Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Michael Sherling, Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, and Strategy Officer at ModMed, aims to save time for physicians and patients by reducing administrative burden through technology. Their AI-based solutions focus on automating mundane tasks like fax routing and documentation and can passively transcribe doctor-patient conversations to generate structured notes. The interface is designed to be simple and unobtrusive, minimizing extra clicks or steps for the doctors to review and accept the AI's recommendations.

Michael explains, "Our approach to AI is focused on curing the drudgery of healthcare. What I mean by that is using any kind of tool to reduce the burden of documentation for staff, providers, and people in the back office. That's really what we're focused on. We're not so focused on how to improve diagnoses or any of the clinical aspects of healthcare but more on the administrative burden."

"We're still in the development phase of our AI strategy, but there are two products that we're pretty far along on. One is around AI fax routing. It's how we can basically recognize faxes that come in and then route them to the correct patients and the correct category in the chart. It's amazing today that medical practices in 2024 rely on faxes as much as they do, but they do."

"The truth of the matter is there's just so much burden on doctors. If they have a 15-minute visit, they may be spending half the time or more just trying to capture all the information. Some of it has to do with the patient's complaint in front of them, but some is just administrative stuff. We're trying to reduce that so that doctor-patient relationship can be center stage. How is it different? Well, our solution is on an iPad, which I think is great because it's unobtrusive. It's a great form factor that brings the patient and the doctor together. The model itself is specialty-specific."  

#ModMed #Healthcare #HealthTech #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #EHR #ElectronicHealthRecords #Physicians #PatientExperience

modmed.com 

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Dr. Michael Sherling, Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, and Strategy Officer at ModMed, aims to save time for physicians and patients by reducing administrative burden through technology. Their AI-based solutions focus on automating mundane tasks like fax routing and documentation and can passively transcribe doctor-patient conversations to generate structured notes. The interface is designed to be simple and unobtrusive, minimizing extra clicks or steps for the doctors to review and accept the AI's recommendations.

Michael explains, "Our approach to AI is focused on curing the drudgery of healthcare. What I mean by that is using any kind of tool to reduce the burden of documentation for staff, providers, and people in the back office. That's really what we're focused on. We're not so focused on how to improve diagnoses or any of the clinical aspects of healthcare but more on the administrative burden."

"We're still in the development phase of our AI strategy, but there are two products that we're pretty far along on. One is around AI fax routing. It's how we can basically recognize faxes that come in and then route them to the correct patients and the correct category in the chart. It's amazing today that medical practices in 2024 rely on faxes as much as they do, but they do."

"The truth of the matter is there's just so much burden on doctors. If they have a 15-minute visit, they may be spending half the time or more just trying to capture all the information. Some of it has to do with the patient's complaint in front of them, but some is just administrative stuff. We're trying to reduce that so that doctor-patient relationship can be center stage. How is it different? Well, our solution is on an iPad, which I think is great because it's unobtrusive. It's a great form factor that brings the patient and the doctor together. The model itself is specialty-specific."  

#ModMed #Healthcare #HealthTech #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #EHR #ElectronicHealthRecords #Physicians #PatientExperience

modmed.com 

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Dr. Eric Siemers, Medical Officer at Acumen Pharma, is developing a monoclonal antibody called sabirnetug that targets a specific toxic form of amyloid beta, Aβ oligomers. These oligomers are now believed to be a key driver of neuronal damage in Alzheimer's disease. The drug is in phase 2 clinical trials to evaluate its ability to slow cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer's patients and demonstrate the accuracy of biomarkers in identifying pathology before symptoms appear.  

Eric explains, "We've identified, and this is a monoclonal antibody, a monoclonal antibody with a unique mechanism of action in that it targets what are called Aβ oligomers. And without going into all the details, these Aβ oligomers are now really felt to be the toxic species, the ones that cause the neurons to die, and the two drugs that have recently gotten approval sort of indirectly get at those toxic species, maybe one more than the other. But in our case, we're directly targeting what we think is the most toxic species. And so the progress in the field is wonderful, and nobody can say that it's not, or take anything away from that, but nobody's cured the disease either. Now we know we've got a toehold, we know an approach, and Acumen is using an antibody because of this unique target. We think of it as a next-generation treatment for Alzheimer's disease."

"We've known about these Alzheimer's plaques for a long time, but what's more recent is understanding some of these intermediate species. And so these Aβ oligomers we target are oligo, meaning a few. So, anywhere from 2 to 200 of these Aβ stuck together. The Aβs are basically inherently sticky. And so the things we're most interested in are probably 10 of the Aβ together up to say 50, which seems to be the sweet spot."

#AcumenPharmaceuticals #Alzheimers #ALZ #EndALZ #Sabirnetug #DrugDevelopment

acumenpharm.com

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Dr. Eric Siemers, Medical Officer at Acumen Pharma, is developing a monoclonal antibody called sabirnetug that targets a specific toxic form of amyloid beta, Aβ oligomers. These oligomers are now believed to be a key driver of neuronal damage in Alzheimer's disease. The drug is in phase 2 clinical trials to evaluate its ability to slow cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer's patients and demonstrate the accuracy of biomarkers in identifying pathology before symptoms appear.  

Eric explains, "We've identified, and this is a monoclonal antibody, a monoclonal antibody with a unique mechanism of action in that it targets what are called Aβ oligomers. And without going into all the details, these Aβ oligomers are now really felt to be the toxic species, the ones that cause the neurons to die, and the two drugs that have recently gotten approval sort of indirectly get at those toxic species, maybe one more than the other. But in our case, we're directly targeting what we think is the most toxic species. And so the progress in the field is wonderful, and nobody can say that it's not, or take anything away from that, but nobody's cured the disease either. Now we know we've got a toehold, we know an approach, and Acumen is using an antibody because of this unique target. We think of it as a next-generation treatment for Alzheimer's disease."

"We've known about these Alzheimer's plaques for a long time, but what's more recent is understanding some of these intermediate species. And so these Aβ oligomers we target are oligo, meaning a few. So, anywhere from 2 to 200 of these Aβ stuck together. The Aβs are basically inherently sticky. And so the things we're most interested in are probably 10 of the Aβ together up to say 50, which seems to be the sweet spot."

#AcumenPharmaceuticals #Alzheimers #ALZ #EndALZ #Sabirnetug #DrugDevelopment

acumenpharm.com

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Rob Abbott, CEO and Executive Director at ISPOR, the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, focuses on defining and measuring value in healthcare, including accessibility, affordability, effectiveness, and patient outcomes. HEOR (health economics and outcomes research) can provide data-driven insights to guide healthcare decision-making, reduce bias in research, and consider a broader range of factors like social determinants of health. This can improve treatment adherence, align therapies with what matters most to patients, and support the evaluation of technology used for treatments and predictive analysis of new therapies.  

Rob explains, "I'm excited at both the legacy of work that health economics and outcomes research has contributed to, but I'm particularly excited about the extent to which health economics and outcomes research can provide data-driven insights to highlight health interventions that provide the best health outcomes for the investment made. This is good for managing the expenditure of public resources. Still, even more so, data-driven insights can help us lead to better health outcomes, better treatment protocols, and better health outcomes for patients."

"As health economists and a professional society representing health economists and outcomes researchers, I think we know that historically, we have defined value quite narrowly in terms of a person's physical health, for instance. But we know that increasingly the concept of whole health or a more holistic approach to health is gaining a lot of traction. So, we are actively engaged in expanding the definition of health to include access to housing, social connections and networks, healthy food and lifestyle choices, and things of that nature. So, I think we are beginning to bring some new ideas to the table in terms of how we think about health." 

#ISPOR #Patients #Healthcare #DigitalHealth #GlobalHealth #HEOR #RWE #HealthEconomics #HealthAI #DrugPriceNegotiations

ISPOR.org

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Rob Abbott, CEO and Executive Director at ISPOR, the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, focuses on defining and measuring value in healthcare, including accessibility, affordability, effectiveness, and patient outcomes. HEOR (health economics and outcomes research) can provide data-driven insights to guide healthcare decision-making, reduce bias in research, and consider a broader range of factors like social determinants of health. This can improve treatment adherence, align therapies with what matters most to patients, and support the evaluation of technology used for treatments and predictive analysis of new therapies.  

Rob explains, "I'm excited at both the legacy of work that health economics and outcomes research has contributed to, but I'm particularly excited about the extent to which health economics and outcomes research can provide data-driven insights to highlight health interventions that provide the best health outcomes for the investment made. This is good for managing the expenditure of public resources. Still, even more so, data-driven insights can help us lead to better health outcomes, better treatment protocols, and better health outcomes for patients."

"As health economists and a professional society representing health economists and outcomes researchers, I think we know that historically, we have defined value quite narrowly in terms of a person's physical health, for instance. But we know that increasingly the concept of whole health or a more holistic approach to health is gaining a lot of traction. So, we are actively engaged in expanding the definition of health to include access to housing, social connections and networks, healthy food and lifestyle choices, and things of that nature. So, I think we are beginning to bring some new ideas to the table in terms of how we think about health." 

#ISPOR #Patients #Healthcare #DigitalHealth #GlobalHealth #HEOR #RWE #HealthEconomics #HealthAI #DrugPriceNegotiations

ISPOR.org

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Tony Goodman is the Chief Operating Officer at Adial Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a personalized therapy for alcohol use disorder based on a genetic biomarker. This unique approach combines the therapeutic AD04 with the biomarker AG Plus to identify a specific AUD patient population that responds well to this drug. Insights from this work could potentially lead to a broader understanding of the genetic and neurobiological connection underlying addiction. 

Tony explains, "What makes us unique is that we're out in front of where the current prevailing wisdom of science is going in the addiction space. There's a renewed interest in personalized medicine or genetics, the study of genetic biomarkers, and things of that sort in addiction. As you know, we've been doing this for a long time. And so I think the uniqueness comes into the fact that we've coupled a therapeutic with a genetic biomarker, in this case, known as AG Plus, which we believe can produce results for patients that have this specific genotype. And you may recall that there's a lot of individual variability in addiction, and particularly at AUD, you have gender and genetic differences. You have sort of history of genetic patient history, differences, environmental factors, comorbid conditions including major depression, and you have trauma."

"A lot of patients in the AUD space have a history of PTSD or negative experiences. There's a lot of variation in severity levels, which is something else we find unique about our program because we have stratified patients into less than ten drinks per drinking day and greater than ten drinks per drinking day. We know there is a difference in the responder analysis of the patients who fall into the less than ten drinks per drinking day. And a lot of theories have been postulated as to why that may be the case."

#Adial #AlcoholUseDisorder #AUD #HealthcareInnovations #AddictionTreatment #BiotechSolutions #GeneticBiomarkers #PrecisionMedicine

adial.com

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Tony Goodman is the Chief Operating Officer at Adial Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a personalized therapy for alcohol use disorder based on a genetic biomarker. This unique approach combines the therapeutic AD04 with the biomarker AG Plus to identify a specific AUD patient population that responds well to this drug. Insights from this work could potentially lead to a broader understanding of the genetic and neurobiological connection underlying addiction. 

Tony explains, "What makes us unique is that we're out in front of where the current prevailing wisdom of science is going in the addiction space. There's a renewed interest in personalized medicine or genetics, the study of genetic biomarkers, and things of that sort in addiction. As you know, we've been doing this for a long time. And so I think the uniqueness comes into the fact that we've coupled a therapeutic with a genetic biomarker, in this case, known as AG Plus, which we believe can produce results for patients that have this specific genotype. And you may recall that there's a lot of individual variability in addiction, and particularly at AUD, you have gender and genetic differences. You have sort of history of genetic patient history, differences, environmental factors, comorbid conditions including major depression, and you have trauma."

"A lot of patients in the AUD space have a history of PTSD or negative experiences. There's a lot of variation in severity levels, which is something else we find unique about our program because we have stratified patients into less than ten drinks per drinking day and greater than ten drinks per drinking day. We know there is a difference in the responder analysis of the patients who fall into the less than ten drinks per drinking day. And a lot of theories have been postulated as to why that may be the case."

#Adial #AlcoholUseDisorder #AUD #HealthcareInnovations #AddictionTreatment #BiotechSolutions #GeneticBiomarkers #PrecisionMedicine

adial.com

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Shai Shen-Orr, the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of CytoReason, is developing computational disease models powered by AI to improve the probability of success in phase 2 clinical trials. Their goal is to more precisely develop drugs using AI to analyze large amounts of biological and clinical data and overcome the challenges of the complexity and uncertainty in medical information. Working with large pharmaceutical companies, CytoReason is supporting companies in their drug development efforts and helping them choose the right drug target and patient populations to study.  

Shai explains, "There are many challenges. I would say that CytoReason right now isn't tackling images. And there are certainly companies in the field that have been doing this. We've been focused more on the molecular side of the data, the genes, the proteins, the cells, the genetics. But the challenge is that when you work in this field and try to do AI in biology, it's very difficult for us to know the ground truth. We don't know when we're wrong or when we're right."

"We strive to support as many diseases as we can. Where we've placed the focus now has been immunology and oncology and, particularly, immuno-oncology. We kind of grew up as a company that really can specialize in the immune system. While the immune system plays a role in almost every disease, there are particular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and oncology, where it plays a very large role." 

"So now when we develop drugs, drug developers are thinking very much across the board, they're thinking about the mechanisms of the disease. They keep asking themselves where are there similar mechanisms that are triggering diseases that may be ultimately, from a physiological perspective, from a disease perspective, the patients may look very different, they may even have a different disease. Yet, from the drug perspective, what the drug is hitting, the mechanisms are similar. And so we need to support that. We need to support the ability of drug developers to think across the board. That also plays into the role of which models we prioritize."

#CytoReason #PharmaAI #AI #DrugDiscovery #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials

cytoreason.com

Listen to the podcast here

Shai Shen-Orr, the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of CytoReason, is developing computational disease models powered by AI to improve the probability of success in phase 2 clinical trials. Their goal is to more precisely develop drugs using AI to analyze large amounts of biological and clinical data and overcome the challenges of the complexity and uncertainty in medical information. Working with large pharmaceutical companies, CytoReason is supporting companies in their drug development efforts and helping them choose the right drug target and patient populations to study.  

Shai explains, "There are many challenges. I would say that CytoReason right now isn't tackling images. And there are certainly companies in the field that have been doing this. We've been focused more on the molecular side of the data, the genes, the proteins, the cells, the genetics. But the challenge is that when you work in this field and try to do AI in biology, it's very difficult for us to know the ground truth. We don't know when we're wrong or when we're right."

"We strive to support as many diseases as we can. Where we've placed the focus now has been immunology and oncology and, particularly, immuno-oncology. We kind of grew up as a company that really can specialize in the immune system. While the immune system plays a role in almost every disease, there are particular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and oncology, where it plays a very large role." 

"So now when we develop drugs, drug developers are thinking very much across the board, they're thinking about the mechanisms of the disease. They keep asking themselves where are there similar mechanisms that are triggering diseases that may be ultimately, from a physiological perspective, from a disease perspective, the patients may look very different, they may even have a different disease. Yet, from the drug perspective, what the drug is hitting, the mechanisms are similar. And so we need to support that. We need to support the ability of drug developers to think across the board. That also plays into the role of which models we prioritize."

#CytoReason #PharmaAI #AI #DrugDiscovery #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials

cytoreason.com

Download the transcript here