Empowered Patient Podcast

Lora Sparkman, an RN and VP and Partner of Clinical Solutions, Patient Safety, and Quality at Relias, highlights the high maternal mortality rate in the US and the factors that contribute to it.  Lora emphasizes the need for standardization of definitions and a better understanding of the social determinants of health that influence the success of a pregnancy, including the need for pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy healthcare. Digital technology is bringing advancements to healthcare education and helping overcome geographic barriers to improve outcomes and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Lora explains, "In some cases, we're getting our hands around the real story versus some variation across states and definitions, and how death was categorized, those types of things. Putting that all behind us, there's been a lot more work and effort at the federal and national levels to standardize definitions and categories."   "There's been kind of a shift we've seen over the last couple of years, which is we'v

Mei Mei Hu, the CEO and Co-Founder of Vaxxinity, focuses on an approach to vaccines that aims to break immune tolerance to get the body to produce the antibodies to target self-antigens causing chronic conditions. Initial trials are being conducted to slow the progression or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and hypercholesterolemia. Motivating this effort is the desire to democratize health and make transformative medicines available to a larger population at a lower cost.   Mei Mei explains, "Interestingly, in 1900, the average global life expectancy was 32. Today, when you hear someone died at 79, you're like, oh my gosh, what happened? We get these two bonus lifetimes now, and those three lives total for three main reasons. The first is the Green Revolution feeding us all. The second is hygienic plumbing, and the third is vaccines. But when we think of vaccines, they're usually crying babies or kids pre-COVID. What they did was able to banish the biggest diseases of our early lives." "What w

Dr. Karlene Kerfoot, Chief Nursing Officer at symplr, points out the challenges nurses and doctors face when dealing with technology in the workplace.  The disparate systems and lack of data integration make it difficult for clinicians to perform necessary duties and have moments that matter: time to provide the kind of care patients require. Karlene highlights the potential for AI and robots to alleviate some of the inefficiencies in the workflow and the need for frontline staff to be part of the decision-making process to ensure advanced technology solutions meet real needs.   Karlene explains, "We do have to deal with the technology to make it easier for people to work. For example, the nurse manager, when they want a staff and schedule, sometimes they have to go through six to eight disparate systems that don't talk to each other. So they have to go into one system and then out, and another system and out, and another system and out. So, at the end of the day, they're quite fatigued and have a lot of tec

Retired Brigadier General Dr. Steve Xenakis is Executive Director of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association, a group of clinicians who are interested in developing and promoting the mainstream use of psychedelic and plant medicines for the treatment of mental health conditions. APPA works to educate practitioners on best practices and explores AI's potential role in identifying patients who could benefit from psychedelic therapies.   Steve explains, "This is a multidisciplinary group. As the treatments unfold, we're seeing it's multidisciplinary. We have psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, advanced nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants because it's a team approach. When we look at the best treatments and therapies, these people come together. They can collaborate in terms of not only prescribing the medications but also conducting the therapy and supporting the patients who come to them for help." "They've come into this organization because they realize that to promote these

Jeffrey Madden, Co-Founder and CEO of ADvantage Therapeutics is developing therapies for neurodegenerative conditions, particularly Alzheimer's disease.  Instead of pursuing the amyloid hypothesis, ADvantage is focused on neuroinflammation as the primary driver of Alzheimer's pathology. Trials for their lead compound AD04 show promising results in slowing hippocampal volume loss and stabilizing cognition.   Jeffrey explains, "The assumption that has been in play for more than 20 years is the amyloid hypothesis. And the idea behind that is if you could clear amyloid beta, this toxic protein, you could stop or even reverse Alzheimer's. The results are in. We're reading about Biogen and Lilly, the monoclonal antibodies that do a great job of clearing amyloid but only have modest slowing of cognitive decline." "What we offer is that the pathology of Alzheimer's is just incomplete. We take a biology of aging worldview and we know the biggest causation for Alzheimer's is aging. We know a lane of aging is chronic i

Dr. Sam Lee, Co-CEO of Cocrystal Pharma, discusses novel antiviral therapeutics to treat norovirus. This highly contagious virus causes acute gastroenteritis, and there is no known treatment or vaccine.  Cocrystal is developing a compound that targets the essential enzymes of the virus, showing promising results in inhibiting norovirus replication and showing possible use in treating human rhinovirus and enterovirus. The goal is to develop a protease inhibitor therapeutic for norovirus that can alleviate symptoms and potentially prevent infection spread in high-risk environments. Sam explains, "Let me step back and tell you how we approach the noro antiviral drug development. So, we're focusing on what we call direct-acting antiviral therapeutics. We're targeting viral essential enzymes, and we initiated this noro program looking at the essential genes such as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. We have really exciting hits, but we also look at the protease. Norovirus has this essential protease, which is absolute

Dr. Ruben Mesa, Executive Director, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses advancements in the treatment of myelofibrosis, chronic leukemia, a blood disease characterized by scarring in the bone marrow.  Current therapies include stem cell transplants and ruxolitinib, a drug that helps with symptoms and spleen enlargement but does not improve anemia. A new once-a-day pill, momelotinib, known as Ojaara, has been approved, effectively reducing spleen size, improving symptoms, and effectively addressing anemia.   Ruben explains, "What we've learned over time is that the origin of the disease is a chronic leukemia that occurs in the bone marrow that is driven by different changes in the genes that control the function of the bone marrow. And then there's a secondary scarring that occurs." "Patients with myelofibrosis might be afflicted with a drop in the blood counts and have anemia or a drop in the white blood cell count or the platelet count. They may have symptoms associated

Beena Wood, Senior VP of Safety and Medical at ArisGlobal, highlights how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing patient-centricity in drug development, pointing out the factors drawing more interest in this challenge. The LifeSphere drug development platform aims to drive patient-centric guidance by providing access to real-world data and enabling patient collaboration. Beena emphasizes the importance of engaging a diverse universe of patients and leveraging AI, data analytics, and machine learning to reveal hidden insights from the data to improve drug testing and safety. Beena explains, "Before specifically diving into how AI helps, I want to step back a bit on what the forces that drive patient-centricity are. I don't think these forces are new. They had existed, but I think they have been accelerating that patient-centricity conversation, especially with patients increasingly taking charge of their health and becoming more empowered. I think that drives the life sciences companies to focus on that an

Frank Forte, CEO of AnatomyIT, provides cybersecurity, IT, and value-based healthcare services to organizations that need help making an intelligent transformation to healthcare IT. Despite the prevalence of new technology, many providers and payers still rely on paper and fax machines, and data security risks and privacy issues still need to be addressed. Frank points out the need for change management and training to integrate generative AI and automate manual tasks to improve efficiency, clinician acceptance, and patient outcomes.   Frank explains, "But look, traditionally, when people thought of IT, they thought of a help desk. That was what came to mind. Networks, routers, cables, hardware, all those things that lived in the basement or the closet. And that's how I thought of IT. I would say that most IT initiatives were not received well, specifically from people who needed it the most, like clinicians, caregivers, and nurses, where it required a change in workflow, adopting new technology, or even rem

Dr. Barnaby Balmforth, Co-Founder and CEO of Biofidelity, has a mission to make genomic analysis simpler, faster, and more reliable for treatment decisions. Biofidelity addresses genome sequencing challenges by using a targeted approach and unique technology that allows for local testing using PCR rather than DNA sequencers. Thanks to COVID, an existing global infrastructure of PCR equipment provides an opportunity to target specific biomarkers and deliver actionable information to physicians and patients.   Barnaby explains, "The challenge as we see it is that in this modern oncology era, there is now a wide need for multi-gene genomic profiling of patients. The only solution that has been available to enable that is DNA sequencing. The media has quite widely covered how the genomics market is growing, and the cost of sequencing is shrinking. But sadly, in the clinical space, oncologists and patients are still failing to fully experience the benefits of this technology." "It is not a simple process to perfor

Devra Densmore, principal consultant at Elevate Advocacy, explains the FDA has released guidance to drive Diversity Action Plans to ensure that clinical trials are representative of affected patients. Emphasizing the need for a thoughtful and strategic approach to diversity, Devra highlights inclusivity includes accessibility and listening to patient advocates to meet the needs of marginalized communities.   Devra explains, "This is a very exciting time where, by releasing these guidance documents, the FDA is setting a standard for the expectation that industry and study sponsors have a very intentional approach to ensuring that their studies are representative. That the therapies or devices that are created are beneficial for all people affected by the conditions that those medications and devices are supposed to solve for." "So, for me, these Diversity Action Plans are a really exciting opportunity for industry to think about what it wants to do in this space. How can it contribute to making sure that heal

Arthur Bretschneider, CEO and Co-Founder of Seniorly, a discovery platform and marketplace providing essential information to make informed decisions about senior housing options. The website brings transparency to the search process, including information about price, amenities, and care options, which have traditionally been challenging to determine. A network of senior living advisors, an AI-powered virtual advisor, and a recommendation engine all support finding the right senior housing community. Arthur explains, "One of the things about senior living that is so complicated is frankly understanding pricing. And so, why is it complicated? There are a few factors. One is that often, people don't understand the nuances in senior housing, the sort of segmentation of different properties. So you might hear assisted living, you might hear independent living, memory care, and Alzheimer's care. There are all sorts of nuances of the different types of care that these communities can support." "But the other piec

Pablo Pantaleoni, Chief Digital Officer of LifeStance Health, aims to improve access to affordable mental health services by providing digital tools to support patients throughout their treatment journey. LifeStance also focuses on supporting clinicians by streamlining administrative tasks, facilitating booking, and providing ongoing care virtually and in person. Pablo sees AI as a co-pilot tool to streamline some processes for patients and providers while emphasizing the key role of clinicians. Pablo explains, "On top of this, we want to ensure you can meet people where they are. This means certain people, especially after COVID, prefer to visit a clinician online, and others prefer to see somebody in person. And you'll be surprised. There's a significant number of people that like to jump from one channel to the other. Our unique hybrid model allows us to meet people where they are so people can choose if they want to see somebody in person or virtually."   "I'm glad you're asking about the clinician exper

Jay Ackerman is the CEO of Reveleer, a  data and analytics company that works with payers and providers to support them in quality improvement and risk adjustment in a value-based care environment. Using AI, natural language processing, and integration of diverse databases, Reveleer is reducing administrative burdens and supporting providers to make more informed decisions for patient care.   Jay explains, "In the AI world, a lot is being done to drive productivity and efficiency for payers and providers to anticipate how someone's health is shifting and changing. But for us, in the world of AI, what we're focused on and how we're trying to use AI, when we talk about quality improvement and risk adjustments, we ingest massive clinical data on each of these members, on each of these patients, we could capture thousands of pages." "We use AI to quickly digest, organize, and mine that data to understand what has happened over time for that member and what we think could be happening as they go forward. What we'

Dr. Colin Banas, Chief Medical Officer at DrFirst, defines the term clinical-grade AI as he distinguishes it from other forms of AI that may not be trained on robust clinical data. He emphasizes the need for accurate and complete data in healthcare records and the challenges of semantic interoperability and biases when working with AI models. Potential applications for clinical-grade AI include identifying insights about population healthcare, spotting clinical research trends, and addressing burnout by automating administrative tasks, allowing clinicians to focus on patient care.   Colin elaborates, "DrFirst, as many folks know, got its start as an e-prescribing company over 23 years ago. From there, it blossomed into a robust set of solutions around what I call the sweet spot for the company, which is intelligent medication management. This is all the way from writing the prescription to making sure the patient takes the prescription. The care team understands prescription lists and the way that the prescri

Vivian DeWoskin, Chief Commercial Officer at NeuraLight, focuses on developing solutions for diagnosing, monitoring and treating neurodegenerative diseases using oculometric data. Using computer vision and deep learning techniques, data from measuring eye position and movement can provide biomarkers for early detection and insights into neurological health. This non-invasive technology is being tested in the PALOMA study, a longitudinal study of Parkinson's patients designed to develop one biomarker as a monitoring and assessment tool.  Vivian explains, "The reason that this works or theoretically works is that there's a very well-characterized ocular motor system. We know a lot about the ocular motor system and the relationship between eye movement and different parts of the brain. When we talk about oculometrics, we're not just measuring one thing. We're talking about measuring multiple aspects of eye movement and function. Those different aspects are related to a variety of different neural pathways. So,

 Ivana Naeymi-Rad, Chief Operating Officer at Intelligent Medical Objects, works with providers, payers, and life science companies to help them make sense of data. IMO specializes in data quality, cleaning paper-based data, and data interoperability in structured and unstructured formats. Sentiment analysis provides insights into the emotions of providers and patients, while AI and large language models support data entry and improve provider workflow. IMO also focuses on addressing the complexities of data in the context of drug discovery, genomics, and precision medicine.  Ivana explains, "We started with this foundational clinical interface terminology that has been a big part of the building blocks as we've expanded into this data quality platform. The terminology allows us to better understand clinical data in ways you wouldn't be able to understand by looking at it. We've worked with providers, we've worked with health systems to take their data to ingest it, and then we have a team of clinicians and

Vasu Chandrasekaran, VP of real-world data and analytics at Ontada, provides an electronic health record platform, iKnowMed, used by community oncology providers to practice evidence-based and patient-centered medicine better.  They also work closely with the US Oncology Network to improve access to new therapies and clinical trials. Using real-world data to generate real-world evidence allows Ontada, in partnership with biopharma companies, to drive drug discovery and development, conduct more diverse trials, and better understand the effectiveness of treatments. Vasu explains, "Community oncology is where most of the cancer care happens. We enable those physicians in the community to practice evidence-based and patient-centered medicine through our EHR platform. Our clinical decision support system and other workflows built into the EHR platform enable physicians to practice oncology and deliver precise care to patients in the community. That's the first thing I would say. That's one of the offerings." "A

Arun Menawat, CEO of Profound Medical, discusses the challenges of treating prostate cancer and how traditional treatments like prostate removal or radiation often result in side effects and complications. While historically, a PSA blood test has been used for diagnosis, an MRI provides a more precise and efficient diagnostic tool. In addition, Profound is using real-time MRI-guided thermal ultrasound to precisely target and kill cancer cells while maintaining vital functions. Arun explains, "MRI is the best way to really diagnose prostate cancer. And because you can see inside, you can see the cellular structure and that is what's important when physicians review. Our primary message is if you're using the MRI to diagnose, why would you not use that MRI also to treat the patient? Because you can see the urethra where urine is flowing. You can see the ejaculatory duct, where it merges with the urethra. You can get a very good idea of where the nerve bundles are." "Our technology is a combination of using real

Dr. Michael Mbagwu, senior Medical Director at Verana Health, a real-world data company helping to accelerate clinical research using EHR data and other data to unlock insights about clinical practice patterns.  The company is also addressing systematic bias in clinical trials by using real-world data and analyzing demographic information and geographic representation to get an accurate view of the obstacles patients face in getting the most advanced treatments. Michael elaborates, "We have very secure and advanced technologies where we deliberately use clinical and other data scientists to walk through the data, ensure it's really what we want, and give insights. Big data is not big data is not big data, and the ability to unlock insights very much depends on who's the one looking through it. So, at Verana, we do it all together. We have a very multidisciplinary team that is working on all of these data sets, and we have just a great thing going on regarding the insights we're able to provide."   "First and