Empowered Patient Podcast

Aaron Timm, CEO of Openwater, is driving the shift from single-purpose, room-sized equipment to multi-purpose, portable, light-weight medical devices designed on an open-source platform. Some tools use infrared light to measure blood flow in real time for applications such as stroke detection. Another device uses focused ultrasound to modulate tissue in the brain for treating neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric conditions. The platform is designed so that a single hardware device can run multiple applications, allowing researchers to adapt and develop applications specific to their work, bringing innovation into the marketplace similar to the smartphone app environment. Aaron explains, "So we have two primary devices. One uses infrared light to measure blood flow and blood volume in real time. So that one is being used, for example, to measure blood flow to the brain to help determine whether someone is having a stroke. At the University of Pennsylvania, there was a study done using that device, where our device outperformed the existing stroke scales. The other device that we have is a focused ultrasound device. And what that device does is it uses sound waves or focused ultrasound to target and modulate tissue in the brain and elsewhere in the body. That's being used in research today for all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric diseases. And there's just a lot going on in the world of focused ultrasound, including using our devices."   "So this focused ultrasound device and the science behind it eliminates the need for drugs or surgery and just uses focused ultrasounds to modulate or stimulate things within the brain, for example. It's used for everything from depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's disease, and addiction. Many different indications are being addressed in research using these kinds of devices, including ours." #OpenwaterHealth #MedTech, #NonInvasiveCare, #PortableHealthcare, #PatientAccess, #HealthcareInnovation #FocusedUltrasound #LIFU #Hemodynamics #Openwater #OpenLIFU #OpenMotion #DigitalHealth #Neurotechnology #StrokeCare #AIinHealthcare #OpenSourceMedicine #ClinicalResearch #WearableMedicalDevices #HealthcareInnovation openwater.health Download the transcript here

Jack Silberstein, CEO of Deck Bio, is developing next-generation T cell engagers designed to activate the patient's immune system to shrink tumors. These T cell engagers are bispecific molecules that alert immune cells to recognize targets on cancer cells and kill them by binding to both the cancer cells and the T cells.  While earlier T cell engagers have succeeded in treating blood cancers, Deck Bio focuses on solid tumors where previous approaches have failed. Their lead molecule demonstrates strong potency and high safety, showing a response in patients with treatment resistance across lung, gastric, esophageal, liver, and head and neck cancers. Jack explains, "At Deck Bio, we're focused on next-generation cancer immunotherapies called T cell engagers and are working to engage a patient's immune response to shrink tumors, extend patients' lifespan, and deliver durable benefits in treating cancer. For T cell engagers, there's been a lot of excitement recently because, in 2022, we had the first-ever T cell engager approved for solid tumors. We're looking to build on these learnings, expand the reach of T cell engagers, and drive greater durable benefit."   "As you mentioned, these T cell engagers have been around for a while. With liquid tumors, there's a little bit of an easier problem to solve because, in terms of the cancer cells there, you're able to deplete them, and if you have any type of healthy tissue recognition of cells in your blood, that's not that terrible of a toxicity." "But in solid tumors, there's been a lot of failures in the field where people have tried to develop something against a solid tumor target that they thought was cancer-specific. Then, because of expression on other healthy tissues throughout the body, there were these dose-limiting toxicities. And just to level set in terms of what a T cell engager is, and help explain that, it's a bispecific molecule. What it most typically looks like is what people think of as an antibody, with that classical Y shape."  #DeckBio #TCellEngagers #Immunotherapy #Solidtumors #TumorHeterogeneity #ImmunoOncology #TCellEngagers #SolidTumors #CancerImmunotherapy #OncologyInnovation #MultiTargetTherapy #HemOnc deck.bio Download the transcript here

Professor Linda Macomber, a healthcare tech consultant at Renaissance Health, highlights the transformative potential of AI and digital health solutions, as well as the shift from siloed, symptom-focused care to holistic, personalized medicine. AI applications in healthcare have moved from deterministic expert systems to generative AI models that use genomic and longitudinal data from wearables for continuous monitoring and preventive care. Linda emphasizes that successful AI implementation requires viewing technology as a strategic investment rather than an expense, with a focus on actions that improve patient outcomes and clinicians' quality of life. Linda explains, "Well, I've certainly been involved in all areas of the healthcare ecosystem over the past 40 years. For the past 16 years, I have been a professor at National University, starting the Master of Science and Health Informatics program. The 30 years prior to that, working in different areas of software design and development in the early days with SAIC and the Department of Defense, then Kaiser Permanente, University of California systems, and then some work with community health centers as well. I'm a life fellow in HIMSS, which is only a few people who have been around long enough to have that designation. But started my career as an ICU nurse and still hold on to the clinical informatics side, look at it from the lens of a healthcare professional, as well as the tech, educator, and startup perspective. Most recently, I have been working with a number of different startups."   "Well, certainly when it comes to the opportunities with AI in particular, things are moving so fast and looking at lots of different priorities and opportunities. When it comes to incremental change, it is always a little easier, but I think that opportunities are much bigger now for much more significant advancement of the care delivery system. Bringing care to people instead of people always having to travel to facilities for care, using digital systems in new ways to empower all of us, informing choice, and being much more proactive and personalized."  #LindaMacomber #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #HealthInformatics #AIinHealthcare #ClinicalInformatics #Genomics #Wearables #PopulationHealth #Interoperability #MedicalEducation Renaissance.Health Download the transcript here

Alec Ford, CEO of Karius, has developed an innovative approach to diagnosing infections in immunocompromised patients, using DNA sequencing of blood samples to identify over 1,300 causes of infection within 24 hours. Traditional diagnostic methods rely on hypothesis-driven testing and the cultivation of organisms. At the same time, the Karius approach enables faster, more targeted antibiotic treatment, reduces unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics, and can identify infections that may not be included in the initial diagnosis. Time to proper treatment is essential for vulnerable populations, including cancer patients, HIV-positive individuals, organ transplant recipients, and those undergoing autoimmune therapies.  Alec explains, "These are patients going through cancer treatment, patients with HIV, people going through solid organ transplantation, or people being treated assertively with autoimmune therapies for autoimmune disorders, where it may compromise their immune system. That really vulnerable patient is our exclusive focus as a company."   "So, a patient gets admitted to the hospital for an infection. They take a sample of that patient's blood. And what we can do is diagnose over 1,300 causes of infection by sequencing the patient's blood for viruses, parasites, bacteria, and fungi that could threaten the success of their cancer treatment or solid organ transplant. There's never been a test in the history of infectious disease that can test for any DNA-based organism, and we do so. We can return a result 24 hours after we receive the sample."   #Karius #InfectiousDisease #Diagnostics #Metagenomics #MedTech #KariusSpectrum #KariusFocus #NextGenSequencing #ImmunocompromisedCare #Oncology #TransplantMedicine #AntimicrobialStewardship #Genomics #MolecularDiagnostics #KariusTest #PatientSafety #HealthcareInnovation Kariusdx.com  Download the transcript here

Lisa Gurry, Chief Business Officer at GeneDx,  is transforming the diagnosis of rare diseases in children by providing comprehensive genetic testing. Using exome and genome sequencing, they deliver rapid, accurate results that enable early intervention and access to therapies. Through partnerships and a network of genetic counselors, GeneDx connects patients with specialists and clinical trials to ensure equal access for children and has established a comprehensive database that supports clinical care and drug development and helps identify previously undiagnosed or misdiagnosed conditions. Lisa explains, "The average diagnostic odyssey, or the time it takes to get a diagnosis, is tragically far too long for most families. It can take five years or more to get that diagnosis. And it's typically because the system tends to wait and see to provide the genetic tests that could give a diagnosis very quickly. At GeneDX, we've focused on exome and genome testing, which enables us to have a very comprehensive view across variants of potential diagnoses. And so that's our recommendation: any family that is experiencing a developmental delay has concerns with epilepsy, autism, or any number of genetic potential conditions. The beautiful part about a genetic test is that it can give you the answer you need to know what action to take." "It's remarkable how much science and technology have evolved. So we did our first exome test in 2011, and since then we've sequenced over one million exomes and genomes. So, a tremendous amount of progress has been made in the number of children that we've diagnosed. That's possible because science and technology have advanced, the cost of the test has dramatically reduced, and our ability to deliver that at scale is something that we've been investing in for the last 25 years."  #GeneDx #RareDisease #Genomics #Pediatrics #PrecisionMedicine #GeneticTesting #Epilepsy #GeneTherapy #RealWorldData #Biopharma #ClinicalTrials #HealthcareInnovation genedx.com Download the transcript here

Kelvin Cooper, CEO of Lakewood-Amedex Biotherapeutics, has developed a novel class of antimicrobials that operate by disrupting bacterial and fungal cell membranes, rapidly killing the microorganisms. Traditional antimicrobials work by inhibiting bacterial growth, but bacteria have evolved resistance mechanisms against all drug classes, with multidrug-resistant strains becoming increasingly common. The company is focused on treating infected diabetic foot ulcers with a topical gel formulation that locally delivers a high drug concentration while minimizing systemic side effects. Kelvin explains, "You can go back all the way to the discovery of penicillin a century ago, and there was tremendous excitement around that. And then through the 40s, when they figured out how to deep tank ferment the antibacterials, the beta lactams, as it was then, again, there was no real indication that resistance was going to be that big of a problem."   "What we have done at Lakewood-Amedex Biotherapeutics is we've discovered a completely new class of antimicrobials, and it's probably good to give some context of how most antimicrobials work. Typically, what they do is they will stop the bacteria from dividing and growing, and that prevents the bacteria from causing an infection. Now the bacteria and fungi have figured out ways to mutate around that. So they have a different way of building cell walls, for example. And that has become the big problem. Our class of agents hits a completely different type of mechanism. We believe that what happens, and we have good scientific data to show this, is that this class of agents attacks the membrane of bacteria and fungi. It disrupts the membrane, which allows the contents of whatever microbe it is to spill out, and it immediately kills the bacteria extremely rapidly." #LakewoodAmedex #AntimicrobialResistance #AMR #InfectiousDiseases #Antibiotics #Antimicrobials #DiabeticFoot #DiabeticFootUlcer #HealthcareInnovation   #DiabeticCare #Biotech #PublicHealth #MedicalBreakthrough $LABT lakewoodamedex.com Download the transcript here  

Harith Rajagopalan, Co-Founder and CEO of Fractyl Health, is developing innovative therapies that target the root causes of obesity and metabolic diseases to achieve durable, long-lasting patient outcomes. Their drug is designed to address post-GLP-1 rebound weight gain by treating the underlying gut damage.  Unlike GLP-1 medications that manage symptoms through appetite suppression, the aim is to modify the disease driving the obesity and change the paradigm from a symptomatic treatment to one of disease modification.  Harith explains, "Our focus at Fractyl is all about how to achieve durable results for patients, long-lasting benefits. And the way in which we try to do so is by targeting root causes of obesity and metabolic disease and developing innovative therapies, targeting those root causes that offer the potential for long-lasting benefit for patients."  "I think that GLP-1s have been transformative, as you say, but they have in many ways created an altogether new problem called post-GLP-1 rebound. What we are seeing in the United States right now is that there are a million people a month who are stopping a GLP-1. The more effective GLP-1 was for them in weight and metabolic control, the more rapidly they rebounded to whatever their weight and metabolic control were prior to treatment." "Whereas what we are doing is with our lead asset, Revita, we are targeting a root cause of obesity in the gut, a region of the gut that becomes damaged by chronic lifetime exposure to high-fat, high-sugar diets that we think is actually driving the obesity in the first place. And so if you can fix the underlying obesity, then we think that you can prevent the rebound that inevitably occurs upon the discontinuation of the medicine." #FractylHealth #Revita #Rejuva #PopulationHealth #ObesityMedicine #Endocrinology #MetabolicHealth #GLP1 #Gastroenterology #DiabetesCare #GeneTherapy fractyl.com Download the transcript here

Lior Shaltiel, CEO of NurExone, is addressing the unmet needs of those with spinal cord injuries, as current therapies only treat symptoms and do not regenerate damaged nerves from accidents or disease. The NurExone technology aims to stimulate nerve growth by targeting a protein that inhibits cell proliferation. Using exosomes, which are secreted by cells, to deliver the drug in a localized manner is possible because of the ability of the exosomes to home in on damaged tissues and cross the blood-brain barrier. Lior explains, "At the moment, the medicine can only treat it by treating the symptoms. There are a few attempts to try to regenerate the nerves that are broken and to have the reconnection of the spinal cord injury or any damage in the central nervous system. And this is a huge challenge for medicine, so far not solved. And when we solve it, we prepare to answer and give hope to so many patients, not only in spinal cord injury, but also in other injuries, such as traumatic brain injury, optic nerve, and ophthalmology. So many nerves that we have so far not been able to restore the function after the damage." "So traumatic, meaning we are talking about injury, the acute phase of a disease or illness. In most cases, let's say, spinal cord injury is due to injury, car accidents, or sports accidents. But, for example, ophthalmology, glaucoma, which is a chronic disease, can also cause damage to the optic nerve that cannot be restored. So it can be due to another illness, as a side effect of the illness, or due to injury."   "So we discussed the RNA. This is one part of the technology here. Second, the technology of using our natural transmitter in our body, which is how cells communicate with each other, is called exosomes. Exosomes are tiny vesicles secreted from cells with tiny envelopes that a healthy tissue sends to a damaged tissue, a cell that is affected, or a cell that doesn't feel good. And when we understand this mechanism, we can use those exosomes as a drug delivery system." #NurExone #Exosomes #SpinalCordInjury #NeuroRegeneration #PTEN #siRNA #DrugDelivery #Neurology #RegenerativeMedicine #Nanomedicine  nurexone.com Download the transcript here

Peter Swimm, Founder of Toilville, is a conversational AI pioneer, and he describes the transformation in healthcare resulting from the use of AI and large language models to address clinician burnout and improve patient outcomes. He emphasizes that technology should adapt to practitioners' workflows rather than forcing practitioners to change their behavior. Human oversight is essential to ensure accuracy and transparency, and Peter advocates for a culture shift where time saved through the use of AI is reinvested in higher-quality patient care and clinician satisfaction. Peter explains, "I think a lot of people think of their problems as a unique snowflake in the world. I think if we boil the ocean down to its elements, it is an understanding of the system of its inhabitants. And so we do a lot of work with small businesses and clients who typically have worked for big companies, and they've chafed at all the rules and the boundaries and the problems. They leave the big company and want to run their own show, but they lose that infrastructure."   "A lot of times, they turn to tools like AI and automation, or they buy software products that don't entirely fit their thinking. And so we help them negotiate that pattern where the technology molds to what the presentation layer is and how you want to treat things and handle your data. And you don't change away from what your competitive advantage is, which is being a unique and talented person who runs the show the way they see best." "So I think the challenge is, don't let your FOMO be FAFO. Just because everyone's telling you to do AI and you don't really understand it and you don't see the positive outcomes, don't assume it's like a lack of training on your part." #SPELWork #Toilville #OptInPodcast #ResonantDiversification #AIGovernance #ResponsibleAI #ConsentFirst #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #HealthIT #ClinicalAI #HealthcareAI #PatientAdvocacy #ClinicianBurnout #HealthEquity #SDOH #AIAccountability #AIEthics #AISafety #ConsentFirst #DataSovereignty #HumanInTheLoop #HealthcareInnovation#DigitalHealth #PhysicianBurnout #HealthIT #ConversationalAI #PatientCare toilville.com Download the transcript here

Richard Garr, CEO and General Counsel of Curative Biotechnology, discusses the company's work in repurposing the diabetes drug metformin into an eye drop for degenerative eye diseases. The goal of the therapy is retinal preservation, aiming to slow or stop disease progression by acting at the cellular level in the back of the eye to protect it from damage, offering a non-invasive alternative to current treatments. Using a repurposed drug allows the company to build on well-documented safety data and reduces the size, cost and duration of clinical trials. Richard explains, "We are currently focused on repurposing the drug metformin, which is an FDA-approved drug that diabetics take. And as it turns out, we have reformulated it into an eye drop. This is licensed from the National Eye Institute. We have worldwide exclusive rights. The first patent in that estate was allowed about two months ago in Canada. We would expect it to be issued this summer. It's being prosecuted around the world." "We believe that it is a platform drug and that we'll be able to treat a wide range of degenerative eye diseases. It's repurposed because it is an approved FDA drug. It's been taken for decades orally by literally tens of millions of patients, mostly with type two diabetes. And really, the importance of that is that we know it's a safe systemically. So, everything you could want to know about the metformin systemically is known. What we have to show in our clinical trials is that it's safe in the eye and that it does, in fact, do what we suspect it does to treat degenerative eye disease." #CurativeBiotech #Ophthalmology #Retina #Neuroprotection #DryAMD #EyeCare #DrugRepurposing #Metformin #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalResearch #CurativeBiotech CurativeBiotech.com Download the transcript here  

Zach Henderson, CEO at MindMaze Therapeutics, has designed a precision neurotherapeutic solution designed to offer a scalable, engaging and immersive platform for patients recovering from strokes or managing Parkinson's disease. The solution is deployed across the entire care continuum from hospital to the patient's home, providing high-intensity therapy during the neuroplastic window. The emphasis is on augmenting therapists' care by equipping them with tools to encourage therapy adherence and with data to deliver precise, personalized care. Zach explains, "So at a very high level, there are millions and millions of people across the neurology spectrum who need this type of neuro rehabilitation, neurotherapeutic solutions, either with a therapist or without, but there are only so many therapists to go around. So there's a massive supply-demand imbalance that frankly cannot be, despite the efforts of the great therapists out there, it can never be filled without resorting to technology. And that's the exact gap that we're trying to fill in the marketplace."   "So MindMaze Therapeutics has a suite of solutions that are deployed across the whole continuum of care. So from acute care to the hospital to inpatient rehabilitation facilities, IRFs, to long-term acute care, to skilled nursing facilities, to outpatient, and all the way even patients taking the technology home. And then in that way, we're meeting the patient wherever they may happen to be. We're supporting the health system around the world. And importantly, we're giving therapy in this important neuroelastic window, which, in some studies, is the first 90 days following, say, a stroke, and in other studies, it goes all the way up to six months. And we're helping the health systems around the world scale their ability to treat even more patients at a very high and even improved rate." #MindMaze #ParkinsonsDisease #DigitalHealth #Neuroplasticity #PrecisionMedicine #Physiatry #Neurology #PhysicalTherapy #OccupationalTherapy #RehabInnovation #HealthTech MindMazeTherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Daniele De Mari, Founder and CEO of Neurogram, points out the significant problem of non-standardized data formats in EEG (electroencephalography), compared to the universal standard used in radiology.  Neurogram has developed a hardware-agnostic, cloud-based solution that standardizes EEG data from various manufacturers, integrates with EMRs, significantly improves clinical workflows, and is accessible from any computer. With improved data security and the ability to analyze large datasets, this platform can support advances in biomarker development for neurological conditions and stimulate more clinical research and collaboration.  Daniele explains, "So the problem is not 100% on medical exams. It happens exclusively on EEG, and that makes it worse, because it doesn't happen everywhere, it's actually worse for EEG scans. So, knowing a parallel between EEG scans and radiology, every data point in radiology is DICON. So DICON is a universal file format that is standardized. I can send you a DICON over email or to your phone, WhatsApp, and you can open it on your phone. That's how universal it is. That's how open the file type is. It's compatible with EMRs. And so that's awesome. And that's one of the reasons why radiology grows so much. And EEG, it's an electroencephalogram. We have, I would say, 15 different brands around the world. In Brazil, we have seven. In the US, we have top like four or five companies, and they all export data in a different file format. So brand A has its own format, brand B has its own format, brand C, and so forth." "So we managed to be compatible with most of the brands out there, most of the EEG brands out there. We have a solution that is 100% agnostic and 100% in the cloud, which means we can read from multiple EEG devices out there. If you record in brand A, and I'm not going to say the brands in the podcast, but if you require data from brand A, brand B, brand C, all of it gets standardized into one unified system. So the physician no longer has to log into multiple devices in multiple systems, and it's all in one place. As I said, it's 100% in the cloud, so they can access from a Mac computer, which is now impossible to read EEGs from a Mac computer. Now you can do this. It's compliant. It's HIPAA compliant. We're moving towards the FDA approval process right now for the system, although we're actually selling in Brazil." #Neurogram #EEG #HealthcareIT #ClinicalNeurophysiology #DigitalHealth #HealthDataStandardization #EMRIntegration #MedicalAI #PatientSafety #HealthcareInnovation neurogram.com Download the transcript here

Dan O'Toole, Founder and CEO of Arrive AI, is bringing asynchronous autonomous delivery systems to healthcare environments, enabling robots and drones to make deliveries without the recipient needing to be present. The goal is to automate logistical tasks to solve major inefficiencies in hospitals, freeing skilled workers from moving samples and supplies, which in turn improves the quality of care and reduces clinician burnout.  The system is presented as a way to make processes better, faster, fresher, cheaper, greener, and safer by eliminating bottlenecks and ensuring sample integrity through features such as temperature control and a security chain of custody. Dan explains, "I love that you started out with the term asynchronous. Nobody ever even knows what that is. So I applaud you. Thank you. That is the key to autonomy. Without it, you're not unlocking the full value of autonomy. So basically here at Arrive AI what we are doing is we're building the next network and platform to support and scale all kinds of autonomous delivery, whether it's robots, drones, unmanned vehicles, and still supporting conventional delivery, UPS, US Postal Service, and others. So we're excited about that." "But right now, anytime autonomous delivery happens, two things have to happen. You have to be there to meet the mode of delivery, and it has to be there to meet you. When you have an Arrive Point™ in that ecosystem, you've unlocked all the value of autonomous delivery because now the robot can beat you there. It can drop off the item that you're expecting at your Arrive Point and go on to its next mission without being held up."  #ArriveAI #AutonomousDelivery #HealthcareInnovation #HospitalRobotics #FutureOfHealthcare #DroneDelivery #HospitalOperations #ClinicalWorkflow #DigitalHealth #PatientSafety #LabMedicine #HealthcareLogistics #AIinHealthcare arriveai.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Matthew Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Medical at Castle Biosciences, discusses the uncertainty clinicians face when determining treatments for skin cancer due to the limitations of traditional pathology reports. Castle's gene expression profile tests were developed to improve the accuracy of risk stratification for patients with cutaneous melanoma and high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. These tests provide prognostic information by analyzing the tumor's RNA, offering more granular and accurate risk assessment and informing about the intensity of follow-up and long-term risk management strategies. Matthew explains, "So this is an important topic for dermatologists who are really on the front lines of skin cancer diagnosis and management for patients who are confronting skin cancer today. I'm a board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist by training. And to me, I think that the core uncertainty is centered around some of the known limitations around the prognostic accuracy of pathology. That's kind of worth unpacking here, but I think what it comes down to is that dermatologists are involved in identifying concerning skin lesions, identifying and, through biopsy, taking a skin sample, and finding skin cancers."   "Dermatopathologists are the collaborative colleagues who interpret the skin biopsy samples and return the pathological diagnoses to the dermatologist. For the treating clinician, the key task is to understand the implications of the types of skin cancers identified in this process to determine the most appropriate, risk-aligned downstream management for patients with these skin cancers." "So Castle Biosciences has developed a range of tests that are really focused on impactful skin cancers that are some of the biggest challenges for dermatologists and the patients that we serve in the clinic, specifically around cutaneous melanoma with the DecisionDx-Melanoma gene expression profile test and also high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas with the DecisionDx-SCC test." #CastleBiosciences #SkinCancer #CancerCare #HealthcareInnovation #Dermatology #MolecularDiagnostics #PrecisionMedicine #RiskStratification #ClinicalDecisionMaking #DigitalPathology #Oncology #Melanoma #SquamousCellCarcinoma #GeneExpression #SharedDecisionMaking castlebiosciences.com Download the transcript  

Sten Sörensen, CEO of Cereno Scientific, discusses work on epigenetic modulation to treat the rare disease Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, a progressive and fatal condition for which current treatments primarily manage symptoms. Core pathological processes of PAH include inflammation, fibrosis, and the growth of muscle cells in the pulmonary artery. Cereno's approach aims to be disease-modifying by targeting these conditions with HDAC inhibitors to regulate the production of essential proteins, potentially preventing or reversing disease. Sten explains, "We are working with something called epigenetic modulation. You know what DNA is, the map for our body and the protein production in our cells, that's the map. But the map needs guidance to produce essential proteins that are important for the body's function. The regulation of the production of essential proteins from the DNA map is regulated by epigenetic modulators. So sometimes that regulation can go wrong, and then it needs to be adjusted. And we are working with molecules with a mode of action that has epigenetic modulation. And these molecules are called, in this case, HDAC inhibitors."   "Well, the rare disease pulmonary arterial hypertension has a number of characteristics that propel the disease forward, and for the patient, that is very detrimental. And as we know, pulmonary arterial hypertension mostly affects women, and in the end, the disease is that you actually pass away. So you die normally of right heart failure, and the survival time is approximately seven to seven and a half years from diagnosis. So it's a very severe, rare disease, and current therapies are more directed to relieve symptoms than actually act to slow down, halt, or even reverse this detrimental progression of the disease." #CerenoScientific #RareDisease #PAH #PulmonaryArterialHypertension #PulmonaryHypertension #PatientCentricity #ClinicalDevelopment #Biotech #CardiovascularResearch #RightHeartFailure #RareDiseaseAwareness #PHawareness #HDAC #HDACinhibitor #Epigenetics #Cardiology #Pulmonology #CS1 #DiseaseModification #ClinicalTrials cerenoscientific.com Download the transcript here

Joseph Pandolfino, Founder and CEO of Cabbacis, is focused on reducing harm caused by smoking cigarettes by developing cigarettes made from a blend of low-nicotine tobacco and hemp.  This approach is intended to help smokers reduce their nicotine dependence and increase the success rate of those who are looking to quit smoking. Their products are targeted to established smokers by providing the taste and sensory experience of a traditional cigarette while providing significantly less nicotine and a path to less harmful non-combustible products. Joseph explains, "So our products in development are called iBlend. We'll stick with the cigarette right now. So iBlend is predominantly very low-nicotine tobacco, and you add hemp to the product. Hemp became legal at the federal level in 2018 for farmers. So every iBlend is the merger of very low-nicotine tobacco and hemp, which really creates the taste and sensory characteristics of a cigarette that just has very little nicotine tobacco."   "As I mentioned, currently nicotine is reduced by about 95%. They give you a little bit of nicotine but not enough to really sustain addiction. So the result is that people smoke less cigarettes and it has greatly increased their quit attempts. And while they reduce their nicotine exposure and dependence, if they choose to switch to a non-combustible, we consider that a win as far as we're concerned." #Cabbacis $CABI #EmpoweredPatient #HarmReduction #TobaccoHarmReduction #SmokingCessation #QuitSmoking #iBlend #FDA #PublicHealth #TobaccoControl #PublicHealth #Healthcare cabbacis.com Download the transcript here

Brian Robertson, Founder and CEO of VisiQuate, describes the relationship between payers and providers, noting that payers have the advantage due to unified data and lower complexity than providers face. He emphasizes that providers could level the playing field by unifying their data and leveraging AI to predict and prevent claim denials and solve systemic problems. The ultimate goal of using data and AI in the revenue cycle should be patient-centered, ensuring that the technology leads to more accurate billing and better outcomes for patients, providers, and payers. Brian explains, "I would say in general, and I think a lot of us in the industry know this, the payer or the health plan has the edge, partly because they have fewer jobs to be done every day. They manage a financial risk engine for the most part. And if you consider that the other side of that is the provider who has to have all the upfront labor, all of the upfront dollars, they have to think about every permutation of care and patient satisfaction and physician satisfaction. So good care benefits for patients. So there are a thousand jobs to be done on the provider side, and I'll just say fewer jobs to be done on the health plan side. And the health plan side controls the money."   "I think in today's world of AI, he who has the more unified data has the edge. And I think there's little debate that the payer right now has the edge because they have a unified dataset and are a financial risk engine. So, I think the opportunity is for providers to use the power of data now to begin to bring a little bit more balance to that question. And they've got a hard job ahead of them, for sure."  "So our core value proposition is really centered on data unification. We're getting into many case accounts, transactions, charges, claim files, remittance files, and third-party data sets from providers who sometimes are on one system of record. Often, they're on many systems of record. So we have to get all of that fragmented data, normalize, cleanse, unify, and curate that data for action."  #VisiQuate #HealthcareFinance #RevenueCycleManagement #AIinHealthcare #DataUnification #DeniedClaims #HealthIT #PayerProvider #PatientExperience VisiQuate.com Download the transcript here

Debra Berenson is Chair of the Fundraising Committee at the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research and author of two books- I Have WHAT and You Have WHAT, based on her personal experience and the expertise of her husband, Dr. Jim Berenson, a myeloma expert. Multiple myeloma and related bone cancers are increasingly common, and her books are designed to help patients and caregivers understand the diagnosis and treatment options. Debra emphasizes that treatments have advanced significantly, leading to much longer, higher-quality lives for patients and transforming these diseases into chronic, manageable conditions. Debra explains, "I thought, "If I had this disease, what would I do?" And I used to be a reporter, so that's how I told my husband I wanted to write these books - like interviews. I wanted to interview different patients with these diseases. I wanted to get the real stories out there of what it was really like having one of these diseases - the good, bad, and the ugly of dealing with all of them, and what helped these patients and what didn't help them." "I also thought it would be cathartic for the patient who could share their journey, and also helpful for the new patient. That's the first part of the book - interviews with the different patients who have the four different diseases that Jim treats. The second part of the book is made up of the medical professionals who treat these diseases. I interviewed Jim about myeloma and its related diseases and asked him to weigh in with his medical opinions in a general sense. So complications do arise as we discussed earlier. I interviewed a cardiologist targeting amyloidosis, and there's a periodontist talking about osteonecrosis of the jaw, which means part of the jaw dies. And so you have to have a special periodontist who knows how to replace a tooth or take a tooth out. Dental health is so important. So, that's the second part of the book. And I learned so much going out with these medical professionals who treat the complications." #IMBCR #MultipleMyeloma #MGUS #Waldenstroms #Amyloidosis #Hematology #Oncology #BerensonCancerCenter #sBCMA #ClinicalResearch #PatientCare #LiveBetterLiveLonger IMBCR.org Download the transcript here 

Anthony Tardi, head of ultrasound and radiology CT at Samsung HME America, is developing non-invasive, portable tools such as quantitative ultrasound to enable earlier detection of diseases that can be reversed if caught early. AI is being used to automate tedious, clerical tasks in imaging, allowing clinicians to focus more on the patient and clinical assessment.  Improving gateway imaging, such as ultrasound and X-rays, is seen as a way to benefit the entire healthcare system by potentially reducing the need for more expensive scans. Anthony explains, "We're developing technologies that use ultrasound to have a non-invasive tool that reduces the ionizing radiation and is able to quickly identify different levels of hepatic steatosis using quantitative ultrasound. So we're developing tools that, instead of getting a patient needing to have a biopsy or maybe another modality that may be more expensive or not accessible, such as MRI, we're able to develop tools using ultrasound to be able to acquire that information. So that would just be one example."   "So technology continues to evolve. I would say in the case of this particular technology, it's a combination of automation being implemented. We have access to some of the best hardware and semiconductor innovation, and we integrate those into the ultrasound systems. That gives us a little more power and automation, enabling us to access new levels of information beyond the traditional norm, I would say, in imaging." #SamsungHMEAmerica #SamsungHealthcare #MedicalImaging #HealthcareInnovation #ImagingInnovation #PatientCare #MedicalEquipment #UltrasoundInnovation #HealthTech #Ultrasound #Radiology #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth usa.samsunghealthcare.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Heather Bassett, Chief Medical Officer at Xsolis, is using AI to reduce friction between healthcare providers and payers in the utilization management and mid-revenue cycle space. Their Care Level Score is a data-driven metric derived from patient data to reduce manual processes, denials, and administrative costs for both hospitals and insurance companies. The system enables automated approvals for clear-cut cases, reduces repetitive administrative work, and reduces delays in patient diagnoses and treatment initiation.   Heather explains, "We're an AI company at heart. We work with acute care hospitals across the US. We live in what's called the utilization management and mid-revenue cycle space, which, to put that in layman's terms, is we make sure that hospitals get paid appropriately for the care they provide their patients."   "We recognized fairly quickly that there was just a tremendous amount of complexity in manual processes and saw an opportunity to layer in automation and AI to help decrease a lot of the friction, get rid of the manual processes. And then a larger opportunity we saw was to ease much of the friction between hospitals and providers and payers. And that's really where we've helped our clients solve that problem and move the needle forward." "Unfortunately, there is an increase in the number of denials, and that requires a lot of rework and submission on the hospital side. And also, when you look at what's happening, when the hospital is submitting information to get authorization for that inpatient hospital-level of care, they're doing a manual review and sending information to the payer. Well, there's a UR, utilization review, nurse on the payer side who is doing exactly the same thing, and a good percentage of the time they're coming to the same conclusion."  #Xsolis #HealthcareAI #UtilizationManagement #RevenueCycle #PriorAuth #PayerProvider #ClinicalAI #HealthIT  xsolis.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Houda Hachad, Vice President of Clinical Operations at Aranscia, highlights the importance of regular medication reviews in an age of growing polypharmacy and advancements in the use of pharmacogenomics to identify potential risks. The key goal is to use the minimal effective dose of a medication and determine which drugs are most effective for treating identified conditions without causing unintended side effects. Adopting a preemptive pharmacogenomic testing approach for patients taking more than 5 drugs is noted as a way to reduce hospital readmissions, emergency room visits, and adverse drug events. Houda explains, "So polypharmacy is becoming more and more common. I think the data shows that up to 40% of adults now take a lot of medications. And polypharmacy is typically defined as the regular use of five medications or more. But in some settings, we're seeing what we call excessive polypharmacy, which is using nine or more." "So there are multiple patient cohorts, as you can imagine, that take these medications, definitely patients in hospital settings, older patients, patients that suffer from behavioral health issues, and any chronic conditions, patients with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are going to be your typical polypharmacy patients. So our tools, which span genetic testing, medication reviews, and the use of various patient information to provide precision care, allow us to simplify and help doctors mitigate the risks associated with polypharmacy."   "Each time you add a medication to a patient, you're increasing the risk of having these adverse drug events. We have tools that can reduce the risk of polypharmacy, including pharmacogenomics." #Aranscia #Polypharmacy, #DrugGeneInteractions #dpydTesting #MedicationSafety #Pharmacogenomics  aranscia.com Download the transcript here

Selena Freisens, Head of Global Medical Affairs at Merz Therapeutics, is focused on increasing access to tools to support neurological health. They have developed a digital app iFlexo, which is designed to provide at-home physiotherapy for stroke survivors.  The app has been tested in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in partnership with the World Stroke Organization and is designed to operate offline as well, to serve users in rural areas with limited internet connectivity. Selena explains, "Our company is family-owned and in its fifth generation, so we have a rather long-term legacy, and the newer part is Merz Therapeutics, and our focus in Merz Therapeutics is on neuroscience. So we practically cover the number of movement disorders such as Spasms, Dystonias. We also have a focus on Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis."   "We continuously work on building this awareness and knowledge. One example is Parkinson's disease. And when I started working with Parkinson's disease, most of the patients would have off episodes, which are exacerbations of their symptoms, but many of these off episodes are underdiagnosed, and they're not really treated optimally. So it's really a lot of attention is needed to educate not only HCPs and, of course, some other stakeholders, but particularly patients."   "So the time also matters for stroke survivors. So it's very important that they start as soon as possible all the therapies, but also the physiotherapy at the same time. What this digital tool does is give two options. One is education on the one side, and on the other hand, a guided exercise that will enable people and stroke survivors to exercise at home. And with that, obviously, the personalized goals have been worked out together with the experts and HCPs so that they can achieve those goals faster, while working from home." #MerzTherapeutics #StrokeRehab #DigitalHealth #NeuroRehab #AccessToHealth #WorldStrokeOrganization #Physiotherapy #HealthEquity #TeleRehab #HCPs #Africafirst #AccesstoHealth #EquitableAccess #PostStrokeRehabilitation #PatientDrivenInnovation Merztherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Cara Altimus, the CEO of BD², and Emily Baxi, the Program Director of BD²'s Integrated Network, are focused on integrating research and clinical care to improve outcomes for people with bipolar disorder.  They emphasize the gaps in diagnostics and effective treatments and the need to collect comprehensive biological and clinical data to enable a precision medicine approach. Their Integrated Network is a longitudinal, large-scale study that complements their investments in new therapeutics, moving away from a trial-and-error approach to effective interventions for individuals. Cara explains, "When we think about the mission of BD², it's that we're bringing innovators and patients and the world together to drive new discovery, new understanding, and improved outcomes for people with bipolar disorder so that all people with bipolar disorder can thrive. And that thrive piece is critical to what we do. We're not just thinking about how we will change symptom outcomes, but we are thinking about how we engage across the whole life and all of the components of life, with science at the forefront of what we do." Emily elaborates, "I think it's important to acknowledge here that the tools and the technologies that we have today are quite different from even those that we had 20, 15 years ago, and they've really set the stage for how we can bring research and clinical care together. So we didn't have electronic health records in the past. We didn't have the ability to understand both from a phenotype level, meaning, can we understand the biology? Can we understand the clinical trajectory, the course of somebody's illness?" "We just didn't have the same tools to really bring clarity and understanding to that. So one of the reasons we're so excited about the Integrated Network is that it represents a framework where we're bringing those components together so that research and clinical care are really sitting side by side. So, in practice, that looks like a longitudinal cohort study." #BipolarDiscoveries #BipolarDisorder #MentalHealthResearch #PrecisionPsychiatry #LearningHealthSystem #IntegratedCare #Psychiatry #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalResearch #DataDrivenCare #PopulationHealth bipolardiscoveries.org Download the transcript here

Sundar Subramanian, CEO of Zyter, points out that the primary issue in healthcare is not a lack of AI intelligence but a failure in AI execution.  He advocates for a vertical AI integration approach that solves entire domain-specific workflows rather than horizontal or point solutions that automate existing, often inefficient processes. To ensure safe and effective use of AI, implement guardrails that promote transparency and augment clinicians by reducing friction, helping reduce errors, and building trust. Sundar explains, "You see a lot of AI companies around, but when you look at healthcare, especially the problem we have in healthcare, it is actually not an AI intelligence problem. What we have is an AI execution problem. The models are really growing fast and can do all kinds of tasks, but if you look at healthcare and the overall healthcare economy, trillions of dollars are still spent on lots of manual processes because doing things at scale and executing things at scale is not easy. And so Zyter is a company that's trying to solve that problem, which is really how do you coordinate and execute workflows end-to-end safely, transparently, and with humans trusting it and still in control. And so that's what we intend to do and are doing at Zyter."   "So what we mean by that is that problems get solved at the domain level. And when you solve problems at the domain level, it's not a single decision problem. You can embed horizontal tools to enable convenience and do things slightly better than they are today by embedding point solutions, and lots of platforms can help do that. But when you solve for a domain workflow end-to-end, you need a lot of domain intelligence. You need to understand how the regulatory context works. You need to understand how policies and the governance of those policies need to be done. So it's not a single decision problem. And to do that, you need to orchestrate across lots of tools and data that span many domains to solve for outcomes like healthcare access, total cost of care, or quality." #ZyterAI #AIinHealthcare #HealthIT #ClinicalWorkflow #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #CareDelivery #HealthSystems #Payers #ValueBasedCare Zyter.ai Download the transcript here

Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, Director of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He's also co-lead author of a study on whether biofield therapy can impact pancreatic cancer. The study demonstrated that biofield therapy could decrease cancer cell proliferation, disrupt mitochondrial function, and reduce metastasis in both cell cultures and animal models, with results comparable to chemotherapy without the side effects. He highlights the challenges to the wider acceptance of this therapy, given the lack of understanding of its mechanism of action and awareness about this growing area of integrative medicine. Lorenzo explains, "So biofield therapies fall into this category of, let's call them treatment modalities in the field of integrative medicine. So integrative medicine can be things like acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation, nutrition counseling, exercise, things that you could say fall outside of the conventional traditional medical treatments that are within hospital systems. Now, integrative medicine as a whole and integrative oncology in particular have had a huge uptake in hospital systems because of the evidence base in those areas that I just described. The one area that probably remains the most controversial is this area of biofield therapies or often known as energy medicine. I don't actually really like using the term energy medicine because that implies that we know it has something to do with energy, and we're actually not sure exactly what the mechanism is of these therapies. And so what are these? So many of the listeners will have heard of things like Reiki, healing touch, or therapeutic touch."   "External Qigong falls into this category. These are modalities where a practitioner has been trained to be able to work with their own consciousness or their own intention, potentially the biofield of their body. And it is not controversial to know that we as human beings are energetic beings, and we actually do emit biophotons by the nature of being human. But the controversial part is that they are doing that towards a target, whether that be a human being, or, in our case, cells or animals in a laboratory.  And we, in particular, worked with a biofield therapy called the Bengston Cycling Method." #MDAnderson #IntegrativeOncology #BiofieldTherapy #PancreaticCancer #Metastasis #FOXM1 #Mitochondria #PreclinicalResearch #EnergyMedicine #OncologyResearch.  Biofield Therapy Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Six Download the transcript here

Geoff Rhyne, Co-Founder and CEO of IDefine, discusses the mission to advance research into Kleefstra syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, and to find a treatment where there is currently none. This organization of parents of children with KS is advocating for broader genetic sequencing to identify KS patients and differentiate the condition from other possible diagnoses, such as autism. Their research strategy is to first build the necessary infrastructure, including real-world data, model systems, and clinical guidelines, to de-risk the process for researchers and directly fund drug development. Geoff explains, "We're dedicated to advancing research, building community, and driving progress for Kleefstra syndrome. And the inspiration behind it is that a bunch of parents had impacted children. And, namely, for me, my daughter Ella received her diagnosis on February 26th, 2019. You asked a rare disease parent. Their diagnosis day and odds are they'll be able to rattle off pretty quickly because it is life-altering and changing. And once we looked around the landscape of Kleefstra syndrome and what was being done, we identified a need. And so a group of other parents and I came together and founded the organization in 2020."   "KS is one of these rare genetic disorders, and it affects brain development and basically every aspect of a child's life. And it could encompass developmental delays, feature delays, seizures, kidney issues, and cascading other conditions. So what happens with KS is that when you get the diagnosis, folks have often gone on a diagnostic odyssey. It's very rare that folks are being identified early on. And so we're part of that cohort that believes there are many more patients out there with KS, but the diagnostic odyssey is a real challenge. And so we typically will see kids receiving their diagnosis from three years to we've had someone diagnosed at 40 before, which is just a crazy experience as you can imagine." #IDefine #KleefstraSyndrome #EHMT1 #RareDisease #RareDiseaseResearch #NeurodevelopmentalDisorders #GeneticDisorders #PatientAdvocacy #CaregiverSupport #FamilyLedResearch #RareDiseaseCommunity #PrecisionMedicine #Genomics #MedicalResearch #ClinicalResearch #TranslationalResearch #DiagnosticJourney #PatientSupport #ResearchFunding #InclusiveCare #PatientVoices #RareDiseaseAwareness IDefine.org Download the transcript here

Philippe Pouletty, M.D., CEO of Truffle Capital and Founder of Carvolix, describes the evolution of heart valve replacement and the significance of AI-guided robotics in expanding access to transcatheter procedures. The company's biomimetic mitral valve and AI software that guides valve placement using a mini robot are making these procedures safer and easier for less experienced cardiologists to perform.  The technology is also being adapted to treat brain strokes by enabling a larger pool of cardiologists to quickly perform necessary interventions. Philippe explains, "At Truffle Capital, are what we like to call ourselves Business Builders, which is to say we're not just going to start small companies, we are going to try and build world leaders to revolutionize medicine. For Carvolix, this means interventional cardiology as well as the treatment of brain strokes. As you know, replacing heart valves is a major medical need. We have four heart valves that open and close 50 to 100 times per minute, which can get calcified and dysfunctional with time and need replacement. So 40 years ago, you would go to a skilled surgeon who would say, "Okay, I'm going to open your chest. I'm going to stop your heart, and I'm going to sew a new valve."   "But recently we decided to lead the new revolution, which is a small robot based on artificial intelligence, that could autonomously, under the clinical supervision of a cardiologist, replace a valve. We think that this new revolution is going to allow many more patients to benefit from aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valve replacement, even in smaller cardiac centers and among younger cardiologists. A similar revolution happened in the cockpit of Boeing and Airbus planes when the autopilot, the GPS systems, and satellite systems brought autonomy to planes." #Carvolix #CardiacNews #PatientCare #HealthTech #Cardio #AIinHealthcare #InterventionalCardiology #StrokeCare #MedTechInnovation #RoboticsInMedicine #TAVI #Thrombectomy #DigitalHealth Carvolix.eu Download the transcript here

Colin Lawlor, CEO of Sleep ai, is focused on exploring sleep intelligence and sleep as a vital sign of health. The Sleep ai platform measures sleep longitudinally using data from consumer wearables and smartphones, with an emphasis on night-to-night variability, which is not captured in a single-night sleep lab. Poor sleep and variation in sleep patterns have been identified as highly predictive indicators of over 130 chronic diseases and have an impact on mental well-being and the effectiveness of medical treatments. Colin explains, "What we're doing is we're measuring sleep longitudinally, over the long term, and we're measuring it from whatever device the consumer has. For some consumers or patients, it may be wearable, and there are many, many different wearables, or for others, it's simply from their phone. We have the ability to collect high-quality sleep data from everyone every day. And that's really important because when we get into this, we'll talk about why longitudinal measurement is really helpful in dealing with sleep challenges themselves, but also in seeing sleep as a window into literally everything to do with our health."   "There are several factors going on here. The first one is that globally, four billion people wake up tired almost every day. We do not have, and we will never have, a sufficient number of sleep labs to send all of them for a one-night study. And if we collect data for only one night, we're only getting one picture of how that person is sleeping. But as we all know, life gets in the way. We may have had a stressful day, or we may have had an argument with our significant other. We may be suffering from a cold."   "Whatever it is, all of these multiple factors influence sleep. So if we over-rely on one data point to understand what's going on, it's just not sufficient. So what we are finding is that, actually, the variance night to night is probably the most useful and insightful thing we can see. Because when we look at the variance across many nights, we have a much more accurate picture of what's happening with the person's sleep, and that's highly predictive of many, many other conditions, issues, and challenges."  #SleepAI #DigitalHealth #SleepAsAVitalSign #ChronicDisease #PopulationHealth #AIinHealthcare #Wearables #LongitudinalData #SleepHealth, #SleepScience  sleep.ai Download the transcript here

Zach Wood, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Artera, and Meg Jackson, Director of IT for Beauregard Health Systems, join to discuss patient engagement in a rural healthcare setting that previously relied on minimal patient communication, relying on phone calls. The introduction of two-way texting has increased patient engagement, streamlined appointment scheduling, and improved medication adherence.  In communities with fewer landlines and limited broadband and computers, this secure texting solution is easy to use and available on patients' mobile devices for convenient access and an effective way to supplement in person care. Zach explains, "Artera works with a very broad set of provider organizations, ranging from specialty clinics to health systems to even federal agencies. We have about a thousand customers that we serve and have organizations like Beauregard that partner with us very closely in rural environments."   Meg elaborates, "We may have had some phone calls going out to patients before Artera, but no text reminder. So this was a brand new world for us. We wanted to bring more to the text message, to the patient on their personal devices. We live in a rural area, so maybe broadband is less accessible in our area. So we were trying to bring something to their devices for the patient." "Well, everyone today has a cell phone. Not everyone has a computer. A lot of people don't even have home phones anymore. So we wanted to get that as a text message to the patient, where they could just respond to it. The beauty of Artera, which first drew me to Artera, was the two-way communication. The patient can initiate the conversation without ever having been a patient here before. They can text the main number of our facility and start a conversation, and we can even have different rules set up on the Artera side, where it could trigger a certain conversation based on the patient's keywords. So that really empowers us to make it more customizable for our patient communication." #Artera #BeauregardHealthSystem #DrFirst #EmpoweredPatient #MedicationAdherence #HealthEquity #RuralHealth #HealthcareInnovation #PatientEngagement #DigitalHealth #RuralHealth #PatientExperience #HealthIT #SecureMessaging Artera.io Beauregard.org Download the transcript here

John D'Alesandro, a healthcare operations guru, Amplefi stresses that generally, healthcare operations do not suffer from a lack of staff or technology but from a failure to properly define goals and understand healthcare as a complex system. The reliance on outdated processes and the misapplication of technology has led to the introduction of AI into the environment without first addressing foundational system flaws. He advocates for a simpler, common-sense approach rather than platitudes about patient safety, ensuring that AI models are not trained on inaccurate data from broken systems or undocumented workarounds. John asks, "What is healthcare? Well, healthcare is a ton of things. What is the patient experience? Well, depends on the patient. So when we use these generic terms, they tend to cloud the performance of the system. So I think the first place we need to start is to say something like, " What's an ER experience that we're proud of?" If it's four hours, then it's four hours. But if it's longer or shorter than that, we need targets and reference models to know what we're doing, because we're adding a lot of things and a lot of complexity. We're not really realizing that those are systems. Those systems, when they produce friction, get hit on the frontline. The front lines have to deal with vague, unclear expectations."   "Patient experience isn't smiling. It's delivering your care in a reliable way. People get frustrated because they sit around waiting and wondering what the heck's going on. So I think just spending a little bit of time defining everything in your hospital, because every hospital's different." #Amplefi #DigitalHealth #PatientExperience #HealthcareInnovation #ConnectedHealth #PrecisionMedicine #HealthcareOperations #WorkflowDesign#OperationalExcellence #HealthcareSystems #FixTheProcess #BeforeCareBreaks #StructureMatters #ProcessOverTools #StopScalingChaos #HealthcareOperations #HospitalWorkflow #ClinicianBurnout #HealthSystems #AIinHealthcare #Telehealth #CareCoordination amplefi.com Download the transcript here

Ilana Golant, Founder and CEO of the Food Allergy Fund, discusses the increasing prevalence and complexity of food allergies in people of all ages and the lack of research, funding, and diagnostics in this field. The Food Allergy Fund is taking a multifaceted approach to address these challenges, including funding microbiome research, exploring drug repurposing, and leveraging AI to develop better diagnostic tools.  The goal is to find a cure for food allergies to prevent life-threatening anaphylaxis and drive research into the connection between food allergies and gut and immune health. Ilana explains, "We launched a microbiome research collective recently because we really think the microbiome is the common denominator for many diseases. I mean, food allergy really no longer exists in isolation. It used to be 20 years ago, you would say someone had a peanut allergy. That patient doesn't really exist anymore. It is estimated that 40% of patients who have food allergies also have asthma, which is a significant comorbidity, but their other diseases overlap with Crohn's, juvenile diabetes, and atopic dermatitis, among others."   "We really think of food allergy as the canary in the coal mine for lifelong gut and immune health, and what the microbiome dysregulation could mean not only for food allergy, but for broader gut health. And so as part of our Microbiome Collective, we're right now funding studies at six different research institutions across the country to try to figure out what this gut dysbiosis means for food allergy and much more." #FoodAllergyFund #FoodAllergyResearch #FoodAllergyAwareness #Biotech #Immunology #PatientAdvocacy #HealthcareInnovation #FoodAllergy #Microbiome #AIinHealthcare #DrugRepurposing #AllergyResearch #Anaphylaxis #PrecisionMedicine #EmpoweredPatient foodallergyfund.org Download the transcript here

Talia Cohen Solal, CEO and Co-Founder of NeuroKaire, is focused on improving patient outcomes of those with depression by predicting the most effective antidepressant for each individual. The NeuroKaire platform personalizes psychiatric treatment by creating neurons from a patient's blood sample to model their brain and test drug responses, pointing the way to an effective treatment, avoiding prolonged trial-and-error. This is a significant advancement over existing pharmacogenomic tests, which primarily provide information on drug metabolism rather than drug efficacy. This technology is also being applied to other conditions like ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and epilepsy.   Talia explains, "At NeuroKaire, we are dedicated to improving patient outcomes in psychiatry and neurology. To do that, we've developed a platform to predict which antidepressant is best for each patient and are expanding out to other disease indications to achieve that mission."   "Basically, around 2006, Yamanaka and his colleagues discovered that you could take any cell in the body and turn it back into a stem cell. And that changed everything for the field. So what we can do now is we can take a blood sample, turn it back into a stem cell, and then turn it into whatever cell type we'd like. And our mission is to help people with brain disorders and psychiatric disorders. And so we turn those stem cells into neurons. And now we have a model of the patient's brain. Now we have neurons from the patient's brain and a little ecosystem mimicking a patient's brain. And there we can actually see what's going wrong in the connectivity, what's changed in those patients, and what drugs are going to have the best outcome to reverse those changes." #NeuroKaire #PrecisionPsychiatry #MentalHealth #Antidepressants #BrightKaire #PersonalizedMedicine #PGx #Neuroscience #HealthcareInnovation neurokaire.com Download the transcript here

Todd Van Meter, CEO of Accuity, highlights the evolution of the revenue cycle from simple billing and coding to include data analytics to reduce friction and prevent revenue leakage.  Accuity specializes in reviewing inpatient accounts before billing, using a combination of AI and physicians to ensure claims are compliant and accurate. Getting the clinical analysis and coding correct initially significantly reduces costly, time-consuming clinical denials.  Todd explains, Revenue cycle is a term that's really become more relevant here, in the last maybe decade plus. Years ago, it used to be called billing and coding and a whole different bunch of terms. And really, it's this whole idea of how, when a patient's going through their care event, how are you tracking them from when they access care all the way through documenting their care to coding the care they received and then getting a bill out to an insurance company or to a patient to get reimbursed for the care they received. And so the transformation has been going on for a long time."   "The cost has been pretty well identified over the years. From a cost perspective, the goal is to perform all of this work as cost-effectively as possible, and faster is better for patients and for hospitals in terms of processing accounts, cash flow, and other financial metrics. So I think what I've seen happening for health systems is that the data is allowing for better visibility, back to your cost point, into where there are opportunities to take out friction, to do things better, faster, cheaper, to process accounts. And to take care of patients better, and communicate better to both patients and insurance companies, and internally, just from a tracking perspective, and to make sure, to your other point, that there's really not any leakage all along the way." #Accuity #Healthcare #RevenueCycleManagement #RCM #Hospitals #InpatientCare #MedicalAI #HumanintheLoop accuityhealthcare.com Download the transcript here

Ewa and Doug Tweedy, and Dr. Nancy M. Young, the Lillian Wells Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, come together to discuss bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Nancy served as the principal investigator for a clinical trial examining the use of MED-EL's cochlear implants in young children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Ewa and Doug's daughter, Ella, was born deaf in both ears and enrolled in the trial at seven months. The procedure and device have demonstrated safety and efficacy in supporting the development of listening and spoken language skills, with some surprising results. The Tweedy family emphasizes the importance of therapy and parental engagement in achieving positive outcomes, noting that Ella is excelling in a mainstream school.  Nancy explains, "Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss is permanent hearing loss. It arises from the inner ear. So we're not talking about temporary hearing loss from, say, fluid in the ear after a routine ear infection. So it usually arises from the inner ear, sometimes from the nerve of hearing. And it's often present at birth in certain children, but it can also have a later onset after birth." Ewa elaborates, "So, at the hospital right after her birth, we had someone come in to perform the newborn hearing screening, and we had two of those done one day after the next, and she did not pass either one of those. So they tried to tell us it might possibly be the fluid in the ears. So we just remained hopeful. But then, after a couple of weeks, we got her retested, again, and she did not pass. And then we went in for what Dr. Young referred to as the ADR so that diagnostic testing could be done for children. And there we found out that she did have the bilateral, so both sides, profound sensorineural hearing loss. We were told she was completely deaf." Doug continues, "I've had some passing information about it previously. I definitely was not an expert, definitely had not done the level of investigation and reading that I've done at this point. It was at least a familiarity to me. I do have a technologist background, so technology is something that has always been an interest to me, and cochlear implants are definitely a very unique technology." #MEDEL #CochlearImplants #Pediatrics #Audiology #ENT #EarlyIntervention #HearingHealth #SensorineuralHearingLoss #NeonatalCare #ChildDevelopment MEDEL.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Julie Chen, Chief Medical Officer at Radence, outlines the use of genomic precision medicine and advanced biomarkers and imaging technology for early detection and diagnosis of disease, with a focus on extending the health span, not just the lifespan, of their clients.  This comprehensive membership-based model aggregates members' health data to create a 360° view of their health risks. AI is a critical tool for identifying trends in longitudinal data, enabling more accurate and personalized health monitoring for both those who are healthy and those recovering from an existing condition. Julie explains, "Our model is a membership-based model primarily because a lot of the leading-edge technology is not insurance-covered. And so we're able to then utilize what is necessary for the diagnosis and the management, and actionable steps for the members, without having to worry about what insurance will or will not cover." "Our members come through, and we actually aggregate all of their outside medical records and data because we want to see what their baseline health has been up to the point that they join us as a member. And then at that point, we actually get from the cellular level all the way up to the organ level and functionality level, we start to aggregate information about their genomics, so the blueprint of who they are health-wise."   "The key focus here is really looking at the concept that longevity is a larger picture phrase that has been in this industry, used across the board for a lot of different things. That could encompass biohacking, to true evidence-based genomic precision medicine, to just trends of what people are using. So I think it's really important for your listeners to understand that longevity is theoretically in the category of what we're doing in that space, but the very important point is to really look at the space, as there are a lot of things on the market now."   #Radence #GenomicMedicine #PrecisionMedicine #EarlyDetection #HealthSpan #Longevity #AIinHealthcare #PreventiveCare  Radence.com Download the transcript here

Rick Focke, Director of Product and Market Development for Johnson Controls, focuses on AI's role in modernizing healthcare security and helping hospitals shift from reactive to proactive security. AI is improving staff efficiency, reducing nuisance alarms, detecting unauthorized wandering, and transforming cameras into multifaceted sensors for tasks such as fall detection and asset tracking, all without constant human monitoring. Of particular concern is the rise in workplace violence, and these cameras can detect aggressive behavior before incidents escalate. Rick explains, "Hospitals are a unique use case where they are in a very public space. So how do you secure a public space? You have to really weigh the security versus public areas and then keep the really sensitive areas safe and secure. And even though it might be mainly public spaces, keep a vigilant watch on those spaces. And we're using now a lot of AI to help in that task to really react quickly, to be proactive when things do go awry."   "The most unmet needs, I would say, would be being more proactive in the workplace violence area. It is really increasing from all the studies I've been reading. We need to do a better job of heading off in the pass. And that's where AI is really helping. With AI, you can train the system to detect bad behaviors or aggressive behaviors in patients, contractors, or anyone. When that happens, the system can alert the operators. They can send out different kinds of alerts based on how important it is, which really helps create a safer environment. We also have a lot of wearables that have person-down alerts when something happens that can reinforce that whole response when something is going awry." #JohnsonContols #HealthcareSecurity #HospitalSafety #AIinHealthcare #ClinicalSafety #WorkplaceViolencePrevention #PPECompliance #InfectionControl #SmartHospital #DigitalHealth #HealthIT #PatientSafety #HealthcareInnovation #OperationalExcellence johnsoncontrols.com Download the transcript here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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