The Welsh Wire: Dr. Jan Akervall, Chief Medical Officer of Akervall Technologies

A prominent physician and successful small business owner recently wrote a paper describing his views on COVID-19 from the perspective of being both a healthcare professional and a successful entrepreneur.

Jan Akervall, M.D. Ph.D, is president and chief medical officer of Akervall Technologies in Saline, Mich. Akervall became professor in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in 2012 and medical director for the multidisciplinary head and neck cancer program at St. Joseph Mercy in 2013.

Akervall invented the SISU sports mouthpiece and the SOVA Night Guard in 2008 and founded Akervall Technologies the year after. Together with his co-inventors they have 15 patents. He was the recipient of the prestigious Edison Award in 2018, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® award in 2017, and was been listed on the Inc. 5000 from 2016 through 2018.

Akervall discussed his personal opinions on how to move the small business economy forward in the face of COVID-19 in an interview with Sheri Welsh for The Welsh Wire.

“My opinion is that we should definitely pay more attention to herd immunity because we can’t rely that there will be a vaccine – it can take 12-18 months,” he says.

Akervall basically recommends protecting the elderly and at-risk population and opening up the economy for everyone else.

“We now talk about opening and it’s unfortunate that it’s very polarized. It’s either you can’t do anything until everything is perfect, or just go for it. And I would say none of these opinions in my mind are really following that data and following the rationale of how we get to immunity.”

Listen to Sheri’s full interview with Dr. Akervall.

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