Empowered Patient Podcast

John Erwin, CEO of Carenet Health, discusses their recent survey of patients and providers covered by commercial insurance companies or the government programs Medicare and Medicaid.  While there is growing interest in using conversational texting and other digital tools, patients still want to talk with a human. The report reveals that Medicare/Medicaid members are more satisfied with their health plans than those covered by commercial plans, suggesting these plans can learn from government programs to improve the patient experience.   John explains, "Predominantly, we focus on two areas. One is around virtual care, so 24 hours a day, we have clinical and non-clinical teams that help support members and patients with anything and everything, from a prescription refill to "Help me talk to my doctor." So, virtual care 24 hours a day is one core business." "Then the other one is reaching out to members and patients around activities that would make sense for them to do on their healthcare. For example, do you have a primary care physician? Do you go in and see them? Have you done all the right things your plan benefits allow you to receive? So, we are good at utilizing data to ensure that we're getting in front of the consumer so that they can get the care and support they deserve through their benefits." "We were interested to find this out because we all are transitioning from all kinds of communication styles, be it in-person or by telephonic. The COVID opportunity changed a lot of how people are interacting. We help patients with all the different support mediums, whether text messages two-way with your doctor, speaking with a registered nurse, or talking to one of our engagement specialists. So, we're just hopeful that we get to talk to people in the right channel at the right time for them."  "What surprised us a little bit on the survey was that people still prefer to be spoken to, and they prefer the timeliness and relevance of that conversation. So, while they're happy to embrace other technologies, they still find a huge amount of comfort and support through the telephonic channel, which we do a lot of. We spoke to 20 million people last year just having a conversation about where they're heading on their health journey." #CarenetHealth #HealthInsurance #HealthInsurers #PatientEngagement carenethealthcare.com  Download the transcript here  

Dr. Lishan Aklog, CEO of Lucid Diagnostics, discusses the current diagnostic landscape for esophageal cancer and the need for early detection. The current diagnostic tool, an upper endoscopy, is an invasive procedure requiring anesthesia.  The EsoGuard, a noninvasive simple cell collection procedure, uses molecular diagnostics to detect pre-cancerous cells within minutes. This test is particularly beneficial for screening those with risk factors such as chronic heartburn, being male, a smoker, or obese.   Lishan explains, "To prevent it, you have to pick it up at the pre-cancer stage because, unlike many other cancers where detecting earlier stage cancer, stage one cancer is a victory with a real potential for a cure, such as in breast cancer and colon and others, that's not the case here. You have about a 50% likelihood of dying even if you pick up esophageal cancer at the earliest stages. So, our mission and the opportunity here is to prevent about 16,000 cancer deaths a year by detecting the pre-cancerous conditions before it actually becomes cancer." "Using modern molecular techniques, we can identify the pre-cancerous cells at their earliest stage, which is groundbreaking. There is no other cancer that can be detected in the early pre-cancer stage at the 80% levels that we're able to do with this new test called EsoGuard. It's been on the market for a few years. So, that completely changes the landscape. Now, we have the opportunity to offer a very simple, noninvasive test that can detect the pre-cancerous condition in 80% of people. It also detects the cancer in 100% of people who happen to be unfortunate enough to have that. It is great opportunity, great shift in the landscape thanks to great science." #LucidDiagnostics #EsoGuard #UpperEndoscopy #EsophagealCancer #PreCancer luciddx.com Download the transcript here

David Young, President of R&D at Processa Pharmaceuticals, talks about the FDA's Project Optimus draft guidance on optimal dosage regimens for specific patients. Processa is modifying existing cancer-killing molecules to improve efficacy and decrease side effects by taking into account genetic factors and the benefit-risk profile of each patient. This precision medicine approach will inform clinical trial recruitment, dosing regimens and the number of patients who can be effectively helped.   David explains, "There are a couple of things that make us unique. One is that we're taking the active cancer-killing molecules on the market. It's a given drug that's approved by the FDA, and we know it kills cancer. We've taken that molecule and either changed it slightly or administered it with another drug in some way to decrease or change the drug’s metabolism and then to distribute more drug to the cancer cell."   "So, we started to learn how they look at the benefit-risk profile, and we started to develop our version of regulatory science, and that's expanded now over the last 30 years. That expansion into regulatory science now encompasses Project Optimus, which the FDA recently has put out draft guidance on in terms of optimal dosage regimens. They as well put out some documentation on the Project Optimus initiative where you go in to determine the optimal regimen for your patient. Not just any regimen, but the optimal regimen for your patients. If you get an optimal regimen for your patients, maybe that has a certain balance of efficacy and safety. You might come up with something different than we used to do five years ago in terms of the dosage regimen." #ProcessaPharmaceuticals #ProjectOptimus #BenefitRiskProfile #Cancer #PrecisionMedicine #ClinicalTrials processapharmaceuticals.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Juan Vera, CEO of Marker Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, is developing next-generation immunotherapy with a multi-tumor-specific T-cell platform to overcome limitations of current T-cell therapies with narrow target recognition. This approach, which recognizes multiple antigens within the tumor, helps prevent tumor resistance and adaptation. Marker is participating in the APOLLO trial testing this broad spectrum of target recognition in lymphoma patients who have relapsed after CAR-T CD19 therapy while also exploring acute myeloid leukemia and pancreatic cancer.   Juan explains, "Without a doubt, the earlier products that have been approved, such as mainly chimeric T-cell receptors, have validated the clinical power of T-cells in their ability to recognize and kill cancer cells. I think that no one will argue that, and this has been something that has been well evaluated, particularly in hematologic malignancies and particularly in lymphoma." "However, there are limitations with these types of technologies, and some of the limitations now have become more and more obvious a few years after the approval of those initial drugs. One of the main limitations relies on the short-term clinical benefit observed in many cases once patients receive these therapies. That can be attributed largely to the narrow target recognition of these initial strategies." "Our approach is different and seeks to overcome this particular limitation. The way that we seek to do so is by creating a product that is capable of recognizing multiple antigens present within the tumor. In that particular way, our therapy is capable of preventing this mechanism of tumor adaptation and tumor resistance. We hope that this multi-target approach will lead to clinical responses that will be long-sustained and durable in comparison to what we're seeing initially with these initial studies or initial drugs that have been approved in the market." #MarkerTherapeutics #Oncology #AutologousCellTherapy #TCellTherapy #Lymphoma #Cancer markertherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Andreas Grill, President and CEO of DepYmed, discusses protein tyrosine phosphatase-targeted drugs, a new class of drugs. With a focus on the specific enzyme PTP1B, DepYmed discovered orally bioavailable molecules that inhibit PTP1B, targeting the signal transaction pathway. They are initially testing to treat Rett syndrome, a rare disease with no current therapy while exploring the use of PTP1B inhibitors to treat inflammatory diseases, cancer, diabetes, and neurological diseases.   Andreas elaborates, "In DepYmed, we're focused on a specific enzyme. It's PTP1B. It's part of a family of enzymes called protein tyrosine phosphatases, and, in particular, we're looking at PTP1B. It's a metabolic regulatory enzyme that regulates signal transduction between cells and how cells communicate with each other. It's been worked on in the '90s and early 2000s. A couple of companies were working on the target, and they failed in the target, mainly because they couldn't create an orally bioavailable compound that would inhibit the PTP1B enzyme itself." "So that was one of the holy grails that we were able to find, where we were able to discover molecules that were orally bioavailable and would inhibit PTP1B. It was a game-changer when it came to the therapeutics around the target of PTP1B. Much of this work came out of Dr. Nicholas Tonks' laboratory out of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. We are in close collaboration with Nick and his team at Cold Spring Harbor, developing this new area of PTP1B inhibitors targeting the signal transaction pathway." #DepYmed #RettSyndrome #DPM1003 #PTP1B #Phosphatases #PhosphatasesInhibitors #RareDisease DepYmed.com Download the transcript here

Vin Singh, Founder and CEO of Bullfrog AI, discusses how AI is being used to improve the drug development process through a precision medicine approach that looks at a combination of genetic and non-genetic attributes to predict patient response to drugs.  Bullfrog AI aims to reduce the failure rate in late-stage trials by enrolling the right patients in clinical trials. Through their partnership with the Johns Hopkins Lieber Institute for Brain Development, they use AI to analyze a unique dataset of post-mortem brains to discover new drug targets and improve clinical trial design. Vin explains, "Bullfrog is a technology-enabled drug development company. And what we're doing is using a proprietary AI to improve the drug development process, reduce development times and costs for development, and increase access, which benefits the world."   "The pharmaceutical industry is plagued with inefficiencies. It takes 10 to 15 years and one to two billion dollars to develop drugs, and the failure rates in that drug development process are incredibly high. Our goal here is to fix that formula of failure, which will ultimately benefit patients and get them access to drugs that work for them."   "Typically, when you think of AI and machine learning, you think about training the AI to identify or predict something. Typically, the thinking is you need lots and lots of data and lots of patients. With our technology, we can do a shallow and wide analysis. What that means is shallow means not thousands or millions of patients. We can do it with hundreds of patients. Wide means it could be a lot of different types of data, including genomic data. So there might be millions of areas."  #BullfrogAI #AI #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials #LieberInstitute #JohnsHopkinsUniversity  Bullfrogai.com Download the transcript here  

Melinda Thomas, the COO and Co-Founder of Octave Bioscience is focused on delivering a new standard of care for multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.  The company aims to address the unmet needs of people living with MS using blood-based biomarkers, expanded imaging, and a clinical insights program. The solution includes an app, wearable sensors, and a nurse care partner to help patients and neurologists make better-informed treatment decisions.   Melinda elaborates, "What we learned when we did about 150 interviews before we even started developing anything was, in MS specifically, there was no way to see what was going on beneath the surface. You didn't have a blood test that told you what was going on in the biology. So, we developed a blood test, 18 biomarkers analytically validated, that reveal underlying activated pathways and mechanisms that allow for accurate measurement of what's going on with their disease activity."   "The tool used today is an MRI, which shows new or worsening lesions. It shows damage has occurred. So, the biomarker helps understand whether there is more disease activity that will eventually lead to these kinds of lesions. But also, if that is the gold standard, to understand if there are new or worsening lesions. We worked very hard with clinicians saying, "Where's the gap for you right now? What's the unmet need?"  #OctaveBioscience #MS #MultipleSclerosis #NeurodegenerativeDiseases #Biomarkers #BloodTests octavebio.com Download the transcript here

Cheryl Cheng, Founder and CEO of Vive Collective, discusses the unique business model of their investment platform, which focuses on digital health and health tech addressing large problems in healthcare, such as chronic conditions and complex workflows. Cheryl emphasizes the need for seamless integration of digital health solutions into existing healthcare systems and the importance of user interface. While excited about the potential of AI and robotics in healthcare, Cheryl highlights the need to include humans in decision-making while leveraging technology to improve access and quality of care. Cheryl explains, "We're excited to have launched this investment platform a couple of years ago, and the thesis behind it is to be very flexible in the type of capital we can deploy in the types of businesses we can invest in and build. However, they all need to stay within digital health and health tech. The idea was to give us the flexibility to add value to companies along their lifecycle. We can be a continuous investor, roll up our sleeves as former operators, and help founders build their businesses and grow organically and inorganically." "I would say, 8 to 10 years, there has been the rise of digital health and health tech, which is more of a hybrid model for incorporating technology to facilitate or augment the delivery of care. As we all know, through COVID and the pandemic, telemedicine took off. And so there's now a new category that didn't exist, say, 20, 30 years ago. There have always been biotech and medical device investors." "There is this, I would say, interdisciplinary investment category that is relatively new. You see a hybrid of traditional healthcare investors moving into it, as well as traditional tech investors moving into it. Our team is unique in that we have previous digital health investing experience and digital health building experience through product manufacturing, etc." #ViveCollective #MedTechInvestment #HealthTechInvestment #HealthTech #DigitalHealth vivecollective.com Download the transcript here

Dejan Nenov, Founder and Chairman of Panaton Software, highlights the importance of integrating healthcare data for such purposes as ordering medical tests and recruiting patients for clinical trials. The Panaton simple integration service for healthcare services uses AI to help streamline workflow, break down data silos, and provide seamless data exchange. While standardization is desirable, flexibility is essential when creating workflows that allow people to be more efficient. Dejan explains, "Imagine that you have just invented a fantastic new medical test, spent years doing the science and the research, and then millions of dollars doing your studies and FDA approval. So now you have a test and a lab that can perform it. Suddenly, you need to be able to offer that test to 100 different health systems, including the ability to get paid for it, either through private or insurance or Medicare." "You realize you have to move information just to order your tests. You have to move information from your lab to the test catalog at the EPIC system, at, let's say, Kaiser or HCA. Then, you need to take data to order the test with you. And now, I've seen cases where people spend six to 12 months just doing these integrations between their lab information systems and EMR systems. We believe that should be done in two weeks, not 12 months. And we've been able to consistently do that kind of thing again rapidly and cost-effectively."   "Similarly, with patient medical records, if you're doing a clinical trial, your biggest problem is the ability to recruit patients and sites so you can get patients enrolled in your trial. That is all dependent on data and the ability to find that specific person who matches all the criteria for participating in your research. Again, information, proper medical coding, and the ability to move data from point A to point B is the gating factor." #Panaton #HealthcareIT #DataIntegration #HealthTech #HealthcareSolutions Panaton.com Download the transcript here

Brian Smith, Chief Pharmacy Officer at Shields Health Solutions, addresses the challenges patients experience receiving specialty drugs by working with health systems to simplify the process. With a focus on measuring outcomes and improving patient care, Shields has seen a significant cure rate for hepatitis C, driven by attention to medication adherence and tracking outcomes. Recognizing the need to treat the multiple conditions patients often experience, Shields takes a patient-centric view to help these high-risk patients keep their conditions under control.   Brian explains, "We started in the areas of what people would call specialty pharmacy, such as oncology medications that people take at home, oral medications for people who have had a transplant, and injections like Humira for rheumatoid arthritis." "But I'd say what we found over the last 12 years is a lot of medications can be challenging and difficult, and a lot of patients need help. While we focus on specialty pharmacy, I'd say we have broadened ourselves to focus on high-risk patients with a lot of needs." "When we support our specialty patients, and I had the little quotations on my fingers here, we view them holistically. If the patient chooses, we try to support all of their medications, which helps them a lot, as well as dealing with one pharmacy, one call a month, to remind them of their refills for any and every medication they might need. It simplifies things for their providers as well, where it's a lot easier to screen for things like drug interactions and other challenges that can happen with polypharmacy." #ShieldsRx #SpecialtyPharmacy #ElevatingSpecialtyPharmacy #RareDiseases #HepC shieldshealthsolutions.com Download the transcript here