Empowered Patient Podcast

Peter Ordentlich, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder at Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a clinical oncology company, is focused on developing precision medicine approaches to treat cancer and chronic graft-versus-host disease. The menin protein plays a critical role in driving certain types of blood cancers, and the Synex therapy is a menin inhibitor that can disrupt this cancer-driving pathway. The platform is also developing an antibody addressing the unmet needs in cGVHD to reduce the disease-driving macrophages. Peter explains, "Syndax is a clinical oncology company, which means we're focused primarily on cancer, and we're primarily doing clinical development. We started the company really looking at resistance pathways to developing cancer, and we've been focused on two main areas. One in the indication space of leukemia, which are certain types of blood cancers, and that's with a program we have around the small molecule drug called revumenib. We are also focused in another area of diseases called chronic gr

Vikram Bhaskran, CEO and Co-Founder, and Dr. Rohan Ramakrishna, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Roon, have taken on the mission to provide trustworthy and personalized medical information to patients and caregivers. Leveraging technology and the expertise of medical professionals, Roon has created a comprehensive resource for navigating medical challenges. They emphasize the importance of addressing misinformation and providing accurate, science-based information. The platform is not intended to replace doctors, but to supplement relevant information and enable better communication with healthcare providers and improve patient outcomes. Vikram explains, "Our mission is to be the best place online for anyone navigating any health condition. I started the company really through my own journey as a caregiver to my dad, who had ALS. And in that journey, I had two insights. One is that the biggest tech companies fail us. And in this moment of crisis, most people navigating any health condition will turn t

Barry Quart, CEO of Connect Biopharma, is developing the next generation of monoclonal antibodies targeting inflammatory respiratory diseases such as COPD and asthma. Administered subcutaneously, their lead program targets IL-4 and has demonstrated the ability to rapidly improve airway function and reduce the incidence of acute exacerbations in these patients. Current treatments rely on steroids and bronchodilators, which do not address the underlying inflammatory causes, an area that has largely been under-addressed by other biologic developers. Barry explains, "Connect has been dedicated for quite a few years to designing next-generation monoclonal antibodies targeting inflammatory diseases. I joined the company last year and really kind of turned the ship towards a sole focus on our lead program, which is rademikibart, a second-generation Dupixent, a monoclonal antibody targeting IL-4, a really important target for certain inflammatory diseases." "IL-4 can be used as a monoclonal antibody targeting IL-4

Dr. Kilian Kelly, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Cynata Therapeutics, has taken on the challenge of manufacturing stem cell therapies consistently and at scale in order to drive the advancements necessary for the next generation of regenerative medicine. Cynata is employing a novel approach that utilizes a single source of pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and mesenchymal cell ancestors (MCAs) to generate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Lead programs are targeting graft-versus-host disease, osteoarthritis, and diabetic wounds, where clinical trials have shown great promise to treat these and other diseases. Kilian explains, "We're a stem cell regenerative medicine company, and what we're trying to do is to change the way that we can manufacture stem cell therapies in a consistent and scalable way. I'm sure many of your listeners have heard about stem cell therapies of various types. The particular type of cells that we're working on are called mesenchymal stem cells or MSCs. They've shown lots

Shauna Sweeney, Founder of tendercare, aims to assist caregivers with digital tools and expert support to simplify the process of caring for an aging family member. Recognizing the essential role of caregivers in the quality of life of the patient, tendercare provides a user-friendly interface that incorporates data from wearables and remote sensors to identify early warning signs of risks, help coordinate care, and encourage proactive preparation. The Magic Magnet feature allows caregivers and emergency responders to quickly update and share critical health information.  Shauna explains, "This is not just a gendered issue. We have 54 million just Americans, if we keep it to the US, who are currently providing unpaid family care. This usually takes the form of anything from looking through bills, managing medications, renewing prescriptions, coordinating doctors’ visits, and all other visits. Often, we find that those who are on our platform are the eldest child. So whether that's a daughter or a son, this i

Karen Sussman Horgan is the Co-Founder and CEO of VAL Health, a behavioral economics consulting firm that helps healthcare organizations drive engagement and nudge patients to improve their health and lifestyle choices. Behavioral economics is the science of understanding how patients make irrational choices based on biases, fear, and faulty analysis of outcomes and risk. Nudges can be carrots or sticks, but in healthcare, the focus is on making the right path easier to follow, reducing friction, and introducing positive reinforcements rather than penalties. Karen explains, "We work across the entire healthcare ecosystem. We think about digital health companies, how do you drive enrollment and engagement, and how do you optimize the journey? There are communications for that. We do a lot of work with payers, which is closing gaps in care, but also just improving the member experience in general with providers. It could be around provider adoption of new care pathways, but it's also about population health. W

Christine Lee, Head of Health Strategy and Partnerships at AnalyticsIQ, focuses on helping healthcare brands and pharmaceutical companies better understand and engage with healthcare providers by taking into account data beyond their professional lives. This data-driven Provider as a Person approach analyzes the healthcare professional's personal characteristics, outside interests, decision-making style, and preferred method of communication. The goal is to foster more meaningful relationships with providers, address provider burnout, and improve patient outcomes.   Christine explains, "We're coming into play here in supporting healthcare brands and better understanding the providers as people. As I mentioned, we're a people-based data company. I'd say that in an era where data is abundant and there is no shortage of health data being gathered and analyzed. So, you've got a lot of data assets out there that are coming from clinical trials, your real-world evidence, claims data, your electronic health records

Francisco Salva, President and CEO of Azitra, Inc., is leveraging the microbial bacteria that comprise the skin microbiome and exploring novel methods to deliver precision medicines to the skin. Azitra has genetically engineered specific strains of these microbes to produce proteins that are missing in patients with skin conditions like Netherton syndrome and cancer therapy-associated rashes. These bacterial strains have the ability to get beneath the stratum corneum and turn into miniature factories to make the therapeutic proteins and help the skin return to homeostasis. Francisco explains, "We're leveraging the billions of microbial bacteria that naturally live on us and are synergistic with our skin to help keep our skin in homeostasis or a regulated standard of existence. These bacteria makeup that are known as the skin microbiome, we have built up a library of these microbial bacteria strains commonly found on normal people and characterize them in a way that allows us to look for specific strains that

Dr. Quyen Nguyen, CEO and Founder of Alume Biosciences, is developing fluorescent-guided precision surgery technologies that enable surgeons to visualize critical structures, such as nerves, blood vessels, and tumor margins, more clearly during procedures. Alume is developing fluorescent dyes and imaging systems to support this approach, building on work by Roger Tsien who won the Nobel Prize for fluorescence. This technology has the potential to enable more complex surgical procedures to be performed safely in brain, head, neck, and abdominal surgeries and has the promise to transform surgery. Quyen elaborates, "I first met Roger Tsien Nobel Laureate for his work in fluorescence, in 2001. I had worked with green fluorescent protein, one of the things that he was working on for fluorescence, and he ultimately was awarded the Nobel Prize for fluorescence. And I asked him, ‘Roger, is there a way we can make nerves fluorescent in patients? We certainly have that in research, but surgeons don't have this tool now

Rob Armstrong, CEO of Artax Biopharma, highlights the basic mechanism of action of Nck modulators and how they differ from traditional immunosuppressant drugs to treat autoimmune diseases. Taking this adjustable thermostat approach aims to modulate the immune response rather than completely suppressing the response, potentially reducing side effects. The oral, small molecule drug is an advantage over injectable biologics currently dominating the automimmune disease treatment landscape. Rob explains, "Nck stands for non-catalytic kinase, and what Nck is is an adapter protein that interacts with the T cell receptor. Its role is basically to amplify any signals when an antigen is presented to the T cell receptor. It's really interesting because it's called signal one. In other words, it's the beginning of the immune cascade when an antigen is presented. And what's interesting is that it's upstream of what the target of most other drugs are, which are the cytokines that are the offending entities for many of the

Shyam Natarajan, Founder and CEO of Avenda Health, is utilizing the Unfold AI platform that combines imaging, pathology, and clinical data to provide a comprehensive 3D visualization of prostate cancer. This platform has demonstrated significantly higher accuracy than conventional imaging techniques, enabling physicians to make more informed diagnoses and treatment decisions. The technology has been integrated into the clinical workflow to provide real-time insights and precision-guided interventions, minimizing treatment-related side effects and preserving patient quality of life. Shyam explains, "Unfold AI is unique in that it's multimodal. We take in imaging biomarkers, pathology, and clinical information as input. And conventional imaging really doesn't show you exactly everywhere the cancer is. MRI today misses two-thirds of the disease by volume, and so imaging is really good at screening and that initial diagnosis. But when it comes time to decide how to treat patients, the standard of care is challeng

Richard Mackey, Chief Technology Officer at CCS, focuses on the challenges faced by patients with diabetes and multiple morbidities, as well as their healthcare providers, in managing their conditions.  CCS has developed the Living Connected approach to connect patients, providers, and payers, and promotes the role that durable medical equipment companies and pharmacists can play in supporting patients and doctors. Recognizing that patients are more than their disease, CCS addresses social determinants of health to provide education and care coordination. Richard explains, "CCS is a company that is in the business of chronic care management. We focus on delivering products and services to patients with a variety of chronic care conditions. But foremost among these for us is diabetes. We're very focused on being able to provide solutions and services for folks who are managing their diabetic condition."  "On the machine learning side, we have a tremendous amount of data and information about how our patients w

Catherine Richards Golini, Patient Resource Manager at Karger Publishers, is providing high-quality, accurate healthcare information to patients, addressing the need for trusted health information. Karger has a rigorous process in place to ensure the relevance of its patient resources, involving patients, clinical reviewers, and obtaining a quality mark. With the increasing use of AI and healthcare influencers, healthcare providers need these resources to have more productive conversations with patients and encourage health literacy. Catherine explains, "I will refer to the patient resources we publish. We also produce resources for healthcare professionals, as you know. But my job is patient resources, and I think we're quite proud of our patient resources in the sense that we have a very watertight production process that involves patients from the very beginning. So we're confident that we're producing relevant information that's very important, relevant to the patient community, and what they want. Accura

Dr. Orit Wimpfheimer, Chief Medical Officer at Nanox, a medical imaging AI company using technology to detect early signs of diseases through opportunistic screening of CT scans. The AI platform identifies signs of diseases such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease that may have been overlooked by the radiologist. The tools are designed to be integrated into the radiologist's workflow to provide quantified measurements to guide clinical care decisions leading to improved patient outcomes.   Orit explains, "The number of CT scans over the last 20 years has risen astronomically. People are getting CT scans for many reasons, and there's a lot of data on the images that doesn't get translated into patient care. And what our AI tools do is to scan all those CT scans in the background unobtrusively, so they look for signs of chronic conditions and highlight those to the radiologists while they're reading the scans. This ensures that chronic diseases are commented on in the reports, initiating a clinical path

Chelsey Lindner, a pharmacist and Manager of Clinical Services at Shields Health Solutions, provides insights about the growing prevalence of oral and subcutaneous injection oncology medications, which is shifting the delivery of care from the clinic to at-home. This innovation in cancer care introduces complexities around accessing and affording these specialty drugs and requires the skills of a specialty pharmacy to support the patients and providers. In an integrated care model, there is also a growing need for attention to medication adherence and monitoring for side effects by these pharmacists.   Chelsey explains, "Shields is considered a specialty pharmacy integrator. We partner with health systems across the country to help them operate best-in-class specialty pharmacy programs. We are focused on improving patient outcomes through specialized pharmacy services and supporting the optimized use of specialty medications through navigation of access, care coordination, and comprehensive medication manage

Tamsin Chislett, CEO of Hyfe, highlights the importance of understanding coughs for healthcare providers, the lack of information about coughs, and Hyfe's advancements in building a database and developing biomarkers based on different kinds of coughs. Hyfe's AI technology, which can integrate with other devices and platforms for remote patient monitoring, enables passive, continuous tracking of cough patterns that can be used in research and clinical trials. Opportunities for digital therapeutics include chronic cough, COPD, lung cancer, respiratory infections, and cardiovascular diseases.  Tamsin elaborates, "Hyfe is the global leader in AI power. The problem we're trying to solve is that you have this really common symptom cough, which has been experienced by every human alive and is experienced daily by many people, yet to discuss it, measure it, monitor it, or even manage it, we're entirely reliant on subjective data. Everyone's had the experience of going into a primary care doctor, and saying I've got

Geoff Nau, Senior Manager of Product Management for Paragon at Altera Digital Health, highlights how digital health solutions can address the challenges of nurse burnout and retention. AI and machine learning can help automate documentation tasks and streamline workflows to allow nurses better access to patient information. Improving nurse retention requires attention to factors like time-off policies and leveraging technology to give nurses more time to focus on patient care. Geoff elaborates, "I have been a nurse since 2004. I practiced at the bedside for approximately 15 years. I did pediatric and adult ER as well as NICU. So I started my nursing career on paper and transitioned to electronic. And so in that time, a couple of factors, in the beginning, there was not enough information, and click-intensive. And looking at my travels and going to hospitals and sites today, that challenge is still there as far as access to data relevant to that patient visit, whether it's trending labs, care plans, etc. My ex

Dr. Paul Moore, Chief Scientific Officer at Zymeworks, focuses on developing targeted therapies, particularly multispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates for hard-to-treat cancers such as gynecological, thoracic, and digestive tract cancers. This approach can target multiple areas on tumor cells and immune cells, potentially overcoming tumor heterogeneity and allowing for immune system modulation. The platform allows for a plug-and-play approach, enabling the development of therapies for oncology and autoimmune diseases.  Paul explains, "So, multispecific antibodies are antibodies. Antibodies traditionally have a single target that they bind, so they're monoclonal and hit a specific target. A lot of excitement is generated for bispecific antibodies, which are engineered to bind two targets. Then with multispecifics, you are trying to broaden even further the number of targets or binding sites you've incorporated into your drug so that you can simultaneously interact with more than one target. The r

Dr. Sonja Tarrago, head of Physician Strategy and Engagement at DexCare, has created a care orchestration platform to help health systems improve patient access to care, direct patients to the proper care, and optimize provider capacity. DexCare solutions have enabled health systems to treat more patients with existing resources, increase new patient acquisition, and reduce time to care. This platform reduces long wait times, provides real-time online scheduling, and matches patient demand with provider availability.   Sonja explains, "DexCare is a care orchestration platform used by leading health systems to help manage the supply and demand of healthcare. That means that our platform helps health systems get discovered at the point of search. So, where patients are searching for care, we know that's typically Google, and then we navigate patients to the best fit care. So we do that while optimizing provider capacity and resources in real time. So, as we talk about our customers, we think that first of all,

David Norris, Founder and CEO of Affineon Health Inc., recognizes the significant problem of provider burnout, which is primarily caused by the time doctors spend on administrative tasks rather than with the patient. Affineon's AI-powered solution aims to address this by automating the review of the provider's inbox and reducing their cognitive load. The inboxes are filled with lab results, pharmacy messages, and other tasks that need review. This approach enables doctors to focus on the required actions quickly. David explains, "We're attacking one of the biggest problems providers often complain about: the inbox. And this is their clinical inbox, not their email inbox like you and I have. The clinical inbox is typically filled with hundreds of things that come in daily. For a PCP, this can often include things like lab results. So you go to your doctor for your annual wellness visit, and they order five to 10 different labs, which come into their inbox the next day. If you're seeing 20 patients a day, that'