Choosing Her Own Path

Ran Ma’s decision to not become a doctor like many of her family members has the potential to change the lives for millions of people with diabetes.

Ran Ma likes to say she was born with a stethoscope in her hand.

Ma was born in China to parents who were both doctors. They were assigned to the profession based on career placement tests. And they weren't alone in her family. Ma's grandparents were doctors. So were her aunts and uncles.

Ma moved to the United States when she was a young girl and had the freedom to choose her profession, but everything about her upbringing, including her parents' wishes, pushed her to become a doctor herself.

There was just one problem. When Ma thought about being a doctor – when she took her pre-med courses and started to apply for medical school – it didn’t feel right.

“I physically got nauseous," Ma said. "I just felt sick. Some part of my body was telling me, no, this isn’t what I want for me."

Ma knew she still wanted to be involved in the medical space in some way. In 2010, curious to learn about other opportunities, she turned to Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP).

That decision changed her life.

While in MBP, Ma worked at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the Department of Plastic Surgery. She was helping military veterans with wound care when she saw a small sign about diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). The condition can cause painful swelling, sores, and numbness that, especially when untreated, can end in amputation.

For Ma, the sign was literal and figurative.

“When I saw diabetes was an $80 billion problem in the US alone, that one amputation costs $100,000, that 150,000 legs are amputated each year in the United States because of diabetes, I realized I found a massive unsolved problem," she said.

Ma left MBP prior to graduation, and in 2015 she co-founded Siren. The company's signature product is Siren Socks, special footwear designed to detect early signs of DFU.

Ma is currently CEO of the company.

Significant increases in foot temperature are often an early sign of a developing DFU. Smart Socks are built with temperature sensors embedded inside the fabric. The information they detect is delivered wirelessly to the Siren dashboard. The company's algorithms analyze the data and a team of nurses contacts the user if there is a potential problem.

A recent study of Siren Socks showed a 68 percent reduction in DFUs.

Siren recently received an $8 million investment from Mölnlycke Health Care as part of a $9.5 million fundraising effort to continue its work to prevent and manage DFU. The socks are available nationwide in Veterans Affairs facilities. The company is also working with private payers.

“People ask me, ‘Why don’t you work on cardiovascular? Why don't you work on breast cancer or something sexy?’” Ma said. “And it’s true: Diabetic foot ulcers are messy and complicated wounds. But it’s something that people didn’t want to solve. When you spend your intelligence and your time and your energy solving something that people overlook, that is when you get the most reward.”

Ma is grateful for her time in MBP. She learned about career options and technology she didn't know existed thanks to MBP. She found supportive faculty she still communicates with.

Most importantly, she paved the path to do what she's convinced she couldn't do had she become a doctor.

“I wanted to do more than just treat patients," Ma said. "I wanted to work on prevention, and possibly impact hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of patients with technology, data, and easy-to-use tools. With Siren Socks, I'm hoping to do just that."

McCormick News Article