Luba Greenwood, J.D., Strategic Business Development at Google Life Sciences, discusses innovative digital health tools in precision medicine and the greater healthcare space.

In this episode of the Precision Medicine Podcast, Brad Power, a courageous journalistic voice and lymphoma survivor, shares why he's fighting for greater access to precision medicine in clinical practice. Brad has worked as a re-engineering consultant and has authored over 75 articles for the Harvard Business Review.

In this episode, Jeanette McCarthy, co-founder of Precision Medicine Advisors and genome educator, joins us to discuss the importance of educating everyone involved in precision medicine—including healthcare providers, payers, and even patients—about its day-to-day applications.

NCCN testing guidelines have long been a key tool that payers use to decide which cancer patients will be covered for genetic testing. With the rapid growth of precision medicine, it has become more important than ever to ensure every patient that should be tested is tested, raising new questions about how effectively and consistently current guidelines are applied. Dr. Peter Beitsch addresses some of those questions in a recent study published by the Journal of Clinical Oncology and many are saying will have a major impact on women with breast cancer in the future. Listen to the full episode here.

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All of the conversations we have here at the Precision Medicine Podcast are focused on uncovering both barriers and solutions to realizing the promise of precision medicine. Having the opportunity to speak with Laura Holmes Haddad, an author, speaker, and breast cancer “thriver,” was especially meaningful, because it serves as a reminder that improving patient care—and giving every patient the best chance at beating cancer—is the ultimate goal.

Laura begins by telling listeners about the inspiration behind the book, which she wrote to give cancer patients a sense of what to expect. She realized there had been many things about the cancer experience that she did not know before being diagnosed, and that her notion of what it would be like was vague and flawed. Laura wanted to provide people with a sense of comradery and comfort in the knowledge that many others shared their experiences. After the release of her book, she was pleased to learn that caregivers and friends of cancer patients were helped by her insight and could better relate with their loved ones facing the disease.

Laura talks about her battle with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. The doctors who initially cared for Laura believed that after three rounds of chemotherapy nothing could be done to save her life; however, she continued to pursue a doctor whom she would like and feel comfortable with, and eventually found an oncologist who helped her get into the clinical trial that saved her life. This doctor had a strong grasp on current cancer research and was committed to supporting Laura. He applied to enter her in a clinical trial at City of Hope National Medical Center that would approach her tumor differently than traditional treatment. The trial was a form of precision medicine, and so it treated her in terms of her overall biology rather than merely considering her disease.

Laura now feels quite strongly about the value of precision medicine, and she wants other cancer patients to understand both what clinical trials are like and how precision medicine can help with cancer treatment and screening.

She is a public advocate for cancer patients and for precision medicine, and she is committed to seeing cancer stories told, cancer patients advocating for themselves, and barriers to care removed. More specifically, Laura hopes to see clinicians granted more access to innovative therapies, and she advocates for insurance companies to remove roadblocks to these treatments. The science of cancer detection and treatment develops quickly, she notes, and there is much for people to learn and put to use. Her experience and insights are truly inspiring, and well worth a listen.​

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Download the full transcript here (pdf).

Personalized medicine offers new hope for cancer patients, but those such a significant illness are not the only ones who can benefit from it. Dr. Keith Stewart joined us for an eye-opening discussion about how his team at the Mayo Clinic is exploring the possibilities of using precision medicine for the prevention and maintenance of a “healthy genome” in people who have not yet developed a disease. Listen in.

Diagnostics tests are critical for properly applying Precision Medicine in cancer care, yet they are still undervalued by payers. In a recent podcast, we had the privilege of speaking with Hannah Mamuszka, Ph.D. founder of Alva10, a company aimed at breaking the cycle of commoditization in diagnostics and bringing radically new tests to bear on value-based healthcare.

Our conversation centered around the hurdles diagnostic companies face getting technology accepted and used for patients within our health care system—one of the biggest hurdles being reimbursement.

In oncology today, diagnostic technology tools are key to helping scientists unlock the potential of precision medicine, so we were thrilled when Dave Messina, Chief Operating Officer of Cofactor Genomics, agreed to be a guest on The Precision Medicine podcast to talk about the importance of such tools.

The conversation with Dave was a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go—in developing and using technology to realize the promise of precision medicine in cancer.

The impact of precision medicine is on everyone’s mind these days—especially those on the front lines of cancer care. So, it was an honor for to speak with, and get the perspective of, one of the most vocal and forward-thinking pathologists in oncology today: Doctor Tony Magliocco, Chair of the Department of Pathology and Executive Director of Esoteric Laboratory Services at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.