THE PATIENT EQUATION: THE PRECISION MEDICINE REVOLUTION IN THE AGE OF COVID-19 AND BEYOND

Introduction vii
• Section 1 From Hippocrates to Epocrates 1
Chapter 1 Before We Cured Scurvy 3
Chapter 2 Inside the Equations 17
Chapter 3 Fitbits, Smart Toilets, and a Bluetooth-enabled Self-driving ECG 43
• Section 2 Applying Data to Disease 57
Chapter 4 Ava—Tracking Fertility, on the Road Toward Understanding All of Women’s Health 59
Chapter 5 One Breath, One Drop—Asthma and Diabetes, Chronic Conditions Being Conquered with Technology 69
Chapter 6 Flumoji and Sepsis Watch—Two Approaches to Predicting and Preventing Acute, Life-threatening Conditions Through Smarter Data 81
Chapter 7 Cancer and Phage Therapy—Crafting Custom Treatments Just for You 93
Chapter 8 Castleman Disease—Not One Rare Disease with No Treatments, But Three Rare Diseases . . . with Hope, Thanks to Data 105
• Section 3 Building Your Own Patient Equations 113
Chapter 9 The Steam Table 115
Chapter 10 Good Data 133
Chapter 11 Changing Clinical Trials 143
Chapter 12 Disease Management Platforms 175
• Section 4 Scaling Progress to the World 191
Chapter 13 The Importance of Collaboration 193
Chapter 14 Value-based Reimbursement 203
Chapter 15 Aligning Incentives 217
Conclusion 231
Acknowledgments 241
About the Authors 243
Index 245

How the data revolution is transforming biotech and health care, especially in the wake of COVID-19—and why you can’t afford to let it pass you by
We are living through a time when the digitization of health and medicine is becoming a reality, with new abilities to improve outcomes for patients as well as the efficiency and success of the organizations that serve them. In The Patient Equation, Glen de Vries presents the history and current state of life sciences and health care as well as crucial insights and strategies to help scientists, physicians, executives, and patients survive and thrive, with an eye toward how COVID-19 has accelerated the need for change. One of the biggest challenges facing biotech, pharma, and medical device companies today is how to integrate new knowledge, new data, and new technologies to get the right treatments to the right patients at precisely the right times—made even more profound in the midst of a pandemic and in the years to come.
Drawing on the fascinating stories of businesses and individuals that are already making inroads—from a fertility-tracking bracelet changing the game for couples looking to get pregnant, to an entrepreneur reinventing the treatment of diabetes, to Medidata's own work bringing clinical trials into the 21st century—de Vries shares the breakthroughs, approaches, and practical business techniques that will allow companies to stay ahead of the curve and deliver solutions faster, cheaper, and more successfully—while still upholding the principles of traditional therapeutic medicine and reflecting the current environment.

• How new approaches to cancer and rare diseases are leading the way toward precision medicine
• What data and digital technologies enable in the building of robust, effective disease management platforms
• Why value-based reimbursement is changing the business of life sciences
• How the right alignment of incentives will improve outcomes at every stage of the patient journey

Whether you're a scientist, physician, or executive, you can't afford to let the moment pass: understand the landscape with this must-read roadmap for success—and see how you can change health care for the better.

Authors
• GLEN DE VRIES is co-CEO and co-founder of Medidata, the most-used platform for clinical trials around the world. Medidata has powered tens of thousands of clinical trials, with millions of patients and billions of patient records. In 2019, in one of the largest health care technology acquisitions in history, Medidata became part of Dassault Systèmes. Glen has been driving Medidata's mission since the company's inception in 1999, "powering smarter treatments and healthier people" by advancing pharmaceutical business transformation with technology, non-traditional ways of thinking, and industry collaboration. Glen's work has appeared in Applied Clinical Trials, Cancer, The Journal of Urology, Molecular Diagnostics, and other journals. He also serves as a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University.
• JEREMY BLACHMAN is a writer who works with leaders across industries on getting their ideas out to the world. He has published two novels and developed television pilots for NBC. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other prominent publications.