Transforming Real-World Data into Patient Outcomes with Sandeep Pawar, the Head of Ecosystem Partnerships at Verana Health

[00:00:02] Hey, everybody.

[00:00:03] Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket.

[00:00:05] I'm here at HIMSS 2024 doing our Insight interviews.

[00:00:09] And today I have the privilege of hosting Sandeep Pawar.

[00:00:12] He is the head of ecosystem partnerships at Verona Health.

[00:00:16] Sandeep, thanks for joining me today.

[00:00:18] Absolutely, Saul. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:20] Excited to be here.

[00:00:20] Yeah, excited to have you here.

[00:00:22] And a lot of folks that couldn't make it

[00:00:25] are relying on these podcasts to get insights.

[00:00:28] And so just to kick things off, help us understand

[00:00:31] a little bit more about Verona Health and tell us a little more about you.

[00:00:34] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:00:36] I'll start with myself.

[00:00:37] I'm basically a scientist by heart.

[00:00:39] Did my training in molecular biology and academia.

[00:00:42] Although in academia, I did not fancy the slow pace of basic research

[00:00:47] and clinical research and wanted to find ways to help improve patient lives

[00:00:51] and speed up the process that that it takes for from a for a drug

[00:00:55] to come to the market.

[00:00:57] Because of that, for the past better part of a decade,

[00:01:00] I have been in various roles in the light science space,

[00:01:03] which has helped me have that particular impact.

[00:01:07] And what I have been able to do is truly make sure that the data

[00:01:11] that is available in this particular ecosystem helps drive the insights,

[00:01:16] which helps patient lives.

[00:01:18] And in order to do so, what we do here at Verona

[00:01:22] is Verona being a digital health company.

[00:01:25] What we here do is take all of the data

[00:01:28] that we have from our exclusive partnerships

[00:01:31] from that data, produce the insights.

[00:01:34] These insights lead to actions and then those actions lead to

[00:01:39] legitimate outcomes which help transform patient lives.

[00:01:43] The way Verona does this is by basically taking all of the data

[00:01:48] from our exclusive partnerships, which is real world data,

[00:01:51] and then making sure that through our AI as well as analytics processes,

[00:01:56] we develop the capabilities to really transform this data

[00:02:00] into de-identified data, Q-data modules,

[00:02:03] which then help drive clinical research for our pharma customers.

[00:02:07] And then at the same time, it also helps our CRO partners,

[00:02:11] which are our clinical research organizations, perform or round out

[00:02:15] their trial offerings, which then helps them truly do more of

[00:02:20] clinical trial enablement and help again patients

[00:02:23] who are at the center of everything that we do.

[00:02:25] That's fantastic. Thanks for walking us through that here at the meeting.

[00:02:29] There's a lot of discussions, different topics around innovation, AI,

[00:02:36] language models, analytics.

[00:02:38] What's been an insight that has risen to the top for you

[00:02:41] here at the conference? And also, why did you come?

[00:02:45] Yeah, absolutely. Two reasons why I came to HEMS.

[00:02:48] First of all, this is my first HEMS.

[00:02:50] Very excited to be here. Massive conference.

[00:02:52] One of the key reasons is that at Verana, we like to stay ahead of the curve.

[00:02:57] And what I mean by that is we want to ensure that we put in place

[00:03:01] all the technological solutions that are available in the marketplace

[00:03:05] or in the ecosystem to ensure that we provide the best insights

[00:03:10] to our pharma partners, which can then, of course, help downstream

[00:03:14] clinical development.

[00:03:15] So that is why all the new cutting edge tools as well as solutions,

[00:03:20] be it in AI, be it in generative AI, be it in just your regular ML based modeling.

[00:03:26] All of that, I want to take it back and then through the actionable next steps,

[00:03:31] truly implement those solutions at Verana.

[00:03:34] Secondly, I think this is a massive opportunity to network

[00:03:38] with world renowned experts, listen to them talk about truly interesting topics

[00:03:43] and then network with our tech partners as well as with our data partners

[00:03:47] in order to understand how to better serve our customers.

[00:03:50] And of course, our patients on them.

[00:03:52] That's great, Sandeep. Appreciate that.

[00:03:54] I had a guest earlier today say feedback is oxygen.

[00:03:59] Yes. And here at the conference, what an incredible opportunity

[00:04:03] to get that feedback to make sure we're serving our end clients

[00:04:07] and patients the best way we can. I love that.

[00:04:09] Thanks for sharing that.

[00:04:10] Look, people out there want to make a difference in health care.

[00:04:13] What call to action would you leave them with as a result of the work that you guys do?

[00:04:19] And what's the best place for them to get in touch with you and the team?

[00:04:22] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:04:23] So at Verana, we pride ourselves in keeping patients

[00:04:26] at the center of everything that we do.

[00:04:28] And we are truly trying to drive change by making sure that we make the best use

[00:04:33] of the real world data asset that we have through our medical societies,

[00:04:38] as well as leverage the real world data network that we have

[00:04:41] in order to help the clinical trial and enablement side also.

[00:04:46] So one of the things that I would love for the community to do is embrace

[00:04:50] the change that is happening at present in our health care environment altogether.

[00:04:56] AI and generative AI, all of the processes downstream of that.

[00:04:59] Everything is new to us.

[00:05:01] However, I truly believe that now we are moving from the stage

[00:05:05] of everything being promised to how it can be implemented.

[00:05:09] And I also believe that all of this can happen through real solid collaboration

[00:05:13] between the big tech giants to big health care systems,

[00:05:17] as well as digital startups like Verana Health.

[00:05:20] And then what I want to do is ensure that collaboration continues in the future

[00:05:25] in order to drive the change that helps us succeed in health care.

[00:05:28] Well, it's I mean, what a great way to close our discussion today.

[00:05:32] And if people want to reach out to you or the company, how can they do that?

[00:05:35] Oh, absolutely.

[00:05:36] You're more than welcome to go to our website at Verana Health dot com.

[00:05:39] And I am available at Sandeep.Pawar at Verana Health dot com.

[00:05:43] So please feel free to shoot me a note or come visit our website

[00:05:47] and see all the great work that we are doing at Verana.

[00:05:49] Sandeep, thank you very much.

[00:05:50] Really appreciate your time.

[00:05:52] And listeners, viewers, thank you for tuning in to another episode.

[00:05:56] Remember, in the show notes of our series, you'll be able to find

[00:06:00] all of the links and ways to get in touch with Sandeep and the Verana Health team.

[00:06:04] Thanks for tuning in. Thanks, Sandeep.

[00:06:06] Thank you so much.