GeekWire Health Tech Podcasts
GeekWire is a national technology news site with roots in the Seattle area, and a large audience around the globe. I recently started listening to GeekWire Health Tech podcasts and have really enjoyed them, while learning quite a bit too!
The first podcast I listened to was titled: Testing Amazon Pharmacy: Tech giant's clever system collides with realities of modern healthcare. Many of use are familiar with Amazon, in fact this past year and a half brought an enormous increase in online shopping as we tried to stay "safe at home" while still being able to get the supplies we needed. The podcast was very interesting as it explained some of Amazon's strategy, acquiring the company PillPack and then developing a HIPAA regulated purchase page with the same 'feel' as a regualr Amazon purchase page. When I read the podcast title I was really wondering how Amazon could possibly tackle the pharmaceutical niche, the regulatory hoops seem like the polar opposite of how Amazon likes to operate. I went to my own account and clicked on a link I had never even noticed "Save on meds with Prime" and took a look around. It looked a lot like the usual Amazon page--and by the end of the podcast I was beginning to think that Amazon just may be successful with their Amazon Pharmacy!
The second podcast I listened to was titled: "How this tech engineer is using his son's rare disease as inspiration to disrupt drug development". I studied human genetics and so this podcast was of particular interest to me, and it did not disappoint. Saneth Kumar Ramesh and his wife Ramya were so excited to welcome their baby boy but just a few short hours after little Raghav's birth, the doctor told his parents that there is something wrong. It took a full year for the doctor's to determine the cause of Raghav's condition, a mutation in the gene GPX4. Unfortunately, knowing that mutation did not solve their family's struggles. Raghav is one of an estimated 263 million people worldwide (most are children) affected by the more than 6,000 rare diseases, with almost no treatments available due to the difficulties in treating such rare events. But Ramesh took his software engineer training and used his problem solving skills and applied them to solving his family's challenge. But when he came up against the harsh realities of building a treatment for a rare disease, he took a giant leap and, with the help of others, he founded OpenTreatments Foundation. OpenTreatments Foundation is a nonprofit that launched an open-source platform called OpenTreatments--a site for foundations and individuals who are also trying to build rare disease treatments. Listen to the podcast for a truly amazing story.
There are a lot of other podcasts posted on the GeekWire Health Tech page, take a look and enjoy!
And--if you finish all of those, or want a change of pace, take a look at InnovATEBIO's blog: Podcasts on Science for more listening fun.