
Hosted by Karen Jagoda · EN

David Schummers, CEO of Apella, uses ambient AI technology, primarily audio- and video-based computer vision, to collect accurate operational data in real time to improve hospital management. With a key emphasis on operating room scheduling and resource management, this solution replaces manually entered data, which is often inaccurate and entered into the system late. The Apella platform helps hospitals optimize existing OR capacity and efficiency, reduces errors and documentation burden on nurses, provides accurate live operational information, and delivers economic benefits. David explains, "Apella is focused on using modern technologies to improve the operations of the hospital. If you consider the contribution of hospital operations to our overall healthcare spending, it's about a third of every dollar spent in healthcare is spent on running hospitals, which is a pretty significant contribution. And depending where you were, unfortunately, a lot of that expense is wasted." "So Apella has built a system for ambient detection that is able to improve the throughput of hospitals and improve the efficiency of hospitals. So that's what we're focused on. The product that we're working on right now is focused on the operating room, which is the largest revenue and expense driver of those health systems that we just talked about." "So operating rooms are scheduled and managed using data that is entered into the electronic health record. And so the electronic health record was designed to capture all of the patient records and make them available and interoperable. It really wasn't designed as an operational system. As a result, the captured data is limited in several ways. The first way is that it is not always accurate because it's manually entered. What we've found is that about 5% of manually entered data points relate to the scheduling of surgeries and other procedures." #Apella #HealthcareInnovation #OperatingRoom #AmbientAI #Perioperative #HospitalOperations #Nursing #DigitalHealth #EmpoweredPatient #AmbientAI #ORManagement #OREfficiency #PatientAccess #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI #PerioperativeCare #SurgicalInnovation #OROptimization #PatientOutcomes #EmpoweredPatient #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI Apella.io Listen to the podcast here

David Schummers, CEO of Apella, uses ambient AI technology, primarily audio- and video-based computer vision, to collect accurate operational data in real time to improve hospital management. With a key emphasis on operating room scheduling and resource management, this solution replaces manually entered data, which is often inaccurate and entered into the system late. The Apella platform helps hospitals optimize existing OR capacity and efficiency, reduces errors and documentation burden on nurses, provides accurate live operational information, and delivers economic benefits. David explains, "Apella is focused on using modern technologies to improve the operations of the hospital. If you consider the contribution of hospital operations to our overall healthcare spending, it's about a third of every dollar spent in healthcare is spent on running hospitals, which is a pretty significant contribution. And depending where you were, unfortunately, a lot of that expense is wasted." "So Apella has built a system for ambient detection that is able to improve the throughput of hospitals and improve the efficiency of hospitals. So that's what we're focused on. The product that we're working on right now is focused on the operating room, which is the largest revenue and expense driver of those health systems that we just talked about." "So operating rooms are scheduled and managed using data that is entered into the electronic health record. And so the electronic health record was designed to capture all of the patient records and make them available and interoperable. It really wasn't designed as an operational system. As a result, the captured data is limited in several ways. The first way is that it is not always accurate because it's manually entered. What we've found is that about 5% of manually entered data points relate to the scheduling of surgeries and other procedures." #Apella #HealthcareInnovation #OperatingRoom #AmbientAI #Perioperative #HospitalOperations #Nursing #DigitalHealth #EmpoweredPatient #AmbientAI #ORManagement #OREfficiency #PatientAccess #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI #PerioperativeCare #SurgicalInnovation #OROptimization #PatientOutcomes #EmpoweredPatient #NursingStaffingCrisis #HealthcareAI Apella.io Download the transcript here

Nate Stasko, CEO of Vast Therapeutics, is developing a novel nitric oxide-releasing therapy to treat chronic respiratory diseases, particularly fibrosis bronchiectasis, which is frequently misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. Their lead drug candidate is a dual-mechanism therapy that is delivered to the lungs via a nebulizer to target both infection and inflammation with the potential to eradicate pathogens rather than just suppressing them. This approach, in early trials, is showing excellent tolerability and eliminates the need for chronic antibiotic use, which carries the risks of toxicity and contributes to antibiotic resistance. Nate explains, "At Vast Therapeutics, our main idea and goal as a company is to come up with better solutions for the 500 million people worldwide who suffer from chronic respiratory disease. And there is a new disease getting a lot of attention that we're targeting with our lead program called bronchiectasis, and it's often been misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. And now over a million patients in the US are being diagnosed with bronchiectasis. And the whole campaign is to teach physicians and the whole medical community to suspect this disease over some of these other misdiagnosed diseases." "Traditionally, patients have been managed with either antibiotics to calm down the infection, but you know the problems of chronic antibiotic use- the liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, and hearing loss associated with long-term antibiotic use are just bad for these patients. Not to mention we have the global problem of antibiotic resistance. And so giving a 52-week course of therapy of antibiotics is less than ideal. And then recently, just last year, there's some hope for these patients where there was a new drug approved called brensocatib, which was the first drug ever approved for bronchiectasis by the FDA. And so now it targets the inflammation." "Having the ability to target two mechanisms of action would be the best therapy. And that's actually what Vast is developing. We're using the body's own ability to make and produce nitric oxide, which is a miracle molecule. And we're delivering nitric oxide back to these patients to target both the infection and inflammation at the same time and improve the overall standard of care for these patients." #VastTherapeutics #Bronchiectasis #Pulmonology #NitricOxide #RespiratoryMedicine #AntimicrobialResistance #ALX1#ChronicLungDisease #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalTrials vasttherapeutics.com Listen to the podcast here

Nate Stasko, CEO of Vast Therapeutics, is developing a novel nitric oxide-releasing therapy to treat chronic respiratory diseases, particularly fibrosis bronchiectasis, which is frequently misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. Their lead drug candidate is a dual-mechanism therapy that is delivered to the lungs via a nebulizer to target both infection and inflammation with the potential to eradicate pathogens rather than just suppressing them. This approach, in early trials, is showing excellent tolerability and eliminates the need for chronic antibiotic use, which carries the risks of toxicity and contributes to antibiotic resistance. Nate explains, "At Vast Therapeutics, our main idea and goal as a company is to come up with better solutions for the 500 million people worldwide who suffer from chronic respiratory disease. And there is a new disease getting a lot of attention that we're targeting with our lead program called bronchiectasis, and it's often been misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD. And now over a million patients in the US are being diagnosed with bronchiectasis. And the whole campaign is to teach physicians and the whole medical community to suspect this disease over some of these other misdiagnosed diseases." "Traditionally, patients have been managed with either antibiotics to calm down the infection, but you know the problems of chronic antibiotic use- the liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, and hearing loss associated with long-term antibiotic use are just bad for these patients. Not to mention we have the global problem of antibiotic resistance. And so giving a 52-week course of therapy of antibiotics is less than ideal. And then recently, just last year, there's some hope for these patients where there was a new drug approved called brensocatib, which was the first drug ever approved for bronchiectasis by the FDA. And so now it targets the inflammation." "Having the ability to target two mechanisms of action would be the best therapy. And that's actually what Vast is developing. We're using the body's own ability to make and produce nitric oxide, which is a miracle molecule. And we're delivering nitric oxide back to these patients to target both the infection and inflammation at the same time and improve the overall standard of care for these patients." #VastTherapeutics #Bronchiectasis #Pulmonology #NitricOxide #RespiratoryMedicine #AntimicrobialResistance #ALX1#ChronicLungDisease #HealthcareInnovation #ClinicalTrials vasttherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Scott Walter is Director of Technology Transfer and Transition for the 59th Medical Wing of the Defense Health Agency located in San Antonio, Texas. The development of freeze-dried blood is a ground-breaking technology aimed at enabling medics to administer lifesaving blood transfusions at the point of injury. Scott highlights the logistical challenges of current blood products such as short shelf life, blood matching, and the need for cold storage, which this new technology would overcome. One of his current missions is to launch a prize competition to accelerate research, development, and commercialization of this technology, shifting the financial risk from the government to industry and expanding the uses of this product to dramatically improve survival rates and reduce long-term complications. Scott explains, "Donated blood is very perishable lasting only about six weeks from the date of collection, and it must be maintained just above freezing until it's needed. And then it has to be warmed to body temperature before it can be infused. That makes it really difficult to impossible for medics to carry blood products with them when they're treating patients in remote austere locations like battlefields, for example." "Well, the key is that freeze-drying enables the donated blood components to be collected, stored, and stockpiled for years after collection. The freeze-dried blood products can be carried by EMS units and medics. Then, once reconstituted, it can be given anywhere without the need for refrigeration." #TraumaCare #EmergencyMedicine #PrehospitalCare #CriticalCare #TransfusionMedicine #MilitaryMedicine #Innovation #FreezeDriedBlood #PatientOutcomes #GlobalHealth DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this podcast transcript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Health Agency, Department of War, nor the U.S. Government. Find out more about the prize competition Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Scott Walter is Director of Technology Transfer and Transition for the 59th Medical Wing of the Defense Health Agency located in San Antonio, Texas. The development of freeze-dried blood is a ground-breaking technology aimed at enabling medics to administer lifesaving blood transfusions at the point of injury. Scott highlights the logistical challenges of current blood products such as short shelf life, blood matching, and the need for cold storage, which this new technology would overcome. One of his current missions is to launch a prize competition to accelerate research, development, and commercialization of this technology, shifting the financial risk from the government to industry and expanding the uses of this product to dramatically improve survival rates and reduce long-term complications. Scott explains, "Donated blood is very perishable lasting only about six weeks from the date of collection, and it must be maintained just above freezing until it's needed. And then it has to be warmed to body temperature before it can be infused. That makes it really difficult to impossible for medics to carry blood products with them when they're treating patients in remote austere locations like battlefields, for example." "Well, the key is that freeze-drying enables the donated blood components to be collected, stored, and stockpiled for years after collection. The freeze-dried blood products can be carried by EMS units and medics. Then, once reconstituted, it can be given anywhere without the need for refrigeration." #TraumaCare #EmergencyMedicine #PrehospitalCare #CriticalCare #TransfusionMedicine #MilitaryMedicine #Innovation #FreezeDriedBlood #PatientOutcomes #GlobalHealth DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this podcast transcript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Health Agency, Department of War, nor the U.S. Government. Find out more about the competition Download the transcript here

Dr. Panicos Shangaris is from King's College London, where he is a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in maternal and fetal medicine. He discusses the treatment options for sickle cell disease, an inherited blood condition, and his work on the Pericles project, which aims to treat it before birth. In-utero gene therapy offers a third option for parents of an affected fetus alongside postnatal treatment or pregnancy termination. Panicos emphasizes key advantages of fetal therapy within the first 16 weeks of gestation, the need to address ethical concerns, and ensuring the safety of both the mother and fetus during the procedure. Panicos explains, "So sickle cell disease is an inherited condition that affects the blood and the molecule in the red cell, which is basically the red blood cell that carries oxygen. So what happens is the red cell has a biconcave shape, and for people who have sickle cell disease, that biconcave shape is lost, and the erythrocyte red cells are sickle-shaped. So because of that, the sickle-shaped red cells have difficulty going through small capillaries and small vessels. They can cause strokes, they can cause pain because they block the blood flow to the small capillaries." "Yes, so the cause is because of an abnormal gene, which basically makes the hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen around the different organs and around the body, instead of there being a problem in the genetic code, if I can put it like that. And that's why the erythrocyte, the red cells, have an abnormal shape. Very well-known what's causing it: a genetic problem." "So Pericles stands for prenatal therapy for Sickle Cell Disease. And what we are trying to achieve is to offer a third option to people who might carry a fetus affected by sickle cell disease. At the moment, the two options are stopping the pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or having an affected fetus and an unaffected baby and sick postnatal care. So our aim is to offer a third option, which is correcting the disease inside the womb so that the parents have a healthy baby. So correct the gene while the baby is inside the womb. And this is the main aim of the project." #KingsCollegeLondon #KCLResearch #GeneTherapy #PrenatalCare #Hematology #Genomics #EmpoweredPatient #PERICLES #SickleCellDisease #SickleCellAwareness #PreconceptionCare #BeforePregnancy #PregnancyPlanning #CarrierScreening #GeneticCounselling #ReproductiveChoices #PrenatalDiagnosis #PrenatalTherapy #InUteroTherapy #GeneEditing #StemCellTherapy #FetalMedicine #MaternalFetalMedicine #HighRiskPregnancy #IVFJourney #PGTM #PatientVoice #PatientEmpowerment #SharedDecisionMaking #HealthEquity #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalisedMedicine #FutureOfMedicine kcl.ac.uk Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Panicos Shangaris is from King's College London, where he is a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in maternal and fetal medicine. He discusses the treatment options for sickle cell disease, an inherited blood condition, and his work on the Pericles project, which aims to treat it before birth. In-utero gene therapy offers a third option for parents of an affected fetus alongside postnatal treatment or pregnancy termination. Panicos emphasizes key advantages of fetal therapy within the first 16 weeks of gestation, the need to address ethical concerns, and ensuring the safety of both the mother and fetus during the procedure. Panicos explains, "So sickle cell disease is an inherited condition that affects the blood and the molecule in the red cell, which is basically the red blood cell that carries oxygen. So what happens is the red cell has a biconcave shape, and for people who have sickle cell disease, that biconcave shape is lost, and the erythrocyte red cells are sickle-shaped. So because of that, the sickle-shaped red cells have difficulty going through small capillaries and small vessels. They can cause strokes, they can cause pain because they block the blood flow to the small capillaries." "Yes, so the cause is because of an abnormal gene, which basically makes the hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen around the different organs and around the body, instead of there being a problem in the genetic code, if I can put it like that. And that's why the erythrocyte, the red cells, have an abnormal shape. Very well-known what's causing it: a genetic problem." "So Pericles stands for prenatal therapy for Sickle Cell Disease. And what we are trying to achieve is to offer a third option to people who might carry a fetus affected by sickle cell disease. At the moment, the two options are stopping the pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or having an affected fetus and an unaffected baby and sick postnatal care. So our aim is to offer a third option, which is correcting the disease inside the womb so that the parents have a healthy baby. So correct the gene while the baby is inside the womb. And this is the main aim of the project." #KingsCollegeLondon #KCLResearch #GeneTherapy #PrenatalCare #Hematology #Genomics #EmpoweredPatient #PERICLES #SickleCellDisease #SickleCellAwareness #PreconceptionCare #BeforePregnancy #PregnancyPlanning #CarrierScreening #GeneticCounselling #ReproductiveChoices #PrenatalDiagnosis #PrenatalTherapy #InUteroTherapy #GeneEditing #StemCellTherapy #FetalMedicine #MaternalFetalMedicine #HighRiskPregnancy #IVFJourney #PGTM #PatientVoice #PatientEmpowerment #SharedDecisionMaking #HealthEquity #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalisedMedicine #FutureOfMedicine kcl.ac.uk Download the transcript here

Mark Larkin, Founder and CEO of Vitaccess, leverages real-world patient data captured through mobile devices and wearables, combined with EMRs, claims data, and registries, to generate insights beyond the scope of traditional clinical trials. The company maintains proprietary disease registries, notably in myasthenia gravis, enabling researchers to compare treatment efficacy, side effects, and patient adherence to therapies in their daily lives. By linking diverse data sources and identifying comorbidities, the platform informs drug development, regulatory decisions, and the personalization of treatment matching. Mark explains, "Our mission is about patient-centric, science-driven research. That's how we do real-world research. We think that's a powerful way to combine scientific rigor with putting the patient at the heart of what we do. People are probably familiar with the idea that real-world data and real-world evidence are complementary to clinical trials. They don't have the same levels of scrutiny or the same designs, but nonetheless, if we do it properly, we should make it as rigorous as possible so the data can be used by many different audiences. Putting the patient at the heart of our designs means we can be in the best position to quantify the patient experience. That's really what we do, perhaps in the simplest terms." "Well, I'd say that real-world data is a very broad church. There's lots of different types of data. Where I think you are referring to is data generated directly from patients, the patient-reported data. And I'll come back to that in a second, but it also includes a wide range of other data types and sources. So it could be electronic medical records. In the United States, very commonly it's claims data. There are registries." #Vitaccess #RealWorldEvidence #PatientCentricity #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #PatientReportedOutcomes #Wearables #RareDisease #HealthData #PatientInsights #RWE #HEOR #MyastheniaGravis #CIDP vitaccess.com Listen to the podcast here

Mark Larkin, Founder and CEO of Vitaccess, leverages real-world patient data captured through mobile devices and wearables, combined with EMRs, claims data, and registries, to generate insights beyond the scope of traditional clinical trials. The company maintains proprietary disease registries, notably in myasthenia gravis, enabling researchers to compare treatment efficacy, side effects, and patient adherence to therapies in their daily lives. By linking diverse data sources and identifying comorbidities, the platform informs drug development, regulatory decisions, and the personalization of treatment matching. Mark explains, "Our mission is about patient-centric, science-driven research. That's how we do real-world research. We think that's a powerful way to combine scientific rigor with putting the patient at the heart of what we do. People are probably familiar with the idea that real-world data and real-world evidence are complementary to clinical trials. They don't have the same levels of scrutiny or the same designs, but nonetheless, if we do it properly, we should make it as rigorous as possible so the data can be used by many different audiences. Putting the patient at the heart of our designs means we can be in the best position to quantify the patient experience. That's really what we do, perhaps in the simplest terms." "Well, I'd say that real-world data is a very broad church. There's lots of different types of data. Where I think you are referring to is data generated directly from patients, the patient-reported data. And I'll come back to that in a second, but it also includes a wide range of other data types and sources. So it could be electronic medical records. In the United States, very commonly it's claims data. There are registries." #Vitaccess #RealWorldEvidence #PatientCentricity #ClinicalTrials #DigitalHealth #PatientReportedOutcomes #Wearables #RareDisease #HealthData #PatientInsights #RWE #HEOR #MyastheniaGravis #CIDP vitaccess.com Download the transcript here