Empowered Patient Podcast

Maya Ber Lerner, Co-Founder and CEO of Chiefy, is focused on the complications and waste involved in the workflow related to surgery and the operating room. Realizing the root of the problem is communication between all participants in an operation, Chiefy is applying technology and AI to improve communication for these cross-functional teams. While collaboration tools have become well-accepted in other industries, the hospital environment has been slow to take advantage of these tools to benefit all stakeholders, including the patient.

Maya explains, "The most important thing about our approach, and it just happened naturally, is that we focus on the surgeons and the nurses and the anesthesia teams and the other stakeholders, and we build a solution that would add value to them personally. And that was the first question I asked because my background is in team collaboration for software development and cloud infrastructure. It sounds completely out there and not related to what I do today. Still, it's a similar problem of cross-functional teams trying to collaborate and do iterative tasks together."

"I believe this approach brings something radically different from looking at the same problem that I just talked about and saying, "Oh, we have a problem of waste in this surgical workflow, so we need better software to document all the supplies we're using." It's more about how you give people work tools that they can use in their own workflow, which would create, as a side effect, benefits in efficiency, quality, and patient safety."

"The first thing we've been able to immediately show is a statistically significant reduction of 35% in last-minute requests. And these are things like miscommunications about the patient's position, trays being used in the operating room, equipment that should not have been open and was open, and things like that."

#Chiefy #SurgerySuccess #OperatingRoom #OR #ORTeam #SurgicalTeam #PatientSafetyFirst #SurgicalInnovation #SafeSurgery #TeamworkinMedicine #ClinicalWorkflow #AI

chiefyteam.com

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Maya Ber Lerner, Co-Founder and CEO of Chiefy, is focused on the complications and waste involved in the workflow related to surgery and the operating room. Realizing the root of the problem is communication between all participants in an operation, Chiefy is applying technology and AI to improve communication for these cross-functional teams. While collaboration tools have become well-accepted in other industries, the hospital environment has been slow to take advantage of these tools to benefit all stakeholders, including the patient.

Maya explains, "The most important thing about our approach, and it just happened naturally, is that we focus on the surgeons and the nurses and the anesthesia teams and the other stakeholders, and we build a solution that would add value to them personally. And that was the first question I asked because my background is in team collaboration for software development and cloud infrastructure. It sounds completely out there and not related to what I do today. Still, it's a similar problem of cross-functional teams trying to collaborate and do iterative tasks together."

"I believe this approach brings something radically different from looking at the same problem that I just talked about and saying, "Oh, we have a problem of waste in this surgical workflow, so we need better software to document all the supplies we're using." It's more about how you give people work tools that they can use in their own workflow, which would create, as a side effect, benefits in efficiency, quality, and patient safety."

"The first thing we've been able to immediately show is a statistically significant reduction of 35% in last-minute requests. And these are things like miscommunications about the patient's position, trays being used in the operating room, equipment that should not have been open and was open, and things like that."

#Chiefy #SurgerySuccess #OperatingRoom #OR #ORTeam #SurgicalTeam #PatientSafetyFirst #SurgicalInnovation #SafeSurgery #TeamworkinMedicine #ClinicalWorkflow #AI

chiefyteam.com

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John Mulcahy, President and CEO of SiteOne Therapeutics, is developing new therapies to treat hypersensitivity disorders. Their approach focuses on targeting specific voltage-gated sodium channels. Their drug candidates are designed to treat acute pain, as well as hypersensitivity developed as a result of chronic pain. They have recently received an NIH HEAL grant to explore their drug candidate that targets one subtype of the sodium channel as a non-opioid therapeutic potential for treating different pain conditions.

John explains, "At SiteOne, we're focused on a family of targets known as the voltage-gated sodium ion channels. These are proteins, ion channels, that are involved in transmitting pain signals from the site of an injury, like earlier we said, the skin or a joint, to the central nervous system, so to your spinal cord, to your brain. At SiteOne, we're basically focused on drugs that potentially dampen those signals. It kind of tunes down that pain signal before it ever reaches the central nervous system. So it's a very different approach compared to either the NSAIDs or the opioids."

"We're very excited to partner with NIH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse on this program. A little bit of background on the HEAL Initiative. So HEAL stands for Helping End Addiction Long-term, and it's a major federal initiative with multiple agencies involved. The goal is to aggressively advance scientific solutions to the opioid crisis."

#SiteOneTherapeutics #OpioidCrisis #Opioids #NonOpioidMedications #Pain #PainManagement #HEALInitiative

siteonetherapeutics.com

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John Mulcahy, President and CEO of SiteOne Therapeutics, is developing new therapies to treat hypersensitivity disorders. Their approach focuses on targeting specific voltage-gated sodium channels. Their drug candidates are designed to treat acute pain, as well as hypersensitivity developed as a result of chronic pain. They have recently received an NIH HEAL grant to explore their drug candidate that targets one subtype of the sodium channel as a non-opioid therapeutic potential for treating different pain conditions.

John explains, "At SiteOne, we're focused on a family of targets known as the voltage-gated sodium ion channels. These are proteins, ion channels, that are involved in transmitting pain signals from the site of an injury, like earlier we said, the skin or a joint, to the central nervous system, so to your spinal cord, to your brain. At SiteOne, we're basically focused on drugs that potentially dampen those signals. It kind of tunes down that pain signal before it ever reaches the central nervous system. So it's a very different approach compared to either the NSAIDs or the opioids."

"We're very excited to partner with NIH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse on this program. A little bit of background on the HEAL Initiative. So HEAL stands for Helping End Addiction Long-term, and it's a major federal initiative with multiple agencies involved. The goal is to aggressively advance scientific solutions to the opioid crisis."

#SiteOneTherapeutics #OpioidCrisis #Opioids #NonOpioidMedications #Pain #PainManagement #HEALInitiative

siteonetherapeutics.com

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Dr. Ahmed Hamdy, CEO and Co-Founder of Vincerx, is focused on targeting a specific antigen found on cancer cells. With a unique enzyme, it is effective with solid tumors and hematological malignancies, releasing a kinesin spindle protein inhibitor that inhibits the division of cancer cells. Their first bioconjugate VIP236 targets a specific molecule expressed on several metastatic tumors.

Ahmed explains, "At Vincerx, we have a very exciting pipeline that's designed to solve a lot of problems with the current treatments for cancer therapies. In today's world, cancer continues growing exponentially. And thankfully, there are a lot of treatments out there for different types of cancer. Yet, the current treatments come with quite a bit of morbidities. Throughout my career, the morbidity of medicine has been something that I've always been concerned about, especially for patients and their caregivers. At Vincerx, we have very exciting, unique types of treatments that can be paradigm-shifting from a safety perspective and efficacy perspective."

"For solid tumors, we have a compound that's currently in dose escalation phase 1 trial that is designed for advanced metastatic tumors, where we target a specific antigen that is found on the cancer cells themselves. And with a unique enzyme, it cleaves what we're describing as a warhead or the substance that can kill the cancer cell, which is an optimized camptothecin. And the word optimize means it's a well-known topoisomerase inhibitor designed to allow for very rapid permeability or intake by the cancer cell, with very low pumping out."

#VincerxPharma #VIP236 #VIP943 #ADCs #Bioconjugates #Cancer #SolidTumors #Biotech #PrecisionMedicine

Vincerx.com

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Dr. Ahmed Hamdy, CEO and Co-Founder of Vincerx, is focused on targeting a specific antigen found on cancer cells. With a unique enzyme, it is effective with solid tumors and hematological malignancies, releasing a kinesin spindle protein inhibitor that inhibits the division of cancer cells. Their first bioconjugate VIP236 targets a specific molecule expressed on several metastatic tumors.

Ahmed explains, "At Vincerx, we have a very exciting pipeline that's designed to solve a lot of problems with the current treatments for cancer therapies. In today's world, cancer continues growing exponentially. And thankfully, there are a lot of treatments out there for different types of cancer. Yet, the current treatments come with quite a bit of morbidities. Throughout my career, the morbidity of medicine has been something that I've always been concerned about, especially for patients and their caregivers. At Vincerx, we have very exciting, unique types of treatments that can be paradigm-shifting from a safety perspective and efficacy perspective."

"For solid tumors, we have a compound that's currently in dose escalation phase 1 trial that is designed for advanced metastatic tumors, where we target a specific antigen that is found on the cancer cells themselves. And with a unique enzyme, it cleaves what we're describing as a warhead or the substance that can kill the cancer cell, which is an optimized camptothecin. And the word optimize means it's a well-known topoisomerase inhibitor designed to allow for very rapid permeability or intake by the cancer cell, with very low pumping out."

#VincerxPharma #VIP236 #VIP943 #ADCs #Bioconjugates #Cancer #SolidTumors #Biotech #PrecisionMedicine

Vincerx.com

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Nasha Fitter, CEO and Co-Founder of the FOXG1 Research Foundation and Vice President of Rare and Neurological Diseases at Ciitizen. Nasha describes the characteristics of the ultra-rare disease FOXG1 Syndrome and the global network that has been built to gain a better understanding of this neurological condition. Using real-world evidence, machine learning, AI, and genetic testing are showing a path to finding a treatment.

Nasha explains, "My daughter, Amara, was diagnosed at nine months of age. She began having hundreds of seizures a day. And at that point, there was information known about the FOXG1 gene. It's a really important gene for brain development. But no one was studying the syndrome and how to find a cure for it. So, I and a group of other parents, like-minded parents who, refused to just take that this is the way it is. Our children have this condition, and that's it. We started this foundation."

"We've done a lot of work to get the entire world of FOXG1 to work together and then to collect patient data. That leads to my work at Ciitizen, to have all patients join the same platform, take the same surveys, and collect electronic medical records. We extract their data, so it's all on one platform. Again, that helps us understand this disease, which is critical when the population's so small."

"In-person studies, which is how we collect data today, as the medical community, don't work for ultra-rare diseases. So we have to find other ways. And that's where real-world evidence comes in."

"We use machine learning and AI at Ciitizen when we're looking at something as simple as extracting data from an unstructured medical record. When you look in medical records, the part that's really interesting is the clinic notes, and they're totally unstructured. They're paragraphs. So can we start using machine learning and AI to go through these paragraphs and actually extract relevant data points to scale up our ability to understand how the disease has progressed?"

#FOXG1 #FOXG1ResearchFoundation #Ciitizen #GeneTherapy #RealWorldEvidence #RareDisease #GeneticTesting

FOXG1Research.org

Ciitizen.com

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Nasha Fitter, CEO and Co-Founder of the FOXG1 Research Foundation and Vice President of Rare and Neurological Diseases at Ciitizen. Nasha describes the characteristics of the ultra-rare disease FOXG1 Syndrome and the global network that has been built to gain a better understanding of this neurological condition. Using real-world evidence, machine learning, AI, and genetic testing are showing a path to finding a treatment.

Nasha explains, "My daughter, Amara, was diagnosed at nine months of age. She began having hundreds of seizures a day. And at that point, there was information known about the FOXG1 gene. It's a really important gene for brain development. But no one was studying the syndrome and how to find a cure for it. So, I and a group of other parents, like-minded parents who, refused to just take that this is the way it is. Our children have this condition, and that's it. We started this foundation."

"We've done a lot of work to get the entire world of FOXG1 to work together and then to collect patient data. That leads to my work at Ciitizen, to have all patients join the same platform, take the same surveys, and collect electronic medical records. We extract their data, so it's all on one platform. Again, that helps us understand this disease, which is critical when the population's so small."

"In-person studies, which is how we collect data today, as the medical community, don't work for ultra-rare diseases. So we have to find other ways. And that's where real-world evidence comes in."

"We use machine learning and AI at Ciitizen when we're looking at something as simple as extracting data from an unstructured medical record. When you look in medical records, the part that's really interesting is the clinic notes, and they're totally unstructured. They're paragraphs. So can we start using machine learning and AI to go through these paragraphs and actually extract relevant data points to scale up our ability to understand how the disease has progressed?"

#FOXG1 #FOXG1ResearchFoundation #Ciitizen #GeneTherapy #RealWorldEvidence #RareDisease #GeneticTesting

FOXG1Research.org

Ciitizen.com

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David Dodd is Chairman, President, and CEO of GeoVax, which is working on vaccines that overcome restrictions of mRNA vaccines to provide longer-term, more robust protection, particularly for people who do not respond well to primary antibody stimulation. There is a strong response from T cells from this vaccine which can be stored in a non-refrigerated freeze-dried form allowing for greater access in more regions of the world.

David explains, "We are targeting those individuals who have compromised immune systems. This is a category of approximately 15 million individuals in the United States and almost 250 million worldwide, who, as a result of the conditions of their body or maybe even the therapies they may be on, or other conditions. Their body does not respond appropriately or well to the existing approved vaccines for COVID-19 or to the monoclonal antibodies. It's not that the other products have no value - it's that the individuals' bodies have been depleted of the ability to mount the proper response."

"We also include what is known as the nucleocapsid protein, which is highly conserved across viruses. It's always there, and it induces a very strong T cell response which drives memory in vaccines or in the human body from an immune standpoint. So, it is memory durability and also that it enables people whose bodies may have been depleted in order to mount an antibody response. They now can rely upon their T cells system or their cellular immune system to give them a protective element to reduce the severity, hospitalization, and risk of death."

#GeoVax #Vaccines #VaccineFatigue #Biodefense #COVID #VaccineAccess #VaccinePreparedness #TCells

GeoVax.com

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David Dodd is Chairman, President, and CEO of GeoVax, which is working on vaccines that overcome restrictions of mRNA vaccines to provide longer-term, more robust protection, particularly for people who do not respond well to primary antibody stimulation. There is a strong response from T cells from this vaccine which can be stored in a non-refrigerated freeze-dried form allowing for greater access in more regions of the world.

David explains, "We are targeting those individuals who have compromised immune systems. This is a category of approximately 15 million individuals in the United States and almost 250 million worldwide, who, as a result of the conditions of their body or maybe even the therapies they may be on, or other conditions. Their body does not respond appropriately or well to the existing approved vaccines for COVID-19 or to the monoclonal antibodies. It's not that the other products have no value - it's that the individuals' bodies have been depleted of the ability to mount the proper response."

"We also include what is known as the nucleocapsid protein, which is highly conserved across viruses. It's always there, and it induces a very strong T cell response which drives memory in vaccines or in the human body from an immune standpoint. So, it is memory durability and also that it enables people whose bodies may have been depleted in order to mount an antibody response. They now can rely upon their T cells system or their cellular immune system to give them a protective element to reduce the severity, hospitalization, and risk of death."

#GeoVax #Vaccines #VaccineFatigue #Biodefense #COVID #VaccineAccess #VaccinePreparedness #TCells

GeoVax.com

Download the transcript here