Amanda Pullinger, Chief Executive Officer at Debbie’s Dream Foundation, shared on LinkedIn:
“Day 2 sessions at the Milken Institute Future of Health conference featured:
From Discovery to Delivery: Cancer treatment is entering a period of transformation unlike any before. The discussion examined how to expand access, close persistent gaps, and ensure that cutting-edge advances translate as quickly as possible into solutions that patients can benefit from. Moderated by Greg Simon, speakers were Daefna Bar-Sagi, NYU Langone Health, Ken Keller, President and CEO, Daiichi Sankyo, Isobel Mestres, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can); Greg Raskin, Royalty Pharma and AmirAli Talasaz, Guardant Health. Important themes that came out of the session, included:
- The need for the patient voice to be more deliberately included from the beginning of the research process. This means focusing not just on ‘bench to bedside’ but also ‘bedside back to the bench’ so that patient needs and priorities can better inform the research conducted. (This is one of the reasons why Debbie’s Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer is so keen to engage with researchers globally.)
- Getting testing options to where people live or work, to make early detection more accessible to all.
- Acknowledging the need for pharma industry cross-company collaboration to get solutions to more patients and the need to accelerate innovation from the lab through the technical transfer office to scaled-up solutions that reach patients
- Understanding that reducing the time for solutions to get from innovation to patients is not simply a regulatory or a funding issue, it’s one of operating system accessibility. The US healthcare system is so fragmented operationally that getting to scale, whether for clinical trials or treatment options, is challenging.
A conversation with Delaware Governor Mark Meyer: moderated by Sung Hee Choe of FasterCures at Milken Institute: Mark, who is a Teach For America alum and who became a father recently, spoke about the need for better access, more affordable solutions and better health education for all.
Accelerating What’s Possible: the conversation focused on how advances in science, innovation, and investment can accelerate breakthroughs, scale solutions, and deliver better health outcomes for women. Beautifully moderated by Dr. jill biden, Chair, Milken Institute Women’s Health Network and Former First Lady, speakers were Kara Egan, Teal Health; Danielle Gray, Chair, UnitedHealth Group Foundation and Karen Knudsen Parker Institute. Kara Egan spoke about the success of their TEAL at home cervical screening kit, noting that if we can remove financial friction and make early detection easy, the evidence shows that far more individuals will choose to be screened.
Karen Knudsen spoke of her new role focused on immunotherapy – and the desire to accelerate how we get science to the patient. As an aside, Dr. Jill Biden is incredibly funny and fantastic at engaging with the audience!”
Other articles about Amanda Pullinger on OncoDaily.
