The Peezy Story
28.03.09
One rainy evening in 2000, at the end of a busy day in surgery, GP Dr Vincent Forte rang his sister to muse over the number of women patients who had berated him that day, for requesting a urine sample – and giving them a very narrow, standard Universal Container to do it in.
“They all complained,” he worried. “They said that the idea of delivering a sample into such a narrow bottle came from a man. I’m fed up. There must be a solution to this.”
“You were always making things when we were children,” replied Giovanna. “Make something. Go on, sort it out.”
So Dr Forte spent a few hours cutting up bits of paper and sticking them together in funnel shapes. He made one that he liked. It worked with the Universal Container that his female patients didn’t like. Pleased, he called it the Female Freedom Funnel.
Then he put it in a drawer and forgot about it.
Fast-forward to 2009 and Peezy is a revolutionary new product that improves infection control and enhances patient care; the device collects only the ‘gold standard’ mid-stream and eliminates urine spillage and splashing. The result is a much lower risk of bacterial substrate being left on toilet seats, floors and users’ hands, reducing risk of cross-infection and improving hygiene and infection control in medical settings. Peezy also reduces the need for costly retests required because of contamination from “first burst” urine which, according to NHS PASA, can lead to a saving of over £2 per patient experience.
Funnelly Enough, the company founded by Dr Vincent and Giovanna Forte is selling into the NHS and Private sectors, with agents generating sales in Europe, South East Asia and the Middle East. Moves are afoot to enter the USA, Australia and Eastern Europe.
“The spirit of invention and enterprise is in our family,” says Vincent Forte, who studied Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge and St Mary’s Paddington. “My sister Giovanna and I fought tooth and nail to bring Peezy to market and its now so rewarding to be selling … and winning more awards.”
Peezy recently won two prestigious accolades at the Design Week Awards; Best Industrial Product and Best of Show – over the Apple MacBook Air; it has also been shortlisted for the historic D&AD Awards, Product Design Category to be announced in April.
Peezy has received investment funding through the E-Synergy Early Growth Fund and continues to raise money for sales and marketing development.
For the full chapter and verse, download THE PEEZY STORY from the press releases section.