Redefining Stroke Recovery

Imagine enduring the life-altering event of a stroke, only to find that surviving is just the beginning. Faced with forbidding odds, studies suggest that nearly 30% of stroke survivors report their quality of life as “worse than death” a year after the event. But what if there were a way to change this? 

Kirsten Carroll is turning the tables on this grim landscape. Her startup, Kandu Health, is a groundbreaking company that aims to change how we handle post-stroke care, bringing hope to survivors and their loved ones, who are also affected by this cataclysmic experience. 

Armed with a degree in biomedical engineering and a double master's in business and public health, Kirsten's journey took her through marketing and strategic roles at Boston Scientific and Stryker. Then, she shifted to the world of startups at Imperative Care, where she launched their Patient-at-Home initiative, the precursor to what would be Kandu Health. 

Stepping out of your comfort zone, especially after success at giants like Boston Scientific and Stryker, into the startup world through Imperative Care, is not for the faint of heart. But Kirsten has always been clear about her priorities. Despite being the primary income earner in her family, she made the move to pursue what she considered her life's work. She credits a network of women leaders in medtech for mentoring her and helping her mentally prepare for such a leap of faith. 

What sets Kirsten apart is courage grounded in deep-rooted knowledge and experience. She’s not afraid of the unknown. She knows how to approach huge problems by dividing them into incremental steps. She is able to empower others on their journey together. 

Innovation, according to Kirsten, isn’t just tinkering with technology to bring about something new; it’s adapting paradigms, whether they are novel or already exist, to meet the nuanced needs of your target market. Kandu Health focuses on improving the quality of life for stroke survivors through various tech-enabled healthcare services. Their aim isn't only to administer care after a stroke but to help patients reintegrate into community settings and be able to live independently. 

They are doing this by partnering up with hospitals and becoming an extension of the care team. Kandu’s Clinical Navigators work with stroke survivors and care partners after hospital discharge to identify recovery needs and deliver personalized care. Some of Kandu’s methods to ease the transition for stroke survivors include one-on-one personalized support through their app, working with Clinical Navigators, and becoming a part of the stroke recovery community.  

They also encourage a collaborative approach between patients and their families. For instance, instead of referring to family members or friends as “caregivers,” Kirsten and her team use the term “care partners” to emphasize each stroke survivor’s agency in leading their own recovery, and reflect the teamwork and shared responsibility that exists in their relationships. Kandu Health is committed to empowering stroke survivors to lead both their recoveries and Kandu’s company vision. 

Kirsten and her team have already seen remarkable success. Out of the first 40 people to participate in Kandu’s program, over 85% were living independently by the time they graduated. The company expects to see results in larger cohorts presented at industry conferences this winter. 

Kandu is already bringing forward a radical change in stroke recovery and the team is excited to see the numbers scale up. “To take that from 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 100,000, if we can maintain this level of impact and do it at a bigger and bigger scale, I absolutely cannot wait," says Kirsten.

Key Learnings from Kristen’s Experience

• To optimize for a fulfilling career in medtech, you need to continuously develop your skill sets. Take a layered approach to your decision-making, build a robust foundation of knowledge, and then trust your gut. 

• When taking on significant initiatives, adopt a process-oriented approach, break down big challenges into manageable, winnable steps, and build a team around you that is fully aligned with the mission. 

• Innovation goes beyond mere invention. Focus not just on your technology but on understanding the needs of multiple stakeholders, including end users and their care partners, healthcare providers, and payers.