Elisabeth BikMay 19
Today, I will be attending the #STATBreakthrough West in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club. Lots of great talks about AI and personal journeys.

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Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Getting ready @[email protected] #STATBreakthrough Summit West
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
First up, David Kessler with “A Former Commissioner on the FDA”, moderated by @[email protected], about recent turbulent times at the FDA. DK: we have had a profound loss of talent. I have always looked for consensus and shortened approval times. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
DK: The FDA is at the center of US health. The COVID vaccines were an incredible effort - millions of people vaccinated for free. I hope everyone allows the agency to thrive. #STATBreakthrough
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MH welcomes @[email protected] from @STATnews RB: Our mission is to have the most meticulous and trustworthy coverage on health and medicine - we are proud of our team, who regularly wins journalism awards. #STATBreakthrough
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Next: Zoë Harris Lazaro, CMO at Genentech. Connecting technology to the right places, closing that last mile gap, is key. We must connect. How do we create trust in the communities that we serve? That is a conversation we need to be having now and the next 50 years. #STATBreakthrough
May 19 at 4:11pmWeb
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next: Dave, Jorie, and Joanie Kraus, with “How AI found out what drug to give a child”. Jorie was born premature with a genetic disease (deletion in chromosome 10). Whitney Thompson at Mayo Clinic ran program, BabyForce, to offer sequencing, using AI tools to suggest drugs. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
The drug was first tested on Jodie’s skin cells, then given to her. Dave: very soon, we saw her making progress. She still has a big delay but she has gained so many skills with a year. Joanie: Her speech is now age appropriate! She got a second change at life. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
WT: The AI tool has been absolutely essential to help patients to with rare genetic diseases. The lab work still needs a lot of time, can we automate this? Or more quicker testing directly in babies. More info here: ncats.nih.gov www.mayoclinic.org/medical-prof... #STATBreakthrough .
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Next: What is AI in Cancer Care Teaching Us? Mohit Manrao from AstraZeneca, interviewed by Rick Berle. MM: I am in my dream job! AI is helping us unlock doors we could not open previously. Our tool MILTON can predict diseases from biomarkers. www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre... #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
MM (who loves the word “Leapfrogging”): AI can also make MD’s work more human, by taking over administrative tasks such as note taking. Medical system is so complicated. Too many systematic barriers that are difficult to navigate. At AstraZeneca, we want to eliminate cancer. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next, Mario Aquilar interviews Zachary Ziegler from @[email protected] “OpenEvidence won the hearts of doctors. Now what?” ZZ: Evidence is the core foundation of medicine. Doctors can input a lot of data and get really personalized medicine. The website is free. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next, ‘Unleashing the Next Era of AI-Driven Clinical Intelligence’ with Anthony Costello, CEO of Medidata (previously at Mytrus), interviewed by Matthew Herper. We are hyper-accelerating clinical data, like the Oura ring I am wearing. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next, ‘Breaking Big in Biotech’ with Neil Kumar (BridgeBio) and William Lewis (Insmed), interviewed by Adam Feuerstein. NK: we work on genetic diseases, often not interesting for big companies. WL: it is important to let the street know which direction you are going. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Connectivity is very poor, and not sure what the WiFi password is, so having trouble posting. Apologies!
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
“Ranking Drug Companies on Innovation and Invention” with Jacqueline Poot of IDEAPharma, interviewed by Allison DeAngelis. JP discusses changes in the Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index rankings. Sanofi and GSK climbed in the Innovation index, Novartis in Invention. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
We now have a coffee break. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Long line for the women’s restrooms.
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Giving away a fortune to fix science, with Seemay Chou at Arcadia Science/Astera Institute, interviewed by Brittany Trang. SC: science has been about human interpretation. We look into news ways of publishing, using AI to automate outputting experimental output without human bias #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
SC: We publish our research online but not in traditional journals. We even publish research that did not work, “ice box”, before aborting a project. At Astera Institute, we are building an open source, flexible platform to make those papers discoverable, with a DOI. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Humanizing the Delivery of Patient Care with Charlotte Owens, S.V.P. at Genentech and practicing MD, interviewed by Matthew Herper. CO: I bring what I see in the safety-net clinic back to my work at Genentech. AI can bring a lot of help to both patients and doctors. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
CO: AI and science is what we do. We want to remove barriers, being able to better and earlier diagnose diseases with a simple lab test. Making healthcare ubiquitous for all. Maybe Live Long and Prosper is not too far away! #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next: Allison DeAngelis interviews Joe Betts-LaCroix, of Retro Biosciences, with ‘Can AI develop longevity drugs?’ JBLC: Dying is not part of our corporate mission. We want to extend the healthy life span, not make the final decline phase last longer. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next: ‘Separating Hype from Reality in Health Care AI’, with Amit Phull, Doximity. This slide shows the ‘pizza party’, created by AI, showing what AI can do for medicine’s problems. But we are still very far from this. AI medical triage has several blinds spots. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
AP: PeerCheck: vetting done by clinicians. With each round of vetting, we get smarter. At Doximity we have now 140+ partners, even have access to local guidelines. We are excited about AI. Move fast and don’t spill your drink. Human expertise is still at the core of medicine. #STATBreakthrough
Show threadElisabeth BikMay 19
Next up: ‘From Axons to AI: A Biologist’s Journey’, by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, CEO of Xaira, interviewed by Matthew Herper. #STATBreakthrough