Tom Fedor/The Gazette “It is a privilege to run this company for our customers,” says Paula Jagemann. “They’re the ones who are battling and enduring what no one wants to endure.”

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Tom Fedor/The Gazette “It is a privilege to run this company for our customers,” says Paula Jagemann. “They’re the ones who are battling and enduring what no one wants to endure.”

Tom Fedor/The Gazette “It is a privilege to run this company for our customers,” says Paula Jagemann. “They’re the ones who are battling and enduring what no one wants to endure.”

 

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After spending five hours shopping online for products to help breast cancer patients, entrepreneur Paula Jagemann decided there had to be a better way.

So she created her own online catalog for those with the disease.

The Frederick woman launched Someone With last month. The catalog offers products for those dealing with all stages of breast cancer treatment, Jagemann said, including radiation treatments and chemotherapy. She also is developing a patent-pending registry to help breast cancer patients pay for their treatment.

“Wigs can be hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars,” Jagemann said. “There are a number of over-the-counter products that aren’t reimbursed by insurance ... they’re expensive.”

Jagemann started her five-employee company at a cost of about $750,000. She previously worked for Internet service provider Uunet in Fairfax, Va., and founded online retailers Online Office Supplies and eCommerce Industries. She sold eCommerce Industries in 2006, after which she helped found the Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. incubator and joined the Maryland Technology Development Corp. in 2007.

The desire to start Someone With came after Jagemann was a board member at Frederick Memorial Hospital and oversaw the build-out of a women’s breast cancer treatment center at its facility on Crestwood Boulevard in Frederick.

“I discovered ... the time length between getting your diagnosis and having treatment, the burden of breast cancer care,” Jagemann said.

The company’s offerings range from apparel, including head bandannas, to cosmetics, books and educational resources.

Such resources are difficult to come by, according to Carol Mastalerz, director of oncology services for the hospital’s regional cancer therapy center.

“[Jagemann] decided to try to use her skills to develop resources and the online catalog,” Mastalerz said. “What’s exciting is she’s asking you to evaluate the products as you’re buying them. She really wants to connect with the patients.”

Jagemann’s “entrepreneurial spirit” made her a “natural choice” to help plan the new Crestwood facility, said Thomas A. Kleinhanzl, the hospital’s president and CEO.

“She looks out for the patients and advocates for high-quality patient care,” Kleinhanzl said. “She’s working very hard to offer something unique that didn’t exist before.”

In 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, 202,964 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S., and 40,598 women died from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the second-most common form of cancer among American women, after skin cancer.

In addition to Someone With’s roughly 1,700-square-foot office on North Market Street in downtown Frederick, the company also has a warehouse in McKinney, Texas, for its inventory and a call center in Pennsylvania, Jagemann said. She also plans to produce catalogs for medical providers such as community hospitals and oncology and radiology centers by late summer. She declined to disclose specific revenue projections for Someone With, but “I’d love to break even in a year to 18 months.”

With so many retail outlets closing in the Great Recession, “the manufacturers were relieved to have someone coming ... into their space,” Jagemann said, adding she hopes to partner with area boutiques that offer clothing or other products for breast cancer patients, including products not reimbursed by insurers.

“For people in the situation, night-wicking sheets are paramount,” Jagemann said.

The services Jagemann provides through Someone With are “completely different than anything else in the medical community,” said Dr. Jeanne O’Connell, medical director and co-owner of the Sylvana Institute in Frederick, which offers aesthetic services such as Botox, laser treatments and hormone replacement therapy, according to its website.

O’Connell has collaborated with Jagemann on several ventures, including Someone With, and said Jagemann’s company “lets physicians know what patients want and need the products are vetted by professionals.”

“The caliber of [Jagemann’s] business skills hasn’t been seen in Frederick,” O’Connell said.

Jagemann plans to expand Someone With’s platform to include products and services for patients with other conditions such as prostate cancer, arthritis, autism and muscular dystrophy “where there’s a unique catalog base or products that complement your long-term catastrophic or chronic disease and a financial burden.”

Easing the burden on those who purchase medical products for relatives with cancer and “doing the right thing” are what drives Jagemann with her company, she said.

“It is a privilege to run this company for our customers,” Jagemann said. “They’re the ones who are battling and enduring what no one wants to endure.”

chuntemann@gazette.net