Empowered Patient Podcast

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'

Dr. Jason Williams, President and Director of Interventional Oncology and Immunotherapy at the Williams Cancer Institute, uses a combination of Pulse Electric Field technology to ablate tumors and direct injection of immunotherapy drugs into the tumor to stimulate the immune system. This approach can be used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments and has fewer side effects than standard immunotherapy. This method is part of the broader trend in cancer research to provide a more targeted approach to treating tumors. Jason explains, "Our big focus is going to the tumor itself, so we do treatments directly at the tumor, and we do a combination of things. We do things that will be considered ablation where we're using different technologies or energies — I'll explain — particularly, we use one called Pulse Electric Field (PEF), which kills the tumor by essentially shocking it, and that kills it in a way that actually makes the immune system see it better. You're not trying to kill all of the tumor, yo

Joel Stanley is the CEO of Ajna Biosciences, a company developing the next generation of botanical medicines. These full-spectrum drugs, derived from plants and fungi, are regulated and approved through the FDA, unlike dietary supplements. Lead drug candidates are targeting autism, generalized anxiety disorder, and PTSD. With expertise in cultivating and scaling the production of botanical raw materials, Ajna is creating a sustainable model compared to wild-harvested botanicals. Joel explains, "It's no secret that before about a hundred years ago, all of our medicines were botanical medicines, or mostly coming from plants, or maybe mushrooms. And in the last century, as we developed Western medicine - modern medicine - the drug approval process started to learn how to synthesize molecules and isolate molecules from nature. So we started to step completely away from plant medicine and into a synthetic pharmaceutical landscape. The FDA fairly recently started allowing botanical drugs. So what that means is that

Dana Brown serves as President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board at iCAD Inc., which has developed a next-generation approach that leverages advancements in AI and imaging technology to improve the accuracy and efficiency of breast cancer screening.  This technology can help reduce unnecessary biopsies and additional tests while more accurately identifying cancers that need immediate attention. The concerning trend of rising breast cancer in younger women highlights the importance of early detection and personalized care plans. Dana explains, "Literally, iCAD's first FDA-cleared product in a first-generation AI was around 2002. So it's been well over 20 years. We're now on our fourth generation. So, yes, you're very accurate in describing this as a next-generation approach. So, not only has imaging technology improved over the past 20 years, but artificial intelligence has also improved. We continue to leverage the latest in artificial intelligence technology, how the artificial intelligence can be trained and

Dr. Rany Aburashed, CEO and Founder of Neurogen Biomarking, is using a blood-based biomarker looking at p-tau 217 to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease, up to 8-10 years before the onset of clinical symptoms. The company has built an ecosystem to provide patients with a comprehensive health assessment with an at-home blood test, cognitive testing, access to neurologists, and education on lifestyle changes that can support a good quality of life. Their mission is to take a proactive rather than the current reactive approach to diagnosing and slowing the progression of cognitive decline.   Rany explains, "The challenge for us, and this is what I saw from years of clinical practice and hospital management, is that a disease like Alzheimer's operates almost like a green light. Life is okay, you're having minor issues, but for the most part, you're moving along. Then suddenly you notice a sentinel event, which then becomes that red light, and now you have Alzheimer's dementia. And so the issue that is at t

Ram Krishnan, CEO of Valant, uses AI to make mental health care more accessible through their practice management and patient engagement platforms designed specifically for mental health providers. AI is applied to improve administrative efficiency, address billing and compliance, and drive successful patient outcomes. New solutions are needed due to the growing patient population for mental health services and the potential of advanced therapeutics that are transforming the behavioral health environment, where demand is outpacing the supply of mental health care providers. Ram explains, "If I took a step back, AI - let's describe what AI is across a practice. Multiple functional verticals exist within a practice, including marketing. A team is trying to acquire the right type of patients. There's your administrative vertical, if you will, which is just making sure you're running the business well. You have your clinical vertical, which is the time the clinician, prescriber, psychiatrist, and practitioner sp

Jaya Tiwari, Senior Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at XVIVO, which is focused on improving organ preservation for transplantation. Current organ preservation methods using ice coolers limit the time and distance organs can be transported.  XVIVO's perfusion technology can significantly extend the preservation time of hearts, kidneys, livers, and lungs, providing hospitals and transplant centers access to more viable organs. The company is passionate about increasing organ availability to give more patients access to life-saving transplants. Jaya explains, "I take it back to 1967 when the first heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, and the way that the heart was preserved and transported in essentially an ice box. The standard of care for the preservation of organs is still an ice or an ice cooler with ice. So, this decreases metabolic activities. So, to try to preserve the organs so that you can get them from the donor to the recipient, the problem is that the organs are not viable

Brian Drozdowicz, Senior VP and General Manager for Acute and Payer at PointClickCare, provides a platform using predictive analytics and AI for data sharing and collaboration across healthcare stakeholders. Interoperability has been an ongoing challenge due to the lack of standards and clear governance to support data sharing. The shift to value-based care drives the need for more access to patient data to improve patient outcomes, facilitate care transitions, and reduce readmissions and costs.   Brian explains, "PointClickCare has been a player in the market for quite some time. We're best known for the market-leading senior care EHR that we've had in market for 20-plus years. I run a business unit that sits by the side of that. We refer to that as the acute and payer business. And ultimately, this additional business and value proposition to the market operates the largest care collaboration network, sharing healthcare data across all the different stakeholders, hospitals, health plans, ambulatory clinics,

G.T. LaBorde, CEO and Co-Founder of IllumiCare, focuses on reducing hospital clinical waste. Doctors often make decisions about tests, medications, and procedures without knowing the actual cost to the hospital and the patient. The IllumiCare platform aims to nudge doctors to make cost-effective decisions without compromising the quality of patient care by providing cost information and clinical guidance at the point of care. Another benefit is the reduction in overtesting and overprescribing, supporting efforts to improve patient safety.. G.T. explains, "When doctors make decisions about what test to order and what medications to prescribe, particularly in the inpatient setting, they have no idea what the cost is. They don't know the relative cost of one drug or another, and it's not a knock on doctors. It's very difficult to know because there are, in our average hospital across hundreds of hospitals, something like 2,000 different medications on the formulary that are available to order if you're a provide

Gary Falcetano, Scientific Affairs Manager for Allergy at Thermo Fisher Scientific, is a leader in allergy and autoimmune diagnostics, providing specific IgE tests and the instruments to run them. Accurately diagnosing allergies can be challenging, but specific IgE testing can help confirm the underlying causes by looking at individual allergen components for precise diagnosis. This is the first step in determining the appropriate management approach to potentially interrupt the atopic march, where allergies can progress or even be life-threatening. Gary explains, "It runs the gamut of just about anything that could potentially be an allergy disease. So I think the majority of our testing is done in both environmental allergies and food allergies. What people think about when we, especially this time of year in the US, with spring about to become a big onslaught, are environmental allergies, including pollens, grass, trees, and weeds. Also, looking at some of the indoor triggers to environmental allergies li

Chia-Lin Simmons, CEO of LogicMark, is developing technology solutions to help seniors age independently and safely. Their AgeTech ecosystem addresses the requirements and comfort levels of the diverse aging population and provides predictive technology to identify potential health issues and emergencies. The key is keeping a human-centric approach to the application of this technology and integration with other health monitoring devices and apps.   Chia-Lin explains, "At LogicMark, we tell people that the medical react technology business is saying that our job is to make better technology to help identify that fall or a catastrophe or a health issue, and then help as we can within that golden hour in a medical emergency. When I joined the company in June of 2021, our goal was not just to be even better at reactive technology but to develop predictive technology, which is to take a look at the pattern of living and your experiences and being able to stop that first initial catastrophe or fall if we can. And