Dr. Michael Carroll, MD, inventor of the patented medical device
ROTATORELIEVER, is a board certified family physician with a special interest in sports medicine.
He’s a founding partner of Creekside Clinic, LLC, a progressive primary care center in Traverse City, Michigan, and also founder of the Creekside Sports Medicine Institute.
He’s a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Carroll has written extensively on a variety of medical issues and has presented his device and study findings to relieve shoulder pain to the American College of Sports Medicine.
Dr. Carroll considers himself quite fortunate to be married to the other Dr. Carroll, Maria. They have 3 amazing children ages 10, 7, and 5. They are mad about the outdoors and currently are making turns on the local ski hill.
What are you working on right now?
I was laying in bed six years ago, miserable, tossing and turning with shoulder pain. Gosh, my patients bitch about this all the time and it really does hurt. I had suffered for several months with it. Finally I took my left hand and grabbed my right wrist and pulled. Felt better, this was good. Grabbed an Ace bandage, tied one end to wrist and another to some weights off the end of the bed. Slept great. No pain in am. This was very cool. That is where the story begins. Six years of research, rejection by industry because my solution was too inexpensive, product development, personal investment have gotten me here. I am ready to change the way the world thinks about shoulder pain. I suspect the hard part is just starting but I am primed for it.
3 Trends that excite you?
The web is causing very high quality and rapid innovation that will advance our world in innumerable ways. The challenge will be getting great new products to markets with our current distribution channels.
Healthcare. I really think there will be a movement to low cost affordable proven healthcare. Trust me, we have great room for improvement and soon enough the market will not bear inferior quality with soaring expense.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Oh my gosh, this is harder than I imagine every time I do this.
How do you not sound corny when saying this. You need to be the first out of the block. You need to believe. You need to risk reputation. Finally you need to do things others are not doing. Big ideas require a risk, effort, salesmanship, faith to implement. It is exciting. Why are things exciting? Because we do not know the final outcome. I wish bringing ideas to life were easier, they aren’t. I savor the victories like a great pinot noir.
What is one mistake that you’ve made that our readers can learn from?
When going after investors, make sure they have expertise in the field you working in. I recently wasted seven precious months waiting for some oil guys to invest in my medical company. Stupid.
What is one book and one tool that helps you bring ideas to life?
Book- Lincoln at Gettysburg. A classic. There will be lonely times. Tough assignments. Clear thinking and courage are required to accomplish almost anything great. There will always be naysayers.
Software-business plan pro. Painful document to write. This tool broke it into manageable parts.
What is one idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I can’t give away my next idea: a cure for knee arthritis pain.
Alright, I did have this idea that physicians should rent out the little bins in their sample closets to the pharmacy companies. Say $50 a year to display your drug in my sample closet. Trust me physicians are getting squeezed and would look hard at a guaranteed 3K in extra cash per year.
How does the ROTATORELIEVER relieve shoulder pain?
Our product is a system that addresses the true underlying problem of the shoulder: You are injuring your shoulder at night. Our nighttime brace prevents this and our daytime exercises strengthen the exact muscles of the rotator cuff that need it.
Why do you seem to have such a good time hanging out with your kids?
They laugh, I laugh.
Connect:
I can be reached at my website rotatoreliever.com or my blog shoulderpaintalk.
Still mastering the social networking, but we do have a rotatoreliever facebook fanpage.
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.