Lilly Stairs, Founder Patient Authentic People Always, Patients Sometimes

Tom Rhoads (00:03):
Welcome to "People Always, Patients Sometimes". I'm Tom Rhodes, CEO of Spencer Health Solutions. Our podcast is focused on many of the thought leaders and executives that are calling for change and how we design and run clinical trials. We have also had patient advocates on the program like Jen Horonjeff, of the Savvy Cooperative, Pam Gavin of NORD and Barby Ingle of the International Pain Foundation. Our mission at Spencer Health Solutions is to ensure that patients are at the center of everything we do. So we are pleased to kick off a series of interviews with more patient advocates, influencers, and organizations that are focused on bringing the patient experience to the forefront of the conversation in healthcare. Kicking off our series is a conversation with Lilly Stairs and leading patient advocate advisor and founder of Patient Authentic. I know you'll find her conversation with Janet Kennedy, as interesting as I did.
Janet Kennedy (01:01):
"People Always, Patients Sometimes" podcast is about the change agents in healthcare who are focused on patient experience, patient engagement, or disrupting the process of clinical trials to be more patient-centric. Our guest today certainly fits that bill. Lilly Stairs is a nationally recognized patient advocate, speaker, author, and innovator. She has recently founded a new company, Patient Authentic, which I look forward to hearing more about on "People Always, Patients Sometimes." Welcome to the podcast. Lilly!
Lilly Stairs (01:33):
Thanks so much for having me, Janet. It's always a pleasure to connect with you.
Janet Kennedy (01:38):
I think entrepreneurship is a big challenge and as a patient advocate where you're already facing a series of your own personal challenges, as well as challenges in the workforce. Wow. What made you think about starting your own company?
Lilly Stairs (01:55):
Well, Janet, I will also say that I didn't plan to start a company the year that we ended up with a worldwide pandemic, but here we are to add that challenge to the list too. But yeah, I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. From a very young age, I was always creative and started choreographing for a kids' theater program and took the helm there. And then in high school, I started an anti-bullying program that ended up touring around our local schools in Massachusetts. When I got to college that is when I started my patient advocacy work. And because I was diagnosed with a few different auto-immune diseases I started a campaign to raise awareness about people who were living with auto-immune diseases. There are an estimated 50 million Americans who are living with auto-immune diseases. It was called the 50 cents for 50 million. I have spent most of my career in health tech startups. It just felt right to jump in and take the plunge and make a bet on myself and start Patient Authentic.
Janet Kennedy (03:17):
I imagine your first 30 days you were feeling pretty euphoric and then February came and you probably started to be a little nervous. So COVID, how has that impacted your life and impacted your work?
Lilly Stairs (03:31):
Well, I think it's really, and I don't think this is an exaggeration, it's turned my life and everyone's lives upside down. And I, as somebody who is considered high risk because I am immunocompromised due to the medication that I am on, which depresses my immune system to treat my auto-immune diseases is certainly scary and carries a lot of weight. I am fortunate that from a work perspective, all of us in healthcare, I think have been quite busy, which is important. We've stayed busy trying to do what we can to support patients. And so from a work perspective, all has been really good. It's just that we've got a lot of COVID focused projects now. And then from a personal perspective, I think that honestly, it's been hard because it's isolating and I think a lot of people are feeling that, and there's always the fear that people are