Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Matthew Powell, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Chief of the Gynecological Oncology Division at Washington University. He was also a clinical investigator in the pivotal trial leading to the approval of Jemperli, a treatment for endometrial cancer. This is an immunotherapy drug that works well for certain types of endometrial cancer and is now used in more than ten different cancers, decreasing the chance of the cancer progressing. Matthew explains, "Some syndromes certainly can cause an increased risk of endometrial cancer. One was named after Dr. Henry Lynch, who first described it called Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer syndrome because the patients are not only at risk for endometrial cancer, but they're also at risk for colon cancer. So, we see a lot of families where there's both uterine and colon cancer in the family, and that's one where that genetic risk is there." "When it came to therapies for patients who had disease that had spread, we, over the last 70 years, have been using radiation, which doesn't work very well. It treats the areas that we treat well, but we can't treat the whole body with radiation. So that's where chemotherapy came in. Chemotherapy has been a fairly standard therapy now for over 20 years. Still, we have not made many improvements over our standard treatment of what’s called carboplatin and paclitaxel, which, again, has been around since 1995. Over the last several decades, it’s become our standard treatment for this." #EndometrialCancer #GSK #Jemperli #Immunotherapy #GynOnc Jemperli.com Download the transcript here

Sandesh Seth, the CEO and Chairman of Actinium Pharmaceuticals uses targeted radiotherapy to effectively destroy diseased bone marrow and allow new bone marrow to take over the immune functions. This approach offers a way for those currently unable to receive a transplant to have a chance for a transplant and potentially be cured of acute myeloid leukemia. Sandesh explains, "What we've shown in our Phase 3 program is we could take patients with acute myeloid leukemia, one of the deadliest cancers known to man, where drugs don't work on these patients, and they live about two to three months unless they can get a bone marrow transplant. With our lead drug, Iomab-B, we've shown that we can take non-transplantable patients because they're too weak or frail, and drugs don't work on them. And they have active disease, so they live only about three months. They can't get a transplant because they're too weak. And if you give them drugs, they may die. Or if you give them the conditioning needed to wipe out their diseased bone marrow, which is the factory from where the blood cancer spreads, they can't access the transplant."  "Iomab-B takes these non-transplant patients, it targets the disease, it kills the disease in a matter of days. It destroys the diseased bone marrow so that they can go and get a new bone marrow transplant or hemopoietic stem cells, which can then take over normal blood and immune function and restore the patient to health. It enables improved access and outcomes regarding the extension of survival and even cures in several patients, which we've shown in our Phase 3 trial. We will file licensing applications to the FDA later this year to get the drug hopefully approved next year and get it into the hands of patients." #ActiniumPharma #Radiotherapies #Radiotherapy #BloodCancer #AML #BMT #Cancer #Oncology #Hematology #BioPharma #Pharmaceuticals #OneNews #FightCancer #CancerResearch ActiniumPharma.com Download the transcript here

Brian Whorley, Founder and CEO of Paytient, has created health payment accounts to help patients and their families manage medical costs.  Working with employers, Paytient offers fee-free, interest-free funds to cover deductibles, out-of-pocket charges, and veterinary services.  Using an employer-supplied Visa card, healthcare charges can be paid back over time based on individual circumstances.   Brian explains, "The Paytient card lives alongside your HSA. It lives alongside your FSA. It helps to preserve or protect those balances and gives people time, peace of mind, and security that no matter what happens throughout the year, they have dollars to pay for care. Folks can just swipe the Paytient card, pay the provider, and then pick up and split that transaction into a payment plan that works best for them and their family's budget. They can select the source of funds, like essentially a healthcare wallet that's always full. They can choose to repay Paytient via a linked bank account. They can do just payroll deductions. They could link an HSA or an FSA. They can link to another debit card. And essentially, we're bringing liquidity to the table and restoring access to care." "Paytient is available as an employee benefit. We work with 1200 plus employers nationwide who provide Paytient to their employees. And so employees receive Paytient. On January 1, hundreds of employers will offer Paytient, and employees can swipe the Paytient card and pay that surprise out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, and veterinary care. So, many of our folks may have vet insurance, or they may not, but they can take their furry family member to the vet, simply pay the vet, and turn that surprise $200 into 20 bucks out of their following ten checks. And they're able to take the sting out of that unexpected amount." #Paytient #EmployeeBenefits #HRA #AffordableHealthcare #HealthEquity Paytient.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, sheds light on the value of genetic data and is focused on getting the science of gene sequencing better understood. Genetic testing can identify opportunities for treatment and specific mutations that can lead to a more precise therapy. With the abundance of genetic tests available, interpreting the results correctly is the challenge. Bill elaborates, "Our job is to get the science of lab testing adopted in the industry. We have done that by working with health plans that have to adopt coverage for the testing, to be paid for the labs that perform the testing, and then the physician experts who either define the testing when it's useful or who are ordering the testing. We live in an ecosystem where we work with all those parties to ensure that good genetic testing is adopted, that the results are understood, and that they are acted upon appropriately." "The real issue is understanding when a test can be useful to a patient and a doctor. Just because we can sequence DNA doesn't mean we understand what it means or what to do about it. I would suggest to you that one of the reasons we have heard the phrase precision medicine for so long but have not seen as much of that get adopted is we haven't understood the link between what we see in the DNA and what we know to do about it. I'll give you a couple of examples." "One, cancer. Cancer has been an area where we have, for some time, understood that certain genetic predispositions or even mutations can drive cancer or suggest that cancer could be worse. We have just recently had therapies that target those mutations. Now, we've got several great therapies that are tied to that. Previously, just doing the analysis may have had no real benefit to the patient or maybe later had some prognostic capability, but now actually has therapeutic relevance. That's been very important."  #AvalonHealthcare #AvalonHCS #GeneticTesting #GeneticTests #LabTests #LabTesting #ClinicalTesting #ClinicalTests #MedicalTests avalonhcs.com Download the transcript here

KimberLee Heidmann is the Executive VP of Patient Experience and Customer Success at Scout Clinical, a third-party provider of patient services for clinical trial participants and their families. As a global partner of sponsors of trials, Scout oversees travel, visas, housing and accommodations, and patient payments. Working with underserved communities and patients with rare diseases, Scout removes barriers to participation in clinical trials and supports researchers in their care of patients and trial protocols. KimberLee elaborates, "Right now, the focus in clinical research is very much on diversity and inclusion and health equity. We're excited about that because we're passionate about that here at Scout. We're uniquely positioned to help the sponsors and the sites with those hard-to-reach patient populations. You're seeing a lot more in clinical research, especially in the rare disease space, where we're even looking at cross-border enrollment and bringing patients from underserved populations to areas where there are centers of excellence for treatment and clinical research." "Another thing that's burdensome that we've received a lot of feedback from clinical trial sites is the requirement to use a lot of different vendors and have access to different technology. Technology has been such a wonderful thing for the clinical trial industry, and we've brought so many wonderful things to the forefront in terms of wearable devices and diaries and the DCT model, where we're trying to relieve the burden of the patients to have to go to the clinical trial site. All of these things are wonderful, and they're excellent tools for clinical research." "But in some respects, they do add a burden to the researchers to have to, either as a sponsor or a CRO, manage all of those different aspects or for the clinical trial site to engage with all of these different tools. Then, if you carry that down into the patient, the patients and their families, participants and their families, a lot of times they are being introduced to this technology as well. Managing the full trial ecosystem can be very difficult for researchers and patients."  #ScoutClinical #ClinicalTrials #RareDiseases #PatientTravel #TrialRetention #TrialRecruitment scoutclinical.com Download the transcript here  

Zach Markin, Co-Founder and CEO of HTD Health, is focused on working with clients to develop technology solutions to improve workflow, reduce the time spent on data entry, and provide patient information at the appropriate level of detail on demand. While digital infrastructure supports the integration of health records and related patient information, human interaction is critical to improving patient care and the ability of clinicians to care for a broader audience. Zach explains, "Generally, I wouldn't try to persuade someone who thinks technology is not useful. I would not try to persuade someone to use technology. That's not a compelling way to engage with someone of that mindset. Instead, I would work to establish a more compelling value-based connection based on what that person cares about. If that's a doctor or a nurse, a health system administrator, or someone else who is likely skeptical or rightfully skeptical of yet another technology initiative, I would work to understand what the priorities that person has in the language of whatever is compelling and meaningful to them." "It makes sense that if you're caring for a sicker population, a provider should receive more money to do that work more effectively because you need more resources. Unfortunately, what that means in practice is these provider organizations end up having competencies both in care delivery and treatment of a condition, as well as a competency and documentation of their activities and the underlying needs of the populations they're taking care of. So, everyone's in this challenge and trying to create care experiences that prioritize patients, that are centered on patients, that create a human-centered experience for the patient." #HTDHealth #Healthcare #SaMD #SoftwareDevelopment #DigitalHealth #PatientCentric htdhealth.com Download the transcript here

Kathy Ford is the Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Ronin, applying AI and deep data mining to determine relevant cohorts to develop better cancer treatment plans.  Looking at patient-specific data, including genetics, comorbidities, and risk factors, allows medical oncologists and patients to predict results and more accurately anticipate and prevent adverse events. The Ronin AI-based solution also educates patients in real-time as they go through their treatment. Kathy explains, "At Ronin, we are determined to leverage the power of all of the underutilized data in healthcare to better inform clinicians to make a more patient-specific decision faster, essentially, at the point of care. And we're starting in oncology to do so, the most complex disease. We are leveraging all the unclean and uncorrelated data, delivering it to the clinician, adding insights and intelligence, and speeding up decisions. We collaborated with MD Anderson to build the solution. So built with clinicians for clinicians. And we're also partnered with Providence Health System as well today." "What Ronin is doing is taking hundreds and hundreds of data elements about all sorts of patients and the patient specifically that's being treated. We're looking at cohorting information, to say, patients like me, with similar data elements, so lab values, comorbidities, social determinants, and so forth, have responded best with this treatment approach. So, delivering more patient-specific information at the point of care takes the guessing out of patient treatment planning." "Cancer is one of those diseases where we have to make the patient sicker to, ideally, make them better. And when a patient is initially diagnosed with cancer, they're often showered or hammered with a tremendous amount of information, instructions, and education. It's incredibly overwhelming. And then, once they begin their treatment, when they start to experience those adverse events, it can be very confusing and scary. Patients are often not sure what to do and are left with, is this expected? Should I be feeling this way?"  "And, what exists today, without a solution like Ronin, is the EHR portal or the phone. Neither one of those is an effective way to stay connected with your clinical team, manage your expectations, and report your outcomes and adverse events." #AIinHealth #FutureofHealthcare #AI #PhysicianBurnout #PatientEngagement #Cancer #CancerTreatment #PrecisionOncology projectronin.com Download the transcript here

Maria Pereira Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at TISSIUM, discusses her journey to develop a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer to enable atraumatic surgical procedures for tissue repair. This new polymer technology can be used as a sealant and adhesive to replace the use of tacks and sutures to repair blood vessels, nerve damage, and meshes without the use of any penetrating or traumatic fixation.  Maria explains, "At TISSIUM, we are developing a new core technology, a new material that can be used for a traumatic tissue repair. We are leveraging a material that has been originally developed at MIT. One of the features of this material is that it can be used as a sealant or an adhesive, or even as a resin for 3D printing and drug delivery. And we can apply this material in surgery to enable surgical procedures in an atraumatic way."  "Currently, we're developing products across three main domains, including cardiovascular, where we use the material as a sealant to stop blood leaks during cardiovascular surgery. We're also operating in the space of peripheral nerve repair, where we are developing an atraumatic solution where we can basically bring nerves together without the use of any sutures or other traumatic technologies. The third space where we are currently operating is in hernia repair, where we are using our materials as an adhesive to fix meshes to the abdominal wall, and therefore avoiding the use of tacks that can induce trauma and pain." #TISSIUM #Medtech #MedicalInnovation #TissueRepair #Sealant #Adhesive TISSIUM.com Download the transcript here

David Esposito, President and CEO of ONL Therapeutics, is focused on back-of-the-eye diseases such as open-angle glaucoma, dry age-related macular degeneration, and retinal detachment. Their drug ONL1204 targets retina cells to block the Fas receptor to reduce damage to the eye.  This small peptide is delivered via an injection in the eye to slow the progression of retinal diseases. David elaborates, "The Fas receptor is a common pathophysiology in a number of cells of the body. Your audience may be familiar with oncology treatments, so therapies to treat cancer often try to develop a drug that activates the Fas receptor to trigger the death of those cancer cells. Those have been around for several decades, looking at fas receptors in other disease states. We have been the only ones focused in ophthalmology and eye diseases focused on the Fas receptor to protect retina cells."  "I think certainly with fas receptors in the eye, what's very interesting is that it is a common pathophysiology across a variety of diseases of the eye. In drug discovery, you typically think of a particular receptor for a specific disease state. I mentioned cancer cells before with Fas. What's interesting about the discovery work that our founder, Dr. David Zacks, did at the University of Michigan is that the Fas receptor is involved in a variety of different diseases of the eye." "You wouldn't necessarily think the receptor could be implicated in a disease like dry age-related macular degeneration and in a different pathophysiology in glaucoma. But what’s really unique about the Fas receptor and why we see the potential of blocking the Fas receptor is that it could have a significant impact across several disease states, whether it be glaucoma, AMD, or an acute condition of retinal detachment. That's what's been most exciting and certainly garnered a lot of interest in ONL on that approach."  #ONLTherapeutics #EyeDisease #RetinalDisease #AMD #MacularDegeneration  onltherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Nima Ahmadi, CEO of The Wound Company, highlights the need for qualified and certified wound care experts to work with patients on a continuous basis. This kind of relationship allows the care provider to proactively manage the wound to ensure efficient healing as quickly as possible.  Personalized plans are created using AI and data analysis, considering the patient's risk factors and specific details about the wound and their general health condition.  Nima explains, "We think about being in a continuous relationship with everybody who has a wound, ensuring its healing. Then, we continue to be proactive as we manage patients who are at risk of new wounds or repeat wounds so that we're doing everything we can preventatively to prevent that from happening. This is completely different than how we've approached wound care for the last few decades." "We have certified experts, and our vision is that in ten years, every single American with a wound will have a certified wound care expert from The Wound Company assigned to their care. The expert is quarterbacking their wound care and ensuring they will heal as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. As part of that vision of assigning that coordination, we're also doing virtual and in-person, in some cases, wound care so that it's a one-stop shop experience for the patient to help them heal effectively and efficiently. And we have a tremendous amount of technology and other assets to help our clinicians do that multichannel wound care." #WoundCare #OstomyCare #Healthcare #Telehealth #NursingShortage thewound. co Download the transcript here