Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Charlotte Jones-Burton is the Senior Vice President of Product Development and Strategy at Chinook Therapeutics, which is on a mission to change the course of kidney care by discovering and developing precision therapies to maintain kidney function in people who have rare, severe chronic kidney diseases. Charlotte explains, "Our lead clinical program is atrasentan, a highly potent and selective endothelin receptor inhibitor. We believe that it's going to be a best-in-class molecule that's going to target the endothelin pathway. And the condition for which we are developing it is IgA nephropathy. Now, IgA nephropathy is an autoimmune disease that attacks the kidneys, and it affects how our blood is filtered in the small blood vessels of the kidneys that I spoke about. And what happens with IgA nephropathy is that immune complexes can deposit in the kidney and really damage those filtering units inside the kidneys. And when this happens, individuals can have symptoms such as protein spilling into their kidneys. And we know that proteinuria, as we call that, is a strong risk factor for those who will then develop end-stage kidney disease, which means that they may need dialysis or a kidney transplantation to survive." "Now, we know that there are few treatments that are available, and that's why it's really important for patients to also ask the question if there are any clinical trials. And we at Chinook Therapeutics are enrolling patients into clinical trials who have IgA nephropathy. We also are enrolling patients into our AFFINITY clinical trial if they have FSGS, which is also a type of kidney disease, Alport syndrome, or diabetic kidney disease." #ChinookTherapeutics #KidneyDisease #ChronicKidneyDisease #Atrasentan #BIO1301 #PrecisionMedicine #Nephrology #ClinicalTrials #IGAN #RareDisease chinooktx.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Sonia Chopra, endodontist and Founder of Ballantyne Endodontics is an expert on alleviating tooth pain. Sonia points out the advantages of using the Sonendo GentleWave procedure to change outcomes and expectations of root canal pain. Not only is this procedure more effective and faster, but it also requires just one dental appointment instead of multiple visits, freeing up resources to handle more patients and respond more quickly to emergencies. Sonia elaborates, "It's really important to understand our world of endo because we deal with tooth pain. And I would say about 80%, a good majority of patients seek us, dentists, out when they have pain, so having that deep understanding of tooth pain is really important. Plus, we are the specialty that saves teeth, and in my opinion, just based on my own experience and being born without eight teeth, saving teeth has really become a very important topic for me." "I started my practice back in 2008 before GentleWave came onto the scene. I implemented GentleWave back in 2018, and so I've been working with this technology for about four years. And what I can honestly say is that it has allowed me to provide my patients with an elevated experience, elevated cleansing of the tooth, and just an overall better experience altogether." "I also noticed a decrease in the amount of pain my patients were having aftercare. I wasn't having patients call my practice so often afterward. I would call them on the post-op call, and they would be fine, and then that was the end of the story. I didn't have patients calling me after the fact saying, "Hey, I'm still pretty sore. I think I need an antibiotic." Those conversations started to dwindle drastically, and I think that's a huge benefit of the technology." #Endodontics #Endodontist #RootCanalTherapy #RootCanal #Sonendo #GentleWave #GentleWaveProcedure BallantyneEndo.com Download the transcript here

Keri Yale Head of Patient Centricity and Engagement at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, brings deep understanding of the need for pharmaceutical companies to be patient-centric in their culture and focus, including all the employees who do not deal directly with patients. Patient engagement is defined as engaging and listening to patients while integrating their input into the design of clinical trials and the development of products and resources for patients and doctors. Keri elaborates, "I was just thinking recently about how much the work that I've done over the past two decades has come full circle to the work that I just mentioned that I do today. I started at BI in sales. I was working in Los Angeles, and it was the height of the AIDS epidemic. I was calling on AIDS service organizations because we had HIV/AIDS medications, and I was meeting a number of people who were truly inspirational. One of those people who inspired me the most was the director at the time of an organization called Being Alive. And he was the first of many advocates that taught me how much I didn't know." "We knew there were pockets of excellence, and we knew there were a number of people working in this way, but we wanted to make it across all employees, even those working in IT or HR or finance. We set up an approach where each leader is responsible for having a patient-centricity plan. These plans identify objectives and activities, and they should look very different because we want them to be authentic to the nature of their work. I think it also shows that our leadership recognizes that being patient-focused is everyone's job." @boehringerus #BoehringerIngelheim #PatientEngagement #PatientCentricity #PatientInput #PatientAmbassador #PatientPartner boehringer-ingelheim.com Download the transcript here

Gregg Church is the President of 4medica, a 24-year-old company that is in the business of aggregating datasets to create an accurate longitudinal view of a patient's health record. The number of different legacy systems that were not initially designed for interoperability is only part of the problem. In the current environment, there is an average 20% duplication rate creating confusion for care providers and payers and potentially causing harm to the patient. Gregg elaborates, "It's going to depend on the organization and how much effort they place into it. But when we look at data coming in from different disparate systems and silos, believe it or not, most of what we see is still double-digit, meaning it's above the 10% duplication rate. We've seen use cases that get up closer to 25%, 30%, especially in the commercial lab and laboratory arena because they deal with so many different outside systems. You've got practices on their own EMRs. You've got other laboratories that may use that lab for reference testing." "Imagine coming into the ER, and maybe you're unconscious because you've been in a car accident. You're at one of the facilities that maybe has a 20% duplication rate, not because there's no effort to try to maintain, it's just the sheer volume of records that are created on a daily basis. So, in this case, one in five patients is at risk of having their records commingled on another patient's record or with another patient's record. If you're unconscious and you're not able to verify things about your identity or even things about your healthcare background and medications, you may be incorrectly treated. You may be prescribed the wrong medication." @4medica #4medica #DataIntegrity #InteroperabilityRule #AccesstoMedicalRecords #ElectronicHealthRecords #EHR #EMR 4medica.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Kent Smith, the Chief Executive Officer at Sleep Dallas, raises concerns about the impact of sleep disorders and untreated sleep apnea. He emphasizes that physicians don't always ask patients about the quality of their sleep and that dentists have more time with patients to explore the underlying reasons for inadequate deep sleep. Kent explains, "I think many in healthcare aren't aware that poor sleep or ineffective sleep or lack of sleep, or unhealthy sleep, can have a severe impact on someone's health. I mean, just cutting the number of hours of sleep can increase cardiovascular disease." "So then, when you start talking about unhealthy sleep, yes it can lead to diabetes, sudden cardiac death, high blood pressure, depression, and acid reflux. The body needs oxygen. And if the body's not getting oxygen during sleep, then all kinds of bad things can happen." "I ask every one of my patients, how many hours of sleep do you get? What time do you go to sleep, and what time do you wake up? It's amazing how many only get five or six hours. And it's just routine. And they wonder why they have the health problems they do. So at least we educate them, but I'm afraid sometimes it's too late, and they've already had their first heart attack, or they've already got type two diabetes." #SleepDallas #SleepPhysicians #SleepApnea #SleepDisorders #APAPDevice #AutoPAP #InspireSolution sleepdallas.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Tomasz George, Chief Scientific Officer of Virax Biolabs, has developed a novel test process that assesses adaptive immune responses to viruses. This information can inform decisions by patients and doctors on how to most effectively produce an immune response and boost personal protection from the next virus outbreak. An app delivers data about how an individual might respond to a virus and sends notices of specific viruses in a geographic location, along with links to diet and lifestyle suggestions. Tomasz explains, "We also distribute and sell other viral testing products that look at viruses at different stages of infection and also your immunity at different stages. We intend to provide a subscription service in the next few months that actually allows you to test for these viruses on an ongoing basis, depending on which new viruses are at the moment. And this allows you to determine whether you would expect to cope with these viruses or not if you came in contact with them." "We have a number of different avenues for selling our tests. We sell direct to consumers because it's a very informative test for people in general population groups. We also are looking to sell to governments, healthcare organizations, and pharma groups who will use our tests in different ways for population health management and management of governmental strategies. And also, for healthcare groups to identify patients who are most at risk and for pharma groups who can help to optimize the population that they study for things like drugs and vaccines by identifying patients who might respond better or worse to specific viruses." @ViraxBiolabs #ViraxBiolabs #VRAX #ViraxCare #InfectiousDiseases #HealthTech #MedTech #BioTech #RealTimePCRDetection #RTPCR #PCRTest #AntibodyTest #BiomarkerTesting #COVID19 ViraxBiolabs.com Download the transcript here

Asaf Zviran is the CEO, CSO, and Co-Founder of C2i Genomics which is both a technology company and a diagnostic company. C2i is providing a decentralized, cloud-based platform that allows global genomic labs, health centers, and pharma companies to do whole-genome sequencing on cancer patient tissue or blood. This technology uses the genomic data to determine the best options for treatment and to monitor treatment response. Asaf explains, "The way that we look at the cancer detection is in a holistic way. We're actually detecting huge amounts of features across the genome in a very, very sensitive and accurate manner. Many clinical trials have been showing that the C2i whole-genome approach is much more sensitive and accurate than any other technology that is currently in development." "Whole-genome, I think is a new category in medical genomics in general. Whole-genome allows us to very comprehensively extract everything, all of the variants, all of the genomic changes, in the patient blood. And then the challenge again is how to use this very comprehensive information to create insight, to create applications. This is exactly what C2i is doing. Basically, we are building out clinically validated software applications that can take the whole-genome data, the whole data from the apps that are working with us, and allow very sophisticated AI signal processing to detect cancer, to monitor treatment response, to predict recurrence." "And we are doing that on a global scale. I can tell you that besides our CLIA-equipped lab in the US, we are working in partnership to deliver these services to other health systems in the US. We are a clinical-approved product in Europe, and starting to do clinical testing and working extensively in Europe. We also have a very strong distribution in the Middle East and Asia. So Israel, Singapore, India, and now going into a new location in Asia." #C2iGenomics #WholeGenome #WholeGenomeSequencing #PrecisionMedicine #Cancer #Tumors #AI #MedicalGenomics C2i-Genomics.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Noura Abul-Husn is the VP of Genomic Health, and Amy Sturm the Director of Population Health Genomics at 23andMe. With over 13 million customers, 23andMe has built a database that can provide customized and personalized genetic information to individuals that can indicate health predispositions. This kind of information can lead to strategies to reduce the risk of diseases, manage diseases more appropriately, and even prevent diseases. Noura explains, "Well, 23andMe has been delivering results that could lead to critical healthcare decisions, as you said, for a long time now. And the way people are using that today is typically to bring that information to their trusted healthcare provider to find out what next steps they ought to take based on that information. It could be information that indicates they're at a higher risk for cancer, for example, or for high cholesterol. I think in most cases, we do deliver, from the 23andMe side, information about what that result means for the person, for their health, for their potential risks. And then, they can take action based on that and based on shared decision-making, hopefully, with their healthcare providers." Amy elaborates, "All doctors want to do the best thing for their patients, but they are honestly limited in many ways. Time, potential lack of reimbursement for having a genetic counseling type conversation, lack of education, and ongoing education to make sure that they are remaining cutting-edge in any genetics or genetics expertise. That's why we're really excited about the acquisition of Lemonade Health to build out genomic healthcare more broadly under 23andMe. As Noura said, 23andMe has been giving back really important health-related genomic risk results for years that really do need to be taken seriously to prevent diseases like heart disease and cancer." #23andMe #DNATest #GeneticTesting #WelcomeToYou #PrecisionMedicine 23andMe.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Jamie Colbert is the Senior Vice President of Care Delivery at Memora Health, a technology company automating manual tasks and administrative functions that take up so much time for healthcare providers. It is creating an environment that promotes interoperability with existing electronic medical record systems and other sources of patient data to improve patient care and provide guidance for patients to self-manage their complex conditions. Jamie explains, "In terms of the support that patients are receiving, Memora is really helping to provide a lot of additional support that you just couldn't get from having to rely on manual phone calls from your provider's office because providers just don't have the time. The providers are overwhelmed, and they're trying to get through their day and just see the patients that are in front of them in the office. But with Memora, you can automate a lot of those check-ins and support such that you, as a provider team, know that your patients are still well cared for and supported. You don't have to worry about carving out the time during your day to make those phone calls and check in and see how those patients are doing." "And only those patient questions and symptoms that are concerning would be the ones that would actually go directly to the provider and still require the provider to then message the patient themselves. What we've seen is that it's generally, anywhere from 50% to two-thirds of the patient messages and questions that are coming in today can be safely handled through Memora's AI. And that's a significant burden that's being lifted from providers. When they get home at the end of the day, they're not spending nearly as much time going through all of those messages because Memora was able to answer many of those messages for them." @MemoraHealth @jcolbertMD #MemoraHealth #CareDelivery #DigitalHealth memorahealth.com Download the transcript here

Christian Lillis is the Executive Director of the Peggy Lillis Foundation -PLF - is on a mission to raise awareness about the highly contagious disease Clostridium difficile and to get C. diff recognized as a nationally notifiable disease. The Foundation is also providing a nutrition and lifestyle guide to give patients the ability to know what to eat to prevent recurrence and help prevent C. diff and other infections. Chris explains, "We've had some polls done that show about a third of Americans have heard of C. diff. They've heard the term. That doesn't necessarily mean that they understand it. Just because we hear a lot of things doesn't mean we have great knowledge about them. So, I'll address just a little bit about the disease itself, so people have a sense of it. C. diff is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. There are about half a million infections every year, and at this point, there are about 25 to 30,000 deaths each year. And something that I find remarkable is that in 2011, C. diff was considered the 17th leading cause of death for people 65 years and older. So, it has a huge impact, causing a lot of harm, a lot of death." "The guide contains a wealth of information about foods that you can probably tolerate during an acute infection, as well as the foods that promote a healthy gut microbiome. That includes a lot of probiotic-rich foods, fiber-rich foods, and prebiotic-rich foods. And then something that we're particularly excited about is that the guide contains 30 recipes that are grouped into what is most likely to be tolerated and what foods will help restore the microbiome. And all of those recipes were developed or adapted by people who have battled C. diff based on what they found most helpful." #PeggyFoundation #Cdiff #ClostridiumDifficile #Microbiome #PatientAdvocacy #CdiffAwarenessMonth peggyfoundation.org Download the transcript here