Even an Ear Infection Can Spark a Business Idea

Good business ideas can come from nearly anywhere. I was reminded of that this week, when I learned about a business that arose from an ear infection.

Here’s the story.

My 11-year-old daughter had been suffering from a cold, and suddenly on Sunday evening, she began experiencing pain in her left ear. From the way she was grimacing and holding her head, I knew this had to be dealt with right away.

It was about 6:30 p.m., and I drove her to our local clinic’s Urgent Care. On the way I was thinking about how this situation would play out.

She’s going to be diagnosed with an ear infection. The doctor will prescribe an antibiotic. But where will I have the prescription filled? All the pharmacies are closed. This is going to be a long, painful night.

I was right about the ear infection.

Then the nurse and doctor told me the clinic had an after-hours method for filling prescriptions. The nurse said, “It’s called InstyMeds and it’s located here on site — it’s like a vending machine and it dispenses your prescription after you enter a code number that we will give you.”

If you’re a parent, you understand how happy I was to hear about this.

The InstyMeds machine was located down the hall, and within 15 minutes of leaving the doctor’s office, the bottle of amoxicillin pills tumbled out of the machine.

The next day I looked online for the InstyMeds story. This is what I found at the InstyMeds Web site:

Dr. Ken Rosenblum, the InstyMeds® founder, was sent out at 10 p.m. to have a prescription filled for their 5-year-old son who had been diagnosed with an ear infection. Dr. Rosenblum drove around but couldn’t find a pharmacy open at that time of night.

Beginning in 1999 with an idea, Dr. Rosenblum spent the next five years developing and perfecting the InstyMeds prescription dispensing system with pharmacists, doctors and engineers.

Today, the InstyMeds dispenser is sold in 34 states and has safely dispensed over 1.4 million medications to patients.

InstyMeds isn’t a solo business, but it illustrates how — if we’re alert — business opportunities can be found in the wants and needs of our daily lives.