Empowered Patient Podcast

Adrian Mendes, Chief Executive Officer at Perimeter Medical,  has developed a platform that uses AI and optical coherence tormography (OCT) imaging to provide surgeons with real-time visualization of tumor margins during breast cancer surgery.  By scanning while the patient is still in the operating room the platform enables surgeons to identify cancerous cells at the margins and remove addiional tissue, eliminating the need for delayed pathology review and possible additional surgery. This technology benefits all stakeholders- the patients avoid repeat surgery, surgeons see a higher success rate, hospitals optimize operating room utilization, and payers have reduced costs.  Adrian explains, "So fundamentally, the challenge that we see out there in cancer surgery, and specifically in breast cancer surgery, is that there's a very high rate of patients who have to come back in for a second surgery. For breast cancer, it's about one in every four to one in every five patients who go through breast cancer surgery who have to come back again because a surgeon unfortunately wasn't able to remove all the cancer. And so we help them with that." "What we do is we have a product that has an imaging system in it that uses a unique modality type of imaging that has very high resolution. And with that, the surgeons can, in real time, look within the margin of the tumor and inspect it and then make a decision on whether they need to take more tissue right there in that first surgery because they see some cancerous cells in that margin or not." "Fundamentally, the goal of a surgery, a cancer surgery, the way it's judged as being successful or not, is if they're able to remove the tumor and have a few millimeters thick of clean margin, no cancerous cells within that two-millimeter margin, and then that would be considered a successful surgery. And it's very hard to do. And not being able to do that is what leads to that very high re-operation rate." #PerimeterMedical #BreastCancer #Healthcare #ArtificialIntelligence #AIinHealthcare #DigitalHealth #MedTech #CancerCare #MedicalImaging #BreastCancerSurgery #SurgicalOncology #AIinMedicine #MedTech #ORInnovation #HealthcareAI #FDAApproved #PatientOutcomes perimetermed.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Neil Inhaber, VP and Head of Global Medical Affairs at Takeda,  highlights the complexities of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection following organ transplantation when a patient's immune system is suppressed. Managing post-transplant CMV is particularly challenging because treatments must balance the risk of organ rejection and the need for immunosuppressive and anti-CMV therapies. Neil explains, "Takeda has been involved in the development of anti-infectives that target post-transplant cytomegalovirus or CMV infection. And this is an area that really has been a challenge for clinicians for as long as I've been in practice. When I first entered practice 40 years ago, I was taking care of lung transplant patients, and then I joined industry about 20 years ago to focus on the industry side. And this is something that's been present even since I was in practice."   "When you think about cytomegalovirus in general, this is not a problem in the general population because about 50% of the population is infected is a strong word, but certainly is colonized with cytomegalovirus. So, for example, I might be carrying it, and I might be one of those 50%. For me, it's no problem at all because my immune system can keep it under control. If I were in a situation where I would need to have my immune system suppressed following an organ transplantation, that is when there is the possibility for the cytomegalovirus to activate."  #Takeda #Maribavir #TransplantID #CMVAwareness #TransplantMedicine #CMV #InfectiousDisease #OrganTransplant #RealWorldEvidence #TransplantInfectiousDisease #MedicalAffairs #HealthcareInnovation Takeda.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Craig Tanio, Co-Founder of Rezilir Health,  is taking a precision medicine approach to cognitive decline that combines objective performance metrics, identification of root causes, and practical interventions to achieve measurable improvements. This strategy addresses fundamentals including diet, exercise, sleep, cognitive engagement and stress management while looking at underlying drivers such as chronic infections, inflamation, and environmental factors. Craig points out that the healthcare system is gradually recognizing the value of a preventative multimodal approach to the decline in brain health and the value of early diagnosis of cognitive decline, the integration of lifestyle modifications, along with targeted medical interventions. Craig explains, "With cognitive health, the fundamental approach is really around precision medicine. We're looking to help our patients find practical answers to improving cognitive decline by getting A, objective metrics of how their performance is today. B, understanding some of the root causes that can drive cognitive decline, and again, measuring those appropriately. And then C, coming up with a practical strategy in which they can see movement in objective and subjective markers within six months."   "We see three main types of patients. I think we see a group of patients who might have subjective cognitive impairment, or they're seeking aggressive prevention, usually because a parent or close relative has Alzheimer's or cognitive decline and they're very motivated to address it. B, there might be somebody who comes in with mild cognitive impairment and is experiencing symptoms, but let's say their MOCA, their Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is in the low 20s, so they have mild cognitive impairment but not significant impairment of activities of daily living. And then the third is when the disease has progressed more readily and is in the advanced stage beyond mild dementia." #RezilirHealth #RezilirWay #PrecisionMedicine #BrainHealth #EarlyDetection #RootCause #CognitivHealth #Dementia #AlzheimersAwareness #Neurology #LongevityMedicine #HealthSpan #PreventiveMedicine #IntegrativeMedicine #HealthcareInnovation rezilirhealth.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, discusses the company's virus-based approach for treating multiple tumor types. Their lead therapy is an oral drug and an engineered adenovirus injected into tumors to deliver a gene that educates the patient's immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells throughout the body. Unlike personalized tumor vaccine approaches, this drug is an off-the-shelf medicine that generates an individualized anti-tumor immune response and is showing encouraging data in trials in pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. Paul Peter explains, "Our mission is really to improve patients' lives, whether this is about patients with early localized prostate cancer, for example, who want to live without cancer, or patients at the other side of the spectrum. For example, patients with metastatic, progressive non-small cell lung cancer, a form of lung cancer, who have run out of options, where we try to extend their life with a good quality of life. So basically, we want to improve patients' clinical outcomes." "We have two investigational medicines that are both engineered viruses. So we try to change the viruses so they do something useful and good for the health of patients. And our lead asset, our lead medicine that's under development, is called aglatimagene. And it's an engineered adenovirus. So it's an adenovirus that cannot replicate, cannot make you sick, but we use it to deliver a gene to the tumor by injecting it into the tumor. And viruses are very good at transporting genes. We hijack that mechanism to get the beneficial effect. And ultimately, we combine aglatimagene with a tablet. So tablets that are taken orally for two weeks are activated under the influence of the virus in the tumor. And that will ultimately lead to the education of the patient's own immune cells in such a way that these immune cells start to recognize and eliminate the tumor cells throughout the body." #CandelTherapeutics $CADL #Oncology #Biotech #ClinicalTrials #ProstateCancer #LungCancer #SolidTumors #OncologyInnovation #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #Immunooncology #ViralImmunotherapy Candeltx.com Download the transcript here 

Al Gianchetti, CEO of Nuevocor,  discusses genetic cardiomyopathies, an underdiagnosed condition that might explain multigenerational heart failure. Current treatments include beta blockers, pacemakers, and heart transplants but do not alter the course of the disease.  Because of multiple gene mutations, Nuevocor is developing a precision therapy for LMNA-related cardiomyopathy based on mechanobiology that prevents cardiac cell death using a method different from gene replacement and gene editing. Al explains, "We're focused on genetic cardiomyopathies, and our lead drug, NVC001 in particular, is focusing first on LMNA cardiomyopathy, and LMNA is a specific gene mutation. We're focusing on LMNA-related cardiomyopathy for several reasons. First of all, it's one of the most severe forms of genetic cardiomyopathy, with a very poor prognosis for patients and their families who have the genetic mutation."   "The second reason is that although it's a rare disease, it affects a fairly large number of people. For example, about 50,000 people in the United States are estimated to have LMNA-related cardiomyopathy. The third reason is that this disease is not amenable to gene replacement strategies where you're replacing the defective gene. The size of the trans gene that's required doesn't make it amenable to current gene therapy viral vectors. Finally, because there are multiple gene mutations, it's not amenable to gene editing." #Nuevocor #DrugDiscovery #Innovation #Biotech #Cardiology #GeneTherapy #GeneticCardiomyopathy #HeartFailure #LMNACardiomyopathy #PrecisionMedicine #RareDisease #ClinicalTrials nuevocor.com Download the transcript here