Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Yana Aznavour, CEO and Founder of Endometrics, discusses the significant diagnostic delay women face with endometriosis due to non-specific symptoms and the current reliance on invasive surgery for a definitive diagnosis. The company has developed a non-invasive at-home diagnostic test that uses menstrual blood to analyze a five-gene biomarker signature with high accuracy.  This objective, molecular-based test shortens the time to the correct treatment and changes the dynamic of the patient-doctor conversation. Yana explains, "We are developing non-invasive diagnostic tests, and we are primarily addressing the huge diagnostic delay that our patients, women, face, unfortunately. This happens because there are tons of non-specific symptoms and inconclusive imaging findings, and women face unnecessary appointments and procedures before reaching the point of definitive diagnosis. We are working rigorously towards bringing non-invasive, highly reliable diagnostic tests to help women get clarity and answers behind their symptoms way earlier in the journey."   "Menstrual pain and pain in general that women try to express and define at physician's appointments, it's being dismissed because they try to explain that, but in many cases, they cannot find exactly where it hurts, especially in endometriosis. Due to this, unfortunately, at the primary care level and the non-OB/GYN level, they're being dismissed and repeatedly misdiagnosed for years. The key reason is the non-specific symptoms because symptoms like pelvic pain and pain with urination overlap with the list of diagnoses. Currently, the definitive diagnosis for endometriosis is achieved through surgery. Nobody would do surgery after the first appointment. So, endometriosis becomes a diagnosis of exclusion, unfortunately, and it takes years before patients receive the final diagnosis." #Endometrics #Endometriosis, #WomensHealth, #Biomarkers, #Diagnostics, #FemTech #Gynecology #PrecisionMedicine endometrics.us Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Yana Aznavour, CEO and Founder of Endometrics, discusses the significant diagnostic delay women face with endometriosis due to non-specific symptoms and the current reliance on invasive surgery for a definitive diagnosis. The company has developed a non-invasive at-home diagnostic test that uses menstrual blood to analyze a five-gene biomarker signature with high accuracy.  This objective, molecular-based test shortens the time to the correct treatment and changes the dynamic of the patient-doctor conversation. Yana explains, "We are developing non-invasive diagnostic tests, and we are primarily addressing the huge diagnostic delay that our patients, women, face, unfortunately. This happens because there are tons of non-specific symptoms and inconclusive imaging findings, and women face unnecessary appointments and procedures before reaching the point of definitive diagnosis. We are working rigorously towards bringing non-invasive, highly reliable diagnostic tests to help women get clarity and answers behind their symptoms way earlier in the journey."   "Menstrual pain and pain in general that women try to express and define at physician's appointments, it's being dismissed because they try to explain that, but in many cases, they cannot find exactly where it hurts, especially in endometriosis. Due to this, unfortunately, at the primary care level and the non-OB/GYN level, they're being dismissed and repeatedly misdiagnosed for years. The key reason is the non-specific symptoms because symptoms like pelvic pain and pain with urination overlap with the list of diagnoses. Currently, the definitive diagnosis for endometriosis is achieved through surgery. Nobody would do surgery after the first appointment. So, endometriosis becomes a diagnosis of exclusion, unfortunately, and it takes years before patients receive the final diagnosis." #Endometrics #Endometriosis, #WomensHealth, #Biomarkers, #Diagnostics, #FemTech #Gynecology #PrecisionMedicine endometrics.us Download the transcript here

Thomas Ruggia, CEO and President of Theialife,  delves into pediatric progressive myopia, a severe form of nearsightedness caused by the elongation of the eye in children, which can lead to significant long-term health issues.  The development of their novel oral therapy is designed to address the underlying physiology of the eye by strengthening the sclera to halt its elongation, unlike other treatments that only manage visual acuity. This oral therapy is available in capsules that can be opened and sprinkled on food, making it patient-friendly and child-compliant, avoiding the need for often hard-to-administer eye drops. Thomas explains, "Myopia is known as nearsightedness, and I think everybody is familiar with folks who wear spectacles for nearsightedness, or contact lenses, or have had LASIK surgery. But pediatric progressive myopia is a subset of myopia that is particularly difficult."  "The pediatric progressive myopia is a disease that's a bit different than just standard nearsightedness. Someone who might be minus two myopic can easily correct their vision with glasses. In this type of condition, generally, parents have a child who is having some difficulty seeing, and the next year, the child has extreme difficulty seeing. And then every year following, things get worse and worse. They end up at the optometrist or ophthalmologist for extensive recalculating their prescription, new glasses for those years of maybe between six and 16 years old."  "We're actually talking about a disorder that continues for the life of the patient that leads to significant challenges between the ages of, let's say, 40 and 80, where this elongated eye, which is what the condition really is, leads to challenges in retina detachment, maculopathy, early cataracts, and other conditions that are unique to the myopia patients."   "So we have a number of medical devices and pharmaceutical interventions that are being studied today, all of which have an effect on the visual acuity a patient might experience, but none of them affect the underlying structural changes in the eye during that time period. And our ND10 from Theialife has the potential to do so."  #Theialife  #MyopiaAwareness #PediatricMyopia #PediatricOphthalmology #VisionHealth #ND10 #AdenosineReceptors #7Methylxanthine #MyopiaManagement #Ophthalmology #Optometry #ChildEyeHealth #ScleralStrengthening #OphthalmicInnovation #EyeCare Theialife.com  Listen to the podcast here

Thomas Ruggia, CEO and President of Theialife,  delves into pediatric progressive myopia, a severe form of nearsightedness caused by the elongation of the eye in children, which can lead to significant long-term health issues.  The development of their novel oral therapy is designed to address the underlying physiology of the eye by strengthening the sclera to halt its elongation, unlike other treatments that only manage visual acuity. This oral therapy is available in capsules that can be opened and sprinkled on food, making it patient-friendly and child-compliant, avoiding the need for often hard-to-administer eye drops. Thomas explains, "Myopia is known as nearsightedness, and I think everybody is familiar with folks who wear spectacles for nearsightedness, or contact lenses, or have had LASIK surgery. But pediatric progressive myopia is a subset of myopia that is particularly difficult."  "The pediatric progressive myopia is a disease that's a bit different than just standard nearsightedness. Someone who might be minus two myopic can easily correct their vision with glasses. In this type of condition, generally, parents have a child who is having some difficulty seeing, and the next year, the child has extreme difficulty seeing. And then every year following, things get worse and worse. They end up at the optometrist or ophthalmologist for extensive recalculating their prescription, new glasses for those years of maybe between six and 16 years old."  "We're actually talking about a disorder that continues for the life of the patient that leads to significant challenges between the ages of, let's say, 40 and 80, where this elongated eye, which is what the condition really is, leads to challenges in retina detachment, maculopathy, early cataracts, and other conditions that are unique to the myopia patients."   "So we have a number of medical devices and pharmaceutical interventions that are being studied today, all of which have an effect on the visual acuity a patient might experience, but none of them affect the underlying structural changes in the eye during that time period. And our ND10 from Theialife has the potential to do so."  #Theialife #MyopiaAwareness #PediatricMyopia #PediatricOphthalmology #VisionHealth #ND10 #AdenosineReceptors #7Methylxanthine #MyopiaManagement #Ophthalmology #Optometry #ChildEyeHealth #ScleralStrengthening #OphthalmicInnovation #EyeCare Theialife.com Download the transcript here

Stephanie Broussard, Director of Social Work at Thyme Care, describes a model of interdisciplinary social support for cancer patients to increase access to medical services and address social, emotional, and financial challenges. Integrated services target family dynamics, social determinants of health, and building trust to drive better patient outcomes. As cancer increasingly becomes a chronic condition, there is a growing need to support the management of long-term physical and emotional effects and use technology to increase efficiency and support the Thyme Care human-focused approach. Stephanie explains, "Thyme Care is really designed to try to integrate and increase access for those navigating cancers. So we believe that in order to serve people really well, you don't take things away, you actually add things. If we can increase access and increase the ability for patients to navigate the health system, then we're able to better navigate their utilization. So we try to increase access through access to an interdisciplinary team. We have nurse practitioners, nurses, even oncologists and primary care physicians on our team, social workers, and lay people who help us make sure that patients can get what they need at the right time. And so it's really about giving patients access to the right services at the right time to improve their outcomes."   "We think about how their cancer impacts every facet of their life. And so, we often talk a lot about the financial toxicity of cancer, but social issues that were affecting folks don't just stop because cancer happened. Oftentimes, it even exacerbates those things. So think about family dynamics, think about social determinants of health, like the cost of medications and access, but also all the other things that can be impacted by cancer." #ThymeCare #ValueBasedCare #SocialWorkMonth #OncologySocialWork #MentalHealthMatters #CaregiverSupport #PatientExperience #HealthEquity #OncologyCare #ValueBasedCare #CareCoordination #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #SDoH #CancerSurvivorship #Caregivers #NurseNavigation #PalliativeCare thymecare.com Listen to the podcast here  

Stephanie Broussard, Director of Social Work at Thyme Care, describes a model of interdisciplinary social support for cancer patients to increase access to medical services and address social, emotional, and financial challenges. Integrated services target family dynamics, social determinants of health, and building trust to drive better patient outcomes. As cancer increasingly becomes a chronic condition, there is a growing need to support the management of long-term physical and emotional effects and use technology to increase efficiency and support the Thyme Care human-focused approach. Stephanie explains, "Thyme Care is really designed to try to integrate and increase access for those navigating cancers. So we believe that in order to serve people really well, you don't take things away, you actually add things. If we can increase access and increase the ability for patients to navigate the health system, then we're able to better navigate their utilization. So we try to increase access through access to an interdisciplinary team. We have nurse practitioners, nurses, even oncologists and primary care physicians on our team, social workers, and lay people who help us make sure that patients can get what they need at the right time. And so it's really about giving patients access to the right services at the right time to improve their outcomes."   "We think about how their cancer impacts every facet of their life. And so, we often talk a lot about the financial toxicity of cancer, but social issues that were affecting folks don't just stop because cancer happened. Oftentimes, it even exacerbates those things. So think about family dynamics, think about social determinants of health, like the cost of medications and access, but also all the other things that can be impacted by cancer." #ThymeCare #ValueBasedCare #SocialWorkMonth #OncologySocialWork #MentalHealthMatters #CaregiverSupport #PatientExperience #HealthEquity #OncologyCare #ValueBasedCare #CareCoordination #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #SDoH #CancerSurvivorship #Caregivers #NurseNavigation #PalliativeCare thymecare.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Stephanie Lahr, Chief Medical Officer at uPerform, highlights the critical need for new ways to conduct health IT education. Traditional one-time training sessions for large groups are no longer sufficient for the constantly evolving healthcare technologies. Self-paced and personalized training is the way to meet users at their individual skill levels, freeing up training teams to provide targeted support and build organizational competencies, including how to effectively use AI.  Stephanie explains, "This idea, which we are seeing evolve rapidly, is that as we integrate technology into healthcare delivery, people need to understand how to use it, which requires ongoing training, support, and communication."   "It's really a way to think about doing just-in-time, as-needed, self-driven education based on the user for whatever needs might arise with the technology they're using in care delivery. Often, that starts with systems like the EHR and ERP, but it goes far beyond that. And we're seeing that more and more as different kinds of technologies find their way into healthcare delivery to support the care providers in what they're trying to do."  "Traditionally, we had this idea that we rolled out technology, and you did some training, which usually involved a classroom, a quick video tutorial, or maybe an online course or something along those lines. And it was sort of a one-and-done: you learned it, you went, you moved on, and you used it. And I think what we're now seeing is that the systems themselves are changing constantly."   #uPerform #AI #JustInTimeTraining #WorkflowEducation #HealthIT #EHR #ClinicalInformatics #DigitalHealth #ClinicianExperience #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalEducation #AIinHealthcare uperform.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Stephanie Lahr, Chief Medical Officer at uPerform, highlights the critical need for new ways to conduct health IT education. Traditional one-time training sessions for large groups are no longer sufficient for the constantly evolving healthcare technologies. Self-paced and personalized training is the way to meet users at their individual skill levels, freeing up training teams to provide targeted support and build organizational competencies, including how to effectively use AI.  Stephanie explains, "This idea, which we are seeing evolve rapidly, is that as we integrate technology into healthcare delivery, people need to understand how to use it, which requires ongoing training, support, and communication."   "It's really a way to think about doing just-in-time, as-needed, self-driven education based on the user for whatever needs might arise with the technology they're using in care delivery. Often, that starts with systems like the EHR and ERP, but it goes far beyond that. And we're seeing that more and more as different kinds of technologies find their way into healthcare delivery to support the care providers in what they're trying to do."  "Traditionally, we had this idea that we rolled out technology, and you did some training, which usually involved a classroom, a quick video tutorial, or maybe an online course or something along those lines. And it was sort of a one-and-done: you learned it, you went, you moved on, and you used it. And I think what we're now seeing is that the systems themselves are changing constantly."   #uPerform #AI #JustInTimeTraining #WorkflowEducation #HealthIT #EHR #ClinicalInformatics #DigitalHealth #ClinicianExperience #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalEducation #AIinHealthcare uperform.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Ravi Kapur, Co-Founder and CEO of AutoIVF,  describes the current state of IVF as an expensive artisanal process with limited access due to structural constraints and a shortage of highly skilled embryologists. Bringing automation to the environment increases lab throughput and lowers costs, enabling a decentralized model where eggs are collected at an OB/GYN office. This data-driven technology can recover viable eggs that may have been discarded in the past, potentially improving success rates, greatly expanding access, and standardizing best practices across clinics.  Ravi explains, "Our mission is to expand access to fertility care by transforming IVF into a scalable, automated, and standardized platform. So the big picture goal here is to democratize IVF, enable affordable access to all patients who can benefit from IVF."   "Some of the big problems in IVF today are limited access and long wait times. This is in a demand-limited market. It's a supply-limited market, structurally constrained. Automation is going to enable increasing lab throughput. Automation will enable more cycles for the lab or embryologist, and automation enables uniquely meaningful, low-cost expansion into underserved regions."   "It's a very artisanal process. It requires a small pool of very highly skilled radiologists, and it takes years of training to get to that level of scale. What we aim to do is automate best practices into technology, which then drives standardized systems. And IVF is expensive. It's one of the key barriers to entry. It's $15,000 to $25,000 per cycle in the US and often requires multiple cycles to a live birth." #AutoIVF #Fertility #HealthcareInnovation #IVF #Automation #ReproductiveHealth #FertilityCare #DigitalHealth #MedTech #AutomationInHealthcare #ReproductiveMedicine #AccessToCare  AutoIVF.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Ravi Kapur, Co-Founder and CEO of AutoIVF,  describes the current state of IVF as an expensive artisanal process with limited access due to structural constraints and a shortage of highly skilled embryologists. Bringing automation to the environment increases lab throughput and lowers costs, enabling a decentralized model where eggs are collected at an OB/GYN office. This data-driven technology can recover viable eggs that may have been discarded in the past, potentially improving success rates, greatly expanding access, and standardizing best practices across clinics.  Ravi explains, "Our mission is to expand access to fertility care by transforming IVF into a scalable, automated, and standardized platform. So the big picture goal here is to democratize IVF, enable affordable access to all patients who can benefit from IVF."   "Some of the big problems in IVF today are limited access and long wait times. This is in a demand-limited market. It's a supply-limited market, structurally constrained. Automation is going to enable increasing lab throughput. Automation will enable more cycles for the lab or embryologist, and automation enables uniquely meaningful, low-cost expansion into underserved regions."   "It's a very artisanal process. It requires a small pool of very highly skilled radiologists, and it takes years of training to get to that level of scale. What we aim to do is automate best practices into technology, which then drives standardized systems. And IVF is expensive. It's one of the key barriers to entry. It's $15,000 to $25,000 per cycle in the US and often requires multiple cycles to a live birth." #AutoIVF #Fertility #HealthcareInnovation #IVF #Automation #ReproductiveHealth #FertilityCare #DigitalHealth #MedTech #AutomationInHealthcare #ReproductiveMedicine #AccessToCare  AutoIVF.com Download the transcript here

Greg Miller, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Carta Healthcare,  is focused on the multi-billion-dollar problem of manual clinical data abstraction in health systems, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and error-prone. The Carta hybrid intelligence solution combines AI  with human expertise to surface and validate information, delivering dramatic ROI for clients through lower costs and higher data quality. Clinician adoption grows significantly once they have experienced the AI finding information they would have missed, ultimately making them more effective at their jobs. Greg explains, "Health systems in the US, specifically, spend between $10 and $15 billion a year on manually abstracting data. And what are they abstracting data for? "There are lots of different downstream use cases, but the most common reason is to populate clinical registries. And clinical registries are super important because they're used for accreditation of clinical programs. It's for revenue, it's for compliance and regulatory requirements. But the biggest use of registry data is to drive quality and process improvement initiatives." "Unfortunately, today, every hospital has an abstraction function that is highly decentralized, and they have highly skilled labor, mostly nurses, who manually come through the electronic health record and other systems to find nuggets of information to answer questions in some registry system. And so it's very time-consuming, labor-intensive, and, because it involves humans, both expensive and prone to error."  #CartaHealthcare #HealthcareAI #HybridIntelligence #ClinicalAI #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #LifeSciences #HealthData #AIgovernance #ResponsibleAI #ClinicalInnovation #HealthcareLeadership #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalData #QualityImprovement #PatientSafety #DataAbstraction #HybridIntelligence carta.healthcare Listen to the podcast here

Greg Miller, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Carta Healthcare,  is focused on the multi-billion-dollar problem of manual clinical data abstraction in health systems, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and error-prone. The Carta hybrid intelligence solution combines AI  with human expertise to surface and validate information, delivering dramatic ROI for clients through lower costs and higher data quality. Clinician adoption grows significantly once they have experienced the AI finding information they would have missed, ultimately making them more effective at their jobs. Greg explains, "Health systems in the US, specifically, spend between $10 and $15 billion a year on manually abstracting data. And what are they abstracting data for? "There are lots of different downstream use cases, but the most common reason is to populate clinical registries. And clinical registries are super important because they're used for accreditation of clinical programs. It's for revenue, it's for compliance and regulatory requirements. But the biggest use of registry data is to drive quality and process improvement initiatives." "Unfortunately, today, every hospital has an abstraction function that is highly decentralized, and they have highly skilled labor, mostly nurses, who manually come through the electronic health record and other systems to find nuggets of information to answer questions in some registry system. And so it's very time-consuming, labor-intensive, and, because it involves humans, both expensive and prone to error."  #CartaHealthcare #HealthcareAI #HybridIntelligence #ClinicalAI #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #LifeSciences #HealthData #AIgovernance #ResponsibleAI #ClinicalInnovation #HealthcareLeadership #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalData #QualityImprovement #PatientSafety #DataAbstraction #HybridIntelligence carta.healthcare Download the transcript here

Joe Kiani is Executive Chairman at Willow Laboratories and Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.   He makes the point that the vast majority of medical harm is avoidable through the implementation of evidence-based healthcare best practices. Technology, particularly AI and remote monitoring of data from medical devices, is crucial for creating predictive models that can alert clinicians to problems and identify root causes of medical errors. The goal is to unite all healthcare stakeholders to work collaboratively toward zero preventable deaths. Joe explains, "In the US, we lose about 200,000 people a year, and about 15 times that rate is the serious harm caused by medical errors. Worldwide, we think the number is close to three million. And the reason we call it preventable is that the vast majority could be eliminated if evidence-based practices were put in place. As you can imagine, people make mistakes, and there are a lot of medical errors that may not be preventable because there is an evidence-based practice in place to avoid them. But when it comes to things like hospital-acquired infection, VTE, sepsis, failure to rescue, CLATSI, there are known evidence-based practices that, if possible, put them in place, we might get to zero, and if not zero, we'd be pretty close to zero." "Well, honestly, all patients are at risk. If you want to focus on those most at risk, we've got to miss the ones that really go wrong. If we can imagine someone going in for a simple procedure, even a cosmetic one, like a hip replacement, and the procedure goes really well." "But while there's a catheter inside the artery, someone could walk in and, without cleaning their hands, touch the patient, the bacteria could enter the bloodstream and cause a serious infection. So really, you've got to create a culture of safety where you look for ways to mitigate people's mistakes, and those are what we call evidence-based practices. There are about 20 of them, starting with cultural patient safety, on the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website that people can freely download and implement, and therefore not get into these problems." #PatientSafetyMovementFoundation #PatientSafetyMovement #PatientSafety #HealthcareQuality #ZeroHarm #EvidenceBasedPractice #AIinHealthcare #ClinicalSafety #HospitalLeadership #MedTech #CultureOfSafety #PreventableHarm #FailureToRescue #Sepsis #VTE #PatientExperience #ClinicianBurnout willowlabs.ai psmf.org Listen to the podcast here

Joe Kiani is Executive Chairman at Willow Laboratories and Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.   He makes the point that the vast majority of medical harm is avoidable through the implementation of evidence-based healthcare best practices. Technology, particularly AI and remote monitoring of data from medical devices, is crucial for creating predictive models that can alert clinicians to problems and identify root causes of medical errors. The goal is to unite all healthcare stakeholders to work collaboratively toward zero preventable deaths. Joe explains, "In the US, we lose about 200,000 people a year, and about 15 times that rate is the serious harm caused by medical errors. Worldwide, we think the number is close to three million. And the reason we call it preventable is that the vast majority could be eliminated if evidence-based practices were put in place. As you can imagine, people make mistakes, and there are a lot of medical errors that may not be preventable because there is an evidence-based practice in place to avoid them. But when it comes to things like hospital-acquired infection, VTE, sepsis, failure to rescue, CLATSI, there are known evidence-based practices that, if possible, put them in place, we might get to zero, and if not zero, we'd be pretty close to zero." "Well, honestly, all patients are at risk. If you want to focus on those most at risk, we've got to miss the ones that really go wrong. If we can imagine someone going in for a simple procedure, even a cosmetic one, like a hip replacement, and the procedure goes really well." "But while there's a catheter inside the artery, someone could walk in and, without cleaning their hands, touch the patient, the bacteria could enter the bloodstream and cause a serious infection. So really, you've got to create a culture of safety where you look for ways to mitigate people's mistakes, and those are what we call evidence-based practices. There are about 20 of them, starting with cultural patient safety, on the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website that people can freely download and implement, and therefore not get into these problems." #PatientSafetyMovementFoundation #PatientSafetyMovement #PatientSafety #HealthcareQuality #ZeroHarm #EvidenceBasedPractice #AIinHealthcare #ClinicalSafety #HospitalLeadership #MedTech #CultureOfSafety #PreventableHarm #FailureToRescue #Sepsis #VTE #PatientExperience #ClinicianBurnout willowlabs.ai psmf.org Download the transcript here

Sam Yeruva is Founder and CEO of PyCube, a company that provides software solutions to US hospitals to digitize workflows and improve operational efficiency.  He points out that many hospital processes still rely on paper, which hinders the collection of data necessary for operational intelligence and forecasting. The key to success is breaking down data silos across departments to better track assets, samples, and pharmaceuticals, improving patient care, reducing clinician burnout, and driving cost savings.  Sam explains, "PyCube is a software solutions company serving US health systems across the Continental States. We provide solutions with digitized workflows around operational efficiency of the hospitals because there are a lot of things that happen in the hospitals.  A lot of things move, a lot of patients move, a lot of samples move, assets move. There are many moving parts in service environments, such as hospitals, which are well-equipped to care for patients. We help them to digitize those workflows and be more efficient. They're hearing hospitals actually running on thin margins. We assist the hospitals to utilize technology, to be more efficient, cut down the cost, improve revenue, and do what they're supposed to do normally, which they do really well, and take care of the patients. So that's where we try to assist hospitals in adopting technology, especially AI, as it is growing these days as well."   "Operational intelligence is a term coined to mean being smarter or doing things more smartly. You'll see when you go to a hospital, most of the things are still written on pen and paper. You don't get intelligence when you don't know where things are, and you don't know where data is not flowing. So we digitize those workflows so that, first of all, you use the right tools for digitizing the workflows. And then once you have that, we will instill some intelligence into the operation as well."  #PyCube #HealthcareInnovation #HospitalOperations #DigitalHealth #WorkflowAutomation #AIinHealthcare #OperationalIntelligence #PatientSafety #NurseWorkflow #InventoryManagement #HealthIT pycube.com Listen to the podcast here

Sam Yeruva is Founder and CEO of PyCube, a company that provides software solutions to US hospitals to digitize workflows and improve operational efficiency.  He points out that many hospital processes still rely on paper, which hinders the collection of data necessary for operational intelligence and forecasting. The key to success is breaking down data silos across departments to better track assets, samples, and pharmaceuticals, improving patient care, reducing clinician burnout, and driving cost savings.  Sam explains, "PyCube is a software solutions company serving US health systems across the Continental States. We provide solutions with digitized workflows around operational efficiency of the hospitals because there are a lot of things that happen in the hospitals.  A lot of things move, a lot of patients move, a lot of samples move, assets move. There are many moving parts in service environments, such as hospitals, which are well-equipped to care for patients. We help them to digitize those workflows and be more efficient. They're hearing hospitals actually running on thin margins. We assist the hospitals to utilize technology, to be more efficient, cut down the cost, improve revenue, and do what they're supposed to do normally, which they do really well, and take care of the patients. So that's where we try to assist hospitals in adopting technology, especially AI, as it is growing these days as well."   "Operational intelligence is a term coined to mean being smarter or doing things more smartly. You'll see when you go to a hospital, most of the things are still written on pen and paper. You don't get intelligence when you don't know where things are, and you don't know where data is not flowing. So we digitize those workflows so that, first of all, you use the right tools for digitizing the workflows. And then once you have that, we will instill some intelligence into the operation as well."  #PyCube #HealthcareInnovation #HospitalOperations #DigitalHealth #WorkflowAutomation #AIinHealthcare #OperationalIntelligence #PatientSafety #NurseWorkflow #InventoryManagement #HealthIT pycube.com Download the transcript here

Professor Mark Kendall, Founder and CEO of WearOptimo, is a pioneer in micro-wearable technology and highlights the limitations of current wearables that capture only basic signals.  The WearOptimo platform uses a skin patch with painless microelectrodes to measure a range of biomarkers in the interstitial fluid just beneath the skin surface.  The company's first product is a continuous hydration monitor designed to address the widespread and under-recognized health problems caused by dehydration due to lifestyle, disease, and working conditions. Mark explains, "We are all familiar with wearables. They're everywhere these days. And when we think about wearables, we're thinking about really basic signals, like an Apple Watch, an Oura ring, or a Whoop. And they're useful for really basic things. But the challenge is that there are all manner of really important health signals out there that today's wearables, like those, are just unable to reach. So, what we're looking to tackle with our technology, our powerful platform, the micro-wearable platform, is gaining access to those key signals that today's wearables are unable to reach and really opening up genuine healthcare."   "It feels just like a sticker, as I said, but the important piece is something that's microscopic. It's microelectrodes. It's an embodiment of a field called microneedles, and I'm a founder of that field. And those microelectrodes just pierce this tough outer dead layer of skin, called the stratum corneum, and reach this location just below the skin's surface. And in that location is a rich reservoir of signals. And we measure those with bio-impedance sweeps. We pull out electrical signals from the body, and use our bespoke, novel AI model to read those signals and give us distinct health outcomes." #WearOptimo #MicroWearable #WearableTech #HealthMonitoring #HydrationHealth # #MedTech #MicroneedleTechnology #PrecisionHealth #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #Wearables #Microneedles #HydrationMonitoring #Biomarkers #PatientSafety #PerioperativeCare #OccupationalHealth #MilitaryMedicine #AIinHealthcare #EdgeComputing #PreventiveCare wearoptimo.com Listen to the podcast here

Professor Mark Kendall, Founder and CEO of WearOptimo, is a pioneer in micro-wearable technology and highlights the limitations of current wearables that capture only basic signals.  The WearOptimo platform uses a skin patch with painless microelectrodes to measure a range of biomarkers in the interstitial fluid just beneath the skin surface.  The company's first product is a continuous hydration monitor designed to address the widespread and under-recognized health problems caused by dehydration due to lifestyle, disease, and working conditions. Mark explains, "We are all familiar with wearables. They're everywhere these days. And when we think about wearables, we're thinking about really basic signals, like an Apple Watch, an Oura ring, or a Whoop. And they're useful for really basic things. But the challenge is that there are all manner of really important health signals out there that today's wearables, like those, are just unable to reach. So, what we're looking to tackle with our technology, our powerful platform, the micro-wearable platform, is gaining access to those key signals that today's wearables are unable to reach and really opening up genuine healthcare."   "It feels just like a sticker, as I said, but the important piece is something that's microscopic. It's microelectrodes. It's an embodiment of a field called microneedles, and I'm a founder of that field. And those microelectrodes just pierce this tough outer dead layer of skin, called the stratum corneum, and reach this location just below the skin's surface. And in that location is a rich reservoir of signals. And we measure those with bio-impedance sweeps. We pull out electrical signals from the body, and use our bespoke, novel AI model to read those signals and give us distinct health outcomes." #WearOptimo #MicroWearable #WearableTech #HealthMonitoring #HydrationHealth # #MedTech #MicroneedleTechnology #PrecisionHealth #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #Wearables #Microneedles #HydrationMonitoring #Biomarkers #PatientSafety #PerioperativeCare #OccupationalHealth #MilitaryMedicine #AIinHealthcare #EdgeComputing #PreventiveCare wearoptimo.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Stella Vnook, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Kaida Biopharma, highlights the advantages for an early-stage biotech company to take a patient-centric perspective in drug development. She defines patient-centricity as focusing on whether a drug meaningfully improves a patient's life, which should influence decisions about trial design, endpoints, and side effects from the earliest stages. Kaida's work on a new treatment for ovarian cancer is designed to target tumor survival mechanisms and overcome treatment resistance, and has from the beginning taken into consideration the tolerability of treatments and the patient's quality of life. Stella explains, "We're so used to thinking drug-centric, and it's true that in the early stages of development, it's all about the molecule and the mechanism of action, and it's exciting to see how it works. But we really need to be thinking patient-centric because we will make decisions differently from the start. So it's not just about whether this drug works and how, but whether it meaningfully changes a patient's life. I think that's what patient-centric is or should be, because that would impact trial design, endpoints, and how we view tolerability or combination therapy."   "For ovarian cancer, women today may receive a variety of treatments. Now, let's talk about this for a second. It's the cancer that's usually diagnosed very late. That means the patient's tumor has already gone into the lymph nodes, and it's what we call a stage three PO4. The patients after surgery receive a variety of drugs such as platinum therapies or PARP, but they still may relapse, and they may become resistant to the therapy. Now, that initial therapy has probably had significant toxicity. Because they've become resistant to the therapy they received, now they have limited options. So fortunately, there are drugs that potentially could be eligible for FRA positive. There's been a lot of news about ELAHERE, which is great, but it's only 25% of the population, and many patients may never qualify for this treatment. So that's where Kaida comes in, because we're focusing on 80% of the population."  "Actually, the name Kaida is a dragon that eats its own tail. So that talks about the mechanism of action we've discussed: resistance. What we do is when the treatment has been given, it supports cell survival and actually eliminates the tumor's ability to replicate, which is called proliferation, causing it to destroy itself, which is called apoptosis. So in essence, the tumor disrupts itself because we're cutting off its support system." #Kaida #OvarianCancer #PatientCentric #OncologyInnovation #ProlactinReceptor #DrugDevelopment #AIinHealthcare #RealWorldEvidence #TolerabilityMatters #KaidaBiopharma #CancerCare Kaida-biopharma.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Stella Vnook, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Kaida Biopharma, highlights the advantages for an early-stage biotech company to take a patient-centric perspective in drug development. She defines patient-centricity as focusing on whether a drug meaningfully improves a patient's life, which should influence decisions about trial design, endpoints, and side effects from the earliest stages. Kaida's work on a new treatment for ovarian cancer is designed to target tumor survival mechanisms and overcome treatment resistance, and has from the beginning taken into consideration the tolerability of treatments and the patient's quality of life. Stella explains, "We're so used to thinking drug-centric, and it's true that in the early stages of development, it's all about the molecule and the mechanism of action, and it's exciting to see how it works. But we really need to be thinking patient-centric because we will make decisions differently from the start. So it's not just about whether this drug works and how, but whether it meaningfully changes a patient's life. I think that's what patient-centric is or should be, because that would impact trial design, endpoints, and how we view tolerability or combination therapy."   "For ovarian cancer, women today may receive a variety of treatments. Now, let's talk about this for a second. It's the cancer that's usually diagnosed very late. That means the patient's tumor has already gone into the lymph nodes, and it's what we call a stage three PO4. The patients after surgery receive a variety of drugs such as platinum therapies or PARP, but they still may relapse, and they may become resistant to the therapy. Now, that initial therapy has probably had significant toxicity. Because they've become resistant to the therapy they received, now they have limited options. So fortunately, there are drugs that potentially could be eligible for FRA positive. There's been a lot of news about ELAHERE, which is great, but it's only 25% of the population, and many patients may never qualify for this treatment. So that's where Kaida comes in, because we're focusing on 80% of the population."  "Actually, the name Kaida is a dragon that eats its own tail. So that talks about the mechanism of action we've discussed: resistance. What we do is when the treatment has been given, it supports cell survival and actually eliminates the tumor's ability to replicate, which is called proliferation, causing it to destroy itself, which is called apoptosis. So in essence, the tumor disrupts itself because we're cutting off its support system." #Kaida #OvarianCancer #PatientCentric #OncologyInnovation #ProlactinReceptor #DrugDevelopment #AIinHealthcare #RealWorldEvidence #TolerabilityMatters #KaidaBiopharma #CancerCare Kaida-biopharma.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Deb Dittberner, Chief Clinical Officer and Director of Population Health at Herself Health, focuses on providing value-based care for women aged 50 and older through a model that prioritizes cognition, bone health, behavioral health, and cardiac health. Conventional primary care for older women often overlooks the complexities of aging, which Herself Health addresses through longer visits, proactive screening, and patient education. Technology is being successfully integrated into the environment to provide virtual visits, support medication adherence, and improve access to care.  Deb explains, "We are focusing on women 50 +, specifically women 65-plus who are heading into that Medicare world and have more complex medical problems. We see a real need to focus on that group, where we can create team-based care and deliver population health, value-based care for those patients, with a greater focus on keeping them well. And lowering healthcare costs and doctor visits by focusing on wellness rather than fee-for-service or on illness and problems."   "I think that as we age, it becomes more complicated. And I think advanced primary care takes that into consideration. We do longer visits for these patients. We focus on keeping them well. And what we're trying to do is look at the whole picture. Aging people have more hypertension, more diabetes, more chronic medical conditions, and taking the time to help with all of those conditions together and look at the whole picture is what we're trying to do." #HerselfHealth #PrimaryCare #WomensHealth #ValueBasedCare #Geriatrics #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCenteredCare #MedicareAge #ClinicalLeadership #HealthEquity #AdvancedPrimaryCare #HealthTech #PopulationHealth herself-health.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Deb Dittberner, Chief Clinical Officer and Director of Population Health at Herself Health, focuses on providing value-based care for women aged 50 and older through a model that prioritizes cognition, bone health, behavioral health, and cardiac health. Conventional primary care for older women often overlooks the complexities of aging, which Herself Health addresses through longer visits, proactive screening, and patient education. Technology is being successfully integrated into the environment to provide virtual visits, support medication adherence, and improve access to care.  Deb explains, "We are focusing on women 50 +, specifically women 65-plus who are heading into that Medicare world and have more complex medical problems. We see a real need to focus on that group, where we can create team-based care and deliver population health, value-based care for those patients, with a greater focus on keeping them well. And lowering healthcare costs and doctor visits by focusing on wellness rather than fee-for-service or on illness and problems."   "I think that as we age, it becomes more complicated. And I think advanced primary care takes that into consideration. We do longer visits for these patients. We focus on keeping them well. And what we're trying to do is look at the whole picture. Aging people have more hypertension, more diabetes, more chronic medical conditions, and taking the time to help with all of those conditions together and look at the whole picture is what we're trying to do." #HerselfHealth #PrimaryCare #WomensHealth #ValueBasedCare #Geriatrics #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCenteredCare #MedicareAge #ClinicalLeadership #HealthEquity #AdvancedPrimaryCare #HealthTech #PopulationHealth herself-health.com Download the transcript here

Matt Blosl, CEO of DexCare, has a core mission to help large health systems use AI responsibly to attract patients and work with them to get appropriate care. While AI's data-processing capabilities are transformative, its use in clinical recommendations remains in its early stages, constrained by fragmented data and the limited availability of validated diagnoses. Matt advises healthcare leaders to adopt a problem-first approach to AI implementation and to use technology to drive significant change rather than just incremental improvements to existing workflows. Matt explains, "Artificial intelligence is interesting. We're still in what I consider to be the Gold Rush phase of a new technology. Certainly one as disruptive as this. So I think a lot of our clients are still trying to figure out what it means. From my perspective, you said it very well. Google or the internet was kind of our first foray into providing patients more access before they even seek care or before they go in to receive care. And what I see right now is that the AI platforms are kind of the next level of that. The richness of the information is greater. And so patients are coming in more informed, and they can feel comfortable making decisions even more than they could with Google. That's clear in terms of how it's impacting the patients. I think the health systems are still trying to get their arms wrapped around what the appropriate use of AI across the enterprise is." "Now, when it comes to making treatment recommendations, I still think we're in the early stages. There are still many hallucinations. The data sources we're pulling from are still fragmented. Data hygiene and some of that data are not always accurate. So I think there's going to have to be a lot of evolution in how we manage the data and improve interoperability, so that all of the data can start to talk to one another, and we can really have a complete picture before these platforms can really impact care." #DexCare #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth #HealthSystems #ClinicalAI #HealthcareInnovation #PatientAccess #DigitalFrontDoor #CareOrchestration #HealthIT #Interoperability #DataQuality #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalizedCare #ClinicianExperience #HealthcareLeadership #DigitalTransformation #HealthTech #HospitalOperations #CallCenterAutomation #EmergencyMedicine dexcare.com Listen to the podcast here

Matt Blosl, CEO of DexCare, has a core mission to help large health systems use AI responsibly to attract patients and work with them to get appropriate care. While AI's data-processing capabilities are transformative, its use in clinical recommendations remains in its early stages, constrained by fragmented data and the limited availability of validated diagnoses. Matt advises healthcare leaders to adopt a problem-first approach to AI implementation and to use technology to drive significant change rather than just incremental improvements to existing workflows. Matt explains, "Artificial intelligence is interesting. We're still in what I consider to be the Gold Rush phase of a new technology. Certainly one as disruptive as this. So I think a lot of our clients are still trying to figure out what it means. From my perspective, you said it very well. Google or the internet was kind of our first foray into providing patients more access before they even seek care or before they go in to receive care. And what I see right now is that the AI platforms are kind of the next level of that. The richness of the information is greater. And so patients are coming in more informed, and they can feel comfortable making decisions even more than they could with Google. That's clear in terms of how it's impacting the patients. I think the health systems are still trying to get their arms wrapped around what the appropriate use of AI across the enterprise is." "Now, when it comes to making treatment recommendations, I still think we're in the early stages. There are still many hallucinations. The data sources we're pulling from are still fragmented. Data hygiene and some of that data are not always accurate. So I think there's going to have to be a lot of evolution in how we manage the data and improve interoperability, so that all of the data can start to talk to one another, and we can really have a complete picture before these platforms can really impact care." #DexCare #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth #HealthSystems #ClinicalAI #HealthcareInnovation #PatientAccess #DigitalFrontDoor #CareOrchestration #HealthIT #Interoperability #DataQuality #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalizedCare #ClinicianExperience #HealthcareLeadership #DigitalTransformation #HealthTech #HospitalOperations #CallCenterAutomation #EmergencyMedicine dexcare.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Mayank Gandhi, CEO of NEOK Bio, discusses the company's work on bispecific antibody drug conjugates and the limitations of conventional ADCs, which target a single antigen. Using a bispecific antibody to target two unique antigens on a tumor can address the shortcomings of earlier approaches by improving delivery of the toxic payload, overcoming tumor heterogeneity, and reducing off-target toxicity.  NEOK has drugs in development for prostate cancer, and lung, head, neck, and gastrointestinal tumors. The trend for ADCs is toward multi-specific and multi-payload drugs, though Mayank warns it is not a simple task to go from one to many in designing these drug conjugates. Mayank explains, "There have been a lot of advancements in the last couple of decades, and especially the last few years, in various modalities in the treatment of hematological cancers, as well as to a certain degree in solid tumors. However, for many, many solid tumors, there's still a high unmet need given the still significant outcome, poor outcomes that patients experience, particularly with patients having metastatic disease across a variety of solid tumors. Now, if you look at specific modality like ADC or antibody drug conjugates, which is where NEOK Bio is, there's been a renaissance, if you will, with this modality in the last five to six years, particularly after the approval of a drug called Enhertu, which targets HER2 mutation. Now, many ADCs have been approved with different payloads. And so definitely that's made a dent in a variety of tumors, particularly in hematological cancers and select solid tumors as well."   "Conventional ADCs thus far target one antigen or one target on a tumor. So it's an antibody-based approach. The antibody is typically pursuing one specific antigen that's usually an antigen that's expressed on tumors selectively versus normal tissue or normal cells. And then you have a linker and a payload, usually a toxic payload that's conjugated via a linker to the antibody. So that's an antibody drug conjugate construct."   "Thus far, all the ADCs approved have been targeting only one antigen with a couple of different payloads. And so our bispecific approach is targeting two different antigens. If we use a bispecific antibody that targets two unique antigens on the tumor, we have more than one place that a potential antibody can bind and deliver the toxic payload. And then we have made some very significant improvements or changes in the antibody itself." #NEOKBio #DrugDevelopment #Innovation #AntibodyDrugConjugates #ADC #Oncology #Biotech#Oncology #SolidTumors #BispecificADC #CancerResearch #TranslationalResearch #MedicalOncology #HematologyOncology #ClinicalTrials #Biotech #Pharma #DrugDevelopment #PrecisionOncology #TumorMicroenvironment #TargetedTherapy NEOKBio.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Mayank Gandhi, CEO of NEOK Bio, discusses the company's work on bispecific antibody drug conjugates and the limitations of conventional ADCs, which target a single antigen. Using a bispecific antibody to target two unique antigens on a tumor can address the shortcomings of earlier approaches by improving delivery of the toxic payload, overcoming tumor heterogeneity, and reducing off-target toxicity.  NEOK has drugs in development for prostate cancer, and lung, head, neck, and gastrointestinal tumors. The trend for ADCs is toward multi-specific and multi-payload drugs, though Mayank warns it is not a simple task to go from one to many in designing these drug conjugates. Mayank explains, "There have been a lot of advancements in the last couple of decades, and especially the last few years, in various modalities in the treatment of hematological cancers, as well as to a certain degree in solid tumors. However, for many, many solid tumors, there's still a high unmet need given the still significant outcome, poor outcomes that patients experience, particularly with patients having metastatic disease across a variety of solid tumors. Now, if you look at specific modality like ADC or antibody drug conjugates, which is where NEOK Bio is, there's been a renaissance, if you will, with this modality in the last five to six years, particularly after the approval of a drug called Enhertu, which targets HER2 mutation. Now, many ADCs have been approved with different payloads. And so definitely that's made a dent in a variety of tumors, particularly in hematological cancers and select solid tumors as well."   "Conventional ADCs thus far target one antigen or one target on a tumor. So it's an antibody-based approach. The antibody is typically pursuing one specific antigen that's usually an antigen that's expressed on tumors selectively versus normal tissue or normal cells. And then you have a linker and a payload, usually a toxic payload that's conjugated via a linker to the antibody. So that's an antibody drug conjugate construct."   "Thus far, all the ADCs approved have been targeting only one antigen with a couple of different payloads. And so our bispecific approach is targeting two different antigens. If we use a bispecific antibody that targets two unique antigens on the tumor, we have more than one place that a potential antibody can bind and deliver the toxic payload. And then we have made some very significant improvements or changes in the antibody itself." #NEOKBio #DrugDevelopment #Innovation #AntibodyDrugConjugates #ADC #Oncology #Biotech#Oncology #SolidTumors #BispecificADC #CancerResearch #TranslationalResearch #MedicalOncology #HematologyOncology #ClinicalTrials #Biotech #Pharma #DrugDevelopment #PrecisionOncology #TumorMicroenvironment #TargetedTherapy NEOKBio.com Download the transcript here

Louis Blankemeier, CEO and Co-Founder of Cognita, describes the significant gap between the number of radiologists and the rising volume and types of medical imaging that need to be reviewed.  The Cognita generative visual language model is an advancement over earlier radiology AI applications that were designed to flag single findings.  This integrated approach emulates a radiologist by analyzing complex images and generating full draft radiology reports, demonstrating reduced time per case, increased detection of critical findings, and decreased cognitive burden on radiologists. Louis explains, "Radiologists look at a number of different imaging types. So there are X-rays, and these are basically 2D images or 2D projections of the inside of the body. So you see all the organs superimposed on each other in a 2D image. And the radiologists have to take this 2D image and create almost a 3D representation in their head to understand what's going on in the body. They also read CT scans, which use X-ray radiation but take multiple images from different angles of the body. And then you basically reconstruct a 3D video that shows you what the inside of a body looks like. And then there are also MRI scans, which use magnetism to create a video of the inside of the body. And CT and MRI are 3D imaging modalities. So they're both kind of like videos. And you have an ultrasound, which uses sound waves, and you have a long tail of different imaging types.  But radiologist spend most of their time looking at X-rays, CT scans, and MRI images."   "A vision language model is a model that has eyes, so it can actually look at images, and then the language part describes how we are generating text in the output. And we can actually add one more descriptor to vision language. We can add the term generative. So we're actually generating text in the output of our model. We're generating the radiology report. And this is in contrast to most models out there today that are discriminative. There are these classifier models that are saying, " Is there a disease present or not? And the output is binary. It's zero one. It's not a text report in the output." #Cognita #AIinRadiology #GenerativeAI #VisionLanguageModels #RadiologyWorkflow #DiagnosticImaging #MedicalAI #HealthcareInnovation #RadiologistSupport #ClinicalDecisionSupport #PatientSafety #BurnoutReduction #FDA #BreakthroughDevice #DigitalHealth #HealthTech Cognita.ai  Listen to the podcast here

Louis Blankemeier, CEO and Co-Founder of Cognita, describes the significant gap between the number of radiologists and the rising volume and types of medical imaging that need to be reviewed.  The Cognita generative visual language model is an advancement over earlier radiology AI applications that were designed to flag single findings.  This integrated approach emulates a radiologist by analyzing complex images and generating full draft radiology reports, demonstrating reduced time per case, increased detection of critical findings, and decreased cognitive burden on radiologists. Louis explains, "Radiologists look at a number of different imaging types. So there are X-rays, and these are basically 2D images or 2D projections of the inside of the body. So you see all the organs superimposed on each other in a 2D image. And the radiologists have to take this 2D image and create almost a 3D representation in their head to understand what's going on in the body. They also read CT scans, which use X-ray radiation but take multiple images from different angles of the body. And then you basically reconstruct a 3D video that shows you what the inside of a body looks like. And then there are also MRI scans, which use magnetism to create a video of the inside of the body. And CT and MRI are 3D imaging modalities. So they're both kind of like videos. And you have an ultrasound, which uses sound waves, and you have a long tail of different imaging types.  But radiologist spend most of their time looking at X-rays, CT scans, and MRI images."   "A vision language model is a model that has eyes, so it can actually look at images, and then the language part describes how we are generating text in the output. And we can actually add one more descriptor to vision language. We can add the term generative. So we're actually generating text in the output of our model. We're generating the radiology report. And this is in contrast to most models out there today that are discriminative. There are these classifier models that are saying, " Is there a disease present or not? And the output is binary. It's zero one. It's not a text report in the output." #Cognita #AIinRadiology #GenerativeAI #VisionLanguageModels #RadiologyWorkflow #DiagnosticImaging #MedicalAI #HealthcareInnovation #RadiologistSupport #ClinicalDecisionSupport #PatientSafety #BurnoutReduction #FDA #BreakthroughDevice #DigitalHealth #HealthTech Cognita.ai Download the transcript here

Dr. Ashok Gupta, CEO and Founder of Theranow, highlights the growing demand for physical therapy and the challenges patients face in accessing care. The Theranow telehealth solution uses technologies such as computer vision and AI to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual care and to measure and document progress to support the clinician's work with the patient. Virtual physical therapy is demonstrating outcomes equal to in-person care and showing higher patient engagement and compliance, driven by the convenience of scheduling and remote monitoring tools. Ashok explains, "Physical therapy is growing with experiential growth. Means you would look at the data. It's approximately 6% to 7% a year growth going long. On top of that, not only are there requirements, but this is also like a demand-and-supply situation. If you'll just look at the other side of the data, the demand side of it, where every day, like recently, I read, it was like 10,000 people are crossing the Medicare eligibility. So every single Medicare-eligible person means there's more demand for physical therapy and rehab services."   "The physical therapists specialize in different settings or different styles of treatments. So I would say virtual care can address almost 80% of all diagnoses and 100% of all patients at any time during the injury or recovery period of rehabilitation. So we do have multiple programs. We have an ortho program for virtual care. We have a neuro program for virtual care. And then we have a pelvic health or women's health program for virtual care. So we're taking one step at a time and adding different programs. The next would be the pediatrics, and then we'll be adding that as well, slowly. So we're trying to bring in experts from each field and then make sure that our program is very tailored to the patient's needs. And then obviously it's not a traditional, conventional physical therapy that you can do." #Theranow HybridCare #PatientExperience #HealthcareAI #DigitalHealth #ClinicianWorkflow #PhysicalTherapy #Telehealth #DigitalHealth #RehabInnovation #VirtualCare #AIinHealthcare #RemotePatientMonitoring #ValueBasedCare #HealthSystems #Medicare #HealthTech #PatientEngagement #ClinicianExperience #MusculoskeletalCare Theranow.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Ashok Gupta, CEO and Founder of Theranow, highlights the growing demand for physical therapy and the challenges patients face in accessing care. The Theranow telehealth solution uses technologies such as computer vision and AI to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual care and to measure and document progress to support the clinician's work with the patient. Virtual physical therapy is demonstrating outcomes equal to in-person care and showing higher patient engagement and compliance, driven by the convenience of scheduling and remote monitoring tools. Ashok explains, "Physical therapy is growing with experiential growth. Means you would look at the data. It's approximately 6% to 7% a year growth going long. On top of that, not only are there requirements, but this is also like a demand-and-supply situation. If you'll just look at the other side of the data, the demand side of it, where every day, like recently, I read, it was like 10,000 people are crossing the Medicare eligibility. So every single Medicare-eligible person means there's more demand for physical therapy and rehab services."   "The physical therapists specialize in different settings or different styles of treatments. So I would say virtual care can address almost 80% of all diagnoses and 100% of all patients at any time during the injury or recovery period of rehabilitation. So we do have multiple programs. We have an ortho program for virtual care. We have a neuro program for virtual care. And then we have a pelvic health or women's health program for virtual care. So we're taking one step at a time and adding different programs. The next would be the pediatrics, and then we'll be adding that as well, slowly. So we're trying to bring in experts from each field and then make sure that our program is very tailored to the patient's needs. And then obviously it's not a traditional, conventional physical therapy that you can do." #Theranow HybridCare #PatientExperience #HealthcareAI #DigitalHealth #ClinicianWorkflow #PhysicalTherapy #Telehealth #DigitalHealth #RehabInnovation #VirtualCare #AIinHealthcare #RemotePatientMonitoring #ValueBasedCare #HealthSystems #Medicare #HealthTech #PatientEngagement #ClinicianExperience #MusculoskeletalCare Theranow.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Javier Szwarcberg, CEO of Spruce Biosciences,  is developing drugs for rare diseases with a primary focus on Sanfilippo Syndrome Type B, a devastating genetic neurodegenerative disease affecting children.  The source of this condition is a lack of an enzyme, which results in a buildup of a toxic substance in the brain.  The company's drug is an enzyme replacement therapy administered directly to the brain to bypass the blood-brain barrier, and clinical trial data is showing a strong effect on the toxic substrate in the brain and a meaningful benefit on cognition. Javier explains, "It's a devastating, profoundly affecting disease whereby children are typically born normally and born asymptomatic. And over time, they develop an accumulation of a toxic substrate throughout the body, but primarily the brain. And because of that, it eventually results in a fairly young age, usually between two and a half and I would say three and a half, in symptoms starting. That toxic substance builds in throughout the brain and starts affecting initially learning behavior. Sleep patterns are very much affected, whereby children don't sleep at night and sleep during the day, and they're very hyperactive. And sometimes the diagnosis is confused, and there's no clarity as to what is going on with the child, early in the onset of the disease."   "Yes, it's a genetic disease that's inherited. There's a missing enzyme responsible for the metabolism of this toxic substrate, which I talked about, called heparan sulfate. So when heparan sulfate builds up in the brain, it causes inflammation and neurotoxicity, ultimately resulting in neurodegeneration. Think about it as a disease that is very similar to what you end up seeing with Alzheimer's, whereby the toxic substrate in Alzheimer's is between neurons and outside of the actual cell. In this case, in this disease, the toxic substance, which is different than the one that accumulates in Alzheimer's but builds within the neural cells. Yes, so that's very well-known and very well-characterized." #SpruceBio #SanfilippoSyndrome #MPSIIIB #CureSanfilippo #RareDiseases #EnzymeReplacementTherapy #LysosomalStorageDisorders #BiopharmaceuticalInnovation #ClinicalTrials #RareDiseaseResearch #HealthcareInnovation #PrecisionMedicine sprucebio.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Javier Szwarcberg, CEO of Spruce Biosciences,  is developing drugs for rare diseases with a primary focus on Sanfilippo Syndrome Type B, a devastating genetic neurodegenerative disease affecting children.  The source of this condition is a lack of an enzyme, which results in a buildup of a toxic substance in the brain.  The company's drug is an enzyme replacement therapy administered directly to the brain to bypass the blood-brain barrier, and clinical trial data is showing a strong effect on the toxic substrate in the brain and a meaningful benefit on cognition. Javier explains, "It's a devastating, profoundly affecting disease whereby children are typically born normally and born asymptomatic. And over time, they develop an accumulation of a toxic substrate throughout the body, but primarily the brain. And because of that, it eventually results in a fairly young age, usually between two and a half and I would say three and a half, in symptoms starting. That toxic substance builds in throughout the brain and starts affecting initially learning behavior. Sleep patterns are very much affected, whereby children don't sleep at night and sleep during the day, and they're very hyperactive. And sometimes the diagnosis is confused, and there's no clarity as to what is going on with the child, early in the onset of the disease."   "Yes, it's a genetic disease that's inherited. There's a missing enzyme responsible for the metabolism of this toxic substrate, which I talked about, called heparan sulfate. So when heparan sulfate builds up in the brain, it causes inflammation and neurotoxicity, ultimately resulting in neurodegeneration. Think about it as a disease that is very similar to what you end up seeing with Alzheimer's, whereby the toxic substrate in Alzheimer's is between neurons and outside of the actual cell. In this case, in this disease, the toxic substance, which is different than the one that accumulates in Alzheimer's but builds within the neural cells. Yes, so that's very well-known and very well-characterized." #SpruceBio #SanfilippoSyndrome #MPSIIIB #CureSanfilippo #RareDiseases #EnzymeReplacementTherapy #LysosomalStorageDisorders #BiopharmaceuticalInnovation #ClinicalTrials #RareDiseaseResearch #HealthcareInnovation #PrecisionMedicine sprucebio.com Download the transcript here

Zach Shultz, Senior Director of Product Policy and Solutions at EnableComp, describes the challenges of revenue cycle management in healthcare with a focus on the strategic importance of full-time equivalent (FTE) allocation.  Hospitals could improve their bottom line by outsourcing complex, low-reimbursement claims, such as those from the VA so that in-house staff can focus on higher-value commercial claims. Despite the emergence of AI as a significant factor in automating the review process, human intervention is irreplaceable for quality assurance, managing escalations, and resolving complex claims. Zach explains, "I think that, especially serving the post- COVID landscape that we exist in today, staffing has become a kind of delicate thing. If you think about the rate posts or during the post-pandemic period, it was really hard to staff revenue cycle offices or staff business in general. Now, you kind of fast-forward to 2026, and maybe it's not as difficult as it was, but I think hospitals and businesses want to make sure they're very precise and strategic in how they utilize resources."   "Obviously, keeping overhead at a manageable level is really important to growth and success. So I think it's an invariable value that should always be discussed, particularly when it gets into the complex claims space, as we do. The work comps, the VAs, and claim types like that may take or require a little bit more manual intervention. It's super important to determine whether it's worth taking on these things myself or if outsourcing them is justified so I can focus on things that maybe have a slightly higher yield."  #EnableComp #RevenueCycleManagement #RCM #HealthTech #FTEEfficiency #ComplexClaims #RCMTechnology #HealthcareRCM #RevenueCycle #HealthcareFinance #StaffingStrategy #HealthcareOperations #AIinHealthcare #WorkforceOptimization #HealthcareLeadership #PatientFinancialServices enablecomp.com Listen to the podcast here

Zach Shultz, Senior Director of Product Policy and Solutions at EnableComp, describes the challenges of revenue cycle management in healthcare with a focus on the strategic importance of full-time equivalent (FTE) allocation.  Hospitals could improve their bottom line by outsourcing complex, low-reimbursement claims, such as those from the VA so that in-house staff can focus on higher-value commercial claims. Despite the emergence of AI as a significant factor in automating the review process, human intervention is irreplaceable for quality assurance, managing escalations, and resolving complex claims. Zach explains, "I think that, especially serving the post- COVID landscape that we exist in today, staffing has become a kind of delicate thing. If you think about the rate posts or during the post-pandemic period, it was really hard to staff revenue cycle offices or staff business in general. Now, you kind of fast-forward to 2026, and maybe it's not as difficult as it was, but I think hospitals and businesses want to make sure they're very precise and strategic in how they utilize resources."   "Obviously, keeping overhead at a manageable level is really important to growth and success. So I think it's an invariable value that should always be discussed, particularly when it gets into the complex claims space, as we do. The work comps, the VAs, and claim types like that may take or require a little bit more manual intervention. It's super important to determine whether it's worth taking on these things myself or if outsourcing them is justified so I can focus on things that maybe have a slightly higher yield."  #EnableComp #RevenueCycleManagement #RCM #HealthTech #FTEEfficiency #ComplexClaims #RCMTechnology #HealthcareRCM #RevenueCycle #HealthcareFinance #StaffingStrategy #HealthcareOperations #AIinHealthcare #WorkforceOptimization #HealthcareLeadership #PatientFinancialServices enablecomp.com Download the transcript here

Lon Hecht, CEO of Care2U, has designed an innovative model of providing in-home high-acuity care as an alternative to emergency room visits or hospitalizations.  The process includes sending a clinician to the home within 2-4 hours, with extensive mobile medical equipment, and physician support via telehealth.  Benefits include better patient recovery outcomes, significant cost savings for patients and payers, and prevention of costly hospital readmissions. Lon explains, "My company, Care2U, and I are bringing high acuity care into the home. So think of it as kind of a replacement for ER-level care or hospitalization. When you think of home care, that's typically skilled or unskilled care. So it could be someone coming in to help you with daily living needs, or it could be some kind of skilled nursing. What we do is very different. We're sending a clinician into the home. Typically, within two to four hours, they bring in a physician via concurrent telehealth and treat true high-acuity needs. Once again, things that you would typically see in the ER in the hospital. So that's how it's different. And what's great about it is it really allows you to stay in your home, be around your loved ones, which is fantastic. And the cost is a fraction of what you would pay for ER or hospital-based care."   "There's a lot of data out there that shows people heal better at home. When you're in a hospital, there are all kinds of things going on. You're around plenty of infection. You're up all night. It's very chaotic for folks. Being able to be at home with their loved ones, pets, and others, and move freely throughout the home, really makes a difference in their recovery. So, it's been published as being incredibly positive for the care of patients."  #Care2U #HospitalAtHome #ERAtHome #CareAtHome #HealingAtHome #EmpoweredPatient #DigitalHealth #Telehealth #VirtualCare #HealthTech #ValueBasedCare #PopulationHealth #AgingInPlace #ManagedCare #ValueBasedCare #Readmissions #Caregivers #OlderAdults #Geriatric #Elderly#HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #PatientExperience #HealthcareDelivery #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareCosts #PatientOutcomes care2U.com Listen to the podcast here

Lon Hecht, CEO of Care2U, has designed an innovative model of providing in-home high-acuity care as an alternative to emergency room visits or hospitalizations.  The process includes sending a clinician to the home within 2-4 hours, with extensive mobile medical equipment, and physician support via telehealth.  Benefits include better patient recovery outcomes, significant cost savings for patients and payers, and prevention of costly hospital readmissions. Lon explains, "My company, Care2U, and I are bringing high acuity care into the home. So think of it as kind of a replacement for ER-level care or hospitalization. When you think of home care, that's typically skilled or unskilled care. So it could be someone coming in to help you with daily living needs, or it could be some kind of skilled nursing. What we do is very different. We're sending a clinician into the home. Typically, within two to four hours, they bring in a physician via concurrent telehealth and treat true high-acuity needs. Once again, things that you would typically see in the ER in the hospital. So that's how it's different. And what's great about it is it really allows you to stay in your home, be around your loved ones, which is fantastic. And the cost is a fraction of what you would pay for ER or hospital-based care."   "There's a lot of data out there that shows people heal better at home. When you're in a hospital, there are all kinds of things going on. You're around plenty of infection. You're up all night. It's very chaotic for folks. Being able to be at home with their loved ones, pets, and others, and move freely throughout the home, really makes a difference in their recovery. So, it's been published as being incredibly positive for the care of patients."  #Care2U #HospitalAtHome #ERAtHome #CareAtHome #HealingAtHome #EmpoweredPatient #DigitalHealth #Telehealth #VirtualCare #HealthTech #ValueBasedCare #PopulationHealth #AgingInPlace #ManagedCare #ValueBasedCare #Readmissions #Caregivers #OlderAdults #Geriatric #Elderly#HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #PatientExperience #HealthcareDelivery #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareCosts #PatientOutcomes care2U.com Download the transcript here

Patty Hayward, General Manager of healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, describes how a hybrid model of humans and AI is reshaping healthcare contact centers. Patient access and revenue cycle management are the primary, interconnected challenges for these centers, and modern large-language AI is being used to handle complex scheduling logic. Data analytics helps identify patterns in patient inquiries, predict demand peaks, and move care from reactive to proactive. The expectation is that AI agents will guide patients, becoming a normal and accepted part of healthcare. Patty explains, "I think that the challenge has always been in healthcare that it's difficult to automate things in comparison to other industries. If you call retail, it's very hard to get a human. You're constantly dealing with bots or being deflected to digital front doors versus in healthcare, as much as organizations have tried to push people to the digital apps and MyCharts and different things like that, it's been difficult. And there are good reasons, and there are bad reasons for that."   "When you think about scheduling, scheduling really drives your revenue cycle because if people don't come to your organization, you can't bill them for things, you can't bill their insurance. And so your organization has problems with the revenue cycles. That's why I say they're inextricably linked, and it's very important to solve the access problem in order to solve the revenue cycle problem."  "So, making sure that you match that patient with the right provider, making sure that you have the right requirements around insurance authorization and things like that. And then, of course, letting the patient understand what their burden will be as far as the charges go for that appointment is all part of the dance, so to speak. And that really requires a large language model that can consume and understand that information. You're right, the decision trees weren't going to work as far as an AI piece goes." #Talkdesk #AgenticAI #AIAgents #ArtificialIntelligence #AI  #Automation #CustomerServiceAutomation #ValuebasedCare #VBC #PatientExperience #MemberExperience #CustomerExperience #Providers #Payers #HealthcareAI #PatientExperience #HealthTech #ContactCenters #AIInHealthcare #DigitalTransformation #HealthcareInnovation #PatientAccess #RevenueOptimization #HealthcareLeadership talkdesk.com  Listen to the podcast here

Patty Hayward, General Manager of healthcare and life sciences at Talkdesk, describes how a hybrid model of humans and AI is reshaping healthcare contact centers. Patient access and revenue cycle management are the primary, interconnected challenges for these centers, and modern large-language AI is being used to handle complex scheduling logic. Data analytics helps identify patterns in patient inquiries, predict demand peaks, and move care from reactive to proactive. The expectation is that AI agents will guide patients, becoming a normal and accepted part of healthcare. Patty explains, "I think that the challenge has always been in healthcare that it's difficult to automate things in comparison to other industries. If you call retail, it's very hard to get a human. You're constantly dealing with bots or being deflected to digital front doors versus in healthcare, as much as organizations have tried to push people to the digital apps and MyCharts and different things like that, it's been difficult. And there are good reasons, and there are bad reasons for that."   "When you think about scheduling, scheduling really drives your revenue cycle because if people don't come to your organization, you can't bill them for things, you can't bill their insurance. And so your organization has problems with the revenue cycles. That's why I say they're inextricably linked, and it's very important to solve the access problem in order to solve the revenue cycle problem."  "So, making sure that you match that patient with the right provider, making sure that you have the right requirements around insurance authorization and things like that. And then, of course, letting the patient understand what their burden will be as far as the charges go for that appointment is all part of the dance, so to speak. And that really requires a large language model that can consume and understand that information. You're right, the decision trees weren't going to work as far as an AI piece goes." #Talkdesk #AgenticAI #AIAgents #ArtificialIntelligence #AI  #Automation #CustomerServiceAutomation #ValuebasedCare #VBC #PatientExperience #MemberExperience #CustomerExperience #Providers #Payers #HealthcareAI #PatientExperience #HealthTech #ContactCenters #AIInHealthcare #DigitalTransformation #HealthcareInnovation #PatientAccess #RevenueOptimization #HealthcareLeadership talkdesk.com Download the transcript here

Scott Xiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia, is developing a novel, FDA -cleared VR-based treatment for neurovisual disorders with a primary focus on amblyopia, lazy eye, in children aged 4- 12 years old.  This approach uses popular TV shows to create an engaging, effective therapy that trains the eyes to work together and is designed as a replacement for traditional eye patching. Clinical data indicate that the vision improvements from this therapy are durable and that the VR approach is well-received by children and their parents. Scott explains, "We are pioneering a new class of treatments using virtual reality to treat various neurovisual disorders. So these are conditions where patients have vision loss that's driven by deficiencies in the brain, in the visual cortex. We're starting with amblyopia, which is often known as lazy eye. It's the number one cause of vision loss in children around the world. And it's an area of significant unmet need. There hasn't been much in the way of new treatments for decades. Typically, patients will go through glasses followed by eye patches, which is exactly what it sounds like. You take a patch, and you stick it on your stronger eye for multiple hours a day. And that's a really challenging treatment for a lot of kids and families. So we saw an opportunity to use technology to create something better, something that would be more engaging and more effective."   "We've developed a VR-based approach that takes popular TV shows like SpongeBob and Sesame Street and turns them into a treatment by modifying how the images are shown to each eye. And this technology has been extensively validated at this point in multiple clinical trials. It was cleared by the FDA, and it's now commercially available. So over the past year, we've really been making strides on the commercial front, increasing awareness for the product among physicians and patients, and securing insurance coverage for the product."  #Luminopia #Amblyopia #PediatricOphthalmology #VirtualReality #DigitalTherapeutics #LazyEye #VisionTherapy #Optometry #PediatricCare #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalTechnology luminopia.com Listen to the podcast here

Scott Xiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Luminopia, is developing a novel, FDA -cleared VR-based treatment for neurovisual disorders with a primary focus on amblyopia, lazy eye, in children aged 4- 12 years old.  This approach uses popular TV shows to create an engaging, effective therapy that trains the eyes to work together and is designed as a replacement for traditional eye patching. Clinical data indicate that the vision improvements from this therapy are durable and that the VR approach is well-received by children and their parents. Scott explains, "We are pioneering a new class of treatments using virtual reality to treat various neurovisual disorders. So these are conditions where patients have vision loss that's driven by deficiencies in the brain, in the visual cortex. We're starting with amblyopia, which is often known as lazy eye. It's the number one cause of vision loss in children around the world. And it's an area of significant unmet need. There hasn't been much in the way of new treatments for decades. Typically, patients will go through glasses followed by eye patches, which is exactly what it sounds like. You take a patch, and you stick it on your stronger eye for multiple hours a day. And that's a really challenging treatment for a lot of kids and families. So we saw an opportunity to use technology to create something better, something that would be more engaging and more effective."   "We've developed a VR-based approach that takes popular TV shows like SpongeBob and Sesame Street and turns them into a treatment by modifying how the images are shown to each eye. And this technology has been extensively validated at this point in multiple clinical trials. It was cleared by the FDA, and it's now commercially available. So over the past year, we've really been making strides on the commercial front, increasing awareness for the product among physicians and patients, and securing insurance coverage for the product."  #Luminopia #Amblyopia #PediatricOphthalmology #VirtualReality #DigitalTherapeutics #LazyEye #VisionTherapy #Optometry #PediatricCare #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalTechnology luminopia.com Download the transcript here

Joseph Kleiman, President of Buzz Health, is working to improve price transparency and affordability of prescription drugs. He states that providing price transparency as early as possible in the prescription process is critical for prescribers, patients, and health plans to make better, more cost-effective decisions. To achieve true transparency, all parties in the ecosystem must cooperate and share data, moving beyond pricing visibility to fully integrate systems and use real-time information to improve patient adherence and lower costs. Joseph explains, "Buzz Health really focuses on improving the process behind the scenes, developing technologies that sit within the prescription ecosystem, creating opportunities to improve price transparency, early adoption, and integrated benefits for members."  "We work with everybody from pharmacies to PBMs to payers to employer groups. Anybody we believe has an opportunity that, with technology and early adoption of price transparency and adherence, could benefit them and the members they serve." "What's interesting is that, like most things, the earlier you have information, the easier it is to make actionable change, things with long-term impact. So if you have price transparency and you have it early on, a prescriber can make more informed decisions. A patient, rather than showing up at a pharmacy counter, can make decisions earlier on. So again, it's kind of like the earlier you have anything in making a decision, the easier it is for you to make a really actionable change all the way up through a PBM or health plan. If they see gaps in coverage and they have that information, they can make changes early on as well." #BuzzHealth #PrescriptionDrugs #Pharmacies #HealthcareIT #PriceTransparency #PrescriptionAffordability #PharmacyTech #MedicationAccess #HealthcareTransparency #PrescriptionPricing #PatientCare #HealthTech #PharmacyBenefits #HealthcareInnovation #PatientOutcomes #MedicalTechnology buzzhealth.com Listen to the podcast here  

Joseph Kleiman, President of Buzz Health, is working to improve price transparency and affordability of prescription drugs. He states that providing price transparency as early as possible in the prescription process is critical for prescribers, patients, and health plans to make better, more cost-effective decisions. To achieve true transparency, all parties in the ecosystem must cooperate and share data, moving beyond pricing visibility to fully integrate systems and use real-time information to improve patient adherence and lower costs. Joseph explains, "Buzz Health really focuses on improving the process behind the scenes, developing technologies that sit within the prescription ecosystem, creating opportunities to improve price transparency, early adoption, and integrated benefits for members."  "We work with everybody from pharmacies to PBMs to payers to employer groups. Anybody we believe has an opportunity that, with technology and early adoption of price transparency and adherence, could benefit them and the members they serve." "What's interesting is that, like most things, the earlier you have information, the easier it is to make actionable change, things with long-term impact. So if you have price transparency and you have it early on, a prescriber can make more informed decisions. A patient, rather than showing up at a pharmacy counter, can make decisions earlier on. So again, it's kind of like the earlier you have anything in making a decision, the easier it is for you to make a really actionable change all the way up through a PBM or health plan. If they see gaps in coverage and they have that information, they can make changes early on as well." #BuzzHealth #PrescriptionDrugs #Pharmacies #HealthcareIT #PriceTransparency #PrescriptionAffordability #PharmacyTech #MedicationAccess #HealthcareTransparency #PrescriptionPricing #PatientCare #HealthTech #PharmacyBenefits #HealthcareInnovation #PatientOutcomes #MedicalTechnology buzzhealth.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, highlights the critical role of advanced precision diagnostics and how these tools are driving true precision medicine, where therapies are targeted to specific genetic mutations. There have been significant innovations, such as less invasive liquid biopsies and the application of AI to interpret medical images and complex lab results, which provide faster analysis and make it easier to monitor disease over time. The future of diagnostics includes more routine tests and imaging to enable earlier interventions and more effective treatments by overcoming the logistical and physical challenges of traditional tissue biopsies in cancer care. Bill explains, "At Avalon, we believe that if you don't get the diagnosis right, the rest of healthcare is wasted, and time is wasted on getting a patient better. So our number one focus is getting the science of diagnostics deployed into the healthcare ecosystem. I think a lot of people know that there's been a lot of innovation in lab testing, as well as in advanced diagnostic imaging. And historically, it takes 17 to 20 years to get new science evenly adopted, and we want to accelerate that process. So that's really our focus. We say sciences are True North, and our goal is to get that science deployed into the healthcare system."   "I think, unfortunately, we used the phrase precision medicine too early. When it was really precision diagnostics, and I'll separate the two out. For over a decade, we've been able to measure, let's say for instance, in cancer, what mutations might be in the cancer cells, but we didn't have any new therapies to offer. So while the phrase precision medicine was used, all we did was identify the mutations, build up an understanding of the disease, but offer the same cancer therapy. Now we actually have therapies that target some of those specific mutations."   "We truly have reached the era of precision medicine. But I think getting people to understand that now it's not just measuring the mutation, it's measuring the mutation and selecting the chemotherapy based on that. That's the new reality, and that's what we're trying to get people to understand. And that's why I think undertesting still happens, because people aren't maybe aware that now there are therapeutic decisions you can make off those results." #Avalonhcs #PrecisionMedicine #Diagnostics #HealthcareInnovation #LiquidBiopsy #Healthtech #DiagnosticIntelligence  #AIinHealthcare #PersonalizedMedicine #Oncology #HealthcareProfessionals #MedicalTechnology #PatientCare avalonhcs.com  Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, highlights the critical role of advanced precision diagnostics and how these tools are driving true precision medicine, where therapies are targeted to specific genetic mutations. There have been significant innovations, such as less invasive liquid biopsies and the application of AI to interpret medical images and complex lab results, which provide faster analysis and make it easier to monitor disease over time. The future of diagnostics includes more routine tests and imaging to enable earlier interventions and more effective treatments by overcoming the logistical and physical challenges of traditional tissue biopsies in cancer care. Bill explains, "At Avalon, we believe that if you don't get the diagnosis right, the rest of healthcare is wasted, and time is wasted on getting a patient better. So our number one focus is getting the science of diagnostics deployed into the healthcare ecosystem. I think a lot of people know that there's been a lot of innovation in lab testing, as well as in advanced diagnostic imaging. And historically, it takes 17 to 20 years to get new science evenly adopted, and we want to accelerate that process. So that's really our focus. We say sciences are True North, and our goal is to get that science deployed into the healthcare system."   "I think, unfortunately, we used the phrase precision medicine too early. When it was really precision diagnostics, and I'll separate the two out. For over a decade, we've been able to measure, let's say for instance, in cancer, what mutations might be in the cancer cells, but we didn't have any new therapies to offer. So while the phrase precision medicine was used, all we did was identify the mutations, build up an understanding of the disease, but offer the same cancer therapy. Now we actually have therapies that target some of those specific mutations."   "We truly have reached the era of precision medicine. But I think getting people to understand that now it's not just measuring the mutation, it's measuring the mutation and selecting the chemotherapy based on that. That's the new reality, and that's what we're trying to get people to understand. And that's why I think undertesting still happens, because people aren't maybe aware that now there are therapeutic decisions you can make off those results." #Avalonhcs #PrecisionMedicine #Diagnostics #HealthcareInnovation #LiquidBiopsy #Healthtech #DiagnosticIntelligence  #AIinHealthcare #PersonalizedMedicine #Oncology #HealthcareProfessionals #MedicalTechnology #PatientCare avalonhcs.com Download the transcript here

Zack Tisch, Partner of Portfolio Services, and Molly Kalinowski, Vice President of Managed Services at Pivot Point Consulting, describe how the role of IT in healthcare has evolved from a reactive, support function to a central strategic component of business. As AI becomes more important, healthcare systems are navigating a challenging environment and recognizing the need for managed services partners to handle day-to-day operations so they can better focus on big-picture goals and priorities. Zack and Molly emphasize the need to drive incremental changes to streamline provider data capture and clinical documentation, which could lead to broader changes in workflows and patient outcomes.  Zack explains, "A lot of what we're doing today is really helping health systems of all shapes and sizes navigate this challenging environment. Whether it's financial pressures, dealing with cybersecurity and risk, or having to implement new technologies every day. Whether it's AI or technologies in the cloud, and really helping them navigate this new normal of healthcare, putting together five- to 10-year strategic roadmaps and plans."   Molly elaborates, "I would say there's a shift in that many organizations are very heavy on the strategic priorities, with AI being one of those. So we're seeing more of our clients needing to support those projects and long-term initiatives. And then they need a partner like a managed services group to really support the day-to-day breaks and fixes, and maintenance types of activities so that they can focus on those AI strategic initiatives." #PivotPointConsulting #Healthcare #PatientExperience #ManagedServices #TalentSolutions #AI #CompanyCulture #WorkerBurnout #WorkforceTransformation #CostPressures #AIGovernance  #HealthcareIT #AIinHealthcare #DigitalTransformation #HealthTech #ManagedServices #ClinicalWorkflow #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare pivotpointconsulting.com Listen to the podcast here

Zack Tisch, Partner of Portfolio Services, and Molly Kalinowski, Vice President of Managed Services at Pivot Point Consulting, describe how the role of IT in healthcare has evolved from a reactive, support function to a central strategic component of business. As AI becomes more important, healthcare systems are navigating a challenging environment and recognizing the need for managed services partners to handle day-to-day operations so they can better focus on big-picture goals and priorities. Zack and Molly emphasize the need to drive incremental changes to streamline provider data capture and clinical documentation, which could lead to broader changes in workflows and patient outcomes.  Zack explains, "A lot of what we're doing today is really helping health systems of all shapes and sizes navigate this challenging environment. Whether it's financial pressures, dealing with cybersecurity and risk, or having to implement new technologies every day. Whether it's AI or technologies in the cloud, and really helping them navigate this new normal of healthcare, putting together five- to 10-year strategic roadmaps and plans."   Molly elaborates, "I would say there's a shift in that many organizations are very heavy on the strategic priorities, with AI being one of those. So we're seeing more of our clients needing to support those projects and long-term initiatives. And then they need a partner like a managed services group to really support the day-to-day breaks and fixes, and maintenance types of activities so that they can focus on those AI strategic initiatives." #PivotPointConsulting #Healthcare #PatientExperience #ManagedServices #TalentSolutions #AI #CompanyCulture #WorkerBurnout #WorkforceTransformation #CostPressures #AIGovernance  #HealthcareIT #AIinHealthcare #DigitalTransformation #HealthTech #ManagedServices #ClinicalWorkflow #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare pivotpointconsulting.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Patricia Hayes is the Chief Medical Officer of Imagine Pediatrics, which has developed a hybrid care model for children with special needs.  Imagine Pediatrics provides 24/7 virtual and in-home care, which integrates medical, behavioral, social, and pharmacy services to support families and existing providers and help prevent unnecessary emergency room visits. The organization uses technology and predictive models to identify at-risk children and proactively target interventions to increase the number of safe days at home for children with complex conditions. Patricia explains, "Imagine Pediatrics is a 24/7, 365 virtual and in- home care for children and youth with special health care needs and medical complexity. We offer integrated medical, behavioral, and social services, inclusive of also pharmacy services, social services, as I mentioned, behavioral health therapy. It's just really an amazing form of wraparound care supporting these kids and supporting the providers that care for them outside of Imagine Pediatrics as well."   "We are in multiple states, and we can provide those services in the states where we're practicing from border to border. So because we're virtual first, we're able to see kids in rural areas, urban areas, wherever they may be, and offer in-home services to them as well when they may have any sort of difficulty, either need additional services that we can't provide virtually, or they may have difficulty going to an emergency room or difficulty seeing their primary care pediatrician or their specialist. We could offer that support in home as well." "It's a very wide spectrum. We have anywhere from children who have extreme medical complexity, who may be dependent on equipment, who may have a tracheostomy, be ventilated, have a G-tube, all the way to children who may just have severe asthma or be seen and utilize the hospital quite a bit for their asthma. See a wide range of behavioral health conditions as well, anywhere from severe depression to bipolar or anxiety, and early schizophrenia. And so it's an extremely wide range of really our care that we provide." #ImaginePediatrics #pediatrics #PediatricHealthcare #ComplexCare #ValueBasedCare #VBC #PediatricCare #HealthcareInnovation #VirtualHealth #SpecialNeeds #ChildHealth #HealthTech #PatientCare #MedicalHome #HealthcareAccess #PediatricMedicine #TeleHealth #IntegratedCare Imaginepediatrics.org Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Patricia Hayes is the Chief Medical Officer of Imagine Pediatrics, which has developed a hybrid care model for children with special needs.  Imagine Pediatrics provides 24/7 virtual and in-home care, which integrates medical, behavioral, social, and pharmacy services to support families and existing providers and help prevent unnecessary emergency room visits. The organization uses technology and predictive models to identify at-risk children and proactively target interventions to increase the number of safe days at home for children with complex conditions. Patricia explains, "Imagine Pediatrics is a 24/7, 365 virtual and in- home care for children and youth with special health care needs and medical complexity. We offer integrated medical, behavioral, and social services, inclusive of also pharmacy services, social services, as I mentioned, behavioral health therapy. It's just really an amazing form of wraparound care supporting these kids and supporting the providers that care for them outside of Imagine Pediatrics as well."   "We are in multiple states, and we can provide those services in the states where we're practicing from border to border. So because we're virtual first, we're able to see kids in rural areas, urban areas, wherever they may be, and offer in-home services to them as well when they may have any sort of difficulty, either need additional services that we can't provide virtually, or they may have difficulty going to an emergency room or difficulty seeing their primary care pediatrician or their specialist. We could offer that support in home as well." "It's a very wide spectrum. We have anywhere from children who have extreme medical complexity, who may be dependent on equipment, who may have a tracheostomy, be ventilated, have a G-tube, all the way to children who may just have severe asthma or be seen and utilize the hospital quite a bit for their asthma. See a wide range of behavioral health conditions as well, anywhere from severe depression to bipolar or anxiety, and early schizophrenia. And so it's an extremely wide range of really our care that we provide." #ImaginePediatrics #pediatrics #PediatricHealthcare #ComplexCare #ValueBasedCare #VBC #PediatricCare #HealthcareInnovation #VirtualHealth #SpecialNeeds #ChildHealth #HealthTech #PatientCare #MedicalHome #HealthcareAccess #PediatricMedicine #TeleHealth #IntegratedCare Imaginepediatrics.org Download the transcript here

Shashi Shankar, CEO of Novellia,  focuses on enabling patients with serious medical conditions to consolidate their medical history into a single record using a free app.  The business model provides anonymized real-world data to pharmaceutical companies for research, clinical trial recruitment, and the acceleration of new therapy development. Artificial intelligence is used to help patients make sense of their fragmented medical records, identify clinical trials, and better understand drug safety profiles and therapeutic effectiveness.  Shashi explains, "In a nutshell, what we do is we help folks living with serious and complex medical conditions find access to and then collect all of their medical records going back 20 plus years across different physicians, sites of care, labs, and insurance into one always continuously updated record that then helps them manage and navigate their course of care." "I actually spent months of my career working at Genentech and Roche, working on a number of different cancer therapeutics, and it was an amazing opportunity, and you get to meet so many different patient communities. But one of the most difficult parts, I think, for anybody who's working on developing new medications and new therapies, is that you need to really understand the communities that you hope to serve one day. And unfortunately, a lot of data that exists right now doesn't actually capture the true patient journey. And it's not very representative of the communities that are dealing with and trying to navigate all of these different conditions." "The benefit of being able to share this data with researchers in a way that's anonymous and de- identified, so patient data is always totally secure and always held private by Novellia. The benefit of this is that researchers are able to finally understand the full journey of patients and think through how their therapies can actually help those who are trying to navigate their care."  #Novellia#HealthcareInnovation #PatientEmpowerment #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #MedicalRecords #AIinHealthcare #PatientCenteredCare #HealthcareData #ClinicalTrials #Oncology #PharmaceuticalResearch #HealthIT Novellia.com Listen to the podcast here

Shashi Shankar, CEO of Novellia,  focuses on enabling patients with serious medical conditions to consolidate their medical history into a single record using a free app.  The business model provides anonymized real-world data to pharmaceutical companies for research, clinical trial recruitment, and the acceleration of new therapy development. Artificial intelligence is used to help patients make sense of their fragmented medical records, identify clinical trials, and better understand drug safety profiles and therapeutic effectiveness.  Shashi explains, "In a nutshell, what we do is we help folks living with serious and complex medical conditions find access to and then collect all of their medical records going back 20 plus years across different physicians, sites of care, labs, and insurance into one always continuously updated record that then helps them manage and navigate their course of care." "I actually spent months of my career working at Genentech and Roche, working on a number of different cancer therapeutics, and it was an amazing opportunity, and you get to meet so many different patient communities. But one of the most difficult parts, I think, for anybody who's working on developing new medications and new therapies, is that you need to really understand the communities that you hope to serve one day. And unfortunately, a lot of data that exists right now doesn't actually capture the true patient journey. And it's not very representative of the communities that are dealing with and trying to navigate all of these different conditions." "The benefit of being able to share this data with researchers in a way that's anonymous and de- identified, so patient data is always totally secure and always held private by Novellia. The benefit of this is that researchers are able to finally understand the full journey of patients and think through how their therapies can actually help those who are trying to navigate their care."  #Novellia#HealthcareInnovation #PatientEmpowerment #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #MedicalRecords #AIinHealthcare #PatientCenteredCare #HealthcareData #ClinicalTrials #Oncology #PharmaceuticalResearch #HealthIT Novellia.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Gabriel Brooks is Chief Medical Officer at Solid Biosciences, a precision molecular genetic medicines company focused on rare cardiovascular and neuromuscular diseases, including Friedreich's ataxia. Currently, there are very limited treatments for this rare, progressive neurologic disease caused by a genetic deficiency. Solid Biosciences' novel gene therapy uses dual-route administration to deliver directly to the heart and brain and to replace the missing frataxin gene, which is critical for energy production. Dr. Brooks explains, "Our flagship program is our DMD program, where we have two clinical trials, a first-in-human INSPIRE study, and a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled phase three trial for the SGT-003 DMD medicine. And for Friedreich's ataxia, we have the SGT-212 program, which uses a novel dual route of administration to target not only the cardiomyopathy, but also uses direct injection into the dentate nucleus. We're trying to address the central pathophysiology of the ataxia that patients live with every day." "So Friedrich's ataxia is a rare and devastating neurologic disease that afflicts around 5,000 patients in the United States and much more actually in Europe. There is a genetic predisposition. And Friedrich's ataxia is really a disease where the patients experience difficulty in moving, what's called ataxia, which you could think of as poor coordination, where when they try to move, their brain is sending a signal to their muscles, let's say to grab that cup of coffee or climb the stairs." "In fact, there are specific neurologic tests in terms of looking at nerve conduction and other things that can make the formal diagnosis. And certainly, we can get there with genetic testing. And what you're picking up on is absolutely something that's important with rare disease, is that oftentimes there's a lag between when a patient first manifests symptoms and when they ultimately have the diagnosis. In Friedrich's ataxia, like other genetic diseases, it is horrible. And so, for patients who do make the diagnosis of Friedreich's ataxia, there is often what we call cascade screening, where we look for the disease gene in relatives. Oftentimes, it's then that siblings are identified, and eventually they start manifesting the disease as well."   #SolidBiosciences #GeneTherapy #GeneTherapyResearch #RareDiseases #FriedreichsAtaxia #PrecisionMedicine #Neurology #Cardiology #ClinicalTrials #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareInnovation #SolidBiosciences solidbio.com Listen to the podcast here