Empowered Patient Podcast

Angie Franks is the CEO of ABOUT Healthcare, focusing on care orchestration for patients needing acute, post-acute, and transitional care. ABOUT works with healthcare systems to use technology to replace many phone calls and manual work to allow for a smoother process of identifying appropriate and available facilities. This approach also impacts networks of referral sources, making it easier for health systems to build stronger relationships with consistent processes and standards. Angie explains, "When we're talking about a physician seeking the right setting of care for the patient, that process is filled with friction. It's filled with friction because when they're calling and contacting a facility, calling an inpatient facility to see if they can accept another patient, the people that are answering those calls don't have the information that they need at their fingertips to be able to make the decision." "When we come in and help health systems put in place the right technology, what we're doing is chan

Lauren Ohlsson is the lead of industry solutions for pharmaceutical and healthcare at VDX.tv, which partners with pharmaceutical marketing teams, healthcare advertisers, and media agencies to create video content that drives engagement with patients and healthcare personnel. They create custom interactive video ad units seen across Connected TVs, desktop computers, and mobile devices and targeted to the desired patients or providers. Using QR codes on CTV and OTT ads allows viewers to scan the code to get additional information quickly. Lauren explains, "One of the specific propositions we add is that we focus on CTV and then extend that reach to the household after that. It's a unique way to start these conversations around the household because often there are caretakers, family members, and a lot of people involved in medical decisions, so that's one of the facets of what VDX.tv can do." "We can do everything by targeting medical professionals by their NPI numbers. So if there's a specific chart list of d

Shane Bishop, the Founder and Chief Pharmacy Officer of Custom Health, aims for true medication adherence by providing multiple drugs in multi-dose strips in a manner that strongly encourages patients to stick with their medication regimen. Pharmacists and clinicians communicating with patients on a regular basis using a digital device gain a better understanding of side effects and other reasons people are not taking their medicine.  A fully integrated medication management system makes an enormous difference in the quality of life, particularly for complex patients who require a wide variety of drugs. Shane elaborates, "Now, where we differentiate ourselves from others that are trying to accomplish the same type of thing to drive medication adherence through different packaging formats, we have a medication dispensing device that sits in a patient home where it drives medication adherence by beeping, whistling and flashing at the time of administration." "The patient touches the screen and out pops one of

Maria Zannes, Founder and CEO of bioAffinity Technologies, has developed a noninvasive diagnostic test to screen for early-stage lung cancer. The test uses porphyrin to label cells to find cell populations with cancer cells. Using mucus from the lungs, this is a second test for people who are at high risk, giving them a chance to avoid more invasive procedures to determine their risk level and if they have lung cancer. Maria explains, "The combination of being able to determine that cancer is present in the lungs with our test, coupled with the noninvasive nature of the test itself really spoke to me. Having a test for early detection of lung cancer where the treatment can be so much more effective and people can live so much longer and healthier lives is compelling." "It's very simple for the patient and the doctor. The patient would go in, let's say they had a positive low-dose CT, they weren't sure, and the physician would then give the patient a small box. It's a 5x5 box with a little collection cup insi

Dr. Robert Risinger is the Chief Medical Officer for Neuroscience at BioXcel Therapeutics, identifying molecules that have off-target indications to address unmet neurological diseases. The initial focus is on acute agitation and the molecules that will address this agitation in patients with bipolar and schizophrenia.  Their fast-acting sublingual film formulation is an advancement over the current regime of intramuscular injections.  The drug is also being studied for agitation related to Alzheimer's disease and at-home use to reduce the number of people who go to the emergency room for untreated agitation.  Rob explains, "For example, the medication, the active pharmaceutical ingredient dexmedetomidine, was used, for years, as an IV anesthetic. At very high doses, it can produce a level of sleep or sedation so patients can undergo surgery and medical procedures. But our algorithms identified the fact that this may affect the core causal mechanism, this kind of fight or flight reaction, that we believe is r

Neal Koller is the CEO of Alphyn Biologics, which focuses on improving therapy for skin diseases. Their first topical drug treats both atopic dermatitis and atopic dermatitis with secondary infection. The goal is to treat the recognized immune component of the disease and the bacterial component. Those most affected by this disease are ages 2 to 11 though it is a lifelong recurring problem with only a multi-drug treatment regimen available. Neal explains, "I think we've got three advantages. First, the plant material that we're using is the microbial and small molecule defense liquid of the plant, and so it's got a number of different bioactive compounds. One advantage for us is in our drug product, we have multiple bioactive compounds, which target a disease, in our case, atopic dermatitis, in different ways. So we have multiple ways we can attack and treat the disease. That's unique and different, having multiple ways, versus a standard drug generally only has one bioactive compound and one way to treat a

Brett Furst, President of HHS Technology Group, is carrying on the mission of efforts started at the beginning of the COVID outbreak to collaboratively share data to provide insights to those doing research, drug development, and addressing the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable populations. Maintaining this world's largest COVID database, HTG allows research on complex social determinants of health and how to address health equity.  Brett explains, "So we were proud to take it on and be chosen by the consortium. Today we have the largest COVID research database in the world, with over 65 billion records. It touches almost 100% of our population in the United States. We're looking at all encounters from claims and clinical data, but also other more important for predictive modeling like social determinant data. We're trying to be more thoughtful about what's the next thing that's going to hit us out of the blue. We cannot be caught so flat-footed as we were in 2020." "There are concerns about long-term eff

Dr. Allen Davidoff is the Founder and CEO of XORTX Therapeutics, testing the benefit of a therapeutic for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a rare progressive kidney disease with a clear genetic connection. Evidence suggests that lowering the activity of the xanthine oxidase enzyme in the kidney and lowering uric acid production via this enzyme is critical to developing a therapy that can benefit these patients. Allen explains, "In terms of real therapies that slow the progression of kidney disease, there are very few. And so, to take the example of the rare disease, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, one drug is currently approved. It was approved in 2018, that's a drug called tolvaptan, but it's only really used in about 5% of individuals. So that leaves this rare disease population largely underserved despite the fact that there's an approved drug." "The drug that we're developing is oxypurinol. It is a xanthine oxidase inhibitor that has been studied extensively over a number of ye

Lisa Yanez is the CEO of Aerami Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the rare cardiopulmonary disease pulmonary arterial hypertension. Early studies show that using this smart breath-activated inhalation delivery system to administer AER901, inhaled Imatinib reduces side effects and requires less frequent administration by those suffering from PAH. Lisa explains, "Our company is focused on a rare disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension. There was a drug that was an oral drug that was studied before, but due to the side effects, that trial ceased. That said, if you look at the efficacy of that drug, it was one of the best-performing drugs ever for these patients. It didn't just help with symptoms. It also helped the underlying cause of the disease. What our company has decided to do is take a very intelligent inhaled patient-proven device and couple it with this product to generate the best of both worlds. What we're trying to do is helping patients live longer, but our mission

Scott Gray is the President and CEO of Clincierge and supporting the activities related to the observation of Rare Disease Day on February 28. Clincierge is focused on coordinating logistical, financial, caregiving, and translation services to facilitate participation in clinical trials by patients with rare diseases. With a personalized, local approach, they support sponsors of research in the recruitment and retention of patients by removing obstacles and reducing stress. Scott explains, "The intent is to provide an energy and a focal point that enables rare disease advocacy work to progress on the local, national, and international levels. The intent of improving access to treatment and medical representation for the many individuals who struggle with a rare disease and include their families who support and care for them. Since it was created in 2008, Rare Disease Day has played a critical part in building an international rare disease community that is multi-disease, global, and diverse but truly united

Sandy Macrae, CEO of Sangamo Therapeutics, talks about the promise and limitations of genomic medicine to find the most effective and affordable treatments for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.  Their CAR-Treg cell therapy platform allows T cells to be tracked throughout the body and activated to release chemicals and signals to reduce inflammation. Small molecule oral pills will always be used to treat diseases and vaccines to prevent them. The goal of genomic medicine is to eradicate the disease. Sandy explains, "We co-opted what's a very natural process and attached a whole series of things to it. The zinc finger gets us to the right bit of the DNA, and then we can either cut the DNA. We can turn it down, turn it off, replace a base, or replace a chunk of it. That's the advantage of the zinc fingers. It's natural. It's small. It's easily delivered and has a whole range of functions that allows us to choose the right tool for the right disease." "But there's going to be a growing space for

Professor Arik Eisenkraft is the VP of Clinical and Regulation at Biobeat, which has developed a short-term disposable chest patch that collects and transmits vital signs data to a cloud-based platform. They have also developed a rechargeable wrist device that collects the same kind of data and is designed for long-term use at home, in care centers, or for clinical trials. Using the optical technique photoplethysmography, they collect reflected light from the tissue not using the light that goes through the tissue, allowing for these form factors. Arik explains, "I can tell you that specifically at Biobeat, we had several very exciting clinical studies in which, for example, we managed to show that we can detect unique patterns of flu two days before people started to feel ill. That's amazing because now it can help you direct treatments or use all kinds of measures like isolation, as we saw early in the COVID pandemic." "Biobeat is using an optical method, photoplethysmography, or PPG, which is widely use

Dr. Rakesh Suri, President and Chief Medical Officer at Fountain Life, reflects on the impact COVID has had on our understanding that, as a society, we are only as safe as the least protected member in our global community.  He emphasizes the need to diagnose pre-symptomatic and symptomatic conditions and the long-term value of advanced diagnostics to address individual and population health needs. Rakesh elaborates, "It's leveraging the latest science, shortening the preclinical latency gap between new diagnostic tests, which we know are scientifically impactful. Yet, it takes 10 to 15 years to become embedded in mainstream clinical practice. Fast-forwarding those things, curating them in a thoughtful manner so that not everybody gets the same suite of tests, but they're actually tailored for age, gender, and other types of, what we say, comorbidities or other sorts of things that are going on in people's lives." "We understand, through our decades of research, that fixing the heart valve, if it's leaking,

Anat Cohen-Dayag is the President and CEO of Compugen, which uses its computational discovery platform to identify new drug targets allowing them to develop new treatments based on these new targets. While most immunotherapies are based on proteins PD-1 or PD-L1, Compugen has discovered two other proteins involved in stimulating the immune system response against cancer. Anat elaborates, "In 2009, we discovered the protein called TIGIT. We discovered it computationally, and we sent it to publication back-to-back with Genentech. And this is the protein that is being now developed by Compugen and by others, Genentech being the leader in this field with phase three studies in the clinic. Their phase two data showed improvement for patients with non-small cell cancer." "Following this TIGIT discovery, we decided that we're not going to compete in the TIGIT space, per se, but that we would like to focus the company on a different type of family of proteins, and we discovered PVRIG. And PVRIG is, again, a protein

Wally Gomaa, the Co-Founder of SimplePay Health, provides employer-sponsored health insurance plans that bring price certainty to patients. The plan aligns lower costs with higher quality care, giving the individual transparency about the best providers in their community and out-of-pocket cost, which motivates them to choose higher quality care.  Wally explains, "If you think about what we're doing, we are simplifying the payment model and the plan design model not only to create a better experience. Health insurance is the most complicated industry on the planet. We're using insurance simplification to naturally self-motivate individuals to choose higher-quality providers on their own by getting rid of the complexity of the plan design. Giving the patient member, the plan participant, whatever name we're going to give it, a price out-of-pocket for every covered service before they go." "We make our model available on a national level in partnership with Aetna and their TPA company Meritain. And partnering

Dr. Joslyn Kirby is the President of the HS Foundation, which focuses on improving the lives of those who suffer from Hidradenitis Suppurativa, a skin condition caused by an overactive immune system. Generally people with this condition are misdiagnosed with skin infections and treated with ineffective antibiotics. As a member of the DermTech Scientific Board, Joslyn sees the promise of this non-invasive technology to make a diagnosis for someone with the disease or help make a precise therapeutic selection.  Joslyn explains, "This condition is not new. It's just that we've gotten better at giving it a name. It's gotten a lot more attention, which it deserves because it's so devastating to some patients but mildly annoying to others. Still, either way, it's impactful to people's quality of life. So being able to find it is number one. Number two, give it a name. And then, number three, really pursue treatments that are going to be more effective than just antibiotic courses now and again." "The nice thing ab

Shelley Davis, MSN, RNC, CCM, is the VP of Clinical Strategy at Lightbeam Health Solutions expert in moving from the traditional fee-for-service model to a value-based care system. Working alongside providers, Lightbeam is identifying opportunities to provide education and better care to underserved communities with less administrative burden. As part of the ACO Reach model, providers must develop annual health equity plans to identify gaps in access for the most at-risk patients. Shelley explains, "We look at population health management as a way to identify patients, identify members, identify those at the greatest risk to fall through the gaps, those that have the most complex conditions. We offer solutions through patient and provider engagement tools, leveraging technology to be successful in value-based contracts. We are continuing to offer new services as we evolve as a company to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the next generation of value-based contracts."  "What we've done at Lightbeam and

Dr. Adam Mendelsohn, the CEO of Vivani Medical, seeks to enable people to receive the maximum potential benefits from medicines while minimizing the associated burden with taking those medicines. Drug implants overcome forgetfulness, procrastination, and other human behavior that impacts medication adherence. They anticipate expanding partnerships with various drug molecules and indications around their nano portal drug delivery technology. Adam elaborates, "When these medicines are evaluated in randomized clinical trial settings, they produce fantastic results. But these results don't translate into the real world in the way that they possibly could, and the primary reason for this is, as Charles Everett Koop, former US Surgeon General, once said, "Drugs don't work in people that don't take them." So, we are aiming to address this by developing miniature subdermal implants that can provide steady therapeutic doses over many months, guaranteeing medication adherence for these patients and, hopefully, improvin

Dr. Alejandro Dorenbaum is the Chief Medical Officer of Reneo Pharmaceuticals, developing treatments for primary mitochondrial myopathy, a type of rare metabolic muscle disease. Now with genetic testing, there are special panels devoted to diagnosing PMM that can provide quick results for an accurate diagnosis. Unfortunately, no treatment options are currently available, and physicians only treat the complications. REN001, a drug developed by another pharmaceutical company, is being tested in clinical trials to address muscle strength. Alejandro explains, "The myopathies and, specifically, our lead program is in primary mitochondrial myopathy. Primary mitochondrial myopathies are a group of diseases where genes that code for proteins involved in mitochondrial function are affected. So these patients can have defects both in the nuclear genes of the muscle cells or in the mitochondrial genes, and then there are defects in the ability to manage fats in the cell as a source of energy." "We then did a Phase 1 tri

Bronwyn Spira, CEO and Co-Founder at Force Therapeutics, allows provider groups, physical therapists, doctors, and nurses to reach out to patients no matter where they are, using virtual tools to expand access to care. Experience during the pandemic demonstrated that patients of all ages are eager to use digital means to address pain and recovery issues on their own time. Virtual orthopedic care also enables providers to be more efficient and helps to address staff shortages and burnout. Bronwyn explains, "Physical therapy that's involved in treating orthopedic conditions is a much healthier way, and a non-opioid dependent way, of combating pain. But also the solution lies in understanding the data." "A lot of the work that we've done has been around how our patients that are prescribed opioids are recovering differently from those who have an opioid-sparing pain protocol. Once you have that data, you can actually make a broader change to best-practice protocols. And, of course, that has an outsized impact on