Empowered Patient Podcast

Michael Reidy, a senior consultant at Interaction Associates, discusses the challenges and opportunities facing both new and experienced doctors, given the rise of virtual doctor visits and telemedicine, as well as the use of AI tools in the healthcare environment. While new doctors often possess strong technical skills, they may lack the interpersonal skills necessary to communicate effectively with patients. Experienced doctors may need a refresher on active listening skills to adapt to screen technologies. While technology and AI tools can enhance the patient-doctor relationship by providing data and insights, the human interaction remains essential. Michael explains, "We are a 55-year-old company that has worked with clients ranging from healthcare to nuclear power to finance services. So we're providing tools to organizations to empower leaders, managers, individual contributors, and coaches to encourage performance and enhance capability." "New physicians are such a brilliant audience for us. I think usually because they're technically very brilliant. They have come through an exhaustive training and passed through many, many hurdles and bridges in order to arrive at their calling or their vocation. At the same time, they arrive with some experience of being with people who are sick or who are ill or who are wondering what is wrong with me, but not a lot. And so our job, we find, is to enable, to empower, and to engage the human side of the younger doctor. In fact, it applies very often to older practitioners also." #InteractionAssociates #MedTech #VirtualHealth #AI #MedAI #DoctorPatientRelationship interactionassociates.com Download the transcript here

Allan Sheffield, Co-Founder of Gene By Gene, offers genetic testing to provide insights into an individual's risk for various diseases, including cancer and rare genetic disorders, allowing for more proactive and preventative healthcare. Analysis of pharmacogenomic data, which examines how an individual's genes influence their response to medications, also helps doctors prescribe the most effective treatments and avoid potential side effects. Integrating genetic data into electronic medical records and using AI to simplify the interpretation of results is enabling doctors and patients to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and use polygenic risk scores to provide more comprehensive insights into an individual's health. Allan explains, "Gene By Gene is one of the largest genomic sequencing or genetic tech companies in the US, and we do everything from whole genome sequencing to offering hereditary cancer screening, predictive cardiovascular risk, and things like pharmacogenomic testing to see how people respond to different medications. So if you can think about genetic testing, we've got the capabilities to do it." "We're living in a really exciting time at the moment, where next-generation sequencing, or whole-genome sequencing, is becoming much more of a reality. I think 10 years ago, it would cost over a hundred thousand dollars to sequence your whole genome, which is the 3 billion base pairs of genetic code in your body. And so what we've had to do in the past is do very targeted tests to keep the costs affordable. But with the advancements in technology, we are now doing the whole genome sequence at Gene By Gene for in the hundreds of dollars as opposed to the thousands of dollars. And that's making it much more accessible and much more realistic in healthcare." #GeneByGene #GeneticTesting #NextGenerationSequencing #NGS #Pharmagenomics #CancerScreening #PredictiveScreening #CardiovascularRisk #PrecisionMedicine GeneByGene.com Download the transcript here

Sandy Saggar, CEO of Connexall, aims to solve the challenge of disparate and unconnected technologies in hospitals that lead to inefficient workflows, data silos, and increased cognitive load on clinicians. Connexall's connected care platform helps integrate hospital systems and medical devices to improve communication, automate workflows, save time for clinicians, and enhance patient outcomes. The need for a connected hospital is becoming increasingly clear, as it helps break down technical barriers and improve interoperability. Sandy explains, "So the challenge today and has been a challenge for some time is that hospitals have disparate technology pieces all over the place, and between technologies and medical devices, they're not connected to one another. It means less automation, silos of data, and just workflows that don't help clinicians and staff do their work around patient care. So when you look at all of these medical devices, clinical systems can be connected, which can really improve those workflows, improve communication, and lead to improved patient outcomes. So, how do we make it easier for nurses, doctors, and staff to do their day-to-day work? "Really, that's our purpose here, is to help with that and decrease things like cognitive load. Why do I need to go to multiple devices or multiple medical devices, multiple apps, multiple workstations to check on things around patient care, like vital signs, alarms, and messages? So, just helping to support patient care and improving the caregiver experience is really the heart of what we do." #Connexall #Hospitals #ConnectedHospitals #SmartHospitals #Healthcare #DataSilos #MedicalDevices #Interoperability connexall.com Download the transcript here

Dr. George Sledge, Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer of Caris Life Sciences, is using advanced molecular testing, including DNA, RNA, and protein analysis, to identify specific mutations and characteristics of a patient's tumor, allowing for more personalized and targeted treatment. The company is developing liquid biopsies to detect cancer early, identify minimal residual disease, and assess the potential for future cancer development. Caris has a database of over half a million patients whose tumors have undergone next-generation sequencing, allowing them to draw increasingly accurate conclusions. The future of precision oncology is expected to involve broader and earlier use of next-generation sequencing as the cost of the test continues to decrease significantly. George explains, "Caris Life Sciences is a molecular diagnostics company. Patients and their physicians send us tumor samples that can be obtained either from the primary tissue or from a distant recurrent site. When they come to us, we do several things. We look at DNA, what's called whole exome. We look at RNA, what's called whole transcriptome. We also frequently look at the protein level at immunohistochemistry, looking at slides that have been stained to look for particular molecular lesions that may be important from a treatment standpoint. Based on all of these, we're able to provide patients with information about which drugs represent the most appropriate treatment for their disease. This, of course, allows you to go to a drug that hopefully will be less toxic and more effective for your particular disease." "When we look at the very specific mutations that manifest themselves at the level of either DNA or RNA, this requires fairly high technology, what's called next-generation sequencing, which allows us to pick up all these individual mutations that make up a particular patient's cancer. And every patient's cancer is different. Every patient's cancer involves different combinations of mutations that result in different responses to different treatments." #CarisLifeSciences #CancerResearch #PrecisionMedicine #RealWorldData #AccestoCare #HealthEquity #NextGenerationSequencing #NGS #LiquidBiopsy #ClinicoGenomic #Biomarkers #PanCancer carislifesciences.com Download the transcript here

Kirk Huntsman, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Vivos Therapeutics, is focused on the connection between obstructive sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease, the challenges of diagnosing sleep apnea, and the importance of sleep testing in treating the root causes of sleep disorders. The Vivos oral appliance is a non-invasive way to address the breathing disorder OSA and resulting sleep issues. Proper nasal breathing and airway development from a young age can help prevent the onset of sleep apnea and help preserve brain health. Kirk explains, "Sleep apnea is an interesting condition that has only been actively researched for the last 60 years. It was really only identified and started showing up in the medical literature in the mid-1960s. And so we really have about a 60-year run at trying to figure out what this condition is, what it affects, what's comorbid with it, etc. We're now pushing 40 plus conditions, which are comorbid with sleep apnea, and every time we find another condition that is coexistent with sleep apnea or that is found in connection with sleep apnea, we just expand the horizon for that and we learn more about the sort of the biomechanical and the biological processes that are at work that drive the connection between these two. And you mentioned one of the main ones now that we've known about for a while, but the connection between obstructive sleep apnea in particular and Alzheimer's." "What we know is that there's a drainage system on the brain. Our brains need to get into a deep state of rest, and it's called REM sleep. And there are other parts to this. I'll keep it really high level, but the bottom line is that our brains flush. There's a sewage system that basically flushes the toxins out of our brains. It's called the glymphatic system. And the glymphatic system needs to be able to function, and in order to function, the patient has to be in a state of deep sleep. And so if sleep apnea has interrupted that sleep and caused various arousals or various interruptions to avoid a patient arriving at that, what happens is that the brain is not able to flush the toxins out of the brain, and those toxins build up." #VivosTherapeutics #SleepApnea #ObstructiveSleepApnea #OSA #SleepDisorders #CognitiveDecline #Alzheimers #OSATreatment #MedicalDevice vivos.com Download the transcript here

Marianne De Backer is the CEO of Vir Biotechnology, a company developing treatments that harness the power of the immune system to fight serious infectious diseases and cancer. Vir Biotechnology's current clinical trials include a registrational program in chronic hepatitis delta, a rare, often fatal liver disease, as well as two Phase 1 trials of PRO-XTEN™ dual-masked T-cell engagers (TCEs), one targeting HER-2 and the other targeting PSMA, each in heavily pre-treated cancer patients. TCEs have shown tremendous potential but have been limited due to toxicity challenges. The PRO-XTEN™ technology keeps the TCEs masked until they reach the tumor microenvironment, potentially mitigating the toxicity of TCEs and allowing them to unleash their tremendous potential to destroy cancer cells. Marianne explains, "Vir Biotechnology is an immunology company, and that means that we are really developing treatments that take advantage of the power of basically the patient's own immune system to fight a variety of diseases. We have actually four clinical-stage programs in infectious disease and oncology, and a number of preclinical programs as well. And our most advanced program is to treat chronic hepatitis delta. That is actually a disease caused by a tiny virus, but it's causing liver cancer and is often fatal." "We have recently initiated our registrational phase 3 program. It's called ECLIPSE. We had previously shown some very compelling data with one of our regimens for treating this disease. We're really excited about progressing that program. And the rest of our clinical pipeline includes a series of so-called PRO-XTEN™ masked T-cell engagers, or in short, TCEs, for the treatment of metastatic solid tumors." Vir Biotechnology has exclusive rights to the PRO-XTEN™ masking platform for oncology and infectious disease. PRO-XTEN™ is a trademark of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a Sanofi company. #VirBiotechnology #MaskedTCellEngagers #TCellEngagers #SolidTumors #MetastaticSolidTumors #Cancer #Immunotherapy #ChronicHepatitisDelta #MedAI #PatientsAreWaiting vir.bio Download the transcript here

Evan Steele, Founder and CEO of online reputation management company rater8, emphasizes the importance of online reviews for healthcare providers and how patients are increasingly relying on reviews to select a doctor. The key to generating reviews is to actively ask for feedback and acknowledge receipt of comments. Negative reviews and low-star ratings can encourage practices to respond to comments, improving the patient experience and demonstrating to patients that the practice cares. Evan explains, "Now, you look in your insurance guide to see which providers in your area accept the insurance. There's a Facebook group. You might ask, Who do I go to see for my shoulder that hurts for an orthopedic surgeon? You ask your friends and family, your PCP gives you some names, and you start going down the list. And what's changed is if you call that first doctor on the list and they don't have great reviews, you might not even call them, but let's say you call them and they have a convenient time, and a location is convenient, but the next doctor has 150 reviews, 4.9 stars." "You read the comments, patients love this doctor. Even if the appointment time is not convenient for you or the drive is a little further than the most convenient location, you're going to book an appointment with that doctor. Just like I would never even think of dining at a 3.8-star rated restaurant. I wouldn't trust my health, my life, and my well-being to a 3.8-rated doctor. So I think people are making decisions now based on online reviews and even going out of their way and being inconvenienced to make sure they get the right doctor." #rater8 #ReputationManagement #PatientFeedback #PatientEngagement #PracticeGrowth #TrustMarketing #PatientAcquisition #PatientProviderRelationship rater8.com Download the transcript here

Elli Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder of Neurotrack, emphasizes the importance of early cognitive assessment and the potential of digital tools in advancing the screening process for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. Screen-based assessment tools can provide more efficient, accurate, and objective screening compared to traditional pen and paper tests. Integrating cognitive screening into primary care settings can lead to early intervention when lifestyle changes can help maintain brain health and slow the progression of conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Elli explains, "We are focused on screening for cognitive decline, and that includes mild cognitive impairment all the way through to Alzheimer's disease, working largely with primary care providers to help them then make a diagnosis of cognitive decline or Alzheimer's in their clinics and refer patients on to get better treatment." "Historically, there have been tests that have existed in the universe that are pen and paper tests that measure cognition. I would say quite poorly. But the other problem with these types of tests is that they have to be administered by a trained administrator, who is typically a doctor, and they take a long time. So they may take anywhere from 10 minutes to 25 minutes. And so the advantages of digital tools are that one, they don't carry that same bias. Some that would occur with one provider versus another versus another, with a different kind of style administering the test. So they're much more objective." "Our tests are quite short, so they can be administered, self-administered in about three minutes, depending on the patient. So, anywhere from three minutes up to about seven minutes, as we unlock additional tests as they may be needed for a particular patient. So they make it possible to standardize testing across a population and to integrate it into workflows in ways that haven't been possible before. So more efficient, more accurate, and more objective. And you take out a lot of the bias that has existed around both administration, as well as things like language or education levels, ethnicity, that type of thing." #Neurotrack #Alzheimers #HealthTech #AlzheimersAwareness #MemoryCare #SeniorCare #Aging #Cognition #CognitionScreening #Dementia neurotrack.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Sandra Silberman, Chief Medical Officer at CNS Pharmaceuticals, has developed new therapies for glioblastoma that can cross the blood-brain barrier to reach brain tumors. Their lead drug candidates have been modified to slip into the membranes to inhibit tumor growth and attack the cancer cells. The anthracycline-based and taxane-based drugs are showing efficacy in clinical trials and are not showing the cardiotoxicity associated with anthracyclines. Sandra explains, "Anthracyclines are characteristically cardiotoxic. And we have just conducted a study of over 160 patients who have received this, and some of them for quite a long period of time. And we have not seen any cardiotoxicity. So we have one of the anthracyclines that is the first to actually cross the blood-brain barrier without any help from other mechanisms, and it also doesn't cause cardiotoxicity. So we have a really open field to be able to further develop this drug. And we know that this drug, based on all of our preclinical studies, is very effective against glioma cells." "This is to the great credit of the chemists that we've been working with. Can I develop a compound that can not be a substrate for this, so it can't even bind to this efflux transporter and can slip by? But not only that, can it be lipophilic, meaning it can get through all those membranes, and it can be something that leaks into the brain itself. So the two molecules that we have are not substrates for these multidrug-resistant transporters. They're also very highly lipophilic, meaning they're very oily. And so I guess this has two meanings to it, but they're oily and then they slip into the brain and are able to do what they're supposed to be doing, which is the inhibition of tumor growth and killing the tumor cells." #CNSPharma #Glioblastoma ##BrainCancer #BloodBrainBarrier #NeuroOncology #CancerResearch #DrugDevelopment #BrainTumor cnspharma.com Download the transcript here

Kevin Caldwell, CEO, President, and Co-Founder of Ossium Health, discusses the opportunities for regenerative stem-cell therapies and the challenges of obtaining bone marrow from donors for bone marrow transplants. Ossium Health is collecting bone marrow from healthy, young donors and utilizing a cryopreservation process that enables long-term storage and on-demand availability of these cells. Ongoing clinical trials using allogeneic bone-marrow-derived cells to treat patients with acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome are showing promising results. Kevin explains, "Our mission is to improve the health, longevity, and vitality of human beings through bioengineering. We believe that regenerative therapeutics, which involve cell and gene therapies that can permanently and positively improve human biology, will be fundamental to the prevention of disease and the preservation of health as we age. One of the most powerful tools we have in achieving this goal is engineering the immune system. And in particular at Ossium, we develop therapeutics that enable us today in the clinic to treat life-threatening malignancies of the immune system, like leukemia, in patients with dire need. Into the future, the goal is to make it possible to reconstitute, reprogram, and replace a blood and immune system in a manner that can treat patients with chronic diseases and ultimately do so in a preventive manner." "Traditionally, the major application of bone marrow in the clinic is bone marrow transplants for patients with blood cancers like leukemia. And so the patient's native immune system is ablated or annihilated and replaced with a bone marrow infusion from a healthy donor, related or unrelated. And if that bone, new bone marrow from the donor in grafts in the patient, then it replaces or it constitutes their blood and immune system." "And so one of the things that we're working on at Ossium is, okay, how do we address these problems? How do we make bone marrow more available to deliver and deploy on demand and easily, without needing to track down a volunteer donor? What can we do to reduce the risk of rejection so that the transplant is safer? What can we do to improve the likelihood of engraftment the first time and the speed of engraftment so the patients aren't immunocompromised for as long? All of these are things that we're working on to really make it possible to bring this lifesaving procedure to more patients." #OssiumHealth #StemCellTherapy #RegenerativeMedicine #BoneMarrowTransplants ossiumhealth.com Download the transcript here