Patrick Sullivan is a Former VP of Digital Equipment Corporation, Conner Peripherals, Inc., Gold Star Products Company LTD (LG), and a Former Board Member of the publicly traded SpaceTec IMC, Northland Cranberries, Inc., Lab Tech Corporation, and Catalina Lighting Corporation. To the surprise and shock of friends, family, and coworkers, Pat began the shift from a fast-rising career to the fight for his life at the age of 38, living and surviving with heart failure. For seventeen years, Pat lived a very good life and kept himself busy enough to keep mentally and physically stable, despite heart health ups and downs. Ultimately, due to an error in a fairly routine surgical procedure to correct AF, he underwent open-heart surgery to install a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) and began the long road of a life with an LVAD and testing for transplant listing. His heart transplant miraculously occurred the day before Thanksgiving on November 21, 2012. During his stay in the hospital, and months before his transplant, Pat met his “heart brother” in Bob Romer. Bob and Pat talked daily about how, if they survived, they would give back. The HeartBrothers concept developed out of these conversations and the two are acting on their dreams. Pat is now focused on his new mission in life – the HeartBrothers Foundation – and helping others going through a similar fate.
Dra. Isabel Portero, Founder and CEO of Biohope Scientific Solutions, holds a PhD in Medicine with a background in the biomedical field. Before founding Biohope, Isabel acquired extensive experience as the Medical and R&D Directors for different hospitals, foundations, universities, and biomedical/pharma companies, including Merck and Roche. With her medical vocation and an entrepreneurial spirit, she decided to run her own biomedical company by joining a multidisciplinary team of professionals, who together aim to provide solutions to the unsolved medical needs in organ transplantation, a field to which Isabel has dedicated an important part of her career.
Dr. Nick Housby is a co-founder and CEO of Accunea Ltd, a medical device company with real-time diagnostic monitoring products for organ transplantation.
Nick has a PhD in Microbial Genetics from the University of Warwick followed by postgraduate research (genomics/biotechnology) at Harvard and Oxford University. Nick has held senior level positions as Scientist, CEO, NED, investor, and Chairman in several startup enterprises – such as the Oxford University startup, Oxagen (Human Genetics, 2003), Novolytics (antimicrobial therapeutics, 2010), BioMimox (peptide aptamers, 2014), and Arcamis (business consulting, 2010) – and has served as the Director of Business Development at OBN (2012). Nick has raised significant public, private, VC, and business angel funding (Beer and Partners, 2013) for several businesses) and was a coach for the Growth Accelerator program. More recently, Nick created the Molecular Diagnostics Centre within the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, building self-sustainability models and international collaborations and partnerships. Nick also led the successful bid to become the Oxford Genomics Medicine Centre and the Director of the Program. Nick is currently a member of the Diagnostics Advisory Council in Oxfordshire; has advised on Genomics products for ThermoFisher; was a lecturer at MIB (Manchester) in genomics; and graduated in 2016 with a PGDiP in Strategy and Innovation from the Said Business School in Oxford.
Dr. Ratner is Professor of Surgery and Director of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Ratner was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and served as the Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Access to organ transplantation has been Dr. Ratner’s major academic interest. Dr. Ratner has been a leading innovator in transplantation for over two decades. In 1993, he performed the world’s first dual renal transplant. In 1995 (with Dr. Louis Kavoussi) he performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and set the stage for its widespread adoption, which resulted in a profound increase in living donor kidney transplantation. Dr. Ratner has made significant contributions in overcoming immunologic incompatibilities that prohibited transplantation. He devised the plasmapheresis/IVIg protocol for alloantibody desensitization in 1998. In 2001, Dr. Ratner orchestrated the second paired-kidney exchange in the U.S. Subsequently, he arranged the first paired kidney exchanges in both Pennsylvania and New York. More recently Dr. Ratner has been a leading proponent of including compatible donor/recipient pairs in kidney exchanges. And, his more contemporary work has looked at the organizational and regulatory barriers to access to care. All of these strategies have increased organ availability and access to transplantation. Additionally, he has made important contributions to improve living donor safety. For his work, Dr. Ratner has received numerous awards and honors. And, he has been invited to speak and operate at various venues around the world.
Dr. Ratner has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and has been a federally funded investigator. His publications have been cited over 15,000 times. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network), and has served on numerous national committees including the Board of the United Network for Organ Sharing. He recently completed a term as the President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and previously served as that Society’s Treasurer. He has also served on the UNOS Board of Directors.
Dr. Ratner originally hails from Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his M.D. from Hahnemann University. His general surgery training was obtained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed a Fellowship in Transplantation Surgery and Immunology at Washington University. In 2011 Dr. Ratner completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on health care policy, administration and management.
Alex Tulchinsk, UNOS Chief Technology Officer since 2014, reports to the CEO and is a member of the UNOS executive team. He leads transformation of the technology platforms that match donated organs with patients nationwide, advance clinical decision-making through improved information gathering, and analytics on organ donors, transplant candidates and recipients. Mr. Tulchinsky champions efforts to consumerize transplant tools and services, dramatically reduce data burden as well as advance secure sharing of clinical information. He focuses on partnering with technology companies to develop new innovative solutions for the benefit of the transplant community.
Mr. Tulchinsky has over 25 years of technology and executive leadership experience with industry-leading organizations in healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, as well as internet and information services. Before joining UNOS he was Senior Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations at Neustar, Inc., an information services and analytics provider based in Sterling, Va. His prior experience includes leadership roles at AOL, MCI Telecommunications, SunRocket, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation, Citibank and other financial services companies.
Mr. Tulchinsky is a member of the Board of Directors of the Richmond Technology Council and an Advisory Board Member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Information Systems Department. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer and information sciences from Temple University.
Winner of Innovation Challenge to Receive $25,000 Grant
NEW YORK, NY, USA – February 8, 2021 – Last month, Lyfebulb, a patient-empowerment platform that connects patients with industry to support user-driven innovation, launched its first Innovation Challenge for 2021 in the area of Thriving with Transplantation. The Challenge goal is to identify new ways to help organ transplant recipients better manage their numerous daily challenges and experiences.
The global Innovation Challenge, sponsored by CSL Behring, will take place virtually in May 2021 and is open to patient entrepreneurs – those who have been affected by chronic disease as either a patient, support partner for a loved one or know someone who motivated them to start a company to develop solutions to an unmet need identified in their disease journey.
“As someone living with two organ transplants and managing the rigorous demands of being a CEO of a health-based start-up, I know first hand the many challenges that organ transplant recipients face each and every day,” explains Dr. Karin Hehenberger, CEO and Founder of Lyfebulb and transplant recipient. “At the heart of our Innovation Challenge, Lyfebulb and CSL Behring are eager to identify tangible and meaningful solutions to alleviate patient worries and improve their quality of life. Our goal is to invite fresh thinking and brilliant ideas to help organ transplant recipients not only survive but even thrive with their conditions by addressing the many obstacles, small and large, that they encounter daily.”
Submissions may span devices, diagnostics, consumer products, products for healthcare professionals, and healthcare IT to manage transplants, as well as support overall physical and mental well-being. Selected finalists will receive an invitation to pitch their company’s solutions to an expert panel of judges comprised of healthcare industry, medical and patient leaders. One winner will be awarded a $25,000 monetary grant. Competing finalists may be considered for possible partnerships or investments beyond the challenge. To apply or learn more, please visit:
The Innovation Challenge is one component of a larger partnership between Lyfebulb and CSL Behring to generate new solutions to better serve members within the transplant community. Please visit https://www.transplantlyfe.com to see the digital engagement platform, launched by Lyfebulb in partnership with CSL, for the transplant community.
About Lyfebulb
Lyfebulb is a chronic disease-focused, patient empowerment platform that connects patients and industry to support user-driven innovation. Grounded with its strong foundation in diabetes, the company has expanded disease states covered into cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, mental health, substance use disorder, migraine, transplantation, psoriasis, chronic cough, and chronic kidney disease. See Lyfebulb.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Karin Hehenberger LinkedIn, and Lyfebulb LinkedIn.
About CSL Behring
CSL Behring is a global biotherapeutics leader driven by its promise to save lives. Focused on serving patients’ needs by using the latest technologies, we develop and deliver innovative therapies that are used to treat coagulation disorders, primary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, respiratory disease, and neurological disorders. The company’s products are also used in cardiac surgery, burn treatment and to prevent hemolytic disease of the newborn.
CSL Behring operates one of the world’s largest plasma collection networks, CSL Plasma. The parent company, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL;USOTC:CSLLY), headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, employs more than 27,000 people, and delivers its life-saving therapies to people in more than 100 countries. For inspiring stories about the promise of biotechnology, visit Vita CSLBehring.com/vita and follow us on Twitter.com/CSLBehring
For more information:
Lyfebulb Contact:
Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD
CEO & Founder, Lyfebulb
Phone: + 1 917-575-0210
Email: karin@lyfebulb.com
January 31, 2018 will always be a special day for me, as that was the day that, through the selfless act of donation, I received my second chance at life with a heart transplant. Before that day, I was told that without a new heart, I would have a year or so left to live. Now, I can do things I never dreamed I could prior to transplant; I love to hike and exercise, love to volunteer with our local Organ Procurement Agency, and my family and I started a nonprofit last year, Heartfelt Help Foundation that assists Bay Area heart transplant recipients with both sourcing and paying for the right kind of medically required post-transplant housing. Though this temporary relocation is required, it is, at best, only minimally covered by insurance and that is where we come in. All of this is possible, because of an organ donor.