Empowered Patient Podcast

Alice Lin, DCT Solutions Director in the DCT Business Department of Tigermed Consulting, a global CRO, contract research organization, that provides biopharmaceutical and medical device companies with a range of services including digital technology to conduct decentralized clinical trials. Their approach focuses on patient-centricity, efficiency, and adaptability. By utilizing digital tools such as virtual visits, wearable devices, and mobile apps, Tigermed aims to make clinical trials more accessible and convenient for patients, improving recruitment and retention rates. They also emphasize the importance of DCT in including a diverse patient population in trials, particularly for rare diseases. Alice explains, "While our headquarters is in China, we have grown into a global team of over 10,000 employees operating across over 180 locations worldwide. We recently celebrated our 20 anniversary, making two decades of dedicated collaborations with over 2,800 customers on their product journeys. DCT stands for decentralized clinical trials, which involves applying digital technologies to conduct clinical trials. Traditionally, most clinical trial activities are conducted at clinical sites. Still, with DCT, we can conduct some or even all of the trial procedures outside of these sites using digital technology." "Currently, the hybrid DCT model is a common thing in clinical trials. It means some of the trial procedures could be conducted outside of clinical sites, but still keep some clinical trial activities at clinical sites. In our Tigermed DCT department, we are responsible for identifying the appropriate digital technologies for using in clinical trials, whether through self-development or collaboration with the various digital technology companies. We also manage the DCT daily operations in each clinical trial from the study beginning to the study completion." "However, we get that every investigational product and the therapeutic areas bring its own set of challenges and patient needs. So, we make it a priority to figure out what digital tools work best for each study. Our CEO, Dr. Cao, and our head of the DCT business department always say our goal is not just to do decentralized clinical trials for the sake of it. It's about giving patients and caregivers options that fit their needs. This approach means patients and caregivers get solutions that work for them, showing that we are all about being flexible to what they need. Our decentralized clinical trials are all about making things easier for patients, lightening the load for our caregivers, and making the whole trial experience better for all stakeholders involved." #TigermedGRP #CRO #ContractResearchOrganization #DCT #DecentralizedClinicalTrials #MedTech #RemoteMonitoring TigermedGRP.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Marshall Fordyce, CEO and Founder of Vera Therapeutics, discusses the company's patient-centric approach to developing new medicines for autoimmune diseases. Vera is currently in Phase 3 with a molecule called Atacicept, which targets B cells in autoimmune diseases. They focus on IgA nephropathy, a rare kidney disease, and the third most common cause of kidney failure. A key concern is that declining kidney function is often misdiagnosed and not screened for because the early warning signs are so subtle. Marshall explains, "Let me give you an example of our lead indication. So, our molecule in development is called atacicept. It targets the immune system in the specific area of B cells, and B cells are the factories of our antibodies, which we need to fight infection over our lifetime. But in patients with autoimmune disease, these B cells are overstimulated, they're overactive, and there are only a few medicines that target B cells with an appropriate balance of safety and efficacy. We had an insight that the science told us that by inhibiting two key factors in the body, BAFF and APRIL, we could normalize that overactivity of B cells and have better outcomes." "Now traditional drug development may be long and expensive. We were very strategic in picking IgA nephropathy. This is an area that has had very little drug development over the last decade. A few small companies started to become interested in this area, and thankfully, because of patient advocacy, the FDA allowed a surrogate endpoint in Phase 3 trials, which made it more efficient to bring this molecule forward. So, there are now two drugs on the market for the first time in the last three or four years, for two new drugs in IgA nephropathy. They don't target B cells, which is really what's driving this disease. They work downstream, or they're nonspecific." "What Vera did differently is that we thought that we could actually demonstrate that kidney function, which in these young patients is declining at an alarming rate, if we could demonstrate that kidney function doesn't decline, that would be meaningful. It would be a significant leap. We don't see that happen in "traditional" drug development often, in my view. So, I think what's different here is that we're picking an area where we think we can intervene and, in early-stage development, show a meaningful improvement in outcomes for patients." #VeraTherapeutics #KidneyDisease #RareDisease #BCells #Immunotherapy #AutoimmuneDiseases #IgANephropathy veratx.com Download the transcript here

Pascal Prigent, the CEO of GENFIT, a French biotech that has been working on liver diseases for about 20 years and has developed a compound called elafibranor for conditions such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). He highlights the high unmet medical need in ACLF, which currently has no approved treatment options and a high mortality rate. Prigent also discusses Genfit's partnership with Ipsen for the development and commercialization of elafibranor in PBC. Pascal explains, "In reality, we don't have any approved option in ACLF, which is actually quite dramatic because you have a high mortality rate. To give you a little bit of context, people are suffering from chronic liver disease, regardless of the etiology. It can be too much alcohol consumption, it could be NASH, it could be viral hepatitis. Any kind of chronic liver disease will give us all the same journey, if you will." "First, you have an injury to the liver. Then you have a progressive liver scar. You have the setup of fibrosis, that fibrosis becomes worse and worse. It becomes bridging fibrosis, but at some point, it will become cirrhosis. And that cirrhosis is first compensated, and then one day it can decompensate, and on that already failing organ, you have a precipitating factor." "That precipitating factor could be an infection, binge-drinking, or drug-induced trauma. That stress on an already sick organ will get the liver to decompensate, and that decompensation of the liver will trigger additional organ decomposition, and that's what ACLF is. It's a syndrome at the very end of chronic liver diseases." #GENFIT #LiverDisease #NASH #PBC #ACLF #LiverFailure #Hepatitis #ChronicLiverDisease #RareDisease GENFIT.com Download the transcript here

Phil Johnston, President and CEO of Johnston Associates, and an advisor to EO Care, the market leader in providing clinically-guided cannabis use. Phil discusses the potential for research from the reclassification of cannabis from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. With current Federal restrictions on cannabis, research has not been conducted on the potential therapeutic use for pain relief, depression, PTSD, and other conditions. With a change in classification, researchers can develop protocols, test different cannabis strains, run clinical trials, and determine dosage and form for therapies. Phil explains, "So changing the Schedule from I to III is a game-changer because it's going to allow for research in the cannabis area in terms of dosage, what's the appropriate dosage, what kind of marijuana should be used for whatever ails you. There's a particular emphasis, of course, on pain relief and sleeplessness and depression. It appears that cannabis can have a very serious positive impact on those maladies, but we need much more research, and that's where we come in. That's what we're trying to focus on with EO Care." "If you talk to any MD in the country, they'll tell you that they didn't learn anything about cannabis in medical school, and that was because of the Federal ban. And so there hasn't been a lot of research done. It's anecdotal at this point, such as my wife's situation, and what we need is for the Federal Government and the states to lead the way to make sure that there's funding for research and that medical schools are including that in their curricula. The research will involve what normally is involved with drugs, which is trials to determine exactly what the best treatments would be." "Dosing is very important to figure out how much of it one needs, given whatever the specific problem is. And none of that research has been done in this country yet. Now, we're doing a sweep of international studies. It turns out that Canada, which legalized this a long time ago, has done trials and has some research, which we can adapt. However, that work has to be done, and it has to be done within medical institutions in the United States as well." #MedicalCannabisAccessibility #MedicalCannabisClinicalResearch #MedicalCannabisCancerPatients #CannabisRescheduling #FutureofMedicalCannabis PWJohnston.com EOCare.com Download the transcript here

Salome Juethner, Senior Medical Director, Head of Rare Genetics, and Interim Head of Rare GI at Takeda, discusses HAE, hereditary angioedema, a rare genetic disorder that causes painful and unpredictable swelling attacks that can be life-threatening. Salome emphasizes the need to educate physicians to consider HAE as a potential diagnosis in children as young as two years old and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. To treat HAE, Takeda offers Takhzyro, a medication that can be used on-demand and as a preventative therapy, administered at home through a subcutaneous injection. Salome explains, "Hereditary angioedema, or HAE, is a rare genetic disorder with a prevalence of one in 50,000. It can cause very painful, unpredictable swelling attacks that can occur in the throat, abdomen, hands, feet, and face. And as you can imagine, a throat attack could be potentially life-threatening. There are different triggers for these attacks. Some can just be stress and that could be positive stress like a wedding or going to prom or an illness and others. It can be quite limiting when you have to live thinking if I do something, is that going to trigger an attack? The symptoms can change over time, and HAE may not necessarily look the same for each person. Typically, people with HAE are missing an important protein in their blood called a C1 inhibitor. Either they're missing it or have very low levels, and it just may not work the way it should." "For people who have never heard of HAE, things get a lot more difficult because they rely on their physician, who may or may not be aware of this very rare disease and consider it part of the differential diagnosis. So it is not uncommon to hear patients talk about going for years before they ever got their diagnosis and that they were experiencing symptoms during that time, going to the emergency room, and maybe even being misdiagnosed with another condition until they finally saw someone who thought, oh, you know what? We should screen you for HAE." "Screening is really just a blood test. So, you would screen for a C4 level, which would be low or normal. If you're thinking about whether this could be HAE, then you would go ahead and check a C1 inhibitor level and a functional C1 level, and then those would be low as well. It's really about educating people, though, to consider it as part of the differential diagnosis." #Takeda #HAE #HereditaryAngioedema #RareDisease takeda.com Download the transcript here

Lorie Spence and Carolyn Pritchard, Co-Founders of Bridge Medical Communications, focus on developing tools and resources to support healthcare professionals and patients in collaborating and making informed treatment decisions. They emphasize the importance of patient-centered care, participatory medicine, and patient engagement to help address therapeutic challenges and barriers that impact patient outcomes. By applying healthcare communication strategies and providing practical and functional tools for use at the point of care, they are bridging the gap between providers and patients. Lorie explains, "Some tools we developed through Bridge Medical Communications through CONNECT really support healthcare professionals at the point of care. With the dynamic shift in the marketplace, with precision medicine and the need to engage the multidisciplinary team, we've developed tools like flow sheets that can be integrated into the EMRs to help assist and prompt through the steps of care from assessment of all the way to therapeutic onboarding and management." Carolyn elaborates, "Connecting is ensuring that the patient's voice and that the patient is, as you mentioned, participating in their healthcare journey. So we're trying to support industry and stakeholders in developing these tools so they can collaborate with the patients. As we've mentioned, it might be a patient counseling tool, like a transition tool, these types of things provide continuity of care critical between the patient, the healthcare provider, and often, caregivers." #BridgeMedComms #PatientsVoice #PatientCentric #HealthcareProfessionals #ParticipatoryMedicine #HealthcareCommunications bridgemedcomms.ca Download the transcript here

John Celebi, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sensei Biotherapeutics, emphasizes the need to develop better patient selection strategies and next-generation therapeutics for cancer patients. Through their Tumor Microenvironment-Activated Biologics platform (TMAb), Sensei develops conditionally active therapeutics designed to be active only within the low-pH tumor microenvironment. Current pipeline candidates are designed to be active only within the low-pH tumor microenvironment and show potential to overcome the challenges of VISTA, a promising checkpoint target. John explains, "As an industry, we have some tough choices. Other strategies, both within and outside of IO, have made much better progress in targeting which patients will respond and which patients won't respond to treatment. Those are decisions that we have to make as an industry to keep up." "The second one I would point to is that we're now in a decade after the first immuno-oncology drug approval. And so, we have a whole generation of patients now that have been exposed to checkpoint therapy, and that are now many of whom resistant to checkpoint therapy. We call that acquired resistance. And so the game has really changed. It's an open question: whether the first PD-1 drugs would be approved today if all of those patients had been treated with some other checkpoint therapy prior to it raises the bar. This means new strategies are needed to treat patients with acquired resistance to immunotherapy." "One of the interesting things about VISTA is that it does play a key role in the tumor microenvironment. The tumor microenvironment is unique because it's an environment inside the body in which cells proliferate very rapidly. That leads to a whole host of subsequent changes that affect the outcome of therapy, the fact that when cells are dividing rapidly, the pH in the area tends to drop, and it becomes more acidic. And that's directly related to the function of VISTA. It's one of the things that makes VISTA unique because VISTA is only activated as an immune checkpoint under lower pH conditions." #SenseiBio #ImmunOncology #PatientSelection #Immunotherapy #Cancer #Tumors #ImmuneCheckpointTargets #VISTA SenseiBio.com Download the transcript here

William Hind, agency principal at Alpharmaxim, highlights that traditional methods of educating patients and physicians may not effectively drive behavior change. Applying behavioral science in healthcare communications is a way to understand the barriers to adopting new medicines and therapies and patient and provider reluctance to change. Behavioral science will become increasingly helpful for the pharmaceutical and medical tech industries to ensure that novel therapies, wearable devices, and at-home diagnostic equipment are successfully marketed to the right patients at the right time with accurate information. William explains, "At present, there's a great deal of needed emphasis on educating people about diseases and any therapies that come forward. However, it may not be a lack of information inhibiting prescribing clinicians or patients from adopting a new medicine. It may be that it's an old habit of physicians, or it may be that the patients have accepted a regimen that they are reluctant to move away from. So it's about the need to try and discover all of the different aspects of what might be acting as a barrier in making sure that new medicines are adopted as quickly as possible." "When it comes to behavioral change, I don’t think people realize quite what a science it is. You know, it's firmly rooted in psychology and sociology. There is clear evidence supporting its use. We use the COM-B model, a well-reputed approach to defining barriers. This is interesting because pharmaceuticals, in particular, and patient communications are all heavily dependent on the data and evidence, yet the way they communicate is usually governed by habit. We're trying to encourage people to look at what's needed to shift behaviors instead of just relying on habitual communication." "There is a wealth of examples where behavior science is being used very successfully in consumer advertising and in the kinds of scenarios you mentioned. There's a lot of work in that area, but even there, real behavioral science is still on the fringes. It's not routinely adopted. So what we need to do is make sure that it is better understood. In pharmaceuticals, it isn't as adopted anywhere near as much as it should be or could be, especially given what's at stake." #Alpharmaxim #BehavioralScience #PharmaMarketing #Medtech alpharmaxim.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Avantika Waring, the Chief Medical Officer at 9amHealth, provides end-to-end individualized cardiometabolic care to people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity. Their focus on metabolic health includes diagnostics, medications, nutrition services, coaching, and lifestyle support in a fun, engaging and non-judgemental manner. This comprehensive virtual healthcare model extends the opportunity for patients to get the support they need to manage these chronic conditions better. Avantika explains, "The mission behind our companies is to make high-quality, effective, and, importantly, kind care available to as many people as possible. We know that there are amazing clinicians out there, and there are patients who are super fortunate to be connected with them. But that's not everyone. There are a lot of barriers to getting access to that care, and we want to make sure that people can get access to the care that they need and that the experience is, might I say, as fun as possible for both the clinician and the patient." "We want things to be simple for patients, and we know that most people who have a cardiometabolic condition are likely to have more than one. Sometimes, two or three. So, our goal is to make the experience as simple and streamlined as possible for the members. So if they're coming to us with a glucose issue and need labs and medication for that, but they also need coaching on their diet for heart health and cholesterol, we want to offer them all that in one experience." #9amHealth #Diversity #Healthcare #HealthEquity #AsynchronousCare #CardiometabolicCare #MetabolicHealth #MedicationCosts2024 #EmployeeBenefits #DigitalHealth join9am.com Download the transcript here

Dr. John Simon, CEO and Founder of SimonMed Imaging makes various medical imaging technologies available, including X-rays, ultrasound, MRI, and PET/CT scans, which have traditionally been used for diagnosis and tracking changes. With the SimonONE whole-body MRI scan, SimonMed offers an affordable preventative screening approach that, with the assistance of AI and advancements in imaging technology, looks for abnormalities and detects subtle changes. Ideally, MRI scans will become more routine in annual exams to catch treatable conditions sooner. John elaborates, "About 20, 25 years ago, diagnostic imaging went from a very limited specialty within the hospital setting to an often-used technology. This great technology is used in the outpatient setting. So, I founded my first outpatient radiology office over 20 years ago, and it included some of the most advanced equipment you could obtain at that time, including cardiac CT and MRI scanners, which were incredibly fast for that time. What that technology enabled us to do was to do outpatient imaging studies very quickly, less expensively, and very accurately." "A whole-body MRI involves a series of MRI sequences, more than one, looking at the body. Typically, we look at the head, neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. We do specialized sequences within those areas looking for aneurysms, looking for vascular changes in the body, looking at the health of the brain for not only excluding particularly cancers in the brain, for example, but also looking for early signs of Alzheimer's disease. In the neck, we look for cancers as well as other abnormalities." "In the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, we not only look for vascular abnormalities but also for early signs of cancer and other abnormalities, including metabolic abnormalities within the liver. There is something called fatty liver disease, which is common in the US. So, the process involves a noninvasive MRI study with multiple different sequences looking at different areas within the body, and we put them all together in one visit." #SimonMedImaging #MRI #WholeBodyScan #Diagnostics #AI #MedicalImaging #PreventativeMedicine SimonMed.com Download the transcript here

Alon Ben-Noon, CEO and board member of NeuroSense Therapeutics, is taking a unique approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases by targeting core pathologies and combining molecules to address various mechanisms. NeuroSense has seen positive clinical trial results for ALS using their lead compound PrimeC, which showed a reduction in disease progression. Research indicates the potential for this approach to be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Alon explains, "The main challenge is to find a therapeutic asset for a complex disease, which is still not understood well enough to date. ALS, also Alzheimer's, and I think that Parkinson's is among them as well. All of those neurodegenerative diseases are very complex and involve many mechanisms that go wrong. We try to tackle them with the therapeutic agents while we are not certain with each patient what exactly goes on. This is a huge challenge, so we need to be creative and find ways how we may be able to provide benefits to the majority of the patients, and I should be more distinct to say a benefit to some extent." "In order to maximize the success with our therapy, we figured out that we need to target more than just one single mechanism and we need to tackle as much as we can or as many as we can. And looking at the more pertinent targets in our view and our understanding, we combine two molecules that target several mechanisms in a synergistic manner. We found molecules that can target these pathological pathways that were identified from the start. Also, it was important for us to see that they can work synergistically together on these targets." #NeuroSense #ALS #Parkinsons #Alzheimers #NeurodegenerativeDiseases NeuroSense-TX.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Kathy Reeves, President and CEO of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, works with medical schools to promote humanistic care and is responsible for the White Coat ceremony for medical students to emphasize the need for human connection in healthcare. The Foundation is also responsible for the Thank a Resident Day and the Gold Foundation Honor Society, which recognize those doctors who meet the high standards of their peers. The development of Gold Human-Centered Spaces is a scalable solution to create healthcare environments that foster humanistic interactions. The goal is to make humanism a healthcare priority and to implement practical solutions. Kathy explains, "With that, Arnold and Sandra knew there had to be a foundation dedicated to making sure the human connection remained central in healthcare. And that's what the Gold Foundation has done and continues to do. We are the group that is responsible for the White Coat ceremony when people enter medical school to make sure medical students are aware that it's all about the person in front of them. There are a number of other programs that we do with medical schools, and we're attached to over 90% of the medical schools across the country. We work directly with these schools to help keep healthcare human." "There is an abundance of research out there that will show you when a patient feels well cared for, they're healthier. When the interaction goes well, the healthcare professional is healthier. Those two things alone lead to lower healthcare costs, less no-show rates, less health professional turnover. So it is in some ways the epitome of value-based care, if we really value people, it's going to save money. It's going to make the society healthier." #GoldFoundation #Humanism #Healthcare #PatientCentered #EmpowerTeams #ThankAResidentDay gold-foundation.org Download the transcript here

Dr. Kazu Okuda, Founder, and CEO of Universal Brain, uses neurotyping based on EEG data to better understand the different types of depression and deliver more precise treatments. To facilitate the availability of EEG data, Universal Brain has developed a next-generation EEG headset that is affordable and comfortable. The headset allows for the collection of data that can be used to analyze neural profiles of patients and tailor treatments. This precision psychiatry approach is the future of depression treatment and for identifying early warning signs of depression in the younger population. Kazu explains, "We are using the term neurotyping to solve that kind of problem. Neurotyping is a term we use at Universal Brain, and it's a groundbreaking process of grouping individuals based on brain function measures derived from the EEG data. We'll look at specific reactions of the brain to visual and audio stimuli, which are called event-related potentials, and we are leveraging that kind of brain biomarkers and neurotype the patient based on brain function." "By examining the functioning of the cornea or systems from attention to memory and negative bias and reward function, we aim to reduce the heterogeneity of treatment groups using the brain function biomarkers because depression has a lot of phenotypes. There is no single depression, but we call it depressions because there are tons of variations of combination of the symptoms to meet the criteria of depression. So by neurotyping patients based on brain function, we reduce the heterogeneity of depressions and lead to better outcomes." #UniversalBrain #Neurotyping #BrainBiomarkers #Depression #PrecisionPsychiatry universal-brain.com Download the transcript here

Greg Sturmer, CEO and Co-Founder, and Tom Jenkins, Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder of Elysium Therapeutics, talk about their SMART Opioid O2P, which aims to address the risks of taking opioids while still delivering the analgesic efficacy of opioids. The compound is designed to be resistant to abuse through snorting or injections and includes a trypsin inhibitor that prevents the release of the opioid when multiple pills are ingested. Elysium is also developing SOOPR, an opioid overdose rescue medication that has a longer duration of action to counteract the longer-lasting effects of synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl. Greg explains, "When we talk about our SMART opioids for pain, SMART stands for Safer Medicines that Alleviate Risks and Trauma. Our space is led by our O2P hydrocodone product candidate, and O2P stands for oral overdose protection." "So what O2P hydrocodone is designed to do is mitigate those major risks associated with existing prescription opioids, but doing so without sacrificing their superior analgesic efficacy, especially when compared to currently marketed non-opioid alternatives and those in development. We're excited to say that we've demonstrated human proof of concept in a recent study that we announced. But what I'd like to do is have Tom step in. Again, he is the inventor of our technology. He's a PhD synthetic organic chemist out of Stanford. Tom, do you want to talk about the technology and maybe compare it to past attempts at abuse-deterrent formulation?" Tom elaborates, "How we answer the question and how our technology works is fairly straightforward. What we've done is we've taken the opioid molecule with hydrocodone, and we can use any opioid molecule, morphine, oxycodone, or any of the prescription opioids. What we do is make a molecular modification to the drug. The key part of that is the conditional bioavailability of the drug is the fact that the drug has to see digestive enzyme, specifically trypsin, in the small intestine before it can be converted to an active drug." #ElysiumTherapeutics #Opioids #OpioidAbuse #SyntheticOpioids #OpioidUseDisorder #PainManagement #SaferMedicines ElysiumRX.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Nate Favini, the first Chief Medical Officer of Pair Team, aims to connect underserved communities to high-quality, ongoing healthcare by providing medical, behavioral, and social services. Working with people who rely on Medicaid, who are experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders, and who have had recent interactions with the criminal justice system requires innovation and collaboration of government agencies, community-based organizations, and healthcare providers. With a focus on outcomes and cost, this value-based approach is reaching patients where they are, often using mobile technology and offering virtual care for tracking and improving health outcomes. Nate explains, "In general, and specifically for the folks that we care for, value-based care means attention to the outcomes that we're delivering. For me, as a physician, that starts with the health outcomes that we deliver. So, are we improving people's health? Are we doing it on the measurable outcomes in terms of the conditions that they have, whether it's their blood sugar control for diabetes or their blood pressure if they have hypertension?" "On the social outcomes that are drivers of people's health issues. So, are we getting you housed? Are we getting you a reliable and stable source of nutritious food? Because these are the things that make a difference in the health outcomes we're looking for." "And then, of course, value-based care also implies attention to the cost of care. Are we delivering those outcomes at a cost that makes sense? And we've shown that we're very good at being able to achieve both of those things at the same time. At Pair Team, we have great outcomes in terms of hemoglobin A1C and blood pressure and improvements in depression. At the same time, we're offering people services that allow them to go to the emergency department and be in the hospital last. And so the real sweet spot in value-based care is if you can improve the outcomes for the folks who need it and return those investments to the system in the shape of lower spending." #PairTeam #SDOH #HealthcareAccess #EnhancedCareManagement #DigitalHealth pairteam.com Download the transcript here

Daniel Barvin, VP of Operations and Patient Advocacy at Coya Therapeutics discusses the challenges of treating ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and the company's approach to developing therapies for this heterogeneous disease. Focusing on a combination modality, Coya is developing therapies effective for sporadic and genetic ALS, targeting regulatory T cells and reducing inflammation to slow disease progression. Daniel, who carries a genetic variant for ALS and FTD (Frontotemporal Dementia), emphasizes the need for resources and support for the next generation of pre-symptomatic genetic ALS patients. Daniel explains, "Coya is based upon the discovery of Dr. Stanley Appel of Houston Methodist, that all neurodegenerative diseases, we believe, also autoimmune and a few metabolic diseases, drive an inflammatory response. The death of a motor neuron or damage to a motor neuron is an alert to the body that it should send inflammation to fix that motor neuron or beta-amyloid plaque buildup. Unfortunately, inflammation cannot fix these issues and, therefore, decides to take out a damaged part of the body. The death of the motor neuron then spurs more inflammation, and the inflammation that rises in the body eventually damages what are called regulatory T cells, the most immunomodulating cells in the body. Once regulatory T cells are damaged, inflammation becomes a persistent condition and drives further degeneration and eventually death." "Coya is founded upon the idea that we can affect the number and efficacy of regulatory T cells. This was our first pathway to affecting change in ALS. We have now gone to a combination therapy, which will be a biologic made up of two FDA-approved drugs in our own formulation. We believe this combination can increase the efficacy and number of regulatory T cells and reduce inflammation. We believe this combination effect in such a heterogeneous disease will have more efficacy than just a single modality." $COYA #CoyaTherapeutics #ALS #GeneticALS #PresymptomaticALS #PatientAdvocacy #RareDiseases coyatherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Bala Hota, Senior VP and Chief Informatics Officer at Tendo, emphasizes the importance of leveraging data to improve patient care and operational performance in healthcare and overcome biases in access. Focusing on quality measures and integration of structured and unstructured data, Tendo has developed services that support providers, patients, and caregivers using multiple avenues of communication. The acquisition of MDsave allows for a marketplace that provides transparent pricing for medical services, adding to this omnichannel healthcare model. Bala explains, "At Tendo, our vision is to be the trusted connection between patients, providers, and caregivers, using an intuitive and seamless interface to provide that optimum experience. The way we approach things is we have a number of different ways that people interact with our application and our software. We have a patient care journey application, which helps patients navigate through complex care pathways." "We have an insights offering that uses a variety of engines to look at electronic record data and claims data to identify cohorts where there could be opportunities to provide better care, provide better documentation, and take action. Then, we have an outreach product where we can take those insights and drive them through to actions through to the patient, including self-scheduling. So this is all on a common software platform, which allows us to deploy faster and have configurability, but we're focusing on those three main areas." "The way we come at it is from the quality perspective. If you're doing the right thing and trying to optimize the accuracy of capturing that information, the revenue will follow. One of our use cases is around hospital rankings and how you improve risk adjustment to make sure that you're getting credit for the quality you're providing and that your documentation is fully accurate. We find revenue increases as a result of that effort." #Tendo #Healthcare #SoftwareSolutions #PatientExperiences tendo.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Philip Chenette, a fertility doctor with over 20 years of experience, talks with Deepak Puri, CEO of Democracy Labs, about misunderstandings about reproductive health and the political ramifications. They discuss the role of doctors in educating patients and politicians about fertility treatments and the importance of the patient's voice and vote to protect reproductive rights. Deepak sets the stage, "Patients often don't connect the dots. So, having a doctor explain, these are the complications, this is what's happening, this is why I cannot treat IVF for you because regulations and politicians are interfering with the process. As a physician, there's only so much I can do. But if you, as an individual, as a mother, and as a father, want to bring about change, you have to get involved and vote. So, that's where the connection happens. And Dr. Chenette articulates this really well." Philip explains, "In the early days, it was just people who were trying, and trying, and trying at home and just couldn't get it done, couldn't accomplish the goal of conceiving a pregnancy. I was impressed by the drive that they showed. These were new techniques. Our office was brand new at the time. The ideas of using fertility techniques, of using fertility medications, and laboratory techniques to manage human embryos were all brand new at the time. But people were so driven, patients were so driven to accomplish this goal of building a family that they were willing to engage in those new techniques, and try new ideas, and push, and push, and push until they could get it done." "As you get older, it gets harder and harder to find that good embryo. Just to illustrate that, in our data, at age 25, 1 in three of your embryos is a healthy one, a third. At age 40, that number is one in 10. At age 44, that number is one in 100. 1% of the embryos you can produce have the chromosomes it takes to produce a baby at age 44. That problem is really what we dealt with and what created the fertility world we know today, in vitro fertilization, and the busy practices that we have taking care of patients." #DrPhilipChenette @TheDemLabs #FertilityTreatments #ReproductiveRights #IVF #WomensHealth #ReproductiveHealth #WomensRights TheDemLabs.org Download the transcript here

Amanda Bury, Chief Commercial Officer at Infermedica, emphasizes the need for better care navigation tools to help educate patients about care options and appropriate providers to address their concerns. AI-powered care navigation also supports clinicians by identifying patients who need in-clinic attention, those who can be helped through a telehealth visit, or those who can be given instructions about self-care at home. Amanda addresses the need for education and trust when bringing AI to healthcare and the positive impact these technologies can have on alleviating the shortage of healthcare workers. Amanda explains, "Taking it a step further is this new wave of care navigation tools, which takes that search match a step further. It leverages more of a question-and-answer capability to help route, manage, and navigate patients to the best care choice, whether inside a hospital via a telemedicine appointment or maybe they can even self-care at home. So, care navigation tools have evolved quite a bit, and we're now at this beginning stage of AI-powered care navigation tools, making the industry that much more exciting." "At Infermedica, we have an AI-powered tool either for health plans or health systems to take clinically validated navigation and help guide those patients and members towards the most appropriate and cost-effective care. So I always like to say, "When you were younger, did you ever do those choose your own adventures where you would go through and pick and choose what your next step was?" And that is really what these AI-powered care navigation tools are doing: they're taking and learning along the way based on the symptoms and how the patient is feeling and helping direct them to the right level of care." #Infermedica #HealthcareAI #AI #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth Infermedica.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Ahzam Afzal, Co-Founder and CEO of Puzzle Healthcare, aims to reduce readmission rates to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities by focusing on discharge planning and post-acute care. High readmission rates can result in financial penalties and are often caused by the complexity of the patient's condition and social determinants of health. Puzzle is working with health systems and SNFs to implement a readmission prevention program that includes physiatry and care coordination 90 days after discharge. Ahzam explains, "Hospital readmissions have become a focal point for our healthcare systems for several reasons. First and foremost, they are a key indicator of the quality of care being provided by these facilities. High readmission rates often suggest that patients may not be receiving the comprehensive care they need during their hospital stay or the necessary support post-discharge. This could be due to inadequate discharge planning, insufficient patient education on their conditions, or a lack of effective follow-up care." "Additionally, readmissions place a substantial financial burden on healthcare facilities. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates for certain conditions face significant penalties including reduced Medicare reimbursements. This policy was also extended to skilled nursing facilities through the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing program, which penalizes SNF facilities based on their readmission rates starting in 2024." #PuzzleHealthcare #ReadmissionPrevention #Hospitals #SkilledNursingFacilities #ValueBasedCare #PostAcuteCare #SDOH puzzlehealthcare.com Download the transcript here