INTERVIEWS

Returning guest, Dr. Andrew Chan, MD, MPH, Gastroenterologist, Chief, Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Director of Cancer Epidemiology, Massachusetts General Cancer Center discusses his recent research “Associations Between Screening Lower Endoscopy and Colorectal Cancer Incidence in Younger Adults”, which was recently presented at the 2021 Digestive Disease Week annual scientific meeting.  

Rich Krueger, Co-founder and CEO of Hospital IQ, the leading provider of predictive hospital operations software, discusses how the company provides an operations management software platform that uses AI to anticipate and direct actions, enabling health systems to achieve and sustain peak operational performance.  He talks about the importance of streamlining provider operations post-pandemic and the value of building tech with scalability.  

Anne Quinn Young, MPH, Brand President of the MMRF discusses CureCloud, their latest platform designed to provide myeloma patents with their own genomic profile while building a database that combines genomic insights with clinical data to identify trends and support further developments. The CureCloud mission is to find and develop cures for all myeloma patients based on the fact that all patients can contribute to cures and each patient can benefit from the masses.  

John Whelan, President, CEO and Director of Inhalon Biopharma, a start-up immunotherapy company developing an inhaled “muco-trapping” antibody platform  for treating a variety of acute respiratory infections, discusses the award of a $7 million government contract from the U.S. Army Medical Research & Development Command (USAMRDC) to conduct a placebo-controlled Phase 1/2a study of the treatment in COVID-19 outpatients.  Inhalon’s treatment, IN-006, is a potent, neutralizing monoclonal antibody designed to trap pathogens like COVID-19 in airway mucus and clear them from the airways in minutes.  This technology offers a more immediate and scalable way of treating respiratory infections than current treatment options.  

Returning guest, Dr. Kathryn Lang, VP of Outcomes and Evidence at Guardant Health discusses the recent data shared at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on the investigational blood-based LUNAR-2 assay.  This data shows that it offers a high sensitivity in detecting colorectal cancer (CRC) in asymptomatic patients. This is particularly important now that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced it has lowered the age for CRC screening from 50 to 45. 

Dr. Stephen Liu, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of Thoracic Oncology and Director of Developmental Therapeutics at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center of Georgetown University discusses updated results from a study of patients with RET fusion–positive NSCLC enrolled in the ARROW study, evaluating the efficacy of GAVRETO (pralsetinib) that was presented at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. 

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how consumers access care and brought health care payers and providers together to better enable providers to care for patients when they needed it most. Angie Meoli, Senior Vice President of Network Strategy and Provider Experience at Aetna, a CVS Health company, talks about some of the trends that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue after the pandemic ends.

Returning guest, Dr. Andrew Greenspan, Vice President of Immunology Medical Affairs at Janssen discusses recent data from the Phase 3b SEAVUE study, the first head-to-head study of biologic therapies in patients with Crohn’s disease, evaluating the safety and efficacy of STELARA® (ustekinumab) compared with adalimumab through one year of treatment in biologic-naïve patients. These data were presented at this year’s Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Virtual 2021, where Janssen Immunology presented 20 abstracts in total from the company’s gastroenterology portfolio and pipeline.

Tony Ezell, President, North America and Chief Marketing Officer of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), discusses how BD and USA Track & Field (USATF) are working together to help get athletes back on the track safely through the use of rapid COVID-19 testing with the BD Veritor™ Plus System. In addition to helping athletes get safely back to competition as the official COVID-19 testing sponsor of USATF, the BD Veritor™ Plus System is helping the public get back on track with their normal lives. Ezell shares how BD has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 response, and how it will continue to support our continued return to normalcy.  

Amyloidosis is a serious health condition that often goes undiagnosed – leading to improper management and heavy symptom burden on patients and families. New research presented at the 2021 American Geriatrics Society’s annual meeting shows the benefit of early diagnosis, the role of genetics, and the benefit of an amyloid specialist. Dr. Sharon Levine, MD, AGSF, Section Head, Geriatric Medicine, Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine in Boston, MA, and Andrea Kurkul, RP, Nurse Practitioner in Boston, MA, are here to discuss these findings and their study, “A Puzzle Finally Solved”.