Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Dror Harats, Founder and CEO of VBL Therapeutics, talks about the limitations of current treatments for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (rGBM), the most common and deadliest form of brain cancer in adults and the challenges in developing new treatments to combat this devastating disease. The good news is that their lead candidate, a biologic agent called VB-111, is in late-stage clinical development for rGBM and showing great promise. He discusses the unique mechanism of VB-111 that he hopes could hold the key not only to treating rGBM, but many types of cancer. @VBL Therapeutic #GBM.  #Glioblastoma.  #BrainTumor   #BrainCancer.  #Cancer VBL Therapeutics VBLRX.com  

Jay Patel, Clinical Transformation Officer, SeniorLink talks about caregiver readiness and the difference a confident caregiver can make in the life of a patient or aging loved one.  Primary concerns are the health of the caregiver and the social and medical support teams that give caregivers the ability to respond rapidly to changes. @SeniorLinkInc SeniorLink.com

Jill Gilbert, Producer, Digital Health Summit talks about new solutions that are being tested to improve medical care and outcomes.  She points to challenges presented by embedded legacy systems and how digital health entrepreneurs are creatively proving that new models of care do work and can be integrated into existing solutions.  From her perspective, there is a great deal of discussion about precision medicine but still a long way to go to make it a reality.  Key topic for their January Digital Health Summit, in conjunction with CES in Las Vegas, is the brain. @DHSummit Digital Health Summit

Howard Rose, Founder and CEO, Firsthand Technology has 20 years of experience finding therapeutic uses of Virtual Reality (VR) for healthcare.  Howard talks about how technologies have become friendlier, faster, more mobile and less costly to allow for VR applications to be offered to address a range of types of pain and anxiety and reduce the need for drugs.  @FirsthandTech Firsthand Technology

Heidi Rataj is an award-winning documentary producer and director and a caregiver for her mom.  Heidi talks about her own fear of aging and the search for a new narrative for seniors as they age.  While we need to be respectful of all journeys, activating seniors to allow them to accomplish goals is key to a healthier individual and society.  She also points out how digital technology plays a role in coordinating care and enabling people to age in place. @UCSDHealthyAging Reflect PBS Mini-Series  

Barry McDonogh, Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development, TruTag Technologies talks about their new on-dose microtags and authentication process that  insures pharmaceutical brand integrity and safety for the consumer.  This technology adds minimal cost to drug manufacturing and is a strong deterrent to counterfeit drugs coming into the market. @TruTags #BIO17 TruTags.com

Judith Sheft, Associate Vice President for Technology and Enterprise Development, New Jersey Innovation Institute talks about how a small state like New Jersey is working with public and private universities to bring new technology to the healthcare market. With a background in chip technology, Judith is particularly interested in how digital health is changing the experience of patients as well as how doctors are facing the challenge of using new methods to diagnose and treat patients. @NewJerseyII New Jersey Innovation Institute #BIO2017

A.J. Michaels is a seniors real estate specialist and he shares insights about how seniors and almost seniors are thinking about aging in place, downsizing, and how decisions about housing are so often put off until a crisis hits.  He also points out some helpful options for retro-fitting a home to address concerns about falls, mobility and grooming. Aging.ucsd.edu

Salma Jutt, Vice President of Marketing US, Orexigen Theraputics talks about their obesity drug CONTRAVE and how it works on two areas of the brain to reduce hunger and cravings.  This is a drug for those committed to stick to a regime of exercise and diet and can help keep the weight off.  A growing business in this age of selfies where there is an increasing interest in improving appearances and nearly unlimited opportunities to satisfy cravings for the wrong foods. CONTRAVE.com

Jason Shelton, CEO, Telomere Diagnostics and developer of TeloYears is bringing to market a way to measure the health of the cells in our body.  Using a blood test to determine the length of the telomeres at the end of the chromosomes, a person's TeloYears is computed and compared to others of the same chronological age.  This biomarker of overall health is a relatively new test of body functions and could provide valuable information about slowing down the aging clock. @teloyears Telomere Diagnostics TeloYears.com

Brinda Rana PhD is participating in the analysis of data from the NASA Twins Study that focused on identical twins Scott and Mark Kelly.  Scott recently become the first US astronaut to spend a year in space while Mark, also an astronaut, remained on earth.  The study is beginning to shed light on the physical effects of extremely stressful space travel which seem to correlate to the aging process and the onset of certain diseases.  In addition to learning about how the human body might respond to a long trip to Mars, scientists are also learning about how to identify molecular markers for better treatment and prevention of diseases on earth.  #NASAtwins NASA Twins Study Stein Institute for Research on Aging UCSD  

Kim Walpole reports on the recent Clinical Trials Patient Experience Summit where there was a recognition that clinical trials really need to be more patient-centric.  Stories from patients and those who design and manage trials reveal burdens that can be overcome by using technology and the Internet of things.  One key take-away--the medical research industry needs to make it easier for people to want to participate in clinical trials. @kimbeela Clinical Trials Patient Experience Summit Trials.ai

Brad Ellison, Head of the Healthcare Practice at Phone2Action has a deep understanding of what drives protests about healthcare issues having previously worked as legislative counsel to a member of the House of Representatives.  We talk about recent protests by scientists and doctors and how healthcare activists need to educate and identify stories that will drive home their messages.  Key to creating a successful protest is growing a community that responds to a call to action. @Phone2Action #AHCA Phone2Action.com

Dr. Dilip Jeste is a geriatric neuropsychiatrist, Director of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego.  He reflects on the need to have more conversations about successful dying in addition to our focus on successful aging.  Part of that conversation needs to consider what digital messages are left for loved ones and the public.  While we can not control death, we can control our legacies and how we are remembered.  It looks like there is an emerging industry for documenting and preserving our digital afterlife. @ucsdhealthaging HealthSciences.ucsd.edu/research/aging

Dr. Este Geraghty, Chief Medical Officer and Health Solutions Director, Esri talks about how GIS tools are mapping opioid-related mortality, prescription rates, and use by patients to help public health officials and medical care providers better understand abuses, triggers for use, and ways to safely dispose of unwanted drugs.  Este also gives a little preview of topics to be covered at the July 10-14 2017 Esri International Users Conference. @Esri_health Esri.com

Laura Mitchell, Laura Mitchell Consulting, is an expert on the convergence of technology and the aging population.  We talk about the move from one-to-one care to a zone-care giving environment augmented by sensors and wearables, how use of technology can be encouraged by caregivers or dismissed as not relevant, and the move towards continuous monitoring. @LauraHMitchell LMCllc.us  

Ryan Leung one of the winners in the recent University of California San Diego HealthHack talks about the need to grow nutrient rich vegetables in refugee camps.  Working with his team, Ryan came up with the idea for Rooted in Refugees: A Hanging Garden Project that would provide a smart solution for using limited land and water and give the refugees the satisfaction of growing of their own food to supplement other provisions. UCHealthHack

Pranav Singh is an undergraduate in the department of Bio-Engineering at the University of California San Diego and the winner of the recent UCSD HealthHack.  Pranav's team came up with a plan, Blueprints for Life: Design Solutions for Refugee Health.  Their central idea is to allow the community of refugees in camps to organize and tap into expertise that can improve the life of all.  Pranav is excited about the tools that bio-engineering is bringing to addressing global health challenges and encouraged by their success in the HealthHack.   @UCSD UCSD HealthHack

Ben Tien is a graduate student in the department of bio-engineering at the University of California San Diego and a winner in the refugee category at the recent UCSD HealthHack.  Ben talks about how his team came up with the solution of a sexual assault alarm bracelet that would provide light, an emergency siren and a way to mark an assailant.  Ben also explains his passion for improving global health through the use of  bio-engineering to come up with cost-effective innovative solutions. UCSD HealthHack  

Paul Knoepfler PhD, Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, University of California Davis is also the author of the new book GMO Sapiens: The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies and talks with me about what stem cells can do to help create new cancer therapies as well as grow organoids in the lab to test drugs.  I heard Paul speak at the recent Future of Genomic Medicine Conference produced by the Scripps Translational Science Institute. @UCDavis #FOGM17  @ScrippsSTSI GMO Sapiens: The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies