Empowered Patient Podcast

Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda is a window into the latest innovations in digital health, the changing dynamic between doctors and patients, the emergence of personalized medicine, aging in place, wearables and sensors, clinical trials and advances in clinical research, payer trends, transparency in the medical marketplace and challenges for connected health entrepreneurs. This show continues to evolve driven by the convergence of a diverse array of industries.

Developing Immunotherapy to Fight Bone Cancer with Paul Romness and Olivia Egge OS Therapies TRANSCRIPT 08/21/2025

Developing Immunotherapy to Fight Bone Cancer with Paul Romness and Olivia Egge OS Therapies TRANSCRIPT Paul Romness, Chairman, CEO, and President of OS Therapies, and Olivia Egge, a member of the Board of Directors of OS Therapies, discuss osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer that primarily affects teenagers. OS Therapies is developing an immunotherapy that utilizes a weakened form of the listeria bacteria to stimulate the immune system and prevent the spread of cancer cells to the lungs and brain. Olivia's experience as a patient has motivated her to advocate for better treatment options and join the board of OS Therapeutics. Paul explains, "So osteosarcoma is quite literally bone cancer. It happens in teenagers like Olivia, after the growth comes together in the long bones, and there's some sort of miscalculation, and a very aggressive and very deadly cancer develops from that of the growth. And as a result, the cancer can usually spread to the lungs and then the brain. And that's where it gets very, very deadly. And our approach is to stimulate the immune system with a weakened or attenuated listeria that fires up the immune system and goes and finds these little culprits, little micro metastases that have survived the chemo and radiation that these kids go through. It tries to destroy those little micro metastases before they land in the lungs and the brain." Olivia elaborates, "I talk to patients all the time. Actually, I was introduced to people who became close friends during my actual treatment, but today I still do physical therapy and I'm constantly meeting kids who are in the middle of treatment and some of them have relapse, some haven't, but so I'm constantly meeting new patients and it's just evident that we need better treatment options. I see how weak they are from chemo. They're all, especially with osteosarcoma, you usually have to have a joint replacement or amputation, and chemo just weakens you. So it makes it even harder to recover from that. And I mean, these treatments are just so old. And so for sure, seeing all of these patients going through active treatment just reinforces how badly we need new treatment options, especially treatment options like surgery and immunotherapy." #OSTherapies #Osteosarcoma #SolidTumors #Immunotherapy #ListeriaCancerImmunotherapy #ComparativeOncology #CanineOsteosarcoma /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37784230

Developing Immunotherapy to Fight Bone Cancer with Paul Romness and Olivia Egge OS Therapies 08/21/2025

Developing Immunotherapy to Fight Bone Cancer with Paul Romness and Olivia Egge OS Therapies Paul Romness, Chairman, CEO, and President of OS Therapies, and Olivia Egge, a member of the Board of Directors of OS Therapies, discuss osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer that primarily affects teenagers. OS Therapies is developing an immunotherapy that utilizes a weakened form of the listeria bacteria to stimulate the immune system and prevent the spread of cancer cells to the lungs and brain. Olivia's experience as a patient has motivated her to advocate for better treatment options and join the board of OS Therapeutics. Paul explains, "So osteosarcoma is quite literally bone cancer. It happens in teenagers like Olivia, after the growth comes together in the long bones, and there's some sort of miscalculation, and a very aggressive and very deadly cancer develops from that of the growth. And as a result, the cancer can usually spread to the lungs and then the brain. And that's where it gets very, very deadly. And our approach is to stimulate the immune system with a weakened or attenuated listeria that fires up the immune system and goes and finds these little culprits, little micro metastases that have survived the chemo and radiation that these kids go through. It tries to destroy those little micro metastases before they land in the lungs and the brain." Olivia elaborates, "I talk to patients all the time. Actually, I was introduced to people who became close friends during my actual treatment, but today I still do physical therapy and I'm constantly meeting kids who are in the middle of treatment and some of them have relapse, some haven't, but so I'm constantly meeting new patients and it's just evident that we need better treatment options. I see how weak they are from chemo. They're all, especially with osteosarcoma, you usually have to have a joint replacement or amputation, and chemo just weakens you. So it makes it even harder to recover from that. And I mean, these treatments are just so old. And so for sure, seeing all of these patients going through active treatment just reinforces how badly we need new treatment options, especially treatment options like surgery and immunotherapy." #OSTherapies #Osteosarcoma #SolidTumors #Immunotherapy #ListeriaCancerImmunotherapy #ComparativeOncology #CanineOsteosarcoma /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37783930

New Inhibitor Drug Transforms Cancer Treatment Accessibility with Dan Schmitt Actuate Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT 08/21/2025

New Inhibitor Drug Transforms Cancer Treatment Accessibility with Dan Schmitt Actuate Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT Dan Schmitt, President and CEO of Actuate Therapeutics, is developing a cancer therapy that inhibits GSK3β, a key enzyme that is hijacked in cancer cells to drive tumor growth. Inhibiting this enzyme can impact the cancer cells and stimulate an immune response against the tumor. Actuate selected metastatic pancreatic cancer as their first target due to unmet need and promising data for their lead drug candidate. This could represent a significant advancement in the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer, offering a new standard-of-care option. Dan explains, "So, GSK-3β is a known quantity across a number of inflammatory diseases. It was understood when we first started the company that, particularly in cancer cells, GSK is hijacked in its activity. Basically it's been shown that in normal cells, GSK-3β sits in the cytoplasmic domain and there it's involved in multiple paths, basically in glucose metabolism. But in cancer cells, it translocates into the nuclear compartment, and there it's accumulated at much higher levels and then sits upstream of a pro-oncogenic set of pathways, all mediated by NF-κB. NF-κB is notorious in cancer. It regulates gene expression involved in tumor growth and progression, chemoresistance, and protects tumor cells from death." "So it's been very difficult to target NF-κB directly, but we can target GSK-3β directly, specifically and potently, and therefore downregulate those key oncogenic processes. And that's really where we started the company, that set of activities of this protein. What's been shown since we've been in the clinic is that there is also a resulting upregulation of immune response from the host towards the cancer itself based on this inhibition of GSK-3β as well." #ActuateTherapeutics #Cancer #PancreaticCancer #MetastaticPancreaticCancer /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749225

New Inhibitor Drug Transforms Cancer Treatment Accessibility with Dan Schmitt Actuate Therapeutics 08/21/2025

New Inhibitor Drug Transforms Cancer Treatment Accessibility with Dan Schmitt Actuate Therapeutics Dan Schmitt, President and CEO of Actuate Therapeutics, is developing a cancer therapy that inhibits GSK3β, a key enzyme that is hijacked in cancer cells to drive tumor growth. Inhibiting this enzyme can impact the cancer cells and stimulate an immune response against the tumor. Actuate selected metastatic pancreatic cancer as their first target due to unmet need and promising data for their lead drug candidate. This could represent a significant advancement in the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer, offering a new standard-of-care option. Dan explains, "So, GSK-3β is a known quantity across a number of inflammatory diseases. It was understood when we first started the company that, particularly in cancer cells, GSK is hijacked in its activity. Basically it's been shown that in normal cells, GSK-3β sits in the cytoplasmic domain and there it's involved in multiple paths, basically in glucose metabolism. But in cancer cells, it translocates into the nuclear compartment, and there it's accumulated at much higher levels and then sits upstream of a pro-oncogenic set of pathways, all mediated by NF-κB. NF-κB is notorious in cancer. It regulates gene expression involved in tumor growth and progression, chemoresistance, and protects tumor cells from death." "So it's been very difficult to target NF-κB directly, but we can target GSK-3β directly, specifically and potently, and therefore downregulate those key oncogenic processes. And that's really where we started the company, that set of activities of this protein. What's been shown since we've been in the clinic is that there is also a resulting upregulation of immune response from the host towards the cancer itself based on this inhibition of GSK-3β as well." #ActuateTherapeutics #Cancer #PancreaticCancer #MetastaticPancreaticCancer /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749200

Democratizing Molecular Diagnostics Transforming Transplant Success with Andrea James iMDx TRANSCRIPT 08/20/2025

Democratizing Molecular Diagnostics Transforming Transplant Success with Andrea James iMDx TRANSCRIPT Andrea James, Chief Financial Officer at iMDx, is focused on expanding access to innovative molecular diagnostic testing staring with a test for monitoring transplanted organ health. The test measures the donor-derived cell-free DNA which can indicate the need for drugs to target organ rejection before invasive procedures are required. The company is developing a kit-based version of the test that can be run by hospitals rather than relying on centralized labs, to increase access to this diagnostic and improve transplant outcomes. Andrea explains, "We changed our name on June 17th from OncoCyte, as you had just referenced, to Insight Molecular Diagnostics Inc. We're now going by iMDx, and our mission is to democratize access to novel molecular diagnostic testing to improve patient outcomes." "We actually have three pieces of IP, intellectual property, and we are initially commercializing in transplant. So we measure a biomarker called donor-derived cell-free DNA, don't get too hung up on it. That's a lot of words. It basically looks for fragments of DNA in the blood, which can indicate transplanted organ damage and therefore rejection. And so that is where we are commercializing first." "What's really interesting is that the innovations in this space are, okay, so let's say you've been on dialysis, that's a really tough life. You finally get your transplanted kidney, and now let's say your body is starting to reject it. You're one of those one in five who were a match, your kidney was a match for you, but then your immune system is attacking it anyway. That used to be almost a death sentence." "Your options there were you're going to lose your kidney, you go back on dialysis, or you lose your life. But now there are therapies that are coming out to treat antibody-mediated rejection, or AMR, and our test is being used to monitor the efficacy of those therapies." #iMDx #MolecularDiagnostics #Molecular #Diagnostics #Healthcare #PrecisionMedicine #Genomics #Decentralized #LiquidBiopsy #DigitalPCR #Transplant #Localization #Labs #PointOfCareTesting #RapidCare #Democratization /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749135

Democratizing Molecular Diagnostics Transforming Transplant Success with Andrea James iMDx 08/20/2025

Democratizing Molecular Diagnostics Transforming Transplant Success with Andrea James iMDx Andrea James, Chief Financial Officer at iMDx, is focused on expanding access to innovative molecular diagnostic testing staring with a test for monitoring transplanted organ health. The test measures the donor-derived cell-free DNA which can indicate the need for drugs to target organ rejection before invasive procedures are required. The company is developing a kit-based version of the test that can be run by hospitals rather than relying on centralized labs, to increase access to this diagnostic and improve transplant outcomes. Andrea explains, "We changed our name on June 17th from OncoCyte, as you had just referenced, to Insight Molecular Diagnostics Inc. We're now going by iMDx, and our mission is to democratize access to novel molecular diagnostic testing to improve patient outcomes." "We actually have three pieces of IP, intellectual property, and we are initially commercializing in transplant. So we measure a biomarker called donor-derived cell-free DNA, don't get too hung up on it. That's a lot of words. It basically looks for fragments of DNA in the blood, which can indicate transplanted organ damage and therefore rejection. And so that is where we are commercializing first." "What's really interesting is that the innovations in this space are, okay, so let's say you've been on dialysis, that's a really tough life. You finally get your transplanted kidney, and now let's say your body is starting to reject it. You're one of those one in five who were a match, your kidney was a match for you, but then your immune system is attacking it anyway. That used to be almost a death sentence." "Your options there were you're going to lose your kidney, you go back on dialysis, or you lose your life. But now there are therapies that are coming out to treat antibody-mediated rejection, or AMR, and our test is being used to monitor the efficacy of those therapies." #iMDx #MolecularDiagnostics #Molecular #Diagnostics #Healthcare #PrecisionMedicine #Genomics #Decentralized #LiquidBiopsy #DigitalPCR #Transplant #Localization #Labs #PointOfCareTesting #RapidCare #Democratization /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749115

Healthcare Financial Recovery Driven by Focus on People First with James Hereford Fairview Health Services TRANSCRIPT 08/19/2025

Healthcare Financial Recovery Driven by Focus on People First with James Hereford Fairview Health Services 08/19/2025

Innovative Homeostasis Focused Drugs to Treat Root Causes of Disease with Steve Butts Arrivo BioVentures TRANSCRIPT 08/18/2025

Innovative Homeostasis Focused Drugs to Treat Root Causes of Disease with Steve Butts Arrivo BioVentures TRANSCRIPT teve Butts, Co-Founder and CEO of Arrivo BioVentures, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that target the root causes of disease rather than just treating the symptoms. Their drugs treat major depressive disorder and acute pancreatitis through novel epigenetic mechanisms of action. Sex-based differences were observed in clinical trials where the drug SP-624 showed efficacy in females but not in males, which could lead to a paradigm shift in how depression is treated in men and women. Steve explains, "We've evolved over time at Arrivo and with our previous companies. What we're excited about right now is the fact that we have two drugs. One called SP-624 or Forvisirvat is the generic name, and the other one is code-named RABI-767. And as we've gotten into the science behind these drugs, what we're finding is that we're not just treating the symptoms of a disease, but we're really trying to get at what's causing the disease fundamentally and trying to make an impact there. And I think from a drug development standpoint - I've been doing this for 30 years - these are the two most exciting programs that I've had a chance to work on for a variety of reasons. One is the science, and they're both novel and new approaches to treating the diseases, but two, if we're right, they're going to create a situation where we're going to think about these diseases differently." "We ran a large Phase 2 study. It was the first study we had run in patients with depression, and it was really the first study that anyone had run with a SIRT6 activator in patients with depression. And so we were breaking new ground there, and it was a pretty large study. When we got the results, what we found was that there were really nice effects in females across all of the measures that we had and no evidence of efficacy in males. And that was really puzzling to us. It wasn't what we were expecting. And we started diving into, well, what could be going on here? Science is iterative, and I think you do a trial, and trials lead to more questions. And so we started diving into the questions that we had around “Why the sex difference?” #ArrivoBioVentures #MentalHealth #Neuroscience #WomensHealth #Depression #DepressionTreatment #Psychiatry #PrecisionMedicine /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749020

Innovative Homeostasis Focused Drugs to Treat Root Causes of Disease with Steve Butts Arrivo BioVentures 08/18/2025

Innovative Homeostasis Focused Drugs to Treat Root Causes of Disease with Steve Butts Arrivo BioVentures Steve Butts, Co-Founder and CEO of Arrivo BioVentures, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that target the root causes of disease rather than just treating the symptoms. Their drugs treat major depressive disorder and acute pancreatitis through novel epigenetic mechanisms of action. Sex-based differences were observed in clinical trials where the drug SP-624 showed efficacy in females but not in males, which could lead to a paradigm shift in how depression is treated in men and women. Steve explains, "We've evolved over time at Arrivo and with our previous companies. What we're excited about right now is the fact that we have two drugs. One called SP-624 or Forvisirvat is the generic name, and the other one is code-named RABI-767. And as we've gotten into the science behind these drugs, what we're finding is that we're not just treating the symptoms of a disease, but we're really trying to get at what's causing the disease fundamentally and trying to make an impact there. And I think from a drug development standpoint - I've been doing this for 30 years - these are the two most exciting programs that I've had a chance to work on for a variety of reasons. One is the science, and they're both novel and new approaches to treating the diseases, but two, if we're right, they're going to create a situation where we're going to think about these diseases differently." "We ran a large Phase 2 study. It was the first study we had run in patients with depression, and it was really the first study that anyone had run with a SIRT6 activator in patients with depression. And so we were breaking new ground there, and it was a pretty large study. When we got the results, what we found was that there were really nice effects in females across all of the measures that we had and no evidence of efficacy in males. And that was really puzzling to us. It wasn't what we were expecting. And we started diving into, well, what could be going on here? Science is iterative, and I think you do a trial, and trials lead to more questions. And so we started diving into the questions that we had around “Why the sex difference?” #ArrivoBioVentures #MentalHealth #Neuroscience #WomensHealth #Depression #DepressionTreatment #Psychiatry #PrecisionMedicine /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37749005

Advancing Synthetic Data for Paradigm Shift in Medical Research with Daniel Blumenthal MDClone TRANSCRIPT 08/14/2025

Advancing Synthetic Data for Paradigm Shift in Medical Research with Daniel Blumenthal MDClone TRANSCRIPT Daniel Blumenthal, VP of Strategy at MDClone, is building synthetic data models to mimic real patient data without the need to protect the identity of individuals. This type of data is being utilized in drug discovery and development, building predictive tools and new care models, and to better understand biases in clinical trials making them more representative. AI tools play an essential role in generating and validating synthetic data as well as integrating it into various processes and environments. Daniel explains, "Synthetic data means different things to different people. So I definitely would want to start with sharing what it usually means to MDClone, which is creating data based on real populations of patients, real patient data. Learning from that real patient data, extracting essentially the statistics from that data, understanding the relevant patterns that exist inside that data, and then, based on the statistics alone, generating a brand-new set of data, a brand-new set of people, and the synthetic data that we generate." "If you look at it, essentially with your naked eye, you wouldn't know it's not real people. It has the same structure, has the same content appearance, and yet, inside, synthetic data contains no real people. So very different from other approaches to protecting patient privacy, which take a patient data set and hash data, mask data, or remove information like IDs, names, or locations." "Instead of taking that sort of approach, synthetic data actually generates a brand-new set of people, fake people, that in our case, as we build it, maintain the same statistical properties, such that any analysis you want to complete, you could accomplish using the synthetic dataset just as you would with the original dataset. That it will yield the same meaningful conclusions as the synthetic that it would with the original." #MDClone #MedAI #AI #SyntheticData #DrugDevelopment #DrugDiscovery #ClinicalTrials #PatientPrivacy /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37695285

Advancing Synthetic Data for Paradigm Shift in Medical Research with Daniel Blumenthal MDClone 08/14/2025

Advancing Synthetic Data for Paradigm Shift in Medical Research with Daniel Blumenthal MDClone Daniel Blumenthal, VP of Strategy at MDClone, is building synthetic data models to mimic real patient data without the need to protect the identity of individuals. This type of data is being utilized in drug discovery and development, building predictive tools and new care models, and to better understand biases in clinical trials making them more representative. AI tools play an essential role in generating and validating synthetic data as well as integrating it into various processes and environments. Daniel explains, "Synthetic data means different things to different people. So I definitely would want to start with sharing what it usually means to MDClone, which is creating data based on real populations of patients, real patient data. Learning from that real patient data, extracting essentially the statistics from that data, understanding the relevant patterns that exist inside that data, and then, based on the statistics alone, generating a brand-new set of data, a brand-new set of people, and the synthetic data that we generate." "If you look at it, essentially with your naked eye, you wouldn't know it's not real people. It has the same structure, has the same content appearance, and yet, inside, synthetic data contains no real people. So very different from other approaches to protecting patient privacy, which take a patient data set and hash data, mask data, or remove information like IDs, names, or locations." "Instead of taking that sort of approach, synthetic data actually generates a brand-new set of people, fake people, that in our case, as we build it, maintain the same statistical properties, such that any analysis you want to complete, you could accomplish using the synthetic dataset just as you would with the original dataset. That it will yield the same meaningful conclusions as the synthetic that it would with the original." #MDClone #MedAI #AI #SyntheticData #DrugDevelopment #DrugDiscovery #ClinicalTrials #PatientPrivacy /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37695265

Restoring Olfactory Function After Post-Viral Loss of Smell with Rick Geoffrion Cyrano TRANSCRIPT 08/13/2025

Restoring Olfactory Function After Post-Viral Loss of Smell with Rick Geoffrion Cyrano TRANSCRIPT Rick Geoffrion, Founder and CEO of Cyrano Therapeutics, is developing a drug to restore olfactory function due to post-viral loss of smell and taste. As a result of COVID-19, there has been a significant increase in the number of people affected by long-term smell and taste loss, with no effective pharmaceutical options previously available. Smell loss can also be an early indicator of neurodegenerative conditions, suggesting future applications of the intranasal spray that aims to directly restore function to the olfactory receptor neurons. Rick explains, "Taste and smell have a really strong connection, actually. First of all, they're two out of the five basic senses that we have as human beings. When you lose your sense of smell, people actually perceive that they've lost about 80% of their sense of taste. Now, technically, you're not losing your sense of taste. We actually just give our tongue too much credit. Our tongue is able to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. That's all it detects, and it detects them really in light monotone that are about 80% less intense if you've lost your sense of smell. In addition, if you no longer have your sense of smell, what you've really lost is the ability to detect flavor in food. So, to tell the difference between a peach, a pear, and a strawberry, maybe you'll tell that visually, but to tell it from a flavor perspective, you completely lose that ability. "There really are no significant therapies to treat the condition right now. Essentially, if you've lost your sense of smell, a physician may recommend that you use smell training, which is essentially the regular smelling of intense essential oils, and they really haven't been shown to significantly treat or cure a chronic smell loss condition. It is thought that if your body is spontaneously recovering, say within those first few months, if you do undergo smell training, you may accelerate that recovery. But other than that, there's certainly no gold standard treatment or no significant treatments available right now, and no pharmaceuticals in the pipeline other than CYR-064, which is being developed by Cyrano." #CyranoTherapeutics #Olfactory #LongCOVID #PostViralLoss #IntranasalSpray #SmellandTaste #LongTermSmellLoss /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37695180

Restoring Olfactory Function After Post-Viral Loss of Smell with Rick Geoffrion Cyrano Therapeutics 08/13/2025

Restoring Olfactory Function After Post-Viral Loss of Smell with Rick Geoffrion Cyrano Therapeutics Rick Geoffrion, Founder and CEO of Cyrano Therapeutics, is developing a drug to restore olfactory function due to post-viral loss of smell and taste. As a result of COVID-19, there has been a significant increase in the number of people affected by long-term smell and taste loss, with no effective pharmaceutical options previously available. Smell loss can also be an early indicator of neurodegenerative conditions, suggesting future applications of the intranasal spray that aims to directly restore function to the olfactory receptor neurons. Rick explains, "Taste and smell have a really strong connection, actually. First of all, they're two out of the five basic senses that we have as human beings. When you lose your sense of smell, people actually perceive that they've lost about 80% of their sense of taste. Now, technically, you're not losing your sense of taste. We actually just give our tongue too much credit. Our tongue is able to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. That's all it detects, and it detects them really in light monotone that are about 80% less intense if you've lost your sense of smell. In addition, if you no longer have your sense of smell, what you've really lost is the ability to detect flavor in food. So, to tell the difference between a peach, a pear, and a strawberry, maybe you'll tell that visually, but to tell it from a flavor perspective, you completely lose that ability. "There really are no significant therapies to treat the condition right now. Essentially, if you've lost your sense of smell, a physician may recommend that you use smell training, which is essentially the regular smelling of intense essential oils, and they really haven't been shown to significantly treat or cure a chronic smell loss condition. It is thought that if your body is spontaneously recovering, say within those first few months, if you do undergo smell training, you may accelerate that recovery. But other than that, there's certainly no gold standard treatment or no significant treatments available right now, and no pharmaceuticals in the pipeline other than CYR-064, which is being developed by Cyrano." #CyranoTherapeutics #Olfactory #LongCOVID #PostViralLoss #IntranasalSpray #SmellandTaste #LongTermSmellLoss /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37694815

Video Technology and AI Platform for Empathetic Mental Health Monitoring with Loren Larsen Videra Health TRANSCRIPT 08/12/2025

Video Technology and AI Platform for Empathetic Mental Health Monitoring with Loren Larsen Videra Health TRANSCRIPT Loren Larsen, CEO and Co-Founder of Videra Health, is using AI-powered technology to improve the patient-provider connection and monitor patient health, particularly mental health, in an empathetic and conversational way. The video-based AI platform engages patients in regular check-ins to assess mental and physical conditions and detect subtle changes in behavior, tone, or language that could indicate issues like suicidal ideation or movement disorders. Data from patient encounters is also providing insights to clinicians and helping patients and providers better understand the connection between mental health and chronic conditions. Loren explains, "We started Videra Health recognizing this challenge that when a patient isn't with their doctor, they lose connection. You go to your doctor, you get good care, you leave. There's never been a good way to follow up or check in with patients to see how they're doing. And so we've really applied AI to this for the last six years since we started the company to check in with patients, finding out how they're doing in an empathetic, conversational, authentic way that replaces boring old assessments that require people to field lots and lots of multiple-choice questions, which no one enjoys. The whole goal here is how to build a better connection between the provider and their patient, even when the provider's too busy to check in on a regular basis." "Then, as they're answering, the AI is analyzing both their verbal and nonverbal responses to measure things that the clinician is interested in, such as their depression, their anxiety, PTSD, whether they are using suicidal language, etc. And then having this nice conversation. It usually takes a few minutes." "We think you often hear from doctors like, Oh, if I could just see my patients for a few minutes, I would know how they're doing. So there's this idea that we want to be able to see how a person is doing, not just verbally, but how they're presenting themselves, how they're communicating their facial expressions in addition to the words that they're using. So we're looking at their words, their tone of voice, and relevant facial expressions and movements that help us understand what's really happening." #VideraHealth #BehavioralHealth #MentalHealthTech #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthTech #ClinicalTrials #RemotePatientMonitoring #HealthInnovation #PatientCenteredCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37694715

Video Technology and AI Platform for Empathetic Mental Health Monitoring with Loren Larsen Videra Health 08/12/2025

Video Technology and AI Platform for Empathetic Mental Health Monitoring with Loren Larsen Videra Health Loren Larsen, CEO and Co-Founder of Videra Health, is using AI-powered technology to improve the patient-provider connection and monitor patient health, particularly mental health, in an empathetic and conversational way. The video-based AI platform engages patients in regular check-ins to assess mental and physical conditions and detect subtle changes in behavior, tone, or language that could indicate issues like suicidal ideation or movement disorders. Data from patient encounters is also providing insights to clinicians and helping patients and providers better understand the connection between mental health and chronic conditions. Loren explains, "We started Videra Health recognizing this challenge that when a patient isn't with their doctor, they lose connection. You go to your doctor, you get good care, you leave. There's never been a good way to follow up or check in with patients to see how they're doing. And so we've really applied AI to this for the last six years since we started the company to check in with patients, finding out how they're doing in an empathetic, conversational, authentic way that replaces boring old assessments that require people to field lots and lots of multiple-choice questions, which no one enjoys. The whole goal here is how to build a better connection between the provider and their patient, even when the provider's too busy to check in on a regular basis." "Then, as they're answering, the AI is analyzing both their verbal and nonverbal responses to measure things that the clinician is interested in, such as their depression, their anxiety, PTSD, whether they are using suicidal language, etc. And then having this nice conversation. It usually takes a few minutes." "We think you often hear from doctors like, Oh, if I could just see my patients for a few minutes, I would know how they're doing. So there's this idea that we want to be able to see how a person is doing, not just verbally, but how they're presenting themselves, how they're communicating their facial expressions in addition to the words that they're using. So we're looking at their words, their tone of voice, and relevant facial expressions and movements that help us understand what's really happening." #VideraHealth #BehavioralHealth #MentalHealthTech #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #HealthTech #ClinicalTrials #RemotePatientMonitoring #HealthInnovation #PatientCenteredCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37694695

Advancements in Robotic Surgery Transforming Cardiac Care with David Fischel Stereotaxis TRANSCRIPT 08/11/2025

Advancements in Robotic Surgery Transforming Cardiac Care with David Fischel Stereotaxis TRANSCRIPT David Fischel, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Stereotaxis, is advancing the ability of surgical robotics, particularly in the field of minimally invasive catheter-based procedures. Stereotaxis is developing the use of robotic technology to improve precision and accessibility in endovascular surgeries with a unique mechanism that allows surgeons to control the tip of the catheter. The adoption of surgical robotics for endovascular procedures will expand as remote access is made available and safety concerns are addressed for previously impossible-to-treat conditions. David explains, "We build advanced robots that allow physicians to do minimally invasive catheter-based procedures with greater precision and safety. We're kind of pioneering that area of robotic surgery. We've seen other areas of medicine benefit significantly over the last decade or two from advanced robotic technologies. And there's a whole field of catheter-based endovascular cardiovascular procedures where we're still using handheld catheters that have limitations and weaknesses to them. And by improving that field of medicine, we think we can make care better for patients, and we can enable minimally invasive, effective care for many more patients." "Robots are improving surgery in many areas in a fairly dramatic fashion. Endovascular surgery is where you use endo within vascular, within the blood vessels, you use the blood vessels as a type of superhighway and you insert these little devices called catheters into the blood vessels and then usually through the leg or the arm, and then you can go anywhere you want in the body to the brain or to the heart or to the periphery and treat the patient kind of using that catheter." "It's a strange area of medicine, particularly for trying to implement robots, because you're working in very small, delicate anatomy, and you have to think about flexible robots because the catheter has to navigate all the tortuosity of the patient's blood vessels. You can't think about a robot in the traditional way you would imagine a robot, if you think about industrial robots. And so that's where that area has been more difficult, and that's where we're really pioneering and bringing robotics to play in that field." #Stereotaxis #SturgicalRobots #RoboticAssistedSurgery #PrecisionMedicine #EndovascularSurgery #CardiacArrhythmias /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37694620

Advancements in Robotic Surgery Transforming Cardiac Care with David Fischel Stereotaxis 08/11/2025

Advancements in Robotic Surgery Transforming Cardiac Care with David Fischel Stereotaxis David Fischel, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Stereotaxis, is advancing the ability of surgical robotics, particularly in the field of minimally invasive catheter-based procedures. Stereotaxis is developing the use of robotic technology to improve precision and accessibility in endovascular surgeries with a unique mechanism that allows surgeons to control the tip of the catheter. The adoption of surgical robotics for endovascular procedures will expand as remote access is made available and safety concerns are addressed for previously impossible-to-treat conditions. David explains, "We build advanced robots that allow physicians to do minimally invasive catheter-based procedures with greater precision and safety. We're kind of pioneering that area of robotic surgery. We've seen other areas of medicine benefit significantly over the last decade or two from advanced robotic technologies. And there's a whole field of catheter-based endovascular cardiovascular procedures where we're still using handheld catheters that have limitations and weaknesses to them. And by improving that field of medicine, we think we can make care better for patients, and we can enable minimally invasive, effective care for many more patients." "Robots are improving surgery in many areas in a fairly dramatic fashion. Endovascular surgery is where you use endo within vascular, within the blood vessels, you use the blood vessels as a type of superhighway and you insert these little devices called catheters into the blood vessels and then usually through the leg or the arm, and then you can go anywhere you want in the body to the brain or to the heart or to the periphery and treat the patient kind of using that catheter." "It's a strange area of medicine, particularly for trying to implement robots, because you're working in very small, delicate anatomy, and you have to think about flexible robots because the catheter has to navigate all the tortuosity of the patient's blood vessels. You can't think about a robot in the traditional way you would imagine a robot, if you think about industrial robots. And so that's where that area has been more difficult, and that's where we're really pioneering and bringing robotics to play in that field." #Stereotaxis #SturgicalRobots #RoboticAssistedSurgery #PrecisionMedicine #EndovascularSurgery #CardiacArrhythmias /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37694520

Breaking Down Data Silos to Improve Clinical Workflow Efficiency and Reduce Physician Burnout with Craig Limoli Wellsheet TRANSCRIPT 08/07/2025

Breaking Down Data Silos to Improve Clinical Workflow Efficiency and Reduce Physician Burnout with Craig Limoli Wellsheet TRANSCRIPT Craig Limoli, Co-Founder and CEO of Wellsheet, is streamling workflows for clinicians by providing better access to patient data and improving care coordination across care teams. Wellsheet is integrated into existing health records to provide a seamless experience to users and help to reduce "pajama time" for doctors by reducing the amount of end-of-the-day work needed to document patient encounters. Wellsheet uses AI and natural language processing to surface the most relevant information for clinicians and generate documentation, reducing time spent and improving efficiency. Craig explains, "Wellsheet is a care team, co-pilot that serves physicians as well as other clinicians with better access to all of the data they need to make treatment decisions for patients, as well as easier coordination across the whole care team. So we're really designed as a company and as a product to support a broad array of clinicians, both physicians, nursing case managers, and surface the data most relevant to them in the way that they want to see it. We coordinate care across those multidisciplinary stakeholders in a way that is seamlessly embedded and integrated into the existing electronic health record systems to ultimately create a really seamless and cohesive experience for our users." "So our technology is embedded within Epic, Cerner, and other major EHRs. So physicians and other clinicians access it with the click of a button directly within their workflow in the EHR. They don't have to log in again, they don't have to reidentify the patient. It all feels like a native part of their EHR experience. And as soon as they click into Wellsheet, they are presented with a summarized view of the most relevant information from the entire patient's medical history and what pertains to that particular encounter, all in a single place." #Wellsheet #ClinicalWorkflow #EHR #AI #ClinicalAI #MultidisciplinaryCare #PhysicianBurnout #DigitalHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37637690

Breaking Down Data Silos to Improve Clinical Workflow Efficiency and Reduce Physician Burnout with Craig Limoli Wellsheet 08/07/2025

Breaking Down Data Silos to Improve Clinical Workflow Efficiency and Reduce Physician Burnout with Craig Limoli Wellsheet Craig Limoli, Co-Founder and CEO of Wellsheet, is streamling workflows for clinicians by providing better access to patient data and improving care coordination across care teams. Wellsheet is integrated into existing health records to provide a seamless experience to users and help to reduce "pajama time" for doctors by reducing the amount of end-of-the-day work needed to document patient encounters. Wellsheet uses AI and natural language processing to surface the most relevant information for clinicians and generate documentation, reducing time spent and improving efficiency. Craig explains, "Wellsheet is a care team, co-pilot that serves physicians as well as other clinicians with better access to all of the data they need to make treatment decisions for patients, as well as easier coordination across the whole care team. So we're really designed as a company and as a product to support a broad array of clinicians, both physicians, nursing case managers, and surface the data most relevant to them in the way that they want to see it. We coordinate care across those multidisciplinary stakeholders in a way that is seamlessly embedded and integrated into the existing electronic health record systems to ultimately create a really seamless and cohesive experience for our users." "So our technology is embedded within Epic, Cerner, and other major EHRs. So physicians and other clinicians access it with the click of a button directly within their workflow in the EHR. They don't have to log in again, they don't have to reidentify the patient. It all feels like a native part of their EHR experience. And as soon as they click into Wellsheet, they are presented with a summarized view of the most relevant information from the entire patient's medical history and what pertains to that particular encounter, all in a single place." #Wellsheet #ClinicalWorkflow #EHR #AI #ClinicalAI #MultidisciplinaryCare #PhysicianBurnout #DigitalHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37637670

Harnessing AI to Design Antibodies and Further Unlock the Immune System to Target Cancer Cells with Aron Knickerbocker Aulos Bioscience TRANSCRIPT 08/06/2025

Harnessing AI to Design Antibodies and Further Unlock the Immune System to Target Cancer Cells with Aron Knickerbocker Aulos Bioscience TRANSCRIPT Aron Knickerbocker, President and CEO of Aulos Bioscience, is on a mission to extend the lives of cancer patients through safer and more effective immunotherapy using AI and machine learning to accelerate drug discovery and optimization. The company's lead drug candidate is an antibody that was designed using AI to harness the power of interleukin-2 to activate the immune system against tumors. The advantages of AU-007 over previous IL-2 therapies include the ability to selectively activate tumor-fighting immune cells while avoiding toxicity due to vascular leakage. Current trials are underway in advanced melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, which are showing the potential for durable responses and immune memory. Aron explains, "So Aulos has really been founded to carry out a mission to extend the lives of patients with innovative, safe, and ultimately effective cancer immunotherapy. And you mentioned IL-2, which is the naturally occurring protein that we're seeking to harness and redirect in productive ways to help the patients. And this has really been kind of a driver for me over the years, wanting to improve on cancer patient care. This is a company with an important mission and a great team, and our program is really interesting. It's harnessing IL-2 in such a way that it sends it to the cells that are capable of attacking the tumor and killing the tumor cells, and keeps it away from the cells that suppress the immune response. It's really kind of using a double-edged sword in a productive way to help patients with cancer." "So this is the first antibody to go into human clinical trials. It was designed in part by leveraging an AI platform, as you noted. And that platform was created by our collaborators at Biologic Design. They're the company that created this molecule. And what biologic design does is essentially using an AI system that has machine learning algorithms that drive it. It mimics what the immune system does normally. So when we get sick and we need to make antibodies to something, our immune system says, Do I already have something that will kind of bind to the target or the virus or whatever it's trying to hit? And then it will optimize that. It will go through a process of rapid change. And what the AI system and the machine learning algorithms that have been trained on millions of antibodies in the targets to which they bind do is recognize patterns much like an AI chatbot might recognize language patterns." #AulosBio #Antibodies #MedAi #AI #IL2 #Onocology #Cancer #NSCLC #AdvancedCutaneousMelanoma #DrugDiscovery #BiologicDesign #Tregs /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624715

Harnessing AI to Design Antibodies and Further Unlock the Immune System to Target Cancer Cells with Aron Knickerbocker Aulos Bioscience 08/06/2025

Harnessing AI to Design Antibodies and Further Unlock the Immune System to Target Cancer Cells with Aron Knickerbocker Aulos Bioscience Aron Knickerbocker, President and CEO of Aulos Bioscience, is on a mission to extend the lives of cancer patients through safer and more effective immunotherapy using AI and machine learning to accelerate drug discovery and optimization. The company's lead drug candidate is an antibody that was designed using AI to harness the power of interleukin-2 to activate the immune system against tumors. The advantages of AU-007 over previous IL-2 therapies include the ability to selectively activate tumor-fighting immune cells while avoiding toxicity due to vascular leakage. Current trials are underway in advanced melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, which are showing the potential for durable responses and immune memory. Aron explains, "So Aulos has really been founded to carry out a mission to extend the lives of patients with innovative, safe, and ultimately effective cancer immunotherapy. And you mentioned IL-2, which is the naturally occurring protein that we're seeking to harness and redirect in productive ways to help the patients. And this has really been kind of a driver for me over the years, wanting to improve on cancer patient care. This is a company with an important mission and a great team, and our program is really interesting. It's harnessing IL-2 in such a way that it sends it to the cells that are capable of attacking the tumor and killing the tumor cells, and keeps it away from the cells that suppress the immune response. It's really kind of using a double-edged sword in a productive way to help patients with cancer." "So this is the first antibody to go into human clinical trials. It was designed in part by leveraging an AI platform, as you noted. And that platform was created by our collaborators at Biologic Design. They're the company that created this molecule. And what biologic design does is essentially using an AI system that has machine learning algorithms that drive it. It mimics what the immune system does normally. So when we get sick and we need to make antibodies to something, our immune system says, Do I already have something that will kind of bind to the target or the virus or whatever it's trying to hit? And then it will optimize that. It will go through a process of rapid change. And what the AI system and the machine learning algorithms that have been trained on millions of antibodies in the targets to which they bind do is recognize patterns much like an AI chatbot might recognize language patterns." #AulosBio #Antibodies #MedAi #AI #IL2 #Onocology #Cancer #NSCLC #AdvancedCutaneousMelanoma #DrugDiscovery #BiologicDesign #Tregs /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624695

Unified AI-Powered Platform Improving Patient Access Reducing Provider Burnout with Aniq Rahman Fabric TRANSCRIPT 08/05/2025

Unified AI-Powered Platform Improving Patient Access Reducing Provider Burnout with Aniq Rahman Fabric TRANSCRIPT Aniq Rahman, Founder and CEO of Fabric, a technology company that uses an AI-powered platform to support health systems, health plans, and employers, to streamline patient care, scheduling appointments, and receiving virtual care. The system can triage patients, route them to appropriate care, and simplify the provider workflows to improve operational efficiency, drive better patient outcomes, and reduce provider burnout. Fabric is taking an integrated approach to healthcare technology rather than offering individual point solutions in order to create a seamless experience for patients and providers. Aniq explains, "We started Fabric about four years ago now in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. And we're a technology company fundamentally. So, Fabric builds technology. We work primarily with health systems, but also with health plans and employers, to really help bring together the care journey of a patient. So that's everything from helping a patient find care, triage their symptoms, get virtual care, and also help with things like scheduling appointments and follow-ups. So we've built really an end-to-end platform today that has AI at its core and is able to sort of route patients more appropriately and then also help improve the workflows of providers and create efficiency on the clinical side as well." "Yes, so one of the things that has been sort of core to the Fabric vision is figuring out ways to actually improve patient experience, provider experience, and operational throughput without it compromising any of those three buckets. And so one of the things that we've been fortunate to have is a virtual care platform that we actually acquired. We bought a company called Zipnosis back in 2023, and Zipnosis had built a pretty robust set of clinical protocols to help streamline the virtual urgent care visits effectively. So, say a patient's coming in with something like a pink eye or a urinary tract infection, or even just a cold or flu, we have protocols that allow patients to go through and answer a series of questions in an adaptive interview. And based on the patient responses, we can figure out if that patient needs to be seen in person or may need to get referred out to the emergency department." #FabricHealth #MedAI #AI #DigitalAssistant #DigitalHealth #TriageEvaluation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624540

Unified AI-Powered Platform Improving Patient Access Reducing Provider Burnout with Aniq Rahman Fabric 08/05/2025

Unified AI-Powered Platform Improving Patient Access Reducing Provider Burnout with Aniq Rahman Fabric Aniq Rahman, Founder and CEO of Fabric, a technology company that uses an AI-powered platform to support health systems, health plans, and employers, to streamline patient care, scheduling appointments, and receiving virtual care. The system can triage patients, route them to appropriate care, and simplify the provider workflows to improve operational efficiency, drive better patient outcomes, and reduce provider burnout. Fabric is taking an integrated approach to healthcare technology rather than offering individual point solutions in order to create a seamless experience for patients and providers. Aniq explains, "We started Fabric about four years ago now in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. And we're a technology company fundamentally. So, Fabric builds technology. We work primarily with health systems, but also with health plans and employers, to really help bring together the care journey of a patient. So that's everything from helping a patient find care, triage their symptoms, get virtual care, and also help with things like scheduling appointments and follow-ups. So we've built really an end-to-end platform today that has AI at its core and is able to sort of route patients more appropriately and then also help improve the workflows of providers and create efficiency on the clinical side as well." "Yes, so one of the things that has been sort of core to the Fabric vision is figuring out ways to actually improve patient experience, provider experience, and operational throughput without it compromising any of those three buckets. And so one of the things that we've been fortunate to have is a virtual care platform that we actually acquired. We bought a company called Zipnosis back in 2023, and Zipnosis had built a pretty robust set of clinical protocols to help streamline the virtual urgent care visits effectively. So, say a patient's coming in with something like a pink eye or a urinary tract infection, or even just a cold or flu, we have protocols that allow patients to go through and answer a series of questions in an adaptive interview. And based on the patient responses, we can figure out if that patient needs to be seen in person or may need to get referred out to the emergency department." #FabricHealth #MedAI #AI #DigitalAssistant #DigitalHealth #TriageEvaluation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624505

Driving Healthcare Not Sick Care Through an Integrated Approach with James Keppel Sarana Health TRANSCRIPT 08/04/2025

Driving Healthcare Not Sick Care Through an Integrated Approach with James Keppel Sarana Health TRANSCRIPT James Keppel, Founder and CEO of Sarana Health, is focused on an integrated healthcare model that addresses chronic health challenges and preventative care. By providing personalized care, advanced lab testing, and one-on-one coaching with healthcare professionals, Sarana aims to fill the gaps in the traditional healthcare system, which often focuses on sick care rather than keeping people healthy. The company's integrated care model looks at the interconnected body systems to identify underlying causes of health issues, rather than just treating symptoms. James explains, "What we provide is a totally personalized client-led and client-centric approach to wellness. We do that through an advanced series of lab tests and also you get to actually talk to the people who care for you, which I know is rare. Everything is very much about you and the person that you are, as opposed to charts and graphs about past history and that sort of thing with other doctors. So we get very dialed into the person." "We've got a lot of different ranges that we can hit. So you mentioned people with chronic conditions. Yes, absolutely. We can deal with that. A lot of times, those people have not gotten any good answers from the legacy healthcare system. So they go and see their doctor every six months. They do the same test, they get the same, we don't know what's going on, or it's just you're older and that's the way it is, sort of thing. And then the other end of the spectrum is on the preventative side and looking at being in front of your health as opposed to waiting until you have a problem, which unfortunately the legacy healthcare system kind of does - they wait till you have a problem, they give you a prescription, and tell you, that's the way it goes. Whereas if you're on the preventive end, the easiest way to stay healthy is to never get sick." #SaranaHealth #IntegratedHealth #Wellness #OptimalWellness #Wholebody #PersonalizedHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624420

Driving Healthcare Not Sick Care Through an Integrated Approach with James Keppel Sarana Health 08/04/2025

Driving Healthcare Not Sick Care Through an Integrated Approach with James Keppel Sarana Health James Keppel, Founder and CEO of Sarana Health, is focused on an integrated healthcare model that addresses chronic health challenges and preventative care. By providing personalized care, advanced lab testing, and one-on-one coaching with healthcare professionals, Sarana aims to fill the gaps in the traditional healthcare system, which often focuses on sick care rather than keeping people healthy. The company's integrated care model looks at the interconnected body systems to identify underlying causes of health issues, rather than just treating symptoms. James explains, "What we provide is a totally personalized client-led and client-centric approach to wellness. We do that through an advanced series of lab tests and also you get to actually talk to the people who care for you, which I know is rare. Everything is very much about you and the person that you are, as opposed to charts and graphs about past history and that sort of thing with other doctors. So we get very dialed into the person." "We've got a lot of different ranges that we can hit. So you mentioned people with chronic conditions. Yes, absolutely. We can deal with that. A lot of times, those people have not gotten any good answers from the legacy healthcare system. So they go and see their doctor every six months. They do the same test, they get the same, we don't know what's going on, or it's just you're older and that's the way it is, sort of thing. And then the other end of the spectrum is on the preventative side and looking at being in front of your health as opposed to waiting until you have a problem, which unfortunately the legacy healthcare system kind of does - they wait till you have a problem, they give you a prescription, and tell you, that's the way it goes. Whereas if you're on the preventive end, the easiest way to stay healthy is to never get sick." #SaranaHealth #IntegratedHealth #Wellness #OptimalWellness #Wholebody #PersonalizedHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37624400

Breaking the Stigma Around Alzheimer’s and Bipolar Disorder with Muffy Walker Mental Health Advocate TRANSCRIPT 08/01/2025

Breaking the Stigma Around Alzheimer’s and Bipolar Disorder with Muffy Walker Mental Health Advocate TRANSCRIPT Muffy Walker is a psychiatric nurse, mental health advocate, and author with a focus on bipolar disorder and Alzheimer's disease. As a founder of the Bipolar Foundation and through her work with the Alzheimer's Association, Muffy is working to raise awareness, reduce the stigma often associated with these conditions, and bring resources to patients and caregivers. Based on her personal experiences with family members with bipolar and Alzheimer's, Muffy has published her latest novel, Memory Weavers to help others deal with the challenges of diagnosing, treating, and supporting complex mental conditions. Muffy explains, "I am a psychiatric nurse. I have a master's in psychiatric nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and I worked in that space, mostly working in the PTSD area. And then I had a family member who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This was over 23 years ago. At that time, there were very few resources available, so three other women and I decided to launch what was then called the California Bipolar Foundation. As soon as we were up on the internet, we were getting requests, hits, and asks from all over the world. So we very quickly changed it to the International Bipolar Foundation. That foundation is 18 years old now, IBPF.org is globally accessible, and all of what we offer is free." "And now, because of my book, I'm very involved with the Alzheimer's Association and Us Against Alzheimer's, etc. But we do see, of course, we have this brand new blood test that just came out that I think is a game changer, helping people to determine if they're having some kinds of issues related to memory. And then a simple test, just like we should do a simple mental health exam when you go to your GP, ask you if you're depressed, ask you how you're sleeping, ask you if you have thoughts of suicide. A simple test, but more related to memory, can be given by the family doctor." #MuffyWalker #MemoryWeaver #IBPF #InternationalBipolarFoundation #BipolarDisorder #AlzheimersDisease #MentalHealth #Caregivers /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37597310

Breaking the Stigma Around Alzheimer’s and Bipolar Disorder with Muffy Walker Mental Health Advocate 08/01/2025

Breaking the Stigma Around Alzheimer’s and Bipolar Disorder with Muffy Walker Mental Health Advocate Muffy Walker is a psychiatric nurse, mental health advocate, and author with a focus on bipolar disorder and Alzheimer's disease. As a founder of the Bipolar Foundation and through her work with the Alzheimer's Association, Muffy is working to raise awareness, reduce the stigma often associated with these conditions, and bring resources to patients and caregivers. Based on her personal experiences with family members with bipolar and Alzheimer's, Muffy has published her latest novel, Memory Weavers to help others deal with the challenges of diagnosing, treating, and supporting complex mental conditions. Muffy explains, "I am a psychiatric nurse. I have a master's in psychiatric nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and I worked in that space, mostly working in the PTSD area. And then I had a family member who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This was over 23 years ago. At that time, there were very few resources available, so three other women and I decided to launch what was then called the California Bipolar Foundation. As soon as we were up on the internet, we were getting requests, hits, and asks from all over the world. So we very quickly changed it to the International Bipolar Foundation. That foundation is 18 years old now, IBPF.org is globally accessible, and all of what we offer is free." "And now, because of my book, I'm very involved with the Alzheimer's Association and Us Against Alzheimer's, etc. But we do see, of course, we have this brand new blood test that just came out that I think is a game changer, helping people to determine if they're having some kinds of issues related to memory. And then a simple test, just like we should do a simple mental health exam when you go to your GP, ask you if you're depressed, ask you how you're sleeping, ask you if you have thoughts of suicide. A simple test, but more related to memory, can be given by the family doctor." #MuffyWalker #MemoryWeaver #IBPF #InternationalBipolarFoundation #BipolarDisorder #AlzheimersDisease #MentalHealth #Caregivers /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37597275

Balancing Technology and the Human Touch in Digital Health with Michael Reidy Interaction Associates TRANSCRIPT 07/31/2025

Balancing Technology and the Human Touch in Digital Health with Michael Reidy Interaction Associates 07/31/2025

Empowered Patient Podcast

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