2024 HEALTHCARE CHAMPIONS - Medical Affairs Innovation Olympics

2024 Medical Affairs Innovation Olympics Overview and Legacy #MAIO2024

For the third consecutive year, many leading scientists, healthcare innovators in pharma, biotech and life sciences all over the world competed over 16 days in October at the 2024 Medical Affairs Innovation Olympics – full #MAIO2024 playlist. They presented novel solutions and concepts aimed at discovering new sources of power in medical decisions that add access, continuity and quality of healthcare. Competitors received continuous feedback, coaching, and real-time voting from industry executives, thought leaders, investors along with a chance to exchange real-world inspiration with guest speakers such as Olympic gold medalists including former world record and current Olympic record holders, global longevity medicine and healthcare quality improvement experts prior event champions and competitors, organizational change best-selling authors, MIT professors, pharma industry leaders, patient advocates, and digital health entrepreneurs.

Winners and competitors from previous events have already built up a significant track record since 2022. They have:

1) Won multiple awards at other major health innovation competitions,

2) Scaled their startups and integrated their solutions into professional medical organizations (such as the AHA – American Heart Association) to transform clinical decision support for major national disease guidelines,

3) Connected patients directly across the globe to clinical studies and rare disease thought leaders for diagnosis consultation they would otherwise not be able to access,

4) Successfully piloted their medical grade wearables with the Dutch national Olympic track and field team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and

5) Received recognitions and invitations to the White House to share their impact on public health education, among others.

This year’s event kicked off with a full day of keynotes, panels, learning and development at the Opening ceremony – highlight video. The day featured intriguing debate about critical topics such as the value of randomized clinical trial in research, challenges facing healthcare at large and Medical Affairs function, new digital platform launch presentations in addition to 6 innovative sponsors among life science providers, professional non-profit organizations, and 2 media partners that included a global healthcare founder and investor community.

Once again, the competition was quite intense, particularly in the Patient Centricity event category, where the leader throughout the first two rounds of competition and semifinals lost by a narrow margin of 0.8 points to the gold medalist. In true Olympic village spirit akin to a multi-stage workshop, some competitors clearly exhibited a dramatic evolution of their solutions over multiple rounds of competition and candidly shared their diverse strategies in competitor interviews preceding the semifinals. This year, competitors submitted various practical solutions that address global problems such as antimicrobial resistance, aging and chronic disease morbidity, AI and analytics to improve drug safety evaluations, patient access to treatments, diagnosis, emergency responses, and electronic health records.

Below are the highlight summaries from the winners and notable competitors in 2024. Connect with them for more information, collaboration to propel their products forward.

One thing is certain – we will hear a lot more about them in our industry. Thus, watch them and how their solutions evolve, grow, and reach more patients and healthcare communities in the future!

PATIENT CENTRICITY Event Category

GOLD MEDAL WINNER: Enhancing Telemedicine with Phage Therapy for Bacterial Infections and MDR

Lika Mumladze

As antibiotic resistance continues to rise globally, millions face severe infections that traditional treatments can no longer effectively manage. In response, bacteriophage (phage) therapy, a treatment using viruses that specifically target and destroy bacteria, is gaining attention as a promising alternative. Phage therapy has demonstrated notable results, with success rates varying across medical fields: 67% in respiratory infections, 72% in skin and soft tissue infections, 70% in genitourinary infections, 82% in internal medicine cases, 53% in ear, nose, and throat conditions, and 64% in surgical cases. Despite these positive outcomes, phage therapy remains inaccessible to many due to geographical and logistical limitations.

Eliava Phage Therapy Center (EPTC)’s project envisions an accessible digital platform that bridges these gaps, empowering patients and healthcare providers by making phage therapy more approachable and widely available. Through this platform, patients can learn about phage therapy, access remote consultations with specialized healthcare providers, and receive continued support throughout the treatment process. For individuals far from specialized phage centers or with limited resources, this initiative represents a lifeline to innovative treatment possibilities.

Healthcare providers will also benefit from this platform, gaining access to educational resources and updates on phage therapy applications, allowing for more informed referrals and greater awareness. Moreover, by connecting patients and specialists globally, the platform enables data collection that could enhance global research efforts, strengthening the evidence base for phage therapy in managing resistant infections.

In summary, this digital platform seeks to democratize access to phage therapy, offering patients and providers worldwide a new avenue to address complex infections. Eliava Center’s initiative aligns with the growing demand for accessible, effective, and personalized healthcare solutions for antibiotic-resistant conditions.

SILVER MEDAL WINNER: Acuvía - The Key to Unlocking Data.

Jolly Nanda, MBA

The authors of Health 2035 - A Bold Path Through the Uncharted Future of Health challenge that disruption will come from Reinventing Trust, Togetherness and Interfaces. Highlights include:

· Care will become more upstream via prediction, prevention and health literacy;

· Trust is a critical focal point;

· The movement of humans across literal and figurative borders requires healthcare to constantly innovate;

· Focus will shift from sickcare to healthspan (the time a person is healthy);

· Precision medicine will be realized by breaking down silos and creating standardization; and

· Control will be in the hands of the individual as the amount of health data is infinite.

At the Altheia startup, they could not agree more. Their platform Acuvía? is built with the promise that individuals will own and direct data so that 1) insights and efficiencies can be unlocked and allowed to flow, 2) migrants will have access to information, 3) engagement & health literacy is a priority and 4) the trust necessary for AI and precision medicine will be paramount.

In a world of verticals of locked data, Acuvía? is the patient-consented horizontal data solution. It leverages interoperability regulations to collect claims/clinical data. The team collects patient-reported SDoH and patient preferences to build whole person views. They harness technological advancements that include advanced clinical data ingestion, a consent management tool, and AI predictive & prioritization analytics. The collected data is patient owned, and the offering includes a member engagement platform providing transparent risk assessments and shared data monetization plays. The solution’s first use case is in Care Management – where the Altheia team will unearth risks for new members.

Healthcare systems from US to Brazil, Ireland, New Zealand, Kenya or India across the globe, are limited by siloed data which impacts continuity of care. As the healthcare sector moves to global interoperability standards, Acuvía? is poised to accelerate unlocking data.

BRONZE MEDAL WINNER: Human Equivalent of Royal Jelly to Improve Gene Expression of Longevity

John Hemming

Queen Bees live for 2-3 years whilst worker bees, that have the same genes, live for 6 weeks in the summer. Their lives are different, but Queen Bees eat Royal Jelly (a special food created by bees) for all of their lives whilst worker bees only have it for 3 days.

This lifespan variation of over 100% is far greater than that of other exogenous interventions on lifespan. The Biohacking team entering XPRIZE – healthspan is led by John Hemming, a 64 year old tech entrepreneur who has also been a member of the UK parliament, and is developing an intervention to do the same for human beings.

He argues that the mitochondrial citrate cycle should be considered more like two linked cycles. One of the cycles produces ATP, the other cycle produces citrate. The Citrate is then converted to Acetyl-CoA in the cytosol and used in the nucleus to inform splicing decisions and hence which genes are transcribed.

Hemming argues that the aging phenotype (and infact development stages such as puberty and menopause) are driven by these splicing and gene expression decisions which adjust mRNA transcription based upon the power availability in the cell.

John has been experimenting on himself with others using similar interventions. His team has found that it is possible to change gene expression through exogenous interventions improving phenotypic function.

The Royal Jelly used by bees includes AMPK activators, HDAC (Histone Deacetylase) inhibitors and vitamin B5. Vitamin B5 is a coenzyme-A precursor. HDAC inhibitors affect gene expression and AMPK activates increase mitochondrial eficiency.

The team’s interventions include citrate, to increase acetyl-CoA levels, melatonin, to reduce mitochondria heteroplasmy and rapamycin to increase mitochondrial efficiency as well as a large number of traditional herbal medicines that are a mixture of HDAC inhibitors and AMPK activators.

4. Rare Disease Life Project in Rwanda - Continuous Care & Support Program

Manzi Ndamukunze

The goal of the Rare Disease Life Project in Rwanda – Continuous Care & Support Program is to create a central community for everyone impacted by children with rare disease including parents, caregivers and other stakeholders to ensure their growth and personal sustainability.

To ensure continuous care and support for those affected by a rare disease, the Centre-Alliance will set-up 3 programs or projects - first, ECD (early childhood development) care of children (from 6 months to 6 years old) affected by a rare disease, will help parents to have a secured place where they can bring their children to be in good hands so that the parent can go to work or can perform other activities. It will be a place for early diagnosis, monitoring and evaluation of treatment or other activities, including providing the same ECD activities as children with rare disease are usually not included due to their conditions. The second component of the project is focused on schooling: a special class for children (7 years to 16 years) affected by a rare disease. The Centre-Alliance will teach them the minimum basic education (knowing how to speak, read and write). The participate in many socio-inclusion activities, and also prepare them to be independent in life. The third project will address adult children affected by a rare disease (over 16 years). It will include different activities which prepare them professionally (what they can do in life) such as creating training programs for the use of IT tools, computers, maintaining them in good condition, and recycling them after use (can be divided into several small projects).

Project leaders are determined to improve the lives of those affected by rare diseases, give them hope, provide them access to infrastructure so that they can have early diagnosis, access to timely treatment, continuous care, improved quality of life and health.

MED TECH Event Category

GOLD MEDAL WINNER: AI Safety Assistant for Medical Affairs

Mark Armstrong

Medical Safety Assessment is complicated. It spans the entire product lifecycle and requires synthesis of internal technical data with external safety information. Current methods are slow & fragmented, risking missed insights and delayed decisions.

AI Safety Assistant (ASA) for Medical Affairs leverages AI to automate and expedite safety evaluations. It is designed with Health Hazard Analysis (HHA) as the initial use case and can be used with or without existing AI infrastructure. The AI Safety Assistant will generate value by increasing operational efficiency and effectiveness of Medical Affairs. It works through 1) Master Prompt Guidance as users interact with ASA via a simple chatbot-style LLM User Interface. ASA provides step-by-step guidance through regulatory-compliant safety evaluations (HHE/HHA); 2) Real-time Data Integration combines internal files (e.g., risk management documents) with external sources (e.g., adverse event reports), and summarizing insights for faster, data-driven decisions; 3) Natural Language Processing (NLP) to read and interpret large volumes of text-based data (e.g., reports, documents, regulations), quickly extract key information relevant to safety evaluations, use ML (machine learning) to analyze data patterns (e.g., verify RMF calculations, streamline Health Risk Assessments) and continuously learns from new data to improve decision accuracy.

Thus, Mark Armstrong proposes developing an AI Safety Assistant (ASA) to be used by Medical Affairs staff with or without access to existing AI infrastructure. This LLM-mediated assistant would be designed with a user friendly interface so that AI novices could interact with the tool as though it were a standard chatbot, using Health Hazard Analysis (HHA) as the initial use case as it is a significant burden for Medical Safety professionals to verify that all relevant data and documents exist and also meet the level of scrutiny required for a given Medical Safety Inquiry.

Using the ASA tool can save time, money, and potentially patient lives by improving operational efficiency, speeding up safety evaluations, and enhancing the quality of safety decisions.

SILVER MEDAL WINNER: Supervised Machine Learning to Predict Drug Launch Success

Pierre Daou, MD

Within the lifecycle of development drug launch is critical to establish a drug, maximize reimbursement and help accelerate drug access to the patient. Yet only about 70% of drug launches are considered successful. In light of this Pierre Daou explores the use of currently available AI technologies to help augment various medical affairs elements involved in pre-launch and early-stage launch activities. Centered around several elements including content generation, his aim is to find efficiencies to help accelerate and optimize drug launches.

BRONZE MEDAL WINNER: MEDBANDY wristband integration of NFC technology to manage health

Georgios Xygkos

The MEDBANDY wristband (website: https://medbandy.com) enhances access, continuity, and quality of healthcare by integrating NFC technology, ensuring patients adhere to medication regimens through timely reminders and alerts for drug-food interactions. This wearable device improves patient safety by enabling immediate access to crucial medical information and emergency contacts via a simple tap, supporting faster, more accurate emergency responses. With user-friendly features like voice commands and a touchscreen interface, MEDBANDY makes healthcare management more accessible, especially for the elderly or those with physical limitations, promoting continuous and quality care across diverse patient populations.

Fourth Place. Comprehensive Interoperable EHR platform with earlier diagnosis through AI-enhanced image analysis

Lasha Murjikneli, PhD

Medik is a comprehensive healthcare platform that operates similarly to Amazon, offering patients the convenience of booking various types of doctor visits and storing all their medical information in one centralized location. Lasha Murjikneli’s platform serves as a centralized hub for healthcare services. Patients can easily schedule appointments for different types of visits, such as consultations, check-ups, or specialist appointments. Additionally, the platform allows users to securely store and access their medical records, test results, prescriptions, and other health-related information, providing a comprehensive overview of their health history by AI. By offering these features, medik aims to streamline the patient access to doctors across both Eastern and Western Europe.

Medik is the only healtech company in Eastern Europe that has united all major medical facilities into one application and amassed a huge amount of electronic health records. The company’s next step is to train AI to analyze medical images such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans with high accuracy, aiding in the early detection and diagnosis of diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS

MOST ACTIVE IDEATOR (ATTENDEE) - David Barzilai, MD, PhD, MBA, MS, DipABLM (Agingdoc)

MOST ACTIVE IDEATOR (JUDGE) - Christopher Piedmonte

MOST ACTIVE IDEATOR (COMPETITOR) - Mark Armstrong

IDEA SPRINT CHAMPION - Mark Armstrong

IDEA WITH HURDLES CHAMPION - Jolly Nanda, MBA

IDEA LONG JUMP CHAMPION - Jolly Nanda, MBA

IDEA HIGH JUMP CHAMPION - John Hemming

IDEA SHOT PUT AWARD - Lasha Murjikneli, Ph.D.

2024 Medical Affairs Innovation Olympics Highlights (32 mins)

Olympic Legend, Gold Medalist, former World and current Olympic Record Holder Bob Beamon's Keynote

David Barzilai, MD, PhD, MBA - Longevity and Preventive Medicine: An Update of the Landscape

Two Olympic Legends Gary Hall Jr and Bob Beamon at Closing Ceremony

FINALS + Closing Ceremony Full Replay