Empowered Patient Podcast

Sheeza Hussain is the Chief Commercial Officer of Biofourmis which is developing a hospital-at-home model for health systems that is even more in demand due to the stress of COVID-19 patients.  In addition to acute care, Biofourmis is also applying its remote monitoring technology to post-acute and chronic care. Sheeza explains, "When we think about hospital-at-home, we think about acute level type care-at-home. It's not about being cared for exactly as you would be in a hospital. But it's for those patients who still, for all intents and purposes, need to be monitored and need to be admitted to a hospital. But instead, they get to go home. They get monitoring equipment, they get to go to the comfort of their own bed, and they're still visited by clinicians or physicians every day in person as is a requirement for some of the reimbursement." "So when it comes to hospital-at-home, it's about in our case, a patch and we're device agnostic. We offer a patch that the patient wears on their chest, and it is contin

Tomer Shussman is CEO and Hila Glick, VP of Physical Therapy and Customer Experience of OneStep and we talk about the ways OneStep is set to augment PT for both patients and their physical therapists using the patient's smartphone.  OneStep is a smartphone-based digital physical therapy service that provides around-the-clock dedicated physical therapy courses, clinical-grade motion analysis, and real-time feedback and progress reports of patients. Using the smartphone as the gait lab equivalent, OneStep is able to measure walking in all kinds of environments and when performing day-to-day activities. Tomer explains, "What we are doing, and in that way, we are changing physical therapies substantially, in that we are enabling physical therapy to continue outside of the clinic. So, we augment the physical therapists, allowing them to treat more patients from the convenience of home, for both the PT and the patient. And that way, we enable the patients to, for example, exercise five minutes a day, their own time

Mike Gladstone is the Global President of Inflammation & Immunology at Pfizer.  We talk about conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and atopic dermatitis (AD) and how minority patients with these conditions are often misdiagnosed. Mike explains, "Well, it turns out that a lot of these diseases are completely unseen, or those diseases that are seen are just not well understood. And the reason why is, for instance, if I look at someone suffering from atopic dermatitis, for example, you may see some of the symptoms that they have, and those are bad enough, some of the redness and scratching and so forth. But what you don't know and what you don't see is how the patients suffer sometimes. They have the stares from others, they feel those stares, they feel the distance. They feel the judgment from others who see their condition, but it also goes much deeper than that. What you don't see for those patients is the constant itching." "Now, Black and Hispanic children are also mo

Kleanthis Xanthopoulos is Co-Founder and CEO of Shoreline Biosciences. He talks about the Shoreline cell therapy platform that uses standardized manufacturing of allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cells to create an effective treatment to kill tumor cells with multiple advantages over autologous T-cell therapies. Kleanthis explains, "We are focusing specifically on two different effector cells, Natural Killers and Macrophages, and we derive them from a platform which is induced pluripotent stem cells. This gives us the ability to really engineer the NK cells and Macrophages that we derive from iPSC, so they become allogeneic standardized, meaning they can be introduced to any patient and then are targeted and specific." "Initial clinical results are showing us that iPSC derived NK cells don't appear to have the kind of side effects that you see with T-cells. So we are very, very excited about that. And we are seeing that there's a different dimension in cell therapies that can be served very, very nicely thr

Francois Michelon is the CEO of ENDRA Life Sciences and describes the thermoacoustic enhanced ultrasound -TAEUS-technology ENDRA is developing to provide a safe and cost-effective way to measure the fat in the liver and diagnose non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is overtaking hepatitis as the world's leading root cause of the need for liver transplants. Current diagnostic options are using expensive MRI machines or performing a liver biopsy. Francois says, "There are no blood tests that currently we're aware of that can measure fat in your liver. It's not like cholesterol that floats around in your bloodstream. You have to measure it directly, and it doesn't even deposit uniformly in your liver." "ENDRA's technology uses a combination of radiofrequency pulses, which are akin to an MRI going in. Those radiofrequency pulses get absorbed differently into tissues. And we've been able to decode the sonic sound waves that come back out of tissues from that absorption of radiofrequency." "As a result,

Amy Fan is Co-Founder of Twentyeight Health a telemedicine startup successfully expanding its model to provide affordable reproductive healthcare to women in underserved communities. Amy explains, "For example, many people coming from underserved communities, especially ones 30 years old or below, are living in multi-generational households, so privacy can be really difficult to come across. So being able to message your doctor directly is actually a more flexible model for them than, for example, doing a video consultation with the doctor." "The other piece we focus on is affordability. We are one of the only telehealth companies that accept Medicaid, and unfortunately for individuals with Medicaid, it's very difficult to see a doctor in person. One in three doctors do not accept new Medicaid patients, and 45% of women between 20-30 years old do not have a primary care provider. So when you have those two combined, it ends up being very difficult for someone with Medicaid to see any healthcare professionals.

Karen Zaderej is the President, CEO, and Chairman of Axogen Inc. leader in the science of peripheral nerve regeneration and repair. Surgeons have always been challenged to restore feeling in damaged peripheral nerves due to accidents and surgical procedures. Karen says, "Traditionally, they've removed the nerves that give you sensation for your foot to allow you, for example, to move your hand or have sensation in your fingers. Obviously, there are downsides to that, but moving your hand is probably more important for the patient. So that would have been the gold standard." "So, you'd have two procedures, one to remove the nerve and another to fix the injury site. Today, what we're doing is providing surgeons an off-the-shelf opportunity to be able to do that same repair of the cut nerve and bridging of the gap, but to do it without taking another nerve from out of your body." @Axogen #RegenerativeMedicine #NerveDamage #NerveRepair #PeripheralNerves #Nerves AxogenInc.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Mike Dulin is currently the Chief Medical Officer for Gray Matter Analytics and a professor at UNC Charlotte in the Department of Public Health Sciences where he directs the Academy for Population Health Innovation. He emphasizes that almost 80% of health outcomes are driven by social determinants.  In addition to the traditional environmental determinants including access to food, transportation, a safe place to exercise, and health care, the strength of the patient's social network needs to be considered as well. Mike explains, "Perhaps most importantly, and one area that we don't consider a lot is the social network. But often, your behaviors are driven by your social network, your peers, your friends, your family members. Their behaviors are really important in terms of shaping and determining yours. We've even found things like depression and mood can run through a social network. Well, other important factors like smoking and exercise and a healthy diet are also determined by your social network." "

Dr. Nicole Wulf is a clinical pharmacist at FDB and has recently published a study of the current evidence regarding iodine containing compounds and iodine allergy cross-reactivity.  Overall they found that there was a lack of evidence that iodine is an allergen and can cause hypersensitivity reactions particularly from contrast media used in imaging. Nicole explains, "In my job, I'm always looking for ways in which we can improve the allergy alerts for clinicians. This is one thing that I have some questions about, and it made a lot of sense because iodine is part of the thyroid hormone in the body. So to me, it didn't make any sense for us to continue to let people spread the myth that iodine could be an allergen." "I started pulling the literature and looking at it. It made a lot of sense that this was something that we needed to stop telling people that iodine was an allergen and that we shouldn't be putting it on patient profiles anymore because it was affecting patient care. People might not get the ima

Palak Shah is a physical therapist and Co-Founder of Luna who is attacking the problem of providing physical therapy to the growing population of patients with the need to receive in-person care by a physical therapist. Palak explains, "What is super different about Luna is that we're not a home health agency. We're bringing out physical therapy to patient homes for all our patients in 19 states and 32 metro markets today. Having about 1,200 therapists on the platform now throughout the country, bringing technology and high-quality care from the therapists, is Luna's superpower. The vision here is what we're trying to bring with technology and these amazing quality therapists is to reimagine the physical therapy experience." "All of Luna's therapists are moonlighting with Luna, more than 95% and hence the name Luna. So they are working at outpatient clinics today that are in our community, but also have this amazing opportunity to participate with an organization like Luna that allows them supplemental income

Dr. Daniel Schneeberger is the CEO of Anebulo Pharmaceuticals and is determined to find an antidote to acute cannabinoid intoxication, a growing problem for people of all ages as well as emergency rooms around the country. Daniel says, "THC acts mostly in the brain, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and binds to the CB1 receptor, and it activates that CB1 receptor. Our drug also goes to the brain and binds to the same receptor, much more tightly, up to 100x more tightly, and blocks it so that THC has no chance to act on that receptor anymore. One of the most important properties of our drug, too, is rapid absorption with oral dosing. So we feel very good about the drug candidate." "These drugs, CB1 antagonists, were originally developed for weight loss in the treatment of diabetes back around 2007, 2008. They were never approved by the FDA because with chronic dosing, there was an increased frequency of depression, it was 9%, it was 5% with placebo. Back then, the FDA was very concerned that chronic dosing i

Gary Rotman and Bruce Barnet are Co-Founders of SiMPL Technology, a company designing and selling simple tech products for seniors and their caregivers. With a particular focus on people with cognitive challenges and discomfort with digital technology, SiMPL is bringing solutions to the market that solve such challenges as medication adherence and media access. Gary is an inventor and explains, "So, I've been in the timepiece industry for most of my career, over 35 years, so one of the products I developed was a talking clock, and you can set the alarm by voice. In the meantime, like many other people, my father was diagnosed with dementia back in 2010, Alzheimer's dementia, and I woke up one day with this aha moment to put personalized messages in the clock. So, when my mother isn't home, and my dad forgets his meds and doesn't want to end up back in the hospital, this talking clock would announce in my mother's voice, "Honey, take your pills now.". Bruce says, "So the things that we think are easy, are not

Dr. Nick West is the Chief Medical Officer and DVP Global Medical Affairs for Vascular at Abbott.  With the launch of the Ultreon software 1.0, Abbott is bringing a new level of analysis to their Optical Coherence Tomography intracoronary imaging tool. Nick explains, "And the idea of this software package is, on top of this best-in-class in terms of resolution imaging technology to help physicians, the Ultreon software augments physician decision-making to effectively enable them to do a better job, but more easily."  "Optical Coherence Tomography already existed. A very powerful tool, as I said. A very high degree of precision and accuracy in measurement. However, one of the issues with OCT is that, as well as understanding how to actually physically use the catheter, which is reasonably straightforward, it's very similar to other devices that interventional cardiologists use, but they then have to learn to interpret the images you get out. So acquiring the pictures is relatively straightforward, but then ho

Dr. Mike Dudley is President and CEO of QpexBiopharma and seeing drug-resistant infections occurring inside the hospital as well as outside the hospital. Qpex is developing IV and oral drugs that are designed to overcome resistance mechanisms in bacteria that render penicillin-like drugs inactive. Mike explains, "We deliver our drug in combination with existing antibiotics that have already been proven safe and effective as first-line therapies but have lost their usefulness due to resistant bacteria. And we want to be able to give them via vein for the sickest patients who can't take oral drugs. But also we want to be delivering them using an oral formulation in our product so they can be taken orally." "We call the IV product OMNIvance, which provides that coverage for very, very sick patients. And then an oral product, which we call ORAvance that can be then delivered orally, and it can be useful for stepping down hospitalized patients or even treating infections in the community setting where you don't ha

Francesca Rinaldo MD Ph.D. is the Director of Clinical Quality and Innovation at Sharecare, a health and wellness engagement platform. Their SmartOmix solution allows researchers to build, launch, manage and analyze data from clinical studies using a participant-centric mobile application that leverages all the technological components of a smartphone including text-based reporting, photo, video, and audio samples. Francesca explains, "So, in my opinion, the future of clinical research is really three things: it's decentralized, it's digital-first, and it's widely inclusive. So, I think technology will impact researchers, patients, and doctors and a number of different ways. It will impact researchers because it will give them access to data that will provide a much more comprehensive view of health and wellness, as well as how disease trajectories change for study participants." "It will also impact patients because it will accelerate the cycle from research to care, fast-track insights, and novel approaches

Sam Meraj is the Senior Director of Quality, Safety, and Reporting at Walmart, including their in-store pharmacies, optical, primary care, dental, and other health services. Sam explains, " We do keep in mind the social determinants of health. We provide a lot of linguistic support, language translation services, and we always keep health equity in mind when we are providing these services." "I think a lot is being done to address health equity, but yet we have an opportunity to do a lot more. In terms of addressing the language barriers that I was talking about or the cultural barriers to continued education, one thing to keep in mind is that negative experiences with healthcare are unfortunately more common in these groups. And some social determinants of health, again, have historically made it difficult for them to have equal access to healthcare. So I think that it's important for individual providers as well as systems to be aware and intentional about addressing these gaps and sharing the right informa

Ali Dianaty is Vice President of Product Innovation at Medtronic Diabetes and reflects on the explosion of developments for treating diabetes that has allowed patients to manage their diabetes in a way that fits their lifestyle. Ali explains, "We also make smart insulin pens, which allow people to do a better job of dosing their insulin. Of course, one of the big fears is that insulin can be a very dangerous drug. Think of it as if you give yourself too much, you can put yourself into harm's way. If you don't give yourself enough, it's the same thing. So, dosing that properly is super important." "We offer pumps that help do that more automatically, as well, in terms of dosing that insulin. And then, we also offer continuous glucose monitors that measure how much glucose is in someone's body. Then ultimately, we bring all of that together into some sophisticated algorithms as a system to automatically dose people's insulin. So again, with the premise of forgetting their disease. All of these things are intend

Dr. Heidi Jannenga PT, DPT, ACT, is the Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer at WebPT. She points out that healthcare providers should be more aware of the benefits of physical therapy and how technology and telehealth are making PT more accessible for a broader audience. Heidi explains. "This past year, with the whole COVID thing that's going on and continues to go on, we also launched a virtual visit platform. We can do telehealth with patients while they're at home so that it doesn't always have to mean that you have to get yourself to a clinic, especially those in rural areas and such. It really now has expanded our reach in terms of connecting with more patients who could benefit from physical therapist care. "I think that it's going to take a little while for us to find the happy medium between in-person visits and virtual. By no means do I think that 100% of care from a physical therapist can be done virtually because of the nature of our clinical expertise." @WebPT #PT #PhysicalTherapy #RehabTherapy

Dr. Harvey Kaufman is the Senior Medical Director at Quest Diagnostics and has recently published a study on cancer diagnoses during the pandemic.  Data points to a significant impact of COVID-19 on the rate of cancer screenings and the need to better identify those most at risk for a wide range of cancers. Harvey explains, "There's a couple of things that we can do differently. One is we learned through the pandemic, the power of telemedicine, that we can do a lot of things through Zoom, and even without the visual, we can do the audio portion and engage people in questionnaires and asking about their health and such." "We can't do certain things remotely like a mammogram or a colonoscopy or biopsies and other procedures, but there are things that we can do. We can try to identify people who are at higher risk and prioritize them over other individuals. If we don't re-engage in healthcare, there will be more and more people who will present at more advanced stages, require more aggressive therapy, and have a

Alana McGolrick DNP is the Chief Nursing Officer at PeriGen and focused on reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths using technology and AI to support labor and delivery activities. The PeriWatch Vigilance platform removes bias and provides objective assessment to those clinicians and physicians monitoring the physiological changes in patients and their fetuses. Alana explains, "I have been a fetal monitoring geek for my entire life in labor and delivery. I've always been fascinated with the labor and delivery process. When we do monitor our patients, we put these monitors on the patient's abdomen, so on their pregnant belly, and we're looking at uterine contractions, we're looking at the fetal heart rate. Then we're also monitoring mom's vital signs and how she's progressing in labor." "There's a number of different factors that we analyze while we're in the intrapartum stage, labor, and delivery, watching how our patient is progressing. One of our patients happens to be invisible, right? We only hav