INTERVIEWS

May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month. Becky Niedorf, co-founder with her husband Michael, discuss their non-profit organization HOTB, Heart of the Brain. They fundraise for the UCLA Brain Tumor Center. Their daughter, Isabel, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor when she was a toddler and is now celebrating her 20th birthday. She has persevered due to cutting edge treatments at UCLA.

Jade Beutler, CEO of Emerald Health Bioceuticals talks about what the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is in the body and how to support it with the right supplements.  

Dr. Gilberto Lopes, Associate Director for Global Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, discusses the recent (Apr 2019) FDA regulatory update that approved KEYTRUDA for the first-line treatment of patients with stage III NSCLC (non-small cell lung carcinoma) who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation, or metastatic NSCLC, and whose tumors express PD-L1 [tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥1%] as determined by an FDA-approved test, with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations.

Serese Marotta, is the Chief Operating Officer of Families Fighting Flu (FFF), an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the lives of children and families by raising awareness about the seriousness of flu and the importance of annual flu vaccination. She shares her own story of losing her 5 yr old son to influenza. She has developed educational materials and works tirelessly to help others.  

Dr. Lucie Ide, MD, PhD, discusses why new healthcare technology must be designed with the clinician’s needs in mind and how the industry must come together to fix system-level problems that technology has so far failed to solve. She also discusses overcoming physician burnout and the rise, prevalence, and cost of managing cardiometabolic conditions with technology that enables a better healthcare system by making clinicians’ jobs easier.

Dr. Shailesh Kantak, assistant professor of Physical Therapy at Arcadia University, discusses the National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to study bimanual coordination in stroke recovery.  Most stroke recovery practices focus on unimanual coordination in physical therapy. Dr. Kantak is studying, and developing a strategy, that uses both the strong and weak hand to regain strength and movement.

Dr. Steven Kaplan, a certified urologist at Mount Sinai in NY, discusses his new research in men with overactive bladder. He talks about the significance of the findings from the Phase 4, 12-week PLUS trial, what it means for urologists treating men with overactive bladder, the evolution of treatment during his career for patients with overactive bladder, the prominence of overactive bladder in men and why it remains an under-treated patient population despite 90 percent of men between 50-80 years’ experience lower urinary tract symptoms.

Mark Reisenauer, Senior Vice President of the oncology business unit at Astellas Oncology, who helped build the C3 (Changing Cancer Care) program talks about how he was inspired to start the program based on his experience as a caregiver for his father. The C3 Prize is open to any idea that can have an impact, especially if it’s simple.  

Dr. Steve Tilles, Senior Director of Medical Affairs at Aimmune Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for life-threatening food allergies, discusses the company’s lead candidate AR101, CODIT (Characterized Oral Desensitization Immunotherapy) approach to treating food allergies and the broader food allergy landscape.

Jennifer Flynn, Healthcare Risk Manager at Aon, discusses the 2019 Healthcare Providers Service Organization’s (HPSO) Counselor Liability Claim Report which looks at the risk landscape counselors of all different types of specialties face and has important findings counselors need to be cognizant of as their profession increasingly becomes intertwined with legal proceedings.