When you hear the term “opioid,” what imagery comes to mind?
Stephen Stuk, retired associate professor in the practice of information systems and operations management, knows what you’re thinking.
“Most of you have a mental image of what a methadone user looks like—and it’s wrong.”
Many rarely imagine the reality: legions of people, including parents and professionals of all kinds, who are relying on pain relief to be the productive citizens we expect them to be. Chronic pain is one of our nation’s most prevalent ailments; According to the Centers for Disease Control, roughly a quarter of adults in the United States suffer from some form of chronic pain. While opioids have undoubtedly wreaked havoc and prematurely ended lives, these highly stigmatized substances are also uniquely poised to allow your friends, family, and neighbors to live a fulfilling life.
Goizueta alumnus Edwin Kendrick MD 09EvMBA is a personal and professional witness to both outcomes. As a doctor and entrepreneur, Kendrick saw an opportunity to create something that could simultaneously save lives while sparing the suffering of patients across the country.
The Pros and Cons of Liquid Methadone
Of the many opioid products on the market, liquid methadone offers several crucial advantages to other forms. It’s absorbed into the body quickly, allowing for rapid pain relief. It allows for precise titration, which is critical to preventing overdose and helps mitigate the risk of dependency. It’s easier to ingest than the equivalent dose in pill form, where a patient could be forced to swallow an impractical volume of up to 15-20 bulky pills a day. Having that number of pills around also increases the opportunity for some of them to fall into the wrong hands.
Its potency, however, is also what makes it perilous.
Because liquid methadone is easy to misuse or abuse—or to fall into the wrong hands, including those of children, especially when mixed into drinks—patients are seldom permitted to take it at home. While laws have relaxed since the pandemic, many doctors are understandably reluctant to prescribe it outside of clinics for safety reasons, and patients must instead receive their dosage at a specialized clinic. This practice creates practical barriers as well as social ones. Clinics may be far away; it’s not unusual for rural patients to drive 60 miles to get to one. Patients may not be able-bodied to travel or have ready access to transportation; if you need medication every day, that extra errand becomes burdensome. Privacy is also harder to guarantee, which is particularly critical given the social stigma regarding opioid use. Another issue is the rise of “pill mills”—illegal dispensaries masquerading as legitimate clinics—causing consternation for law enforcement, medical practitioners, and patients alike.
“You have to get in line—but who wants to go stand in that line?” says Kendrick. “Some folks may be required to get in line at 4 a.m. to get to their jobs on time. There’s also the stigma threat: You’re a working professional, and you don’t want to be branded as a ‘drug seeker.’ I can’t think of many people who are in a hurry to advertise their prescription list to the whole world, but depending on who you are and what you look like, community members learning of your medical conditions and treatment can, unfortunately, have very real consequences.”
Because of these barriers, many patients simply forgo treatment and suffer in silence.
A Win-Win-Win
Kendrick and Stuk have—with the help of engineers and nurses, among others—created a novel medical device that allows patients to safely dispense the exact dosage of methadone needed for their pain management while in the comfort of their own home.
The SANOTouch liquid dispensing Environmental Interactive Device (EID) is designed as a single, stigma-free solution for secure liquid dispensing. This permits safe usage of liquid methadone, but can also be used for any other liquid medication. It consists of an internal container that uses electromechanical valves to dispense liquid methadone for up to 30 days, and a reusable, lockable external smart container accessible only by clinic staff.
As an EID—referring to a device that uses technology to monitor and respond in real time to stimuli nearby—the SANOTouch also includes embedded audio and video functions that support remote supervision, telehealth visits, behavioral health services, social support, adherence monitoring, and more. This allows medical practitioners to measure the efficacy of every care interaction utilizing a psychometric instrument Kendrick and Stuk helped to develop.
“We have a pending patent on a quality assessment system; soon, we’ll be able to analyze and assess the quality of healthcare interactions,” says Kendrick. “We can use data analytics to guide medical care providers and ultimately improve outcomes for patients.”
Stuk oversees all that data, and his keen eye gleans order from the chaos.
“It is amazing what we can infer about a person’s state of mind and needs by tracking previously minute or obscure changes,” says Stuk. “We have shown that we can infer better treatment and interactions with patients.”
The benefits of this device are innumerable in terms of safety, privacy, and accessibility—it is truly a win-win-win.
Detours and Potholes on the Path to Success
Kendrick wears many hats. A graduate of the University of Georgia and Morehouse School of Medicine, the entrepreneurial bug first bit him while he was a medical resident at the University of Tennessee in Memphis in 2001. Between 110-hour work weeks, he found himself drawn to biomedical engineering.
“I saw so many missed opportunities to make things better—for patients and for medical practitioners—whether it was preventing needle sharp accidents, or improving medical literacy. The will and insight were there, but I didn’t have the business skills yet.”
After general surgery residency, in December 2006, Kendrick immediately chased his entrepreneurial dream by launching his first Healthtech company while enrolling in Goizueta’s Evening MBA program a year later.
“Goizueta was phenomenal. Day one in Professor Benn Konsynski’s class, I realized I needed to stop the presses on software for my current venture; I didn’t have the resources. That saved me a lot of time and energy.”
“My courses in organization and management also taught me to create formal and informal communication channels across organizations, so that those organizations can thrive.”
By 2008, Kendrick began working with Kenneth Brigham MD, Michelle Lampl, MD, PhD, and Lynn Cunningham, wherein he drafted the short-term and long-term business plan and strategic marketing strategy for the Emory Predictive Health Institute Center for Wellbeing and Discovery, which was meant to create collaborative synergies between Emory Healthcare, Emory University, and Georgia Tech. Though his separate, private venture faltered, he’d learned a lot through the process, which paved the path to expand his entrepreneurial exploits into defining the future of health care with the launch of his second company years later. For this second company, Kendrick’s Goizueta network would prove crucial: he needed an expert in data analytics and its application in the business sector—and he knew just where to find him.
“I came back to campus in 2018 to recruit Professor Stephen Stuk over lunch,” says Kendrick.
“I’ve done a lot of work applying emerging statistical modeling and analysis for diverse business applications,” says Stuk. “With the explosion of AI and massive data, the medical industry is a prime opportunity.”
Kendrick had a good relationship with Stuk as a student, and had tapped him for help once already for assistance with an employee health program to prevent “needle sticks” and “sharps” injuries across one of the largest healthcare centers in Texas. Kendrick successfully wooed Stuk into his newest venture.
“But as a good professor always does, he paid for my meal,” says Kendrick, laughing.
His second company, SANO Healthcare, marks the realization of a vision first sparked as a young intern: to bring medicine and engineering together in service of better care access, delivery, and outcomes. With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), his team created devices like a one-handed pill dispenser for stroke survivors. That work led to a collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The call from NIDA made Kendrick realize how many people around him were struggling with substance abuse disorders, and how this public health crisis led them into further trouble with law enforcement.
Even as a physician, it was news that he could have such a profound impact on public health.
“All of us know someone impacted by the opioid crisis. This is really a global solution—all across the world people have been suffering from these disorders. We’re a healthcare solution company, in the medication management space.”
Using Profit for Progress: A Unique Business Strategy
Kendrick found a clever approach to navigating the perennial disparity between doing what matters and doing what makes money. He founded an award-winning nonprofit organization (SANO Health ARM) and a for-profit company (SANO Healthcare Consultants), with the latter company helping to build revenue for the former organization’s projects. Those projects include empowering students from pre-K through postgraduate levels to pursue healthcare-focused STEAM 2 careers by connecting them with advocacy, research, and mentoring opportunities.
“We aren’t just product development; we are looking to make a sustainable impact. True healthcare should be rooted in compassion.”
Stuk echoes this sentiment.
“We had recently had a conference with the National Institutes of Health and we told them in earnest that we don’t have an exit strategy. We really are more concerned about doing good things and seeing positive change in our community.”
Building Connections for Healthier Communities
When it comes to getting started, Stuk encourages students to look up from the grind.
“Too often people want to work themselves to death to make their mark—but you can do good things for the world while being happy and successful, too.”
Kendrick believes a central key to his success is in building connections with others.
“We could not do this alone,” he says. “We needed to have relationships with academia, we needed to be entrenched in the communities we were serving. Those partnerships we make, with institutions or individuals, also help us build staying power and ensure sustainable impact.”
“I consider my life to be a tool; I hope I can be an inspiration to others, that don’t imagine they can be innovators. If you put in the time and work ethic, it’s possible.”
“I had an entrepreneurial bug and didn’t know what form it would take. I hope others keep their eyes open, because those big things you’re imagining can happen.”
Ready to turn your ambition into meaningful impact? Discover how Goizueta’s Evening MBA empowers working professionals to lead with purpose, innovation, and strategic insight — all through a flexible program that fits your life, with remote, in-person, and hybrid options designed for your schedule. Visit our program page to learn more.
