Empowered Patient Podcast

Luis Voloch, Co-Founder and CEO of Jimini Health, focuses on mental health through the Sage platform, which provides continuous AI support for patients while keeping clinicians informed and in control. The approach addresses the problem of patients turning to general-purpose AI for behavioral health support by offering a HIPAA-compliant, purpose-built alternative with proper safeguards and clinician supervision. The platform improves patient adherence to therapy and provides valuable information about progress between appointments, which is particularly important in mental health care where outcomes are non-linear and diagnostic precision is limited.

Luis explains, "Right now, the AI healthcare environment is, I'd say, largely split when it comes to clinical AI between largely clinician-facing and back-office capabilities. So things like AI scribes and RCM tools and clinician coaching tools and products like that on one hand, with on the other hand, things that are primarily for patients. You may see things on the app store that are like AI therapists or products that are standalone for patients. And where Jimini stands is really as unifying both of these, where the core thesis for the company is that the right way to help patients and to build helpful clinical AI products is by integrating with the clinician as well, where the clinician has the ability to oversee what the AI is doing and to guide what the AI is doing."

"The company's belief is that we need to build purpose-built AIs for mental health that are HIPAA-compliant and safe, with all the right guardrails. And most importantly, where clinicians are in the loop and where the clinicians can oversee and guide what the AI is doing."

"We primarily work with large behavioral health provider organizations interested in improving the quality of care they deliver. One specific big opportunity we bring is bridging the time between sessions so that patients have additional support. The core of the product is what we call Sage. Sage is an app that engages with patients in various ways, with the guidance of the clinician, so that Sage knows what is happening in the therapy sessions or whatever other appointments the patient is having. It is then able to follow the clinical priorities of the clinician when the clinician is not there, and Sage supports these patients on a daily basis."

#JiminiHealth #MentalHealth #DigitalHealth #BehavioralHealth #AIinHealthcare #PatientEngagement #CareAdherence #Telehealth #HealthTech #AI #MentalHealth #PatientSafety

jiminihealth.com

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Luis Voloch, Co-Founder and CEO of Jimini Health, focuses on mental health through the Sage platform, which provides continuous AI support for patients while keeping clinicians informed and in control. The approach addresses the problem of patients turning to general-purpose AI for behavioral health support by offering a HIPAA-compliant, purpose-built alternative with proper safeguards and clinician supervision. The platform improves patient adherence to therapy and provides valuable information about progress between appointments, which is particularly important in mental health care where outcomes are non-linear and diagnostic precision is limited.

Luis explains, "Right now, the AI healthcare environment is, I'd say, largely split when it comes to clinical AI between largely clinician-facing and back-office capabilities. So things like AI scribes and RCM tools and clinician coaching tools and products like that on one hand, with on the other hand, things that are primarily for patients. You may see things on the app store that are like AI therapists or products that are standalone for patients. And where Jimini stands is really as unifying both of these, where the core thesis for the company is that the right way to help patients and to build helpful clinical AI products is by integrating with the clinician as well, where the clinician has the ability to oversee what the AI is doing and to guide what the AI is doing."

"The company's belief is that we need to build purpose-built AIs for mental health that are HIPAA-compliant and safe, with all the right guardrails. And most importantly, where clinicians are in the loop and where the clinicians can oversee and guide what the AI is doing."

"We primarily work with large behavioral health provider organizations interested in improving the quality of care they deliver. One specific big opportunity we bring is bridging the time between sessions so that patients have additional support. The core of the product is what we call Sage. Sage is an app that engages with patients in various ways, with the guidance of the clinician, so that Sage knows what is happening in the therapy sessions or whatever other appointments the patient is having. It is then able to follow the clinical priorities of the clinician when the clinician is not there, and Sage supports these patients on a daily basis."

#JiminiHealth #MentalHealth #DigitalHealth #BehavioralHealth #AIinHealthcare #PatientEngagement #CareAdherence #Telehealth #HealthTech #AI #MentalHealth #PatientSafety

jiminihealth.com

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Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected.

Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors."

"We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body."

"We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way."

#IntensityTherapeutics $INTS #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals

intensitytherapeutics.com

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Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected.

Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors."

"We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body."

"We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way."

#IntensityTherapeutics $INTS #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals

intensitytherapeutics.com

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Dr. Erin Palm, medical lead at Infinitus, specializes in agentic AI for healthcare, leveraging voice technology to facilitate actions and execute tasks on behalf of providers, payers, and patients to coordinate administrative functions and patient-facing applications. These agents can handle appointment booking, medication inquiries, and emergency triage within an environment with rigorous quality controls and guardrails to mitigate AI errors. The platform supports seven languages, adapts communication to technical levels, and integrates with patient systems to maintain clinical consistency and regulatory compliance.

Erin explains, "We focus on agentic communications for healthcare, which means building AI agents that can have conversations and execute on tasks on behalf of patients, pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, and health plans. And our thesis in all this is that the care exists. It's the coordination layer that sometimes falls short and fails patients, and Infinitus makes sure that that care arrives."

"It's a reality that we're holding AI to a different standard than we hold humans performing the same tasks. That said, I actually see it as an opportunity to improve quality across the board. And I think it's reasonable to hold AI to a higher standard. And we measure those things closely using continuous evaluations of agent performance even before we put them into production. And then once they're live with patients, we continue to closely monitor their performance."

"We have benchmarks that show improved performance on tasks versus human agents doing some of those same tasks, such as appointment booking. That said, we know that generative AI DRs make mistakes and it predicts things that don't end up being true. And we call those hallucinations. In the clinical world, we like to call them confabulations. It tends to be more clinically correct."

#Infinitus #AIinHealthcare #VoiceAI #DigitalHealth #HealthIT #PriorAuth #PatientAccess #HealthcareInnovation #AgenticAI #PatientSafety #HealthcareAutomation

infinitus.ai

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Dr. Erin Palm, medical lead at Infinitus, specializes in agentic AI for healthcare, leveraging voice technology to facilitate actions and execute tasks on behalf of providers, payers, and patients to coordinate administrative functions and patient-facing applications. These agents can handle appointment booking, medication inquiries, and emergency triage within an environment with rigorous quality controls and guardrails to mitigate AI errors. The platform supports seven languages, adapts communication to technical levels, and integrates with patient systems to maintain clinical consistency and regulatory compliance.

Erin explains, "We focus on agentic communications for healthcare, which means building AI agents that can have conversations and execute on tasks on behalf of patients, pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, and health plans. And our thesis in all this is that the care exists. It's the coordination layer that sometimes falls short and fails patients, and Infinitus makes sure that that care arrives."

"It's a reality that we're holding AI to a different standard than we hold humans performing the same tasks. That said, I actually see it as an opportunity to improve quality across the board. And I think it's reasonable to hold AI to a higher standard. And we measure those things closely using continuous evaluations of agent performance even before we put them into production. And then once they're live with patients, we continue to closely monitor their performance."

"We have benchmarks that show improved performance on tasks versus human agents doing some of those same tasks, such as appointment booking. That said, we know that generative AI DRs make mistakes and it predicts things that don't end up being true. And we call those hallucinations. In the clinical world, we like to call them confabulations. It tends to be more clinically correct."

#Infinitus #AIinHealthcare #VoiceAI #DigitalHealth #HealthIT #PriorAuth #PatientAccess #HealthcareInnovation #AgenticAI #PatientSafety #HealthcareAutomation

infinitus.ai

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Jimmy Chang, Chairman and CEO of TaiMed Biologics, is approaching critical unmet needs in HIV care, particularly for aging patients with comorbidities who face risks from drug-drug interactions with multiple medications. The company is advancing the next-generation antibodies designed for bimonthly injections and an alternative to daily oral medications, while minimizing enzymatic metabolism and associated drug interactions. While successful treatments for HIV have shifted the focus from survival to quality of life and managing a chronic condition, new challenges have emerged to ensure patient convenience and adherence.

Jimmy explains, "TaiMed is a biotech company based in Taiwan. Our focus is to develop innovative product for the HIV. And actually, over the years we have developed the first CD4-directed antibody for HIV treatment, and the product was approved in the US. And today we are currently focusing on developing the CD4-targeting antibody in a combination for long-acting HIV treatment."

"So in today's world, HIV therapies, HIV patients, or the people living with HIV, the field is HIV as a chronic disease. The patient can live longer and healthier just like everybody else. However, it requires dedication and commitment to medication because there's no cure today. HIV, the virus keeps mutating. So if the disease is not under control, this could be problematic, and basically one day the patient may run into a situation where most of the drugs do not work for the patient."

"So in the earlier days, the innovations or the medications were mainly trying to have the virus under control, with the focus of the medications. And so nowadays, because people living with HIV actually have a very good health condition, just like typical individuals live longer and healthier. So this comorbidity, or we call it the polypharmacy drug-drug interaction, is really the challenge that the physicians or patients have to face every day. And with our innovations, we believe we have the opportunity to offer another innovative medication to specifically address those challenges."

#TaiMed #HIVCare #LongActingTherapies #AntibodyTherapeutics #CD4 #Polypharmacy #InfectiousDiseases #TaiMedBiologics #EmpoweredPatient #HealthcareInnovation

taimedbiologics.com

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Jimmy Chang, Chairman and CEO of TaiMed Biologics, is approaching critical unmet needs in HIV care, particularly for aging patients with comorbidities who face risks from drug-drug interactions with multiple medications. The company is advancing the next-generation antibodies designed for bimonthly injections and an alternative to daily oral medications, while minimizing enzymatic metabolism and associated drug interactions. While successful treatments for HIV have shifted the focus from survival to quality of life and managing a chronic condition, new challenges have emerged to ensure patient convenience and adherence.

Jimmy explains, "TaiMed is a biotech company based in Taiwan. Our focus is to develop innovative product for the HIV. And actually, over the years we have developed the first CD4-directed antibody for HIV treatment, and the product was approved in the US. And today we are currently focusing on developing the CD4-targeting antibody in a combination for long-acting HIV treatment."

"So in today's world, HIV therapies, HIV patients, or the people living with HIV, the field is HIV as a chronic disease. The patient can live longer and healthier just like everybody else. However, it requires dedication and commitment to medication because there's no cure today. HIV, the virus keeps mutating. So if the disease is not under control, this could be problematic, and basically one day the patient may run into a situation where most of the drugs do not work for the patient."

"So in the earlier days, the innovations or the medications were mainly trying to have the virus under control, with the focus of the medications. And so nowadays, because people living with HIV actually have a very good health condition, just like typical individuals live longer and healthier. So this comorbidity, or we call it the polypharmacy drug-drug interaction, is really the challenge that the physicians or patients have to face every day. And with our innovations, we believe we have the opportunity to offer another innovative medication to specifically address those challenges."

#TaiMed #HIVCare #LongActingTherapies #AntibodyTherapeutics #CD4 #Polypharmacy #InfectiousDiseases #TaiMedBiologics #EmpoweredPatient #HealthcareInnovation

taimedbiologics.com

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Dr. Katherine Hockman, Director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at NYU Langone Health, and Dilshad Marolia, System Director of Hospitals and Regulatory and Policy Management at NYU Langone Health, are co-leaders of the Patient Experience Book Club for the hospital employees. Operating since 2012, the program has grown from six books to 12 books per year, with sessions offered in-person and virtually to reach across the entire health system and, in addition, hosts pop-up sessions with visiting authors. The club helps break down departmental silos within the hospital, fostering connections among employees by creating a safe space for intellectual and emotional engagement while helping to combat workplace burnout.

Katherine explains, "So my feeling is the Patient Experience Book Club is so much more than just a club where we read books and talk about them. It's really become a community of individuals who get together and share their experience in caring for some of our sickest patients. And it's also become a great venue for the faculty and staff to get to know each other a lot better and to share some of their vulnerabilities. And Dilshad and I, we've really taken it in many, many different directions. So we started off just reading six books a year, and now we're doing 12 books a year and two sessions a month, one in person and one on video for people who are in all parts of our system who can't make it in person."

Dilshad elaborates, "But now also as a community of 53,000 people in our own health system and part of the wider community of New York City and New York State even, how do we view our communities and ourselves, and what books are transforming us, and what are we taking away from each experience? And the level of intellectual engagement is one thing, but there's a high, high level of emotional engagement that I think is rare to find in the workplace to create these safe spaces where you have a vehicle, and I'll use that word, through which you can have a discussion about a very pointed topic beyond, say, an academic journal."

#NYULangone #Bookclub #PatientExperience #HumanityinHealthcare #HealthcareLeadership #EmpathyInHealthcare #BurnoutPrevention #HospitalCulture #MedicalHumanities

nyulangonehealth.org

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Dr. Katherine Hockman, Director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at NYU Langone Health, and Dilshad Marolia, System Director of Hospitals and Regulatory and Policy Management at NYU Langone Health, are co-leaders of the Patient Experience Book Club for the hospital employees. Operating since 2012, the program has grown from six books to 12 books per year, with sessions offered in-person and virtually to reach across the entire health system and, in addition, hosts pop-up sessions with visiting authors. The club helps break down departmental silos within the hospital, fostering connections among employees by creating a safe space for intellectual and emotional engagement while helping to combat workplace burnout.

Katherine explains, "So my feeling is the Patient Experience Book Club is so much more than just a club where we read books and talk about them. It's really become a community of individuals who get together and share their experience in caring for some of our sickest patients. And it's also become a great venue for the faculty and staff to get to know each other a lot better and to share some of their vulnerabilities. And Dilshad and I, we've really taken it in many, many different directions. So we started off just reading six books a year, and now we're doing 12 books a year and two sessions a month, one in person and one on video for people who are in all parts of our system who can't make it in person."

Dilshad elaborates, "But now also as a community of 53,000 people in our own health system and part of the wider community of New York City and New York State even, how do we view our communities and ourselves, and what books are transforming us, and what are we taking away from each experience? And the level of intellectual engagement is one thing, but there's a high, high level of emotional engagement that I think is rare to find in the workplace to create these safe spaces where you have a vehicle, and I'll use that word, through which you can have a discussion about a very pointed topic beyond, say, an academic journal."

#NYULangone #Bookclub #PatientExperience #HumanityinHealthcare #HealthcareLeadership #EmpathyInHealthcare #BurnoutPrevention #HospitalCulture #MedicalHumanities

nyulangonehealth.org

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