From one owner to another
I run a cash-pay medspa too — I just also build the software it runs on.
The operator behind the software — in his own words.
How I got here
I've spent about seven years running Zvia, my weight-loss and medspa practice in Lakewood, just outside Denver. Same no-shows, same staffing math, same Sunday-night reconciliation you know — I see patients, I record in the charts, I run it hands-on. None of this is written from a boardroom.
Before medicine I founded New Dawn Technologies and wrote its first code myself. I started alone and built the team that grew it into court-and-justice software used by 350-plus government agencies — from the U.S. to Australia, Africa, and the South Pacific — and named to the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies four separate years. Daily Journal Corporation acquired it in 2012; Charlie Munger chaired Daily Journal then, and later said they “liked the service and ethos of the place.” I tell you that for one reason: I build great software, and I build even better teams and companies.
My own EHR was built for insurance billing, and a cash-pay optimization clinic is a different business entirely — nothing fit. So I build ProtokolIQ myself and run Zvia on it every day: same builder, same playbook, new industry. I work this hard so the software does the work for you.
Tom Higgins — builds ProtokolIQ, runs Zvia in Lakewood, just outside Denver
The leak I couldn't see
I run the supply room at Zvia myself, and for years the leak that got me was never theft — it was time. A vial slides to the back of the fridge, quietly passes its Beyond-Use Date, and one afternoon you're holding something you paid for and can no longer use. Nobody did anything wrong. The money just expired while I wasn't looking.
What still bothers me is that none of it had to become waste. Caught a few weeks early, aging inventory isn't a write-off — it's a discounted promotion that still moves product and keeps a patient in the chair. You just have to see it coming. So on ProtokolIQ every vial is tied to a chart and a charge, and the alert reaches me before a Beyond-Use Date, not after. The supply-room blind spot, closed.
What I've decided this software will never do
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Your patient data is never sent to outside AI services.
Sensitive work runs on local models; the clinical perimeter never leaves.
How that works → -
AI drafts. You decide, and you sign.
A five-level autonomy ladder — you set the level, per workflow.
See the ladder → -
Your data is exportable, anytime. No long-term lock-in.
Export records, notes and photos; no 12-month contract to start.
Read the answer → -
No fabricated proof — no customer quote appears on this site until a real practice writes one, with their name on it.
This line is its own proof: there are no logos or testimonials here yet, because there is nobody to quote yet.
Founding practices · Limited 2026 cohort
Help build the operating system you'll actually run on
You left someone else's way of doing things to run the room your way. We're onboarding a small 2026 cohort of founding practices as design partners — you shape the modules for your clinic type, and pricing is built around what you're replacing and walked through together, not printed on a rate card.
- Co-design the roadmap
- White-glove onboarding
- Founding pricing
A small 2026 cohort — we review every application by hand. No public pricing yet; we'll walk through it together on a short call.