Dr. Mark Pimentel, Cedars-Sinai + Matt Mitcho, Gemelli Biotech

Welcome back to one of the first episodes of our new podcast, The Patients Speak. We're combining the business aspects of innovation and the science of innovation with the patient voice and what the opportunities are to incorporate more of the patient experience into our strategies and into our work.

Today, we're joined by Dr. Mark Pimentel, executive director of the MAST( Medically Associated Science and Technology) program at Cedar Sinai. And, by Matt Mitcho, CEO of Gemelli Biotech. Dr. Pimentel is also a co-founder and a member of the scientific advisory board at Gemelli.

They have been working together since 2018, as founders of Gemelli Biotech, bringing trio-smart, which is a SIBO breath test that identifies gasses that are associated with SIBO, hydrogen methane, and hydrogen sulfide to market. Also, IBS Smart, a blood test that measures two antibodies elevated in people that had a previous event of food poisoning or identifying post-infectious IBS, IBSD specifically.

In addition to the clinical, research, and technology assessment, we talked about incorporating the patient voice in seeking proper treatment for IBS patients, which Dr. Pimentel highlights that as a clinician scientist, you are obligated to think around the patient and outside the box.

He gives some tips to clinicians:

• Have the ability to compassionately listen to the patient population and then develop innovative tools that help them get to the resolution more quickly. This aids with  patient motivation and resilience 
• With the volumes increasing in treatment clinicians see patterns and upon seeing those patterns, there comes a need to have as many clinical trials as you need to up until the science stacks up, which most times is a long and dedicated process

Dr. Pimentel gave us tips for tackling systemic challenges like difficulty in getting an appointment with the doctor or not having enough time with the doctor.

• Have quality time for example an hour for the new patients
• Educating their patients empowers them with the information out there and this gives them confidence when they visit the doctor.

Matt insists on being patient-centric. In making sure that the culture that is created within the organization focuses on the patient, and getting the patient an answer,

In conclusion, we spoke about what's on the horizon that we should be watching out for? In regards to technology and new science.

• Precision medicine: Having more knowledge about the microbiome in IBS,.
• They already have one product that looks very promising for the diarrhea side on the basis of exactly what this breath test shows. 
• They plan to spend a lot of resources educating patients and providers to the three gas breath test 
• Exploring telehealth platforms that will give patients that don't have a provider, greater access to tools that they may find benefit from and continuously exploring partnerships for scale.

It really comes down to accessing more physicians and making them aware of what they are doing. Alongside making patients aware that they have access to these tools and can go ask their providers about them. And then making sure that they are prepared for the demand on the back end. Having better tools to give folks patients a positive diagnosis, which will allow them to find resolution more quickly. 

In summary, we narrow it down to the education and empowerment of both patients and clinicians.

If you’d like to read more about patient empowerment – along with the 83bar patient recruitment platform – go to www.83bar.com

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