I had the honor of interviewing a gifted economist, successful entrepreneur, socially responsible healthcare consumer and digital health expert who has been able to "bio-hack" her own struggle with autoimmune disease and personally helped many others with similar conditions - Mette Dyhrberg, CEO of an innovative platform called MyMee that manages a wide range of autoimmune diseases. Make sure to listen as she shares many details of her personal and entrepreneurial journey to integrate her background and analytical approach while critically improving the course of complex disease conditions with limited treatment options for many patients in the process. 1:42 - Mette suffered from autoimmune disease for 20 years and has developed a protocol that allows patients to identify triggers in order to reverse symptoms of their immune conditions. MyMee's digital platform has helped reverse symptoms of >67 different autoimmune diseases of the >100 known such conditions. While autoimmune diseases can attack various different areas and targets, the digital platform asks why it attacks the body and what causes its symptoms. 3:45 - Is MyMee a digital therapeutic and what were the requirements of its approval? 4:50 - How long did it take you to build this platform? I started out 10 years ago, journaling and keeping a spreadsheet to see the effects and causality between what I was doing and how I was feeling. After 5 months, I was no longer at cardiac risk, prior to which I was required to have weekly EKGs, take blood thinners and cholesterol medications since I was 24. And after 16 months, I was able to become symptom-free, and have been drug and symptom free ever since. While I was working at my last company, I became extremely fascinated with the idea of biohacking and over the first couple of years I helped 33 other patients achieve the same results I had obtained. 9:36 - What are some success stories of COVID long-hauler patients that are utilizing your MyMee digital health platform? 12:09 Can you describe the platform and your healthcare team that interacts with patients at MyMee in more detail? Our platform is comprised of 3 parts: - 1) self-tracking of patient symptoms and body signals - 2) converting the noise of the data collected into understanding using computers and analytics that identify the triggers of the symptoms and find solutions - 3) transforming data analytics into behaviors through interactions with a healthcare team of nurse practitioners, dieticians, nutritionists, and doctors that have previously reversed their own autoimmune conditions 15:50 - How can patients access your platform and how does it integrate into the physicians’ clinical work flow? 19:15 – What are some learnings or future plans to work with other health payers? 20:46 – What is the primary lesson you have learned throughout your journey building this novel digital health platform? 23:56 – Could you share one final message with our listeners as well as how they can contact you? As someone who has been struggling with autoimmune disease for 20 years, I understand that the element of hope becomes challenging but ever so critical. In fact, what I call the “hope bank” can get empty when no approach seems to work. So I would like patients with such complex chronic conditions to understand that there is something they can do whether it is MyMee or something else. There are life habits such as sleep that have significant impact on their disease that they may not always take into account. So it is important for listeners to understand that the help and the hope in these conditions stem from small, incremental baseline habits and changes in behaviors. They can visit MyMee.com and contact the MyMee team which has this name because of the ideas that the platform mimes you and is a mirror of yourself as instead of implementing hundreds of rules and restrictions to manage disease, we help you find a blueprint to understand what exactly works for you.

I recently sat down with Talya Miron-Shatz, PhD, a researcher, speaker, consultant, organizational psychologist, behavioral economist, science communicator, and author of the book “Your Life Depends on It: What You Can Do to Make Better Choices about Your Health”. The book (link to order it: https://talyamironshatz.com/your-life-depends-on-it/) has received glowing reviews so far: Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman - “People who expect to stay healthy forever need not read this wonderful book. The rest of us should. With a fine combination of humor, compassion and vast knowledge, Talya Miron-Shatz offers clear and useful guidance for the hardest decisions of life.”; Next Big Idea Club (Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Susan Cain) “The past year has shown that confusion exists prominently in our medical conversations. We need a new guide to navigating these complex decisions, and psychology professor Miron-Shatz is here to provide one.” Talya has spent two decades as a researcher – including at Princeton University where she worked with the Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman, as well as a lecturer at Wharton University. She is now a full professor at Ono Academic College and a Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University. Miron-Shatz also has extensive industry experience, as she consults numerous pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Abbvie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, and others on projects around leading physician advisory boards, designing patient outreach, and sales rep training. Talya has worked with technology giants, such as NantMobile, where she led teams of engineers in introducing an entire layer of psychological drivers to facilitate adherence to medication and she has helped multiple startups – from Healarium to Glucome to hone their operating mechanisms in conveying health information to change patient behavior. Here are some of the highlights from our discussion with its timeline: 2:47 – Why Talya pursued researching Medical Decision Making 3:32 – Gap between knowledge and understanding in genetic counseling, organizational psychology 4:28 – Work with Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Kahneman 5:43 – What do we mean by “Healthcare Consumers” 6:44 – Real world cancer treatment example of the impact of medical decision-making 7:24 – Why Healthcare Consumerism is a “hit or miss” 7:36 – Patients now demand medical treatments – 2017 research from Dr. Heather Lu showing physicians prescribe medications/treatments they do not believe in themselves 10:35 – Key factors in Patient Outcomes: Comprehension of and Adherence to Treatment 11:50 – Health Literacy & Ability to Ask healthcare providers 12:24 – 90 Million Americans indicate low health literacy – e.g. role and probability of prenatal testing, hereditary cancer 13:47 – 2007 Exercise with Genetic Counselors 16:07 – Medication Adherence, errors, and patient education rooms in doctor’s offices 19:29 – Problem with Continuity of Care across health insurance plans (payers), providers, hospital systems, polypharmacy 21:02 – Role of the Patient-Doctor relationship 22:24 – A trusted healthcare profession – pharmacy 23:40 – The real world value of physician’s empathy from Mount Sinai Hospital’s palliative care oncologist 26:42 – Why medical credentials and personality equally critical 28:16 – The definition of making “Every Effort” in a Medical Decision – case: unplanned cesarean section deliveries 32:08 – Specific Tips to make better, more informed medical decisions 33:24 – Ask physicians what matters to you first – 1) risks, then 2) benefits, and finally 3) alternatives 36:14 – Final Conclusions for patients and healthcare professionals 39:48 – How to contact Dr. Miron-Shatz 41:00 – New book release details – available for pre-order now, officially to be release on September 28, 2021

Listen to this absolutely candid and introspective conversation with a  Senior Pharmaceutical Industry Leader, Sports Athlete, Coach, Mentor,  Danielle Day, PhD. She shares amazing personal stories and specific tips  for conflict management, giving and receiving feedback, hiring, and  managing people as well as other common real-world scenarios related to  staying relevant, competitive, productive, healthy, and well throughout  this pandemic, in gymnastics, sports, life, and at work.  

Highlights

1:53 - Q1: Who were the people and what where the events that shaped  your character? 3:04 - Standing up for a frustrated teammate to confront a Gymnastics  Coach in College 5:23 - Q2: How have you maintained your self-identity and character to  be successful across academia, sports, and corporate environment in the  pharmaceutical industry? 6:40 - Fighting for what you believe 7:25 - Receiving negative feedback about character and adapting the  personal "fire" at work 9:49 - Q3: What sacrifices do you have to make as you transition into a  people management role? 10:00 - Reaction to a post about the 5 Sacrifices we all must make in  life 18:38 - Applying the "Strengths-finder"  21:56 - Importance of "Sportsmanship" and scientific mindset in every  competition across work/life  23:35 - Q4: How do you define winning in Medical Affairs in the pharma  and medical device industry? 26:34 - Being creative and strategic to apply business acumen to advance  science 26:52 - Medical Insights case study and example 28:06 - Advice to individuals and businesses on adapting during the  pandemic crisis 29:55 - Work from home issues and management 31:25 - Authenticity and Mindfulness during crisis - examples 34:52 - Virtual productivity threshold during the pandemic 37:02 - Case studies of teamwork, compassion, and musical relief during  the pandemic 38:02 - Q5: How do you hire based on character and behavior? 39:25 - Searching for diverse skillsets among MSLs (Medical Science  Liaisons) more than experience 40:18 - If hiring managers continue to have the same mindset, they will  have the same results 40:36 - Tips and new approaches for job candidates during the interview  process  43:09 - Interview question reflections on landing the first MSL role and  role of authenticity 43:52 - Mentoring tips for landing a job vs. staying and succeeding 45:59 - When do you behave out of character? What happens when you are  constantly behaving out of character at work? 47:21 - Case study of a boss that challenged subordinates to justify  decisions through deliberate questions 48:40 - Interpreting and giving feedback: case study 53:52 - Q6: Can you describe episodes of extending personal and  professional boundaries you have observed? 56:08 - Upcoming Medical Affairs Workshop on Metrics / KPIs (key  performance indicators) at Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS)  Meeting in 2022  56:44 - Q7: If you could change 1 thing about Medical Affairs today,  what would it be? 58:18 - Communicating Value of Medical Affairs and alignment of Medical  and Corporate Strategy 59:53 - Shifting focus on self-care, virtual productivity, and wellness 1:01:56 - Redefining our "Pandemic Intelligence" to inspire and engage  employees 1:02:51 - Business Networking opportunities during the pandemic  1:03:40 - Inspirational story of U.S. Gymnastic Champion and Olympian Chelsey Memmel

In this special episode of the Alloutcoach Podcast, I sat down with  Donald Rattner, a renowned architect, speaker, lecturer, educator, and  author of his new book "My Creative Space" who shares some unique  research and detailed tips all of us can use in every field to spark,  capture, and apply some of our most creative ideas. His insights truly  break new ground in merging our left and right sides of the brain to  integrate our analytic and creative types of thinking when and where it  counts most!   Discussion Highlights  1:00 - Inspiration for architecture and Background 3:25 - Definition of "Evidence-Based Design" (EBD) - research of how our space impacts our behaviors 6:11 - When are we most creative? 6:37 - Four different "chronotypes" of people and their peak times of creativity 7:22 - Most people's idea generation is highest at 9 am - 1 pm 8:26 - Blue color and natural light tied to solar cycle tied to improved idea generation 9:22 - Tip: Color-changing bulbs in your office to spark creativity 10:10 - Tip: Nigh-shift mode on smartphone 10:43 - Case study of no windows in office and solutions 12:40 - Analytical type thinking  16:22 - Biophilic Design and Hypothesis: Human Affinity for Natural Environment 19:19 - Traveling in Time and Space through Space you create 21:47 - Donald's commentary on using virtual backgrounds in remote meetings 24:18 - Our Brain's "Seesaw Effect" concept and its relation to  creativity: Conscious vs. Unconscious Thinking, Finite Attention Span,  etc. 28:00 - Significance of timely idea capture 28:21 - Tip: use waterproof note pads you can use in the shower for best idea capture 28:55 - Idea generation during sleep and capture 29:40 - Salvador Dali and Thomas Edison's tricks to quickly capture creative ideas 32:05 - Why Stress is the #1 Creativity Killer 33:14 - Creativity in absence of stress 34:00 - Culture and Organizational Policy 34:07 - How shape or position of furnishings at home or at business meetings impacts creativity 37:34 - Tips on stimulating creativity in business meetings 41:37 - Tip: whiteboard wall paint in the office space 43:42 - Research case study of the role of color on creativity from an art trade show in 2006 46:12 - Role of sound on creativity: 70 decibel magic number and white noise 48:45 - How should people use the book? 52:02 - Final takeaways - Space Matters