Mary Rose Reaston, Ph.D. is an innovator, author, expert witness and is the CEO and Chief Science Officer of Emerge Diagnostics, Inc. MaryRose has a successful track record in the development, commercialization, marketing, and governmental acceptance for advanced Electrodiagnostic testing. She is the Co-Inventor of EFA technology and holder of several U.S. and international patents. She has been named as an Industry Risk Innovator and Responsibility Leader. Www.emergedx.com

Can you tell our readers about your background?  

I grew up in San Fernando Valley, CA, and was not your typical Valley girl. I was a quiet studious person, independent by nature who loved to immerse myself in books. I always identified with strong women and wanted to one day become a leader and help humanity. My initial goal, even at a young age, was to become a surgical oncologist. My career path took a dramatic change when I was involved in a hit and run car accident and developed debilitating headaches and soft tissue injuries. At that time I changed career paths and decided to get my doctorate while perusing a solution that could help me with my headaches. This path led me to find inner strength and on a long journey to never give up on my goals and desires. Anything is possible if you try.

What inspired you to start your business?  

I was inspired to start my business out of necessity. The debilitating headaches didn’t leave me a good quality of life. I did not want to live my life in pain or dependent on medication. I only wanted to get better so that I could continue my studies and perhaps someday go into surgical oncology. This desire to get better lead to extensive research where I  discovered that since there was no method to diagnose soft tissue injuries that my treatment would be “hit or miss”. This was not an acceptable answer for me, so this leads me on my journey over the next few decades to develop one of the leading technologies to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue injuries. Early on in my career, I knew I wanted to expand outside of research and into management so that I could share my vision and support women, especially women entrepreneurs. My career has taken me from the Chief Science Office to COO and I am currently the President and CEO of an International Medical Company. 

Where is your business based?

My business is headquartered in Carlsbad California but we have operations all over the world. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took? 

The $100 billion dollar problem: soft tissue injuries, typically defined as back, neck, and shoulder pain is a leading health cost driver in the United States. These conditions are the most common reasons for people to seek medical care. They are difficult to diagnose and treat and often are treated ineffectively with pain medication contributing to the opioid crisis.   While I was searching for a so, Union, I learned there was no way to access the injury and a doctor often must rely on the person’s complaints. This discovery leads me to develop with Phil Reaston, The  Electrodiagnostic Functional Assessment. (EFA) EFA technology an FDA registered technology, that is becoming the gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue injuries. Our innovative technology has undergone many iterations and now our wireless technology has the ability for the first time ever, to connect multiple muscle groups with a range of motion that can be simultaneously monitored.  This allows for pinpointing the precise location of the injury and allowing for site-specific treatment. This has helped prevent surgeries and helped people to become better and lead productive lives. In fact, the EFA technology is changing the face of diagnosis and treatment and allowing for better care via telemedicine. With the advent of EFA technology and telemedicine, a doctor can gain more information than if the person was sitting in front of them in an office. This is important especially with COVID. Since bringing EFA technology to market, we have helped thousands of people get better, return to work sooner, and lead more productive lives. With COVID facing the World and in personal care being limited, we had to adapt our technology to be better able to handle telemedicine visits. In the past, telemedicine was not an option for people who had a soft tissue injury since the doctor was not able to palpate or feel the person through a video link. The EFA enables “virtual palpation” for a more objective assessment, which is a critical component of the physician’s evaluation process that was, until now, impossible via telemedicine or any other remote/virtual platform. In fact, with the EFA the doctor actually receives more information than if the person were sitting in front of them. Better care anywhere with the EFA especially via telemedicine will enable people to get more accurate diagnoses for the leading healthcare issues/cost drivers. Being able to pinpoint with the EFA the precise location and type of soft tissue injury will allow for better-directed care, anywhere.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?  

The most effective way of raising awareness for our business has been perseverance, one step after another to demonstrate our success. I learned early in my career that people do not often embrace innovation and this is especially true in the medical field. My journey to find a solution for soft tissue injuries has taken over 20 years. When I started many people would say that this was a difficult road, with regulatory requirements, insurance reimbursement, and general adoption. They said it couldn’t be done by large corporations let alone two people basically starting out from home. They told me you won’t be around in a year. Well, here we are over two decades later with a global medical company helping people get better care. It was the successes we shared and our perseverance.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

One of the biggest changeless I faced is that people, especially in the healthcare industry, are not innovative.  We need people not to be afraid of innovation. I overcame these barriers by being straight forward and never giving up. Phil Reaston has been my rock. He never gave up on making the technology better. Phil thought outside the box and found a way to connect multiple sensors together wirelessly. Prior to the EFA technology, this had never been done.  That is the secret sauce so to speak, and this has enabled us to be able to offer the EFA to anyone including unmatched telehealthcare. When I encountered resistance I presented objective information one step at a time. We continued to have success and we never turned away a request to help someone. Stay focus and true to yourself and that motto has helped me overcome the obstacles presented to me during my career

How do you stay focused?

I developed a mantra that if you do your best, your best is good enough. I started practicing 2.5 years ago and when I told my husband that there was Stand Up Paddle Board Yoga, he told me to go try it as he knew the water is a place I thrive. He took me out the first time watched my entire body shake on the board then went out got me aboard and encouraged me to get certified to teach it. There is nothing I can’t do with it him by my side. I am now a certified SUP Yoga instructor and have completed my 200 and 300 teacher training in yoga. Yoga is my way of staying focused. I practice yoga daily. In fact, as a corporate bonus, my company Emerge Diagnostics offers corporate yoga and wellness program to all our employees. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

There truly is no competition for Emerge Diagnostics, we hold several methods and utility domestic and international patents, and have the ability through our patented technology to connect multiple sensors. No other technology has the proven ability to function in the same manner. We also have experience and expertise.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

One of our most beneficial programs for the EFA is to assist employees and employers with work-related soft tissue injuries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Soft Tissue Injuries are the leading cause of lost workdays and health care dollars spent. Our EFA-STM (EFA Soft Tissue Management Program) is a bookend solution that helps give better care to employees with work-related injuries and uses our telemedicine platform. Achieving better results in a complicated and challenging worker’s compensation environment is what every employer and employee should want. If a workplace incident happens, the employer is responsible to return the employee to the employee’s condition prior to the incident. The employee wants better care and back to work quicker. The EFA-STM program is built to achieve these results for the employee and employer, a win for all parties. Our clients and their employees have had tremendous success with the program. Employees with work-place injuries are returning to work quicker with a more focused diagnosis and our clients are benefiting from less lost workdays, less recordable days, and the knowledge that EFA-tested employees will have the benefit of the EFA-STM program in the event a work-place incident occurs. This is an innovative concept and it changes the game of workers’ compensation into a win for all parties. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

In a world where you can be anything be kind. Simple words but very true and effective. If we are kind and respectful to others this is the foundation of an equitable society. Also, accept responsibility. The buck stops here. A CEO is ultimately responsible for everyone in the company’s wellbeing success and failures. The CEO needs to foster leadership, independence strength, and communication and take responsibility for the team and company.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why? 

My favorite book is Who Moved My Cheese. I was resistant to change. This has helped me with insights designed to help manage change quickly and prevail in changing times. My favorite app is Instagram it allows me to unwind and share Insights into what people are doing visually fewer words are sometimes better to decompress. 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

LinkedIn was instrumental in helping me spread the word about our services and technology and gain insights from other business leaders. Our first EFA-STM clients came from posts I shared on LinkedIn. 

Who is your business role model? Why? 

I am particularly grateful to Robert Thompson. Bob was the prior CEO of Emerge Diagnostics and my mentor. When we first started to work together at Emerge, I was the Chief Science Officer of the company. Bob saw in me the ability to become more to the company. He helped me learn the business side of the company and help me ease into the role of COO. As COO Bob helped me refine my management style and learn more about delegation. He had confidence in me and when he left the company, he promoted me to CEO and President. He left me with invaluable knowledge: people love sausages, but they don’t really want to know how to make them. This might sound corny but so true it taught me solve the problem and provide the results.

How do you balance work and life?  

I practice Daily Yoga and My Good Friend  Heather MacKay who  created Yoga Your Way to give back and allow everyone to share in the benefits of yoga. I also try and get out on the water weekly for Sup Yoga. The water is my happy place. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

Sup (Stand Up Paddle Board] Yoga 

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

To continue to grow  Emerge and continue to  find additional ways for EFA technology to help others.  We plan to expand our telemedicine platform, and go into sports medicine and disability evaluations.

How can our readers connect with you?

Mreasto@emergedx.com