It all began in October 2014, when Ashlyn Sanders was diagnosed with Chiari malformation, a disorder that causes disorientation and seizures. She subsequently had to have brain surgery, but was determined to return to classes at Duke in January of 2015 to finish her Masters. And the student did just that and she continues to persevere everyday. Actually, calling 24-year-old Ashlyn a multi-tasker would be a major understatement. A normal day for her could be applying to medical school and running her own med-tech company called NeuroVice, all while battling the chronic neurological illness.

NeuroVice, inspired by Ashlyn’s own experiences, was founded to help others with neurological disorders and to improve the patient/caregiver experience. Her first invention is called the P.A.T.I., an oral device that relieves tongue-biting and hyper-salivation—a common symptoms of seizures. In between meetings, classes, and grant applications we were able to talk with Ashlyn about her LLC and where it all began:

Do you have a memory from childhood when you decided you wanted to pursue to sciences?

Yeah, so both of my parents are actually in medicine and the science field, and from a young age they’ve always exposed my twin sister and I to STEM, my mom especially has been very passionate about that. We were always either in camps or programs that were STEM related.  I always had plans to pursue a science, medicine, or policy career. I’ve always been fascinated by problem-solving, and exploration, and science.

During my time at UNC Chapel Hill, I was selected to be a White House intern for the Spring of 2014. I didn’t know that I was being looked at for an internship in the office of public engagement and the office of science and technology. I actually applied for a couple other offices, but they found that my answers to my essay questions and my background were more fitting for a different role and so I was offered a position. Afterwards I knew I wanted to be in medicine and policy, but at that time I didn’t know how that would play out.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

No, it was towards the middle/end of my list of career choices, which is kind of interesting because most people I’ve interacted with–from teachers, to friends–have always thought that I would end up as a CEO of some large company on day. I was always outspoken about issues, very independent learner, and was always taking leadership roles. Even my parents thought I’d end up running some sort of company.

I thought it would be nice to run my own practice, but after shadowing a physician doing more outpatient work, I decided I wanted to do more in patient work. So I had kind of quasi-entrepreneurship goals in that sense, but I never thought I’d start my own company or pursue that ahead of medicine.

What is NeuroVice? What’s the heart behind it? What’s the true mission of this company?

The website, and I guess, text-book mission is developing innovative solutions that enhance the patient experience. I can talk on that more: When I was inventing P.A.T.I, I really was focusing on neurological conditions, such as the one that I have, and empowering patients to better manage their conditions especially chronic conditions. After my own experience, I found that it could be a very difficult very expensive process because of so many hospitalizations and clinic appointments, and also very tough on my family.

I’m very close with my family, especially my immediate family, and they have been putting in 2000% in terms of taking care of me. They help me get to and from appointments, are there to care for me during episodes. So I thought how I can I do something medically innovative, but that would empower patients and caregivers in a way that I don’t think people necessarily think about until they either suffer from a condition or care for someone who is. I’m really trying to focus on a product that provides patients with a little bit of an easier experience

Can you talk a little bit about the P.A.T.I device?

I started thinking about P.A.T.I. a couple of months before I graduated from Duke. After I was diagnosed and went through brain surgery I went back to school to finish my Master’s, against the wishes of my doctors. That’s when I was starting to think about P.A.T.I, but I was also doing a thesis at the time, so I didn’t really have enough time to dedicate to it. After I graduated I went back to it, and started doing a lot more research. I had the end-user/customer perspective because I would end up being someone that would use the product, so I went back and decided to do a lot more research on the science behind epilepsy and other seizure conditions like mine. I had more of a breath/overview of the information, but I wanted to get more in depth and find out what happens prior to a seizure, and find out if this is a  common symptom.

The advice that has been adopted for many years is that you never put something in a person’s mouth that’s having a seizure. So my first task was to understand why that was in place. The reason is because historically people would use hazardous objects to try and remedy the situation, but those could lead to more problems. I designed P.AT.I. to deal with all of those considerations.

So the way it works is kind of twofold: The 1.0 version of P.AT.I is going to be a preventative tool so most people have what are called auras just before a seizure, which are sensory notifications that a seizure is about to happen. Upon experiencing this, the patient would then administer P.A.T.I into their mouth, get to a safe place, and unfortunately have the seizure, but while this is happening they would have this protection on their mouth.

The other use is for sleep. Often patients will have seizures during the night, that they don’t know about until they wake up and see these oral injuries as signs of having had one. So they can administer it prior to going to sleep.

The 2.0 version is expanding the functionality to include P.A.T.I as a diagnostic tool. Our intellectual property actually enables it to be used as sensor-technology. The idea behind the sensors is that things associated with seizures such as hypersalivation, excessive jaw movement, tongue biting, the data can be collected using bio-sensors and it provides critical support for caregivers and physicians as a non-invasive diagnostic tool.

Most people aren’t motivated to found a business inspired by their strife. Why do you think you are different?  

It’s kind of ironic, but for most people who go through something like that they do better if they don’t think about it, and they take a step back. My physicians initially said that it would trigger more of my symptoms or make my symptoms worse if I went back to school and had a lot on my plate. But what they found for me is that I’m totally opposite. If i’m sitting at home not doing anything, it actually triggers things to happen or more symptoms. If I’m very busy and go back to how I always was which was doing 50 things at one time, it’s actually sort of an outlet for me. [NeuroVice] is an outlet and a way for me to channel what happened into a positive.

What makes NeuroVice different from other business start-ups?

I saw there was a problem and that it wasn’t going to be addressed by the average entrepreneur. I also realized that it was a disruptive technology because there’s been a framework of advice in place for seizure safety. So it was going to take someone who wasn’t primarily motivated by turned a profit, but that is motivated by what had happened to them and what they were witnessing around them with other patients.

I think patients make some of the best entrepreneurs because if they’ve gone through something challenging they understand perseverance, they understand team-work, and working with patients and healthcare providers. They’re not gonna quit. Which is exactly what an entrepreneur is, if they got knocked down and they have challenges they will still have persistence. You have to go through things sometimes to really have an appreciation for it.

How would you describe the daily operations and goals of NeuroVice?

Day-to-day I get up and go to class, I spend about three hours a day between class and studying. Then I’m doing all NeuroVice things. I may go to the 3-D printing lab and do some modeling, I may meet with my advisors to go over design or updates. For a while we were exploring some potential partnerships, so that was taking up a lot of time. Applying for grants, meeting with investors, and patients/caregivers. For the past couple of months it’s been printing labs, meetings, and grant competitions.

Now I’m in that place of a little bit of excitement and frustration together. Excited because I know I have a great product and there’s so much I want to do. Frustrated because it’s hard to raise money. I’m at this crossroads where I’m a finalist for several grants, but those competitions don’t happen for a couple of months, and I’ve also been turned down by a couple of venture capital funds. It’s hard to devote 100% of your time to something that you can’t move forward with, without money.

What do you see for the future of NeuroVice?  

We’re looking into designs that would expand P.A.T.I. to other patients, such as those who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, as well as other neurological disorders. I’m not sure if I see an exit to a larger company with P.A.T.I, but in the interim if it looks like I’m going to have hire a CEO in order to go to market or bring on a partner, then that’s something we’ll look into. Another product we’re looking into is for arthritis patients, and looking at ways to improve their experience.