INTERVIEWS

Imagine a liquid biopsy test whose results would allow physicians to evaluate chemotherapy for every patient in real time.  Richard Brand, CFO of DiaCarta, Inc., a translational genomics and personalized diagnostics company, discusses a recent data publication in “Nature Scientific Reports” that validates their cell-free DNA biomarker detection pre-treatment (chemotherapy) can predict how much treatment a patient needs. Their QuantiDNA™ cfDNA test, studied in this paper, is used to quantify the total amount of cfDNA directly from a plasma sample while the patient is undergoing cancer therapy.  

Dr. Neil Skolnik, MD, Professor of Family And Community Medicine At The Sidney Kimmel Medical College Of Thomas Jefferson University discusses chronic kidney disease (CKD), risk factors, diagnosis and a new way to treat CKD. 

Dr. Rachel Kuperman, MD, CEO and Founder of Eysz, a medtech/AI startup, discusses the company’s AI-enabled Epilepsy Management Platform that they are building that uses passive eye movements to detect and track seizures and neurocognitive side effects in order to help get patients on the right medication sooner.  She also talks about their equity crowdfunding offering through the Bioverge Portal that enables the epilepsy community the opportunity to receive equity in Eysz in return for investing in the further development of the platform.  

Dr. Randy Brown, MD, Global Senior Director of Respiratory Medicine for Teva Pharmaceuticals, discusses symptoms and tips for managing asthma during allergy season. He talks about the best ways to communicate asthma symptoms during a telehealth appointment, and how technology such as Teva’s Digihaler® family of inhalers can help inform treatment decisions and improve communication with a healthcare professional.  

Dr. Esther Davis, a Research Fellow in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital discusses her recent research “Echocardiographic markers of myocardial dysfunction in spontaneous coronary artery dissection”, which was recently presented at the 2021 American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific meeting. Dr. Davis examined the transthoracic echocardiographic and angiographic features in patients with angiographically confirmed spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), an increasingly recognized cause of myocardial infarction, particularly in young females. 

Dr. Doreen DeFaria Yeh, MD, Associate Director, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program, Co-Director, MGH Cardiovascular Disease and Pregnancy Program, and Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship discusses her recent presentation “Strategies for Recruiting and Supporting Cardiology Fellows in Training from Diverse Backgrounds” at the 2021 American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific meeting. Featured as part of a larger discussion around cultivating an antiracist culture in cardiovascular medicine, Dr. DeFaria’s timely research aims to increase inclusion within the industry.  

Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, MD, Co-Director, Cardiac MR PET CT Program at Massachusetts General Hospital discusses his recent research, “Alcohol’s Beneficial Effect on Cardiovascular Disease is Partially Mediated Through Modulation of Stress Associated Brain Activity”. The study, which was presented at the 2021 American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific meeting, seeks to understand how alcohol plays a role in major adverse cardiovascular events.

Dr. David Goldsteen, CEO of VigiLanz, which provides clinical surveillance for hospitals and health systems to improve safety and mitigate risk discusses key survey findings from their third annual survey, revealing hospitals’ top patient priorities, benchmarked over time.  He talks about steps health leaders can take to address patient and staff safety – from getting ahead of potential infections and outbreaks, medication errors and antibiotic overuse, to safety events, such as falling.  As COVID numbers continue to decline in most markets and hospital capacities are normalizing, now is the time to reevaluate current processes and procedures that can help mitigate avoidable safety issues.  

Dr. Neal Kassell, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, discusses focused ultrasound, a revolutionary, non-invasive, highly disruptive technology approved in the United States to treat essential tremor, tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease, uterine fibroids, pain from bone metastases, and prostate cancer. The technology is in various stages of research and development around the world for more than 100 diseases and conditions, including ALS, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and tumors of the brain, liver, breast, and pancreas. He talks about how this therapy is poised to impact the way we treat some of our most elusive diseases. 

Dr. Daniel Catenacci, MD, director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Chicago, discusses data from Astellas’ Phase 2 FAST study, which evaluated zolbetuximab, an investigational first-in-class anti-CLDN18.2 monoclonal antibody, in combination with first-line epirubicin, oxaliplatin, and capecitabine (EOX) in patients with advanced gastric cancer.  He discusses efficacy and safety results, as well as patient-reported outcomes (PROs) data from the study. He also shares background on the overall gastric cancer landscape and unmet needs of patients facing this disease.