Tag Archives: End Cancer

Welcome to the Genomic Medicine Revolution



On this episode of StartUp Health NOW, we’re talking with Jo Bhakdi, CEO & Founder of Quantgene, a company that joined StartUp Health in 2019. Bhakdi and his team have made a name for themselves by offering a kind of deep genomic profiling that allows them to identify cancers early, detect hereditary diseases, and find adverse drug interactions.

The name of the game here is genomic medicine and we’re not talking about 23andMe or Ancestry.com.

As you’ll hear in the interview, Bhakdi has a revolutionary vision for where the field of genomic medicine is heading in the next five years. And he’s got a strategy for getting there. Spoiler alert: Bhakdi believes that if we can get the cost of genomic testing down which he’s actively working on – and can scale access to genomic medicine to millions of people, that could knock cancer out of the top 10 list of leading causes of death entirely. Since cancer is currently at number two, it’s a pretty radical idea, but Bhakdi has a strong track record and a compelling market strategy through Quantgene’s new offering called Serenity.

We’ll let him explain the vision in this episode.


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Luis Santiago on How a Recent Team Tragedy Brought PEGASI’s Health Moonshot Into Focus



Every company in the StartUp Health portfolio can draw a line between their business objectives and a very real human impact. Even companies working on highly technical, administrative solutions are doing so, at the end of the day, in order to help people get the care they need faster or better. Our stance is that no database integration, supply chain management tool, or insurance platform should exist apart from its ability to improve lives. In other words, health innovation is personal.

For some founders, like our guest today, the human face of healthcare technology is startlingly clear. Our guest is Luis Santiago, the CEO and Co-founder of PEGASI, which StartUp Health backed in 2020. PEGASI is in the business of digitizing health information systems in Latin America, and they’re currently focused on upgrading those systems within oncology so that cancer patients can get diagnosed and treated sooner. That mission gained a tragic level of clarity this year as PEGASI’s CTO Janper Garbi went through a devastating battle with cancer. Luis Santiago shares that personal story, and how it could have ended differently had the hospital been using a digital platform to speed up diagnosis and treatment.

This isn’t just a story about what could have been, but how a tragedy becomes fuel for a health moonshot that could improve the lives of millions.

Learn more and connect with the team a PEGASI.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


Health Transformers Live: Gray Oncology Solutions, Gennev, AvoMD, Valera Health



This week we wanted to break from our typical format and introduce you to four inspiring founders from the StartUp Health portfolio.

This episode is excerpted from an on-stage Health Transformer discussion that was held at the StartUp Health Festival @ ViVE in Miami Beach in March. You’ll hear from André Diamant, PhD, CEO & Founder of Gray Oncology Solutions, about how they’re improving efficiency in cancer care. Jill Angelo, CEO & Founder of Gennev, talks about how they’re improving women’s health in their post-reproductive years. Yair Saperstein, MD, CEO & Co-founder of AvoMD, explains how they’re crowdsourcing knowledge in order to put the best decision support tools in the palm of the physician’s hand. And finally, Tom Tsang, MD, CEO & Co-founder of Valera Health, explains how his company is bringing comprehensive mental health services to the virtual healthcare ecosystem.

The session was hosted by Lauren Schafer from StartUp Health. In addition to sharing the moonshot missions of each of their companies, they talk about changes seen in health innovation due to COVID’s impact, their biggest messages for partners and investors, and more.


Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


Gray Oncology Solutions Is Building a New Operating System for Healthcare Workflows



Most people have experienced the frustration of having to wait for a healthcare appointment because the clinic is overbooked or the lab is backed up. Inefficiencies in healthcare cost time and money and frustration, but in oncology, dealing with cancer patients, the workflows are much more complex and the stakes even higher.

That is why our guest today, André Diamant, PhD, co-founded Gray Oncology Solutions, which joined StartUp Health in 2021. André and his co-founder are building what they call an operating system for health, one that uses machine learning to line up and map out healthcare resources, so patients know what to expect and get the care they need on time.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com

Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com
Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content.
Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


Curatio’s CEO and Chief Growth Officer Share How Their Platform is Filling a Social Care Gap for Chronic Disease Patients



Logan Plaster, StartUp Health’s Media Director and Editor-in-Chief of the StartUp Health magazine, caught up with Curatio’s CEO and Founder, Lynda Brown-Ganzert and Chief Growth Officer, Jeff Wandzura at the 2019 HLTH conference in Las Vegas. Curatio is described as the “worlds first social health prescription.” In this episode of StartUp Health:NOW, Lynda and Jeff give a walk-through of their health platform and discuss how they are helping patients better understand their condition by providing them with a support community and the tools needed to take control of their own health.

Location: HLTH 2019 Las Vegas, NV

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content. Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


#211: Together We Can End Cancer: Dr. Jill Biden, Biden Cancer Initiative:



Dr. Jill Biden, Co-Chair, Biden Cancer Initiative, Former Second Lady of the United States, presents this keynote conversation, “Together We Can End Cancer” at the 2019 StartUp Health Festival in San Francisco, California. Moderated by Dr. Howard Krein, Chief Medical Officer, StartUp Health.

Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health https://www.startuphealth.com/
Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots http://www.healthmoonshots.com

Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content. Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.


#198: Josh Stein, AdhereTech



Josh Stein, CEO & Co-founder, AdhereTech, chats with President of StartUp Health, Unity Stoakes
WATCH MORE NOW EPISODES: https://www.startuphealth.com/startup-health-now

Location: NYU Langone Health Tech Symposium in New York, NY


#149: This Smart Pill Bottle Will Remind You to Take Your Meds: Josh Stein, AdhereTech



In this episode of StartUp Health NOW, Stein discusses the benefits of using smart pill bottle technology, not only for the patient, but across all sectors of healthcare.
Watch here: https://healthtransformer.co/this-smart-pill-bottle-will-remind-you-to-take-your-meds-74cd8e7ff9cd

Guest: Josh Stein, AdhereTech
Host: Unity Stoakes, StartUp Health
Location: StartUp Health Village, New York, New York


#116: Lessons from the White House Cancer Moonshot with Greg Simon



We have the opportunity to end cancer as we know it during our lifetimes. In this week’s episode of StartUp Health NOW, Greg Simon, director of the Biden Foundation’s Cancer Initiative, shares what he learned as the head of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, and discusses how moonshot thinking can radically transform the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

GUEST: Greg Simon, Biden Cancer Initiative
HOST: Howard Krein, StartUp Health
LOCATION: StartUp Health Festival, San Francisco, CA


#100: Transforming Disease w Data, Tech & Personalized Medicine-Mike Pellini, MD, Foundation Medicine



Mike Pellini, MD, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Foundation Medicine, sits down with StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes at the 2017 StartUp Health Festival for a Fireside Chat on analyzing tumors through genome sequencing and how new innovations are helping to advance the way physicians can treat cancer and potentially cure all diseases.

GUEST: Mike Pellini, MD, Foundation Medicine
HOST: Unity Stoakes, StartUp Health
LOCATION: StartUp Health Festival, San Francisco, CA

IN THIS EPISODE:
Mike Pellini and Foundation Medicine’s Moonshot
Curing All Diseases – A Bold Goal
Mike and StartUp Health – An Interesting Connection