Empowered Patient Podcast

James Grover, President of Vyne Dental, addresses the friction and inefficiencies in the dental healthcare system to facilitate payments and improve patient outcomes. The dental care environment is fragmented and lacks coordination between patients, dentists, and payers. Vyne Dental works with dental practices to streamline the revenue cycle management process, improve patient communication, and ensure timely and accurate payments.

James explains, "We sit at the commerce crossroads between patients, practices, and payers, basically helping patients to pay, helping payers to pay, and helping practices to get paid for the services that they're rendering."

"Then in the payer space, they're trying to avoid fraud. They also have certain places where there are plans that approve certain things but don't allow for others, and they need to do their work. Unfortunately, there's a tremendous amount of waste between all three constituents. That waste results in higher prices for patients and less business success for both practices and payers."

"So you have a patient who gets services and the practice is pretty much programmed to get that payment when the patient comes back in the next time. Why? Because they want their insurance to pay for it. For practices to get paid, that patient has to come back in. Well, there's a huge problem. The ADA says that only about 41% of new patient visits result in the patient returning. And so, about six in ten new patients don't return to the practice, and there is only about 85% retention of existing patients."

#VyneDental #AccelerateRev #DentalBilling #RCM

vynedental.com

Listen to the podcast here

James Grover, President of Vyne Dental, addresses the friction and inefficiencies in the dental healthcare system to facilitate payments and improve patient outcomes. The dental care environment is fragmented and lacks coordination between patients, dentists, and payers. Vyne Dental works with dental practices to streamline the revenue cycle management process, improve patient communication, and ensure timely and accurate payments.

James explains, "We sit at the commerce crossroads between patients, practices, and payers, basically helping patients to pay, helping payers to pay, and helping practices to get paid for the services that they're rendering."

"Then in the payer space, they're trying to avoid fraud. They also have certain places where there are plans that approve certain things but don't allow for others, and they need to do their work. Unfortunately, there's a tremendous amount of waste between all three constituents. That waste results in higher prices for patients and less business success for both practices and payers."

"So you have a patient who gets services and the practice is pretty much programmed to get that payment when the patient comes back in the next time. Why? Because they want their insurance to pay for it. For practices to get paid, that patient has to come back in. Well, there's a huge problem. The ADA says that only about 41% of new patient visits result in the patient returning. And so, about six in ten new patients don't return to the practice, and there is only about 85% retention of existing patients."

#VyneDental #AccelerateRev #DentalBilling #RCM

vynedental.com

Download the transcript here

Professor Piotr Trzonkowski, CEO of PolTREG, is focused on developing cell therapies for autoimmune diseases like type-1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis using polyclonal T-regulatory cell therapy. Treg cells are key in regulating the immune system and preventing autoimmune diseases. Clinical trials are showing promise for safe and effective treatments for preventing type-1 diabetes in pre-symptomatic patients and maintaining insulin production for years after treatment in those with this form of diabetes.

Piotr explains, "My initial research subject was vaccination in the elderly, and I was looking for the reasons they did not respond to the vaccine. It was initially on the flu vaccine. The same is valuable, for example, for the COVID-19 vaccine. What we found is that elderly people do not respond to the vaccines because of the high level of accumulation of T-regulatory cells. T-regulatory cells can suppress immune responses, which is bad for the elderly."

"A very simple answer would be if you compare the immune system to kind of an army. The majority of the army fights with enemies. In the case of the immune system, these enemies are bacteria and viruses that attack us, and in each and every army, there must be police who keep an eye on the soldiers. So, the soldiers really fight with the enemies and do not fight with the self-tissue."

"The T-regulatory cells are a kind of military police of the immune system, which really keeps an eye on the immune system. So, the immune system fights with bacteria and virus cells and does not touch our own tissues. We call it in immunology, keeping the immune tolerance. So, proper immune tolerance is very dependent on T-regulatory cells. We say that this is an immune-dominant mechanism. T-regulatory cells are present in each and every process where the immune system responds to the bacteria. So, we successfully fight the infection, and at the same time, we do not destroy ourselves."

#PolTREG #TregCells TRegulatoryCells #CellTherapy #AutoimmuneDiseases #Diabetes #Type1Diabetes

poltreg.com

Listen to the podcast here

Professor Piotr Trzonkowski, CEO of PolTREG, is focused on developing cell therapies for autoimmune diseases like type-1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis using polyclonal T-regulatory cell therapy. Treg cells are key in regulating the immune system and preventing autoimmune diseases. Clinical trials are showing promise for safe and effective treatments for preventing type-1 diabetes in pre-symptomatic patients and maintaining insulin production for years after treatment in those with this form of diabetes.

Piotr explains, "My initial research subject was vaccination in the elderly, and I was looking for the reasons they did not respond to the vaccine. It was initially on the flu vaccine. The same is valuable, for example, for the COVID-19 vaccine. What we found is that elderly people do not respond to the vaccines because of the high level of accumulation of T-regulatory cells. T-regulatory cells can suppress immune responses, which is bad for the elderly."

"A very simple answer would be if you compare the immune system to kind of an army. The majority of the army fights with enemies. In the case of the immune system, these enemies are bacteria and viruses that attack us, and in each and every army, there must be police who keep an eye on the soldiers. So, the soldiers really fight with the enemies and do not fight with the self-tissue."

"The T-regulatory cells are a kind of military police of the immune system, which really keeps an eye on the immune system. So, the immune system fights with bacteria and virus cells and does not touch our own tissues. We call it in immunology, keeping the immune tolerance. So, proper immune tolerance is very dependent on T-regulatory cells. We say that this is an immune-dominant mechanism. T-regulatory cells are present in each and every process where the immune system responds to the bacteria. So, we successfully fight the infection, and at the same time, we do not destroy ourselves."

#PolTREG #TregCells TRegulatoryCells #CellTherapy #AutoimmuneDiseases #Diabetes #Type1Diabetes

poltreg.com

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Cecil Pineda, Senior VP and Chief Information Security Officer at R1 RCM, is focused on integrating robust cybersecurity into the revenue cycle management process. When healthcare organizations are hit with ransomware attacks, they must respond rapidly and accurately communicate with internal and external partners. Long-term strategies include controlling network access, backup/recovery testing and educating personnel in order to limit damage from attempts to invade the network.

Cecil explains, "I think most organizations, not just R1, many organizations have made that decision beforehand whether to pay or not. And that decision is not easy. That's something that takes into account several factors, starting from patient safety to protecting customer data and being able to go back into operations. So there are a lot of things that they can do, the analysis before making that call. So, beforehand, a lot of organizations have their stance on payments."

"Another key area besides speed is communications. This is something that organizations should focus on. You don't want patients, relatives of your patients, business partners, shareholders, and other groups to learn it from social media. Going out there quickly with the proper level of messaging and the right amount is key in communicating with your partners."

"I would say that in the first couple of hours, you probably need to make sure that you can communicate quickly at the right level and with the right information without causing any panic. It's good to be able to reach out quickly to your partners before they get the wrong information from social media."

#R1RCM #CyberSecurity #CyberAttacks #DataSecurity #Ransomware #DataProtection #InformationSecurity #RCM

R1rcm.com

Listen to the podcast here

Cecil Pineda, Senior VP and Chief Information Security Officer at R1 RCM, is focused on integrating robust cybersecurity into the revenue cycle management process. When healthcare organizations are hit with ransomware attacks, they must respond rapidly and accurately communicate with internal and external partners. Long-term strategies include controlling network access, backup/recovery testing and educating personnel in order to limit damage from attempts to invade the network.

Cecil explains, "I think most organizations, not just R1, many organizations have made that decision beforehand whether to pay or not. And that decision is not easy. That's something that takes into account several factors, starting from patient safety to protecting customer data and being able to go back into operations. So there are a lot of things that they can do, the analysis before making that call. So, beforehand, a lot of organizations have their stance on payments."

"Another key area besides speed is communications. This is something that organizations should focus on. You don't want patients, relatives of your patients, business partners, shareholders, and other groups to learn it from social media. Going out there quickly with the proper level of messaging and the right amount is key in communicating with your partners."

"I would say that in the first couple of hours, you probably need to make sure that you can communicate quickly at the right level and with the right information without causing any panic. It's good to be able to reach out quickly to your partners before they get the wrong information from social media."

#R1RCM #CyberSecurity #CyberAttacks #DataSecurity #Ransomware #DataProtection #InformationSecurity #RCM

R1rcm.com

Download the transcript here

David explains, "We went to the Simons Foundation and, with their support, have established a network in the United States. We have three collection sites: one at the UC Davis Mind Institute in Sacramento, one at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and one at the Mass General Hospital in Boston, where a postmortem brain donation can be sent. Those brains are then prepared in ways that will facilitate all kinds of research both now and in the future. We have developed this resource to foster autism research throughout the world. What we are seeing now that we've just celebrated our 10th anniversary is that we've collected nearly 400 brain donations so far, and we're seeing an increasing demand from researchers worldwide to get access to that resource."

Dorothy elaborates, "I was the main support person for my older cousin, Gregory Blackstock, for a couple of decades. He needed a lot of executive function help. He lived on his own but couldn't make critical decisions very well. As long as everything went along without any hitch, he was generally fine. But as he got older and experienced more physical infirmities, then I needed to step up more. So then he was very obviously autistic, so it was kind of peripherally interesting to me."

"One of his savant traits was that he was an incredible artist. He also spoke many languages that he picked up by ear. He had a perfect pitch and learned the accordion, but he could easily transfer that information to playing the organ and the piano. He had almost total recall of anything that crossed his path that interested him. And so, just being around him and being involved with furthering his artistic career gave me further insights about the people I met who were interested in autism."

#AutismBrainNet #BrainDonation #AutismResearch #Autism #BrainResearch

autismbrainnet.org

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This is a conversation with Dr. David Amaral, a distinguished professor at the MIND Institute and scientific director of Autism BrainNet, and Dorothy Frisch, an activist and supporter of the program. Autism BrainNet is funded by the Simons Foundation to collect and study postmortem brain samples from individuals with autism to understand the neurological basis of the disorder better. Currently, there are no biomarkers for autism, so studying the brains and accomplishments of those who had autism can lead to a better understanding of the abilities and challenges seen on the autism spectrum.

David explains, "We went to the Simons Foundation and, with their support, have established a network in the United States. We have three collection sites: one at the UC Davis Mind Institute in Sacramento, one at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and one at the Mass General Hospital in Boston, where a postmortem brain donation can be sent. Those brains are then prepared in ways that will facilitate all kinds of research both now and in the future. We have developed this resource to foster autism research throughout the world. What we are seeing now that we've just celebrated our 10th anniversary is that we've collected nearly 400 brain donations so far, and we're seeing an increasing demand from researchers worldwide to get access to that resource."

Dorothy elaborates, "I was the main support person for my older cousin, Gregory Blackstock, for a couple of decades. He needed a lot of executive function help. He lived on his own but couldn't make critical decisions very well. As long as everything went along without any hitch, he was generally fine. But as he got older and experienced more physical infirmities, then I needed to step up more. So then he was very obviously autistic, so it was kind of peripherally interesting to me."

"One of his savant traits was that he was an incredible artist. He also spoke many languages that he picked up by ear. He had a perfect pitch and learned the accordion, but he could easily transfer that information to playing the organ and the piano. He had almost total recall of anything that crossed his path that interested him. And so, just being around him and being involved with furthering his artistic career gave me further insights about the people I met who were interested in autism."

#AutismBrainNet #BrainDonation #AutismResearch #Autism #BrainResearch

autismbrainnet.org

Download the transcript here

Dr. Jose Luchsinger, Vice Chair for Clinical and Epidemiologic Research at Columbia University, is leading a phase 2 clinical trial of a prodrug Benfo that aims to raise the level of thiamine in the brain to improve memory and function in people with early Alzheimer's disease. This effort is based on research showing that Alzheimer's is associated with impaired thiamine processing in the brain, even if thiamine levels in the blood are normal. The phase 2 clinical trial for the drug is testing the ability to overcome the mishandling of thiamine in the brain by patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with evidence of amyloid.

Jose explains, "So this approach is based on decades of study by Dr. Gary Gibson, who's at the Burke Institute in New York and Cornell University in New York. What he has found, particularly in animal models of Alzheimer's disease, is that these animals have memory problems that are related to the ability to process thiamine in the brain, which is a key vitamin that is needed for proper function of the brain. The hypothesis that he came up with was that if you could somehow fix the misuse of the thiamine in the brain, that maybe you could improve memory symptoms and also functional problems in people who have Alzheimer's disease. He tested first in animals, a prodrug called benfotiamine that after ingestion it, increases thiamine levels a hundred times in the blood. And he did observe in animals that the thiamine handling deficiency in the brain was fixed, and that memory and other characteristics in these animals improved."

"One thing that I want to explain is that we're not saying that people with early Alzheimer's disease have low thiamine, which is vitamin B1 in the blood. What we're saying is that because of the Alzheimer's disease, their brains are not handling the thiamine that there is in the blood, even if it's at normal levels, in the correct way. What we're doing is, and what we're hypothesizing is that by increasing the thiamine levels a hundred times with this prodrug benfotiamine, we will overcome the mishandling of the thiamine in the brain, which has bad effects on brain metabolism and memory, etc."

#BenfoTeam #Alzheimers #AlzheimersDisease #MCI #MildCognitiveImpairment #MemoryLoss #ClinicalTrials #Memory #VitaminB1 #Thiamine

benfoteam.org

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Dr. Jose Luchsinger, Vice Chair for Clinical and Epidemiologic Research at Columbia University, is leading a phase 2 clinical trial of a prodrug Benfo that aims to raise the level of thiamine in the brain to improve memory and function in people with early Alzheimer's disease. This effort is based on research showing that Alzheimer's is associated with impaired thiamine processing in the brain, even if thiamine levels in the blood are normal. The phase 2 clinical trial for the drug is testing the ability to overcome the mishandling of thiamine in the brain by patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with evidence of amyloid.

Jose explains, "So this approach is based on decades of study by Dr. Gary Gibson, who's at the Burke Institute in New York and Cornell University in New York. What he has found, particularly in animal models of Alzheimer's disease, is that these animals have memory problems that are related to the ability to process thiamine in the brain, which is a key vitamin that is needed for proper function of the brain. The hypothesis that he came up with was that if you could somehow fix the misuse of the thiamine in the brain, that maybe you could improve memory symptoms and also functional problems in people who have Alzheimer's disease. He tested first in animals, a prodrug called benfotiamine that after ingestion it, increases thiamine levels a hundred times in the blood. And he did observe in animals that the thiamine handling deficiency in the brain was fixed, and that memory and other characteristics in these animals improved."

"One thing that I want to explain is that we're not saying that people with early Alzheimer's disease have low thiamine, which is vitamin B1 in the blood. What we're saying is that because of the Alzheimer's disease, their brains are not handling the thiamine that there is in the blood, even if it's at normal levels, in the correct way. What we're doing is, and what we're hypothesizing is that by increasing the thiamine levels a hundred times with this prodrug benfotiamine, we will overcome the mishandling of the thiamine in the brain, which has bad effects on brain metabolism and memory, etc."

#BenfoTeam #Alzheimers #AlzheimersDisease #MCI #MildCognitiveImpairment #MemoryLoss #ClinicalTrials #Memory #VitaminB1 #Thiamine

benfoteam.org

Download the transcript here