Category: News

Have you ever taken a trip to the doctors when it was impossible for the doctor to check your child’s throat because they refused to open their mouth have the wooden stick and have the doctor stick their whole head in their mouth to check it out?

Have you ever had a sick child and really just wanted to look at their throat yourself?

Have you ever wanted to see in your child’s mouth to see if those teeth have popped through yet?

WELL now you can……

​Thanks to a very clever Australian Mum who went through an experience with her child that gave he the brainwave. She had to restrain her child at the doctors and hold them down, while the doctor had the wooden tongue depressor and penlight to check out their throat. After the traumatic experience Jennifer thought of the simple and clever idea of the all-in-one plastic depressor with built in light!! You may have seen Jennifer on the Shark Tank or even on the Today Show.

With young children, I feel like they are always saying something hurts in their mouth or they have a bit of a sore throat. Previously I have told them to open their mouths and say it all seems fine, as I couldn’t really see anything at all! Since having the Throat Scope, we have seen ulcers in the mouth, molars popping throat and a very red throat – luckily no white gross pussy stuff!

I have been known to use my iPhone torch to look in the kids mouth, which half sort of works, but also a bit awkward if you are trying to hold their tongue down as well! As the Throat Scope is 2-in1, there is no need for my iPhone or the wooden depressor I ‘borrowed’ from the doctors.
The Throat Scope is so easy to use and assemble! You simply clip the plastic depressor into the handle and the light automatically turns on, and then just pull off when finished. Hopefully you won’t be using it too often, but it contains 3 powerful longlife LED lights and has a 5 year shelf life. The Throat Scope comes with two plastic depressors and they can be cleaned with alcohol wipes in between use to reduce cross-contamination.

I have also used for my 4 year old son who attends speech pathology. Correcting speech is an interesting experience, as we have both learnt where your tongue needs to be for particular letters. One of the harder sounds/letters for children is ‘C’ and this requires the tongue to be down, so using the Throat Scope gently to suppress the tongue has helped my son know where his tongue should be for his ‘C’ words.

Your doctor, dentist or speech pathologist may not have a Throat Scope, so maybe take your own or tell them you think they need one, why not spread the word!

The success of the Throat Scope continues and it has now been launched into the USA! We all love an Aussie Mum invention – thanks Jennifer!

Read the original article HERE

Aussie Entrepreneurs who are Chasing Dreams & Improving our Health.​

Jennifer Holland is a mother of four, and has created an internationally acclaimed health product available in 140 countries across the world in a deal valued at over $15 million. Jennifer created Throat Scope, a medical device that incorporates a tongue depressor and light source in the one easy to use unit. The product has also been endorsed by the USA Oral Cancer Foundation as the number one tool to detect early stage oral cancer.

This is a wonderful story of inspiration about an Aussie Mum who had an idea, and got after it. It’s a story of innovation, creativity, determination, desire and passion.

Here’s what we cover in this interview with Jennifer:

• What was the genesis of Throatscope the product – how did it all start?
• Why did Jennifer decide to have a go at this idea?
• Creating an emotional WHY, and how that can influence your determination.
• The backstory of how the $4 prototype created at the Reject shop became an intenational invention.
• Did Jennifer always believe in her ability to bring this idea to fruition?
• Winning in the Shark Tank!
• How the advice of a 4 year old made the difference in the journey of Throatscope.
• Being a Mum and balancing a family day-to-day.
• The International Edision Awards for Innovation and what that will mean for Throatscope.
• How do you protect your idea and why is it so important?

Listen to the podcast HERE

Shining a spotlight on innovations and the teams behind them, The Edison Awards™, celebrating 30 years of honoring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services, announced the 2017 Edison Award Winners on Thursday, April 20.

With more than 500 senior executives and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a Gala dinner held at the Capitale in New York City. Nations represented at the event include Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, Nairobi, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States.

Being recognized with an Edison Award™ is one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business success.The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements that changed the world, garnered him 1,093 U.S. patents and made him a household name around the world.

The Edison Awards honor excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centered design and innovation. These Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners were chosen as the “best of the best” by the world’s top senior business executives, academics, and innovation professionals.

Silver Award:

Throat Scope® by Holland Healthcare Inc.

The unpleasant experience of restraining a toddler whilst a doctor used a wooden tongue depressor and flash light to pry open the toddler’s mouth, gave inventor Jennifer Holland (shown at top, center) her light bulb moment. Throat Scope® provides medical professionals with one free hand, a light source located inside the mouth for a fast, accurate and pleasant oral examination experience.

Is someone in your family suffering from a sore throat? The Throat Scope let’s you check easily! Simply attach the plastic disposable tongue depressor to its lighted handle, place on the child’s tongue and look in.

Throat Scope illuminates the throat and mouth from the inside, providing you with a fast and accurate exam. The LED light provides bright illumination of the entire mouth and throat. Simply detach the blade from the handle with an easy one-flick action.

Read the original article HERE

“Two thirds of oral and orapharyngeal cancers are detected at the later stages, slightly more than half will be alive in 5 years”.
Throat Scope is aiding in detecting these deadly cancers early, both in-home and in clinics across the globe. When you visit the dentist, make sure you are screened and make sure to screen yourself regularly at home.

Read the extended, original article HERE

Have you ever wondered what happens next for the companies that get the Sharks to bite?

The CEO Magazine recently spoke to resident Shark Steve Baxter about how to impress him with a pitch. These 6 start-ups managed to do just that on Shark Tank. Here’s how they have benefited from his investment.

Throat Scope

Founder: Jennifer Holland

HQ: Redhead, NSW

Idea: Throat Scope is a child-friendly oral examination device that removes the need for intrusive wooden tongue depressors and pen lights.

Investment: $76,000

Outcome: Throat Scope has gone on to win several awards including the including the 2017 Edison Award and 2015 Sydney Design Award. Now available in 150 countries including the US, the brand has seen revenue grow by 300 per cent year on year.

Read the original article HERE

What You Need for a Healthy Smile

As far as maintaining our teeth goes, most of us dread going to the dentist and only resort to twice-daily brushing and not-often-enough flossing. But there’s a lot more we could (and should!) be doing with our choppers than the basics. We’ll tell you 5 new products you need for a healthy smile.

In fact, the annual International Dental Show just wrapped up in Cologne, Germany, and the event is known for debuting some pretty cool dental products and developments in the industry. While most of the products are geared towards dentists, this year saw a few new products for patient use as well.

So whether you’re OCD about your dental hygiene or just looking for new and improved upgrades for your medicine cabinet, check out the new-new that’s about to take dentistry by storm.

Quip Electric Toothbrush

Electric toothbrushes have been around for some time now, but many people are hesitant to switch out their drugstore-bought brands. Often this is because the electric varieties are pretty pricey, with refills alone costing around $50 a pop, and often bulky (who has that much counter space in their bathroom?). Enter: Quip, a high-tech quality brush you can score for just $50, with refills costing just $10!
Buy it now: Quip Electric Brush, $50

Philips Sonicare AirFloss Ultra

If you’re like most people, your dentist probably spends a good 10 minutes of your appointment talking about how you’re not flossing enough. Let’s be honest—flossing is tedious and can be a real pain, but it is a super important component of personal oral hygiene. That’s why air flossers are becoming increasingly popular. They use rapid bursts of air and water droplets to virtually floss through your teeth, scraping away plaque and food. Pretty cool, right?
Buy it now: Sonicare AirFloss Ultra AirFloss Ultra, $70

PopWhite Whitening Primer + Toothpaste

If you happen to dye your hair blonde, you may already be familiar with the purple color-correcting technology (purple shampoos and conditioners have been used for decades to reduce the brassiness in blonde hair). Now, a new company, PopWhite, promises to color-correct your teeth with purple toothpaste that promises to make your teeth whiter in as little as one brushing! Best part? It’s free from peroxide, a bleaching agent found in most whitening products that’s not all that great for you.
Buy it now: Whitening primer + Toothpaste, $18

Throat Scope Tongue Depressor

Gone are the days of using wooden tongue depressors to do mouth exams. There’s a new device called Throat Scope. While it might not be the most glamorous tool to have in your medicine cabinet, it’s one of the handiest, especially if you have little ones running around. Throat Scope is the world’s first all-in-one lighted tongue depressor—it essentially lights up your mouth, making for easier examinations of sore throats, strep throat, cutting teeth, oral thrush and inflamed gums. It’s also an early detection tool for oral cancer, which affects nearly 50,000 people every year. It can be used at home, though medical professionals are turning to Throat Scope, too.
Buy it now:  Throat Scope, $20

Breathometer

No more showing up to a work happy hour or dinner date unsure of whether you may have bad breath. This FDA-approved removable mouthpiece syncs with an app via Bluetooth and gives you the 411 on you breath situation. How? You bite down on the device and it sucks a sample of air from your mouth. It runs this air through electrochemical sensors that detects sulfur molecules in your breath. Then it gives you a grade ranging from A-F. If you get an F, it’s time to book an appointment with your dentist, stat.
Buy it now:  Breathometer, $99

Read the original Healthy Smile article by Class Pass HERE.

This year’s Edison Awards, held in the financial district of New York City, honored innovation in 15 categories. Winners ranged from industrial giants such as Catepillar to cosmetics. DIY home machines came from marketer NuSkin, and startup PicoBrew hawked conceptually Keurig-like machines for mixing custom moisturizers and brewing beer.

But one of the lowest-tech product to still include a modicum of electronics was Throat Scope, a light-up tongue depressor meant to compete with the wooden stick that has become synonymous with the “Say ‘Ahhh'” experience. Developed by an Australian mom who observed how the depressor-flashlight combo left doctors struggling to look into kids’ mouths while holding open their jaws, the Throat Scope lights up a patient’s pie hole without need for a separate light source. Beyond the market for doctors with fewer than three hands, Holland Healthcare, the company behind Throat Scope, hopes to tap into the consumer market, teaching oral inspectors about various warning signs for maladies such as tonsillitis and mouth ulcers.

Consisting of an LED-lit base and a system of transparent flat disposable “blades” that mirror the their razor counterparts as a recurring revenue model, the Throat Scope is pretty high-tech compared to the organic incumbent, but its illumination of white teeth includes no Bluetooth or other connectivity. Nonetheless, Throat Scope already has a companion app for the product that could be used to crowdsource info on the state of mouth health. Indeed, it would not be a huge leap for the Throat Scope to progress from including a light to a camera. There might even be opportunities for wide angle or 360-degree imaging to set it apart. Holland Healthcare has been picky about components, at one point delaying shipments to a large US drug chain for months because a supplier substituted the LED light.

That is all far down the road for what is today a simple alternative to a stick of wood. But Throat Scope’s success so far shows how even a modicum of electronics, a solid business model, and a simple value proposition can convince a professional user base to move on from what has literally been a throwaway tool.

Read the original article HERE

‘Mumpreneur’ Jennifer Holland has made history. 

Her company, Holland Healthcare, became the first female-led, Australian organisation to be recognised at the prestigious Edison Awards in New York City.

As the founder and CEO, Jennifer was on hand to collect silver in the Health and Wellness Patient Care category for Throat Scope medical invention.

The oral examination device depresses the tongue to allow a clear view of the entire mouth and throat.

Scooping the award was a surreal moment; one for the Hunter mother-of-four would never forget.

“I always wanted to invent something that would have a positive impact of the world” Jennifer said. “Now I know that will become a reality”.

Jennifer said Holland Healthcare aimed to create a movement that would lead to more people using Throat Scope for the early detection of oral cancer.

“Now we have an Edison Award behind us, I know we can go out there and potentially save lives” she said.

Jennifer said that her children had also played an important role in the company’s success.

“They have been a big part of everything that we do, whether it’s testing of products, videos, marketing, and even support or advice” she said.

The lightbulb moment for Throat Scope came from her sick son’s doctors visit in 2009.

Following that ‘distressing’ experience, Jennifer set about working on what would be the world’s first all-in-one light and tongue depressor.

The device launched onto the market six year later and quickly took off.

Throat Scope is now being distributed to more than 140 countries, with doctors, speech pathologists, schools and veterinarians among those benefiting from the breakthrough product.

Read the original article HERE

Holland Healthcare has become the first Australian female led company to win silver at the Edison Awards in New York City for its medical device, Throat Scope.

Local Entrepreneur, Founder, CEO and inventor, Jennifer Holland accepted silver in New York City at the prestigious Edison Awards for her innovation, Throat Scope.

The awards, named after inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison, are internationally renowned awards for innovation. Throat Scope won the award in the Health and Wellness Patient Care.

“I always wanted to invent something that would have a positive impact on the world. Now I know that will become a reality. We are going to create a movement that will lead to people using Throat Scope for early detection of oral cancer,” Jennifer said.

“Now we have an Edison Award behind us, I know we can go out there and potentially save lives.”

The Edison Awards attracts thousands of nominations. More than 3,000 senior business executives and academics from marketing professionals, scientists and engineers, join past winners to review the nominations. They vote to award the gold, silver and bronze medals.

This award comes with a lot of “firsts”. While only a couple of Australian companies have been honoured with an Edison Award since their inception in 1987, Holland Healthcare is the first Australian female led company to be recognised. It is also the first Australian medical device to win, with the other awardees operating in the digital space.

“When I had the epiphany at the doctor’s surgery with my son and walked into the $2 shop to create my first prototype eight years ago, I never imagined this is where it would all lead,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer remained in New York after the awards to drum up awareness at a number of trade shows.

“Another dream of our team at Holland Healthcare is to take an Australian product into the US. Throat Scope can now be that product. We import so much product, we want to reverse that trend,” Jennifer said.

The Edison Awards honour excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centered design and innovation. Award winners are described as having ‘game changing’ products or services.

Throat Scope, which is being billed as the world’s first lighted tongue depressor, has been released from Holland Healthcare.

Providers attach the depressor to the handle to automatically activate the light and see the throat. The illumination of the throat and mouth creates an easier and faster exam, the company said.

In addition to investigating mouth sores, it also can help in oral cancer screening.

Read original article HERE

Throat Scope is a simple yet effective device that seeks to make the process of detecting abnormal oral issues much easier.

The device works in the same way that the simple wooden tongue depressors that dentists usually use do, but has an additional function – a light source. The LED light is able to light up the patient or child’s mouth and throat, enabling dentists and parents to better detect any abnormalities that may exist. Throat Scope can be used for a variety of purposes, including examining sore throats, checking for tonsillitis, looking for new teeth, examining mouth sores, for oral cancer screenings, and more.

Throat Scope can be used both by oral health professionals and people at home, making it a device that is both effective and accessible.

Read original article HERE