Empowered Patient Podcast

Anthony Mack, CEO of Virpax Pharma, is developing non-addictive pain drugs focusing on repurposing existing molecules and improving the delivery platform to enhance bioavailability and sustained delivery. With an initial focus on postoperative pain management and preventing opioid tolerance, their product, Probudur, is a long-lasting local anesthetic for sustained pain control. The asset Envelta uses a molecular envelope technology to protect enkephalin as it passes through the blood-brain barrier to attach to delta receptors in the brain to control pain.

Anthony explains, "Now, in the case of the enkephalin asset, as far as tolerance is concerned, we have a product that isn't enkephalin. It's a peptide, and peptides are endogenous materials already in our bodies. Now, we can't generate enough to have pain control, so it would be nice if we could administer them. If an enkephalin can get past the blood-brain barrier, it attaches to the brain's delta receptors. There are immune receptors in the brain, too, that everybody's familiar with because they know morphine, oxycodone, Oxycontin, hydrocodone, and Vicodin. They know these actives, but the problem is that when they attach to these mu receptors, there is a potential for respiratory depression, drug-seeking behavior, and intolerance."

"Yes, that is a great collaboration we have. It's an open, what we call CRADA, or some people may call it an in-kind grant, but it's a cooperation agreement for all of our pain assets, including Envelta. But we started with the Probudur asset because the US Army wanted to study the long-acting bupivacaine in battlefield wound injuries. What they want to do is be able to inject this asset at a wound site and have the soldiers participate in their evacuation, should they need to evacuate."

"The great thing about liposomal bupivacaine in our Probudur formulation is it does not cause a motor block. What I mean by that is because local anesthetics stay numb, in this case, you're still able to function, you're still able to move your extremities. The idea here is that it would block it for 96 hours, enough time for a soldier to extract themselves without so much assistance or without the use of an opioid to block their pain."

#VirpasPharma #PainManagement #NonAddictive #PainControl

VirpaxPharma.com

Listen to the podcast here

Anthony Mack, CEO of Virpax Pharma, is developing non-addictive pain drugs focusing on repurposing existing molecules and improving the delivery platform to enhance bioavailability and sustained delivery. With an initial focus on postoperative pain management and preventing opioid tolerance, their product, Probudur, is a long-lasting local anesthetic for sustained pain control. The asset Envelta uses a molecular envelope technology to protect enkephalin as it passes through the blood-brain barrier to attach to delta receptors in the brain to control pain.

Anthony explains, "Now, in the case of the enkephalin asset, as far as tolerance is concerned, we have a product that isn't enkephalin. It's a peptide, and peptides are endogenous materials already in our bodies. Now, we can't generate enough to have pain control, so it would be nice if we could administer them. If an enkephalin can get past the blood-brain barrier, it attaches to the brain's delta receptors. There are immune receptors in the brain, too, that everybody's familiar with because they know morphine, oxycodone, Oxycontin, hydrocodone, and Vicodin. They know these actives, but the problem is that when they attach to these mu receptors, there is a potential for respiratory depression, drug-seeking behavior, and intolerance."

"Yes, that is a great collaboration we have. It's an open, what we call CRADA, or some people may call it an in-kind grant, but it's a cooperation agreement for all of our pain assets, including Envelta. But we started with the Probudur asset because the US Army wanted to study the long-acting bupivacaine in battlefield wound injuries. What they want to do is be able to inject this asset at a wound site and have the soldiers participate in their evacuation, should they need to evacuate."

"The great thing about liposomal bupivacaine in our Probudur formulation is it does not cause a motor block. What I mean by that is because local anesthetics stay numb, in this case, you're still able to function, you're still able to move your extremities. The idea here is that it would block it for 96 hours, enough time for a soldier to extract themselves without so much assistance or without the use of an opioid to block their pain."

#VirpasPharma #PainManagement #NonAddictive #PainControl

VirpaxPharma.com

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Dr. Jay Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Aktiia, discusses the importance of tracking blood pressure and the challenges of managing high blood pressure. With only one in five people with high blood pressure having it under control, long-term monitoring is crucial for better understanding blood pressure trends and optimizing health. The Aktiia wearable blood pressure monitoring device uses optical signal processing to continuously monitor blood pressure without the need for action to be taken by the patient.

Jay explains, "The real danger of high blood pressure occurs over years, decades, long periods of time of having your blood pressure outside the optimal range. It is really what causes the detrimental effects to many of the different organs of our body, of our heart, brain, kidneys, eyes, aorta, and so on. And so the importance of understanding what your blood pressure is over long periods of time is really what we're focused on at Aktiia. That's why people should be aware of and track their blood pressure on a long-term basis."

"Aktiia is a Swiss company and it was founded about five years ago. The technology has been in development for two decades by the founders, co-founders in an engineering think tank out of Switzerland. And they've been pioneers of what's called optical signal processing."

"This is taking signals from LED lights and the reflection of that light from the skin or the capillary bed, the small vessels in our skin, and deducing the numeric physiologic parameters. And they started around heart rate. They were the pioneers of understanding how to take optical signals from sensors at the wrist and create heart rate calculations. This was done way back before there were smart watches or wearables. It was done back in the early 2000s. After they got good at that, they turned to blood pressure."

#Aktiia #Hypertension #HighBloodPressure #BloodPressure #MedicalDevices #Wearable #HealthTracking #Fitness

Aktiia.com

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Dr. Jay Shah, Chief Medical Officer of Aktiia, discusses the importance of tracking blood pressure and the challenges of managing high blood pressure. With only one in five people with high blood pressure having it under control, long-term monitoring is crucial for better understanding blood pressure trends and optimizing health. The Aktiia wearable blood pressure monitoring device uses optical signal processing to continuously monitor blood pressure without the need for action to be taken by the patient.

Jay explains, "The real danger of high blood pressure occurs over years, decades, long periods of time of having your blood pressure outside the optimal range. It is really what causes the detrimental effects to many of the different organs of our body, of our heart, brain, kidneys, eyes, aorta, and so on. And so the importance of understanding what your blood pressure is over long periods of time is really what we're focused on at Aktiia. That's why people should be aware of and track their blood pressure on a long-term basis."

"Aktiia is a Swiss company and it was founded about five years ago. The technology has been in development for two decades by the founders, co-founders in an engineering think tank out of Switzerland. And they've been pioneers of what's called optical signal processing."

"This is taking signals from LED lights and the reflection of that light from the skin or the capillary bed, the small vessels in our skin, and deducing the numeric physiologic parameters. And they started around heart rate. They were the pioneers of understanding how to take optical signals from sensors at the wrist and create heart rate calculations. This was done way back before there were smart watches or wearables. It was done back in the early 2000s. After they got good at that, they turned to blood pressure."

#Aktiia #Hypertension #HighBloodPressure #BloodPressure #MedicalDevices #Wearable #HealthTracking #Fitness

Aktiia.com

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Dr. Oliver Kharraz is the CEO and Founder of Zocdoc, a healthcare marketplace that helps patients find and book appointments with doctors. The platform was created to address the problem of long wait times for appointments and the lack of ability to take advantage of last-minute availability on providers' schedules. The goal is to streamline the patient experience, allow doctors to reduce administrative burdens, and improve patient engagement with easy-to-use tools for messaging, payments, and virtual visits.

Oliver explains, "As we were operating the Zocdoc marketplace, we heard from our 80,000 doctors on the platform that they had trouble engaging patients. For the ones that use Zocdoc, it was easy because we're providing them a lot of the scaffolding and infrastructure. But doctors see a lot of patients who call them, who have been coming to them for a long time, or are coming to them for the first time and don't have the tools available. The tools out there are too expensive or super clunky and make it harder to engage patients, or both. And so, 80% of the doctors we talk to don't use any of these patient engagement tools, to the detriment of these practices and patients."

"If you think about all this from a patient's perspective, they have all these different tools they need to log into. There's one tool where you can find out which doctors are in network, another tool where you find out when they're available, or maybe you have to call, another tool where you figure out what the benefits are that you have, where you have to enter your clinical information, where you have to pay. There are hundreds of logins in the journey, creating login fatigue on the patient side. As a result, they are less engaged and sometimes drop out of the funnel."

#Zocdoc #PatientEngagement #DigitalHealth #HealthcareProviders #Telehealth #VirtualHealth

zocdoc.com

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Dr. Oliver Kharraz is the CEO and Founder of Zocdoc, a healthcare marketplace that helps patients find and book appointments with doctors. The platform was created to address the problem of long wait times for appointments and the lack of ability to take advantage of last-minute availability on providers' schedules. The goal is to streamline the patient experience, allow doctors to reduce administrative burdens, and improve patient engagement with easy-to-use tools for messaging, payments, and virtual visits.

Oliver explains, "As we were operating the Zocdoc marketplace, we heard from our 80,000 doctors on the platform that they had trouble engaging patients. For the ones that use Zocdoc, it was easy because we're providing them a lot of the scaffolding and infrastructure. But doctors see a lot of patients who call them, who have been coming to them for a long time, or are coming to them for the first time and don't have the tools available. The tools out there are too expensive or super clunky and make it harder to engage patients, or both. And so, 80% of the doctors we talk to don't use any of these patient engagement tools, to the detriment of these practices and patients."

"If you think about all this from a patient's perspective, they have all these different tools they need to log into. There's one tool where you can find out which doctors are in network, another tool where you find out when they're available, or maybe you have to call, another tool where you figure out what the benefits are that you have, where you have to enter your clinical information, where you have to pay. There are hundreds of logins in the journey, creating login fatigue on the patient side. As a result, they are less engaged and sometimes drop out of the funnel."

#Zocdoc #PatientEngagement #DigitalHealth #HealthcareProviders #Telehealth #VirtualHealth

zocdoc.com

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Mark Carbone, CEO of PN Medical, highlights the growing problem since COVID-19 of respiratory health and breathing issues. The Breather is a respiratory muscle training device that improves breathlessness, endurance, stamina, blood pressure, and sleep. Used daily, this device has shown benefits for patients, athletes, and the military in training respiratory muscles and counteracting bad posture and limitations of the environment on the lungs and diaphragm. PN Medical is developing a connected version of The Breather that uses AI and sensors to monitor respiratory health and provide personalized feedback.

Mark explains, "The Breather is our flagship. That's the one we invented 43 years ago. And since then, we've moved from patient to athletics, Special Forces, and even professional singers and actors. So, at its core, it's a gym for your lungs and heart. That's the easiest way to explain it, but the whole system is a three-part system. So, it's a respiratory muscle training device at its core, and the second part is breathing protocols. We've learned these things over all these years with so many people. And then there's a mobile coaching app. If you want to go analog, you don't need the app. If you're not into that, we find so many people like to have something simple and do not want to go super high-tech. But if you want to, you can."

"We've got an over-the-counter version. It was born in the clinical realm. So respiratory therapists started way back then, speech therapists, now PTs, OTs, and skilled nursing. So, it goes across all those disciplines. It does not have to be prescribed. It can be in the acute or subacute. It's growing exponentially in home health because everything's going to the home now. Usually, you will get it when you're checking out of the hospital, and then you follow the therapy once you're out. And it's something if you want to get the best out of it, you use it for the rest of your life."

#TheBreather #BreathingDevice #BreatheBetter #RMT #RespiratoryTrainer

pnmedical.com

Listen to the podcast here

Mark Carbone, CEO of PN Medical, highlights the growing problem since COVID-19 of respiratory health and breathing issues. The Breather is a respiratory muscle training device that improves breathlessness, endurance, stamina, blood pressure, and sleep. Used daily, this device has shown benefits for patients, athletes, and the military in training respiratory muscles and counteracting bad posture and limitations of the environment on the lungs and diaphragm. PN Medical is developing a connected version of The Breather that uses AI and sensors to monitor respiratory health and provide personalized feedback.

Mark explains, "The Breather is our flagship. That's the one we invented 43 years ago. And since then, we've moved from patient to athletics, Special Forces, and even professional singers and actors. So, at its core, it's a gym for your lungs and heart. That's the easiest way to explain it, but the whole system is a three-part system. So, it's a respiratory muscle training device at its core, and the second part is breathing protocols. We've learned these things over all these years with so many people. And then there's a mobile coaching app. If you want to go analog, you don't need the app. If you're not into that, we find so many people like to have something simple and do not want to go super high-tech. But if you want to, you can."

"We've got an over-the-counter version. It was born in the clinical realm. So respiratory therapists started way back then, speech therapists, now PTs, OTs, and skilled nursing. So, it goes across all those disciplines. It does not have to be prescribed. It can be in the acute or subacute. It's growing exponentially in home health because everything's going to the home now. Usually, you will get it when you're checking out of the hospital, and then you follow the therapy once you're out. And it's something if you want to get the best out of it, you use it for the rest of your life."

#TheBreather #BreathingDevice #BreatheBetter #RMT #RespiratoryTrainer

pnmedical.com

Download the transcript here

Mark Duman, the Director of MD Healthcare Consultants in the UK, focuses on patient engagement and digital health strategy, working with established life science companies to actually put patients at the center of their activities. They are also working with start-ups to scale up their digital health services, navigate healthcare systems, and develop patient engagement strategies. The key to a patient-centric approach is working from the bottom up to find patients through local community and faith-based groups and patient advocacy groups.

Mark explains, "I'm a former pharmacist. I qualified in Aberdeen, in northern Scotland, back in 1990. I had a particular interest at that time in what we call over here pharmacy practice, the idea of supporting patients to take medicines, which, as we know, 50% of them sadly don't take as prescribed. That has been my focus throughout my career. I've worked in the National Health Service, which, as many of you will know, is the British healthcare system that is funded publicly. So I've dispensed medicines and talked to patients, and long story short, about 20 years ago, I got into the whole patient engagement side of things. No decision about us without the patient being included."

"On the life sciences side, lots of talk about patient engagement and, in many cases, lots of action, but it's often not coordinated. And it happens possibly within silos across even small businesses or small to medium biopharma. In the large ones, it's often even more diluted or siloed. We're being asked to look at where is the patient engagement strategy that joins this together. Where is the operationalization of this so that each part of the function doesn't just say it but truly engages patients and caregivers in the co-creation and co-production of their products and services?"

#DigitalHealth #PatientEngagement #Healthcare #PatientFocused

[email protected]

Listen to the podcast here

Mark Duman, the Director of MD Healthcare Consultants in the UK, focuses on patient engagement and digital health strategy, working with established life science companies to actually put patients at the center of their activities. They are also working with start-ups to scale up their digital health services, navigate healthcare systems, and develop patient engagement strategies. The key to a patient-centric approach is working from the bottom up to find patients through local community and faith-based groups and patient advocacy groups.

Mark explains, "I'm a former pharmacist. I qualified in Aberdeen, in northern Scotland, back in 1990. I had a particular interest at that time in what we call over here pharmacy practice, the idea of supporting patients to take medicines, which, as we know, 50% of them sadly don't take as prescribed. That has been my focus throughout my career. I've worked in the National Health Service, which, as many of you will know, is the British healthcare system that is funded publicly. So I've dispensed medicines and talked to patients, and long story short, about 20 years ago, I got into the whole patient engagement side of things. No decision about us without the patient being included."

"On the life sciences side, lots of talk about patient engagement and, in many cases, lots of action, but it's often not coordinated. And it happens possibly within silos across even small businesses or small to medium biopharma. In the large ones, it's often even more diluted or siloed. We're being asked to look at where is the patient engagement strategy that joins this together. Where is the operationalization of this so that each part of the function doesn't just say it but truly engages patients and caregivers in the co-creation and co-production of their products and services?" #DigitalHealth #PatientEngagement #Healthcare #PatientFocused

[email protected]

Download the transcript here