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.

Why Hospital Printers Have Become Targets for Cybercriminals with Jim LaRoe Symphion TRANSCRIPT 09/16/2025

Why Hospital Printers Have Become Targets for Cybercriminals with Jim LaRoe Symphion TRANSCRIPT Jim LaRoe, CEO of Symphion, highlights an often overlooked cybersecurity threat posed by network-connected printers in a hospital setting. Modern printers are complex devices with numerous features that create vulnerabilities and potential access points to patient and hospital data for cybercriminals, yet they are generally managed outside of the IT security environment. The first step in ensuring printer security is to determine the number of printing devices on the network, their locations, and their configurations. Additionally, it is essential to ask the IT team to demonstrate security hygiene for the entire printer fleet. Jim explains, "We personally were exposed to the print industry in about 2015. And we noticed that the printers are really essential for patient care. They process, store, and transmit the most sensitive data, but they have grown up outside of the information security and supply chain. The security has been left vulnerable. In today's cybercrime growth industry climate, where opportunistic criminals are looking for opportunities to steal data, ransom, or attack patient care, you've got a real recipe for disaster. So really, we're facing a whole lot of issues that relate to the vulnerability of the printer." "They're absolutely very complex business machines, and the manufacturers for the last 40 years or so, from what you're talking about, the analog days, have really enriched them with incredible features beyond the camera, the document sorter, and things like that. They built in incredible web server features, email servers, fax servers, FTP servers, like a Dropbox that we all use for heavy payload communication protocols. They built all those features into the devices, and they built in ways to secure those features, but they haven't been used, and they're not being used on networks." #Symphion #Hospitals #PrinterSecurity #Cybercrimes #NetworkSecurity /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/38032140

Why Hospital Printers Have Become Targets for Cybercriminals with Jim LaRoe Symphion 09/16/2025

Why Hospital Printers Have Become Targets for Cybercriminals with Jim LaRoe Symphion Jim LaRoe, CEO of Symphion, highlights an often overlooked cybersecurity threat posed by network-connected printers in a hospital setting. Modern printers are complex devices with numerous features that create vulnerabilities and potential access points to patient and hospital data for cybercriminals, yet they are generally managed outside of the IT security environment. The first step in ensuring printer security is to determine the number of printing devices on the network, their locations, and their configurations. Additionally, it is essential to ask the IT team to demonstrate security hygiene for the entire printer fleet. Jim explains, "We personally were exposed to the print industry in about 2015. And we noticed that the printers are really essential for patient care. They process, store, and transmit the most sensitive data, but they have grown up outside of the information security and supply chain. The security has been left vulnerable. In today's cybercrime growth industry climate, where opportunistic criminals are looking for opportunities to steal data, ransom, or attack patient care, you've got a real recipe for disaster. So really, we're facing a whole lot of issues that relate to the vulnerability of the printer." "They're absolutely very complex business machines, and the manufacturers for the last 40 years or so, from what you're talking about, the analog days, have really enriched them with incredible features beyond the camera, the document sorter, and things like that. They built in incredible web server features, email servers, fax servers, FTP servers, like a Dropbox that we all use for heavy payload communication protocols. They built all those features into the devices, and they built in ways to secure those features, but they haven't been used, and they're not being used on networks." #Symphion #Hospitals #PrinterSecurity #Cybercrimes #NetworkSecurity /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/38032130

How Laboratory Robots Are Transforming Hydrogel Testing with Sinan Gölhan GelTech TRANSCRIPT 09/15/2025

How Laboratory Robots Are Transforming Hydrogel Testing with Sinan Gölhan GelTech TRANSCRIPT Sinan Gölhan, Founder and CEO of GelTech, describes the characteristics and applications for hydrogels, which are bio-friendly, super-absorbent materials similar to natural tissue. In cancer treatments, hydrogels offer a way to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to a tumor, which can significantly increase the accuracy and efficacy of the drug. GelTech has developed a robotic instrument to streamline the time-consuming testing process for new hydrogel treatments, automating repetitive actions, reducing inconsistencies, and enabling 24/7 testing capabilities. Sinan explains, "You could think of hydrogels like sponges. They're super absorbent, bio-friendly materials that are made of water. For this reason, scientists like myself essentially consider them the next best thing to natural tissue. Just like our own bodies, they're mostly made up of water. They have great applications in drug delivery, implant cosmetics, all these modern hydrogel face masks, and other types of substances." "I worked in hydrogel research for many years after seeing my mother and both my grandmothers go through chemotherapy treatments. I became motivated to make these treatments more effective, smarter, more targeted, and hydrogel-like. I just realized the main limitation is that to even make one of these treatments, it costs the company around a billion dollars over 10 years to figure out if this hydrogel is even going to work. And most of this was due to manual testing. It's scientists doing the same tests over and over again. It's very tedious, takes a long time, and it's very expensive to get a scientist to do this all day, every day. After feeling like a robot during the same test over and over again, I said, ‘I want to build a robot that automates this.' The company I was working for loved it and I essentially started focusing on that for the rest of my career." #GelTech #Hydrogels #Robots #ResearchRobotics #Cancer #CancerTreatments /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/38032100

How Laboratory Robots Are Transforming Hydrogel Testing with Sinan Gölhan GelTech 09/15/2025

How Laboratory Robots Are Transforming Hydrogel Testing with Sinan Gölhan GelTech Sinan Gölhan, Founder and CEO of GelTech, describes the characteristics and applications for hydrogels, which are bio-friendly, super-absorbent materials similar to natural tissue. In cancer treatments, hydrogels offer a way to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to a tumor, which can significantly increase the accuracy and efficacy of the drug. GelTech has developed a robotic instrument to streamline the time-consuming testing process for new hydrogel treatments, automating repetitive actions, reducing inconsistencies, and enabling 24/7 testing capabilities. Sinan explains, "You could think of hydrogels like sponges. They're super absorbent, bio-friendly materials that are made of water. For this reason, scientists like myself essentially consider them the next best thing to natural tissue. Just like our own bodies, they're mostly made up of water. They have great applications in drug delivery, implant cosmetics, all these modern hydrogel face masks, and other types of substances." "I worked in hydrogel research for many years after seeing my mother and both my grandmothers go through chemotherapy treatments. I became motivated to make these treatments more effective, smarter, more targeted, and hydrogel-like. I just realized the main limitation is that to even make one of these treatments, it costs the company around a billion dollars over 10 years to figure out if this hydrogel is even going to work. And most of this was due to manual testing. It's scientists doing the same tests over and over again. It's very tedious, takes a long time, and it's very expensive to get a scientist to do this all day, every day. After feeling like a robot during the same test over and over again, I said, ‘I want to build a robot that automates this.' The company I was working for loved it and I essentially started focusing on that for the rest of my career." #GelTech #Hydrogels #Robots #ResearchRobotics #Cancer #CancerTreatments /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/38032095

Treating Autoimmune-Driven Dry Eye Disease with Immune Modulator with Elizabeth Jeffords Iolyx TRANSCRIPT 09/12/2025

Treating Autoimmune-Driven Dry Eye Disease with Immune Modulator with Elizabeth Jeffords Iolyx TRANSCRIPT Elizabeth Jeffords, CEO and President of Iolyx Therapeutics, discusses dry eye disease and its connection to autoimmune conditions. The company's novel therapeutic topical immune modulator is designed to treat the root inflammation in the eye, which systemic drugs often fail to reach due to the blood-retina barrier. Patients with dry eye disease often have multiple comorbidities and are excluded from clinical trials, making this research even more significant in finding treatments for a growing population. Elizabeth explains, "Some people have physical dry eye, i.e., they have a dysfunction in their meibomian glands, and they can't make enough tears or those tears aren't the right composition. But more than half of the patients with dry eye have an underlying autoimmune disease. And they might know that, and they might not. So, patients with either Sjogren's disease or any of the thyroid conditions, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, MS, connective tissue dysfunction, most of those patients have some ocular comorbidities, and specifically, dry eye is probably one of the biggest ones." "Sometimes we treat the body, and we can treat autoimmune diseases successfully, but you don't really get most drugs into the eye. And so those alarm bells are still going off in the eye. And unfortunately, these patients with autoimmune disease tend to have more severe disease. They respond differently to the drugs that are out there today and probably most troublesome to us, and why Iolyx is really targeted these patients is that they get excluded from most of trials because they're just more difficult to treat, but they're also more difficult to treat because they have systemic medications that they're on, and most of those drugs get excluded." #IolyxTherapeutics #DryEyeDisease #Ophthalmology #AutoimmuneDisease #EyeCare #ImmunoOphthalmology #ClinicalTrials /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37967575

Treating Autoimmune-Driven Dry Eye Disease with Immune Modulator with Elizabeth Jeffords Iolyx 09/12/2025

Treating Autoimmune-Driven Dry Eye Disease with Immune Modulator with Elizabeth Jeffords Iolyx Elizabeth Jeffords, CEO and President of Iolyx Therapeutics, discusses dry eye disease and its connection to autoimmune conditions. The company's novel therapeutic topical immune modulator is designed to treat the root inflammation in the eye, which systemic drugs often fail to reach due to the blood-retina barrier. Patients with dry eye disease often have multiple comorbidities and are excluded from clinical trials, making this research even more significant in finding treatments for a growing population. Elizabeth explains, "Some people have physical dry eye, i.e., they have a dysfunction in their meibomian glands, and they can't make enough tears or those tears aren't the right composition. But more than half of the patients with dry eye have an underlying autoimmune disease. And they might know that, and they might not. So, patients with either Sjogren's disease or any of the thyroid conditions, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, MS, connective tissue dysfunction, most of those patients have some ocular comorbidities, and specifically, dry eye is probably one of the biggest ones." "Sometimes we treat the body, and we can treat autoimmune diseases successfully, but you don't really get most drugs into the eye. And so those alarm bells are still going off in the eye. And unfortunately, these patients with autoimmune disease tend to have more severe disease. They respond differently to the drugs that are out there today and probably most troublesome to us, and why Iolyx is really targeted these patients is that they get excluded from most of trials because they're just more difficult to treat, but they're also more difficult to treat because they have systemic medications that they're on, and most of those drugs get excluded." #IolyxTherapeutics #DryEyeDisease #Ophthalmology #AutoimmuneDisease #EyeCare #ImmunoOphthalmology #ClinicalTrials /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37967530

Using AI in Drug Development to Protect Brain Enzyme Linked to Parkinson’s Disease Progression with Gene Mack Gain Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT 09/10/2025

Using AI in Drug Development to Protect Brain Enzyme Linked to Parkinson’s Disease Progression with Gene Mack Gain Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT Gene Mack, CEO and President of Gain Therapeutics, is combining AI-powered drug discovery with the development of allosteric modulators, drugs that bind to unique sites on proteins. The company's AI platform, Magellan, is crucial for accelerating drug discovery by reducing the time for computational screening of potential drug compounds. Their lead compound is showing promising results as a potential disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson's disease, aiming to halt the progression of the disease rather than just treating symptoms. Gene explains, "So allosteric modulators of protein, it's a bit of a word salad, but what we're trying to achieve here is finding unique binding sites on proteins that are sort of away from the active site of that protein." "So, a lot of physics calculations go into these binding site calculations. The idea is to complete these quickly during the screening of hundreds or thousands of compounds. This process takes 10 to 15 minutes to run a set of computations and determine if a particular molecule is a fit for a specific protein. If that takes 10 or 15 minutes per compound, it's not a very big deal to go to that library if you need to get through billions, trillions of those compounds, and you need that computational speed to really fire up." "We are able to speed up those calculations from, let's say, 10 minutes to milliseconds. You can screen through much larger numbers of compounds and potentially even construct new molecules that are not known to the public domain, which would be a real key innovation." "What we think we have in our lead program, which is GT-02287, another molecule that was discovered through our application of Magellan. What we hope we have in GT-02287 is a disease-modifying approach to Parkinson's. Up until now, the only available treatments for Parkinson's are really just focused on the symptoms and allaying the severity of the symptoms." #Parkinsons #ParkinsonsDisease #AI #DrugDiscovery #GAINtherapeutics #DiseaseModification /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37967425

Using AI in Drug Development to Protect Brain Enzyme Linked to Parkinson’s Disease Progression with Gene Mack Gain Therapeutics 09/10/2025

Using AI in Drug Development to Protect Brain Enzyme Linked to Parkinson’s Disease Progression with Gene Mack Gain Therapeutics Gene Mack, CEO and President of Gain Therapeutics, is combining AI-powered drug discovery with the development of allosteric modulators, drugs that bind to unique sites on proteins. The company's AI platform, Magellan, is crucial for accelerating drug discovery by reducing the time for computational screening of potential drug compounds. Their lead compound is showing promising results as a potential disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson's disease, aiming to halt the progression of the disease rather than just treating symptoms. Gene explains, "So allosteric modulators of protein, it's a bit of a word salad, but what we're trying to achieve here is finding unique binding sites on proteins that are sort of away from the active site of that protein." "So, a lot of physics calculations go into these binding site calculations. The idea is to complete these quickly during the screening of hundreds or thousands of compounds. This process takes 10 to 15 minutes to run a set of computations and determine if a particular molecule is a fit for a specific protein. If that takes 10 or 15 minutes per compound, it's not a very big deal to go to that library if you need to get through billions, trillions of those compounds, and you need that computational speed to really fire up." "We are able to speed up those calculations from, let's say, 10 minutes to milliseconds. You can screen through much larger numbers of compounds and potentially even construct new molecules that are not known to the public domain, which would be a real key innovation." "What we think we have in our lead program, which is GT-02287, another molecule that was discovered through our application of Magellan. What we hope we have in GT-02287 is a disease-modifying approach to Parkinson's. Up until now, the only available treatments for Parkinson's are really just focused on the symptoms and allaying the severity of the symptoms." #Parkinsons #ParkinsonsDisease #AI #DrugDiscovery #GAINtherapeutics #DiseaseModification /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37967400

Advancement in Abuse-Deterrent Opioids with Paul Howe Protega Pharmaceuticals TRANSCRIPT 09/09/2025

Advancement in Abuse-Deterrent Opioids with Paul Howe Protega Pharmaceuticals 09/09/2025

Leveraging Non-Dilutive Funding for Ultra-Rare Disease Development with Dr. George Magrath Opus Genetics TRANSCRIPT 09/08/2025

Leveraging Non-Dilutive Funding for Ultra-Rare Disease Development with Dr. George Magrath Opus Genetics TRANSCRIPT Dr. George Magrath, CEO of Opus Genetics, discusses the company's experience in obtaining non-dilutive funding for its ultra-rare inherited retinal disease program. He highlights the challenges and advantages of this funding source, as well as the importance of establishing relationships with patient advocacy groups and foundations to mitigate risk and increase their attractiveness to traditional investors. The drive for non-dilutive funding for ultra-rare diseases is expected to become increasingly important in helping to get drugs to clinical trials. George explains, "Opus Genetics is a gene therapy company for eye disorders that occur in children. And these disorders are ultra-rare. It's 200 patients, a thousand patients per indication, and it's really good science. It's from Gene Bennett, who was the inventor of Luxturna, which was the first approved genetic medicine. And it does require some non-conventional thought on the financing, though, because these are so rare. And what we've done at Opus Genetics and have been really fortunate to be a part of is non-diluted funding from external sources. And that comes in the form of partnerships with patient families and organizations, like we just announced last week with RDH 12 Alliance." " It also comes with the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which has given us a number of grants and non-dilutive funding deals. And so those have been really important to Opus and have really helped us progress the programs. The way we think about that is the first principle is the clinical data we typically generate using our equity dollars. The preclinical work we try to do with non-dilutive funding, and that way we're able to focus on spending in rare scenarios." #OpusGenetics #RareDiseases #UltraRareDiseases #EyeDiseases #GeneTherapy #NonDilutiveFunding #Blindness #Ophthalmology /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37937860

Leveraging Non-Dilutive Funding for Ultra-Rare Disease Development with Dr. George Magrath Opus Genetics 09/08/2025

Leveraging Non-Dilutive Funding for Ultra-Rare Disease Development with Dr. George Magrath Opus Genetics Dr. George Magrath, CEO of Opus Genetics, discusses the company's experience in obtaining non-dilutive funding for its ultra-rare inherited retinal disease program. He highlights the challenges and advantages of this funding source, as well as the importance of establishing relationships with patient advocacy groups and foundations to mitigate risk and increase their attractiveness to traditional investors. The drive for non-dilutive funding for ultra-rare diseases is expected to become increasingly important in helping to get drugs to clinical trials. George explains, "Opus Genetics is a gene therapy company for eye disorders that occur in children. And these disorders are ultra-rare. It's 200 patients, a thousand patients per indication, and it's really good science. It's from Gene Bennett, who was the inventor of Luxturna, which was the first approved genetic medicine. And it does require some non-conventional thought on the financing, though, because these are so rare. And what we've done at Opus Genetics and have been really fortunate to be a part of is non-diluted funding from external sources. And that comes in the form of partnerships with patient families and organizations, like we just announced last week with RDH 12 Alliance." " It also comes with the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which has given us a number of grants and non-dilutive funding deals. And so those have been really important to Opus and have really helped us progress the programs. The way we think about that is the first principle is the clinical data we typically generate using our equity dollars. The preclinical work we try to do with non-dilutive funding, and that way we're able to focus on spending in rare scenarios." #OpusGenetics #RareDiseases #UltraRareDiseases #EyeDiseases #GeneTherapy #NonDilutiveFunding #Blindness #Ophthalmology /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37937815

AI Revolutionizing Drug Development Regulatory Documentation and FDA Submission with Lindsay Mateo Weave TRANSCRIPT 09/05/2025

AI Revolutionizing Drug Development Regulatory Documentation and FDA Submission with Lindsay Mateo Weave 09/05/2025

Streamlining the Process for Accessing Medical Marijuana Cards with Aspen Noonan Elevate Holistics TRANSCRIPT 09/04/2025

Streamlining the Process for Accessing Medical Marijuana Cards with Aspen Noonan Elevate Holistics 09/04/2025

Using AI-Powered Heart Monitors to Predict and Prevent AFib with Mark Goddard Infobionic.AI TRANSCRIPT 09/03/2025

Using AI-Powered Heart Monitors to Predict and Prevent AFib with Mark Goddard Infobionic.AI TRANSCRIPT Mark Goddard, Vice President of Clinical Services at Infobionic.AI, describes the remote cardiac monitoring system that provides near real-time monitoring of patients with potential cardiac irregularities. The benefit of continuous monitoring allows for early detection of arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation, a growing concern driven by an aging population and factors like obesity and high blood pressure. AI-driven algorithms are used to analyze ECG data and identify potential issues, enabling proactive treatment and prevention of complications like stroke. Mark explains, "The focus of our monitoring system is to provide near real-time monitoring of patients who are reporting maybe cardiac irregularities. The whole idea is to provide that near-real-time access to cardiac information so that arrhythmias can be identified relatively quickly. Additionally, the treatments for those arrhythmias are relatively quick as well, providing better patient outcomes. Just related to the fact that the data is always there, and it comes in maybe a minute or two behind live." "We are partnered with a major health system that has an AI engine that is basically developing AI tools that can be utilized in cardiac monitors. And just looking at the patient's ECG, they're able to determine the potential for arrhythmias that may not have occurred yet. And that's kind of what we're focusing on. The ability to review ECG and understand those little nuances that may indicate, hey, this patient's going to have an event like atrial fibrillation, which is the most common irregular rhythm there is, especially for an aging population. Identifying those folks early can really help with not only the outcome for the patient, in that they're not going to run into the problems you may have if you don't recognize you have atrial fibrillation, but it'll also decrease healthcare costs, which in the end helps everybody." #InfobionicAI #MedAI #Cardiology #AFib #HeartMonitor #CardiacTracking /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37937660

Using AI-Powered Heart Monitors to Predict and Prevent AFib with Mark Goddard Infobionic.AI 09/03/2025

Using AI-Powered Heart Monitors to Predict and Prevent AFib with Mark Goddard Infobionic.AI Mark Goddard, Vice President of Clinical Services at Infobionic.AI, describes the remote cardiac monitoring system that provides near real-time monitoring of patients with potential cardiac irregularities. The benefit of continuous monitoring allows for early detection of arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation, a growing concern driven by an aging population and factors like obesity and high blood pressure. AI-driven algorithms are used to analyze ECG data and identify potential issues, enabling proactive treatment and prevention of complications like stroke. Mark explains, "The focus of our monitoring system is to provide near real-time monitoring of patients who are reporting maybe cardiac irregularities. The whole idea is to provide that near-real-time access to cardiac information so that arrhythmias can be identified relatively quickly. Additionally, the treatments for those arrhythmias are relatively quick as well, providing better patient outcomes. Just related to the fact that the data is always there, and it comes in maybe a minute or two behind live." "We are partnered with a major health system that has an AI engine that is basically developing AI tools that can be utilized in cardiac monitors. And just looking at the patient's ECG, they're able to determine the potential for arrhythmias that may not have occurred yet. And that's kind of what we're focusing on. The ability to review ECG and understand those little nuances that may indicate, hey, this patient's going to have an event like atrial fibrillation, which is the most common irregular rhythm there is, especially for an aging population. Identifying those folks early can really help with not only the outcome for the patient, in that they're not going to run into the problems you may have if you don't recognize you have atrial fibrillation, but it'll also decrease healthcare costs, which in the end helps everybody." #InfobionicAI #MedAI #Cardiology #AFib #HeartMonitor #CardiacTracking /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37937615

Preventing Development of Breast Cancer with Dr. Steven Quay Atossa Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT 08/28/2025

Preventing Development of Breast Cancer with Dr. Steven Quay Atossa Therapeutics 08/28/2025

How Molecular Testing is Changing Melanoma Treatments with Dr. Alex Meves SkylineDx TRANSCRIPT 08/27/2025

How Molecular Testing is Changing Melanoma Treatments with Dr. Alex Meves SkylineDx 08/27/2025

How Interoperability is Breaking Down Healthcare Barriers with Elaina McMillan Edifecs TRANSCRIPT 08/27/2025

How Interoperability is Breaking Down Healthcare Barriers with Elaina McMillan Edifecs 08/27/2025

ReNEW Fund Creating Innovative Approach to Nursing Education with Anmy Mayfield Western Governors University TRANSCRIPT 08/26/2025

ReNEW Fund Creating Innovative Approach to Nursing Education with Anmy Mayfield Western Governors University TRANSCRIPT Anmy Mayfield, Vice President and Dean for the Western Governors University College of Nursing in the Michael O. Leavitt School of Health, discusses the university's mission to provide accessible, online nursing education to address the nursing workforce shortage and encourage a more diverse population of nurses. The ReNEW Fund, a collaborative initiative with Social Finance, provides zero-interest, forgivable loans to nursing students. This model appeals to a diverse student population, including working adults and career-changers, by offering flexibility and employment opportunities for graduates. Anmy explains, "The ReNEW Fund is a collaboration with Social Finance, another nonprofit organization. And we have a shared goal of tackling the nursing shortage that is estimated to be about 30,000 to 40,000 fewer RNs entering the field compared to what's open to RNs. And there are a lot of barriers that can keep someone from becoming a nurse. And one of those is the cost of nursing school." "We want to make sure that we can help in one way to help mitigate that barrier to becoming a nurse. And so it's trying to fill these gaps by placing an equal investment in return on employers. Also students get zero-interest loans that are forgivable if a graduate completes their program and then works at one of these ReNEW employer partners for at least three years. So it's a pay-it-forward model." "One of the things that our program is focused on is ensuring that we're training a nurse workforce that is related or reflective of what the community looks like, because we've seen from research that patient outcomes are often improved when that happens. And so this means more men in nursing, different minority groups, etc., in nursing. We at WGU have seen a higher number of students who are first-generation, who are coming from the military, who are coming from underserved or underrepresented groups, and we're excited about that. And I think a lot of it has to do with our model. We offer our coursework online, and so a lot of times it's easier for our students to balance work and life." #FutureOfNursing #ReNEWFund #UpskillingHealthcare #NursingWorkforce #PayItForwardEducation #WGUHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37853430

ReNEW Fund Creating Innovative Approach to Nursing Education with Anmy Mayfield Western Governors University 08/26/2025

ReNEW Fund Creating Innovative Approach to Nursing Education with Anmy Mayfield Western Governors University Anmy Mayfield, Vice President and Dean for the Western Governors University College of Nursing in the Michael O. Leavitt School of Health, discusses the university's mission to provide accessible, online nursing education to address the nursing workforce shortage and encourage a more diverse population of nurses. The ReNEW Fund, a collaborative initiative with Social Finance, provides zero-interest, forgivable loans to nursing students. This model appeals to a diverse student population, including working adults and career-changers, by offering flexibility and employment opportunities for graduates. Anmy explains, "The ReNEW Fund is a collaboration with Social Finance, another nonprofit organization. And we have a shared goal of tackling the nursing shortage that is estimated to be about 30,000 to 40,000 fewer RNs entering the field compared to what's open to RNs. And there are a lot of barriers that can keep someone from becoming a nurse. And one of those is the cost of nursing school." "We want to make sure that we can help in one way to help mitigate that barrier to becoming a nurse. And so it's trying to fill these gaps by placing an equal investment in return on employers. Also students get zero-interest loans that are forgivable if a graduate completes their program and then works at one of these ReNEW employer partners for at least three years. So it's a pay-it-forward model." "One of the things that our program is focused on is ensuring that we're training a nurse workforce that is related or reflective of what the community looks like, because we've seen from research that patient outcomes are often improved when that happens. And so this means more men in nursing, different minority groups, etc., in nursing. We at WGU have seen a higher number of students who are first-generation, who are coming from the military, who are coming from underserved or underrepresented groups, and we're excited about that. And I think a lot of it has to do with our model. We offer our coursework online, and so a lot of times it's easier for our students to balance work and life." #FutureOfNursing #ReNEWFund #UpskillingHealthcare #NursingWorkforce #PayItForwardEducation #WGUHealth /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/37853400

Nanoparticle Immunotherapy Reducing Cancer Recurrence Extending Survival Rates with Dr. Frank Bedu-Addo PDS Biotechnology TRANSCRIPT 08/25/2025

Nanoparticle Immunotherapy Reducing Cancer Recurrence Extending Survival Rates with Dr. Frank Bedu-Addo PDS Biotechnology 08/25/2025

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

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