INTERVIEWS

Steve Sell, CEO of agilon health, the trusted partner empowering physicians to transform community health, and Andy Mueller, MD, CEO of MaineHealth, the largest integrated health system in northern New England, discuss the importance of their recent partnership announcement, further details about the new primary care delivery system for Medicare Advantage patients and how this partnership will impact the continued evolution of the U.S. healthcare system toward primary-care led value-based care. 

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is currently reviewing enhanced influenza vaccines (EIV), which are shots recommended to best protect adults 65+ who may be more vulnerable.    Returning guest, Dr. Gregg Sylvester, Chief Medical Officer at Seqirus, one of the world’s largest influenza providers, discusses enhanced flu vaccines and their importance; flu vaccine options, including factors impacting vaccine effectiveness  in older adults; and how flu vaccinations have evolved in the last decade since the last CDC  Committee review. 

Dr. Richard Johnson, MD, Gout Education Society board member and a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado discusses  his new book “Nature Wants Us to Be Fat,” which explains how uric acid may be the key to fructose’s negative health effects — and a fructose-powered survival switch that our modern diet has permanently fixed “on”. This has led to gout, obesity, and other major diseases endemic to the Western world.  

Dave Rosa, President and CEO discusses NeuroOne, a medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of minimally invasive and high-definition/high-precision solutions for epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, essential tremors, and chronic pain due to failed back surgeries. These solutions include electrodes that have the potential to reduce the number of hospitalizations, surgical procedures, and cost while improving patient outcomes due to their potential for offering combination diagnostic and therapeutic functions such as EEG recording and tissue ablation, and/or chronic stimulation. A combination recording and RF ablation technology are currently under development. In addition, NeuroOne recently announced the initial results of testing its electrodes for long-term recording and stimulation. The Company is also investigating the potential application of its technology for artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Neely Mozaffarian, M.D., Ph.D., is a Vice President and Autoantibody Pathway Area Leader for the Immunology Therapeutic Area at Janssen Research & Development, LLC. In this segment, she discusses how Janssen is advancing autoantibody science through a novel immune pathway approach and innovating treatments for rare immune-mediated diseases, like hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA.) One investigational therapy, nipocalimab, is currently in clinical trials for several immune-mediated rare diseases which share the same autoantibody pathway and is not FDA approved. 

Dr. Jeff Skolnik, Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, discusses the current research and development of a DNA vaccine for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare disease caused by HPV types 6 and 11. He also talks about other DNA-based medicines INOVIO is developing to treat cancers and infectious diseases.

Thompson Aderinkomi, co-founder and CEO of Nice Healthcare discusses why Nice Healthcare was founded and how it is solving systemic pain points with its unique blend of innovation and personal touches. www.nice.healthcare

Dr. Harlan Robins, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Adaptive Biotechnologies discusses why vaccine sponsors need to rethink vaccine design to take advantage of the T cell immune response to COVID-19 variants. Dr. Robins and his company have been at the forefront of studying the cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 with their immune sequencing technology. 

Andrew Ruiz, Director of Imaging Services at Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC) in California discusses the augmented reality app they are using with children who are having a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The app creates a beach-theme designed to mimic a day on the beach and therefore ease young patients’ fears about the anxiety-inducing process of an MRI.

Laura McLinn shares her journey with her son, Jordan, who was diagnosed with a progressive rare disease called Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She wants to share her family’s story in hopes of helping others facing Duchenne muscular dystrophy.