Empowered Patient Podcast

Cassie Choi, Co-Founder of Pair Team, partners with members in the community, such as nonprofits, homeless shelters, food pantries, and primary care providers, to provide healthcare and related services to underserved communities. Drawing on available resources, Pair Team is using digital technology to connect funding sources to these stakeholders so that they can provide the help that is needed by underrepresented and often overlooked patients.

Cassie explains, "I think the issue when you look at Medicaid recipients and underserved communities is that they don't have anything at all. A lot of startups and companies aim for big high-achieving impact. That will happen, but we look at it as we have to earn the right to get there by improving the ecosystem little by little. What we do is provide this care coordination and care delivery to augment the existing systems. I think a differentiator for us, too, is that there are entities in the community that are trying to do this work, but they're really not empowered or enabled to do this."

"I think when you look at the Medicaid population or low-income populations, there are a lot of assumptions that these folks are not engaged in care, which on some level is true. It's about figuring out how to engage them, reach them and meet them where they're at, and then bring them into the care delivery system."

"For Pair Team, we've intentionally made our care accessible through text messages and phone calls. So, we don't create an app or a provider portal to log into. I even have a hard time with those. There are no telemed visits to figure out how to set up on your phone. Most people have phones. It's just they can text and make basic phone calls. And our team is trained to ask them, when do your minutes renew? How many minutes do you have? So that way you can meet them, meet their needs."

#PairTeam #SDOH #SocialDeterminantsofHealth #HealthEquity #DigitalHealth #CommunityHealthWorkers #Medicaid #AtRiskPatients

pairteam.com

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Cassie Choi, Co-Founder of Pair Team, partners with members in the community, such as nonprofits, homeless shelters, food pantries, and primary care providers, to provide healthcare and related services to underserved communities. Drawing on available resources, Pair Team is using digital technology to connect funding sources to these stakeholders so that they can provide the help that is needed by underrepresented and often overlooked patients.

Cassie explains, "I think the issue when you look at Medicaid recipients and underserved communities is that they don't have anything at all. A lot of startups and companies aim for big high-achieving impact. That will happen, but we look at it as we have to earn the right to get there by improving the ecosystem little by little. What we do is provide this care coordination and care delivery to augment the existing systems. I think a differentiator for us, too, is that there are entities in the community that are trying to do this work, but they're really not empowered or enabled to do this."

"I think when you look at the Medicaid population or low-income populations, there are a lot of assumptions that these folks are not engaged in care, which on some level is true. It's about figuring out how to engage them, reach them and meet them where they're at, and then bring them into the care delivery system."

"For Pair Team, we've intentionally made our care accessible through text messages and phone calls. So, we don't create an app or a provider portal to log into. I even have a hard time with those. There are no telemed visits to figure out how to set up on your phone. Most people have phones. It's just they can text and make basic phone calls. And our team is trained to ask them, when do your minutes renew? How many minutes do you have? So that way you can meet them, meet their needs."

#PairTeam #SDOH #SocialDeterminantsofHealth #HealthEquity #DigitalHealth #CommunityHealthWorkers #Medicaid #AtRiskPatients

pairteam.com

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Dr. Matthew Powell, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Chief of the Gynecological Oncology Division at Washington University. He was also a clinical investigator in the pivotal trial leading to the approval of Jemperli, a treatment for endometrial cancer. This is an immunotherapy drug that works well for certain types of endometrial cancer and is now used in more than ten different cancers, decreasing the chance of the cancer progressing.

Matthew explains, "Some syndromes certainly can cause an increased risk of endometrial cancer. One was named after Dr. Henry Lynch, who first described it called Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer syndrome because the patients are not only at risk for endometrial cancer, but they're also at risk for colon cancer. So, we see a lot of families where there's both uterine and colon cancer in the family, and that's one where that genetic risk is there."

"When it came to therapies for patients who had disease that had spread, we, over the last 70 years, have been using radiation, which doesn't work very well. It treats the areas that we treat well, but we can't treat the whole body with radiation. So that's where chemotherapy came in. Chemotherapy has been a fairly standard therapy now for over 20 years. Still, we have not made many improvements over our standard treatment of what's called carboplatin and paclitaxel, which, again, has been around since 1995. Over the last several decades, it's become our standard treatment for this."

#EndometrialCancer #GSK #Jemperli #Immunotherapy #GynOnc

Jemperli.com

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Dr. Matthew Powell, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Chief of the Gynecological Oncology Division at Washington University. He was also a clinical investigator in the pivotal trial leading to the approval of Jemperli, a treatment for endometrial cancer. This is an immunotherapy drug that works well for certain types of endometrial cancer and is now used in more than ten different cancers, decreasing the chance of the cancer progressing.

Matthew explains, "Some syndromes certainly can cause an increased risk of endometrial cancer. One was named after Dr. Henry Lynch, who first described it called Lynch syndrome, also known as hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer syndrome because the patients are not only at risk for endometrial cancer, but they're also at risk for colon cancer. So, we see a lot of families where there's both uterine and colon cancer in the family, and that's one where that genetic risk is there."

"When it came to therapies for patients who had disease that had spread, we, over the last 70 years, have been using radiation, which doesn't work very well. It treats the areas that we treat well, but we can't treat the whole body with radiation. So that's where chemotherapy came in. Chemotherapy has been a fairly standard therapy now for over 20 years. Still, we have not made many improvements over our standard treatment of what's called carboplatin and paclitaxel, which, again, has been around since 1995. Over the last several decades, it's become our standard treatment for this."

#EndometrialCancer #GSK #Jemperli #Immunotherapy #GynOnc

Jemperli.com

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Sandesh Seth, the CEO and Chairman of Actinium Pharmaceuticals uses targeted radiotherapy to effectively destroy diseased bone marrow and allow new bone marrow to take over the immune functions. This approach offers a way for those currently unable to receive a transplant to have a chance for a transplant and potentially be cured of acute myeloid leukemia.

Sandesh explains, "What we've shown in our Phase 3 program is we could take patients with acute myeloid leukemia, one of the deadliest cancers known to man, where drugs don't work on these patients, and they live about two to three months unless they can get a bone marrow transplant. With our lead drug, Iomab-B, we've shown that we can take non-transplantable patients because they're too weak or frail, and drugs don't work on them. And they have active disease, so they live only about three months. They can't get a transplant because they're too weak. And if you give them drugs, they may die. Or if you give them the conditioning needed to wipe out their diseased bone marrow, which is the factory from where the blood cancer spreads, they can't access the transplant."

"Iomab-B takes these non-transplant patients, it targets the disease, it kills the disease in a matter of days. It destroys the diseased bone marrow so that they can go and get a new bone marrow transplant or hemopoietic stem cells, which can then take over normal blood and immune function and restore the patient to health. It enables improved access and outcomes regarding the extension of survival and even cures in several patients, which we've shown in our Phase 3 trial. We will file licensing applications to the FDA later this year to get the drug hopefully approved next year and get it into the hands of patients."

#ActiniumPharma #Radiotherapies #Radiotherapy #BloodCancer #AML #BMT #Cancer #Oncology #Hematology #BioPharma #Pharmaceuticals #OneNews #FightCancer #CancerResearch

ActiniumPharma.com

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Sandesh Seth, the CEO and Chairman of Actinium Pharmaceuticals uses targeted radiotherapy to effectively destroy diseased bone marrow and allow new bone marrow to take over the immune functions. This approach offers a way for those currently unable to receive a transplant to have a chance for a transplant and potentially be cured of acute myeloid leukemia.

Sandesh explains, "What we've shown in our Phase 3 program is we could take patients with acute myeloid leukemia, one of the deadliest cancers known to man, where drugs don't work on these patients, and they live about two to three months unless they can get a bone marrow transplant. With our lead drug, Iomab-B, we've shown that we can take non-transplantable patients because they're too weak or frail, and drugs don't work on them. And they have active disease, so they live only about three months. They can't get a transplant because they're too weak. And if you give them drugs, they may die. Or if you give them the conditioning needed to wipe out their diseased bone marrow, which is the factory from where the blood cancer spreads, they can't access the transplant."

"Iomab-B takes these non-transplant patients, it targets the disease, it kills the disease in a matter of days. It destroys the diseased bone marrow so that they can go and get a new bone marrow transplant or hemopoietic stem cells, which can then take over normal blood and immune function and restore the patient to health. It enables improved access and outcomes regarding the extension of survival and even cures in several patients, which we've shown in our Phase 3 trial. We will file licensing applications to the FDA later this year to get the drug hopefully approved next year and get it into the hands of patients."

#ActiniumPharma #Radiotherapies #Radiotherapy #BloodCancer #AML #BMT #Cancer #Oncology #Hematology #BioPharma #Pharmaceuticals #OneNews #FightCancer #CancerResearch

ActiniumPharma.com

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Brian Whorley, Founder and CEO of Paytient, has created health payment accounts to help patients and their families manage medical costs. Working with employers, Paytient offers fee-free, interest-free funds to cover deductibles, out-of-pocket charges, and veterinary services. Using an employer-supplied Visa card, healthcare charges can be paid back over time based on individual circumstances.

Brian explains, "The Paytient card lives alongside your HSA. It lives alongside your FSA. It helps to preserve or protect those balances and gives people time, peace of mind, and security that no matter what happens throughout the year, they have dollars to pay for care. Folks can just swipe the Paytient card, pay the provider, and then pick up and split that transaction into a payment plan that works best for them and their family's budget. They can select the source of funds, like essentially a healthcare wallet that's always full. They can choose to repay Paytient via a linked bank account. They can do just payroll deductions. They could link an HSA or an FSA. They can link to another debit card. And essentially, we're bringing liquidity to the table and restoring access to care."

"Paytient is available as an employee benefit. We work with 1200 plus employers nationwide who provide Paytient to their employees. And so employees receive Paytient. On January 1, hundreds of employers will offer Paytient, and employees can swipe the Paytient card and pay that surprise out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, and veterinary care. So, many of our folks may have vet insurance, or they may not, but they can take their furry family member to the vet, simply pay the vet, and turn that surprise $200 into 20 bucks out of their following ten checks. And they're able to take the sting out of that unexpected amount."

#Paytient #EmployeeBenefits #HRA #AffordableHealthcare #HealthEquity

Paytient.com

Listen to the podcast here

Brian Whorley, Founder and CEO of Paytient, has created health payment accounts to help patients and their families manage medical costs. Working with employers, Paytient offers fee-free, interest-free funds to cover deductibles, out-of-pocket charges, and veterinary services. Using an employer-supplied Visa card, healthcare charges can be paid back over time based on individual circumstances.

Brian explains, "The Paytient card lives alongside your HSA. It lives alongside your FSA. It helps to preserve or protect those balances and gives people time, peace of mind, and security that no matter what happens throughout the year, they have dollars to pay for care. Folks can just swipe the Paytient card, pay the provider, and then pick up and split that transaction into a payment plan that works best for them and their family's budget. They can select the source of funds, like essentially a healthcare wallet that's always full. They can choose to repay Paytient via a linked bank account. They can do just payroll deductions. They could link an HSA or an FSA. They can link to another debit card. And essentially, we're bringing liquidity to the table and restoring access to care."

"Paytient is available as an employee benefit. We work with 1200 plus employers nationwide who provide Paytient to their employees. And so employees receive Paytient. On January 1, hundreds of employers will offer Paytient, and employees can swipe the Paytient card and pay that surprise out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, and veterinary care. So, many of our folks may have vet insurance, or they may not, but they can take their furry family member to the vet, simply pay the vet, and turn that surprise $200 into 20 bucks out of their following ten checks. And they're able to take the sting out of that unexpected amount."

#Paytient #EmployeeBenefits #HRA #AffordableHealthcare #HealthEquity

Paytient.com

Download the transcript here

Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, sheds light on the value of genetic data and is focused on getting the science of gene sequencing better understood. Genetic testing can identify opportunities for treatment and specific mutations that can lead to a more precise therapy. With the abundance of genetic tests available, interpreting the results correctly is the challenge.

Bill elaborates, "Our job is to get the science of lab testing adopted in the industry. We have done that by working with health plans that have to adopt coverage for the testing, to be paid for the labs that perform the testing, and then the physician experts who either define the testing when it's useful or who are ordering the testing. We live in an ecosystem where we work with all those parties to ensure that good genetic testing is adopted, that the results are understood, and that they are acted upon appropriately."

"The real issue is understanding when a test can be useful to a patient and a doctor. Just because we can sequence DNA doesn't mean we understand what it means or what to do about it. I would suggest to you that one of the reasons we have heard the phrase precision medicine for so long but have not seen as much of that get adopted is we haven't understood the link between what we see in the DNA and what we know to do about it. I'll give you a couple of examples."

"One, cancer. Cancer has been an area where we have, for some time, understood that certain genetic predispositions or even mutations can drive cancer or suggest that cancer could be worse. We have just recently had therapies that target those mutations. Now, we've got several great therapies that are tied to that. Previously, just doing the analysis may have had no real benefit to the patient or maybe later had some prognostic capability, but now actually has therapeutic relevance. That's been very important."

#AvalonHealthcare #AvalonHCS #GeneticTesting #GeneticTests #LabTests #LabTesting #ClinicalTesting #ClinicalTests #MedicalTests

avalonhcs.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Bill Kerr, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalon Healthcare Solutions, sheds light on the value of genetic data and is focused on getting the science of gene sequencing better understood. Genetic testing can identify opportunities for treatment and specific mutations that can lead to a more precise therapy. With the abundance of genetic tests available, interpreting the results correctly is the challenge.

Bill elaborates, "Our job is to get the science of lab testing adopted in the industry. We have done that by working with health plans that have to adopt coverage for the testing, to be paid for the labs that perform the testing, and then the physician experts who either define the testing when it's useful or who are ordering the testing. We live in an ecosystem where we work with all those parties to ensure that good genetic testing is adopted, that the results are understood, and that they are acted upon appropriately."

"The real issue is understanding when a test can be useful to a patient and a doctor. Just because we can sequence DNA doesn't mean we understand what it means or what to do about it. I would suggest to you that one of the reasons we have heard the phrase precision medicine for so long but have not seen as much of that get adopted is we haven't understood the link between what we see in the DNA and what we know to do about it. I'll give you a couple of examples."

"One, cancer. Cancer has been an area where we have, for some time, understood that certain genetic predispositions or even mutations can drive cancer or suggest that cancer could be worse. We have just recently had therapies that target those mutations. Now, we've got several great therapies that are tied to that. Previously, just doing the analysis may have had no real benefit to the patient or maybe later had some prognostic capability, but now actually has therapeutic relevance. That's been very important."

#AvalonHealthcare #AvalonHCS #GeneticTesting #GeneticTests #LabTests #LabTesting #ClinicalTesting #ClinicalTests #MedicalTests

avalonhcs.com

Download the transcript here