In conversation with Johanna Mercer, CEO, and Dr. Ann Gordon, CTO − Founders of Dr. Gordon’s Bum Cream

What was the deciding moment in starting the company? Tell us about your vision.

Twenty years ago, an ICU nurse in Vancouver asked Dr. Ann Gordon for a cream to help a patient’s nasty rash from diarrhea and incontinence. When the pharmacist couldn’t find a product with the active ingredients that Dr. Gordon knew were needed, Dr. Gordon, who holds a degree in biochemistry, wrote an order for a compounded cream and thought nothing more of it. It turns out the nurses loved it. They dubbed it Dr. Gordon’s Bum Cream, and it became widely and safely used throughout that hospital.

Several years ago, when we returned home to Nova Scotia, history repeated itself. Nursing staff increasingly demanded Dr. Gordon’s Bum Cream. It prompted us to make our cream available to those who need it, and not just in hospital. We wanted it available in nursing homes, and particularly in the formal and informal home care market. We realized that if we didn’t do it, it wouldn’t happen. When Johanna, our CEO, stepped down from the board of the school she founded, she finally had the time to devote to it.

Our mission is to put our cream into the hands of nurses and caregivers in hospitals and homes throughout North America and beyond. We want to reduce patients’ suffering, save institutional and individual time and costs, and perhaps ultimately affect the standard of care for MASD.

 

What do your customers need, and how are they challenged in their current situation?

Dr Gordon’s Bum Cream treats a group of rashes called Moisture Associated Skin Damage (MASD). We refer to two of these rashes as IAD (or Incontinence Associated Damage) and Intertrigo, which is a word that means ‘between’ and ‘to rub’. These rashes occur anywhere skin surfaces rub together in a warm, wet environment. They are itchy, red, painful, and can lead to serious skin breakdown and superinfection.

Intertrigo is a common affliction for those who are obese or who must wear occlusive clothing. For those who suffer from incontinence and mobility issues, IAD will markedly increase the risk of developing pressure sores.

How are you providing a solution to your customer’s needs? Tell us how you are validating this  through implementation and ongoing use.

Although common, MASD can be complicated, expensive and frustrating to treat. Many professionals don’t know what’s best. MASD is generally treated using a step-wise trial-and-error approach with various agents alone or in combination. Each step adds to product costs, pharmacist and doctor costs, caregiver time, and patient discomfort.

Dr. Gordon’s cream is simple, inexpensive, effective and safe. It’s resolves all the issues in less than a week at a fraction of the cost, and using a fraction of the nursing time. We know because we’ve tracked its use for eight years in our 100-bed acute care hospital. Over eight years, there have been 1,300 patients and no reported side effects charted.

We started with a single order and, by the end of last year, 350 treatments were being dispensed. We’ve discovered that once our nurses use it, they choose it over other products.  They choose it because they need a product that heals quickly to prevent skin breakdown, infection and pressure sores. And it needs to be safe for repeated application because this rash is chronic and recurrent. This is where our cream delivers.

What differentiates your company from the competition? How do you engage, motivate and support people who identify potential business development opportunities for your company?

Why are we doing this? Leah Deveau, Head of the Victorian Order of Nurses in the Annapolis Valley, told us, “It’s a vicious cycle… if I had one product that was balanced to address each symptom that would be … Life-changing.”

Knowing we can address this issue with our cream, we’re working hard to get it into as many hands as possible. In Canada 1.3 million, 8.4 million in the US, and an estimated 19.4 million in Europe – or 30 million in care have moisture associated skin damage on any given day. That’s 45 million over the next 20 years as the population ages, putting enormous pressure on our health care systems. Many more millions are suffering at home because of the stigma and shame associated with moisture associated skin damage as well as a lack of knowledge on effective products to treat it.

Perhaps our timing is right. We’re discovering that many like-minded people share our desire to assist aging and vulnerable populations, nurses and caregivers. We’ve received and are grateful for a lot of early recognition and support, notably from Innovacorp and CBDC in Nova Scotia, Norton Rose Fulbright in Toronto, CERASP in Montreal and the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute in Vancouver.