Milestone Scientific CEO Jan Haverhals

Disruptive Technology for Painless Injections

Medical science has made enormous strides over the years. Once unimaginable procedures, like open-heart surgery and organ transplants, are now commonplace; crippling, often fatal diseases like polio and smallpox have been eradicated. The most recent miracle of modern medicine was the development of Covid vaccines with record speed, dramatically reducing deaths caused by the virus. However, one medical procedure that virtually everyone on the planet experiences regularly has not changed since it was invented over 160 years ago: hypodermic needle injections.

Sure, there’s the don’t-fix-it-if-it-ain’t-broke argument, but one company, Milestone Scientific, saw room for improvement in the humble injection: making them virtually painless. They’ve done that by developing computer-controlled injection delivery instruments that provide virtually painless and precise injections.

How does that impact your everyday life? Let’s take the dentist. “In general terms, nobody likes to go to the dentist,” says CEO Jan Haverhals. “In the US,” he explains, “about 40 million people are dental- phobic, and it is because of anxiety and pain associated with the procedure.” Normally, the dentist uses that very long, scary syringe, delivering the local anesthetic manually, which requires injecting as slowly as possible. Then he or she leaves you for ten minutes, and if you are not numb when the dentist comes back, you’ll get another injection. “That’s exactly what you do not want as a patient, because you want to get out of that dental chair as soon as possible,” says Haverhals.

 

Controlled Flow, Painless, No Collateral Numbness

With Milestone Scientific’s computerized drug-delivery technology, the injection flow is very low, like an IV infusion, so you don’t feel the injection, and it is virtually painless. It enables the dentist to inject a single tooth instead of the whole mouth, so you don’t have collateral numbness in the lips or swelling in the face. And the anesthesia kicks in, in just 60 seconds, saving the dentist time. More importantly, it helps get you out of that dentist’s chair faster. An added bonus for dental-phobes, especially children, is the needle used is much smaller than the hand-held versions, easing anxiety.

 

Treating Pain During Labor & Delivery

The good news is that Milestone Scientific’s computerized, pain-free injection technology has become widely used by dental practitioners worldwide for over two decades—so there’s a good chance you can find a dentist already utilizing the system.

With 19 US patents and 133 foreign patents, the company is the leader in computer- controlled injection technology, and is now expanding into larger medical markets, such as anesthesiology. It has proven especially useful for epidural analgesia during labor and delivery.

 

 

Epidural Analgesia

In short, this technology is safer than the manual injections traditionally administered during labor. Instead of the rather “subjective” nature of a person injecting medication, the technology is “objective,” eliminating false-positive results, eliminating dura punctures, and reducing morbidity. “It takes the guesswork out of the epidural,” says Haverhals. “If you ask people about their experiences with an epidural analgesia, 90% will say it was not very pleasant,” Haverhals adds. “My daughter got an epidural for the birth of her first child, and they had to make five attempts to place the needle,” he says. “The procedure worked, but now she has scar tissue on her back, and that’s also an emotional thing. So, let’s not brush it under the carpet.”

 

Disruptive Technology

We live in an era of technology, but with manual injections, we still use what Haverhals considers prehistoric technology from 1860. One challenge they face is changing the mindset of dental and medical professionals. They ask why they need to change procedures they’ve been using for 25 or 30 years. “The reason to change is to give the mother a better experience during labor and delivery than what she currently has.” The technology is disruptive, so Haverhals tries to be disruptive in getting this message out. He liaises with groups over social media. “At the end of the day, we need to educate women who are planning an epidural, or are going into labor, or want to have kids.” By bringing this safe-and-effective process to the attention of the general public, he hopes that people will ask for it if they go to the hospital or have an injection in their back.

 

Global Business Background

Haverhals joined Milestone Scientific, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (MLSS), in 2020, and has helmed the company for over a year. Born in the Netherlands, he studied pharmacy science and attended business school. He’s had wide experience in the dental and medical fields, including companies in Norway and Switzerland. He started his own company and worked in the chemical industry for several years. He eventually landed in the US, where he met the founder of Milestone Scientific, Len Osser. “He was looking for his successor without me knowing that. And after 11 months with the company, he offered me the position of CEO, allowing him to retire.” milestonescientific.com