Empowered Patient Podcast

Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda is a window into the latest innovations in digital health, the application of AI for administrative and clinical uses, the changing dynamic between doctors and patients, personalized medicine, cell and gene therapies, 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.

Using AI to Unify Healthcare HR Systems to Reduce Administrative Burden with Craig Ahrens Worki TRANSCRIPT 08/13/2026

Using AI to Unify Healthcare HR Systems to Reduce Administrative Burden with Craig Ahrens Worki TRANSCRIPT Craig Ahrens is the CEO of Worki, a healthcare workforce management platform that aggregates fragmented HR records by unifying disparate data sources and deploying AI agents to streamline workflows. To address anxieties, the focus needs to be on reducing administrative burdens through intelligent scheduling, not on eliminating jobs. Transparency is key for employees in this integration of legacy systems with AI-powered tools, so that healthcare organizations can improve resource allocation, enhance retention, and improve patient care while maintaining human oversight. Craig explains, "Worki is solving the fragmentation tax that is plaguing the HR and workforce components of the healthcare industry. And when I say the fragmentation tax, what I'm talking about is that within healthcare, there are a number of legacy systems and non-legacy systems, meaning just spreadsheets and pieces of paper that are part of the HR workforce picture. These are leading to what I call visibility gaps or blind spots, as well as high administrative friction or burden for frontline clinical workers." "So the ability to manage the workers, the ability to engage them, the ability to efficiently deploy AI in a meaningful way through a combination of data, has been hampered. And what we do is we solve for that by unifying that fragmented information and then putting it into action around key HR workforce roles. Specifically, we start with usually access scheduling roles as well as career amplification roles." "What I mean by clear career amplification could be retention, could be upskilling in the face of the evolution of work around how AI is impacting their tasks associated with their roles. We're basically helping organizations, particularly healthcare organizations, address these fundamental fragmentation issues and then activate in a way that empowers HR to solve for the evolution of work." #Worki #HealthcareWorkforce #AIinHealthcare #WorkforceInnovation #HealthcareOperations #HealthcareTechnology #FutureOfHealthcare #Healthcare #Nursing #HealthcareHR #WorkforceManagement #HealthIT #Staffing #Upskilling #PatientCare #DigitalTransformation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42340970

Using AI to Unify Healthcare HR Systems to Reduce Administrative Burden with Craig Ahrens Worki 08/13/2026

Using AI to Unify Healthcare HR Systems to Reduce Administrative Burden with Craig Ahrens Worki Craig Ahrens is the CEO of Worki, a healthcare workforce management platform that aggregates fragmented HR records by unifying disparate data sources and deploying AI agents to streamline workflows. To address anxieties, the focus needs to be on reducing administrative burdens through intelligent scheduling, not on eliminating jobs. Transparency is key for employees in this integration of legacy systems with AI-powered tools, so that healthcare organizations can improve resource allocation, enhance retention, and improve patient care while maintaining human oversight. Craig explains, "Worki is solving the fragmentation tax that is plaguing the HR and workforce components of the healthcare industry. And when I say the fragmentation tax, what I'm talking about is that within healthcare, there are a number of legacy systems and non-legacy systems, meaning just spreadsheets and pieces of paper that are part of the HR workforce picture. These are leading to what I call visibility gaps or blind spots, as well as high administrative friction or burden for frontline clinical workers." "So the ability to manage the workers, the ability to engage them, the ability to efficiently deploy AI in a meaningful way through a combination of data, has been hampered. And what we do is we solve for that by unifying that fragmented information and then putting it into action around key HR workforce roles. Specifically, we start with usually access scheduling roles as well as career amplification roles." "What I mean by clear career amplification could be retention, could be upskilling in the face of the evolution of work around how AI is impacting their tasks associated with their roles. We're basically helping organizations, particularly healthcare organizations, address these fundamental fragmentation issues and then activate in a way that empowers HR to solve for the evolution of work." #Worki #HealthcareWorkforce #AIinHealthcare #WorkforceInnovation #HealthcareOperations #HealthcareTechnology #FutureOfHealthcare #Healthcare #Nursing #HealthcareHR #WorkforceManagement #HealthIT #Staffing #Upskilling #PatientCare #DigitalTransformation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42340960

Integrated Continuous Data-Driven Care for Severe Mental Illness with Sonia Garcia Amae Health TRANSCRIPT 08/12/2026

Integrated Continuous Data-Driven Care for Severe Mental Illness with Sonia Garcia Amae Health 08/12/2026

Expanding Advanced Lung Transplant Assessment and Utilization with Sarah Lowe XVIVO TRANSCRIPT 08/11/2026

Expanding Advanced Lung Transplant Assessment and Utilization with Sarah Lowe XVIVO TRANSCRIPT Sarah Lowe, Global Clinical Operations Director at XVIVO, develops technologies to preserve, assess, and transport organs for transplantation. With advanced assessment of donor lungs, the mission is to evaluate marginal organs better to address the critical challenge that only 2 out of 10 available lungs are currently accepted for transplant. With their first in-house ex vivo lung perfusion program, the goal is to increase organ utilization and expand access to transplants. Sarah explains, "At XVIVO, our vision really is that nobody should die waiting for a new organ. As a company, we develop technologies that allow our clinicians to preserve, assess, and transport organs. So, in doing so, we're able to be part of the solution by helping increase the number of organs available for transplantation. In my role at XVIVO, I get to work closely with clinical teams and partners to support the implementation of our technologies and their programs, not only in the US but around the world. So really everything that we do is centered around helping more patients receive those lifesaving transplants." "So this collaboration is so incredibly important, not only for XVIVO. I think for the transplant community as a whole, it brings advanced lung assessment directly into the organ recovery process. XVIVO lung perfusion- you'll hear me say EVLP. It is placed into the workflow at the organ procurement organization level rather than in a separate step later in transplantation." "So Indiana Donor Network, I'll call it IDN, is the first organ recovery organization in the US that has an in-house lung perfusion program. And through this partnership, IDN can assess donor lungs using EVLP before transplantation decisions are finalized. So for us, it does matter for a few reasons. And I think it's important to emphasize that two in 10 lungs are transplanted, which means that 80% of them are declined." #XVIVO #OrganTransplantation #HealthcareInnovation #MedTech #PatientOutcomes #TransplantMedicine #LungTransplant #EVLP #OrganDonation #TransplantInnovation #IndianaDonorNetwork #PerfusionSolution #HealthcareInnovation #OPO #PatientCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42340860

Expanding Advanced Lung Transplant Assessment and Utilization with Sarah Lowe XVIVO 08/11/2026

Expanding Advanced Lung Transplant Assessment and Utilization with Sarah Lowe XVIVO Sarah Lowe, Global Clinical Operations Director at XVIVO, develops technologies to preserve, assess, and transport organs for transplantation. With advanced assessment of donor lungs, the mission is to evaluate marginal organs better to address the critical challenge that only 2 out of 10 available lungs are currently accepted for transplant. With their first in-house ex vivo lung perfusion program, the goal is to increase organ utilization and expand access to transplants. Sarah explains, "At XVIVO, our vision really is that nobody should die waiting for a new organ. As a company, we develop technologies that allow our clinicians to preserve, assess, and transport organs. So, in doing so, we're able to be part of the solution by helping increase the number of organs available for transplantation. In my role at XVIVO, I get to work closely with clinical teams and partners to support the implementation of our technologies and their programs, not only in the US but around the world. So really everything that we do is centered around helping more patients receive those lifesaving transplants." "So this collaboration is so incredibly important, not only for XVIVO. I think for the transplant community as a whole, it brings advanced lung assessment directly into the organ recovery process. XVIVO lung perfusion- you'll hear me say EVLP. It is placed into the workflow at the organ procurement organization level rather than in a separate step later in transplantation." "So Indiana Donor Network, I'll call it IDN, is the first organ recovery organization in the US that has an in-house lung perfusion program. And through this partnership, IDN can assess donor lungs using EVLP before transplantation decisions are finalized. So for us, it does matter for a few reasons. And I think it's important to emphasize that two in 10 lungs are transplanted, which means that 80% of them are declined." #XVIVO #OrganTransplantation #HealthcareInnovation #MedTech #PatientOutcomes #TransplantMedicine #LungTransplant #EVLP #OrganDonation #TransplantInnovation #IndianaDonorNetwork #PerfusionSolution #HealthcareInnovation #OPO #PatientCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42340855

Platform Targets Root Causes of Disease to Drive Drug Discovery with Vin Singh Bullfrog AI TRANSCRIPT 08/10/2026

Platform Targets Root Causes of Disease to Drive Drug Discovery with Vin Singh Bullfrog AI TRANSCRIPT Vin Singh, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Bullfrog AI, is applying proprietary AI technology to drug development, with a focus on drug target discovery and phase three clinical trials. The company's platform is derived from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab and is designed to pinpoint drug targets, identify the root causes of disease, and match patients to appropriate treatments based on genetic profiles. Bullfrog AI aims to reduce clinical trial timelines, improve success rates, identify more accurate biomarkers, and improve patient outcomes. Vin explains, "We are in the AI innovator category, and we're applying our proprietary platform to the challenges that exist in the world of drug development for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Primarily our focus is on the first and the last stage of that process. So the first stage is what you call drug target discovery. So when you take a medication, it targets something in your body. So we're trying to identify novel targets that we believe are the root cause of certain diseases. And then we are also focused on the final stage, which is phase three clinical trials. That's where we have our experience. And that's obviously a very critical and pivotal point in the process and the final stage of a long 10- to 15-year, one- to two-billion-dollar drug development process." "You need to have the right tool for a certain problem and then data, and they go together. I think on the data side, getting access to rich, deep data sets is critical. And fortunately, the cost to generate that type of data has come down pretty significantly over the past, say, 10 years. So now, for example, we have a project where we have brain data, and it's the type of data where you can really make discoveries and insights and so forth. And so that's a really critical part of this process. The other part is: what tool do you have, and what problem are you trying to solve? Our technology is unique. I'd say most companies use technology that comes from NVIDIA and AWS. So they're all kind of using the same tools from the same toolbox." "Our technology comes from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, which is a world-renowned institution. We have IP around our platform, and we've continued to innovate over the years. It definitely has unique capabilities, and it is specifically designed for the types of problems that exist in drug development." #BullFrogAI $BFRG, #AI, #AIinBiotech, #MachineLearning, #DrugDevelopment #AIinHealthcare #PrecisionMedicine #Neuropsychiatry #Oncology #DigitalHealth #ClinicalTrials #Biomarkers #bfLEAP /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42362135

Platform Targets Root Causes of Disease to Drive Drug Discovery with Vin Singh Bullfrog AI 08/10/2026

Platform Targets Root Causes of Disease to Drive Drug Discovery with Vin Singh Bullfrog AI Vin Singh, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Bullfrog AI, is applying proprietary AI technology to drug development, with a focus on drug target discovery and phase three clinical trials. The company's platform is derived from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab and is designed to pinpoint drug targets, identify the root causes of disease, and match patients to appropriate treatments based on genetic profiles. Bullfrog AI aims to reduce clinical trial timelines, improve success rates, identify more accurate biomarkers, and improve patient outcomes. Vin explains, "We are in the AI innovator category, and we're applying our proprietary platform to the challenges that exist in the world of drug development for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Primarily our focus is on the first and the last stage of that process. So the first stage is what you call drug target discovery. So when you take a medication, it targets something in your body. So we're trying to identify novel targets that we believe are the root cause of certain diseases. And then we are also focused on the final stage, which is phase three clinical trials. That's where we have our experience. And that's obviously a very critical and pivotal point in the process and the final stage of a long 10- to 15-year, one- to two-billion-dollar drug development process." "You need to have the right tool for a certain problem and then data, and they go together. I think on the data side, getting access to rich, deep data sets is critical. And fortunately, the cost to generate that type of data has come down pretty significantly over the past, say, 10 years. So now, for example, we have a project where we have brain data, and it's the type of data where you can really make discoveries and insights and so forth. And so that's a really critical part of this process. The other part is: what tool do you have, and what problem are you trying to solve? Our technology is unique. I'd say most companies use technology that comes from NVIDIA and AWS. So they're all kind of using the same tools from the same toolbox." "Our technology comes from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, which is a world-renowned institution. We have IP around our platform, and we've continued to innovate over the years. It definitely has unique capabilities, and it is specifically designed for the types of problems that exist in drug development." #BullFrogAI $BFRG, #AI, #AIinBiotech, #MachineLearning, #DrugDevelopment #AIinHealthcare #PrecisionMedicine #Neuropsychiatry #Oncology #DigitalHealth #ClinicalTrials #Biomarkers #bfLEAP /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42339805

Addressing Social Drivers of Health to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Greg Carroll ClinNEXUS TRANSCRIPT 08/10/2026

Addressing Social Drivers of Health to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Greg Carroll ClinNEXUS TRANSCRIPT Dr. Greg Carroll, emergency physician and Co-Founder and CEO of ClinNEXUS, a data-first healthcare company addressing social drivers of health in underserved communities by breaking down data silos. Integrating clinical information with social, behavioral, and environmental factors and using AI to augment human care coordinators enables them to identify patient needs proactively and provide personalized support. The model emphasizes building trust through in-person engagement while leveraging digital tools to enhance the care manager's ability to process complex data and deliver real-time insights. Greg explains, "We're a data-first company that is focused on improving healthcare outcomes for underserved communities. That's pretty broad. But if you think about traditional healthcare, especially in the United States, if you look at 20% of patients or individuals driving about 80% of costs in healthcare. And traditional healthcare has not been able to really put a dent in this over time. And really the reason is that traditional healthcare has not addressed the true drivers of people's health, especially in underserved communities." "Traditional healthcare has not done a good job of addressing those non-clinical issues, and it's done an even worse job of orchestrating and ensuring that across all those dimensions, we're addressing people's health. And so, in terms of the mission, it's about breaking down the silos in people's care and in the data available to those who support them. Making sure we're looking at all dimensions of people's health and helping them navigate to live happier, healthier lives, especially for communities facing many of the challenges I've mentioned." #ClinNEXUS #HealthcareInnovation #PopulationHealth #SocialDriversOfHealth #CareCoordination #AIinHealthcare #Medicaid #ValueBasedCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42335060

Addressing Social Drivers of Health to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Greg Carroll ClinNEXUS 08/10/2026

Addressing Social Drivers of Health to Improve Patient Outcomes with Dr. Greg Carroll ClinNEXUS Dr. Greg Carroll, emergency physician and Co-Founder and CEO of ClinNEXUS, a data-first healthcare company addressing social drivers of health in underserved communities by breaking down data silos. Integrating clinical information with social, behavioral, and environmental factors and using AI to augment human care coordinators enables them to identify patient needs proactively and provide personalized support. The model emphasizes building trust through in-person engagement while leveraging digital tools to enhance the care manager's ability to process complex data and deliver real-time insights. Greg explains, "We're a data-first company that is focused on improving healthcare outcomes for underserved communities. That's pretty broad. But if you think about traditional healthcare, especially in the United States, if you look at 20% of patients or individuals driving about 80% of costs in healthcare. And traditional healthcare has not been able to really put a dent in this over time. And really the reason is that traditional healthcare has not addressed the true drivers of people's health, especially in underserved communities." "Traditional healthcare has not done a good job of addressing those non-clinical issues, and it's done an even worse job of orchestrating and ensuring that across all those dimensions, we're addressing people's health. And so, in terms of the mission, it's about breaking down the silos in people's care and in the data available to those who support them. Making sure we're looking at all dimensions of people's health and helping them navigate to live happier, healthier lives, especially for communities facing many of the challenges I've mentioned." #ClinNEXUS #HealthcareInnovation #PopulationHealth #SocialDriversOfHealth #CareCoordination #AIinHealthcare #Medicaid #ValueBasedCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42334785

Image-Based Digital Biomarkers Detected by AI Platform to Transform Drug Development and Clinical Care with Susan Wood VIDA TRANSCRIPT 08/06/2026

Image-Based Digital Biomarkers Detected by AI Platform to Transform Drug Development and Clinical Care with Susan Wood VIDA TRANSCRIPT Susan Wood, CEO of VIDA, develops AI-driven imaging-based biomarkers that quantitatively measure biological processes and disease states using imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, PET, and ultrasound. Unlike traditional visual image analysis, VIDA's technology extracts approximately 25,000 measurements per imaging timepoint, enabling detection of therapeutic responses at the sub-millimeter level. This convergence of advanced scanner technology, high-quality imaging data, and AI-powered analysis represents a significant new frontier in precision medicine and drug development. Susan explains, "I'll start with what VIDA brings in. Our background has been the development and validation of AI-driven imaging-based biomarkers. I'll start by defining a biomarker, specifically an imaging-based biomarker. It's a quantitative measurement derived from an imaging modality. An imaging modality can be a CT scan, an MRI, a PET scan, or an ultrasound, and the measurement reflects a biological process, a disease state, or a response to therapy. VIDA's formation was focused on the production and validation of those imaging-based biomarkers and on incorporating them into provider-based clinical workflows as well as clinical trial or drug development workflows." "I would say that in general, traditionally radiology has relied on radiologic images, those imaging modalities have been read visually. And if you read an image visually, there's just a fraction of information that you can get from those images versus reading them with these AI-generated processes. So there's less than 1% of that image you'll be able to understand the extent and the complexity of the measurements that image can offer. We read, or we combine that visual reading with a highly quantitative process. So for each imaging time point, we'll measure 25,000 measurements per imaging time point. Obviously that's well beyond what a human eye could do just from an efficiency standpoint, but certainly from a precision standpoint, they wouldn't be able to measure that level of precision in the imaging by an eyeball alone." #VIDA #AI #DigitalBiomarkers #MedicalImaging #Radiology #ClinicalTrials #DrugDevelopment #PrecisionMedicine #HealthcareInnovation #RespiratoryCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259320

Image-Based Digital Biomarkers Detected by AI Platform to Transform Drug Development and Clinical Care with Susan Wood VIDA 08/06/2026

Image-Based Digital Biomarkers Detected by AI Platform to Transform Drug Development and Clinical Care with Susan Wood VIDA Susan Wood, CEO of VIDA, develops AI-driven imaging-based biomarkers that quantitatively measure biological processes and disease states using imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, PET, and ultrasound. Unlike traditional visual image analysis, VIDA's technology extracts approximately 25,000 measurements per imaging timepoint, enabling detection of therapeutic responses at the sub-millimeter level. This convergence of advanced scanner technology, high-quality imaging data, and AI-powered analysis represents a significant new frontier in precision medicine and drug development. Susan explains, "I'll start with what VIDA brings in. Our background has been the development and validation of AI-driven imaging-based biomarkers. I'll start by defining a biomarker, specifically an imaging-based biomarker. It's a quantitative measurement derived from an imaging modality. An imaging modality can be a CT scan, an MRI, a PET scan, or an ultrasound, and the measurement reflects a biological process, a disease state, or a response to therapy. VIDA's formation was focused on the production and validation of those imaging-based biomarkers and on incorporating them into provider-based clinical workflows as well as clinical trial or drug development workflows." "I would say that in general, traditionally radiology has relied on radiologic images, those imaging modalities have been read visually. And if you read an image visually, there's just a fraction of information that you can get from those images versus reading them with these AI-generated processes. So there's less than 1% of that image you'll be able to understand the extent and the complexity of the measurements that image can offer. We read, or we combine that visual reading with a highly quantitative process. So for each imaging time point, we'll measure 25,000 measurements per imaging time point. Obviously that's well beyond what a human eye could do just from an efficiency standpoint, but certainly from a precision standpoint, they wouldn't be able to measure that level of precision in the imaging by an eyeball alone." #VIDA #AI #DigitalBiomarkers #MedicalImaging #Radiology #ClinicalTrials #DrugDevelopment #PrecisionMedicine #HealthcareInnovation #RespiratoryCare /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259280

Clinician-Supervised Purpose-Built AI Bridges Behavioral Health Therapy Gaps with Luis Voloch Jimini Health TRANSCRIPT 08/05/2026

Clinician-Supervised Purpose-Built AI Bridges Behavioral Health Therapy Gaps with Luis Voloch Jimini Health TRANSCRIPT Luis Voloch, Co-Founder and CEO of Jimini Health, focuses on mental health through the Sage platform, which provides continuous AI support for patients while keeping clinicians informed and in control. The approach addresses the problem of patients turning to general-purpose AI for behavioral health support by offering a HIPAA-compliant, purpose-built alternative with proper safeguards and clinician supervision. The platform improves patient adherence to therapy and provides valuable information about progress between appointments, which is particularly important in mental health care where outcomes are non-linear and diagnostic precision is limited. Luis explains, "Right now, the AI healthcare environment is, I'd say, largely split when it comes to clinical AI between largely clinician-facing and back-office capabilities. So things like AI scribes and RCM tools and clinician coaching tools and products like that on one hand, with on the other hand, things that are primarily for patients. You may see things on the app store that are like AI therapists or products that are standalone for patients. And where Jimini stands is really as unifying both of these, where the core thesis for the company is that the right way to help patients and to build helpful clinical AI products is by integrating with the clinician as well, where the clinician has the ability to oversee what the AI is doing and to guide what the AI is doing." "The company's belief is that we need to build purpose-built AIs for mental health that are HIPAA-compliant and safe, with all the right guardrails. And most importantly, where clinicians are in the loop and where the clinicians can oversee and guide what the AI is doing." "We primarily work with large behavioral health provider organizations interested in improving the quality of care they deliver. One specific big opportunity we bring is bridging the time between sessions so that patients have additional support. The core of the product is what we call Sage. Sage is an app that engages with patients in various ways, with the guidance of the clinician, so that Sage knows what is happening in the therapy sessions or whatever other appointments the patient is having. It is then able to follow the clinical priorities of the clinician when the clinician is not there, and Sage supports these patients on a daily basis." #JiminiHealth #MentalHealth #DigitalHealth #BehavioralHealth #AIinHealthcare #PatientEngagement #CareAdherence #Telehealth #HealthTech #AI #MentalHealth #PatientSafety /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259200

Clinician-Supervised Purpose-Built AI Bridges Behavioral Health Therapy Gaps with Luis Voloch Jimini Health 08/05/2026

Clinician-Supervised Purpose-Built AI Bridges Behavioral Health Therapy Gaps with Luis Voloch Jimini Health Luis Voloch, Co-Founder and CEO of Jimini Health, focuses on mental health through the Sage platform, which provides continuous AI support for patients while keeping clinicians informed and in control. The approach addresses the problem of patients turning to general-purpose AI for behavioral health support by offering a HIPAA-compliant, purpose-built alternative with proper safeguards and clinician supervision. The platform improves patient adherence to therapy and provides valuable information about progress between appointments, which is particularly important in mental health care where outcomes are non-linear and diagnostic precision is limited. Luis explains, "Right now, the AI healthcare environment is, I'd say, largely split when it comes to clinical AI between largely clinician-facing and back-office capabilities. So things like AI scribes and RCM tools and clinician coaching tools and products like that on one hand, with on the other hand, things that are primarily for patients. You may see things on the app store that are like AI therapists or products that are standalone for patients. And where Jimini stands is really as unifying both of these, where the core thesis for the company is that the right way to help patients and to build helpful clinical AI products is by integrating with the clinician as well, where the clinician has the ability to oversee what the AI is doing and to guide what the AI is doing." "The company's belief is that we need to build purpose-built AIs for mental health that are HIPAA-compliant and safe, with all the right guardrails. And most importantly, where clinicians are in the loop and where the clinicians can oversee and guide what the AI is doing." "We primarily work with large behavioral health provider organizations interested in improving the quality of care they deliver. One specific big opportunity we bring is bridging the time between sessions so that patients have additional support. The core of the product is what we call Sage. Sage is an app that engages with patients in various ways, with the guidance of the clinician, so that Sage knows what is happening in the therapy sessions or whatever other appointments the patient is having. It is then able to follow the clinical priorities of the clinician when the clinician is not there, and Sage supports these patients on a daily basis." #JiminiHealth #MentalHealth #DigitalHealth #BehavioralHealth #AIinHealthcare #PatientEngagement #CareAdherence #Telehealth #HealthTech #AI #MentalHealth #PatientSafety /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259180

Localized Immunotherapy by Direct Injection Treats Solid Tumors and Activates the Immune System with Lew Bender Intensity Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT 08/05/2026

Localized Immunotherapy by Direct Injection Treats Solid Tumors and Activates the Immune System with Lew Bender Intensity Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected. Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors." "We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body." "We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way." #IntensityTherapeutics $INTS #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259050

Localized Immunotherapy by Direct Injection Treats Solid Tumors and Activates the Immune System with Lew Bender Intensity Therapeutics 08/05/2026

Localized Immunotherapy by Direct Injection Treats Solid Tumors and Activates the Immune System with Lew Bender Intensity Therapeutics Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected. Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors." "We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body." "We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way." #IntensityTherapeutics $INTS #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42259040

How Voice AI Agents Coordinate Healthcare and Improve Patient Access with Dr. Erin Palm Infinitus TRANSCRIPT 08/04/2026

How Voice AI Agents Coordinate Healthcare and Improve Patient Access with Dr. Erin Palm Infinitus TRANSCRIPT Dr. Erin Palm, medical lead at Infinitus, specializes in agentic AI for healthcare, leveraging voice technology to facilitate actions and execute tasks on behalf of providers, payers, and patients to coordinate administrative functions and patient-facing applications. These agents can handle appointment booking, medication inquiries, and emergency triage within an environment with rigorous quality controls and guardrails to mitigate AI errors. The platform supports seven languages, adapts communication to technical levels, and integrates with patient systems to maintain clinical consistency and regulatory compliance. Erin explains, "We focus on agentic communications for healthcare, which means building AI agents that can have conversations and execute on tasks on behalf of patients, pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, and health plans. And our thesis in all this is that the care exists. It's the coordination layer that sometimes falls short and fails patients, and Infinitus makes sure that that care arrives." "It's a reality that we're holding AI to a different standard than we hold humans performing the same tasks. That said, I actually see it as an opportunity to improve quality across the board. And I think it's reasonable to hold AI to a higher standard. And we measure those things closely using continuous evaluations of agent performance even before we put them into production. And then once they're live with patients, we continue to closely monitor their performance." "We have benchmarks that show improved performance on tasks versus human agents doing some of those same tasks, such as appointment booking. That said, we know that generative AI DRs make mistakes and it predicts things that don't end up being true. And we call those hallucinations. In the clinical world, we like to call them confabulations. It tends to be more clinically correct." #Infinitus #AIinHealthcare #VoiceAI #DigitalHealth #HealthIT #PriorAuth #PatientAccess #HealthcareInnovation #AgenticAI #PatientSafety #HealthcareAutomation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42258880

How Voice AI Agents Coordinate Healthcare and Improve Patient Access with Dr. Erin Palm Infinitus 08/04/2026

How Voice AI Agents Coordinate Healthcare and Improve Patient Access with Dr. Erin Palm Infinitus Dr. Erin Palm, medical lead at Infinitus, specializes in agentic AI for healthcare, leveraging voice technology to facilitate actions and execute tasks on behalf of providers, payers, and patients to coordinate administrative functions and patient-facing applications. These agents can handle appointment booking, medication inquiries, and emergency triage within an environment with rigorous quality controls and guardrails to mitigate AI errors. The platform supports seven languages, adapts communication to technical levels, and integrates with patient systems to maintain clinical consistency and regulatory compliance. Erin explains, "We focus on agentic communications for healthcare, which means building AI agents that can have conversations and execute on tasks on behalf of patients, pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, and health plans. And our thesis in all this is that the care exists. It's the coordination layer that sometimes falls short and fails patients, and Infinitus makes sure that that care arrives." "It's a reality that we're holding AI to a different standard than we hold humans performing the same tasks. That said, I actually see it as an opportunity to improve quality across the board. And I think it's reasonable to hold AI to a higher standard. And we measure those things closely using continuous evaluations of agent performance even before we put them into production. And then once they're live with patients, we continue to closely monitor their performance." "We have benchmarks that show improved performance on tasks versus human agents doing some of those same tasks, such as appointment booking. That said, we know that generative AI DRs make mistakes and it predicts things that don't end up being true. And we call those hallucinations. In the clinical world, we like to call them confabulations. It tends to be more clinically correct." #Infinitus #AIinHealthcare #VoiceAI #DigitalHealth #HealthIT #PriorAuth #PatientAccess #HealthcareInnovation #AgenticAI #PatientSafety #HealthcareAutomation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42258845

Long-Acting Antibody Treatment for HIV/AIDS Patients with Jimmy Chang TaiMed Biologics TRANSCRIPT 08/03/2026

Long-Acting Antibody Treatment for HIV/AIDS Patients with Jimmy Chang TaiMed Biologics TRANSCRIPT Jimmy Chang, Chairman and CEO of TaiMed Biologics, is approaching critical unmet needs in HIV care, particularly for aging patients with comorbidities who face risks from drug-drug interactions with multiple medications. The company is advancing the next-generation antibodies designed for bimonthly injections and an alternative to daily oral medications, while minimizing enzymatic metabolism and associated drug interactions. While successful treatments for HIV have shifted the focus from survival to quality of life and managing a chronic condition, new challenges have emerged to ensure patient convenience and adherence. Jimmy explains, "TaiMed is a biotech company based in Taiwan. Our focus is to develop innovative product for the HIV. And actually, over the years we have developed the first CD4-directed antibody for HIV treatment, and the product was approved in the US. And today we are currently focusing on developing the CD4-targeting antibody in a combination for long-acting HIV treatment." "So in today's world, HIV therapies, HIV patients, or the people living with HIV, the field is HIV as a chronic disease. The patient can live longer and healthier just like everybody else. However, it requires dedication and commitment to medication because there's no cure today. HIV, the virus keeps mutating. So if the disease is not under control, this could be problematic, and basically one day the patient may run into a situation where most of the drugs do not work for the patient." "So in the earlier days, the innovations or the medications were mainly trying to have the virus under control, with the focus of the medications. And so nowadays, because people living with HIV actually have a very good health condition, just like typical individuals live longer and healthier. So this comorbidity, or we call it the polypharmacy drug-drug interaction, is really the challenge that the physicians or patients have to face every day. And with our innovations, we believe we have the opportunity to offer another innovative medication to specifically address those challenges." #TaiMed #HIVCare #LongActingTherapies #AntibodyTherapeutics #CD4 #Polypharmacy #InfectiousDiseases #TaiMedBiologics #EmpoweredPatient #HealthcareInnovation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42258785

Long-Acting Antibody Treatment for HIV/AIDS Patients with Jimmy Chang TaiMed Biologics 08/03/2026

Long-Acting Antibody Treatment for HIV/AIDS Patients with Jimmy Chang TaiMed Biologics Jimmy Chang, Chairman and CEO of TaiMed Biologics, is approaching critical unmet needs in HIV care, particularly for aging patients with comorbidities who face risks from drug-drug interactions with multiple medications. The company is advancing the next-generation antibodies designed for bimonthly injections and an alternative to daily oral medications, while minimizing enzymatic metabolism and associated drug interactions. While successful treatments for HIV have shifted the focus from survival to quality of life and managing a chronic condition, new challenges have emerged to ensure patient convenience and adherence. Jimmy explains, "TaiMed is a biotech company based in Taiwan. Our focus is to develop innovative product for the HIV. And actually, over the years we have developed the first CD4-directed antibody for HIV treatment, and the product was approved in the US. And today we are currently focusing on developing the CD4-targeting antibody in a combination for long-acting HIV treatment." "So in today's world, HIV therapies, HIV patients, or the people living with HIV, the field is HIV as a chronic disease. The patient can live longer and healthier just like everybody else. However, it requires dedication and commitment to medication because there's no cure today. HIV, the virus keeps mutating. So if the disease is not under control, this could be problematic, and basically one day the patient may run into a situation where most of the drugs do not work for the patient." "So in the earlier days, the innovations or the medications were mainly trying to have the virus under control, with the focus of the medications. And so nowadays, because people living with HIV actually have a very good health condition, just like typical individuals live longer and healthier. So this comorbidity, or we call it the polypharmacy drug-drug interaction, is really the challenge that the physicians or patients have to face every day. And with our innovations, we believe we have the opportunity to offer another innovative medication to specifically address those challenges." #TaiMed #HIVCare #LongActingTherapies #AntibodyTherapeutics #CD4 #Polypharmacy #InfectiousDiseases #TaiMedBiologics #EmpoweredPatient #HealthcareInnovation /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42258765

Popular Hospital Patient Experience Book Club Builds Empathy and Staff Connections with Dr. Katherine Hockman and Dilshad Marolia NYU Langone Health TRANSCRIPT Dr. Katherine Hockman, Director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at NYU Langone Health, and Dilshad Marolia, System Director of Hospitals and Regulatory and Policy Management at NYU Langone Health, are co-leaders of the Patient Experience Book Club for the hospital employees. Operating since 2012, the program has grown from six books to 12 books per year, with sessions offered in-person and virtually to reach across the entire health system and, in addition, hosts pop-up sessions with visiting authors. The club helps break down departmental silos within the hospital, fostering connections among employees by creating a safe space for intellectual and emotional engagement while helping to combat workplace burnout. Katherine explains, "So my feeling is the Patient Experience Book Club is so much more than just a club where we read books and talk about them. It's really become a community of individuals who get together and share their experience in caring for some of our sickest patients. And it's also become a great venue for the faculty and staff to get to know each other a lot better and to share some of their vulnerabilities. And Dilshad and I, we've really taken it in many, many different directions. So we started off just reading six books a year, and now we're doing 12 books a year and two sessions a month, one in person and one on video for people who are in all parts of our system who can't make it in person." Dilshad elaborates, "But now also as a community of 53,000 people in our own health system and part of the wider community of New York City and New York State even, how do we view our communities and ourselves, and what books are transforming us, and what are we taking away from each experience? And the level of intellectual engagement is one thing, but there's a high, high level of emotional engagement that I think is rare to find in the workplace to create these safe spaces where you have a vehicle, and I'll use that word, through which you can have a discussion about a very pointed topic beyond, say, an academic journal." #NYULangone #Bookclub #PatientExperience #HumanityinHealthcare #HealthcareLeadership #EmpathyInHealthcare #BurnoutPrevention #HospitalCulture #MedicalHumanities /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42188100

Popular Hospital Patient Experience Book Club Builds Empathy and Staff Connections with Dr. Katherine Hockman and Dilshad Marolia NYU Langone Health Dr. Katherine Hockman, Director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at NYU Langone Health, and Dilshad Marolia, System Director of Hospitals and Regulatory and Policy Management at NYU Langone Health, are co-leaders of the Patient Experience Book Club for the hospital employees. Operating since 2012, the program has grown from six books to 12 books per year, with sessions offered in-person and virtually to reach across the entire health system and, in addition, hosts pop-up sessions with visiting authors. The club helps break down departmental silos within the hospital, fostering connections among employees by creating a safe space for intellectual and emotional engagement while helping to combat workplace burnout. Katherine explains, "So my feeling is the Patient Experience Book Club is so much more than just a club where we read books and talk about them. It's really become a community of individuals who get together and share their experience in caring for some of our sickest patients. And it's also become a great venue for the faculty and staff to get to know each other a lot better and to share some of their vulnerabilities. And Dilshad and I, we've really taken it in many, many different directions. So we started off just reading six books a year, and now we're doing 12 books a year and two sessions a month, one in person and one on video for people who are in all parts of our system who can't make it in person." Dilshad elaborates, "But now also as a community of 53,000 people in our own health system and part of the wider community of New York City and New York State even, how do we view our communities and ourselves, and what books are transforming us, and what are we taking away from each experience? And the level of intellectual engagement is one thing, but there's a high, high level of emotional engagement that I think is rare to find in the workplace to create these safe spaces where you have a vehicle, and I'll use that word, through which you can have a discussion about a very pointed topic beyond, say, an academic journal." #NYULangone #Bookclub #PatientExperience #HumanityinHealthcare #HealthcareLeadership #EmpathyInHealthcare #BurnoutPrevention #HospitalCulture #MedicalHumanities /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42188040

Ambient AI Transforming Operating Room Utilization Reducing Friction and Boosting Efficiency with David Schummers Apella TRANSCRIPT 07/22/2026

Ambient AI Transforming Operating Room Utilization Reducing Friction and Boosting Efficiency with David Schummers Apella TRANSCRIPT David Schummers, CEO of Apella, uses ambient AI technology, primarily audio- and video-based computer vision, to collect accurate operational data in real time to improve hospital management. With a key emphasis on operating room scheduling and resource management, this solution replaces manually entered data, which is often inaccurate and entered into the system late. The Apella platform helps hospitals optimize existing OR capacity and efficiency, reduces errors and documentation burden on nurses, provides accurate live operational information, and delivers economic benefits. David explains, "Apella is focused on using modern technologies to improve the operations of the hospital. If you consider the contribution of hospital operations to our overall healthcare spending, it's about a third of every dollar spent in healthcare is spent on running hospitals, which is a pretty significant contribution. And depending where you were, unfortunately, a lot of that expense is wasted." "So Apella has built a system for ambient detection that is able to improve the throughput of hospitals and improve the efficiency of hospitals. So that's what we're focused on. The product that we're working on right now is focused on the operating room, which is the largest revenue and expense driver of those health systems that we just talked about." "So operating rooms are scheduled and managed using data that is entered into the electronic health record. And so the electronic health record was designed to capture all of the patient records and make them available and interoperable. It really wasn't designed as an operational system. As a result, the captured data is limited in several ways. The first way is that it is not always accurate because it's manually entered. What we've found is that about 5% of manually entered data points relate to the scheduling of surgeries and other procedures." #Apella #HealthcareInnovation #OperatingRoom #AmbientAI #Perioperative #HospitalOperations #Nursing #DigitalHealth #EmpoweredPatient #AmbientAI #ORManagement #OREfficiency #PatientAccess #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI #PerioperativeCare #SurgicalInnovation #OROptimization #PatientOutcomes #EmpoweredPatient #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187940

New Dual-Action Nitric Oxide Targets Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Respiratory Disease with Nate Stasko Vast Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT 07/29/2026

New Dual-Action Nitric Oxide Targets Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Respiratory Disease with Nate Stasko Vast Therapeutics TRANSCRIPT Nate Stasko, CEO of Vast Therapeutics, is developing a novel nitric oxide-releasing therapy to treat chronic respiratory diseases, particularly fibrosis bronchiectasis, which is frequently misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. Their lead drug candidate is a dual-mechanism therapy that is delivered to the lungs via a nebulizer to target both infection and inflammation with the potential to eradicate pathogens rather than just suppressing them. This approach, in early trials, is showing excellent tolerability and eliminates the need for chronic antibiotic use, which carries the risks of toxicity and contributes to antibiotic resistance. Nate explains, "At Vast Therapeutics, our main idea and goal as a company is to come up with better solutions for the 500 million people worldwide who suffer from chronic respiratory disease. And there is a new disease getting a lot of attention that we're targeting with our lead program called bronchiectasis, and it's often been misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. And now over a million patients in the US are being diagnosed with bronchiectasis. And the whole campaign is to teach physicians and the whole medical community to suspect this disease over some of these other misdiagnosed diseases." "Traditionally, patients have been managed with either antibiotics to calm down the infection, but you know the problems of chronic antibiotic use- the liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, and hearing loss associated with long-term antibiotic use are just bad for these patients. Not to mention we have the global problem of antibiotic resistance. And so giving a 52-week course of therapy of antibiotics is less than ideal. And then recently, just last year, there's some hope for these patients where there was a new drug approved called brensocatib, which was the first drug ever approved for bronchiectasis by the FDA. And so now it targets the inflammation." "Having the ability to target two mechanisms of action would be the best therapy. And that's actually what Vast is developing. We're using the body's own ability to make and produce nitric oxide, which is a miracle molecule. And we're delivering nitric oxide back to these patients to target both the infection and inflammation at the same time and improve the overall standard of care for these patients." #VastTherapeutics #Bronchiectasis #Pulmonology #NitricOxide #RespiratoryMedicine #AntimicrobialResistance #ALX1#ChronicLungDisease #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalTrials /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187790

New Dual-Action Nitric Oxide Targets Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Respiratory Disease with Nate Stasko Vast Therapeutics 07/29/2026

New Dual-Action Nitric Oxide Targets Infection and Inflammation in Chronic Respiratory Disease with Nate Stasko Vast Therapeutics Nate Stasko, CEO of Vast Therapeutics, is developing a novel nitric oxide-releasing therapy to treat chronic respiratory diseases, particularly fibrosis bronchiectasis, which is frequently misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. Their lead drug candidate is a dual-mechanism therapy that is delivered to the lungs via a nebulizer to target both infection and inflammation with the potential to eradicate pathogens rather than just suppressing them. This approach, in early trials, is showing excellent tolerability and eliminates the need for chronic antibiotic use, which carries the risks of toxicity and contributes to antibiotic resistance. Nate explains, "At Vast Therapeutics, our main idea and goal as a company is to come up with better solutions for the 500 million people worldwide who suffer from chronic respiratory disease. And there is a new disease getting a lot of attention that we're targeting with our lead program called bronchiectasis, and it's often been misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. And now over a million patients in the US are being diagnosed with bronchiectasis. And the whole campaign is to teach physicians and the whole medical community to suspect this disease over some of these other misdiagnosed diseases." "Traditionally, patients have been managed with either antibiotics to calm down the infection, but you know the problems of chronic antibiotic use- the liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, and hearing loss associated with long-term antibiotic use are just bad for these patients. Not to mention we have the global problem of antibiotic resistance. And so giving a 52-week course of therapy of antibiotics is less than ideal. And then recently, just last year, there's some hope for these patients where there was a new drug approved called brensocatib, which was the first drug ever approved for bronchiectasis by the FDA. And so now it targets the inflammation." "Having the ability to target two mechanisms of action would be the best therapy. And that's actually what Vast is developing. We're using the body's own ability to make and produce nitric oxide, which is a miracle molecule. And we're delivering nitric oxide back to these patients to target both the infection and inflammation at the same time and improve the overall standard of care for these patients." #VastTherapeutics #Bronchiectasis #Pulmonology #NitricOxide #RespiratoryMedicine #AntimicrobialResistance #ALX1#ChronicLungDisease #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalTrials /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187750

Developing Freeze-Dried Blood to Transform Trauma Care with Dr. Scott Walter Defense Health Agency TRANSCRIPT 07/28/2026

Developing Freeze-Dried Blood to Transform Trauma Care with Dr. Scott Walter Defense Health Agency TRANSCRIPT Dr. Scott Walter is Director of Technology Transfer and Transition for the 59th Medical Wing of the Defense Health Agency located in San Antonio, Texas. The development of freeze-dried blood is a ground-breaking technology aimed at enabling medics to administer lifesaving blood transfusions at the point of injury. Scott highlights the logistical challenges of current blood products such as short shelf life, blood matching, and the need for cold storage, which this new technology would overcome. One of his current missions is to launch a prize competition to accelerate research, development, and commercialization of this technology, shifting the financial risk from the government to industry and expanding the uses of this product to dramatically improve survival rates and reduce long-term complications. Scott explains, "Donated blood is very perishable lasting only about six weeks from the date of collection, and it must be maintained just above freezing until it's needed. And then it has to be warmed to body temperature before it can be infused. That makes it really difficult to impossible for medics to carry blood products with them when they're treating patients in remote austere locations like battlefields, for example." "Well, the key is that freeze-drying enables the donated blood components to be collected, stored, and stockpiled for years after collection. The freeze-dried blood products can be carried by EMS units and medics. Then, once reconstituted, it can be given anywhere without the need for refrigeration." #TraumaCare #EmergencyMedicine #PrehospitalCare #CriticalCare #TransfusionMedicine #MilitaryMedicine #Innovation #FreezeDriedBlood #PatientOutcomes #GlobalHealth DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this podcast transcript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Health Agency, Department of War, nor the U.S. Government. /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187560

Developing Freeze-Dried Blood to Transform Trauma Care with Dr. Scott Walter Defense Health Agency 07/28/2026

Developing Freeze-Dried Blood to Transform Trauma Care with Dr. Scott Walter Defense Health Agency Dr. Scott Walter is Director of Technology Transfer and Transition for the 59th Medical Wing of the Defense Health Agency located in San Antonio, Texas. The development of freeze-dried blood is a ground-breaking technology aimed at enabling medics to administer lifesaving blood transfusions at the point of injury. Scott highlights the logistical challenges of current blood products such as short shelf life, blood matching, and the need for cold storage, which this new technology would overcome. One of his current missions is to launch a prize competition to accelerate research, development, and commercialization of this technology, shifting the financial risk from the government to industry and expanding the uses of this product to dramatically improve survival rates and reduce long-term complications. Scott explains, "Donated blood is very perishable lasting only about six weeks from the date of collection, and it must be maintained just above freezing until it's needed. And then it has to be warmed to body temperature before it can be infused. That makes it really difficult to impossible for medics to carry blood products with them when they're treating patients in remote austere locations like battlefields, for example." "Well, the key is that freeze-drying enables the donated blood components to be collected, stored, and stockpiled for years after collection. The freeze-dried blood products can be carried by EMS units and medics. Then, once reconstituted, it can be given anywhere without the need for refrigeration." #TraumaCare #EmergencyMedicine #PrehospitalCare #CriticalCare #TransfusionMedicine #MilitaryMedicine #Innovation #FreezeDriedBlood #PatientOutcomes #GlobalHealth DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this podcast transcript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Health Agency, Department of War, nor the U.S. Government. /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187545

Prenatal Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease with Dr. Panicos Shangaris King’s College London TRANSCRIPT 07/28/2026

Prenatal Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease with Dr. Panicos Shangaris King’s College London TRANSCRIPT Dr. Panicos Shangaris is from King's College London, where he is a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in maternal and fetal medicine. He discusses the treatment options for sickle cell disease, an inherited blood condition, and his work on the Pericles project, which aims to treat it before birth. In-utero gene therapy offers a third option for parents of an affected fetus alongside postnatal treatment or pregnancy termination. Panicos emphasizes key advantages of fetal therapy within the first 16 weeks of gestation, the need to address ethical concerns, and ensuring the safety of both the mother and fetus during the procedure. Panicos explains, "So sickle cell disease is an inherited condition that affects the blood and the molecule in the red cell, which is basically the red blood cell that carries oxygen. So what happens is the red cell has a biconcave shape, and for people who have sickle cell disease, that biconcave shape is lost, and the erythrocyte red cells are sickle-shaped. So because of that, the sickle-shaped red cells have difficulty going through small capillaries and small vessels. They can cause strokes, they can cause pain because they block the blood flow to the small capillaries." "Yes, so the cause is because of an abnormal gene, which basically makes the hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen around the different organs and around the body, instead of there being a problem in the genetic code, if I can put it like that. And that's why the erythrocyte, the red cells, have an abnormal shape. Very well-known what's causing it: a genetic problem." "So Pericles stands for prenatal therapy for Sickle Cell Disease. And what we are trying to achieve is to offer a third option to people who might carry a fetus affected by sickle cell disease. At the moment, the two options are stopping the pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or having an affected fetus and an unaffected baby and sick postnatal care. So our aim is to offer a third option, which is correcting the disease inside the womb so that the parents have a healthy baby. So correct the gene while the baby is inside the womb. And this is the main aim of the project." #KingsCollegeLondon #KCLResearch #GeneTherapy #PrenatalCare #Hematology #Genomics #EmpoweredPatient #PERICLES #SickleCellDisease #SickleCellAwareness #PreconceptionCare #BeforePregnancy #PregnancyPlanning #CarrierScreening #GeneticCounselling #ReproductiveChoices #PrenatalDiagnosis #PrenatalTherapy #InUteroTherapy #GeneEditing #StemCellTherapy #FetalMedicine #MaternalFetalMedicine #HighRiskPregnancy #IVFJourney #PGTM #PatientVoice #PatientEmpowerment #SharedDecisionMaking #HealthEquity #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalisedMedicine #FutureOfMedicine /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187475

Prenatal Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease with Dr. Panicos Shangaris King’s College London 07/28/2026

Prenatal Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease with Dr. Panicos Shangaris King’s College London Dr. Panicos Shangaris is from King's College London, where he is a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in maternal and fetal medicine. He discusses the treatment options for sickle cell disease, an inherited blood condition, and his work on the Pericles project, which aims to treat it before birth. In-utero gene therapy offers a third option for parents of an affected fetus alongside postnatal treatment or pregnancy termination. Panicos emphasizes key advantages of fetal therapy within the first 16 weeks of gestation, the need to address ethical concerns, and ensuring the safety of both the mother and fetus during the procedure. Panicos explains, "So sickle cell disease is an inherited condition that affects the blood and the molecule in the red cell, which is basically the red blood cell that carries oxygen. So what happens is the red cell has a biconcave shape, and for people who have sickle cell disease, that biconcave shape is lost, and the erythrocyte red cells are sickle-shaped. So because of that, the sickle-shaped red cells have difficulty going through small capillaries and small vessels. They can cause strokes, they can cause pain because they block the blood flow to the small capillaries." "Yes, so the cause is because of an abnormal gene, which basically makes the hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen around the different organs and around the body, instead of there being a problem in the genetic code, if I can put it like that. And that's why the erythrocyte, the red cells, have an abnormal shape. Very well-known what's causing it: a genetic problem." "So Pericles stands for prenatal therapy for Sickle Cell Disease. And what we are trying to achieve is to offer a third option to people who might carry a fetus affected by sickle cell disease. At the moment, the two options are stopping the pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or having an affected fetus and an unaffected baby and sick postnatal care. So our aim is to offer a third option, which is correcting the disease inside the womb so that the parents have a healthy baby. So correct the gene while the baby is inside the womb. And this is the main aim of the project." #KingsCollegeLondon #KCLResearch #GeneTherapy #PrenatalCare #Hematology #Genomics #EmpoweredPatient #PERICLES #SickleCellDisease #SickleCellAwareness #PreconceptionCare #BeforePregnancy #PregnancyPlanning #CarrierScreening #GeneticCounselling #ReproductiveChoices #PrenatalDiagnosis #PrenatalTherapy #InUteroTherapy #GeneEditing #StemCellTherapy #FetalMedicine #MaternalFetalMedicine #HighRiskPregnancy #IVFJourney #PGTM #PatientVoice #PatientEmpowerment #SharedDecisionMaking #HealthEquity #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalisedMedicine #FutureOfMedicine /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187440

Significance of Real-World Data in the Development of Reliable Disease Registries and Smarter Clinical Trials with Mark Larkin Vitaccess TRANSCRIPT 07/27/2026

Significance of Real-World Data in the Development of Reliable Disease Registries and Smarter Clinical Trials with Mark Larkin Vitaccess TRANSCRIPT Mark Larkin, Founder and CEO of Vitaccess, leverages real-world patient data captured through mobile devices and wearables, combined with EMRs, claims data, and registries, to generate insights beyond the scope of traditional clinical trials. The company maintains proprietary disease registries, notably in myasthenia gravis, enabling researchers to compare treatment efficacy, side effects, and patient adherence to therapies in their daily lives. By linking diverse data sources and identifying comorbidities, the platform informs drug development, regulatory decisions, and the personalization of treatment matching. Mark explains, "Our mission is about patient-centric, science-driven research. That's how we do real-world research. We think that's a powerful way to combine scientific rigor with putting the patient at the heart of what we do. People are probably familiar with the idea that real-world data and real-world evidence are complementary to clinical trials. They don't have the same levels of scrutiny or the same designs, but nonetheless, if we do it properly, we should make it as rigorous as possible so the data can be used by many different audiences. Putting the patient at the heart of our designs means we can be in the best position to quantify the patient experience. That's really what we do, perhaps in the simplest terms." "Well, I'd say that real-world data is a very broad church. There's lots of different types of data. Where I think you are referring to is data generated directly from patients, the patient-reported data. And I'll come back to that in a second, but it also includes a wide range of other data types and sources. So it could be electronic medical records. In the United States, very commonly it's claims data. There are registries." #Vitaccess #RealWorldEvidence #PatientCentricity #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #PatientReportedOutcomes #Wearables #RareDisease #HealthData #PatientInsights #RWE #HEOR #MyastheniaGravis #CIDP /episode/index/show/empoweredpatient/id/42187355

Empowered Patient Podcast

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