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Ep. 24 AI vs. Clinical Trial Chaos: Maree Beare Isn’t Waiting Around
43 Plays22 days ago
We sit down with Maree Beare, the visionary CEO and founder of Clinials. Maree shares her journey in transforming clinical trials through AI-driven solutions, that streamline processes, enhance operational efficiency, and make research more accessible to diverse populations.
She breaks down the long-standing bottlenecks in clinical trials, and shares why and how she built a platform to tackle the complexity and inefficiencies head-on.
We explore how Clinials is redefining communication, simplifying protocols, automating workflows, and accelerating decision-making to drive faster, more cost-effective, and inclusive trials globally. Maree also discusses the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical research, and how technology can play a pivotal role in achieving these goals.
Tune in to discover why she’s becoming one of the most compelling voices at the intersection of AI, clinical trials, and patient-centric care.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Sparktime, where biotech's thought leaders, investors, CEOs, and industry experts break down the evolving story of life sciences. Hosted by
Hosts and Podcast Focus
00:00:09
Speaker
Danny Stoltzfus and Will Riedel, two scientists and strategic communicators, we dive deep into how biotech leaders can shape the narrative, win investor confidence, and communicate breakthrough science in ways that truly resonate.
00:00:21
Speaker
From
Insights into Biotech Trends
00:00:22
Speaker
emerging trends and cutting-edge technologies to what investors and partners really want to hear, we go beyond the usual echo chamber, bringing you fresh insights, unexpected perspectives, and the strategies that set biotech's top players apart.
00:00:34
Speaker
If you want to sharpen your corporate messaging, decode industry shifts, hear from voices shaping the future of biotech, and get inspired, then you're in the right place. Let's get
Marie Baer's Leadership in Biotech
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Speaker
into it.
00:00:47
Speaker
Today we're joined by Marie Baer, where we touched on in a really fascinating conversation, some of the most valued leadership qualities in biotech today, to where Marie's own frustration in clinical trials leads to incredible innovations that she's pushing forward.
00:01:04
Speaker
And i will leave you with this riddle before we jump in. A lack of this makes innovation backpedal, so listen to the full episode to find out. Marie
Vision and Mission of Clinials
00:01:15
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is a visionary leader in the health tech sector, recognized for founding and leading innovative companies aimed at transforming healthcare care accessibility and efficiency.
00:01:23
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As CEO of Clinials, Marie is pioneering solutions that empower individuals and accelerate lifesaving treatments. Clinials frees up clinicians and research teams with an AI-powered document assistant, generating trial docs in minutes.
00:01:38
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Importantly, her work focuses on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within clinical research. Formerly, Marie was CEO and founder of Wanji, a health management platform that empowers individuals to track and communicate their health information, aiming to reduce the time to diagnosis.
00:01:54
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Her leadership in this venture earned her recognition in Forbes' list of top 50 women-led startups disrupting health tech. Marie actively participates in discussions on healthcare innovation, emphasizing the importance of patient empowerment and the integration of technology and health management.
00:02:10
Speaker
Marie, it's really wonderful
AI in Clinical Trials
00:02:11
Speaker
to have you here. How are you today? I am ah feeling really awesome. Thank you. Fantastic. Love to hear that. So, Marie, Clinials is revolutionizing clinical trials, operational efficiency using AI-driven tools. So, I am so curious what inspired you to address this particular challenge in all of the life sciences sector, and how would you say Clinials saves time for research teams?
00:02:38
Speaker
Thank you for that question. it's ah It's something that that goes way back and and we have a little story around that which we'll come to but But essentially the inspiration came um from seeing how much time and expertise get lost.
00:02:52
Speaker
in trying to understand complex protocols. and And that's all of the various stakeholders in the industry, whether it's sponsors, so CROs, site networks, um you know service providers. So this is before you even begin recruiting or planning operations. so you know I saw these brilliant researchers who completely understand science um and coordinators spending days decoding documents and trying to understand and and seek clarity um and duplicating effort across all of the teams. And and that's where ClinEals began, is really simplifying that complexity, the complex medical information,
00:03:34
Speaker
into plain language. And so how does it work? Essentially we use AI, of course, ah to extract and and translate dense clinical content into usable formats. So that's whether it's feasibility studies, patient recruitment to materials or or pre-screening tools. So everything is is made so that it's structured, clear and ready to act on.
Communication in Clinical Trials
00:03:59
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So for research teams, that means they can make faster decisions. It's it's all about speed in clinical trials. so
00:04:06
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We want to align with sponsors more quickly. spend more time on high value work, not paperwork and red tape. It's about giving these teams back control and clarity because when they have that, the whole trial is going to move faster and smarter, obviously.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's really interesting because, Marie, we spend a lot of time talking to people who are executing clinical trials and we're always, from a communications perspective, talking about like you know the faster you get the data, the better it is. and so it's really But I never really considered what you're talking about as being one way to speed up the process. So that's that's really cool. i i can't wait to hear a little more about it. Yeah.
00:04:53
Speaker
I want to go back to talking about Australia for a second because it's yeah very rare that I get to talk to a fellow Aussie. And, you know, we both know that Australia has a really unique ah bias assist but ecosystem in biotech. So
Australia's Biotech Ecosystem
00:05:07
Speaker
I would love to hear your thoughts on navigating that as a woman founder because i have my own thoughts about being a woman in the Australian ecosystem, but I'd love to hear yours. Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker
Specifically, what do you think is unique about Australia that global listeners should understand? Both things that, you know, are headwinds and also that support you. So there's a number of factors or a number of questions in that question. so yeah I'd love to do that to you.
00:05:35
Speaker
Yeah, but it's okay. We'll blend it together. Perfect. the the first um the first aspect that of that that relates to, i guess, this audience is that Australia has a long history, and you will know this, a long history of clinical trials and yeah A majority of phase one studies happen in Australia and ah you know obviously the the government in Australia has supported ah financial incentives to bring global companies so to Australia to to do that those clinical trials. So what that means is we have a ah very... um
00:06:14
Speaker
complex and educated ah ecosystem that knows about clinical trials, but also Australians are very global people. I mean, I jump on ah on a plane, you know, out at a whim to go to to America. yeah it seems to it's it's it's a It's easy for us and and we think differently. We think very globally. And I think bringing that essence of that global understanding to clinical clinical trials is really important for our for many aspects.
00:06:44
Speaker
Secondly,
Influence of Early Life
00:06:45
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um why why are women founders? Why you know where to say why am I doing this? And I guess it actually comes back to um the way that I was ah brought up. auntie ah my auntie was a genetic scientist.
00:07:03
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So she she was very cool actually. I mean she passed away a few years ago at 96 but she was still bright as a button. But she vi and she invented connecting ah microscope to a TV in the 60s to be able to um to be able to research um chromosomes. So this is the early days of genetic science.
00:07:30
Speaker
um And so then she studied in the US actually, and then she um she started a a bioethics centre to bring forward the connectivity between ethics and clinical trials. So essentially she was ah revolutionary researcher. Wow, that's phenomenal.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, she trained many of the a genetic scientists that are in the community now globally and also um the ethics. um She was on many of the early ethics ah committees. Wow.
00:08:08
Speaker
So that's the, I guess, the solid ethics um brain conversations that I had growing up. So i having that as ah as a baseline, in some ways I haven't, and and ah and a person like that is, I guess, an early mentor, I haven't seen some of the boundaries that maybe some people have seen.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah. however I ah didn't grow up to be a researcher. I grew up to be a technologist and I've been a lifelong technologist. um And so I've navigated being in a room where I was in mostly the only woman in a room of people wearing black T-shirts.
00:08:51
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So yeah I've heard stories like that before. Yeah, I mean, there's more women now, but I mean, this is, I guess, all through my career, I've i've navigated that.
00:09:03
Speaker
So essentially, I've just had to, that became in my, ah guess, my frame set. So i've I haven't seen some of the, I guess it's always difficult and and we we still have um that to navigate, but I don't see as many boundaries as maybe some other people have given my background. Yeah.
00:09:23
Speaker
That's really, really cool and really encouraging to hear that story. Yeah. yeah
00:09:33
Speaker
So, Marie, I'm so curious about clinials. We know that clinical trial of recruitment is one of the most stubborn bottlenecks in drug development. There are so many clinical trials that are constantly waiting for patients to enroll.
00:09:48
Speaker
So, I'm curious, what do you think most people even within the industry misunderstand about why recruitment is so difficult?
Improving Patient Recruitment
00:09:56
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And not only that, but how is Clinials rethinking that model to make participation more accessible, more inclusive and and more effective?
00:10:07
Speaker
It's so surprising that it's many many yeah many of these um problems are so simple but and so obvious when you see them, but to the industry, because most people are coming from a ah scientific lens they miss the main problem. And,
00:10:29
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what is happening, and this is the the answer to what you've just asked me, is that they're misunderstanding the basics of communication. For example, people, and I call them people, not subjects,
00:10:42
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he yes hey people don't understand the complexities of clinical trials. So why do we communicate to them in in this way and then expect them to consent and then wonder why they drop out?
00:10:59
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So we are rethinking, this is the we of clenials, we are rethinking this model by providing the content as in in every in in it in every type of content that we create that either is for teams that need to communicate to people or directly to communicate to people.
00:11:19
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that goes in um IRB submissions, for example. We're rethinking this model by providing that content in plain language and breaking down the barriers to create this content, including multilingual, meaning we can communicate to all communities.
00:11:37
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And some examples of this including include um plain language trial summaries, landing pages, and pre-screening and patient information sheets. so if we provide these and we can provide them within minutes, this is breaking through the barriers of ah whether it's sponsors, whether it's CROs or sites saying, oh, it's too hard to communicate to those people. It's too costly to do translation.
00:12:06
Speaker
Oh, it's too, we don't know how to create a website. you know it's And and they the lens that they take is that even if they do create a website page and and your your company knows this, your experts in this area, you know, the lens is to to change it back to scientific.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yes. And that comes back to the basics of misunderstanding who they're comun to communicating to and what they need to communicate. Well, that is a battle that Will and I are very familiar with in convincing leadership teams to use language that everyone understands. And we we joke about that all the time, don't we, Will?
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, we definitely do. And and and it is so important. and I want to dig into something that you were talking about, and that is putting it into simple language. And I imagine that with the name collineals and utilizing AI, part of this will be done by ai So how do you, I'm curious, how do you navigate the any potential regulatory hurdle in translating using an AI tool?
00:13:12
Speaker
So ah ah regulations are part of the process. They are inbuilt within the clinical trial process. Yeah. And so ah we obviously, you know, what what we have done is create a um ah safe and trusted place for which is only ah accessible by each customer um for them to upload a protocol. So that's so that's the trusted source document.
00:13:40
Speaker
Now, There's a lot of misconception about many AI solutions. you know a lot of and ah AI is understood to be, let's generate a patient list from you know health records.
00:13:54
Speaker
That's very much um you know safety of going through a health record and then taking ah private information and analyzing it and you know giving that an answer back.
00:14:07
Speaker
now That is an example of accumulating data and then training information based on that data, and sometimes thats there's biases there. What we've done is used ai to speed up a process.
00:14:20
Speaker
So the process is is extracting key data from source documents, including protocols, and then using very ah sophisticated algorithms transforming that into um either ah lay language, that's it sort of, I guess, a standard term, lay language or professional language or scientific language.
00:14:45
Speaker
Now, that is an algorithm that does that. Now, back to your question around regulation. What we do is work in with existing workflows, right?
00:14:59
Speaker
It's very much like, you know, creating a document in Word or Google, right? So that is just a tool that you incorporate into your workflow. That is where we want to fit in. We want to fit in with Teams. We want to be fit in to to speed up the document creation.
00:15:15
Speaker
So we're not changing their regulatory flow, which is if your content is patient-facing, you have it submitted to IRB and have it approved.
00:15:27
Speaker
Does that answer your question? Absolutely. And it's so fascinating and such a deeply needed tool. So thanks for describing that, Marie. I'm curious about you know moving back in time to Wanji.
00:15:39
Speaker
Of course, that was a digital health platform. you know Reflecting on your entrepreneurial journey from Wanji to Colonials, what key lessons from Wanji have influenced your approach to to leading clinials, to be a building and leading clinials? And how did your experience with Wanji shape your vision for transforming clinical trials?
00:16:01
Speaker
Thank you. Well, this is essentially the essence of of what happened in 2021, which led to me founding clinials and essentially the team that were with me on Wanji moving over to to clinials um so obviously Wanji was all about um capturing or or people capturing health information so they'd be more likely to get diagnosed but then what happened was my husband went on a clinical trial and and that time so whilst he you know he was provided hope and care on that clinical trial what I saw firsthand was
00:16:40
Speaker
the overwhelming complexity and inefficiencies in the clinical trial process. So yeah from navigating dense protocols in the form of you know informed consent to delayed communication, to me it was clear that the system was not built for ease or speed, especially at that time for patients and their families.
00:17:04
Speaker
Now, um and I hate to say not a lot has changed in that regard, but... yeah but But obviously what this experience planted in me was a seed.
00:17:14
Speaker
You know,
Inspiration from Personal Experience
00:17:15
Speaker
why couldn't clinical trials be more accessible, efficient and inclusive for everyone involved? You know, why why can't Haitians understand um a know about clinical trials. um And so that was the foundation of ClinEals. And so what we're seeking to do, and and specifically now with the launch of our document assistant, is to make this in the hands of every stakeholder within the clinical trials sector. So we're here to remove those barriers and and use AI to allow everyone to simplify these processes and cut through the red tape um and create a system where all of the stakeholders, including the patients or people, sponsors and sites can all connect seamlessly um and breaking down those barriers of enabling them
00:18:08
Speaker
to communicate to people in the way they understand so important yeah and i i can only imagine having you know live that experience firsthand with your husband being in a trial makes you the perfect person to take on this challenge it's all kind of fitting together for me now why you're on this journey and yeah very very cool and Speaking of your journey, you know, we mentioned in the beginning that you've founded two health tech companies and have been recognized by Forbes as being, you know, one of the top women disrupting health tech.
00:18:42
Speaker
first of all, that's amazing and super impressive, and especially because female founders are still the exception, I think, in your industry and not the norm. So a couple of thoughts around that, like,
00:18:57
Speaker
How do you think being a woman has shaped the way that you lead those companies and build teams and approach decision making? And do you think that's ever been an unfair advantage for you coming into the space as someone thinks inherently differently?
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah, true. ah ah the landscape is shifting, but there's obviously still a long way to go. And we're yeah we're seeing a few step backs at the moment, but there is a growing recognition of the the value that women bring. I mean, particularly in biotech and health tech, where there there are more women um and we provide empathy, systems thinking and andi and resilience that are incredibly important.
00:19:44
Speaker
I mean, one challenge is access and that's to capital, to the networks, to mentors, to understand the nuance of being both a founder and a woman in this space.
00:19:57
Speaker
um And that's the opportunity. You know, it lies there in the perspective that we bring. For me, as a founder and and also someone who's navigated the healthcare systems, both personally and professionally. And we see that, you know, as we also work with our families that might get diagnosed with certain conditions, and then we see what's happening in the clinical trial sector, we're always observing and learning. And what I do out of that is I i build solutions that are patient-centric, inclusive, and also practical.
00:20:32
Speaker
I think that being grounded, and you know empathetic, all I try, empathetic leadership is becoming one of the strongest assets in this industry.
00:20:43
Speaker
who Yeah, i I have always really valued the empathetic leadership style. So I totally hear you. And it was really interesting that you just mentioned how access to capital is one of the challenges women still face, because we've we've actually interviewed two people recently who've talked to us about that topic, one being Jessica Owens and the other Audrey Greenberg. And They're both on a mission to change that because, you know, the the way that healthcare care is funded and biotech is funded really changes the outcome for female leaders and, you know, female patients as well. So um it's a really interesting topical point that we've hit upon a few times recently. So really, really interesting to hear that you you have the same kind of thoughts about that challenge.
00:21:32
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. And so changing topics for a moment, I want to go back to your comment about effective communication and really using like plain language to communicate to people because, you know, you've you've laid out all the reasons why that's so valuable in clinical research.
00:21:55
Speaker
So,
Language and Engagement in Trials
00:21:57
Speaker
What outcomes, and if you if you can speak to any that you've seen about people you know people that use your software to translate into patient-friendly language, has that improved patient recruitment, improved the people experience and engagement in clinical trials? do you have any you like examples that you can share?
00:22:20
Speaker
Oh, yes. I mean, there's there's so many examples. Actually, we whilst we launched this platform that's available globally at the end of last year um and essentially is a SaaS platform, if you like, i mean, people can go to our yeah website and download and do a free trial.
00:22:38
Speaker
But we we actually started this journey in 2021 where we created the the first plain language platform ah synopsis for the EU market, which had those guidelines around creating a plain language summary.
00:22:54
Speaker
um And so that was our first example of it of using AI to automate the process of creating plain language content because, you know, we started, when we started the company, you know, we were trying to provide a ah service to to our um our customers and, you know, our team were trying to understand those very protocols. I mean, that's the problem we're trying to solve is understand those protocols so we could know how we could communicate. Now,
00:23:26
Speaker
as you know, protocols are very regulatory heavy and dense and yeah content is, and they're getting more and more complex. So they're not only, they're just not understandable.
00:23:38
Speaker
um and And so it takes days often, you know, a week or so sometimes for a person that's not scientific to be able to break that down and create content that is engaging for patients.
00:23:54
Speaker
so um So we actually commenced, you know, creating the eye AI for this several years ago. So we're we've been building on our our baseline understanding of this and and the impact.
00:24:06
Speaker
um And then in ah the the following year, we then were able to create technology which took ah landing ah which took clinicaltrials.gov listings and we could extract that information and automatically generate plain language landing pages and and um pre-screening. So the initial use cases were more patient-centric and so the first examples of ah ROI were within our own team. we could cut We could cut days and weeks from generating that content into minutes.
00:24:40
Speaker
Right. wow And so that very ability is what we now have in our platform. So that is what we mean about breaking down the barriers and the ah ROI on what is the ah ROI on um on having plain language content. Well, first of all, it means that teams within, say, for example, you know, sites, ah CROs that that create content or service providers,
00:25:09
Speaker
they they um they feel more confident um in being able to understand these dense documents. So ah think from a team um ah team perspective and that reducing their burden and making them feel actually back to being confident in their communication, that's an our ah ROI.
00:25:32
Speaker
But then to your point about being able to reach more diverse participants faster obviously that's what these capabilities do when you have documents that patients can understand you can um that you can speed up being able to communicate to them so instead of having um scientific forms patients get it they can check their eligibility and and then submit and then you move on to the process Yeah, really, really cool.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah, and the patients um the patients feel more informed and respected from the first touch of engagement and then engagement naturally follows. So you end up with having a um a solid process then for retention.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, I love that thinking and that approach. And my my brain is buzzing. I'm thinking about all these people that we work with and talk to you about patient recruitment. And I'm like, I want to try this with all of them. Like I'm super excited to try it out. So I'm glad that I have free access.
00:26:36
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I want to ah touch on one of those aspects that that you just spoke about, Marie, and that is accessibility and emphasizing that diversity and equity and inclusion and in in clinical trials. And so, you know, I'm really curious if you could expand more on the strategies or the initiatives that you've implemented to make clinical research more accessible to traditionally underrepresented populations and and really why this focus is so critical for the future of healthcare care innovation.
Cultural Sensitivity in Trials
00:27:11
Speaker
Exactly. This is, um it's underlying one of the areas that we want to change, you know, this this access. And so inclusion or matching the population, if that's what we want to call it, or the numbers, um has to be baked into the process, not an afterthought.
00:27:31
Speaker
So that means, for from our perspective, we've when we've created plain language documents, we think about not just ah the community that speaks English. We think, well, for a start, we've got to be inclusive. So that means let's make it just as easy to generate multilingual trial materials, culturally sensitive content, and and have tools that allow these sites to engage with the communities beyond the usual catchment. So, I mean, a lot of small sites, for example, they...
00:28:07
Speaker
they engage with their local community or, you know, there's ah examples where some go to the same church groups or or whatever. but But essentially, if you don't have the the the document or the brochure that explains things in the plain language, then you haven't got something for them to physically look at And that's that's what that's where we' we're removing the barriers. So we've obviously designed our tech to,
00:28:36
Speaker
to be flexible so smaller sites or community organizations can use it without heavy infrastructure. i mean, as I said, you know, you can go to a website and trial it and get started and continue. um and And why does it matter? ah Because if your trial participants don't reflect the real world population, results of the trial and ultimately healthcare that you're clinical trial therapeutic or medical devices is is trying to prove in the data outcomes hey they they want it it won't be the results that you're after and and so therefore that's why we need to have it baked into the process so innovation in health care must be equitable or it's not innovation at all love that
00:29:28
Speaker
completely agree. so So critical. Thanks, Marie. We know that the integration of AI in in healthcare, care um well, ah really across healthcare, care is rapidly advancing.
00:29:42
Speaker
So
Trust in AI Solutions
00:29:43
Speaker
based on your experience at Colonials, and what ethical consideration should biotech leaders be prioritizing when they're developing AI-driven solutions?
00:29:56
Speaker
And Marie, how do you think they can balance innovation with patient safety and trust as as you've told us about how you have done? Yeah. Well, ah firstly, transparency and trust are non-negotiable. If it's not trust, it you know, it's... it's you can't replace that. So we don't replace the expert, we support them. So we we understand that the industry is made up of of the expert. So we want to support them in their role, not replace them. So l LII is designed to simplify, not to substitute clinical judgment.
00:30:37
Speaker
and And ethical AI means traceability and explaining how a summary was generated. So This is why, and as you know, ah you know, the the industry likes to have its frameworks. And so this is why we bake the human in the loop review process in ah ah content generation and review. So no matter whether you're generating the the content in English or in English,
00:31:04
Speaker
any language, you know, for example, Spanish, 20% population in the US speaks Spanish. So, you know, you you have, you create the content and then you have it reviewed. Same.
00:31:15
Speaker
um Can a regulator or a patient understand the transformation from the source to output? So that's part of that ref review and human in the loop process. so It also means guarding against bias in in the data or the assumptions and the algorithm. So,
00:31:30
Speaker
You know, because we have this is this thing called AI agents. So as I mentioned, you know, we're not we're not storing the data. So we're really just taking the um the data that's in the source, which is the protocol, and then using, you know, tone algorithms, whether it's, you know, lay language or and there's, you know, guidance on that and then or professional law or scientific,
00:31:57
Speaker
and then the the um the transformation to the content is based on that. So innovating quickly is exciting, but if you move faster than trust, you end up backpedaling. So we always focus on responsible ai safe, useful, and trusted.
00:32:21
Speaker
I think my new favorite tagline is innovation in healthcare must be equitable or it isn't innovation at all. I'm going to use that one again, Marie. That one is just gold. I love it.
00:32:33
Speaker
and so So thank you. I'm rapidly writing down quotes as you're talking because you have so many tips of wisdom. yeah. This has been such a fantastic conversation and I've just been felt so inspired hearing you talk about how you think about solving this challenge. And I just can't wait to have more conversations with you about it in the future. But for now, and need to ask you two key things.
00:32:58
Speaker
One is how do people contact you if they want to know more? And the second piece of advice that we always ask from our guests is what is the piece of advice you didn't appreciate receiving until after you'd lived through the experience?
00:33:17
Speaker
Okay,
Advice for Biotech Startups
00:33:18
Speaker
so... And they go together so well, so, you know I thought I'd budge the same question. I thought I'd do that. So, obviously, ah so firstly, ah you can find ClinEals, ClinEals.com.
00:33:32
Speaker
I'm sure that you'll be able to glue Google that quite easily. And it's clinials as in C-L-I-N-I-A-L-S. Sometimes people's brains convert that to be clinicals with a C in there. But anyway, and myself, you can contact me. um i'm ah i I obviously have a voice on LinkedIn. That's my most common place that I go to. So feel free to you know connect with me there or send me a message there.
00:34:02
Speaker
um you know i really love having a conversation there and engaging with people. So, um, if yeah, that's, that's the two places. Um, then, um, yeah, what's my piece of advice?
00:34:16
Speaker
I, having had two startups, um, I would have to say is often, um we need to move fast. So done is better than perfect.
00:34:27
Speaker
So I used to get caught up in a cycle of over-refining, especially in a regulated space like healthcare, but, perfection can slow you down. And in startups, we need to be agile and timing is everything. So we need to ah create and then listen and then learn. So the listen is, you know, obviously listening to our customers and then learning.
00:34:53
Speaker
um um And so what I've learned from that is that progress measured, responsible purpose-driven progress is more impactful than them waiting for the perfect plan. um So get it out there, test improve it.
00:35:08
Speaker
And we do that in an ongoing way with our engagement with the clinical trials community. And as you can see so far, and we want to continue that, that is where the real momentum happens.
00:35:21
Speaker
Marie, thank you so much for joining us today. um This has been such a fantastic conversation and we're really excited to share this with our listeners. So thanks for joining. Thank you. i mean, i loved hearing Marie talk about, um well, two things actually,
00:35:37
Speaker
that done is better than perfect and thankfully i was born the way not ever trying to be a perfectionist
Journey from Customer to Founder
00:35:44
Speaker
my stuff's always half done and I just push it out there no just kidding but I really i really value that and it sounds like she's had a lot of experience and a lot of success taking that approach and then i think my other comment would be that innovation in health care must be equitable or it isn't innovation at all and that just resonates with me on so many levels and um Yeah, like I said, I think I'm going to be using that one all the time now.
00:36:12
Speaker
What about you, Will? Yeah, well, Dani, you said that there were only two things that interested you from that conversation. Yes, only two. The conversation was so fascinating. Marie, such a wonderful guest. So great to have her on. So if we're trading Marie Bear quotes, my favorite ah was that innovation is exciting, but without trust, you end up backpedaling, I think. Yes, that's the one I couldn't remember. That's perfect. Yes, yes, exactly.
00:36:37
Speaker
um I love that quote. And i you know I have to say, and you'll probably agree with this, is that you know Australia is such a complex clinical ecosystem that that truly understands clinical trials and and biotech. And so if this platform we're going to come out of anywhere, um I'm sure you'd agree that Australia is a very good candidate. So um really, really cool to hear that innovation happening.
00:37:03
Speaker
I also think it's, you know, Marie Fitz, this perfect founder archetype of of being a frustrated customer to becoming a founder. I mean, she was perfectly placed in that role and yeah um and and what she's done with her learnings from her her own husband ah being part of a clinical trial is is just fantastic.
00:37:23
Speaker
um Starting with that mission of why can't patients and their families simply understand clinical trials easier? I think that's that's really a no-brainer, um but of course, ah something that's more difficult to execute upon than that.
00:37:40
Speaker
It's a challenge, let's just say. Yeah, definitely. And I also, i was super impressed. Like, could you imagine being her auntie, you know, hooking up a microscope to a TV to figure out what chromosomes look like? I mean, that's just such a cool story. And I mean, um you know, it's no wonder she's done such amazing things with, you know, her auntie is a role model from such an early age. I just thought that was a really cool insight to how she ticks and how she got to where she is today.
00:38:08
Speaker
Yes. And and her her aunt being really of a forerunner in bioethics in Australia, I think. What an incredible foundation for yeah someone to grow up with. Yeah. Really fascinating history. Yeah, totally.
00:38:24
Speaker
there's one aspect that Danny, you highlighted during our conversation that, that keeps coming up again and again. And I, you know, I think it's, it's worth saying one more time today. And that is that, um, access to capital huh drives, ha drives the industry. It's, it's how biotech is done. And so that being one of the most challenging aspect for, uh, female founders is,
00:38:52
Speaker
yeah you know, that that rings true across the globe. Yeah. And not I was also thinking beyond that. I mean, it's not just, you know, we often think of, well, historically, i think we've thought of diversity as men and women, but diversity means so much more than that.
00:39:07
Speaker
So we're now seeing people raise awareness around women accessing capital from women, but what about all the other diversity that we're not capturing? So I just, I hope this becomes like a steam train and just, we really see some,
00:39:21
Speaker
revolution in terms of how capital is raised and deployed and allocated because I think you know to Marie's point about you know being equitable i think we have to start with capital allocation. Completely agree.
00:39:37
Speaker
Well thanks again to our listeners for joining Sparktime. We welcome you to join next time as we continue to explore the ideas the thinkers and the innovations that continue to drive biotech forward.
00:39:48
Speaker
We hope to see you there.