Andrea Wilson Woods, Blue Faery Liver Cancer Advocacy - Ep.1x13

Welcome back to our podcast supplement for 'The Patients Speak', where we're combining the business and science innovations of healthcare with the patient voice and how to help them navigate the system to get from diagnosis to wellness faster and more smoothly, and navigate the complicated healthcare system.

Mark's guest today is Andrea Wilson Woods, president and founder of a non-profit called Blue Faery for liver cancer. She is also the CEO of Cancer U, a for-profit social impact healthcare startup in addition to being the author of a best-selling book, Better Off Bald: The Life of 140 Days. It's a medical memoir about raising her young sister.

“I think you just need to not assume that you know what a patient wants, you need to listen and really listen and ask more questions,” says Andrea.

As she gives us her greatest tip for us not to assume that we know what a patient automatically wants.

“I started Blue Faery in memory of my sister Adrienne. I was 22 years old and living in Los Angeles,” she tells us.

Blue Faery's mission is to prevent, treat and cure primary liver cancer, specifically hepatocellular carcinoma through research, education, and advocacy. She started Blue Faery in memory of her sister who was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer about a month after her 15th birthday. and she only lived 147 days with that diagnosis.

In our conversation, we talk about the 20th anniversary of the founding of the organization and the many wonderful things they have achieved in that time.

They have a research award, they give out every year on her sister's birthday. Which they have been able to increase over the years.?They also have a lot of patient education programs. All patient education materials they ship worldwide for free in multiple languages.??They have a lot of different advocacy programs.A year ago they started their first liver disease and liver cancer prevention and awareness campaign, and that has expanded. It is called Love Your Liver.

In summary, because of her sister's journey, her book has been instrumental in educating people who are either in sales or even medical affairs and helping them better understand the patient's journey.

She and her team have been amazing at advocating for choice which boils down to empowering patients with information just in case they feel like they may be out of options.

We also touched on her other outstanding venture Cancer U is an online platform for both cancer patients and caregivers to educate, empower and engage them to become advocates for their care, improve outcomes, lower stress, and reduce cost.

As we conclude, we emphasize how important a caregiver's job is. Whether it's a spouse, an adult, a child or sibling, or even a parent of a pediatric patient, that caregiver is the secretary, the butler, the chauffeur, the maid, and the cook. That caregiver knows everything, so you need to get them in on the conversation from the get-go. With the goal to learn more.

She also has a tip for anybody who is going into healthcare startup world that has a tech component “Make sure one of your co-founders is a tech co-founder. It's really important.”

If you’d like to read more about patient empowerment – along with the 83bar patient recruitment platform – go to?www.83bar.com. To listen to this interview and many more from The Patients Speak, hosted by Mark Stinson; click?HERE.