MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Catdaddy Consulting
By DEBORAH CONN
O&P Partner Consulting firm assists both patient-care facilities and technology firms in optimizing operations
M
ARK FORD STARTED HIS
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JUNE/JULY 2022 | O&P ALMANAC
A clinician fits a confidence socket from Adapttech, one of Catdaddy’s consulting clients.
Mark Ford
COMPANY: Catdaddy CONSULTING OWNER: Mark Ford LOCATION: Jamestown, Ohio HISTORY: Three years
A wearable pressure monitoring system and app from Amparo, another client of Catdaddy
than 100 years of experience among them. “We have CPOs, MBAs, and CPAs on our team.” On the patient-care side, Ford and his team offer business analytics, training programs, marketing support, and contract assistance with insurance companies. Catdaddy recently added fractional management staffing to its services. “Most small companies can’t afford and don’t need a full-time chief operating or chief financial officer,” he notes. “We offer these smaller businesses access to highly experienced people on an as-needed basis to help them determine strategy, and then work with them to set up ongoing systems and processes to run more efficiently.” Catdaddy’s work with technology companies focuses primarily on firms outside the United States. “Many of these companies were founded by engineers so they know their products extremely well. But creating a commercial success takes more than a good product,” says Ford. “Commercializing a new healthcare technology requires an understanding of reimbursement, how to work with distributors,
Deborah Conn is a contributing writer to O&P Almanac. Reach her at deborahconn@verizon.net.
PHOTOS: Catdaddy Consulting
O&P career in 1998, after working in agriculture. He knew that he wanted to get into the healthcare industry and took a marketing position at what was then Ohio Willow Wood (today WillowWood) to gain some experience. “I planned to be there for a year or so,” and then ended up staying close to 10 years, Ford says. He worked in marketing, sales, customer service, and training, as well as in the CAD/CAM department. He moved on to Touch Bionics, as the Scottish company’s third U.S. employee, helping to build its infrastructure in this country. “It was so exciting to build a company from nothing with an entirely new technology,” remembers Ford. He followed that position with almost five years at OPIE Software, helping to build OPIE Business Builders and to introduce the OPIE Choice Network. Ford then used that experience to help lead a patient-care practice, Prosthetic and Orthotic Associates, located in New York. Ford never planned to create a consulting business, but his varied background and connections in the industry led past customers and associates to ask for his help in the patient-care space. In addition, his former boss at Touch Bionics asked if Ford was interested in helping young, early-stage British and European companies that were developing new O&P technologies to bring them to market in the United States and elsewhere. Today, Ford has a team of seven consultants under the Catdaddy umbrella, with more
and even how best to package the product efficiently.” His team helps young companies with these activities. so they can enter the U.S. market in “a more positive, effective way.” Among Catdaddy’s clients is Portuguese-based Adapttech, which has developed a socketpressure measurement system, leveraging customized sensors connected to an iPad through Bluetooth to give the clinician real-time information. Another firm, Amparo Prosthetics, started in Germany and has developed a new way to create prosthetic sockets by utilizing innovative material science. “When working with either patient-care practices or with technology clients, our goals remain the same: to be the brutally honest voice of the customer,” says Ford. Ford believes the O&P industry is undergoing another significant evolution. “We’re seeing a lot more vertical integration, as large manufacturers are setting up patient-care divisions,” he says. “What’s really interesting, though, is that we are seeing more new, creative product development happening outside of the major players in the O&P field. We strongly believe that there’s a greater opportunity for O&P practices to access new tech from young companies” that are seeking U.S. partners. “This time of change presents so many opportunities for independent practices to be successful by taking advantage of new technology and running more efficient practices,” Ford says. “We are excited about how young technology companies can partner with open-minded practices to help patients even more in the future.”
