Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Craig Tanio, Co-Founder of Rezilir Health, is taking a precision medicine approach to cognitive decline that combines objective performance metrics, identification of root causes, and practical interventions to achieve measurable improvements. This strategy addresses fundamentals including diet, exercise, sleep, cognitive engagement and stress management while looking at underlying drivers such as chronic infections, inflamation, and environmental factors. Craig points out that the healthcare system is gradually recognizing the value of a preventative multimodal approach to the decline in brain health and the value of early diagnosis of cognitive decline, the integration of lifestyle modifications, along with targeted medical interventions.

Craig explains, "With cognitive health, the fundamental approach is really around precision medicine. We're looking to help our patients find practical answers to improving cognitive decline by getting A, objective metrics of how their performance is today. B, understanding some of the root causes that can drive cognitive decline, and again, measuring those appropriately. And then C, coming up with a practical strategy in which they can see movement in objective and subjective markers within six months."

"We see three main types of patients. I think we see a group of patients who might have subjective cognitive impairment, or they're seeking aggressive prevention, usually because a parent or close relative has Alzheimer's or cognitive decline and they're very motivated to address it. B, there might be somebody who comes in with mild cognitive impairment and is experiencing symptoms, but let's say their MOCA, their Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is in the low 20s, so they have mild cognitive impairment but not significant impairment of activities of daily living. And then the third is when the disease has progressed more readily and is in the advanced stage beyond mild dementia."

#RezilirHealth #RezilirWay #PrecisionMedicine #BrainHealth #EarlyDetection #RootCause #CognitivHealth #Dementia #AlzheimersAwareness #Neurology #LongevityMedicine #HealthSpan #PreventiveMedicine #IntegrativeMedicine #HealthcareInnovation

rezilirhealth.com

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Dr. Craig Tanio, Co-Founder of Rezilir Health, is taking a precision medicine approach to cognitive decline that combines objective performance metrics, identification of root causes, and practical interventions to achieve measurable improvements. This strategy addresses fundamentals including diet, exercise, sleep, cognitive engagement and stress management while looking at underlying drivers such as chronic infections, inflamation, and environmental factors. Craig points out that the healthcare system is gradually recognizing the value of a preventative multimodal approach to the decline in brain health and the value of early diagnosis of cognitive decline, the integration of lifestyle modifications, along with targeted medical interventions.

Craig explains, "With cognitive health, the fundamental approach is really around precision medicine. We're looking to help our patients find practical answers to improving cognitive decline by getting A, objective metrics of how their performance is today. B, understanding some of the root causes that can drive cognitive decline, and again, measuring those appropriately. And then C, coming up with a practical strategy in which they can see movement in objective and subjective markers within six months."

"We see three main types of patients. I think we see a group of patients who might have subjective cognitive impairment, or they're seeking aggressive prevention, usually because a parent or close relative has Alzheimer's or cognitive decline and they're very motivated to address it. B, there might be somebody who comes in with mild cognitive impairment and is experiencing symptoms, but let's say their MOCA, their Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is in the low 20s, so they have mild cognitive impairment but not significant impairment of activities of daily living. And then the third is when the disease has progressed more readily and is in the advanced stage beyond mild dementia."

#RezilirHealth #RezilirWay #PrecisionMedicine #BrainHealth #EarlyDetection #RootCause #CognitivHealth #Dementia #AlzheimersAwareness #Neurology #LongevityMedicine #HealthSpan #PreventiveMedicine #IntegrativeMedicine #HealthcareInnovation

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Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, discusses the company's virus-based approach for treating multiple tumor types. Their lead therapy is an oral drug and an engineered adenovirus injected into tumors to deliver a gene that educates the patient's immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells throughout the body. Unlike personalized tumor vaccine approaches, this drug is an off-the-shelf medicine that generates an individualized anti-tumor immune response and is showing encouraging data in trials in pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer.

Paul Peter explains, "Our mission is really to improve patients' lives, whether this is about patients with early localized prostate cancer, for example, who want to live without cancer, or patients at the other side of the spectrum. For example, patients with metastatic, progressive non-small cell lung cancer, a form of lung cancer, who have run out of options, where we try to extend their life with a good quality of life. So basically, we want to improve patients' clinical outcomes."

"We have two investigational medicines that are both engineered viruses. So we try to change the viruses so they do something useful and good for the health of patients. And our lead asset, our lead medicine that's under development, is called aglatimagene. And it's an engineered adenovirus. So it's an adenovirus that cannot replicate, cannot make you sick, but we use it to deliver a gene to the tumor by injecting it into the tumor. And viruses are very good at transporting genes. We hijack that mechanism to get the beneficial effect. And ultimately, we combine aglatimagene with a tablet. So tablets that are taken orally for two weeks are activated under the influence of the virus in the tumor. And that will ultimately lead to the education of the patient's own immune cells in such a way that these immune cells start to recognize and eliminate the tumor cells throughout the body."

#CandelTherapeutics $CADL #Oncology #Biotech #ClinicalTrials #ProstateCancer #LungCancer #SolidTumors #OncologyInnovation #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #Immunooncology #ViralImmunotherapy

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Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, discusses the company's virus-based approach for treating multiple tumor types. Their lead therapy is an oral drug and an engineered adenovirus injected into tumors to deliver a gene that educates the patient's immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells throughout the body. Unlike personalized tumor vaccine approaches, this drug is an off-the-shelf medicine that generates an individualized anti-tumor immune response and is showing encouraging data in trials in pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer.

Paul Peter explains, "Our mission is really to improve patients' lives, whether this is about patients with early localized prostate cancer, for example, who want to live without cancer, or patients at the other side of the spectrum. For example, patients with metastatic, progressive non-small cell lung cancer, a form of lung cancer, who have run out of options, where we try to extend their life with a good quality of life. So basically, we want to improve patients' clinical outcomes."

"We have two investigational medicines that are both engineered viruses. So we try to change the viruses so they do something useful and good for the health of patients. And our lead asset, our lead medicine that's under development, is called aglatimagene. And it's an engineered adenovirus. So it's an adenovirus that cannot replicate, cannot make you sick, but we use it to deliver a gene to the tumor by injecting it into the tumor. And viruses are very good at transporting genes. We hijack that mechanism to get the beneficial effect. And ultimately, we combine aglatimagene with a tablet. So tablets that are taken orally for two weeks are activated under the influence of the virus in the tumor. And that will ultimately lead to the education of the patient's own immune cells in such a way that these immune cells start to recognize and eliminate the tumor cells throughout the body."

#CandelTherapeutics $CADL #Oncology #Biotech #ClinicalTrials #ProstateCancer #LungCancer #SolidTumors #OncologyInnovation #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #Immunooncology #ViralImmunotherapy

Candeltx.com

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Al Gianchetti, CEO of Nuevocor, discusses genetic cardiomyopathies, an underdiagnosed condition that might explain multigenerational heart failure. Current treatments include beta blockers, pacemakers, and heart transplants but do not alter the course of the disease. Because of multiple gene mutations, Nuevocor is developing a precision therapy for LMNA-related cardiomyopathy based on mechanobiology that prevents cardiac cell death using a method different from gene replacement and gene editing.

Al explains, "We're focused on genetic cardiomyopathies, and our lead drug, NVC001 in particular, is focusing first on LMNA cardiomyopathy, and LMNA is a specific gene mutation. We're focusing on LMNA-related cardiomyopathy for several reasons. First of all, it's one of the most severe forms of genetic cardiomyopathy, with a very poor prognosis for patients and their families who have the genetic mutation."

"The second reason is that although it's a rare disease, it affects a fairly large number of people. For example, about 50,000 people in the United States are estimated to have LMNA-related cardiomyopathy. The third reason is that this disease is not amenable to gene replacement strategies where you're replacing the defective gene. The size of the trans gene that's required doesn't make it amenable to current gene therapy viral vectors. Finally, because there are multiple gene mutations, it's not amenable to gene editing."

#Nuevocor #DrugDiscovery #Innovation #Biotech #Cardiology #GeneTherapy #GeneticCardiomyopathy #HeartFailure #LMNACardiomyopathy #PrecisionMedicine #RareDisease #ClinicalTrials

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Al Gianchetti, CEO of Nuevocor, discusses genetic cardiomyopathies, an underdiagnosed condition that might explain multigenerational heart failure. Current treatments include beta blockers, pacemakers, and heart transplants but do not alter the course of the disease. Because of multiple gene mutations, Nuevocor is developing a precision therapy for LMNA-related cardiomyopathy based on mechanobiology that prevents cardiac cell death using a method different from gene replacement and gene editing.

Al explains, "We're focused on genetic cardiomyopathies, and our lead drug, NVC001 in particular, is focusing first on LMNA cardiomyopathy, and LMNA is a specific gene mutation. We're focusing on LMNA-related cardiomyopathy for several reasons. First of all, it's one of the most severe forms of genetic cardiomyopathy, with a very poor prognosis for patients and their families who have the genetic mutation."

"The second reason is that although it's a rare disease, it affects a fairly large number of people. For example, about 50,000 people in the United States are estimated to have LMNA-related cardiomyopathy. The third reason is that this disease is not amenable to gene replacement strategies where you're replacing the defective gene. The size of the trans gene that's required doesn't make it amenable to current gene therapy viral vectors. Finally, because there are multiple gene mutations, it's not amenable to gene editing."

#Nuevocor #DrugDiscovery #Innovation #Biotech #Cardiology #GeneTherapy #GeneticCardiomyopathy #HeartFailure #LMNACardiomyopathy #PrecisionMedicine #RareDisease #ClinicalTrials

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Rakshith Yashvanth, Senior Product Manager, Advanced Analytics & AI at ZeOmega, emphasizes that effective AI implementation in clinical settings requires comprehensive data across clinical, social, utilization, and behavioral elements, not cherry-picked variables. Real-world data indicates that traditional social determinants of health often miss critical behavioral patterns and healthcare engagement. Rakshith points out that AI must be positioned as a probabilistic tool that supports clinical decision-making rather than replacing clinical judgment, with a mechanism that lets clinicians provide feedback to improve model alignment with clinical reality.

Rakshith explains, "ZeOmega focuses more on the population health technology space. Our clients usually are risk-bearing organizations. We have health plans that cover a wide range of populations, including Medicaid, Medicare, commercial, ACOs, and other MSOs and similar entities. So we primarily focus on providing tools to these organizations so they can measure risk, manage risk, and manage their members' overall health and well-being."

"AI is definitely a new technology. It has immense power and capability to go through millions, if not billions, of data points and look for patterns that have traditionally not been baked into clinical training or clinical intuition, or were treated as edge cases. So when it comes to organizations experimenting with and adopting AI right now, the knee-jerk reaction or tendency is to try to take what they have already been doing, which is a lot of these deterministic models based on clinical intuition. They try to map that onto AI, almost trying to evolve these deterministic rule sets or workflows into the AI domain. And this is not a great strategy because, one, we're not really using the true power of AI, which can comb through a lot of data, find things, and handle a lot of complexity."

#ZeOmega #PopulationHealth #HealthcareAI #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #OpioidCrisis #HealthEquity #Medicaid #DigitalHealth #ClinicalAnalytics #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareInnovation #HealthcareAI #RiskStratification #ValueBasedCare #HealthIT

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Rakshith Yashvanth, Senior Product Manager, Advanced Analytics & AI at ZeOmega, emphasizes that effective AI implementation in clinical settings requires comprehensive data across clinical, social, utilization, and behavioral elements, not cherry-picked variables. Real-world data indicates that traditional social determinants of health often miss critical behavioral patterns and healthcare engagement. Rakshith points out that AI must be positioned as a probabilistic tool that supports clinical decision-making rather than replacing clinical judgment, with a mechanism that lets clinicians provide feedback to improve model alignment with clinical reality.

Rakshith explains, "ZeOmega focuses more on the population health technology space. Our clients usually are risk-bearing organizations. We have health plans that cover a wide range of populations, including Medicaid, Medicare, commercial, ACOs, and other MSOs and similar entities. So we primarily focus on providing tools to these organizations so they can measure risk, manage risk, and manage their members' overall health and well-being."

"AI is definitely a new technology. It has immense power and capability to go through millions, if not billions, of data points and look for patterns that have traditionally not been baked into clinical training or clinical intuition, or were treated as edge cases. So when it comes to organizations experimenting with and adopting AI right now, the knee-jerk reaction or tendency is to try to take what they have already been doing, which is a lot of these deterministic models based on clinical intuition. They try to map that onto AI, almost trying to evolve these deterministic rule sets or workflows into the AI domain. And this is not a great strategy because, one, we're not really using the true power of AI, which can comb through a lot of data, find things, and handle a lot of complexity."

#ZeOmega #PopulationHealth #HealthcareAI #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #OpioidCrisis #HealthEquity #Medicaid #DigitalHealth #ClinicalAnalytics #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareInnovation #HealthcareAI #RiskStratification #ValueBasedCare #HealthIT

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Dr. Seth Lederman, CEO and Co-Founder of Tonix, describes the company's focus on chronic, debilitating, and underserved medical conditions that have been overlooked. Fibromyalgia, a common chronic pain condition, is a prime focus, and Seth explains how recognition of this neurological condition rooted in the central nervous system has evolved. Additional research is being conducted on a Lyme disease prophylactic, kidney transplant rejection prevention, and targeting depression by improving sleep quality.

Seth explains, "The condition we were founded on, which we've worked on for more than 15 years since the company's founding, is fibromyalgia. It's a common chronic pain condition. One of the things I like about fibromyalgia is that it was a paradox described more than 50 years ago by the brilliant physician-scientist Harvey Moldofsky. He noted that if you speak to rheumatologists about fibromyalgia, half of them say they never see it, and the other half say it's one of the most common conditions they see and treat."

"Fibromyalgia commonly affects women more than men. It's about two-thirds women by epidemiology, but in practice, in terms of the number of treated patients, it's more than 90% women. And no one understands why women are more sensitive or more susceptible to fibromyalgia than men, but it comes on. A typical patient is about 50 years old and has had it for about 10 years, but fibromyalgia is now recognized to affect people all the way back into pediatric populations and through the elderly."

#TonixPharma #Fibromyalgia #LymeDisease #ChronicPain #Biotech #DrugDiscovery #MedEd #HealthcareInnovation #AutoimmuneDisease #ClinicalTrials

tonixpharma.com

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Dr. Seth Lederman, CEO and Co-Founder of Tonix, describes the company's focus on chronic, debilitating, and underserved medical conditions that have been overlooked. Fibromyalgia, a common chronic pain condition, is a prime focus, and Seth explains how recognition of this neurological condition rooted in the central nervous system has evolved. Additional research is being conducted on a Lyme disease prophylactic, kidney transplant rejection prevention, and targeting depression by improving sleep quality.

Seth explains, "The condition we were founded on, which we've worked on for more than 15 years since the company's founding, is fibromyalgia. It's a common chronic pain condition. One of the things I like about fibromyalgia is that it was a paradox described more than 50 years ago by the brilliant physician-scientist Harvey Moldofsky. He noted that if you speak to rheumatologists about fibromyalgia, half of them say they never see it, and the other half say it's one of the most common conditions they see and treat."

"Fibromyalgia commonly affects women more than men. It's about two-thirds women by epidemiology, but in practice, in terms of the number of treated patients, it's more than 90% women. And no one understands why women are more sensitive or more susceptible to fibromyalgia than men, but it comes on. A typical patient is about 50 years old and has had it for about 10 years, but fibromyalgia is now recognized to affect people all the way back into pediatric populations and through the elderly."

#TonixPharma #Fibromyalgia #LymeDisease #ChronicPain #Biotech #DrugDiscovery #MedEd #HealthcareInnovation #AutoimmuneDisease #ClinicalTrials

tonixpharma.com

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