"It's progress we couldn't have envisioned decades ago." - Oscar

“I felt interested in being part of something bigger than my practice and something that will impact even more people that I was able to in the hospital.” - Carolina

Dr. Oscar Bronsther and Dr. Carolina Escobar from Interlink joined me this week to discuss the exciting and scary world of cell and gene therapy, CRISPR, and how we fund these amazing medical advances.

In addition to me attempting to act smart enough to be in the same room as these two, we covered their wholistic approach to this emerging scientific field, which promises potential cures for rare and debilitating diseases, but often comes with 7-figure price tags. The rare genetic diseases are known as “orphan diseases”, and there have been some recent incredible advances in detecting them early on in life.

We talked about what this all means for individuals as well as the insurance space as a whole, and how it has the potential to increase medical costs in this country even further.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Meet Oscar and Carolina
00:09:16 Genetic Therapy Solutions for Orphan Diseases
00:14:39 Detecting and Targeting Single Gene Mutations
00:26:52 CRISPR Technology
00:30:08 Equitable Access To Gene/Cell Therapy
00:37:21 How Do We Finance This?
00:46:13 The Ethical Concerns Of Cell/Gene Therapy
00:59:45 Economic Implications of This Technology

Key Links for Social:

@SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02

Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286

Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/

Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/

Key Words:

Rare Diseases, Gene Therapy, CRISPR technology, CRISPR, Healthcare Skepticism, Healthcare Warranties, Medical Revolution, Healthcare Advances, Orphan Diseases, Cell Therapy, Healthcare Innovation, self funded, podcast

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