Empowered Patient Podcast

Karen Jagoda

Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda is a window into the latest innovations in digital health, the changing dynamic between doctors and patients, and the emergence of precision medicine. The show covers such topics as aging in place, innovative uses for wearables and sensors, advances in clinical research, applied genetics, drug development, and challenges for connected health entrepreneurs.

  1. 54 MIN AGO · BONUS

    Reconstructive Surgery Reimagined with 3D Printed Custom Implants with Vikram Ahuja and Joe Promoppatam OsseoLabs TRANSCRIPT

    Vikram Ahuja, Co-Founder and CEO, and Joe Promoppatam, Co-Founder and CTO of OsseoLabs, are utilizing 3D printing and AI to advance reconstructive surgery by enabling the creation of personalized, precision-fit implants and surgical instruments. Traditional surgery has relied on standardized implants made of titanium and involves lengthy operations. The OsseoLabs approach reduces surgical planning and operating time, improving patient outcomes by achieving a better fit and enhanced bone integration through the use of advanced implant materials. AI is used to automate and accelerate the design process for these custom devices, enabling a scalable and cost-effective approach to create complex, regulated medical devices. Vikram explains, "We want to use our engineering know-how, especially in 3D printing, to improve the quality of the outcome of the surgeries and also help the students to be able to offer a better solution at a speed, and also the outcome that is a little bit more precise. And that's what we have been working on for quite a long time. We want to use the knowledge of 3D printing, biomechanics, and also AI to help, especially in complex surgical cases. So both the patients and the surgeons are better off with the outcome. And the main gap that we are seeing here is not only in the Asian countries where we operate, but also in the US. And the use of 3D presented implants, even though it has been around for quite some time in the US, we still see a lot of gaps that can be improved in what materials are being used, and how the implants are designed. We help the surgeons and also the hospitals throughout this process." Joe elaborates, "Yes, for such a device, they all look the same way, but the patients look different. So we see this gap between the available instrumentation and the actual treatment that the surgeons want to conduct. And we want to break that barrier by being able to decide which instrument is required individually, and I mean that in the day, we could not do that. The price can be competitive because all the manufacturing technology is used to support production. But we have to depend on how they matured in the past few years. We are able to adopt the technology, which allows us to decide and print the instrument for specific care and specific surgery. I think the speed and cost become much more practical, and all we need to look into is the 3D printer. But eventually, when you come into something like customization, you talk about the speed. In terms of speed, it's not just the speed of how we make things, but it's about the speed of how we decide things. That's where we see the gap that we can fill using AI to split up the bedside process."   #OsseoLabs #ReconstructiveSurgery #3DPrinting #PersonalizedImplants #MedAI OsseoLabs.com Listen to the podcast here

  2. 1 HR AGO

    Reconstructive Surgery Reimagined with 3D Printed Custom Implants with Vikram Ahuja and Joe Promoppatam OsseoLabs

    Vikram Ahuja, Co-Founder and CEO, and Joe Promoppatam, Co-Founder and CTO of OsseoLabs, are utilizing 3D printing and AI to advance reconstructive surgery by enabling the creation of personalized, precision-fit implants and surgical instruments. Traditional surgery has relied on standardized implants made of titanium and involves lengthy operations. The OsseoLabs approach reduces surgical planning and operating time, improving patient outcomes by achieving a better fit and enhanced bone integration through the use of advanced implant materials. AI is used to automate and accelerate the design process for these custom devices, enabling a scalable and cost-effective approach to create complex, regulated medical devices. Vikram explains, "We want to use our engineering know-how, especially in 3D printing, to improve the quality of the outcome of the surgeries and also help the students to be able to offer a better solution at a speed, and also the outcome that is a little bit more precise. And that's what we have been working on for quite a long time. We want to use the knowledge of 3D printing, biomechanics, and also AI to help, especially in complex surgical cases. So both the patients and the surgeons are better off with the outcome. And the main gap that we are seeing here is not only in the Asian countries where we operate, but also in the US. And the use of 3D presented implants, even though it has been around for quite some time in the US, we still see a lot of gaps that can be improved in what materials are being used, and how the implants are designed. We help the surgeons and also the hospitals throughout this process." Joe elaborates, "Yes, for such a device, they all look the same way, but the patients look different. So we see this gap between the available instrumentation and the actual treatment that the surgeons want to conduct. And we want to break that barrier by being able to decide which instrument is required individually, and I mean that in the day, we could not do that. The price can be competitive because all the manufacturing technology is used to support production. But we have to depend on how they matured in the past few years. We are able to adopt the technology, which allows us to decide and print the instrument for specific care and specific surgery. I think the speed and cost become much more practical, and all we need to look into is the 3D printer. But eventually, when you come into something like customization, you talk about the speed. In terms of speed, it's not just the speed of how we make things, but it's about the speed of how we decide things. That's where we see the gap that we can fill using AI to split up the bedside process."   #OsseoLabs #ReconstructiveSurgery #3DPrinting #PersonalizedImplants #MedAI OsseoLabs.com Download the transcript here

    17 min
  3. 1 DAY AGO · BONUS

    AI Agent Automates Clinical Trial Recruitment Fast Tracking Drug Development with Trân Lê Grove AI TRANSCRIPT

    Trân Lê, Co-Founder and CEO of Grove AI,  was founded to automate the manual and inefficient workflows in clinical trial recruitment, patient engagement, and support. The company's AI agent, Grace, is trained on specific trial protocols and approved scripts to respond to patient questions about pre-screening, logistics, and scheduling appointments. This platform aims to increase speed and quality of participant recruitment, improve representation, and expand accessibility to clinical trials by offering support in over 19 languages and providing access to information on demand. Trân explains, "The birth of Grove really came from my co-founder, Sohit, and his experience working in the hospital. We were working at Stanford, and there we were, computer scientists building a lot of internal tools for clinical trials, clinical research, as well as for the greater healthcare patient services. And that, combined with my experience trying to enroll in a clinical trial, really set us off to think deeply about how we can automate a lot of the manual workflows that exist today for patients and for providers, as well as for pharma in taking new drugs to market. Specifically, within that, we identified patient engagement and support, and prescreening to be an important part of ensuring that patients know where they're going and what to do when they're participating in these trials. And so we decided to really step out into the industry and change this process and make it an easier and more accessible experience for patients."   "I would say that having worked inside a hospital and seeing all of this lead generation or getting people educated about the trial is an important aspect, and it's being done by a lot of the recruitment vendors as well as in-house teams out there. In addition to that, a bottleneck that previously has always been there now is possible to automate with agentic AI is actually doing the work of taking all the interest from different potential patients and helping them prescreen and understand the requirements of the trials, getting them to the right site, booking their transportation, reminding them about the appointments, and scheduling that appointment."   "I would say that Grace, as we call her, is a digital staff or an AI agent - both are comparable terms to describe Grace. The difference is that Grace is trained on the trial, the requirements, and the IRB-approved script of that trial. So she really has the knowledge to be able to respond spontaneously in real time to any questions that the participant may have about the trial." #GroveAI #ClinicalTrials #PatientRecruitment #Pharma #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #AI #AgenticAI grovetrials.com Listen to the podcast here

  4. 1 DAY AGO

    AI Agent Automates Clinical Trial Recruitment Fast Tracking Drug Development with Trân Lê Grove AI

    Trân Lê, Co-Founder and CEO of Grove AI,  was founded to automate the manual and inefficient workflows in clinical trial recruitment, patient engagement, and support. The company's AI agent, Grace, is trained on specific trial protocols and approved scripts to respond to patient questions about pre-screening, logistics, and scheduling appointments. This platform aims to increase speed and quality of participant recruitment, improve representation, and expand accessibility to clinical trials by offering support in over 19 languages and providing access to information on demand. Trân explains, "The birth of Grove really came from my co-founder, Sohit, and his experience working in the hospital. We were working at Stanford, and there we were, computer scientists building a lot of internal tools for clinical trials, clinical research, as well as for the greater healthcare patient services. And that, combined with my experience trying to enroll in a clinical trial, really set us off to think deeply about how we can automate a lot of the manual workflows that exist today for patients and for providers, as well as for pharma in taking new drugs to market. Specifically, within that, we identified patient engagement and support, and prescreening to be an important part of ensuring that patients know where they're going and what to do when they're participating in these trials. And so we decided to really step out into the industry and change this process and make it an easier and more accessible experience for patients."   "I would say that having worked inside a hospital and seeing all of this lead generation or getting people educated about the trial is an important aspect, and it's being done by a lot of the recruitment vendors as well as in-house teams out there. In addition to that, a bottleneck that previously has always been there now is possible to automate with agentic AI is actually doing the work of taking all the interest from different potential patients and helping them prescreen and understand the requirements of the trials, getting them to the right site, booking their transportation, reminding them about the appointments, and scheduling that appointment."   "I would say that Grace, as we call her, is a digital staff or an AI agent - both are comparable terms to describe Grace. The difference is that Grace is trained on the trial, the requirements, and the IRB-approved script of that trial. So she really has the knowledge to be able to respond spontaneously in real time to any questions that the participant may have about the trial." #GroveAI #ClinicalTrials #PatientRecruitment #Pharma #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #AI #AgenticAI grovetrials.com Download the transcript here

    19 min
  5. 2 DAYS AGO · BONUS

    Multi-Target Approach Using Chemotherapy Drug Combo Shows Potential Across Cancer Types with Jeff Glazier General Oncology TRANSCRIPT

    Jeff Glazier, CEO of General Oncology, is taking a unique approach to treating cancer by using older chemotherapy drugs with broad action but in novel combinations designed to avoid the incidental toxicity.  Their primary drug in trials is GO-4 which is focused on shutting down DNA repair in cancer cells to overcome drug resistance.  While testing in patients with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, this approach was designed to combat tumor heterogeneity by targeting fundamental processes like proliferation that are common to all cancer cells within a tumor. Jeff explains, "We're actually taking a different approach than a lot of companies are. And I would say there are really two approaches because we have two different things on, we have a clinical trial right now where we're using old chemotherapy drugs in a new way, and when you combine them together, you really get just a different result. We're trying to shut down DNA repair and kill cancer cells. But the other really interesting thing, and I think it’s underlying general vision, is chemotherapy drugs long ago had very broad action, and with broad action comes unwanted incidental toxicity. And over the years, it's been huge in the industry, or moving towards specific drugs that target specific things and have less incidental toxicity. The unfortunate side effect is that cancer cells can evolve around a drug if there's too much specificity. So we're taking a pretty novel approach with our business of going after drugs that have broad action, but we found a way, we believe, to do it in a way that doesn't have incidental toxicity." "I certainly feel that you want to have more than one attack. If you only do one, the cancer cells can evolve around it. The drug resistance approach I was referring to was what we call GO-4 in our clinical trial, and we're altering part of the cancer cells’ fundamental biology that is involved in DNA repair and shutting it down. But we're doing it in more than one way."   #GeneralOncology #PancreaticCancer #CancerAwareness #MetastaticCancer #GO4Therapy #CancerResearch #InnovativeTherapies #DrugDevelopment generaloncology.com  Listen to the podcast here

  6. 2 DAYS AGO

    Multi-Target Approach Using Chemotherapy Drug Combo Shows Potential Across Cancer Types with Jeff Glazier General Oncology

    Jeff Glazier, CEO of General Oncology, is taking a unique approach to treating cancer by using older chemotherapy drugs with broad action but in novel combinations designed to avoid the incidental toxicity.  Their primary drug in trials is GO-4 which is focused on shutting down DNA repair in cancer cells to overcome drug resistance.  While testing in patients with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, this approach was designed to combat tumor heterogeneity by targeting fundamental processes like proliferation that are common to all cancer cells within a tumor. Jeff explains, "We're actually taking a different approach than a lot of companies are. And I would say there are really two approaches because we have two different things on, we have a clinical trial right now where we're using old chemotherapy drugs in a new way, and when you combine them together, you really get just a different result. We're trying to shut down DNA repair and kill cancer cells. But the other really interesting thing, and I think it’s underlying general vision, is chemotherapy drugs long ago had very broad action, and with broad action comes unwanted incidental toxicity. And over the years, it's been huge in the industry, or moving towards specific drugs that target specific things and have less incidental toxicity. The unfortunate side effect is that cancer cells can evolve around a drug if there's too much specificity. So we're taking a pretty novel approach with our business of going after drugs that have broad action, but we found a way, we believe, to do it in a way that doesn't have incidental toxicity." "I certainly feel that you want to have more than one attack. If you only do one, the cancer cells can evolve around it. The drug resistance approach I was referring to was what we call GO-4 in our clinical trial, and we're altering part of the cancer cells’ fundamental biology that is involved in DNA repair and shutting it down. But we're doing it in more than one way."   #GeneralOncology #PancreaticCancer #CancerAwareness #MetastaticCancer #GO4Therapy #CancerResearch #InnovativeTherapies #DrugDevelopment generaloncology.com Download the transcript here

    17 min
  7. 5 DAYS AGO · BONUS

    Microlearning and Just-In-Time Tools Help Close the Policy-to-Practice Gap for Healthcare Workers with Dr. Arup Roy-Burman Elemeno Health TRANSCRIPT

    Dr. Arup Roy-Burman, Founder and Chief Strategy and Medical Officer of Elemeno Health, is addressing the gap between established medical policies and actual frontline practice. The Elemeno microlearning platform provides just-in-time multimedia content, building confidence in high-risk, low-frequency procedures, helping support knowledge retention, and combating clinician burnout. This modern approach to learning caters to clinicians with shorter attention spans and the expectation of receiving information on the device of their choice when they need it. Arup explains, "My background is as an ICU physician, and I have practiced as an ICU director for 20-plus years. And the challenge that we had in our ICUs is how to keep our teams on the same page with constantly changing information? And on top of that, in the context of constantly changing staff, medicine is full of so many different practices, workflows, and procedures, and we expect our staff to know all of them and to be able to execute on each one of them at the time that they need to. But that's really unrealistic. There's no way that people can stay on top of it. All medical knowledge doubles every 73 days."   "When we think about today's generational workforce, as we think about just those of us who have kids, we see that attention spans, as you said, are short. People don't want to sit through a whole classroom. They can't remember that. And the way that people want to learn now and the way that they do learn, it's like one of our clients put it, it's like the "TikTokification of education." How do we deliver information on a mobile device? How do we deliver it in short, bite-sized chunks? Multimedia that you can actually consume in context when you need it." #ElemenoHealth #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Microlearning #NurseTraining  elemenohealth.com Listen to the podcast here

  8. 5 DAYS AGO

    Microlearning and Just-In-Time Tools Help Close the Policy-to-Practice Gap for Healthcare Workers with Dr. Arup Roy-Burman Elemeno Health

    Dr. Arup Roy-Burman, Founder and Chief Strategy and Medical Officer of Elemeno Health, is addressing the gap between established medical policies and actual frontline practice. The Elemeno microlearning platform provides just-in-time multimedia content, building confidence in high-risk, low-frequency procedures, helping support knowledge retention, and combating clinician burnout. This modern approach to learning caters to clinicians with shorter attention spans and the expectation of receiving information on the device of their choice when they need it. Arup explains, "My background is as an ICU physician, and I have practiced as an ICU director for 20-plus years. And the challenge that we had in our ICUs is how to keep our teams on the same page with constantly changing information? And on top of that, in the context of constantly changing staff, medicine is full of so many different practices, workflows, and procedures, and we expect our staff to know all of them and to be able to execute on each one of them at the time that they need to. But that's really unrealistic. There's no way that people can stay on top of it. All medical knowledge doubles every 73 days."   "When we think about today's generational workforce, as we think about just those of us who have kids, we see that attention spans, as you said, are short. People don't want to sit through a whole classroom. They can't remember that. And the way that people want to learn now and the way that they do learn, it's like one of our clients put it, it's like the "TikTokification of education." How do we deliver information on a mobile device? How do we deliver it in short, bite-sized chunks? Multimedia that you can actually consume in context when you need it." #ElemenoHealth #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Microlearning #NurseTraining  elemenohealth.com Download the transcript here

    24 min

About

Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda is a window into the latest innovations in digital health, the changing dynamic between doctors and patients, and the emergence of precision medicine. The show covers such topics as aging in place, innovative uses for wearables and sensors, advances in clinical research, applied genetics, drug development, and challenges for connected health entrepreneurs.

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