ONCE UPON A GENE - Episode 068 - Connecting the Dots From Patients to Researchers with Jason Colquitt - CEO of Across Healthcare
Jason Colquitt is the CEO of Across Healthcare and he has 20 years experience in the healthcare technology field where his work has caused a positive disruption within the healthcare industry. He was diagnosed with carnitine palmitoyltransferase type II deficiency (CPT-II), a rare mitochondrial disease. He believes he's been called to use his journey and technical background to help the rare disease community.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Can you share your background and a bot about what you do?
There's a Walt Whitman quote that talks about a journey and how you never understand that journey until looking backwards and that's what I do a lot-- look back and see how all the paths crossed, what I've been blessed to be able to do and how I can bless others. I've been in healthcare technology for 22 years and have done and seen a lot. Personally, about 18 years ago I realized something wasn't right after several hospitalizations. I had a great primary physician and my diagnostic journey was quick. I was sent to the University of Alabama at Birmingham which has an amazing rare disease group. They did a muscle biopsy and quickly determined that I had a rare mitochondrial disease called CPT-II. This part of my journey gives me the passion for what I do today.
What did you feel seeing another patient with your disease on Diagnosis?
I have gone through her same pains, though she had it more severe than I do. Going on a walk and locking up, being crippled and subsequently hospitalized, I could relate on a lot of levels. I had never seen anyone with my disease, so it was interesting and a chance to digest that I do have a rare disease and others do too.
What is Across Healthcare?
We do consulting contracting all across healthcare. We have a team of 65 people, all technologists, and we love working in healthcare. We have rewritten and helped to write electronic healthcare records for large companies across the country. They hire us for a range of things on the technology side to help them build the next generation of new product. We also have worked in the life sciences and pharma arena and bring that to the table across healthcare. We work with large institutional review boards on their technology and site-based clinical trial management systems. We've built patient apps, durable medical inventory systems and a lot of other technologies across the field. A product we've built called Matrix is focused in the rare disease space. Matrix is built for patients and caregivers to do the things they need to do to care for themselves on a daily basis and information they need to track. We work with patient advocacy groups who use our tool to send an invite to their rare disease patients and it helps aggregate information. Our product helps provide registries for natural history studies. Ultimately the Matrix system is to serve as a platform for co-production that everyone uses for daily care, research and studies and a feedback loop for patients and caregivers.
How does someone sign up for the Matrix?
We typically reach out to sign onto the product and we start educating the community through that outreach.
What advancements have you seen in medical technology, data and what can be gathered from digitizing and organizing?
Twenty years ago, systems were not interoperable and data didn't flow between systems. There's a lot more of that, but there's a lot more work to do. We are opening that up and leveraging those opportunities with our platform to pull data out of electronic medical records, but there's a long way to go.
What is the cost for a rare disease group to join the platform?
It depends, but I've never let a price point overcome my ability to deliver a platform to a group. Typically it starts at $10K - $15K to start and an annual fee of $10K - $20K. We are flexible and have a scale built in to accommodate organizations that are growing.
Who are your rare disease heroes?
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and what they've done. The therapies they have delivered over the last ten years is truly amazing and I'm blessed to have been a part of that on the technology team that delivered their registry platform. They are an awesome group of people.
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED
Muscular Dystrophy Association
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