Advertise on podcast: Empowered Patient Podcast

Richard Foust, President and CEO of Mobia Medical, discusses their FDA-approved implantable neurostimulation technology designed to improve hand and arm function in ischemic stroke survivors. When paired with task-specific rehabilitation therapy, this process enhances neuroplasticity, allowing the brain to form stronger neural connections around areas affected by stroke. With clinical results showing durable, meaningful improvements, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association have included Mobia Medical in their guidelines for adult stroke rehabilitation and recovery.  Richard explains, "We have a technology called Vivistim, and that technology has been pioneered for what I call the recovery phase of stroke. It's a technology that stimulates the vagus nerve and allows patients to recover and improve their hand and arm function, kind of six months or later after their stroke. It's a brand-new therapy that was recently approved by the FDA and has been on the market since 2023."   "So it has two components. This is a 45-minute outpatient procedure. You obviously have to be qualified by both a surgeon as well as a therapist, but it's a technology that's implanted in the chest, very similar to a pacemaker. And then a lead is placed around the vagus nerve. And it's a procedure that, in a similar form and fashion, has been implanted in the United States over 175,000 times. It's done by a neurosurgeon. It's a fairly straightforward procedure that's very safe." #MobiaMedical #StrokeRecovery #Neurostimulation #Vivistim #MedicalDevice #StrokeRehab #Neuroplasticity #VagusNerve #DigitalHealth #MedTech #HealthcareInnovation #PatientOutcomes #AHA #ASA #StrokeSurvivor #Rehabilitation #BrainRecovery mobia.com Listen to the podcast here

Richard Foust, President and CEO of Mobia Medical, discusses their FDA-approved implantable neurostimulation technology designed to improve hand and arm function in ischemic stroke survivors. When paired with task-specific rehabilitation therapy, this process enhances neuroplasticity, allowing the brain to form stronger neural connections around areas affected by stroke. With clinical results showing durable, meaningful improvements, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association have included Mobia Medical in their guidelines for adult stroke rehabilitation and recovery.  Richard explains, "We have a technology called Vivistim, and that technology has been pioneered for what I call the recovery phase of stroke. It's a technology that stimulates the vagus nerve and allows patients to recover and improve their hand and arm function, kind of six months or later after their stroke. It's a brand-new therapy that was recently approved by the FDA and has been on the market since 2023."   "So it has two components. This is a 45-minute outpatient procedure. You obviously have to be qualified by both a surgeon as well as a therapist, but it's a technology that's implanted in the chest, very similar to a pacemaker. And then a lead is placed around the vagus nerve. And it's a procedure that, in a similar form and fashion, has been implanted in the United States over 175,000 times. It's done by a neurosurgeon. It's a fairly straightforward procedure that's very safe." #MobiaMedical #StrokeRecovery #Neurostimulation #Vivistim #MedicalDevice #StrokeRehab #Neuroplasticity #VagusNerve #DigitalHealth #MedTech #HealthcareInnovation #PatientOutcomes #AHA #ASA #StrokeSurvivor #Rehabilitation #BrainRecovery mobia.com Download the transcript here

Rae McMahan, Senior VP for Payer Solutions at Prescryptive,  points out how the surge in demand for GLP-1 medications has exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the pharmaceutical ecosystem.  Rae highlights the growing role of direct-to-patient and manufacturer-sponsored programs as an alternative to the traditional pharmacy benefits manager model. Looking ahead, there are opportunities to transform drug access by improving price-comparison technology, expanding direct access models, reducing complexity around options, and ultimately lowering costs for patients.  Rae explains, "We have commercial clients, patients from a pharmacy benefit perspective. We work directly with drug manufacturers on sourcing their products for a direct non-rebated price. And then we also work very closely with pharmacies, contracting with pharmacies. And then we also work with a few other entities on routing prescriptions. So we work on all nodes, if you will, of the pharmacy ecosystem as our clients are today."   "The disease states that the GLP-1s cover not only diabetes, but of course obesity, and some of the other add-on therapies, such as sleep apnea and others, have shown that it's an amazing, powerful drug, and it is very much changing people's lives. With that awesome technology, a number of drug companies have also come out with an extreme cost. Our employers, and even you could say payers broadly, have not determined how they can afford it in the current model today, given the number of people who can meet the clinical criteria for these specific drugs. And so the strength in that is that it's an awesome drug. The weakness is: how do we afford it, and how do we get it to patients at a level they can afford?" #PrescryptiveHealth #PrescriptionAccess #HealthcareTransparency #DrugPricing #HealthcarePolicy #HealthcareReform #PBMs #DirectAccessMarketplace #DirectToPatient #HealthcareInnovation #PatientChoice #GLP1s #PBMTransparency #PatientEmpowerment #PharmacyBenefit #GLP1 #DigitalHealth #PharmacyTrends #ClinicianTools #PrescriptionAccess #HealthcareAI prescryptive.com  Listen to the podcast here

Rae McMahan, Senior VP for Payer Solutions at Prescryptive,  points out how the surge in demand for GLP-1 medications has exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the pharmaceutical ecosystem.  Rae highlights the growing role of direct-to-patient and manufacturer-sponsored programs as an alternative to the traditional pharmacy benefits manager model. Looking ahead, there are opportunities to transform drug access by improving price-comparison technology, expanding direct access models, reducing complexity around options, and ultimately lowering costs for patients.  Rae explains, "We have commercial clients, patients from a pharmacy benefit perspective. We work directly with drug manufacturers on sourcing their products for a direct non-rebated price. And then we also work very closely with pharmacies, contracting with pharmacies. And then we also work with a few other entities on routing prescriptions. So we work on all nodes, if you will, of the pharmacy ecosystem as our clients are today."   "The disease states that the GLP-1s cover not only diabetes, but of course obesity, and some of the other add-on therapies, such as sleep apnea and others, have shown that it's an amazing, powerful drug, and it is very much changing people's lives. With that awesome technology, a number of drug companies have also come out with an extreme cost. Our employers, and even you could say payers broadly, have not determined how they can afford it in the current model today, given the number of people who can meet the clinical criteria for these specific drugs. And so the strength in that is that it's an awesome drug. The weakness is: how do we afford it, and how do we get it to patients at a level they can afford?" #PrescryptiveHealth #PrescriptionAccess #HealthcareTransparency #DrugPricing #HealthcarePolicy #HealthcareReform #PBMs #DirectAccessMarketplace #DirectToPatient #HealthcareInnovation #PatientChoice #GLP1s #PBMTransparency #PatientEmpowerment #PharmacyBenefit #GLP1 #DigitalHealth #PharmacyTrends #ClinicianTools #PrescriptionAccess #HealthcareAI prescryptive.com  Download the transcript here

John Hanna, President and CEO of CareDx, discussed how the company's blood-based molecular diagnostic testing is transforming patient monitoring for organ transplantation, HPV-driven cancers, and hematologic malignancies. These molecular tools provide early warning signals months ahead of conventional methods, enabling clinicians to intervene proactively rather than reactively. Longitudinal data allow providers to track trends over time and detect cancer recurrence, helping reduce the need for biopsies and other invasive monitoring procedures. John explains, "CareDx is a precision medicine diagnostics company that develops products that are mainly blood-based tests to help patients who have had organ transplants, cancer, solid tumors, as well as hematologic malignancies. But as a company, we do much more. We're really a solutions provider in that we support the clinician practices and patients we service with software tools and workflow optimization, and we also operate a very large pharmacy business and fill prescriptions for the patients that get our blood-based testing." "It is a very well-integrated model, and we really pride ourselves on how we support the clinician's practice in the management of their patients. If you think about, for example, an organ transplant patient, these are individuals who had a very high burden of disease. Maybe they had a heart transplant, and you invested a lot of clinical practice time and money in getting that patient a new organ. You want to monitor them closely and ensure you're taking care of the graft and its survival. And so our services allow the practice to seamlessly monitor that patient, both with blood-based testing as well as with software tools. And it really makes the practice of medicine more seamless so that they can treat more patients and be more effective as a provider." #CareDx #PrecisionMedicine #TransplantOncology #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #OrganTransplant #KidneyTransplant #HeartTransplant #LungTransplant   #MinimalResidualDisease #MolecularDiagnostics #AIinHealthcare #CellTherapy #Oncology caredx.com Listen to the podcast here

John Hanna, President and CEO of CareDx, discussed how the company's blood-based molecular diagnostic testing is transforming patient monitoring for organ transplantation, HPV-driven cancers, and hematologic malignancies. These molecular tools provide early warning signals months ahead of conventional methods, enabling clinicians to intervene proactively rather than reactively. Longitudinal data allow providers to track trends over time and detect cancer recurrence, helping reduce the need for biopsies and other invasive monitoring procedures. John explains, "CareDx is a precision medicine diagnostics company that develops products that are mainly blood-based tests to help patients who have had organ transplants, cancer, solid tumors, as well as hematologic malignancies. But as a company, we do much more. We're really a solutions provider in that we support the clinician practices and patients we service with software tools and workflow optimization, and we also operate a very large pharmacy business and fill prescriptions for the patients that get our blood-based testing." "It is a very well-integrated model, and we really pride ourselves on how we support the clinician's practice in the management of their patients. If you think about, for example, an organ transplant patient, these are individuals who had a very high burden of disease. Maybe they had a heart transplant, and you invested a lot of clinical practice time and money in getting that patient a new organ. You want to monitor them closely and ensure you're taking care of the graft and its survival. And so our services allow the practice to seamlessly monitor that patient, both with blood-based testing as well as with software tools. And it really makes the practice of medicine more seamless so that they can treat more patients and be more effective as a provider." #CareDx #PrecisionMedicine #TransplantOncology #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #OrganTransplant #KidneyTransplant #HeartTransplant #LungTransplant   #MinimalResidualDisease #MolecularDiagnostics #AIinHealthcare #CellTherapy #Oncology caredx.com Download the transcript here

Samantha Dale Strasser, VP of Strategy at Cellular Intelligence, is developing an AI-native platform to decode how cells communicate and signal with each other using a proprietary capsule technology to collect massive datasets on cellular behavior.  The data is used to train functional virtual cell signaling models that predict and control cell fate, accelerating drug discovery and regenerative medicine applications.  Currently, Cellular Intelligence is advancing a Parkinson's cell therapy program acquired from Novo Nordisk, which is showing promising safety results. Samantha explains, "So, big picture at Cellular Intelligence, we're actually driving at understanding the language of cells. So understanding how cells communicate, how they signal, and leveraging that to then understand how not only to understand and predict cell behavior, but also fundamentally control cell fate. And that's critical for drug discovery in patients, as it allows us a unique ability to then treat disease through areas such as design of protocols for regenerative medicine or looking at identification of new targets, prioritizing drugs. It really unlocks a wealth of applications when being able to understand how cells respond to signals."  "Cells themselves, if we take a step back, are the fundamental unit of biology and how we function as a system. And it has been looked at as a critical aspect to tease out and understand. However, the challenge has been really seeing this on a comprehensive scale. If you think about all the different signaling molecules, time dependencies, concentrations, you're left with an immense set of behaviors that can arise. And notably, cells at different states -different snapshots of how they behave - respond to signals differently. So there has been a challenge in the field of truly understanding comprehensively the language of how cells signal and then how to use that effectively for an application within drug discovery." #CellularIntelligence #CellTherapy #RegenerativeMedicine #DrugDiscovery #AIinHealthcare #ParkinsonsResearch #BiotechInnovation #PrecisionMedicine #CellSignaling #HealthcareAI #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #LifeSciences #STEMPD cellularintelligence.com Listen to the podcast here

Samantha Dale Strasser, VP of Strategy at Cellular Intelligence, is developing an AI-native platform to decode how cells communicate and signal with each other using a proprietary capsule technology to collect massive datasets on cellular behavior.  The data is used to train functional virtual cell signaling models that predict and control cell fate, accelerating drug discovery and regenerative medicine applications.  Currently, Cellular Intelligence is advancing a Parkinson's cell therapy program acquired from Novo Nordisk, which is showing promising safety results. Samantha explains, "So, big picture at Cellular Intelligence, we're actually driving at understanding the language of cells. So understanding how cells communicate, how they signal, and leveraging that to then understand how not only to understand and predict cell behavior, but also fundamentally control cell fate. And that's critical for drug discovery in patients, as it allows us a unique ability to then treat disease through areas such as design of protocols for regenerative medicine or looking at identification of new targets, prioritizing drugs. It really unlocks a wealth of applications when being able to understand how cells respond to signals."  "Cells themselves, if we take a step back, are the fundamental unit of biology and how we function as a system. And it has been looked at as a critical aspect to tease out and understand. However, the challenge has been really seeing this on a comprehensive scale. If you think about all the different signaling molecules, time dependencies, concentrations, you're left with an immense set of behaviors that can arise. And notably, cells at different states -different snapshots of how they behave - respond to signals differently. So there has been a challenge in the field of truly understanding comprehensively the language of how cells signal and then how to use that effectively for an application within drug discovery." #CellularIntelligence #CellTherapy #RegenerativeMedicine #DrugDiscovery #AIinHealthcare #ParkinsonsResearch #BiotechInnovation #PrecisionMedicine #CellSignaling #HealthcareAI #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #LifeSciences #STEMPD cellularintelligence.com Download the transcript here

Steve Beard, CEO of Covista, is addressing the growing healthcare workforce shortage through centers of learning that serve working adults, veterans, career changers, and internationally trained clinicians seeking domestic certification. Steve challenges the assumption that scale and quality are mutually exclusive and emphasizes that expanding training opportunities is essential to provide competent care by a diverse clinical workforce. Covista also focuses on students' and graduates' mental health to help them practice at the top of their license and avoid burnout. Steve explains, "Covista is the largest healthcare educator in the United States. We have over 100,000 students, and we produce about 28,000 clinicians a year. Our largest categories are medicine, nursing, social work, and veterinary medicine. And we have a host of other healthcare-focused and healthcare-adjacent programs. About 400,000 alumni provide care in a variety of different care delivery environments across the United States."   "We take to market five institutions, all post-secondary higher education, all with a focus on healthcare. But unlike lots of traditional higher ed, we don't go to market with a value proposition rooted in prestige or exclusivity. We go to market with a value proposition rooted in access. Our programs are set up to try to accommodate as many students as we believe can be successful in those programs. And what that means is that we serve what used to be known as the non-traditional student. This is the working adult who needs to go to school part-time or on weekends. This is a veteran, this is the career changer. This is a clinician trained outside the United States that needs to get certified here."   #Covista #HealthcareWorkforce #NursingEducation #HealthcareLeadership #ClinicalEducation #HealthcareInnovation #AIinHealthcare #NursingCareers #HealthEquity #MedicalEducation #HealthcareHeros covista.com Listen to the podcast here

Steve Beard, CEO of Covista, is addressing the growing healthcare workforce shortage through centers of learning that serve working adults, veterans, career changers, and internationally trained clinicians seeking domestic certification. Steve challenges the assumption that scale and quality are mutually exclusive and emphasizes that expanding training opportunities is essential to provide competent care by a diverse clinical workforce. Covista also focuses on students' and graduates' mental health to help them practice at the top of their license and avoid burnout. Steve explains, "Covista is the largest healthcare educator in the United States. We have over 100,000 students, and we produce about 28,000 clinicians a year. Our largest categories are medicine, nursing, social work, and veterinary medicine. And we have a host of other healthcare-focused and healthcare-adjacent programs. About 400,000 alumni provide care in a variety of different care delivery environments across the United States."   "We take to market five institutions, all post-secondary higher education, all with a focus on healthcare. But unlike lots of traditional higher ed, we don't go to market with a value proposition rooted in prestige or exclusivity. We go to market with a value proposition rooted in access. Our programs are set up to try to accommodate as many students as we believe can be successful in those programs. And what that means is that we serve what used to be known as the non-traditional student. This is the working adult who needs to go to school part-time or on weekends. This is a veteran, this is the career changer. This is a clinician trained outside the United States that needs to get certified here."   #Covista #HealthcareWorkforce #NursingEducation #HealthcareLeadership #ClinicalEducation #HealthcareInnovation #AIinHealthcare #NursingCareers #HealthEquity #MedicalEducation #HealthcareHeros covista.com Download the transcript here

Dr. John Friend, CEO of Kazia Therapeutics, is investigating how to change the underlying biology that lets cancers resist treatment and evade the immune system. A central challenge in oncology is that cancer cells adapt and suppress immune recognition. Reprogramming the biology includes altering immune evasion mechanisms and the tumor microenvironment. Their lead drug candidate is showing reductions in terminally exhausted T cells and decreases in circulating tumor cell clusters in patients with stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer and indicating efficacy in colorectal cancer and pediatric brain cancer.    John explains, "Our pipeline and strategy are increasingly focused on what we're calling reprogramming cancer biology. So instead of asking only how do we kill more cancer cells, we're actually also asking how we can change the underlying biology that allows these cells to resist treatment, escape our own immune system, and spread? That's really the common thread through which we're building Kazia in our pipeline. I guess the other way you can think about it is that cancer is not a static target."   "You may start treatment with a drug that blocks something that the cancer depends on, and initially it works, but you're applying enormous pressure, selective pressure. These cancer cells can then adapt, or the cancer cells that can adapt are the ones that survive. So those surviving cells, they may activate another growth pathway. They may change the genes that are turned on or turned off by certain therapies. They may enter a different sort of cellular state, maybe a non-proliferating state, or actually alter the environment around the tumor such that the immune system has greater difficulty recognizing and attacking it." "So when we talk about resistance or reprogramming, it doesn't necessarily mean the original therapy was unsuccessful. In many cases, it did work very well. The problem is cancer evolved around it. A major, major direction for oncology now is understanding that resistance state and determining whether we can change it, whether we can therapeutically change it." #KaziaTherapeutics #Oncology #CancerResearch #Immunotherapy #BreastCancer #ColorectalCancer #ClinicalTrials #TumorMicroenvironment #DrugDevelopment #PI3K #mTOR #Paxalisib  kaziatherapeutics.com Listen to the podcast here

Dr. John Friend, CEO of Kazia Therapeutics, is investigating how to change the underlying biology that lets cancers resist treatment and evade the immune system. A central challenge in oncology is that cancer cells adapt and suppress immune recognition. Reprogramming the biology includes altering immune evasion mechanisms and the tumor microenvironment. Their lead drug candidate is showing reductions in terminally exhausted T cells and decreases in circulating tumor cell clusters in patients with stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer and indicating efficacy in colorectal cancer and pediatric brain cancer.    John explains, "Our pipeline and strategy are increasingly focused on what we're calling reprogramming cancer biology. So instead of asking only how do we kill more cancer cells, we're actually also asking how we can change the underlying biology that allows these cells to resist treatment, escape our own immune system, and spread? That's really the common thread through which we're building Kazia in our pipeline. I guess the other way you can think about it is that cancer is not a static target."   "You may start treatment with a drug that blocks something that the cancer depends on, and initially it works, but you're applying enormous pressure, selective pressure. These cancer cells can then adapt, or the cancer cells that can adapt are the ones that survive. So those surviving cells, they may activate another growth pathway. They may change the genes that are turned on or turned off by certain therapies. They may enter a different sort of cellular state, maybe a non-proliferating state, or actually alter the environment around the tumor such that the immune system has greater difficulty recognizing and attacking it." "So when we talk about resistance or reprogramming, it doesn't necessarily mean the original therapy was unsuccessful. In many cases, it did work very well. The problem is cancer evolved around it. A major, major direction for oncology now is understanding that resistance state and determining whether we can change it, whether we can therapeutically change it." #KaziaTherapeutics #Oncology #CancerResearch #Immunotherapy #BreastCancer #ColorectalCancer #ClinicalTrials #TumorMicroenvironment #DrugDevelopment #PI3K #mTOR #Paxalisib  kaziatherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Leo Petrossian, CEO of Kandu, discusses a groundbreaking approach to stroke recovery that uses an FDA-cleared, non-invasive EEG headset combined with a robotic glove that detects when a patient visualizes moving their impaired arm and simultaneously moves the arm mechanically. Traditional rehabilitation has treated the arm rather than the brain, which is the source of the damage. This brain-computer interface builds new neuronal pathways and has proven effective in chronic stroke patients, regardless of how much time has passed since the stroke. Leo explains, "When we think of Kandu, we think of it in many dimensions. It may be described as a technology company or a startup or an innovative organization or things like that. I often don't view it through the lens of the company. I rotate the narrative and focus on the patient population that we serve. Kandu is really the story of eight million patients living in the United States who are currently almost invisible to the healthcare system. There are about eight million stroke survivors living in the United States, and these people have had to figure out what it means to live a life again after suffering a significant health event."   "Because it's very challenging and stressful, less than half of the patients who are disabled actually get into rehab in that 90 to 180-day window. And most patients pass that 180-day line, never even having a chance to restore lost function. So IpsiHand is an FDA-designated breakthrough therapy that was de novo cleared, which is a novel technology. It's the first and only thought-activated therapy ever cleared by the FDA." #Kandu #StrokeRehabilitation #BrainComputerInterface #BCI #ChronicStroke #MedTech #Neurology #ClinicalInnovation #OccupationalTherapy #PhysicalTherapy #HealthcareInnovation #StrokeRecovery #StrokeSurvivor #Neuroplasticity #NeuroRehabilitation Kandu.com Listen to the podcast here

Leo Petrossian, CEO of Kandu, discusses a groundbreaking approach to stroke recovery that uses an FDA-cleared, non-invasive EEG headset combined with a robotic glove that detects when a patient visualizes moving their impaired arm and simultaneously moves the arm mechanically. Traditional rehabilitation has treated the arm rather than the brain, which is the source of the damage. This brain-computer interface builds new neuronal pathways and has proven effective in chronic stroke patients, regardless of how much time has passed since the stroke. Leo explains, "When we think of Kandu, we think of it in many dimensions. It may be described as a technology company or a startup or an innovative organization or things like that. I often don't view it through the lens of the company. I rotate the narrative and focus on the patient population that we serve. Kandu is really the story of eight million patients living in the United States who are currently almost invisible to the healthcare system. There are about eight million stroke survivors living in the United States, and these people have had to figure out what it means to live a life again after suffering a significant health event."   "Because it's very challenging and stressful, less than half of the patients who are disabled actually get into rehab in that 90 to 180-day window. And most patients pass that 180-day line, never even having a chance to restore lost function. So IpsiHand is an FDA-designated breakthrough therapy that was de novo cleared, which is a novel technology. It's the first and only thought-activated therapy ever cleared by the FDA." #Kandu #StrokeRehabilitation #BrainComputerInterface #BCI #ChronicStroke #MedTech #Neurology #ClinicalInnovation #OccupationalTherapy #PhysicalTherapy #HealthcareInnovation #StrokeRecovery #StrokeSurvivor #Neuroplasticity #NeuroRehabilitation Kandu.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Sandeep Palakodeti, Chief Medical Officer for Los Angeles-based Bold,  discusses the company's comprehensive approach to healthy aging which centers on movement, nutrition, and clinical care. Bold is supported by an AI-enabled platform that personalizes the patient experience and enables a hybrid approach for high-quality care.  A particular focus is the growing use of GLP-1 medications among seniors, their impact on the body and muscle mass, and ways to reduce negative side effects.  Sandeep explains, "For most of us, aging is something we don't look forward to. And the reason is that we are robbed of our independence in most cases. When I talk to patients in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond, many of them don't tell me they want to be running marathons and doing Iron Man. They may, and we help some of our patients get there, but most people are feeling a little sluggish in the afternoon, don't have that extra step they used to, are having a little bit of extra trouble shedding those pounds, can't stay up with their grandchildren, can't dance with their kids like they used to. And those are the little things in life that sort of rob them of joy in their daily experience of life. So aging is really about how we preserve those things that are meaningful to us, that allow us to gracefully be ourselves and be independent more than anything."   "We think we've taken a pretty comprehensive approach here at Bold, and we focused very heavily on movement and nutrition as medicine as the core drivers of that. And we're excited now to be opening that aperture a little bit more and being able to do a little bit more for our patients, which we'll talk about here." #AgeBold #HealthcareLeadership #GLP1 #HealthyAging #GeriatricCare #PreventiveMedicine #LongevityMedicine #DigitalHealth #Sarcopenia #PatientCare #CME  #Obesity #Aging #GLP1 #Medicare #Seniors  agebold.com Listen to the podcast here