We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suzanne Moloney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Suzanne, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve been living with a disease called hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)since I was a young teenager. It started off causing lumps and bumps in my bikini area, which would rupture and scar my skin. It was very embarrassing, painful, and very very difficult to keep covered with wound dressings.

As I got older, the disease progressively worsened, and spread to other areas of my body. It was honestly a nightmare, trying to bandage up my armpits for example, or being worried that my skin would leak and stain my clothes, or that a dressing would fall out and people would see. I carried this anxiety with my over the years, and grew increasingly annoyed that there were no effective solutions for me. I started to develop my idea for a wearable wound care solution in 2014, after the dressing in my armpit fell out of my top at my friend’s hen party. I had had enough. I developed the concept a bit, and stared talking to other patients online. I soon realised this was a huge problem, and this patient group was completely unserved in terms of wound care provision. This disease had impacted my life, but it was ruining other peoples lives, and learning about the struggles of others spurred me on to really pursuing this as a business.

The problem with existing wound care products is that the mostly use adhesives, which are designed for flat areas of the body. There are some really incredible wound dressings put there, but try to stick them in an armpit, or a groin, and you will find it difficult. Adhesives are not suitable for mobile, moist, curved, and sometimes hairy areas of the body. And futher to that, the repeated application and removal of adhesives really damages the surrounding skin, making the wound management of HS very painful and stressful, and sometimes leading to bigger complications.

Our product, The HidraWear wound dressing system is a wearable wound care solution that removes the need for dressings to be adhesively attached to the skin. It is a simple yet highly effective solution, clinically proven to reduce pain and improve quality of life. While we focus initially on HS, the platform is being used currently to treat breast cancer patients and other wounds, and we will expand the range to cover multiple applications as we grow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I originally studied culinary arts, and confectionary arts in college. I worked as a chef for my early career, and then opened a bakery, which I operated for 6 years. I got into this industry due to the huge unmet need I saw for people with my condition ( HS). I felt so compelled to pursue this idea, and once I started, there was no going back!

My parents owned a pharmacy business when I was younger, and so I spent a lot of time behind the counter there, helping when I could. I’ve always like healthcare, and love that I have found my way back here is a round about way.

My journey with HidraWear started back in 2014, but really took off in 2018 when I moved to Galway to take part in BioExel, a med tech accelerator program at the University of Ireland. It was a 6 month program for people who had solutions to unmet clinical needs. At the end of BioExel, I won some prizes and funding , and decided to stay in Galway and build the business there.
I am so proud of the impact our products are having. We receive lots of feedback from people using HIdraWear, telling us about how it has helped them, how they are more confident, in less pain, have gone back to work, back to college, feel more secure. I love that our solution is having a positive impact.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Something I didn’t realise about myself until more recently is how resilient I am. When I look back on the past 10 years, and reflect on all the obstacles that have been overcome, both in my personal life and in the business, I understand what people mean when they say “I’d have given up by now”. It has not been plain sailing by a long shot, In terms of my own journey as a patient, I tend to focus on what I am doing to help others, but the reality is, I have suffered in the same ways as the majority of other patients. I’ve had years of not knowing what my disease was, and why it was happening. I’ve undergone about 13 surgeries, some very radical ones, to remove large areas of my skin, which has left my body very disfigured. You may not think it to look at me, but I was very unwell with HS, and endured years of physical and emotional turmoil because of this disease. I tend to overlook this now, and focus on the impact HidraWear is having. I am very grateful for whatever it is in me that keeps me going, because there were certainly some dark days living with this disease.

Also, the pandemic really impacted our business plans. We were on the verge of launching our products when Covid started spreading around the world, resulting in hospitals and health care systems reducing access and focusing on the urgent issues. With that, we could not travel to promote or demonstrate our products, we could not get access to any clinicians, or even send them anything. It was difficult, but we kept working through and made it out the other side in one piece! when times get tough – as they tend to do in start ups, I think of the patients we are helping.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are so many – I went from running a bakery, from where I knew everything , to running a medical device company where I had a very steep learning curve. It was a huge change and I realised early on that I needed to seriously up my game, and learn a lot about working in this industry. I returned to college and studied management and organisational psychology, but I also read lots of books and articles about leadership, and watched hours of videos in trying to develop myself. A few come to mind:

Brene Brown – The Power of Vulnerability – taught me to be open and honest, and to be authentic – to not try to be something that I’m not and to be open about any challenges I am having.

Also I really liked Simon Sinek – Start With Why – this resonated with me because everything we do at HidraMed is in pursuit of our mission to improve the lives of HS and chronic wound patients – every time things get tough, I think of the why, and the results we have had so far and it keep me going.

I watch a lot of interviews with business leaders, but also politicians, athletes, and musicians – to learn of their mindsets, and how they overcome challenges. One of my favourite movies was The Dawn Wall, about American climber Tommy Caldwell, who overcame so many different types of trials to ultimately achieve his vision. He is an inspiration.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hidrawear.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hidrawear/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HidraWear
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-moloney-hidrawear/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HidraWear
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HidraWear/videos

Image Credits
HidraWear