Health Tech: Dr Marina Domracheva On How 3D Predict’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
Be prepared to fail. Be resilient and do not give up. If you want to solve a problem which was not solved before, the risk of failure is huge. It was not solved for a reason. To succeed, you need an excellent engineering team. Even with a genius in your team, a lot of features in your R&D will fail. Either the technology is not there yet, or doctors won’t like it. It is tough. Especially when you are a startup, your R&D budget matters. It matters a lot. Even with all these ups and downs, technology development is an amazing journey. We wanted to develop a product that would predict jaw growth — but failed. So many factors have an impact on bone growth, we could not predict it based on radiological images only. We postponed it. We are waiting for new diagnostic technologies, which would allow us to predict bone growth in the future.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Marina Domracheva of 3D Predict.
3D Predict was founded by renowned and respected Dr. Marina Domracheva, who has years of extensive clinical trial experience. When the business started in 2014, orthodontists had the dream of planning root movements and knowing what was inside the bone. Under Dr. Marina’s leadership, 3D Predict developed a one-of-a-kind Deep CBCT® Analysis, which creates highly precise 3D models of a patient’s crowns, bone, and roots. 3D Predict is revolutionizing the dental industry using proprietary, patented AI technology to treat patients predictably, quickly and safely with uncompromised clinical outcomes.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
My childhood was super happy, full of love and fun, even though I lived in a building without hot water until I was 14 (in Moscow suburbs).
I loved math and science a lot, and successfully participated in national STEM competitions.
I attended the top STEM high school in the country and was one of 5% of girls who attended. Most of my classmates work in tech now. Today, we could make a class reunion in Silicon Valley.
I’m a medical doctor by training. I specialized in infectious diseases and vaccination and was involved in clinical research.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting story is how I switched from specializing in infectious diseases to orthodontics.
Several years ago, my classmate was going to align his teeth with aligners. He asked for my advice. When you are an MD, your friends always ask for health-related advice. At the time, I knew nothing about aligners, and I knew nothing about 3D printing. But I was curious about how these plastic trays could move teeth. He shared his orthodontist’s information and told me — call her if you want to know more.
From there, I met with orthodontists, asked them about braces and aligners. I read many articles about tooth movement and biomechanics and talked to 3D printing manufacturers. It took me nine months to decide — I wanted to develop a product that would be more effective than braces, with the comfort of aligners. I quit my job and started the company.
This is how small talk at a high school reunion ended up changing my life.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
A lot!
The team had a great impact. When I started the company, I knew nothing about software engineering, marketing or sales. I was good in research, and that is it.
Customers — our current customers shared their unmet needs. Our key product was developed based on customer feedback. An experienced orthodontist who was our loyal customer told me: I like your product, but I want to see the real roots and bone, but I do not get that from other companies.
We developed a lot of features based on doctors who were not our customers but were generous to explain why.
My mom — she taught me to be optimistic, resilient, and curious. These are her core values. She was born near Gulag (a concentration camp in USSR) to a family of the enemy of the communistic state. She has always been optimistic, curious, and hard-working of course.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
‘“If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein
This quote 100% defines how I live and do business in both ways — strategically and daily routine. Everything I do every day is based on what I learned in the past. My background in clinical research helped me to develop an effective medical product, and this approach differentiates 3D Predict. I always do analysis of what worked and did not, to do again (what worked) and change what did not. This is the basic principle in science, and researchers do it in the lab daily. I apply it to everything — marketing tactics, management, product development, business decisions in general.
I try to live for today. We deliver product today; we serve our customers today.
Hope for the future is crucial. When you have an ambitious goal, you want to develop the best technology in your industry, to do something what nobody has done before — you never know if you’ll succeed. Hope is important when you’re creating pioneering technology. When we decided to develop real root and bone-based treatments for orthodontists several year ago — nobody did it, it was not a standard of care. You should always question yourself and hope! Hope that you could solve technological problem which nobody solved before, hope that when you solve it doctors can implement it in their practice.
Even our core technology is aligned with this quote. We use ML (machine learning), and our software learns from yesterday. This is the core principle of machine learning — software learns from previous experience. Our software learns from thousands of patients which had root and bone-based treatment. This learning curve allows us to deliver better outcomes today vs. yesterday.
You are a successful business leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Resilience
Building a startup requires resilience. Every day, everything can go wrong.
Being a technology pioneer requires resilience. Developing a technology which nobody developed before is tough, you always have a temptation –it’s easy to give up and do what others are doing.
We received FDA clearance in February 2020, two weeks before lockdown. Running a business amid the pandemic required resilience.
Now we are having tough times, war in Ukraine (we had to relocate our digital and software engineering team out of Russia) and high inflation — but resilience will help us to overcome and succeed despite all of these difficulties.
Curiosity
I started my business out of curiosity. I asked orthodontists — what was missing along with their unmet needs. That is how I came up with the idea that we should incorporate roots and bone into the aligner design. I asked our software engineers how to do it? It was obvious that methods which were used before do not allow to create precise models of roots and bone. They were curious and suggested — let us try machine learning before it became a buzz word.
My team and I are always curious — what is next? I’m always curious to talk to doctors and people in other areas. It allows me to understand what our customers want and how we can deliver. I’m curious to talk to people from other industries — what do they do? What technologies are emerging now? This allows to connect the dots — which technologies can we use to meet the unmet need for our customers? We did it 5 years ago when we were the first to use machine learning for root and bone tooth movement.
Optimism
To solve complex technological problems, you must be optimistic. Your optimism helps you find non-trivial solutions for challenging problems. Optimism supports your hope for tomorrow.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve? How do you think your technology can address this?
3D Predict creates dental aligners. Dental aligners are used for orthodontic treatment. Orthodontists move teeth in 3D, but there was no solution which would allow them to plan the treatment in 3D. They planned treatment based on models of the crowns. This caused both safety and effectiveness issues.
We solved this problem. Our technology allows doctors to incorporate 3D models of real roots and bone into the treatment. This allows them to see the full picture BEFORE they start tooth movement. Doctors see where roots will be during and at the end of the treatment, which allows them to approve safe and effective treatment plans.
We are solving the problem of making aligners effective. Orthodontists use braces for 70% of their patients. We make aligners effective, so they can clinically compete with braces.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
Braces are painful, non-esthetic, but they are effective. That is why orthodontists use them to treat 70% of their patients.
Aligners are esthetic, look nice, comfortable, transparent, but less effective.
There is always a tradeoff — good quality of life during orthodontic treatment with aligners vs. good outcome with braces. If patients do not want braces, they may agree to 70% of an ideal result, which could be achieved with aligners.
I felt passionate that technology could solve this problem. There would not be any tradeoff anymore. Braces also have limitations. I was passionate to develop a technology which could combine patient comfort and deliver even better results than braces. I was passionate about new technologies and how we could use them to bring value to doctors and patients.
How do you think this might change the world?
Now we are changing the world by providing great patient outcomes with aligners, by showing doctors what is inside the bone. Orthodontists have always moved teeth inside the bone, but they never saw what was inside. It was a lot of guess work. They made predictions based on 2D radiological images they took before the treatment. We are changing the orthodontic world now.
What is next? We have a unique dataset, and could develop products outside of orthodontics, which would disrupt the entire oral health category. As I quoted Albert Einstein earlier — never stop questioning. There are a lot of unsolved problems in oral health. I’m confident that we could develop new product which will solve them.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
AI and machine learning will never replace a doctor. I’m confident that you cannot uberize medical/dental care.
As a medical doctor, specialized in infectious diseases I understand the harm, which was done globally when antibiotics were massively used without a prescription. It resulted in substantial antibiotic resistance. Existing antibiotics do not work as effective, and they should do. People are dying from pneumonia again (as in pre-penicillin era). But they are dying from antibiotic resistant strains.
We should be very careful with technology. AI cannot replace an orthodontist; you cannot align teeth in a safe and effective without a doctor. Technology is a tool, which makes orthodontic treatments more efficient and safer. Technology allows achieve better outcomes, but technology should be used by a doctor.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
First and most important question — identify the unmet need. Talk to your potential customers, what do they use now, what are the limitations, which results they want to achieve, but cannot with available products. This is the key. Roots and bone-based treatment was not my idea. I talked to experienced and successful orthodontists and asked them about their unmet needs.
Be curious about all new technologies. Maybe something was developed in a completely different industry but could solve your problem. When I identified that roots and bones are important, I looked for what was available on the market. There were products which provided roots from anatomical library, or had roots only, no bone. But doctors wanted to see real roots inside the bone — both components were important (real roots and bone). Nobody used machine learning for this problem, but machine learning was an emerging technology, so we decided to try.
If you want to make a positive social impact, you should be in constant contact with your customers and the community at large. We sell aligners to doctors; we do not sell aligners to patients. We want to provide value to everybody who deals with our aligners, patients, doctors, and staff at the dental office.
Stay realistic. 3D Predict is a dental tech company. We use machine learning and AI a lot. We should always be realistic about the difference between technology and miracle. AI cannot replace a doctor.
Work hard and be curious. If you develop a technology, you should always be aware about new technology. Technology is getting more affordable. By utilizing new technologies, you make your product better and bring more value to your customers. For example, now doctors need to buy expensive machines for intraoral scanning. But we closely monitor all iPhone updates, they have impressive 3D camera, which cannot be used for dental scanning yet. I strongly believe that doctors could soon use their phones for high-quality scanning. We should be ready for this.
Be prepared to fail. Be resilient and do not give up. If you want to solve a problem which was not solved before, the risk of failure is huge. It was not solved for a reason. To succeed, you need an excellent engineering team. Even with a genius in your team, a lot of features in your R&D will fail. Either the technology is not there yet, or doctors won’t like it. It is tough. Especially when you are a startup, your R&D budget matters. It matters a lot. Even with all these ups and downs, technology development is an amazing journey. We wanted to develop a product that would predict jaw growth — but failed. So many factors have an impact on bone growth, we could not predict it based on radiological images only. We postponed it. We are waiting for new diagnostic technologies, which would allow us to predict bone growth in the future.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Identify unmet needs first. Ask how you can make a positive impact. If you are not an insider, you may not know their real pain points. This will allow you to develop something that has real impact, not just funny tech stuff.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Tim Cook.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://linkedin.com/company/3dpredict
https://www.instagram.com/3dpredict
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Health Tech: Dr Marina Domracheva On How 3D Predict’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.