Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Andrew Dold, Co-Founder of RevMed, a B2B marketplace for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to address the problem of slow-moving or expiring inventory. This medical marketplace allows facilities to recoup lost revenue by listing medical devices for sale and offers purchasing options for smaller facilities. RevMed serves as a middleman, facilitating the interaction between facilities without taking custody of any items. The marketplace has an extensive database of millions of different SKUs and items, which are updated weekly. The goal of RevMed is to decrease the price of healthcare by getting as many facilities as possible to adopt the platform.

Andrew elaborates, "So, full disclosure, this problem came into light during my fellowship at NYU. I did a sports medicine fellowship a few years ago in New York City, and it simply started with me interacting with one of the representatives, the orthopedic representatives at my hospital. I wanted to get a few suture anchors to practice tying knots in my apartment in New York City. And he simply took me into the back supply room. On one of the shelves, he grabbed a number of different boxes, just flipped them over, looked at the expiration date, and I think they were all expired. And he handed me ten of these boxes and said, here you go. You can practice on these."

"There were brand-new implants that had simply expired on the shelf of the surgery center where I was operating in New York City. It shocked me at the time because of simply the cost of these implants. One of these boxes was in the vicinity of $800 to $1,000, and he handed me 10 of them to take home because they had expired. They were now worthless. They couldn't be used on a patient. From that point forward, I became more aware of the problem of stale, slow-moving, and expiring inventory and the surplus of medical and surgical supplies on the shelves of hospitals and ASCs. And what a massive problem it is."

#RevMed #supplychain #healthcare #medicalequipment #healthcaresupplychain #revolutionizeprocurement #medtechmarketplace #transparenttransactions #sustainablesourcing #healthcareinnovation #medicaldevicemarketplace

revmedconnect.com

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Dr. Andrew Dold, Co-Founder of RevMed, a B2B marketplace for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to address the problem of slow-moving or expiring inventory. This medical marketplace allows facilities to recoup lost revenue by listing medical devices for sale and offers purchasing options for smaller facilities. RevMed serves as a middleman, facilitating the interaction between facilities without taking custody of any items. The marketplace has an extensive database of millions of different SKUs and items, which are updated weekly. The goal of RevMed is to decrease the price of healthcare by getting as many facilities as possible to adopt the platform.

Andrew elaborates, "So, full disclosure, this problem came into light during my fellowship at NYU. I did a sports medicine fellowship a few years ago in New York City, and it simply started with me interacting with one of the representatives, the orthopedic representatives at my hospital. I wanted to get a few suture anchors to practice tying knots in my apartment in New York City. And he simply took me into the back supply room. On one of the shelves, he grabbed a number of different boxes, just flipped them over, looked at the expiration date, and I think they were all expired. And he handed me ten of these boxes and said, here you go. You can practice on these."

"There were brand-new implants that had simply expired on the shelf of the surgery center where I was operating in New York City. It shocked me at the time because of simply the cost of these implants. One of these boxes was in the vicinity of $800 to $1,000, and he handed me 10 of them to take home because they had expired. They were now worthless. They couldn't be used on a patient. From that point forward, I became more aware of the problem of stale, slow-moving, and expiring inventory and the surplus of medical and surgical supplies on the shelves of hospitals and ASCs. And what a massive problem it is."

#RevMed #supplychain #healthcare #medicalequipment #healthcaresupplychain #revolutionizeprocurement #medtechmarketplace #transparenttransactions #sustainablesourcing #healthcareinnovation #medicaldevicemarketplace

revmedconnect.com

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Ed Esquenazi, Founder and CEO of Sirenas, is exploring the chemistry of marine organisms to accelerate drug discovery. Marine-based scientific elements are still poorly understood but have the potential to produce unique and useful compounds for drug development. There are stark differences between land-based organisms and marine-based organisms, which have evolved for much longer and, therefore, offer more diverse and complex chemistry. Using AI and machine learning, Sirenas has identified cancer-killing agents, anti-infective agents, and anti-inflammatory compounds from marine organisms and is developing marine-based personal care products.

Ed explains, "We go out into the ocean, collect samples, we bring them back. We understand the different chemistry being produced in these organisms, identify and catalog it very carefully using instrumentation, and then figure out how that chemistry might impact biological systems, all with the goal of accelerating drug discovery. So the goal is to make the chemistry from marine organisms accessible to drug discovery."

"We discovered one of the most powerful antimalarials working with the Gates Foundation. We've also identified quite a few anti-inflammatory compounds. These are things that modulate the immune system in ways to dampen inflammation or, in some cases, actually accelerate inflammation. So, we've identified some of those with very interesting therapeutic paths."

"I think it's a matter of diversity. A lot of the elements used in drug discovery traditionally have been based either on plants or bacteria, but land-based or synthetic, and they limit the diversity of the chemistry used in drug discovery. So, if you go into the ocean, you're opening up a realm of very different components that can help accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutics."

#SirenasMD #MarineBasedDrugs #MarineOrganisms #DrugDiscovery #Algae

SirenasMD.com

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Ed Esquenazi, Founder and CEO of Sirenas, is exploring the chemistry of marine organisms to accelerate drug discovery. Marine-based scientific elements are still poorly understood but have the potential to produce unique and useful compounds for drug development. There are stark differences between land-based organisms and marine-based organisms, which have evolved for much longer and, therefore, offer more diverse and complex chemistry. Using AI and machine learning, Sirenas has identified cancer-killing agents, anti-infective agents, and anti-inflammatory compounds from marine organisms and is developing marine-based personal care products.

Ed explains, "We go out into the ocean, collect samples, we bring them back. We understand the different chemistry being produced in these organisms, identify and catalog it very carefully using instrumentation, and then figure out how that chemistry might impact biological systems, all with the goal of accelerating drug discovery. So the goal is to make the chemistry from marine organisms accessible to drug discovery."

"We discovered one of the most powerful antimalarials working with the Gates Foundation. We've also identified quite a few anti-inflammatory compounds. These are things that modulate the immune system in ways to dampen inflammation or, in some cases, actually accelerate inflammation. So, we've identified some of those with very interesting therapeutic paths."

"I think it's a matter of diversity. A lot of the elements used in drug discovery traditionally have been based either on plants or bacteria, but land-based or synthetic, and they limit the diversity of the chemistry used in drug discovery. So, if you go into the ocean, you're opening up a realm of very different components that can help accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutics."

#SirenasMD #MarineBasedDrugs #MarineOrganisms #DrugDiscovery #Algae

SirenasMD.com

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Kim Perry, Chief Growth Officer at emtelligent, focuses on using medical AI in the prior authorization process to structure unstructured medical text in patient records, making whole record healthcare possible. AI can be used to extract relevant information from faxed or PDF medical records, saving time and improving efficiency over existing manual processes. For payers, there is potential for medical AI to address other processes such as risk adjustment, care management, quality measures, and payment integrity in an environment still lacking interoperability and reliant on highly trained humans.

Kim explains, "For prior authorization in particular, well over 50% of our prior authorizations here in this country are manual. And that means once a prior authorization is submitted for a request for a procedure or a specialty drug, it's a cue for a clinician to review. And part of that review process is to pull a patient's record."

"Unfortunately, because of the lack of interoperability in the healthcare ecosystem, that record is often a fax and a PDF, which could be hundreds of pages. So, the clinician is tasked to manually read through that PDF to find the clinically relevant information to help them deny or approve the prior authorization. So, what they're doing here is using AI to pull out the relevant information at the time that's needed so the clinician doesn't have to manually read through all hundreds of pages looking for the needle in the haystack, if you will, of the information that they're looking for to solve that problem in that point in time."

"I think people assume that with the adoption of EMRs, everything will be digital. But again, due to the lack of interoperability or the lack of payers, in this case, getting direct access into the EMRs for the clinical data, there has to be a way to transmit the information, the relevant information. And often, as I mentioned, it's fax-based. The health systems or the providers are faxing over medical records to the payers. Today, the payers are forced to do that manual review because they haven't had the tools available to them until now to help them apply technology to that manual review process."

#emtelligent #PriorAuthorization #MedicalAI #ArtificialIntelligence #HealthcareInnovations #CMS #LLM #LargeLanguageModels #ClinicalData #EHR #FutureofHealthcare

emtelligent.com

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Kim Perry, Chief Growth Officer at emtelligent, focuses on using medical AI in the prior authorization process to structure unstructured medical text in patient records, making whole record healthcare possible. AI can be used to extract relevant information from faxed or PDF medical records, saving time and improving efficiency over existing manual processes. For payers, there is potential for medical AI to address other processes such as risk adjustment, care management, quality measures, and payment integrity in an environment still lacking interoperability and reliant on highly trained humans.

Kim explains, "For prior authorization in particular, well over 50% of our prior authorizations here in this country are manual. And that means once a prior authorization is submitted for a request for a procedure or a specialty drug, it's a cue for a clinician to review. And part of that review process is to pull a patient's record."

"Unfortunately, because of the lack of interoperability in the healthcare ecosystem, that record is often a fax and a PDF, which could be hundreds of pages. So, the clinician is tasked to manually read through that PDF to find the clinically relevant information to help them deny or approve the prior authorization. So, what they're doing here is using AI to pull out the relevant information at the time that's needed so the clinician doesn't have to manually read through all hundreds of pages looking for the needle in the haystack, if you will, of the information that they're looking for to solve that problem in that point in time."

"I think people assume that with the adoption of EMRs, everything will be digital. But again, due to the lack of interoperability or the lack of payers, in this case, getting direct access into the EMRs for the clinical data, there has to be a way to transmit the information, the relevant information. And often, as I mentioned, it's fax-based. The health systems or the providers are faxing over medical records to the payers. Today, the payers are forced to do that manual review because they haven't had the tools available to them until now to help them apply technology to that manual review process."

#emtelligent #PriorAuthorization #MedicalAI #ArtificialIntelligence #HealthcareInnovations #CMS #LLM #LargeLanguageModels #ClinicalData #EHR #FutureofHealthcare

emtelligent.com

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Nolan Townsend, CEO of Lexeo Therapeutics, and Jen Farmer, CEO of FARA, the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance, are working together to better understand and treat Friedreich's Ataxia. This rare genetic condition includes cardiomyopathy and scoliosis. Lexeo Therapeutics is studying gene therapy as a potential treatment for the cardiovascular component of the disease. The Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) plays a role in funding research, understanding the natural history of the disease, and advocating for treatments.

Nolan explains, "For most patients in Friedreich's ataxia, cardiovascular disease becomes a very challenging component of the pathology, and it is what's called a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy phenocopy. So, it mimics hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a thickening of the heart wall. And that typically progresses as well, which, for many patients, ends up being the cause of mortality associated with the disease. This pathology does appear to be amenable to treatment approaches like gene therapy, and it's one that we're working on here at Lexeo."

Jen elaborates, "As Nolan mentioned, it's caused by mutations in a gene called FXN, and the mutation in the gene causes a silencing of the gene. So, individuals with FA have what we call frataxin deficiency. And frataxin is a highly conserved protein that is important in lots of different cells, which is why the disease affects multiple organ systems. So, while it's a genetic disease, it's this protein deficiency that causes the pathology within the cell. The cells just don't make enough energy and don't function properly, and that's what contributes to the underlying cause of the disease."

#FriedreichsAtaxia #CureFA #FAAwarenessMonth #FAAwarenessDay #RareDiseases

LexeoTX.com

CureFA.org

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Nolan Townsend, CEO of Lexeo Therapeutics, and Jen Farmer, CEO of FARA, the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance, are working together to better understand and treat Friedreich's Ataxia. This rare genetic condition includes cardiomyopathy and scoliosis. Lexeo Therapeutics is studying gene therapy as a potential treatment for the cardiovascular component of the disease. The Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) plays a role in funding research, understanding the natural history of the disease, and advocating for treatments.

Nolan explains, "For most patients in Friedreich's ataxia, cardiovascular disease becomes a very challenging component of the pathology, and it is what's called a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy phenocopy. So, it mimics hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a thickening of the heart wall. And that typically progresses as well, which, for many patients, ends up being the cause of mortality associated with the disease. This pathology does appear to be amenable to treatment approaches like gene therapy, and it's one that we're working on here at Lexeo."

Jen elaborates, "As Nolan mentioned, it's caused by mutations in a gene called FXN, and the mutation in the gene causes a silencing of the gene. So, individuals with FA have what we call frataxin deficiency. And frataxin is a highly conserved protein that is important in lots of different cells, which is why the disease affects multiple organ systems. So, while it's a genetic disease, it's this protein deficiency that causes the pathology within the cell. The cells just don't make enough energy and don't function properly, and that's what contributes to the underlying cause of the disease."

#FriedreichsAtaxia #CureFA #FAAwarenessMonth #FAAwarenessDay #RareDiseases

LexeoTX.com

CureFA.org

Download the transcript here

Dr. Craig Joseph, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Global, highlights the concerns and challenges healthcare professionals face when using health IT and the clinician burnout related to the administrative burdens of electronic health records. He addresses the obstacles to integrating IT into healthcare workflows, including cost, risk aversion, and resource limitations. He identifies areas where AI can have an immediate impact in reducing errors and biases.

Craig elaborates, "In the past, we lived in a paper-based world, so it was pretty flexible. You could fill out a form or not fill out a form. You could give as much detail or as little detail. Often, especially physicians really couldn't read what they were writing anyway, so it was less important. All of that's changed now in the last 15 or 20 years since the advent of electronic health records."

"What we've seen with large language models, like Chat GPT and other modern AIs, is the ability to do a lot of things with voice now, to be able to communicate directly with a patient, not have to look at the screen to either get information or to write a progress note. Lots of physicians have complained deservedly that they have to spend pajama time, time after they put their kids to bed at night, where they're not getting paid and writing their progress notes and office visit notes."

"I think AI, like LLMs are going to really do a lot to help to rehumanize the interactions that we have. Although, there will be downsides. For that to work, there has to be a microphone in the exam room and it has to be listening to what you and the doctor are saying to one another. Folks are going to have to be comfortable with that to be able to leverage some of those things."

#NordicGlobal #AI #MedicalAI #Hospitals #HealthIT

nordicglobal.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Craig Joseph, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Global, highlights the concerns and challenges healthcare professionals face when using health IT and the clinician burnout related to the administrative burdens of electronic health records. He addresses the obstacles to integrating IT into healthcare workflows, including cost, risk aversion, and resource limitations. He identifies areas where AI can have an immediate impact in reducing errors and biases.

Craig elaborates, "In the past, we lived in a paper-based world, so it was pretty flexible. You could fill out a form or not fill out a form. You could give as much detail or as little detail. Often, especially physicians really couldn't read what they were writing anyway, so it was less important. All of that's changed now in the last 15 or 20 years since the advent of electronic health records."

"What we've seen with large language models, like Chat GPT and other modern AIs, is the ability to do a lot of things with voice now, to be able to communicate directly with a patient, not have to look at the screen to either get information or to write a progress note. Lots of physicians have complained deservedly that they have to spend pajama time, time after they put their kids to bed at night, where they're not getting paid and writing their progress notes and office visit notes."

"I think AI, like LLMs are going to really do a lot to help to rehumanize the interactions that we have. Although, there will be downsides. For that to work, there has to be a microphone in the exam room and it has to be listening to what you and the doctor are saying to one another. Folks are going to have to be comfortable with that to be able to leverage some of those things."

#NordicGlobal #AI #MedicalAI #Hospitals #HealthIT

nordicglobal.com

Download the transcript here