Health Professional Radio - Podcast

Dr. Maria Milla, M.D., Section Chief, Nicklaus Children's Pediatric Care Centers discusses pediatric immunizations and the recommendation to not delay whether children are attending classes in person or virtually. Delaying vaccinations, especially during a pandemic, can put many children at risk with unnecessary hospitalizations and office visits.

Dr. Tim Rodell, M.D., CEO and Director at Aethlon Medical, Inc., discusses the Hemopurifier®, a clinical-stage immunotherapeutic device designed to combat cancer and life-threatening viral infections. The Hemopurifier has existing Investigational Device Exemption in cancer and life-threatening viral infections and the FDA has recently supplemented to its IDE in viral disease to include SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. In 2014, a Ugandan pediatrician who had been treating Ebola patients became infected himself. The Hemopurifier was used to extract the virus from the pediatrician’s blood and ultimately saved his life.

Dr. Tosin Smith, a glaucoma specialist with Glaucoma Associates of Texas and an Allergan spokesperson discusses the impact of glaucoma on vision, strategies for managing intraocular pressure (IOP) for people living with glaucoma who may have challenges with administering eye drops, and FDA-approved treatment options to address elevated IOP.

Dr. Sabrina Paganoni, M.D., Ph.D., Investigator at the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital and Justin Klee, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals discuss ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gerhig’s disease) and a new investigational treatment that has shown an ability for patients to retain function and independence longer. The findings from that study are now being published in a leading medical journal. ALS as a disease has been notoriously challenging for new drug development, and this represents a historic step forward.

Amit Mayer, VP of Innovation and Analytics at Biolog-id, a connected solutions company, discusses the current partnerships with blood product centers to provide real-time visibility of the blood supply, and the unique challenges of collecting, storing, and distributing blood products. He also talks about the impact Biolog-id's technology has had on the efficiency of blood product collection, manufacturing, storage, and distribution.

Jiang Li, founder and CEO of VivaLNK, a provider of connected healthcare solutions discusses the partnership with Mazzeti, a provider of healthcare building systems engineering solutions. This collaboration allows pop-up facilities to be easily assembled and equipped with the technology needed to remotely monitor all patients. VivaLNK’s reusable wearable medical sensors have been deployed in China at over 15 hospitals throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, and are now available throughout the U.S. to continuously monitor patient temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate, sending data wirelessly via Bluetooth to the respective caregivers to monitor and respond accordingly.

Dr. Josefa Briceno, M.D., Medical Head for the DNA Damage Response Franchise in US Medical Affairs at AstraZeneca discusses the recent FDA approval of LYNPARZA® (olaparib) for the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have progressed following prior treatment with enzalutamide or abiraterone. Approval was based on results from the Phase III PROfound trial, which were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine".

Dr. Geoffrey Eubank, M.D., Medical Director of the Mid Ohio MS Center at OhioHealth Neurological Physicians, discusses 2 Phase lll clinical trials of Enspryng™ (satralizumab-mwge) that demonstrated robust efficacy and safety profiles for the treatment of adults living with anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody-positive NMOSD, a rare disabling neurological disorder often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Enspryng represents significant therapeutic progress for the NMOSD community, offering the only FDA-approved injectable treatment option that can be self-administered every four weeks by a person living with NMOSD or a caregiver following training from a healthcare provider.

Dr. John Lewis, Ph.D., CEO of Aegis Life, Inc., a spinout of Entos Pharmaceuticals, discusses the company's goal of developing a novel DNA vaccine using its proprietary gene delivery technology, Fusogenix, in the fight against COVID-19. The flexibility of Fusogenix may enable Aegis Life’s investigational DNA vaccine to target and deliver simultaneously the Spike (S) protein and the Nucleocapsid (N) protein intracellularly. This approach may maximize the potential of inducing a potent, durable, and balanced T cell response against COVID-19, in addition to having a strong neutralizing antibody response.

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month and Dr. Caron Jacobson, MD, Clinical Director, Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discusses the blood cancers lymphoma and leukemia and CAR T therapies.

Pam Nisevich Bede, a registered dietitian from Abbott, a global healthcare company and leader in nutrition science, discusses how to get “nutrition strong” and prep our bodies to fight off illness with lifestyle tips.

Glen de Vries, co-CEO and co-founder of Medidata, the most-used platform for clinical trials around the world, shares insights from his new book coming out on September 14, 2020, titled "The Patient Equation: The Precision Medicine Revolution in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond".

Bryan Witherbee, CEO of Adarza Biosystems discusses ZIVA™, a label-free protein detection platform that can accurately test 100s of protein from a single drop of blood in a time and cost-efficient manner. While the initial launch of ZIVA was focused on biomarker detection in cancer, they have changed direction to assist in vaccine development and immunosurveillance following COVID-19 and they are now applying this technology in the quantification of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 antibodies and other upper respiratory pathogens.

Dr. Kendra Grubb, surgical director of the Emory Structural Heart and Valve Center in Atlanta discusses data from a national survey released by patient advocacy group Heart-Valve-Surgery.com and supported by Medtronic, of more than 3400 heart valve patients and caregivers about managing heart valve disease and how a return to "active living" is key in their treatment decision. The findings from the survey were the impetus for the "Active Living" Initiative.

Dr. John Martin, CMO of Butterfly Network discusses Butterfly iQ, the world's first handheld, single-probe, whole-body ultrasound system that is making ultrasound technology universally accessible and affordable.

Brian Culley, CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discusses the three cell therapy programs they currently have in clinical trials: OpRegen - a cell replacement therapy for the treatment of advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD), OPC1 - a cell replacement therapy for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries, and VAC2 - an allogeneic cancer immunotherapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, a pediatric allergist, discusses potential challenges children with life-threatening food allergies may face as they return to school during the pandemic, recommendations for parents, teachers, and children, and options for treating severe food allergies such as an epinephrine auto-injector like kaleo's AUVI-Q® (epinephrine injection, SP) which is the only compact epinephrine auto-injector with a voice instruction system that helps guide patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process and can be mailed directly to people’s homes – an ideal option for social distancing.

Dr. Kathleen Hawker, M.D., Group Medical Director, Neuroscience at Genentech discusses the recent FDA approval of Enspryng™ (satralizumab-mwge) and the findings from the clinical trial program for the treatment of adults living with anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody-positive NMOSD, a rare disabling neurological disorder often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis. She explains the unique mechanism of action of IL-6 receptor activity (which is believed to be a clinical hallmark of NMOSD) and the novel recycling technology which allows for subcutaneous dosing every four weeks.

Dr. Maxime Descoteaux, Co-founder and CSO of Imeka, "the only company to combine diffusion and AI to map white matter integrity" discusses the use of white matter free water biomarker in Alzheimer's disease and why scientists should change their focus from grey matter to white matter when it comes to evaluating Alzheimer’s disease. He also comments on MRI's analyzed from INmune Bio's XPro1595Phase 1b Clinical Trial.

Returning guest, Donna Cryer, JD, founder and CEO of the Global Liver Institute discusses liver biopsies and the "Beyond The Biopsy" Awareness initiative to advocate for greater use of non-invasive liver testing alternatives such as blood tests, Ultrasound, and various different scans like shear wave elastography and MRE (magnetic resonance elastography).