Empowered Patient Podcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ann Bilyew, Executive VP of Health and Group General Manager at WebMD Ignite, works with hospitals, health systems, and payers to provide technology that builds trust, reduces administrative burdens on providers, and personalizes engagements with patients and members. While AI-powered solutions are showing great promise, challenges arise in deploying new technologies due to legacy infrastructure, interoperability issues, and the need to balance innovation with potential risks and costs. A strong foundation of high-quality, clinically reviewed content is key to the ability to provide accurate information on demand. Ann explains, "We work with hospitals, health systems, payers, and essentially everybody involved in the provision or payment support in healthcare. And we work with 90% of US-based hospitals and health systems and about an equal percentage of all of the top payers in the United States." "I'd say one of the key themes that we hear time and time again across all of our clients and all of our partners is the need to build trust and the need to stay relevant and the need to personalize engagements with consumers, with patients, with members. I mean, let's face it, humans today, we've all been trained, or humans in the United States, at least, have all been trained to have a really personalized experience with their partners and their vendors. So they expect us to know them, they expect us to understand them, they expect us to know the needs, their unique set of circumstances that make them a human. And doing that within the appropriate confines of privacy regulation and requirements is really the job at hand for many of our clients." "And it's not just with hospitals, payers honestly have, for the most part, ancient care management platforms and ancient claims processing platforms. And look, there are good reasons for that. I mean, we like to sort of point to that as a thing, but it's not been because of negligence, or it's not been because people didn't want to improve and modernize their technology and their infrastructure. There are good reasons why what exists today exists, and part of it is resources and costs for sure. But part of it also is risk, and the risk associated with losing data or not being able to pay your clinicians if you're a health plan, or respond to your members in a timely way if you're a health plan, or not even being able to operate your ER effectively."  #WebMD #AIforHealth #MedAI #PatientEducation #PatientEngagement #DigitalHealth #DigitalHealthInnovations #PersonalizedCare #EmpoweredPatients webmdignite.com  Listen to the podcast here

Ann Bilyew, Executive VP of Health and Group General Manager at WebMD Ignite, works with hospitals, health systems, and payers to provide technology that builds trust, reduces administrative burdens on providers, and personalizes engagements with patients and members. While AI-powered solutions are showing great promise, challenges arise in deploying new technologies due to legacy infrastructure, interoperability issues, and the need to balance innovation with potential risks and costs. A strong foundation of high-quality, clinically reviewed content is key to the ability to provide accurate information on demand. Ann explains, "We work with hospitals, health systems, payers, and essentially everybody involved in the provision or payment support in healthcare. And we work with 90% of US-based hospitals and health systems and about an equal percentage of all of the top payers in the United States." "I'd say one of the key themes that we hear time and time again across all of our clients and all of our partners is the need to build trust and the need to stay relevant and the need to personalize engagements with consumers, with patients, with members. I mean, let's face it, humans today, we've all been trained, or humans in the United States, at least, have all been trained to have a really personalized experience with their partners and their vendors. So they expect us to know them, they expect us to understand them, they expect us to know the needs, their unique set of circumstances that make them a human. And doing that within the appropriate confines of privacy regulation and requirements is really the job at hand for many of our clients." "And it's not just with hospitals, payers honestly have, for the most part, ancient care management platforms and ancient claims processing platforms. And look, there are good reasons for that. I mean, we like to sort of point to that as a thing, but it's not been because of negligence, or it's not been because people didn't want to improve and modernize their technology and their infrastructure. There are good reasons why what exists today exists, and part of it is resources and costs for sure. But part of it also is risk, and the risk associated with losing data or not being able to pay your clinicians if you're a health plan, or respond to your members in a timely way if you're a health plan, or not even being able to operate your ER effectively."  #WebMD #AIforHealth #MedAI #PatientEducation #PatientEngagement #DigitalHealth #DigitalHealthInnovations #PersonalizedCare #EmpoweredPatients webmdignite.com Download the transcript here

Greg Farnum, Senior VP and General Manager at Audacious Inquiry, a PointClickCare company, brings expertise in health information exchange, public health, and health IT policy. Audacious is using AI to reduce administrative burdens and improve clinical workflows, facilitating data exchange, enhancing decision-making, and providing a better patient experience. Working with the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and other federal and state agencies, Audacious is developing tools to summarize lengthy test results, generate educational materials, and suggest relevant responses to public inquiries. Greg explains, "We have a full-stack engineering team, a managed services team, expertise in health IT policy and regulation, health IT standards, public health, and now artificial intelligence. So we work with ASTP (Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy), which is also known as the old ONCCDC, plus a bunch of other federal and state agencies, HIEs, and public health. We are part of PointClickCare, a leading health tech company with one simple mission -- to help providers deliver exceptional care across thousands of facilities." "ASTP has some really interesting challenges that are perfect for AI. They're dealing with some complex data analysis challenges and the creation of content for industry and the public. They also respond to thousands of public inquiries yearly. So we're helping them with all of those things and leveraging AI tools to do that."   "I'll get a little more specific. Every year, hundreds of health IT organizations and developers submit these things they call testing results associated with their real-world test plans. But there's no standard format for this. So, ASTP staff have to manually read through each of these documents. And these are big documents. They can be 50 pages, they could be 200 pages, and the staff need to go through and figure out where the answers are to these specific questions. So we've built some AI tools that can read the entire document and automatically extract the answers using things like natural language processing and other AI components."  #PointClickCare #AudaciousInquiry #AI #MedAI #ResponsibleAI #AdministrativeBurdens #DigitalHealth #Healthcare #HealthcareRegulation #ClinicianBurnout #Clinicians pointclickcare.com/audacious-inquiry Listen to the podcast here

Greg Farnum, Senior VP and General Manager at Audacious Inquiry, a PointClickCare company, brings expertise in health information exchange, public health, and health IT policy. Audacious is using AI to reduce administrative burdens and improve clinical workflows, facilitating data exchange, enhancing decision-making, and providing a better patient experience. Working with the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and other federal and state agencies, Audacious is developing tools to summarize lengthy test results, generate educational materials, and suggest relevant responses to public inquiries. Greg explains, "We have a full-stack engineering team, a managed services team, expertise in health IT policy and regulation, health IT standards, public health, and now artificial intelligence. So we work with ASTP (Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy), which is also known as the old ONCCDC, plus a bunch of other federal and state agencies, HIEs, and public health. We are part of PointClickCare, a leading health tech company with one simple mission -- to help providers deliver exceptional care across thousands of facilities." "ASTP has some really interesting challenges that are perfect for AI. They're dealing with some complex data analysis challenges and the creation of content for industry and the public. They also respond to thousands of public inquiries yearly. So we're helping them with all of those things and leveraging AI tools to do that."   "I'll get a little more specific. Every year, hundreds of health IT organizations and developers submit these things they call testing results associated with their real-world test plans. But there's no standard format for this. So, ASTP staff have to manually read through each of these documents. And these are big documents. They can be 50 pages, they could be 200 pages, and the staff need to go through and figure out where the answers are to these specific questions. So we've built some AI tools that can read the entire document and automatically extract the answers using things like natural language processing and other AI components."  #PointClickCare #AudaciousInquiry #AI #MedAI #ResponsibleAI #AdministrativeBurdens #DigitalHealth #Healthcare #HealthcareRegulation #ClinicianBurnout #Clinicians pointclickcare.com/audacious-inquiry Download the transcript here

Dr. Abe Delpassand, Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board at RadioMedix, is concentrated on the development of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Advancements in handling radioactive materials and increased availability have enabled the growth of the use of alpha-emitting and beta-emitting radioisotopes in treating cancers that have been resistant to other therapies. Alpha-emitting radioisotopes are particularly interesting because they can cause double-strand DNA damage in cancer cells, making the probability of cancer recurrence much less likely. Abe explains, "Just a brief introduction related to what radiopharmaceuticals are. These are drugs that have three parts, basically. One part is the radioactive material. The second part is what we call a ligand. It's like a vehicle that takes the radioactive material to the target that we have. And there is a third component, which is like a chain attaching the radioisotope to the ligand. Radiopharmaceuticals qualify as a form of therapy because we target a specific receptor antigen metabolic pathway in cancer cells, and this is how we can reach the cancer cells. It has two components: one, diagnostic and therapeutic, which is very unique to this modality because in many other cancer therapies before the treatment, we don't have any way to make sure that the patient who is receiving the treatment, that actually the drug can reach the cancer the patient has." "We have been talking about the value of alpha-emitters in delivering high level of radiation in a targeted fashion to the cancer cells, but we in the last, I'd say 10 years or more, we have learned how to handle these isotopes. That's one aspect of the science part. The other aspect is the availability of these isotopes. Now the supply of these isotopes is becoming a lot more, and they are becoming more available."    #RadioMedix #TeamRadioMedix #Radiopharmaceuticals #TargetedAlphaTherapy #OncologyInnovation #NuclearMedicine #CancerResearch #RadiogandTherapy #PrecisionOncology #Theranostics #SPICACenter #OncologyCommunity #AlphaEmittingRadioisotopes #BetaEmittingRadioisotopes radiomedix.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Abe Delpassand, Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board at RadioMedix, is concentrated on the development of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Advancements in handling radioactive materials and increased availability have enabled the growth of the use of alpha-emitting and beta-emitting radioisotopes in treating cancers that have been resistant to other therapies. Alpha-emitting radioisotopes are particularly interesting because they can cause double-strand DNA damage in cancer cells, making the probability of cancer recurrence much less likely. Abe explains, "Just a brief introduction related to what radiopharmaceuticals are. These are drugs that have three parts, basically. One part is the radioactive material. The second part is what we call a ligand. It's like a vehicle that takes the radioactive material to the target that we have. And there is a third component, which is like a chain attaching the radioisotope to the ligand. Radiopharmaceuticals qualify as a form of therapy because we target a specific receptor antigen metabolic pathway in cancer cells, and this is how we can reach the cancer cells. It has two components: one, diagnostic and therapeutic, which is very unique to this modality because in many other cancer therapies before the treatment, we don't have any way to make sure that the patient who is receiving the treatment, that actually the drug can reach the cancer the patient has." "We have been talking about the value of alpha-emitters in delivering high level of radiation in a targeted fashion to the cancer cells, but we in the last, I'd say 10 years or more, we have learned how to handle these isotopes. That's one aspect of the science part. The other aspect is the availability of these isotopes. Now the supply of these isotopes is becoming a lot more, and they are becoming more available."    #RadioMedix #TeamRadioMedix #Radiopharmaceuticals #TargetedAlphaTherapy #OncologyInnovation #NuclearMedicine #CancerResearch #RadiogandTherapy #PrecisionOncology #Theranostics #SPICACenter #OncologyCommunity #AlphaEmittingRadioisotopes #BetaEmittingRadioisotopes radiomedix.com Download the transcript here

Kurt Lunkwitz, Chief Operating Officer at ProRx Pharma, describes the role compound pharmacies play in filling gaps when certain drugs are in short supply and providing personalized medications for patients. Compound pharmacies offer a wide range of customized formulations and delivery methods to meet the specific needs of patients, particularly in the areas of functional and preventative medicines. These pharmacies are enabling a shift towards precision medicine and individualized care, responding to the market demand for alternative and preferred formulations of medications.  Kurt explains, "There's primary clientele and then there's secondary clientele. Our primary clientele includes a host of prescribers, medical clinics, and could be telemedicine-type companies, and med spas. There are tens of thousands of these types of practitioner offices across the country, and it's a wide and booming industry as it relates to functional medicine, alternative medicine, or as we like to refer to it, preventative care. And the secondary customer would be the patient themselves. So the medications that ProRx is compounding would be ordered through these physicians' offices, these practices, and for their particular patient and customer base." "One of the primary functions in the role of a 503 B outsourcing facility, or a number of them across the country, is to step in and fill this gap. If the primary manufacturer, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, has a disruption in the supply chain, or simply just can't keep up with the demand." "If we want to take a look at one of the largest supply chain gaps that has existed, and it's been a very popular topic of conversation here more recently, this would relate a lot to some of the GLP-1 medications, both semaglutide and tirzepatide. So these were two medications that ProRx participated in and helped to fill the shortage gap. There were a handful of months where ProRx went into production, and we helped to fill tens of thousands of prescriptions for patients of medical necessity who badly needed these medications."  #ProRxPharma #CompoundPharmacy #DrugShortageList  prorxpharma.com Listen to the podcast here

Kurt Lunkwitz, Chief Operating Officer at ProRx Pharma, describes the role compound pharmacies play in filling gaps when certain drugs are in short supply and providing personalized medications for patients. Compound pharmacies offer a wide range of customized formulations and delivery methods to meet the specific needs of patients, particularly in the areas of functional and preventative medicines. These pharmacies are enabling a shift towards precision medicine and individualized care, responding to the market demand for alternative and preferred formulations of medications.  Kurt explains, "There's primary clientele and then there's secondary clientele. Our primary clientele includes a host of prescribers, medical clinics, and could be telemedicine-type companies, and med spas. There are tens of thousands of these types of practitioner offices across the country, and it's a wide and booming industry as it relates to functional medicine, alternative medicine, or as we like to refer to it, preventative care. And the secondary customer would be the patient themselves. So the medications that ProRx is compounding would be ordered through these physicians' offices, these practices, and for their particular patient and customer base." "One of the primary functions in the role of a 503 B outsourcing facility, or a number of them across the country, is to step in and fill this gap. If the primary manufacturer, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, has a disruption in the supply chain, or simply just can't keep up with the demand." "If we want to take a look at one of the largest supply chain gaps that has existed, and it's been a very popular topic of conversation here more recently, this would relate a lot to some of the GLP-1 medications, both semaglutide and tirzepatide. So these were two medications that ProRx participated in and helped to fill the shortage gap. There were a handful of months where ProRx went into production, and we helped to fill tens of thousands of prescriptions for patients of medical necessity who badly needed these medications."  #ProRxPharma #CompoundPharmacy #DrugShortageList  prorxpharma.com Download the transcript here

Amanda Wiggins is CEO of cGP Lab, a New Zealand-based company that is commercializing cycline Glycine Proline, cGP, a dipeptide molecule that helps regulate blood vessel formation. The Lab is pursuing a medical food regulatory pathway to bring its cGP-based products to the market for the dietary management of peripheral neuropathy and other vascular complications of type 2 diabetes and is exploring the potential for Parkinson's disease and other dementias. The Lab sources cGP from a combination of New Zealand blackcurrant and beef bone collagen using a proprietary manufacturing process. Amanda explains, "The cGP Lab is a relatively new company. We were formed in 2020, and our mission is really to commercialize a really interesting dipeptide molecule called cycline Glycine Proline, or cGP for short. Although we're new to commercializing it, there's quite a huge body of evidence that sits behind where we've got today. Our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Jian Guan, has researched cGP for around 30 years. It's her life's work. What makes it really interesting is that cGP exists in all of our bodies. It's an endogenous molecule, but it also exists in some food sources. So we've identified those food sources and we've created a manufacturing process to create a standardized cGP ingredient that we use in our supplement range."   "Like many companies, we were actually founded on somewhat of a serendipitous discovery. So, back in 2016, the founders of the company had done a clinical trial on Parkinson's patients. And in that trial, they'd given the patients capsules containing blackcurrant extract because they were interested in whether blackcurrant extract, which is high in anthocyanins, could address some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease." "What we've ended up with now is a proprietary manufacturing process that combines New Zealand blackcurrants together with beef bone collagen. And we put those two together through a prolonged heating process. And what happens is that the amino acids, glycine and proline, when subject to heat or, even better, heat and pressure, will cyclise and form the cGP. So it's really that manufacturing process that brings out the cGP. And in that initial Parkinson's study, the level of cGP was actually quite low because that heating process hadn't been done for long enough. So we've come a long way in learning how to make cGP, and it really comes from that combination of New Zealand blackcurrant together with the collagen peptides." "So, where we're seeing it being most useful is right at the start of a peripheral neuropathy diagnosis. So patients often, well, I know in the US anyway, foot checks are generally done annually for people with type 2 diabetes. It's a bit different here in New Zealand. And so that should hopefully pick up the first inklings that someone's starting to develop peripheral neuropathy. And what the path to market that we're seeing for our innovation is called the medical food category, which is a bit different." #cGPLab #cGP #MedicalFood #DiabeticPeripheralNeuropathy cGPmax.com Listen to the podcast here

Amanda Wiggins is CEO of cGP Lab, a New Zealand-based company that is commercializing cycline Glycine Proline, cGP, a dipeptide molecule that helps regulate blood vessel formation. The Lab is pursuing a medical food regulatory pathway to bring its cGP-based products to the market for the dietary management of peripheral neuropathy and other vascular complications of type 2 diabetes and is exploring the potential for Parkinson's disease and other dementias. The Lab sources cGP from a combination of New Zealand blackcurrant and beef bone collagen using a proprietary manufacturing process. Amanda explains, "The cGP Lab is a relatively new company. We were formed in 2020, and our mission is really to commercialize a really interesting dipeptide molecule called cycline Glycine Proline, or cGP for short. Although we're new to commercializing it, there's quite a huge body of evidence that sits behind where we've got today. Our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Jian Guan, has researched cGP for around 30 years. It's her life's work. What makes it really interesting is that cGP exists in all of our bodies. It's an endogenous molecule, but it also exists in some food sources. So we've identified those food sources and we've created a manufacturing process to create a standardized cGP ingredient that we use in our supplement range."   "Like many companies, we were actually founded on somewhat of a serendipitous discovery. So, back in 2016, the founders of the company had done a clinical trial on Parkinson's patients. And in that trial, they'd given the patients capsules containing blackcurrant extract because they were interested in whether blackcurrant extract, which is high in anthocyanins, could address some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease." "What we've ended up with now is a proprietary manufacturing process that combines New Zealand blackcurrants together with beef bone collagen. And we put those two together through a prolonged heating process. And what happens is that the amino acids, glycine and proline, when subject to heat or, even better, heat and pressure, will cyclise and form the cGP. So it's really that manufacturing process that brings out the cGP. And in that initial Parkinson's study, the level of cGP was actually quite low because that heating process hadn't been done for long enough. So we've come a long way in learning how to make cGP, and it really comes from that combination of New Zealand blackcurrant together with the collagen peptides." "So, where we're seeing it being most useful is right at the start of a peripheral neuropathy diagnosis. So patients often, well, I know in the US anyway, foot checks are generally done annually for people with type 2 diabetes. It's a bit different here in New Zealand. And so that should hopefully pick up the first inklings that someone's starting to develop peripheral neuropathy. And what the path to market that we're seeing for our innovation is called the medical food category, which is a bit different." #cGPLab #cGP #MedicalFood #DiabeticPeripheralNeuropathy cGPmax.com Download the transcript here

Dan Nardi, the CEO of Reimagine Care, is using a technology-enabled platform to support cancer patients and clinicians to extend care beyond the clinic and address the unique challenges of cancer treatments. The evolving landscape of cancer therapies and rise of oral and subcutaneous methods of delivering drug has increased the need for remote patient support and medication management. The use of AI and digital tools provide significant opportunities to help triage patient questions and reports of side effects to provide necessary, timely support from clinicians. Dan explains, "At Reimagine Care, we focus on helping to support providers as they are providing care for patients going through cancer treatment. We built an on-demand cancer care platform that combines technology and an oncology-trained clinical care team. Then we partner with our providers, our oncologists around the country, to help them extend the really great care that they provide for patients in the clinic. We help them extend that and support those patients 98% of their time when they are outside of the clinic. And so that's what we've built, and we've been at this for a handful of years and are very excited about the continued progress." "The uniqueness really stems from the fact that we call it cancer, but it's a combination of so many different types of that disease, and there's so much uniqueness in each one of the diagnoses and the treatment plan. It's not an easy one-size-fits-all model that some of healthcare has. Knee replacements and hip replacements are fairly straightforward and have been done somewhat the same for decades now. But when it comes to cancer, there's so many different factors that go into it, and as we've had such an increase in more of the personalized medicine and the oral oncolytics and the other treatment plans, it's become a lot for not only the patients, but also the providers and the care team to keep up. And so being able to use technology to help bridge that gap has been really impactful." #ReimagineCare #EmpoweredPatient #DigitalHealth #AIinOncology #PatientCenteredCare #HealthEquity #MedStarHealth #PatientEmpowerment reimaginecare.com Listen to the podcast here

Dan Nardi, the CEO of Reimagine Care, is using a technology-enabled platform to support cancer patients and clinicians to extend care beyond the clinic and address the unique challenges of cancer treatments. The evolving landscape of cancer therapies and rise of oral and subcutaneous methods of delivering drug has increased the need for remote patient support and medication management. The use of AI and digital tools provide significant opportunities to help triage patient questions and reports of side effects to provide necessary, timely support from clinicians. Dan explains, "At Reimagine Care, we focus on helping to support providers as they are providing care for patients going through cancer treatment. We built an on-demand cancer care platform that combines technology and an oncology-trained clinical care team. Then we partner with our providers, our oncologists around the country, to help them extend the really great care that they provide for patients in the clinic. We help them extend that and support those patients 98% of their time when they are outside of the clinic. And so that's what we've built, and we've been at this for a handful of years and are very excited about the continued progress." "The uniqueness really stems from the fact that we call it cancer, but it's a combination of so many different types of that disease, and there's so much uniqueness in each one of the diagnoses and the treatment plan. It's not an easy one-size-fits-all model that some of healthcare has. Knee replacements and hip replacements are fairly straightforward and have been done somewhat the same for decades now. But when it comes to cancer, there's so many different factors that go into it, and as we've had such an increase in more of the personalized medicine and the oral oncolytics and the other treatment plans, it's become a lot for not only the patients, but also the providers and the care team to keep up. And so being able to use technology to help bridge that gap has been really impactful." #ReimagineCare #EmpoweredPatient #DigitalHealth #AIinOncology #PatientCenteredCare #HealthEquity #MedStarHealth #PatientEmpowerment reimaginecare.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Eden Miller is an osteopathic board-certified family practitioner, a type 1 diabetic, and Founder of the nonprofit organization Diabetes Nation. The guidelines for injection technique have not been updated in 10 years, and poor injection can lead to improper medication absorption and other complications. The recently released FITTER Forward Guidelines address established approaches for clinicians and patients to improve injection practices, especially for those using injectable therapies such as insulin or GLP-1 agonists.   This initiative was brought together by embecta, which worked with Dr. Miller and other experts to revise the guidelines. Eden explains, "So the FITTER Forward Guidelines are taking the concept of injection technique and injection instruction, and giving it a fresh new look, a new peering back into something that many of us as clinicians kind of feel that we have nailed down. But what we have found with looking into communicating with patients, how to do injections, and how to maximize their technique, we needed to revisit it. So we convened a consensus of experts across many different disciplines of medicine, as well as engineers. We took a look at the data, took a look at the person who's using injection techniques, especially in the field of diabetes, either with insulin or with non-insulin agents. We gave it a fresh new look to help clinicians empower their patients to achieve the best possible results with injectable therapies." "I think it spans the gamut. We always want to start people out on the right foot. The FITTER Forward Guidelines and resources are going to be a great way for our clinicians to freshen up. So when they do have a new patient who is very naive to injection technique, they may have a lot of barriers or preconceived ideas that really get in the way. They think it's going to hurt. They think it's hard to do. They don't know what to do with clothing. They think they have to go into the bathroom to get it done. So we have opportunities both for new users, but we also have the opportunity to go back to established users. " #FITTERForward #Diabetes #Embecta #InjectionTechnique DiabetesNation.com embecta.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Eden Miller is an osteopathic board-certified family practitioner, a type 1 diabetic, and Founder of the nonprofit organization Diabetes Nation. The guidelines for injection technique have not been updated in 10 years, and poor injection can lead to improper medication absorption and other complications. The recently released FITTER Forward Guidelines address established approaches for clinicians and patients to improve injection practices, especially for those using injectable therapies such as insulin or GLP-1 agonists.  This initiative was brought together by embecta, which worked with Dr. Miller and other experts to revise the guidelines. Eden explains, "So the FITTER Forward Guidelines are taking the concept of injection technique and injection instruction, and giving it a fresh new look, a new peering back into something that many of us as clinicians kind of feel that we have nailed down. But what we have found with looking into communicating with patients, how to do injections, and how to maximize their technique, we needed to revisit it. So we convened a consensus of experts across many different disciplines of medicine, as well as engineers. We took a look at the data, took a look at the person who's using injection techniques, especially in the field of diabetes, either with insulin or with non-insulin agents. We gave it a fresh new look to help clinicians empower their patients to achieve the best possible results with injectable therapies." "I think it spans the gamut. We always want to start people out on the right foot. The FITTER Forward Guidelines and resources are going to be a great way for our clinicians to freshen up. So when they do have a new patient who is very naive to injection technique, they may have a lot of barriers or preconceived ideas that really get in the way. They think it's going to hurt. They think it's hard to do. They don't know what to do with clothing. They think they have to go into the bathroom to get it done. So we have opportunities both for new users, but we also have the opportunity to go back to established users. " #FITTERForward #Diabetes #Embecta #InjectionTechnique DiabetesNation.com embecta.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Jay Anders, Chief Medical Officer at Medicomp Systems, discusses the issue of dirty data — inaccurate and inconsistent medical data — and its origins, as well as how technology can be used to maintain correct health records. These kinds of errors can lead to incorrect diagnoses, inappropriate treatment, and negative consequences for patients, providers, and payers. AI and other technologies are being leveraged to help identify and flag inconsistencies, providing stakeholders with the tools to prioritize accuracy over efficiency.  Jay explains, "What we do at Medicomp is a clinical knowledge engine with a knowledge graph that's built in that helps clinicians document, sort data, and clean up data. That engine was developed 46 years ago, and it's been done over again in different iterations for those 46 years. We're now incorporating new technologies inside of it to make it more efficient. But we handle medical data in documentation, presentation, and cleanup."   "Well, dirty data has been around since physicians got a chisel and a hammer and etched it in a rock. Because if you think about the old days of dictation, when physicians didn't follow what they dictated or read it very carefully, things got into that medical record that may or may not be correct.  What I mean by dirty data is, does the documentation of that patient's data actually represent what's going on with the patient?" "The other thing that happens, and it's happening more now with ambient listing technologies and other things, is that a family history of a terminal disease will all of a sudden be applied to the patient that's in front of you. So my father had Alzheimer's, now I have Alzheimer's, and it gets into the medical record that way. Gender changes. I have seen this back in the days of dictation, where he turns to her and back and forth again in the same note, which is obviously not correct. So when I say dirty data, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Basically, it's incorrect or misconstrued, and it gets propagated through the medical record, and with interoperability, that medical record tends to follow you everywhere you go now, and getting rid of some of that is a daunting task at best."  #Medicomp #MedAI #MedicalRecords #PatientInformation #EHR medicomp.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Jay Anders, Chief Medical Officer at Medicomp Systems, discusses the issue of dirty data — inaccurate and inconsistent medical data — and its origins, as well as how technology can be used to maintain correct health records. These kinds of errors can lead to incorrect diagnoses, inappropriate treatment, and negative consequences for patients, providers, and payers. AI and other technologies are being leveraged to help identify and flag inconsistencies, providing stakeholders with the tools to prioritize accuracy over efficiency.  Jay explains, "What we do at Medicomp is a clinical knowledge engine with a knowledge graph that's built in that helps clinicians document, sort data, and clean up data. That engine was developed 46 years ago, and it's been done over again in different iterations for those 46 years. We're now incorporating new technologies inside of it to make it more efficient. But we handle medical data in documentation, presentation, and cleanup."   "Well, dirty data has been around since physicians got a chisel and a hammer and etched it in a rock. Because if you think about the old days of dictation, when physicians didn't follow what they dictated or read it very carefully, things got into that medical record that may or may not be correct.  What I mean by dirty data is, does the documentation of that patient's data actually represent what's going on with the patient?" "The other thing that happens, and it's happening more now with ambient listing technologies and other things, is that a family history of a terminal disease will all of a sudden be applied to the patient that's in front of you. So my father had Alzheimer's, now I have Alzheimer's, and it gets into the medical record that way. Gender changes. I have seen this back in the days of dictation, where he turns to her and back and forth again in the same note, which is obviously not correct. So when I say dirty data, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Basically, it's incorrect or misconstrued, and it gets propagated through the medical record, and with interoperability, that medical record tends to follow you everywhere you go now, and getting rid of some of that is a daunting task at best."  #Medicomp #MedAI #MedicalRecords #PatientInformation #EHR medicomp.com Download the transcript here

Doug Ryan, CEO of Arineta, describes the advancements in cardiac CT imaging technology and how their ultra-fast scanning is revealing more accurate and higher-quality imaging of the heart. Using wide-area coverage and deep learning image reconstruction, the Arineta platform can detect arterial occlusions and coronary plaque buildup, which is a significant risk factor for sudden cardiac events and is often missed when relying solely on calcium scoring. The development of a mobile cardiac CT scanning unit is improving access to this technology, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Doig explains, "What you're trying to do is to stop the most complex organ inside the human body. The human heart translates, rotates, and beats somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute. So you really need advanced CT technology that comprises a great many areas, but the most important things are coverage speed and the ability to reconstruct it very quickly." "You're using advanced algorithms like our DLIR, our deep learning image reconstruction, which focuses on high-contrast, high-spatial, low-noise reconstructions that can then be put into what we call a multiplanar format. So you can look at these coronary arteries from all angles and do the diagnostic." "So it's actually a combination of several things. Ultra FAST is, of course, very important because you are literally trying to stop a bird mid-flight and get an accurate picture of it, but it's also the ability to encompass and see the entire heart in a single rotation. So, one of the secrets of the SpotLight and SpotLight Duo is both the ultra-fast rotation and the wide area coverage that we get with our detector system." #Arineta #CTImaging #CardiovascularDiagnostics #Cardiology #DeepLearningImageReconstruction   Arineta.com Listen to the podcast here    

Doug Ryan, CEO of Arineta, describes the advancements in cardiac CT imaging technology and how their ultra-fast scanning is revealing more accurate and higher-quality imaging of the heart. Using wide-area coverage and deep learning image reconstruction, the Arineta platform can detect arterial occlusions and coronary plaque buildup, which is a significant risk factor for sudden cardiac events and is often missed when relying solely on calcium scoring. The development of a mobile cardiac CT scanning unit is improving access to this technology, particularly in rural and underserved areas. Doig explains, "What you're trying to do is to stop the most complex organ inside the human body. The human heart translates, rotates, and beats somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute. So you really need advanced CT technology that comprises a great many areas, but the most important things are coverage speed and the ability to reconstruct it very quickly." "You're using advanced algorithms like our DLIR, our deep learning image reconstruction, which focuses on high-contrast, high-spatial, low-noise reconstructions that can then be put into what we call a multiplanar format. So you can look at these coronary arteries from all angles and do the diagnostic." "So it's actually a combination of several things. Ultra FAST is, of course, very important because you are literally trying to stop a bird mid-flight and get an accurate picture of it, but it's also the ability to encompass and see the entire heart in a single rotation. So, one of the secrets of the SpotLight and SpotLight Duo is both the ultra-fast rotation and the wide area coverage that we get with our detector system." #Arineta #CTImaging #CardiovascularDiagnostics #Cardiology #DeepLearningImageReconstruction   Arineta.com Download the transcript here    

Kory Daniels, Chief Information Security Officer at Trustwave,  highlights the unique cybersecurity challenges facing the healthcare industry, particularly in this environment of funding constraints and the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks. Healthcare data is highly valuable to cybercriminals, who can use it for ransomware attacks, identity and insurance fraud, and other nefarious purposes. AI can be part of both the attack and the solution, helping to build in more cyber resilience and awareness about vulnerabilities. Kory explains, "Healthcare is a prime target for cyberattacks for a very fundamental reason. When human lives are at risk due to a criminal objective—which is to make money—they view organizations where human lives are at risk as a greater potential and opportunity. Facilitation of ransomware payments: Ransomware is one of the largest tactics that criminals use to achieve financial gain, but it's not the only tactic they use to achieve financial gain. So, they're looking to exploit the fear and uncertainty, putting patient lives at risk and adding complexity to patient care through their nefarious actions. But also, healthcare data is very attractive for cybercriminals, and just criminal activity in general. And why that is, is that criminals are looking at healthcare data even more so—it's more valuable than driver's license data." "Look at the opportunity of what you can do with healthcare records, and what can you do with PII, Personally Identifiable Information. Threat actors are tapping into this data in several different ways to achieve the additional financial gain above and beyond targeting a healthcare organization with a ransomware attack." "But they're also committing fraud, and fraud toward healthcare insurers, and looking at submitting false claims, fraud against the prescription drug industry in terms of soliciting and looking to obtain prescription drugs through nefarious means, but utilizing data and identity data that comes from hospital and healthcare records. There are a variety of different ways that we've just scratched the surface on, which make the healthcare industry such a desirable target for those seeking to achieve financial gain in the criminal industry." #Trustwave #Cybersecurity #CyberAttacks #HealthcareSecurity #HealthcareIT #CISOInsights trustwave.com Listen to the podcast here

Kory Daniels, Chief Information Security Officer at Trustwave,  highlights the unique cybersecurity challenges facing the healthcare industry, particularly in this environment of funding constraints and the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks. Healthcare data is highly valuable to cybercriminals, who can use it for ransomware attacks, identity and insurance fraud, and other nefarious purposes. AI can be part of both the attack and the solution, helping to build in more cyber resilience and awareness about vulnerabilities. Kory explains, "Healthcare is a prime target for cyberattacks for a very fundamental reason. When human lives are at risk due to a criminal objective—which is to make money—they view organizations where human lives are at risk as a greater potential and opportunity. Facilitation of ransomware payments: Ransomware is one of the largest tactics that criminals use to achieve financial gain, but it's not the only tactic they use to achieve financial gain. So, they're looking to exploit the fear and uncertainty, putting patient lives at risk and adding complexity to patient care through their nefarious actions. But also, healthcare data is very attractive for cybercriminals, and just criminal activity in general. And why that is, is that criminals are looking at healthcare data even more so—it's more valuable than driver's license data." "Look at the opportunity of what you can do with healthcare records, and what can you do with PII, Personally Identifiable Information. Threat actors are tapping into this data in several different ways to achieve the additional financial gain above and beyond targeting a healthcare organization with a ransomware attack." "But they're also committing fraud, and fraud toward healthcare insurers, and looking at submitting false claims, fraud against the prescription drug industry in terms of soliciting and looking to obtain prescription drugs through nefarious means, but utilizing data and identity data that comes from hospital and healthcare records. There are a variety of different ways that we've just scratched the surface on, which make the healthcare industry such a desirable target for those seeking to achieve financial gain in the criminal industry." #Trustwave #Cybersecurity #CyberAttacks #HealthcareSecurity #HealthcareIT #CISOInsights trustwave.com Download the transcript here

Matt Brown, VP of Telehealth at Advisory Services at CHG Healthcare, discusses the current state and future of telehealth, including the rapid adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of technology and AI in enhancing telehealth experiences, and how telehealth can help address physician and nurse burnout. Improved internet access, mobile device usage, and consumer preferences for convenience have driven the increasing telehealth usage for initial visits, follow-up appointments, and chronic care management.   Matt explains, "We are the nation's largest staffing agency. So, we're actually the founders of what's known as the locum tenens marketplace. CHG has been a pioneer in bringing physician services into remote and rural locations across the United States for the past four years. And over the last 10 years or so, we've continued to innovate on top of that physician-led experience and started to bring technology operations, as well as consulting services and telehealth, into the marketplace. So think of us as providing a broad array of staffing services, but also on top of that, technology and operations, and consulting that help the largest health systems in the country manage their physician workforce."   "It's been widely adopted since the pandemic. If you think about coming out of the pandemic, a lot of our health systems and hospitals were really forced to do a few things. One, they really had to upgrade a lot of their infrastructure and technology. So that meant that they were bringing broadband access into their hospitals. They started to think about how they could deliver care to their patients more remotely. And as they were doing a lot of these technology upgrades, they also started to address patients more like consumers. So I think that there was a big shift that started to take place in consumer services, starting to look like healthcare services."   "About that same time, you had a number of very large retail-focused, consumer-focused companies start to enter into the healthcare marketplace. So these are folks like Amazon, you have CVS and Walgreens, and now you've had a number of companies like Hims and Hers, and all of those are entering into the healthcare ecosystem through telehealth as a channel. So, as we've seen this increased infrastructure, this improvement in infrastructure, as well as consumerization of healthcare, continue to accelerate after the pandemic, and now we have more of this consumer-centric focus coming from a retail perspective."   #CHFGHealthcare #MedAI #DigitalHealth #PatientAccess #Telehealth #PhysicianBurnout #ClinicianBurnout CHGHealthcare.com Listen to the podcast here

Matt Brown, VP of Telehealth at Advisory Services at CHG Healthcare, discusses the current state and future of telehealth, including the rapid adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of technology and AI in enhancing telehealth experiences, and how telehealth can help address physician and nurse burnout. Improved internet access, mobile device usage, and consumer preferences for convenience have driven the increasing telehealth usage for initial visits, follow-up appointments, and chronic care management.   Matt explains, "We are the nation's largest staffing agency. So, we're actually the founders of what's known as the locum tenens marketplace. CHG has been a pioneer in bringing physician services into remote and rural locations across the United States for the past four years. And over the last 10 years or so, we've continued to innovate on top of that physician-led experience and started to bring technology operations, as well as consulting services and telehealth, into the marketplace. So think of us as providing a broad array of staffing services, but also on top of that, technology and operations, and consulting that help the largest health systems in the country manage their physician workforce."   "It's been widely adopted since the pandemic. If you think about coming out of the pandemic, a lot of our health systems and hospitals were really forced to do a few things. One, they really had to upgrade a lot of their infrastructure and technology. So that meant that they were bringing broadband access into their hospitals. They started to think about how they could deliver care to their patients more remotely. And as they were doing a lot of these technology upgrades, they also started to address patients more like consumers. So I think that there was a big shift that started to take place in consumer services, starting to look like healthcare services."   "About that same time, you had a number of very large retail-focused, consumer-focused companies start to enter into the healthcare marketplace. So these are folks like Amazon, you have CVS and Walgreens, and now you've had a number of companies like Hims and Hers, and all of those are entering into the healthcare ecosystem through telehealth as a channel. So, as we've seen this increased infrastructure, this improvement in infrastructure, as well as consumerization of healthcare, continue to accelerate after the pandemic, and now we have more of this consumer-centric focus coming from a retail perspective."   #CHFGHealthcare #MedAI #DigitalHealth #PatientAccess #Telehealth #PhysicianBurnout #ClinicianBurnout CHGHealthcare.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Chuck Link is the Executive Chairman of Syncromune, a company developing a novel immunotherapy approach for solid tumors by delivering the therapy into the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes to stimulate a systemic immune response. Their complex drug has four different components with varying levels of activity that activate the immune system and counteract immune suppression. This in situ immunotherapy technology, SYNC-T, was tested in a phase 1 trial for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which showed high response rates and a favorable safety profile with low rates of serious side effects and minimal autoimmune toxicity.   Chuck explains, "So, SYNC-T is a technology in which you put a needle directly into a tumor that can be done by a urologist in the prostate cancer situation, or by an interventional radiologist. That needle then the tip of it freezes, and does a freeze fracture. Think of a Coke bottle rupturing like in the freezer. And what that does is release the antigens from that patient's own specific tumor. So, it's personalized because the tumor proteins and antigens are used to create a vaccine effect that's released directly from the cancer." "The tumor microenvironment is basically within the tumor itself, and there are immune suppressive mechanisms that the tumor has evolved to protect it from the immune system. I like to think of it as a castle, multiple levels of defense where you have the castle itself, and then you have a castle wall, and then you have a moat, and then an army in front of the wall. So the cancer has multiple immune-suppressive mechanisms that are activated to defeat the immune system, even though cancer has a lot of abnormal, mutated proteins that the immune system should attack and destroy. So what SYNC-T accomplishes is it basically hits solutions for all four of those types of defense simultaneously to make it more difficult for the castle, in this case, the tumor, to protect itself." #Syncromune #Immunotherapy #MetastaticSolidTumors #Cancer #ProstateCancer syncromune.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Chuck Link is the Executive Chairman of Syncromune, a company developing a novel immunotherapy approach for solid tumors by delivering the therapy into the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes to stimulate a systemic immune response. Their complex drug has four different components with varying levels of activity that activate the immune system and counteract immune suppression. This in situ immunotherapy technology, SYNC-T, was tested in a phase 1 trial for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which showed high response rates and a favorable safety profile with low rates of serious side effects and minimal autoimmune toxicity.   Chuck explains, "So, SYNC-T is a technology in which you put a needle directly into a tumor that can be done by a urologist in the prostate cancer situation, or by an interventional radiologist. That needle then the tip of it freezes, and does a freeze fracture. Think of a Coke bottle rupturing like in the freezer. And what that does is release the antigens from that patient's own specific tumor. So, it's personalized because the tumor proteins and antigens are used to create a vaccine effect that's released directly from the cancer." "The tumor microenvironment is basically within the tumor itself, and there are immune suppressive mechanisms that the tumor has evolved to protect it from the immune system. I like to think of it as a castle, multiple levels of defense where you have the castle itself, and then you have a castle wall, and then you have a moat, and then an army in front of the wall. So the cancer has multiple immune-suppressive mechanisms that are activated to defeat the immune system, even though cancer has a lot of abnormal, mutated proteins that the immune system should attack and destroy. So what SYNC-T accomplishes is it basically hits solutions for all four of those types of defense simultaneously to make it more difficult for the castle, in this case, the tumor, to protect itself." #Syncromune #Immunotherapy #MetastaticSolidTumors #Cancer #ProstateCancer syncromune.com Download the transcript here

David Sontag, CEO and Co-Founder of Layer Health, describes the environment of chart reviews in healthcare and how AI and large language models can be used to analyze a patient's medical record to extract key clinical details. Applying natural language processing to medical records has been challenging due to the complexity of the language and the longitudinal nature of the data. This large language approach from Layer can enhance clinical decision-making, quality measurement, regulatory compliance, and patient outcomes. David explains, "Every patient will have experienced a chart review at some point. Whether it's when they've come home from a medical visit and go to their electronic medical record to look at the notes written by their providers. Or it's been experienced in the patient room, in the doctor's room, watching a clinician review the past medical records to try to get a better context of what's going on with that patient, so that's from the patient's perspective." "The same thing happens everywhere else in healthcare. So, chart review is the process of analyzing a patient's medical record to extract key clinical details. You can imagine going through clinical notes, lab results, imaging reports, and medical history, trying to create that complete and accurate picture of the patient's health. And it's used everywhere for measuring quality, for improving the financial performance of health system providers, and for regulatory compliance."   "Some aspects of natural language understanding from patients' medical records have been attempted for well over a decade, and these approaches have been typically very surface-level. So look at a single note, try to answer a relatively simplistic question from that note, but the grand challenge has always been one of how do we mimic the type of reasoning that a physician would do where they would be looking at a patient's longitudinal medical record across many notes trying to piece together data from not just from the unstructured but also the structured data."  #LayerHealth #ClinicalAI #AIinHealthcare #MedicalChartReview #PrecisionMedicine #ClinicalResearch #LLMsinHealthcare layerhealth.com Listen to the podcast here

David Sontag, CEO and Co-Founder of Layer Health, describes the environment of chart reviews in healthcare and how AI and large language models can be used to analyze a patient's medical record to extract key clinical details. Applying natural language processing to medical records has been challenging due to the complexity of the language and the longitudinal nature of the data. This large language approach from Layer can enhance clinical decision-making, quality measurement, regulatory compliance, and patient outcomes. David explains, "Every patient will have experienced a chart review at some point. Whether it's when they've come home from a medical visit and go to their electronic medical record to look at the notes written by their providers. Or it's been experienced in the patient room, in the doctor's room, watching a clinician review the past medical records to try to get a better context of what's going on with that patient, so that's from the patient's perspective." "The same thing happens everywhere else in healthcare. So, chart review is the process of analyzing a patient's medical record to extract key clinical details. You can imagine going through clinical notes, lab results, imaging reports, and medical history, trying to create that complete and accurate picture of the patient's health. And it's used everywhere for measuring quality, for improving the financial performance of health system providers, and for regulatory compliance."   "Some aspects of natural language understanding from patients' medical records have been attempted for well over a decade, and these approaches have been typically very surface-level. So look at a single note, try to answer a relatively simplistic question from that note, but the grand challenge has always been one of how do we mimic the type of reasoning that a physician would do where they would be looking at a patient's longitudinal medical record across many notes trying to piece together data from not just from the unstructured but also the structured data."  #LayerHealth #ClinicalAI #AIinHealthcare #MedicalChartReview #PrecisionMedicine #ClinicalResearch #LLMsinHealthcare layerhealth.com Download the transcript here

Alexandra Paul is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Accolade, a company that provides comprehensive healthcare for its members by integrating digital health solutions and leveraging AI. The company focuses on addressing the healthcare needs of underserved communities, such as truck drivers, and provides 24/7/365 access to virtual care. The Experience Store and WayFinding navigator utilizes AI and large language models to deliver real-time, chat-based guidance and personalized treatment options based on plan benefits.   Alexandra explains, "What's really important for us is ensuring that we are targeting the right buyer who can help us really get in front of members to help them navigate a complex healthcare experience. Our core foundation is being the one place to go for health and care. And so, whether that's through a health plan offering or whether that's through an employer benefit offering, we've truly become kind of that front door experience and what we call WayFinding, which is our AI-powered solution to help members get the right care."  "We're very excited about the Experience Store that we just launched, and a big part of that is making sure that we tap into technology. So, as we think about how we can provide this comprehensive care experience and this one place to go for health and care for members, we have been heavily focused on investing in AI and technology systems that make this care experience easier. A lot of that is really just thinking about large language models. So, members in their chat function can type in a question that AI in the new world, which feels so much like a person, can answer and provide real-time guidance to that member."  #Accolade #DigitalHealth #HealthcareBenefits #Healthcare #PersonalizedCare #HealthTech  accolade.com Listen to the podcast here

Alexandra Paul is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Accolade, a company that provides comprehensive healthcare for its members by integrating digital health solutions and leveraging AI. The company focuses on addressing the healthcare needs of underserved communities, such as truck drivers, and provides 24/7/365 access to virtual care. The Experience Store and WayFinding navigator utilizes AI and large language models to deliver real-time, chat-based guidance and personalized treatment options based on plan benefits.   Alexandra explains, "What's really important for us is ensuring that we are targeting the right buyer who can help us really get in front of members to help them navigate a complex healthcare experience. Our core foundation is being the one place to go for health and care. And so, whether that's through a health plan offering or whether that's through an employer benefit offering, we've truly become kind of that front door experience and what we call WayFinding, which is our AI-powered solution to help members get the right care."  "We're very excited about the Experience Store that we just launched, and a big part of that is making sure that we tap into technology. So, as we think about how we can provide this comprehensive care experience and this one place to go for health and care for members, we have been heavily focused on investing in AI and technology systems that make this care experience easier. A lot of that is really just thinking about large language models. So, members in their chat function can type in a question that AI in the new world, which feels so much like a person, can answer and provide real-time guidance to that member."  #Accolade #DigitalHealth #HealthcareBenefits #Healthcare #PersonalizedCare #HealthTech  accolade.com Download the transcript here

Julio Martinez-Clark, Co-Founder and CEO of Bioaccess, a Latin American MedTech CRO that works with US-based medtech and biopharma startups to conduct their first-in-human trials outside the US to accelerate development and recruitment. Data from overseas clinical trials conducted to international standards is considered valid and can support conversations with investors, strategic partners, and the FDA. Drawing on resources in the Balkans, Latin America, and Australia, clinical trials can get faster approvals, more easily recruit patients, and benefit those living in the communities where clinical trials are conducted.   Julio explains, "The mission is to accelerate global clinical trials, and the type of clients is mostly us. Occasionally, we have European clients, but they're mostly San Francisco-based, Boston-based, San Diego-based, Minnesota-based, or Boston-based companies that are looking to execute a first-in-human clinical study outside of the United States. And for many reasons, Latin America is an obvious choice, at least for the exploratory phase. When they're looking for different countries, they usually explore Eastern Europe, Australia, and Latin America. And we help these companies, which have been predominantly US-based MedTech startups. More recently, we have expanded to biopharma as well. But let's talk with the conversation on MedTech startups, and their struggle to conduct these first inhuman trials in the United States. They seek help when they want to go overseas, and they call for us to help them find investigators and to recruit patients and to get past approvals, etc." "There is one single thing, which is that these companies are startups. Getting this type of trial approved is really, really difficult and expensive. And the timeline to get them approved is really uncertain. So when you have a startup that has investors backing the company and they have a business plan, they have some milestones, it is difficult to predict when you're going to hit these milestones, and you need to keep the investors happy. So if you don't have a solid business plan, then you are not going to be able to raise more funds to continue your operation and development."   #BioAccess #GlobalTrialAccelerators #DigitalHealth #PrecisionMedicine #LATAMTrials #BalkansClinicalResearch #AustraliaCTN #AANVISA #ALIMS #MINSA #TrialAcceleration #FirstinHumanTrials #ClinicalTrials #MedTechInnovation #Biopharma #MedTech #PatientRecruitment #CRO bioaccessla.com Listen to the podcast here  

Julio Martinez-Clark, Co-Founder and CEO of Bioaccess, a Latin American MedTech CRO that works with US-based medtech and biopharma startups to conduct their first-in-human trials outside the US to accelerate development and recruitment. Data from overseas clinical trials conducted to international standards is considered valid and can support conversations with investors, strategic partners, and the FDA. Drawing on resources in the Balkans, Latin America, and Australia, clinical trials can get faster approvals, more easily recruit patients, and benefit those living in the communities where clinical trials are conducted.   Julio explains, "The mission is to accelerate global clinical trials, and the type of clients is mostly us. Occasionally, we have European clients, but they're mostly San Francisco-based, Boston-based, San Diego-based, Minnesota-based, or Boston-based companies that are looking to execute a first-in-human clinical study outside of the United States. And for many reasons, Latin America is an obvious choice, at least for the exploratory phase. When they're looking for different countries, they usually explore Eastern Europe, Australia, and Latin America. And we help these companies, which have been predominantly US-based MedTech startups. More recently, we have expanded to biopharma as well. But let's talk with the conversation on MedTech startups, and their struggle to conduct these first inhuman trials in the United States. They seek help when they want to go overseas, and they call for us to help them find investigators and to recruit patients and to get past approvals, etc." "There is one single thing, which is that these companies are startups. Getting this type of trial approved is really, really difficult and expensive. And the timeline to get them approved is really uncertain. So when you have a startup that has investors backing the company and they have a business plan, they have some milestones, it is difficult to predict when you're going to hit these milestones, and you need to keep the investors happy. So if you don't have a solid business plan, then you are not going to be able to raise more funds to continue your operation and development."  #BioAccess #GlobalTrialAccelerators #DigitalHealth #PrecisionMedicine #LATAMTrials #BalkansClinicalResearch #AustraliaCTN #AANVISA #ALIMS #MINSA #TrialAcceleration #FirstinHumanTrials #ClinicalTrials #MedTechInnovation #Biopharma #MedTech #PatientRecruitment #CRO bioaccessla.com Download the transcript here

Nicole Clark, Co-Founder and CEO of the Adult and Pediatric Institute for Health and Wellness, a comprehensive, personalized psychiatric practice that takes a holistic approach to mental health, looking at the interconnection of physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Nicole has two daughters with autism, which has informed the Institute's focus on serving the autism community, especially in these times of changes in the definition of autism spectrum disorder. Services include psychiatric and autism evaluations, medication management, education, and early intervention for children and adults and their family members.  Nicole explains, "We're a comprehensive psychiatric practice, and we're kind of unique in that we have fully blended behavioral and mental health therapy. We see an individual as a whole person. They're not just one piece of their identity. They have multiple pieces of their identity. And so we don't like to only focus on a singular issue. We like to look at the person as a whole, and so we see the entire family. We see ages 18 months when we're doing autism evaluations, all the way up to 65 years old. And we offer psychiatric evaluations, autism evaluations, medication management, and different therapy modalities." "A lot of the time, we are treating someone's anxiety, or maybe we're treating their ADHD, or maybe we're treating bipolar depression, the other illnesses that are kind of stemming from that stomachache, especially with kids, the headaches, the 'I'm always feeling sick.” I don't want to go to school." "Or in adults-- the chronic stomachaches, the heart disease, all of these issues tend to start to resolve when you can treat the mind and when you can work on the mental health side of things, because these are real problems and these are real issues, physiological issues, heart disease. A heart attack, that's real. We know that is real. Well, what is causing that? Well, maybe it's being caused by elevated cortisol levels over an extended period of time because you have unresolved trauma, anxiety, or depression. And so, it's becoming a more collaborative approach to healthcare, which I love."  #PEDSInstitute #PsychiatricCare #MentalHealth #PediatricHealth #Autism #AutismDiagnosis #AutismAwareness pedsinstitute.com Listen to the podcast here    

Nicole Clark, Co-Founder and CEO of the Adult and Pediatric Institute for Health and Wellness, a comprehensive, personalized psychiatric practice that takes a holistic approach to mental health, looking at the interconnection of physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Nicole has two daughters with autism, which has informed the Institute's focus on serving the autism community, especially in these times of changes in the definition of autism spectrum disorder. Services include psychiatric and autism evaluations, medication management, education, and early intervention for children and adults and their family members.  Nicole explains, "We're a comprehensive psychiatric practice, and we're kind of unique in that we have fully blended behavioral and mental health therapy. We see an individual as a whole person. They're not just one piece of their identity. They have multiple pieces of their identity. And so we don't like to only focus on a singular issue. We like to look at the person as a whole, and so we see the entire family. We see ages 18 months when we're doing autism evaluations, all the way up to 65 years old. And we offer psychiatric evaluations, autism evaluations, medication management, and different therapy modalities." "A lot of the time, we are treating someone's anxiety, or maybe we're treating their ADHD, or maybe we're treating bipolar depression, the other illnesses that are kind of stemming from that stomachache, especially with kids, the headaches, the 'I'm always feeling sick.” I don't want to go to school." "Or in adults-- the chronic stomachaches, the heart disease, all of these issues tend to start to resolve when you can treat the mind and when you can work on the mental health side of things, because these are real problems and these are real issues, physiological issues, heart disease. A heart attack, that's real. We know that is real. Well, what is causing that? Well, maybe it's being caused by elevated cortisol levels over an extended period of time because you have unresolved trauma, anxiety, or depression. And so, it's becoming a more collaborative approach to healthcare, which I love."  #PEDSInstitute #PsychiatricCare #MentalHealth #PediatricHealth #Autism #AutismDiagnosis #AutismAwareness pedsinstitute.com Download the transcript here  

Bob Roda, President and CEO of HemoSonics, highlights the current blood shortage and the challenges of patient blood management to minimize the need for transfusions. The HemoSonics Quanta Analyzer technology utilizes ultrasound to measure blood viscosity, providing real-time information on the patient's coagulation status and enabling clinicians to make more informed decisions about blood product administration. This approach can be applied in the operating room, emergency rooms, and hospital laboratories to improve patient outcomes and yield cost savings for the healthcare system.  Bob explains, "As a company, we are very centered and focused on helping to shape human healthcare moving forward. Specifically, as it relates to coagulation management, we have a technology that is about five years old, and in layman's terms, it helps to identify what is going on with your blood in terms of coagulation, intraoperatively, and in near real-time. So what does that mean? It means that it is an aid for clinicians as they're making determinations for their patients as to what to do next in terms of managing their bleeding situations."   "Think about patient blood management as a patient-centered, systematic, and evidence-based approach to improving patient outcomes simply by managing and preserving a patient's own blood while promoting safety and ultimately the empowerment of the patient. So what does that mean? What it means is that there is a multifaceted approach in terms of any surgical intervention, where ultimately your own blood, the patient's own blood, is really what's best for them. And so to the extent that you can limit or prevent or get ahead of the need for transfusion, that's ultimately to the benefit of the patient and to the benefit of the healthcare system from an economic perspective." #HemoSonics #Hemostasis #BloodManagement #Quantra #BleedingManagement #MedTech #HealthcareInnovation hemosonics.com Listen to the podcast here

Bob Roda, President and CEO of HemoSonics, highlights the current blood shortage and the challenges of patient blood management to minimize the need for transfusions. The HemoSonics Quanta Analyzer technology utilizes ultrasound to measure blood viscosity, providing real-time information on the patient's coagulation status and enabling clinicians to make more informed decisions about blood product administration. This approach can be applied in the operating room, emergency rooms, and hospital laboratories to improve patient outcomes and yield cost savings for the healthcare system.  Bob explains, "As a company, we are very centered and focused on helping to shape human healthcare moving forward. Specifically, as it relates to coagulation management, we have a technology that is about five years old, and in layman's terms, it helps to identify what is going on with your blood in terms of coagulation, intraoperatively, and in near real-time. So what does that mean? It means that it is an aid for clinicians as they're making determinations for their patients as to what to do next in terms of managing their bleeding situations."   "Think about patient blood management as a patient-centered, systematic, and evidence-based approach to improving patient outcomes simply by managing and preserving a patient's own blood while promoting safety and ultimately the empowerment of the patient. So what does that mean? What it means is that there is a multifaceted approach in terms of any surgical intervention, where ultimately your own blood, the patient's own blood, is really what's best for them. And so to the extent that you can limit or prevent or get ahead of the need for transfusion, that's ultimately to the benefit of the patient and to the benefit of the healthcare system from an economic perspective." #HemoSonics #Hemostasis #BloodManagement #Quantra #BleedingManagement #MedTech #HealthcareInnovation hemosonics.com Download the transcript here

Dr. David Carmouche, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Lumeris, is addressing the primary care shortage by providing a platform that supports primary care physicians in managing a broader patient population and delivering better health outcomes. The Lumeris platform, Tom, is an AI-powered virtual assistant that can interact with patients, provide chronic disease management, education and support, and coordinate care on behalf of providers. Tom can improve efficiency, reduce clinician burnout, and provide more convenient and personalized experiences for patients.  David explains, "And so, they built the company, Lumeris, as a commercialization arm of their relationship to empower other primary care physicians to manage populations and deliver better health outcomes at a lower cost. And so for the last 12 years or so, Lumaris has been partnering largely with large medical groups and health systems to help them manage populations, Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial populations, and helping drive high performance and high outcomes within those relationships. The economics are shared economics, so when the plans and providers are successful by delivering better outcomes, Lumeris shares in those rewards."  "Given the 20-year history that I mentioned of understanding care deeply as a provider of care and as a partner to those providers of care, we have the fortune to build new technology to support primary care. Our environment starts with aggregating data, and that data helps us define a view of a patient. That data could come from an electronic medical record, it could come from claims data from a pharmacist, it could come from claims data from a payer, or it could come from a pharmacist or a lab. It could be consumer data that is purchasable, as organizations like Target, Walmart, and others use to market to us today. We aggregate that data to create a 360° view of a patient. Then we're able to leverage some of the new artificial intelligence that creates the ability for the platform to interact with patients on behalf of their clinical care teams at points in time where we understand that there is a defined next best clinical action that might help you in your health journey." #Lumeris #MedAI #DigitalHealth #PrimaryCareProviders lumeris.com Listen to the podcast here