Empowered Patient Podcast

Kathy Lee-Sepsick, President, Founder, and CEO of Femasys, uses innovative medical technologies to address unmet women's reproductive healthcare needs. Femasyis is developing treatments for infertility and birth control and diagnostic tools to support its treatment offerings. The devices are intentionally designed to be more accessible, less invasive, and safer for women than existing options, some of which have not changed in 100 years.   Kathy explains, "Our technologies are just for women. So, we include broad categories of women. And we did this, particularly with the FemBloc product that we're advancing. It's a non-surgical permanent birth control solution for women that is delivered in the office. No anesthesia, no incisions, no hormones, no implants, none of the things that come par for the course for what's out there right now. And we included in our patient population women who did not have children before, which had never been done before." "So, there've been other technologies that have come and have failed in this market in an attempt to bring forward a permanent birth control solution that's non-surgical. And they only included women who have had children. When you include women who haven't had children, you have to be very responsible to do that because women should have a choice no matter what their choice is as far as childbearing." "When we think about infertility, it's not just a woman’s issue. And we're seeing the problems in donor sperm also, whether it's a single person or the LGTQ community that's coming forward, they have to get the sperm to contribute to the overall process. And the sperms compromised, like I said, even with donors. So we see a third of the time that it's strictly the male issue. About a third of the time, it's a female issue only, and then the combination is both. So about 50% of the time the male factor is contributing."    #Femasys $FEMY #WomensHealth #IVF #Fertility #Birthcontrol #FemaSeed #FemBloc #FemVue #FemCerv femasys.com Download the transcript here

Kim Brunisholz, director of Population Health Research at Johnson & Johnson, is conducting research to bridge the gap between evidence-based care and its implementation in routine clinical practice. Overcoming the challenges of translating research into practice requires understanding patient-provider perspectives and using qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and address care gaps. This research can also identify root causes and barriers to care, enabling stakeholders to develop and implement interventions to improve patient care.   Kim explains, "My goal is really around how I impact the translation and implementation of evidence-based care into routine practice. What I'm looking to do is ensure that all patients have access to what we know works in medicine. So, there are a variety of questions that we may pursue in our research programs, mostly around how we might think around closing the evidence-to-practice gap for patients and bringing what we know works to them." "It starts with the patient-provider relationship. And it's probably a lot harder than the public realizes around how we can actually deliver in healthcare, the standard of care. For example, there's a statistic from the early 2000s where we're seeing that it takes on average, about 17 years to translate research into practice. That takes a long time to get what we know works into the hospitals and the clinics and to the bedside."   "What's even worse is that not only does it take forever for that evidence to get to the frontline, but even when it does, what we're seeing is, on average, only about 14% of clinicians will actually adopt that innovation as standard of care. So that means over 80% of patients are getting that low-value care, potentially ineffective care. I think that's what shows up as poor outcomes for our patients."  #MultipleMyeloma #HealthEquity #PopulationHealth #SDOH #SocialDeterminantsofHealth #CancerCare jnj.com Download the transcript here

Nick Orser, General Manager at Verato, highlights the importance of trusted identity data in the healthcare industry and how master data management can help healthcare organizations deliver personalized patient experiences. The proliferation of data sources and health record systems makes maintaining a single, accurate view of each patient challenging. The MDM technology can help healthcare organizations access patient data across multiple systems to improve care outcomes and provide effective analytics and population management tools.   Nick explains, "To summarize what I'm talking about here, despite EHR consolidation with many organizations choosing to go all Epic or all Cerner, despite health system consolidation where organizations are buying up hospitals and physician practices like crazy, there's now this challenge in the industry that is 10 times harder today than it was just a decade ago." "The challenge is that dozens of these new applications in which a patient's data might be stored that an organization needs to tie together and unify. That data spans numerous clinical encounters, but now, there are marketing applications, digital applications, call centers, joint ventures, telehealth, and home health portals. And it's not just the number of applications that's really hard. It's the fact that my data as a patient might be represented differently across each application. In fact, 30% of stored patient identifying data is out of date, incorrect, or incomplete, making it hard to identify the same patient's data across all these different touch points because patients move and change their address. They get married and change their names, fill out a web form and provide only their email address, and schedule an appointment for a call center that mistypes their birthdate."  #Verato #HealthData #MasterDataManagement #WhoisWho #PtExperience #AIinHealthcare #PatientInformation verato.com Download the transcript here

Richard Mackey is the Chief Technology Officer at CCS, a company that provides chronic care management services focusing on diabetes. CCS uses machine learning and generative AI to analyze patient data from continuous glucose monitors and patient interactions to predict potential issues and proactively provide personalized information and support. CCS works with the patient's healthcare provider to support the prescribed care plan, improve adherence to care plans, and improve outcomes.   Richard explains, "On the machine learning side, we have a tremendous amount of data and information about how our patients will understand the devices they might be using. For example, continuous glucose monitors or CGMs are an important standard of care that we work with a lot of patients across the US to equip them, find the right device, help them begin using that device, and best understand what it can do and how it can help them make better decisions to manage their conditions."   "We might talk to the patient once or twice a month. We might be talking to them multiple times within a quarter. In some cases, we're interacting with a patient more often than others in the ecosystem, maybe more often than even their physician in terms of the number of interactions per month or period, even their provider, their health insurance provider, as an example. So all that interaction helps give us information and data to take insights on what those patients might need, what's most important to them, how they interact with us. We also can work with a variety of other sources to bring information together. And by using the machine learning tools that we've developed, we can understand things that are important to them. So, it might be around the product or specific information related to the plan or the payer they're working with." #CCSmed #Diabete #CGM #ChronicCare #HealthAI #AI CCSmed.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Raza Bokhari, Executive Chairman and CEO of Medicus Pharma, has developed a novel, non-invasive treatment for basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. This cost-effective transdermal Skinject patch delivers a chemotherapeutic agent applied in a clinician's office over three sessions to remove the lesion, potentially avoiding the need for Mohs surgery, the current standard of care. Medicus is incorporating AI and advanced imaging techniques in its clinical trials to improve diagnosis and monitoring of the treatment's effectiveness.   Raza explains, "The gold standard to treat basal cell carcinoma of the skin is surgical intervention, generally speaking, all solid tumors to eliminate cancer if it is caught in the early stage. The treatment regimen is that you surgically take the malignant cells out. The same is true for basal cell carcinoma of the skin. It is a slow-growing cancer. It appears on areas of the body that are exposed to ultraviolet radiation, which is being exposed primarily to the sun. When the lesion appears and is diagnosed, the treatment available is what is called Mohs surgical procedure, which is a micrographic go around the lesion of the cancer and just curate out the cancer cells in a surgical suite done by an experienced surgeon."   "We are trying to disrupt by delivering a known chemotherapeutic agent through these uniquely designed, cellulose-based microneedle arrays, which can penetrate the dermis and deliver a chemotherapeutic agent at the site of the lesion and kill the cancer cells, thereby eliminating the need of surgical intervention." "It is currently in clinical trial, but post-approval, it is ready to commercialize. We hope that the dermatologists who are also trained to do Mohs surgery before scheduling the surgery, which usually takes about six to eight weeks to schedule, can also invite the patients to, in an office setting, take our patch and have it placed over the site of the lesion for 30 minutes over three settings. So if a cancer is diagnosed today, you schedule Mohs surgery, which is considered the gold standard six to eight weeks out because that is the wait time. The average wait time in the United States is about six to eight weeks. You could provide an option to have these three sittings one week apart of 30 minutes of our patch and come back for an examination on week four or five. If the lesion has been cured and the skin has become clear, then there is no need for surgical intervention. If, for some reason, our treatment fails, the patient can go on and get more surgery done and eventually become cancer-free." #MedicusPharma #PatchCure #BasalCellPatch #PatchTherapy #BCC #BasalCellCarcinoma #SkinCancer #Biotech #Dermatology #ClinicalTrials #Phase2Trial #SkinCancerTreatment medicuspharma.com Download the transcript here

Scott Xiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia is developing a virtual reality-based treatment for amblyopia, also known as Lazy Eye in children. A traditional treatment is eye patching, which children find difficult to comply with. The Luminopia approach allows children to use a VR headset to watch content licensed from Sesame Street and Nickelodeon as a treatment to improve visual acuity by modifying the content presented to each eye.  This FDA-approved VR-based medical treatment is an immersive environment that reduces distraction and enhances engagement so that children are more likely to comply with and complete treatment plans. Scott explains, "We're pioneering a new class of treatments for a variety of visual conditions, and we're starting with a condition called amblyopia, which is more commonly known as Lazy Eye. And it's the number one cause of vision loss in children. And despite that, there hasn't been innovation in this space for a long time. Traditional treatment for amblyopia requires patients to wear glasses and then, in most cases, go through patching, which is exactly what it sounds like. You take an eye patch and stick it on your stronger eye for multiple hours daily." "The product that we've developed, we like to say, allows patients to watch their favorite TV show as a treatment instead of having to wear a patch. The way that it works is that it's a virtual reality-based product. The kids put on a kid-friendly headset and can choose from more than 3,000 episodes of content that we've licensed from partners like Sesame Street and Nickelodeon.   Once the child has chosen a video to watch, we modify how the images are presented to each eye with the goal of rebalancing the input to the brain and getting the brain to use both eyes together properly. We've shown that we can get significant vision improvement just by having patients watch TV for an hour per day." "Certainly compliance is much easier with our product, and that's an important driver of outcomes. So we think that alone is an important advantage over what you could get with patching. The other important thing we've seen in our studies is that we can improve vision even in patients who have been through patching and failed patching. And that's a pretty big chunk of patients. Anywhere from 50% to close to 80% of patients that go through patching are still left with some amount of amblyopia. We've shown that our treatment works even in those patients, and we think it's because we're taking a different mechanism to treat the condition."  #Luminopia #Amblyopia #LazyEye #Healthtech #VRMED luminopia.com Download the transcript here

Shaun Rothwell is Chairman and CEO of EVOQ Nano, a company focused on developing antimicrobial technology to combat healthcare-associated infections. EVOQ nanotechnology involves a unique non-ionic silver nanoparticle that can effectively kill even the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. These nanoparticles can be incorporated into medical devices to prevent bacteria from colonizing and causing infections. The bacteria can not form resistance to the nanoparticles, making hospitals safer for patients and healthcare workers. Shaun explains, "We're surrounded by bacteria all day, every day. When compromised, when we're compromised from an immune perspective, those infections take hold and cause some serious damage in addition to acquired healthcare-associated infections. We understand that paying attention to the issues of the healthcare system today also involves antimicrobial resistance. These bugs are hiding and present everywhere around us. The antibiotic solutions available today are becoming less and less effective over time because these bugs are developing resistance against them. So we have a two-pronged approach to addressing this around AMR, antimicrobial resistance, and impacting healthcare-associated infections. "At EVOQ Nano, we have created and patented very unique nanoparticles. We can make these nanoparticles out of a variety of different platforms, but we're focused on silver right now. One of our challenges when we first introduced it was that silver was commonly known to emit ions. And the reason that it's effective against bacteria is because of that ion emission. And those ions lyse the cell wall and destroy the bacteria even with these silver chlorides. They've been heavily used with coatings and different applications on catheters and different devices. The same reason it's had some effect is also why it's dangerous and toxic at high levels with this ion emission." "The EVQ 218 asset that we have is perfectly spherical, non-ionic silver, a completely new form of silver that has never been created before. And we've been successful in creating this. We have been able to go through a variety of studies at the Seattle Children's Institute with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's help to prove efficacy. When we were first tested, we were successful in killing 64 isolates from the six most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria known to man, as recognized by the World Health Organization."  #EVOQNano #HospitalAssociatedInfections #HAI #NanoParticles #SuperBugs #Catheters evoqnano.com Download the transcript here

Manish Arora, the CEO and Co-Founder of LinusBio, is developing technologies to measure and analyze the exposome which reveals lifelong exposure to environmental factors. Their platform measures molecular signatures in hair samples for early detection and diagnosis of conditions such as autism, where traditional observational methods can be limited. LinusBio is also exploring the use of the platform for other neurological conditions like ADHD and ALS and gaining a better understanding of the role of environmental exposures in the development of diseases. The company has received Breakthrough Designation from the FDA for its autism biomarker to bring this technology to patients.   Manish explains, "Our genes are static. So if I were to measure your genes when you were a child, or measure them today, I would get the same answer pretty much. Whereas your exposome changes all the time and so does your body's reaction to it. Let me give you a very simple example. A cup of espresso in the morning has a very different reaction to you than a cup of espresso at 9:00 PM at night, which will keep you awake. So even the same environmental input can have a very different reaction within a day."   "So the technical challenge is this: how do we map something that is constantly dynamic? It's always changing in time, and unfortunately, medicine is set with these snapshot technologies. Can that snapshot really give us enough information on what is happening to me? How am I reacting to that environment over the entire year since my last blood test? And that is the big technological challenge facing us as we enter into this arena of exposomes."  "The way we're measuring the exposome is that we've developed a technology where we can map exposures and our response at almost an hourly interval. You get all this data in a few moments in more detail. Using that single strand, we get enough information that would take you a thousand blood tests. There's this massive volume of data. To put a number on it, we just recently generated 50 million data points for each patient in our study. Not all of that signal is easy to decipher. So what we do is we put many, many controls, quality controls in there to say anything below this we do not trust. And these controls have been set in place through years of good scientific practice." "So, going back to the technology to very briefly describe, we open up a strand of hair, and then we start looking inside it using lasers and these detectors that we call mass spectrometers, which can measure thousands of molecular features. So that is what we are measuring. We are measuring molecules in your body."  #LinusBio #Exposome #Biomarkers #Autism #AutismSpectrumDisorder #AutismBiomarker #ADHD #ALS #Metabolism #MedTech  linusbio.com Download the transcript here

Shailu Verma, CEO and Co-Founder of Mila Health is addressing missed appointments and no-shows for appointments to improve patient outcomes, drive staff efficiency, and reduce clinician stress. The Mila platform aims to automate time-consuming tasks, allowing staff to manage their schedules and patient flow better. This AI-powered assistant drives patient engagement by reminding about appointments, checking on medication adherence, and helping address social determinants of health that may be barriers to care. Shailu explains, "These are conditions where a patient has to manage many of these elements that I just talked about. And because the conditions don’t have low equity, as we would call it, patients tend to have a relatively high no-show rate. If you look at chronic, which is almost 50% of the spend in healthcare, the no-show rates where patients aren’t able to keep up with their care plans is anywhere between 36% to 45% in some cases." "There are these external variables around a healthcare plan. I call them externalities. They’re all elements that create no-show rates and barriers for us to complete the care journey. And there are answers to these barriers. There are many hospital systems that provide help to address these barriers, but they’re not communicated at the right time. The individuals who are trying to get to that healthcare don’t quite know it. And that’s where solutions like Mila come in -- Mila is automating many of these guidance mechanisms to ensure compliance to a care plan." "Today, a health system would send a postcard, or they may have a call center sort of an operation, call these 10,000 patients, or send a scripted text message. Scripted text messages work reasonably well for a reminder system, but they don’t really work quite well for communicating with you why an annual wellness visit is important and that you need to come in. So what the platform does is you can give it a goal, such as set up an annual wellness visit or set up or prepare these patients for a colonoscopy. Mila autonomously communicates with the patient either on the phone or by text in a very personalized, engaging, empathetic manner like a human being would, reminding them of their meds, checking on their meds, their symptoms, their diets, and autonomously completing a particular task or getting them ready." #AIPoweredAssistant #CareGap #CarePlan #ChronicConditions #HealthcareTech #MedicationAdherence #NoShowRates #PatientCareGap #PatientCareJourney #PatientOutcome #Readmissions #StaffBurnout #SocialDeterminantsofHealth #SDOH #ValueBasedCare #VBC milahealth.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Joseph Dayan is a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Institute for Lymphatic Surgery and Innovation, a division of the Institute for Advanced Reconstruction. Doctors have traditionally focused on treating cancer rather than long-term effects such as lymphedema, a swelling condition caused by dysfunction of the lymphatic system. New surgical techniques such as lymph node transplants and lymphovenous bypasses can help reconstruct the lymphatic system and reduce lymphedema symptoms. Joseph explains, "Lymphedema is swelling, usually most often in the arms or legs, that’s permanent and often gets worse over time caused by dysfunction of your lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is basically the sewage system of the body. It clears out fluid waste from your body’s tissues and channels that waste into your lymph nodes, which are part of your immune system that has billions of immune cells that kill bacteria and purify that waste. That fluid then goes back into your veins and back in the bloodstream. When that’s not functioning, that fluid can get backed up, causing swelling in all parts of the body, but also infection, sometimes even life-threatening infections. It is currently incurable, and generally, it gets worse over time, as chronic diseases tend to do." "There are some types of chemotherapy that do cause problems with the lymphatic system, the taxane therapies like Cytoxan, but most commonly for patients undergoing removal of their lymph nodes, the removing of the lymph nodes or radiation to the lymph nodes or both are the most common cause of cancer-related lymphedemas." "I think there are two reasons. Historically, lymphedema was not something typically seen by a doctor or treated by an MD. It’s a disease typically sent to a physical therapist or occupational therapist specializing in lymphedema therapy without being able to offer treatment. I think doctors focus on those things that they can help with. And so one part I think in the MD’s mind is that there’s not a whole lot you can do for it. The other part is at the time of the cancer diagnosis, understandably, the cancer is number one, two, and three priorities, and the consequences of cancer treatment fall a distance second."  #Lymphedema #Cancer #LymphedemaAwareness #BreastReconstruction #LymphovenousBypass #LymphNodeTransplant #LymphaticSurgery #LymphedemaTreatmentAct #GLP1 advancedreconstruction.com/lymphedema Download the transcript here