Chad Ramos Podcast Transcript
Chad Ramos joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Chad Ramos. Chad Ramos is a transformative leader at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and entrepreneurship. As the CEO of Privado Health, Chad drives innovation in cancer care by expanding access to Theranostics, a groundbreaking treatment revolutionizing the way prostate cancer and other cancers are treated.
Chad is helping cure prostate cancer across the United States with Theranostics. In addition to his role at Privado Health, Chad serves as the Executive Director of Biotech Vegas, a dynamic organization fostering collaboration amongst biotech innovators, health care professionals, and investors to accelerate advancements in medical science.
As a Business College Professor of Innovation, he teaches the next generation of entrepreneurs how to thrive in a fast-changing landscape, blending academic insight with real world application.
Well, good afternoon, Chad. Welcome to the show!
Chad Ramos: Thank you. Excited to be here, Brian!
Brian Thomas: Awesome. Appreciate you making the time.
Hailing out of the great state of Nevada there in Las Vegas. Great times out there. I’m in Kansas City, so just a couple hours behind you, brother, but appreciate you jumping on at this time of the evening and let’s just jump right into your first question, Chad. As CEO of Privado Health, you’re pioneering the use of Theranostics in cancer care.
Can you explain what Theranostics is and how it’s transforming prostate cancer treatment in the US?
Chad Ramos: Absolutely. I appreciate the question and honestly appreciate the exposure for this new innovation. It’s, it’s really exciting. I think the best way to understand Theranostics is in comparison with something that everybody knows, which is chemotherapy.
So, the way chemotherapy works is that it attacks fast growing cells in your body. So, cancer spread throughout the body, chemo has been a miracle for us. It’s been really, really awesome, but we all know that the side effects are pretty intense a lot of times because it’s killing fast growing cells, which means it kills the cancer cells, but it also kills a lot of healthy cells, right?
It kills your hair follicles and that’s why that’s why your hair falls out and it kills the stomach lining and that’s why you throw up so much and that’s how chemo works. The opposite. Is the case with theranostics, where about 18 months ago, a drug was approved here in the US for prostate cancer to treat prostate cancer, and the way it works is that it targets specific biomarkers on top of the prostate cancer cell.
So it’s a very targeted, hyper targeted approach to killing cancer and theranostics is a combination of two words, therapy and diagnostic and the reason why they do that is because what is happening is this nuclear medicine is used for both the diagnostic side of things to be able to see exactly where the cancer cells are around the body and then you simply target those with a very similar process.
And so, Theranostics is this evolution. It’s very much an evolution in cancer care where it’s targeting very specific cells. And it’s not just cancer. There are other types of conditions that are being treated. But what’s fascinating is that there are over 200 clinical trials. For lots of different cancers happening in the theranostics field, and so it’s a really, really exciting time.
But right now, that’s the focus is prostate cancer. It’s what FDA approved insurance will pay for it. If you jump through a couple of the hoop, but it really is exciting. That’s the difference between theranostics and some of these other treatments.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And it’s always good to hear. I’ve been in health care a long time myself on the tech side and I love hearing stories like this.
It’s just awesome that we can find something that has a better outcome and less side effects. So, Chad, what challenges have you encountered in expanding access to the Theranostics treatments across the U. S. And how has Privado Health worked to overcome these barriers to reach more patients in need?
Chad Ramos: Yeah, so there’s a couple different barriers.
The first one is that the FDA approval, because we are in the American healthcare system, for better or worse, there’s some obstacles when it, when it comes to new therapy. And so one of the obstacles is that right now you have to have failed chemo. And failed hormone therapy in order to qualify to have insurance pay for who Victor, which is the name of the drug.
So, the 1st, part of it is that you have to have gone through a few different types of therapies and not have success in order to be even have the access to the drug. That’s changing next year. We have really good sources and the data has already been completed. It’s with the FDA. And so, it looks like the first half of the year next year, you’ll be able to get this therapy even before you get chemo.
And so, it’s a huge advantage. Now we’re treating patients around the world, so if people come and say, hey, I want this new type of therapy. I’ve heard about this. I’ve done the research, but I don’t want to do chemo. Well, we take people to Germany and Australia right now, the obstacle is that 50, 000 a dose, it’s just expensive, but if they don’t want to go through some of the, you know, current therapies in order to get access to this, then we have really great hospitals in Germany and Australia that we’re taking patients to, so they can have this therapy.
Another obstacle is, because it’s so new, there’s a lot of physicians that simply don’t even know about it. And so, a lot of our patients that are coming in have read about us in an article or googled us or listen to a podcast and that’s why they’re being treated. They’re not getting that information from their doctors.
Generally, it’s not some nefarious problem. It’s just that, you know, most doctors are not researchers, right? They’re there to treat patients, and usually their treatment plan is based on a hospital they work at or some of those things. So, another big obstacle is that physicians simply don’t know that this is an option.
And so that’s one of the things that we’re working on is working with physicians around the country, teaching them about this new type of therapy, helping them get it up and running in their own practices. And so those are the two biggest obstacles that we face. And you’re starting to see commercials like in NFL games and big college games about this drug.
So, it’s starting to happen where the general public is finding out a little bit more, but it’s kind of slowly but surely. Yeah.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. You know, we were talking about your resilience before the podcast started and, and you’re just, I think the right person to be in the seat right now facing these challenges, because I know you’ll be successful in getting the word out there and getting on more and more podcasts like mine.
We’re certainly going to get this message out to the world. So, I appreciate that. Chad,
Chad Ramos: I’ve got a little cool story about a podcast. So, one of the reasons why being on a podcast like yours, Brian, is so important is that. You know, I was on a podcast about three months ago, and, you know, a regional podcast, and but her listeners really trust her a lot.
And from that one podcast, we had over 200 cancer patients fill out a form on our website, and we’ve started treating those patients already. And then I’m going back on the podcast in January, simply to talk about the patients that we are treating that came from her podcast. That didn’t hear about it in any other way.
And so, you literally helping get the word out is saving people’s lives because of just the new dynamic that we’re seeing in the US where media shifting to people like you, where you have an audience, you’re able to find really interesting companies and stories. And it’s completely changing how people are finding out about really important topics.
And so, it’s just a really exciting time. And so, I very much appreciate you sharing this information with your audience.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely love doing it. And I couldn’t think of a better way to help the world is helping people that are in need or, or sick in this case. So, appreciate that for sure. And Chad, you’re known for your passion for AI driven solutions in healthcare.
How do you see AI shaping the future of cancer treatment and healthcare at large? And what exciting developments do you anticipate in this space?
Chad Ramos: Well, I see AI helping in two main ways. First, I see AI helping nurses and physicians and other healthcare workers able to spend less time doing really monotonous work or work that could be done by computers and help them in documentation and lots of those things so that these healthcare workers are able to spend more time with their patients.
Right, the less time they have to do paperwork and some of these other processes that healthcare, you know, can really get drained and drowned on. I see AI very much helping them. I’ve seen some really amazing applications in healthcare designed to help the workers, right? And physicians and the diagnostic process and clinical trial process and all of these types of things.
And then I see AI helping the patients directly, helping them understand how specific medication or specific procedures can be tailored to them and really kind of helping them. One of the things that we’re doing is we’re integrating AI into our 22-step patient journey. And so, at every step of the way, patients are able to have personalized approaches to what is coming up.
And so, I think it’s going to be a tremendous opportunity to not only expand access to health care, but to personalize it for people. And we’re seeing that in not only the type of medicine, but also in the approaches that physicians are able to have with people. And I really see as something that can compliment.
Healthcare workers in treating patients and freeing up time for them to do that. And I’m incredibly optimistic with AI. It’s not some panacea. It’s certainly not going to fix every problem that healthcare has, but when applied very specifically there’s incredible opportunity for AI to do a lot of good in healthcare.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. We’re seeing it across all the spectrums, every industry, but health care again is near and dear to my heart. I’ve spent most my career in the health care space and I’m seeing a I do some really, really cool things. But on the flip side, we can apply it to various applications where we can augment human tasks or really replace those monotonous tasks with the machines, which is very positive.
So, Chad, last question of the evening here. In your role as a professor of innovation, how do you inspire students to embrace entrepreneurship in a constantly evolving landscape? What skills or mindsets do you consider essential for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs?
Chad Ramos: So, yeah, I teach an innovation class at UNLV here at the business school at UNLV.
And so, I am generally teaching freshmen and sophomore. Students who are generally looking at entrepreneurship and business. And so, you know, my job is to help them understand how to be really intentionally innovative. And we talk about 10 really specific ways for them to build innovation into their lives, into the businesses that they start, into the teams that they manage.
And I think for one of the most important things that I’m able to teach them is to be proactive about innovation, that it’s not just something that happens. It’s not just something that you’re either born with or not, but there are very specific skills that they can apply to be more innovative. And to not look at the world how everyone else looked at it or at a problem.
And so, I think the biggest mindset is just understanding that there’s something really specific and proactive you can do to be more innovative. And that’s not something that I think is intuitive for a lot of people. They think you’re either born with it and you’re either creative or you’re not. And so, I’ve learned to apply those things with my own team and in my own business and in other organizations that I’m a part of.
And so, it really is exciting to see what options are out there as you start thinking about how you can intentionally be innovative?
Brian Thomas: Thank you. Chad, I appreciate you carving time out of your busy schedule to help future entrepreneurs learn and grow. And you’re sharing some of the things that you’ve had to go through and learn, but again, you’re paying it forward through teaching a class to some amazing young entrepreneurs.
I appreciate that, Chad. It was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Chad Ramos: Absolutely. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Chad Ramos Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
