now I'm a colonoscopy a year ago now because I've gone through colorectal cancer. But on a serious note, if I was 40 or 42, and not at 50, I would have had my colonoscopy. We might not be having this conversation right now. It takes a long time, depending on the growth of a tumor. And my tumor grew to eight and a half centimeters in my cecum. The connection point between small and large intestine. It took eight to 10 years to grow to that that length. And when I had my colonoscopy, my gastroenterologist actually I looked up I thought everything was good. And he said, Nope, I found something. And thank God he did, because he marked it, he took a piece out and within about two weeks, I actually had a colon resection and they they took the tumor out and they they took the first step for me to you know, to move me on and then I followed that with, you know, cycles of chemotherapy. Now, I want to just we got some statistics that I'm sure that you have and want to run through but I can't even stated enough, I mean, you and I will repeat ourselves throughout this entire podcast to go get screened. So give me some of the stats that you have on colorectal cancer.

Ron Perry: 00:05:10

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it is very serious business. And, you know, thank goodness, you know, obviously, you know, if you could turn back the clock, I'm sure in your case, you would have, you know, like you said he would have wished he had gotten that screening earlier. But the great, not the great, but, you know, I think the most notable thing about this, I will cite some statistics is that this is a preventable disease. And it's preventable, because Colin, colorectal cancer screening is institutionalized in our country as it is, in many other countries. It's the second most common cancer diagnosed in the US. And then in terms of being a leading cause of death, it's the it's the second largest for men, and the third most in women. So this again, it is serious, serious stuff, about 150,000 cases of, of colon cancer, new cases of colon cancer are diagnosed. Each year, about 50,000 people, this is in the US die of it each year. It's It's astounding. It's it's very, very substantial. But again, the most important thing here is that it is preventable, there are there is in this country, you know, an institutionalized set of guidelines, to screen patients for them. So as long as you are aware of them, and here we are today to help, you know, shout from the mountaintops further about the fact that this is a preventable disease, and it can be screened. And now the age for being screened is lower than it's ever been. And, you know, all of us, you know, especially us who are, you know, either have been impacted by this, know somebody or work in the industry, we, you know, we need to be talking about this every day.

Howard Brown: 00:07:05

So, there's making, we got to make colon cancer famous, as I say, because it's no fun. I mean, I want to wish everyone to go get screened, because to go through the chemotherapy, the surgeries, the clinical trials, the side effects, the emotional, physical, financial, and relationship stress that I've had to endure, no one deserves that. It's awful. And so, you know, do the prep, go get screened, right? You mentioned something, though, that the age just dropped? What Why did the age drop? And because it was 50, when I was kind of going through things these last few years.

Ron Perry: 00:07:41

Right. So you know, in the last few years, starting with statements, recommendations for the American Cancer Society, but now, again, it's been institutionalized where that age has dropped from 50 to 45. And, you know, it's based upon science and research, that there was a discovery in the increase of early colon cancer in middle aged adults. The reasons for that are still not entirely known, you know, they could be environmental, lifestyle, or other factors, scientific and clinical community isn't sure yet, but because of the output, or outcomes of that research, it was deemed appropriate to lower that screening age. And I think it's important to remember, you know, to do mass screenings across an entire population of a country is, you know, it's not a it's, it's not something that is to be taken lightly. There are, you know, there have been calls for screening for heart disease and other, you know, clinical conditions as well. But Gi is, you know, in this in colon cancer is unique, and that, you know, this, this is something that has been institutionalized in this and other countries. And so I think it, it stands as something very unique and obviously very important not to diminish at all, you know, the potential benefit of, of screening for other serious clinical conditions. But it's, you know, it does take a lot of resources, effort and money and, you know, colon cancer is is, you know, one one clinical condition, which has been identified as one which benefits were people benefit from early screening.

Howard Brown: 00:09:36

Yeah, so colorectal cancer, and I know that insurance now covers it if you're 45. And that's, you know, Medicaid, Medicare, private insurances are now required to cover it and payers. So that's really important so that, you know, there are a population that doesn't, doesn't have insurance, unfortunately. And we'll talk about diversities in screening in a second, but I will Say that said, this isn't you know your grandpa's disease anymore, there is a rise of young onset colorectal cancer. And so if you're not 45, and you have a family history, you can get screened earlier. If you are not 45, but you are young, and you are actually having stomach or rectal issues or because it's hard to get it diagnosed, I've heard story after story of irritable bowel syndrome, you know, take some gas X, and you'll be fine. So sometimes it's misdiagnosed. And so

Ron Perry: 00:10:32

I have a family history, right, that's also a red flag, regardless of your age percent

Howard Brown: 00:10:37

regardless, so so for those two reasons, so. So go through some of the screening options that people have for colorectal cancer.

Ron Perry: 00:10:46

Sure. You know, and I'll preface this by saying so there's three primary screening options today, two of them are somewhat similar. And one is, you know, what's considered the gold standard. That's a colonoscopy. But before I get into those, those three screening modalities, I think it's important to say that, you know, any kind of screening test is better than no test. So, you know, I mentioned three here, and, you know, technology is evolving. And there, you know, there are certainly, there are other developing methods of screening that, you know, are being studied right now, and that, you know, may become more mainstream in the future. But right now, the primary ways in which screenings occur, are through what's called the gold standard, and that's an endoscopy. So, you know, flexible endoscopy is widely considered to be the most effective method for early diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal cancer. And this is really, because of the visual verification, a physician goes in, into the lower GI tract with a physical scope, it's inserted into the rectum and then up into the large intestine. To identify polyps and other abnormalities that are either cancerous or could turn into cancer, there's about 15 million colonoscopies performed each year. And again, when you're going up there with this, with this kaleidoscope, when the physician sorry, the gastroenterologist goes up there with with a kaleidoscope, there's a light and a camera, there's, there's a physical view of what's going on inside of the body. So that's why it's considered to be the gold standard, because you can actually see, you know, you can actually see during the course of the procedure, there are two other tests. One is a stool study called a fecal immunochemical test F otherwise known as in fit, so it checks for hidden blood in the stool. From the from the large colon, these are tests that need to be repeated, they can be done from home. But again, that doesn't encompass physical inspection, as as is possible through an endoscope. And another related test with also through the stool is a stool DNA test, it looks for abnormal DNA, from cancer that can be found in the stool, or elements in the stool. And this test can then also would need to be repeated not as frequently as the other stool test. But it would have to be done at home the great thing, a great thing, but you know, if if with a colonoscopy, no polyps are found, everything looks normal, you don't have to come back for 10 years for 10 years, as opposed to these stool tests that do need to be repeated more frequently. If during a colonoscopy, you know, they do detect polyps, or something else abnormal than you know, the doctor will will dictate the next, you know, timeframe which you would have to come in. But that that gold standard that physical verification does have the benefit that if everything looks good, you don't have you just can not have to worry about it for the next 10 years. So

Howard Brown: 00:14:16

yeah, it's so so important. In my advocacy space, that there's two good things, there's, there's one really good thing happening is that potentially, there's something called a liquid biopsy or circulating tumor DNA, it's a blood test, and it still leads to a colonoscopy. But early detection, the earlier you get checked out, the more hope you you can have, hopefully of get snipping a polyp or being staged earlier on being staged later, as I'm well aware. That's when you kind of hit the danger zone here on the front lines there and, and trying to look for life extension. Yeah.

Ron Perry: 00:14:54

A lot of you know, there's there's obviously a lot of direct to consumer advertising around you know, cologuard And you just, you know, which is a stool test, and you just mentioned blood tests, there are their breath biopsy tests that are evolving. You know, you've heard of the pill cam there, there are different ways in which both the physician can either can either view or diagnose what's going on within the GI tract. But again, there is no substitute currently for going in with a physical scope, and viewing the rectum and the large colon. So it still remains the gold standard. But again, you know, that message I gave before because you know, I do work for a medical device company. And I don't want to appear biased in my, in my answers here. But any screening option is better than no option. That's really the most important message.

Howard Brown: 00:15:51

Yeah, you gotta repeat it. So the second thing I was going to add, besides the different ways that you can get checked, which all lead back to a, you know, an industry call a flexible industry or colonoscopy is that the big thing now is you got to reach other populations. So we're trying to reach folks in rural population, African American, Latino indigenous populations. Now, people that typically maybe are the highest diagnosed of colon cancer, and the least tested. And so we've got to spread and get a more diverse population aware and get them comfortable with screening out whatever type and I agree with you 100%. So you mentioned a couple of reasons, but maybe go a little bit more into what makes the colonoscopy gold standard. I understand you might have a show and tell for us to.

Ron Perry: 00:16:39

Yes, I do. Don't worry. It's not gonna be gross or anything. But yeah, so it's the gold standard. Again, there's something called a flexible endoscope which a licensed gastroenterologist will use, it's inserted into the rectum and is basically threaded up through the large colon all the way to the cecum that you were mentioning before. There's a light and a camera attached to that as well as channels that are built into the scope itself, which allows the physician to insert and retract different tools that he or she needs to use to inspect tissue and potentially to resect or snip away polyps or other growths that might turn into something cancerous. So this longfin flexible lighted tube is the kaleidoscope, that I do not have a sample of here, but I do have a actual snare. So I mentioned that within the scope itself, there's a kind of a thinner tube called a working channel, which allows the physician when certain certain tools to assist in the procedure. So again, taking tissue samples, clipping polyps or sometimes stemming bleeds, there are several things that the physician can do. This is a very long device, it doesn't fit into the square of the screen. But there's a little handle on one end, and I'll try to put this up against my black shirt so you can can see as I'm opening, this snare sort of looks like a lassoo. They come in different shapes and sizes. It looks possibly small and flimsy, but it's actually quite sharp. And this is placed around the polyp. And with this handle, you retract the snare and it clips it off. And then there's a method by which that polyp can then be sucked up into the the tube of the kaleidoscope and comes out the other side and is then sent to pathology for further analysis. So

Howard Brown: 00:19:00

let's not scare everybody, you are under some late anesthesia. Oh yeah. It takes 15 or 20 minutes, you won't feel a thing I promise. I have to tell you just cleaning yourself out to cleanse them the 24 hours before it's way worse than the procedure procedure. You had a great sleep you wake up and everything should be well. So

Ron Perry: 00:19:20

absolutely, yeah, there's there's prep involved, and then you're you know, you're you're under during this procedure, and it goes by very quickly. You know, like you said about, you know, 1520 minutes or so, you know, and I will also add that, you know, there's a lot of concern and fear out there around the prep. Oh, you know, gotta drink this disgusting liquid. And it's, you know, that's the biggest obstacle to me getting a colonoscopy. And you know, I think is I've heard you you mentioned before Howard, you know, obviously the you know, the choice between In having to deal with some may be less than desirable prep, but not getting screened. And, you know, possibly something bad happening to you, to me, you know, the the choice is very clear. Also, the prep has improved over time, it's not as bad as what it once was. It's essentially drinking a lot of Gatorade and maybe you know, a couple of additional things to help in the in the cleansing process, but it's not what it once was either. So

Howard Brown: 00:20:29

once, once a year guy, so I do it and just get it done. I'm going to put on my advocacy hat here and say, Listen, there's tons of information out there. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance, colon town.org, or the Colon Cancer Coalition, fight CRC, there's so much information out there. And all they want to do is get that information in your hands to check out and be understand that, that you can make this appointment you can do it. And that's that's the call to action there. I want to point out something that significant that happened, Ron, that you I think you're aware of but so when you get a movie star like Ryan Reynolds, actually to have his colonoscopy on air. And he did this just two weeks ago. If you go to the lead from behind.com, you actually you don't see the gory parts, but you see him do the prep, you actually, you know, he gets to the hospital, and they snipped for him and his partner that own a soccer club, one and three polyps, and they're 45 years old, that had 3 billion impressions out there. So that's that's like getting the word out, you know, making people aware of what they have to do. They're going to further that by going to Latino and African American and other folks. I would say before that the biggest call to action to at least the African American community was the death of the Black Panther. Right. So he ended up dying at 43. He kept his diagnosis, very quiet. But that was a wake up call for many. And you and I are trying to do today is give people a wake up call, you know, go

Unknown: 00:22:07

deaf, definitely. You know, definitely. You know, I do use the term before shouting from the mountaintops. But yeah, it's great always when celebrities get the word out. So you know, Ryan Reynolds and you know, way back 20 years ago, right, it was Katie Couric talking about her colonoscopy. So, you know, I think the more

Howard Brown: 00:22:30

your mammogram, Ronnie, she just filmed her mammogram. Unfortunately, she has breast cancer now, she just filmed her mammogram. So thank God, thank God they do it. I mean, really,

Ron Perry: 00:22:39

thank God they do it and you know, things like mammograms and you know, colorectal cancer screenings, colonoscopies, those are, you know, phone calls away. And you know, in this in this country, I certainly agree with some of your, you know, your previous comments here about, you know, health care access for certain populations and minorities. So, you know, the advocacy never ends, we always need to be out there talking about it. And we need to support it here at microtek endoscopy. We also for anybody who's an employee of the company, but and may not be on our microtek insurance plan, if their other insurance plan doesn't support colorectal cancer screenings, we will cover it for them and the members of their family. So we try to do what we can within, you know, the the group of people that we that work for us every day. But you know, everybody needs to take to the broader stage with family and friends and to make sure that the word gets out. So whether it's celebrities, whether it's Howard Brown, Ron Perry, whoever it is just important to talk about and make sure that as many people as possible get screened for the right reasons at the right ages.

Howard Brown: 00:23:55

But the awareness factor of colorectal cancer screenings, it's a team sport. You agree with me I know. Take us now as I said, I said before, I didn't know the products that go on me I'm sure your products have been so I mean, you you talk to doctors and medical, you know, Hospitals and Facilities. So take me a little deeper because you know, microtek you know, you're on the forefront of screenings and treatment. Not too too techie but to take us a little deeper and kind of you know, the range of products and what you actually do and what you provide to gastroenterologist and hospitals and medical facilities in the Western Hemisphere.

Ron Perry: 00:24:36

Sure, you know, so we've talked about colonoscopy is here and you know, that's that's a procedure that most people can relate to whether or not you've had one you most people have heard about it No, no, basically what it involves, and you know, for the most part these these colonoscopies are many of these colonoscopies are done for screening purposes and there's a set of have simple tools that are used in that procedure like the snare I showed you just a few minutes ago that are used for those diagnostic procedures. Now Microtech makes hundreds of products that go in that same endoscope, and that endoscope can be used in a kaleidoscope for for colonoscopy is but there are other scopes that are shorter in length. And for other purposes that go through the mouth to inspect the esophagus and the stomach and the and the upper part of the small intestine that are also in daska Peas and we make products that go in this in the in the scope spaceship, basically shorter versions of glass of kaleidoscopes. For those types of procedures, and the types of procedures are in the complexities of procedures that are conducted today, whether you're having a lower endoscopy, like a colonoscopy, or an upper endoscopy, where it's passed through the mouth, that the number of procedures, a number of complex procedures that can be done through those natural orifices to both diagnose and treat conditions and diseases of the GI tract. It's just astounding, you know, today, doctors can do, gastroenterologist specifically can do much more through an endoscope than they ever have been. And Microtech is at the forefront of this because we have been working with physicians to help develop these new tools that allow for the performing performance, excuse me of these of these more advanced, more complex procedures, whether it's lower or upper endoscopy, and you know, much like how Cardiology in the, in the latter part of the of the, of the 20th century in the 80s and 90s, it transitioned from a procedure and you know, you know, open heart surgery, open chest surgery, where, you know, the chest was was broken open and, and, you know, open surgical procedures were performed to how that clinical specialty evolved to, primarily or to a large degree, more minimally invasive procedures through through a catheter. And now today, you know, in the field of cardiology, you know, you can replace valves, and you can do very complex things in and around the heart and other parts of the cardiovascular system through a minimally invasive opening in the body. So similarly, we can do much more complex things through the endoscope, the tools have gotten small and more sophisticated. And again, Microtech has been on the on the forefront of that. So you know, whether you're going in for a screening colonoscopy, which is one of them, you know, maybe quote unquote, more simpler procedures, or whether there's something more sophisticated that that needs to be done, you know, procedure that might involve entering, you know, the biliary system to remove or treat stones, all of that can be done into scopic Lee, which basically means, you know, patients can go home very quickly, either same day or next day. And that minimally invasive philosophy or framework in which procedures can be done just keeps expanding and expanding, again, just the same way that that cardiology did. One other quick example, I don't want to ramble on here, even though I could for hours and hours I love this stuff, is you know, we've all heard a lot about artificial intelligence and how artificial intelligence is starting to impact and make its way into the field of medicine. And gastroenterology certainly is a field where artificial intelligence is very relevant, anything with images and videos is something where artificial intelligence can be applied to help improve diagnosis help detect more polyps or abnormalities and basically support the physician. So you know, we're very much on the forefront of that and working to bring artificial intelligence systems to improve the outcomes. And an accuracy of colonoscopy is we're very proud of that. And the field just keeps evolving more and more every day. It's a it's a very exciting time to be in this field. And, again, to have that, that that notion that you know, what you're doing is not only pushing that field forward, but most importantly, it's helping to save more lives. Help, you know, get patients well more quickly allow them to be sent home or quickly view with their family and friends. It's very, very rewarding. And, you know, I can be here and share a little bit of that with you and your listeners, Howard,

Howard Brown: 00:30:16

I appreciate that. It's, it's important. So tell people how should they get in touch give the company website that'll be in the show notes, we'll roll that across when the when the video is in the audio or playing? And also, if they can find you on LinkedIn or whatever way you want people to content?

Ron Perry: 00:30:37

Sure, you know, I'm an open book. So you know, LinkedIn is definitely the easiest way to reach me professionally. You know, Brian Perry, if you like Paul E R EY. microtek endoscopy, our website, which you'll soon see is empty endoscopy.com. Remember, our products are prescription devices. So you know they're not for purchase by consumers. They're they're purchased and by healthcare facilities and used by licensed gastroenterologist, but empty endoscopy.com If you care to take a look at the types of products that we have to offer,

Howard Brown: 00:31:13

well, I really I am so appreciative. You ran to come on and take a deeper dive and not this the normal, you know, rule, we took a deep dive into what's going on had a little show and tell. So as it's important, so I'm going to ask you to join me in one second and doing something but you can reach me, Howard Brown is shining brightly.com The book is selling I got speaking engagements going on. And it's just exciting. It's an exciting time for me. I'm feeling good. So I'm going to put my glasses on here, Ron, we're going to shine brightly together. I'm going to ask you and I, on the count of three to shall go get screened. So we're going to do that and then we'll close out the show. So we're ready. 123

Howard Brown: 00:31:55

Go get screened. A couple more times. But yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:32:04

it's good, where we are good together. So I appreciate you coming on today. Thanks, everyone for joining this episode of shining brightly be well be healthy, be safe. And thank you. Thank you once again.

Ron Perry: 00:32:17

Thank you, everybody. Thanks again for having me, Howard.