Empowered Patient Podcast

Sean Cassidy, CEO and Co-Founder of Lucem Health, is applying AI to identify patients at high risk of undiagnosed conditions like cancer and diabetes. The goal is to facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment by flagging patients that need screening based on the AI plaform's ability to analyze EHR data and demographics of diverse patient populations to ensure broad scalability. This technology was designed to integrate into existing clinical workflows for established screening procedures rather than making direct treatment recommendations. Sean explains, "The origin of the company, the idea for the company, originated within Mayo Clinic in about 2020. Mayo Clinic has faced a challenge, and I think sometimes continues to face a challenge that a lot of researchers in AI have faced, which is how do you get promising AI in a clinical context from the so-called bench to the bedside? How do you get it from the lab into clinical practice? And what they realized was that while the data science and the AI part of it is really interesting, what was needed was scaffolding around the AI to facilitate integration with data and integration with workflows, a measurement and monitoring system, and so on and so forth." "We are trying to facilitate, and you're going to see us begin to expand the aperture, if you like, or open the aperture of how we position the company. Because as we've gone on, we have realized that the opportunity here is to actually help healthcare provider organizations, health systems, and so on, create really high-impact care delivery programs that have at their core or feature at their core earlier diagnosis, accelerated treatment, earlier treatment and therefore better outcomes for patients and hopefully even saved lives. So that's the generic approach that we take." #LucemHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareAI #HealthTech #EarlyDiseaseDetection lucemhealth.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Waqaas Al-Siddiq, CEO and Founder of Biotricity, has designed a direct-to-consumer service to shift healthcare from a reactive to a preventive model by simplifying and accelerating access to remote cardiac screening. Applying AI to sift through patient data allows the cardiologist to focus on clinically relevant information and to identify sporadic, intermittent heart issues that are often difficult to detect using traditional heart screening techniques. Waqaas predicts an expansion of specialized solutions using AI and large datasets to support clinicians and patients in the drive to identify early signs of disease. Waqaas explains, "The thing that we've been focused on is, as you know, heart issues. We've talked extensively about heart issues, which are the number one killer. And so what we've done now is we've collected this massive dataset, but we're trying to look at the nuances of those needles in a haystack. So it's not about the individuals who have arrhythmias to catch. It's about the ones who are very, very sporadic and intermittent, something that happens once every four months. Is there a way to predict that? Can we grab additional data from the patient about their environment, about their history, to get a more holistic view of the patient? " "Often, with a massive amount of data in a set, you can get into prediction, but you need a more holistic view. Our focus has now been on now that we've captured 90% of the scenarios, the last 10% are incredibly complicated, and how do we leverage that? How do we use our data to basically get into those specialized nuances?" #HeartSecure #hearthealth #preventative #heartdiease #healthyheart #selfcare #healthylifestyle #healthtestathome #HeartYourHeart #Biotricity #CareInnovation #HealthcareAI #Bioheart #Cardiology biotricity.com Download the transcript here

Neil Klompas, President and CEO of Augurex, discusses breakthrough diagnostics for autoimmune diseases, particularly axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). He reveals how the SpineStat blood test identifies a specific biomarker that can distinguish axSpA from common mechanical back pain. Highlighting the staggering nine-year delay in correctly diagnosing axSpA, Neil underscores the importance of improved awareness among primary care physicians. With FDA recognition, he shares insights on future plans for broader launches and partnerships to enhance early detection.

Dr. Petri Bono, Chief Medical Officer at Faron Pharmaceuticals and a seasoned oncologist, shares insights into an innovative cancer treatment using bexmarilimab. He explains how this groundbreaking immunotherapy targets the Clever-1 receptor on macrophages rather than traditional T cells, aiming to reprogram a tumor-supportive environment into one that actively fights cancer. Dr. Bono discusses the implications for higher-risk Myelodysplastic syndromes, trial results, and the potential to improve patient outcomes, including bridging patients to stem cell transplants.

Todd Doze, CEO of Janus Health, specializes in bringing AI to hospitals to connect the hospital revenue cycle management with the overall patient experience. Automating some manual RCM tasks, such as prior authorizations and referrals, has led to significant reductions in claim denials, faster processing times, fewer errors, and better compliance with recent legislation. Challenges remain to ensure the AI model's accuracy and to demonstrate clear ROI and a direct impact on the hospital's revenue. Todd explains, "Today at Janus, we focus on helping providers improve their operational and financial efficiency. We work with about 250 acute care hospitals across the country, servicing some of the largest health systems in the nation by providing automations and AI-driven operational intelligence. This gives management insight into what their revenue cycle folks are doing to ensure they're taking the optimal paths to adjudicate claims and also automating as much of the laborious, tedious work that goes into treating patients in the most optimal manner." "There are a lot of very manual pain points within the rev cycle experience. For example, many of us have been referred by our primary care physician to a specialty provider. A very common example is referring to an imaging center for an MRI or X-ray. And many times, to access an appointment with that specialty provider, the provider may need to submit a prior authorization request to the patient's insurance. And then there's also the communication loop process focused on the referral. And so there are many areas for error, and there are a lot of ways the patient experience can go south very quickly." #JanusHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareAI #HealthTech #HealthcareOperations #RCM janus-ai.com Download the transcript here

Susan Grant, Chief Clinical Officer at symplr, reviews findings from their annual Compass Survey, which revealed the significant challenges hospitals face, driven by financial pressures, clinician burnout, and operational inefficiencies. Fragmented technology systems create significant administrative burdens, and there is growing recognition that unifying healthcare operations and strategically implementing AI are crucial to streamlining workflows. Clinicians' involvement in the design and implementation of new processes and procedures is essential to ensure that patients' real-world needs are properly addressed. Susan explains, "The annual Compass Survey, is actually our fourth survey that we've done here at symplr, and the goal of the survey is to drive awareness around the need for and benefits of streamlining healthcare operations software. So it's a way to get feedback from our customers, clients, and leaders out in the healthcare world." "I've been a Chief Nurse for the last 30 years in different health systems around the country, and we do tend to be a very reactive industry. However, I think it's built and intensified over the last few years because of issues we're seeing that have also intensified, including finances, workplace violence, clinician burnout, and cybersecurity. Those are some of the top issues our healthcare systems are dealing with. So I think that the reactivity of trying to really deal with those various issues has intensified and created this reactivity." #symplr #CompassSurvey #HealthcareIT #HealthcareOperations #symplrOperationsPlatform #HealthcareAI symplr.com Download the transcript here

Fawad Butt, Co-Founder and CEO of Penguin AI, is addressing the workflow challenges faced by healthcare payers and providers, particularly in prior authorizations and claims adjudications. These processes are inefficient and often yield inconsistent results because human reviewers interpret rules differently, and patients are denied care due to minor administrative errors. Penguin AI is bringing consistency and speed to adjudication, breaking down data silos and handling non-clinical administrative work, enabling agents to address patient-specific problems and ensure accuracy and safety. Fawad explains, "When you look at the healthcare ecosystem, there are obviously the pharma side, the payer side, the provider side, and the PBN side. So there are lots of areas where opportunities exist. We think payers and providers are especially challenged, and I think the area where they struggle is in the administrative workflow. And these are things like prior authorization and risk adjustment, claims adjudication, and payment integrity on the payer side." "There are things like scheduling and patient 360, or onboarding and referrals, as well as some risk adjustment for entities that are risk-bearing, and ultimately, all the functions around revenue cycle management for providers. I think the payers and providers have a tremendous amount of technology and resourcing support, but these functions have not really been what I would say reimagined in over a decade. And I think with AI, there is a real opportunity to come back and try to optimize." #PenguinAI #HealthAI #HealthcareAdministration penguinai.co Download the transcript here

In this engaging discussion, Alexander Tsiaras, Founder and CEO of StoryMD, tackles the chaos of fragmented health records. He reveals how his platform unifies clinical data, wearables, and personal entries into coherent narratives. With insights on the power of visualizations in improving patient understanding, Tsiaras discusses the significant role of AI in transforming data into meaningful stories. He also shares real patient experiences, emphasizing how immediate access to consolidated health information can revolutionize care.

Seth Cohen, President of Cedar, focuses on transforming the healthcare billing landscape into a more patient-friendly financial navigation system. He discusses how Cedar's AI, Cora, connects patients to underused financial resources like Medicaid and Health Savings Accounts. Seth highlights the impact of recent policy changes on patient affordability and explains Cedar's strategy for automated eligibility verification. With an emphasis on advocacy, he shares how technology can alleviate financial burdens for patients while benefiting healthcare providers.

Jim Foote, Co-Founder and CEO of First Ascent Biomedical, is changing the standard of care for cancer treatment from 'try and hope' to 'test and treat'. The First Ascent platform combines functional drug testing of fresh biopsies, genomic sequencing, and an AI engine to assess a large panel of drugs and identify the most likely to be effective. Clinical data show a high correlation between how cancer cells respond in the lab test and how patients respond to the same drug, and is seen as a treatment guide for refractory cancer patients to identify novel drug combinations. Jim explains, "Fundamentally speaking, if we look at everybody on this planet from a DNA and RNA perspective, there are 8 billion people, and each one of us is different from the others due to our DNA and RNA. So if we acknowledge that biologically we're all different, then the problem that we're trying to solve is if we're all different, why are we treating each patient with the same standard of care? A process that has existed for a hundred years, and again, they've made substantial advancements, but functional precision medicine is really an opportunity to move away from a standard that's based on the laws of averages and really treat people based on an individual level, developed by results that come from their individual biology." "In oncology, these practices and standards have been developed over decades. And in some situations, some of these cancer protocols haven't been updated in decades. There had been continual advancements in things like immunotherapy. What I'll say is that in oncology, they're always looking for the silver bullet. It's in the genome, it's in a biomarker, it's in immuno-oncology, it's in an organoid, it's in all of those types of things. So they have always tried to find that silver bullet. Fundamentally, what we do in First Ascent is that we believe that we have enough bullets, per se. We have enough drugs, per se. We're just not using them in the right ways. " #FirstAscentBiomedical #Cancer #Oncology firstascentbiomedical.com Download the transcript here