TrialReach Announces First Three Members of Advisory Board
London, UK (PRWEB) July 29, 2014 -- TrialReach, the world’s largest provider of clinical research information and patient-clinical trial matching, today announced the company’s first three advisory board members: "e-patient Dave" deBronkart, Trae Vassallo, and Adam Dole. TrialReach is helping to solve one of the most challenging problems plaguing clinical trial research and development by enabling patients and researchers to connect with one another in order to advance the development of new drug treatments and therapies. The new advisory board members come from various backgrounds in innovation, technology and patient advocacy, and will provide guidance regarding the company's patient programs, strategic roadmap and technology innovations.
"Not enough patients know about or take part in the clinical research that could lead to faster cures," said TrialReach Chief Executive Officer, Pablo Graiver. "Our first three advisors share our commitment to solving this critical problem. We are very honored to have such talented and highly esteemed individuals working with us to break down the walls between patients and medical researchers and speed up the development of new treatments."
“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart, one of the world’s leading advocates for the role of informed patients, is TrialReach’s Special Advisor for Patient Perspective. A survivor of a near-fatal kidney cancer, Dave spent his career in high tech, observing disruption at close range as technology put power in consumer hands. With 25 years in online communities, he knows end users see things differently and developers optimize better when they align with the consumer’s view.
“Patients know what patients want to know,” he said, quoting from his highly rated book Let Patients Help: A Patient Engagement Handbook. “And people perform better when they’re informed better.” As co-chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine, he says, “E-patients are empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled. Smart patients are driven by informed choice. The Institute of Medicine itself says medicine must be anchored on patient needs and perspectives – it doesn’t get more authoritative than that. TrialReach exists to get patients the access and information they deserve, to make informed decisions when their health is on the line.”
Trae Vassallo is an independent advisor and was most recently a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s most venerable venture capital firms. In addition to her many achievements and successes at Kleiner Perkins, Vassallo was instrumental in the firm’s early investment in Nest Labs, and led the Dropcam investment, which was recently acquired by Nest. Vassallo, who holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in mechanical engineering also from Stanford, owns 13 patents representing her extensive work in technology innovation. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins in 2003 as an entrepreneur-in-residence, Vassallo worked for famed design studio, IDEO, where she designed products for Palm and Dell, and later co-founded the Kleiner-funded mobile software company, Good Technology, which was sold to Motorola in 2006.
"I am particularly drawn to opportunities where an understood transformative technology is applied to a new underserved market. Online marketplaces are not new, but this combination of using the reach of the web to democratize the clinical trial process is truly transformative," said Trae Vassallo, TrialReach advisory board member.
Adam Dole is a former Presidential Innovation Fellow at The White House who worked on the MyData Blue Button Initiative at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, Dole was an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Mayo Clinic, where he developed new ventures at the intersection of healthcare and technology to expand Mayo Clinic’s scope and reach through new business models, including Better, a personal health assistant service based in Palo Alto, CA. Earlier in his career, Dole held positions at NASA’s human factors research division, Jump Associates and Method Inc.
“I am inspired by TrialReach's relentless commitment to putting the human element back into the clinical trial process. For many, the clinical trial process can be scary, intimidating and often focuses on the needs of the healthcare system rather than those of the patients,” said Adam Dole, TrialReach advisory board member. “By taking a patient-centric approach, TrialReach has a significant opportunity to differentiate its value proposition by meeting patients where they are and empowering them with a clinical trial experience that builds confidence, trust and increases self-efficacy, thereby, increasing the quality and longevity of people's lives.”
About TrialReach
TrialReach is using technology to solve one of the biggest problems in clinical trials, helping patients and researchers connect. Our mission is to empower millions of people to participate in clinical trials across the world to develop new medical treatments and find cures faster. TrialReach was launched in 2010 and is based in the US and London, UK. For more information, visit http://www.trialreach.com.
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