BRIDGE is a new IT platform pioneered by Ashoka/Sage Bionetworks to democratize non-traditional support of innovative medical research. Current reward structures in the medical industrial complex marginalize citizens and patients. We need new ways to bring together citizens, patients, funders, and scientists."
Bio
Bas Bloem
Professor Bas Bloem is a consultant neurologist at the Department of Neurology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, the Netherlands. He received his M.D. degree (with honour) at Leiden University Medical Centre in 1993. In 1994, he obtained his PhD degree in Leiden, based on a thesis entitled "Postural reflexes in Parkinson's disease". He was trained as a neurologist between 1994 and 2000, also at Leiden University Medical Centre. He received additional training as a movement disorders specialist during fellowships at "The Parkinson's Institute", Sunneyvale, California (with Dr. J.W. Langston), and at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London (with Prof. N.P. Quinn and Prof. J.C. Rothwell). In 2002, he founded and became Medical Director of the Parkinson Centre Nijmegen (ParC), which was recognised from 2005 onwards as centre of excellence for Parkinson's disease. Together with Dr. Marten Munneke, he also developed ParkinsonNet, an innovative healthcare concept that now consists of 64 professional networks for Parkinson patients covering all of the Netherlands (www.parkinsonnet.nl). In September 2008, he was appointed as Professor of Neurology, with movement disorders as special area of interest. He is currently President of the International Society for Gait and Postural Research, and is on the editorial board for several national and international journals. Since 2009, he is member of the European Section Executive Committee of the Movement Disorder Society. In 2009, he also joined the board of ZonMw (The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development). He currently has two main research interests: cerebral compensatory mechanisms, especially in the field of gait & balance; and healthcare innovation, aiming to develop and scientifically evaluate patient-centred collaborative care. For this latter purpose, Prof. Bloem co-founded MijnZorgnet (together with Prof. Jan Kremer), a service provider that delivers web-based communities for both patients and health professionals. Prof. Bloem has published over 300 publications, including more than 230 peer-reviewed international papers.
Eva Guinan
Eva Guinan received her MD from Harvard Medical School. She completed an internship and residency at Children's Hospital Boston and a fellowship at Children's Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Guinan received the Clare and Richard Morse Research Award, 2000 the Clinical Translational Scientist Award, Burroughs Wellcome, 1999 and the Distinguished Service Award of the Fanconi Anemia Research Foundation in 2009.
James Heywood
James Heywood is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Patients Like Me.
Tyler Jenks
Tyler Jenks has spent his entire professional career studying financial markets and investments. Mr. Jenks is currently President and Chief Investment Officer of Lucid Investment Strategies, a division of Dumont and Blake. Mr. Jenks has served the last ten years as President and Chief Investment Officer of Amivest Capital Management/NFB Asset Builder, North Fork Bank's investment advisory division. Mr. Jenks served as Senior Portfolio Manager upon joining Amivest Capital Management in 1991, and was named Amivest's Chief Investment Officer in 1998 when North Fork Bank acquired the firm. After graduating with a degree in International Relations from Principia College in 1971, Mr. Jenks spent four years as an officer in the United States Coast Guard. While stationed in Hawaii, Mr. Jenks received his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii. Immediately following his military service, Mr. Jenks joined a major Wall Street firm and has spent the last 31 years as a student of markets and investments. During his career, Tyler has had the opportunity to work with some of the most accomplished chief investment officers, portfolio managers, fundamental and technical analysts, market timers, theoreticians and academicians in the business.
Chitra Krishnan
Chitra is Changemakers' Director of Knowledge and Learning. Prior to joining Ashoka, she worked for 7 years in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University where she helped develop a clinical center of excellence in a rare disease of the nervous system and conducted clinical translational research. She also co-founded an initiative called Project RESTORE at Hopkins, to expand institutional research and patient care out into the community and be a vehicle of change to transform the way diseases are traditionally studied. She holds a Masters in Health Systems Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Vessela Kristensen
Vessela N. Kristensen works in the Department of Genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research, Norwegian Radium Hospital.
Beverly Mayhew
Beverly Mayhew is the Executive Director of Fanconi Anemia Research.
Michael Simpson
Michael Simpson is CEO of Traitwise.
Laura Van't Veer
Dr. van't Veer is a world renowned Molecular Pathologist, former Head of Diagnostic Oncology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and inventor of MammaPrint. She is the P.I. of the Bay Area Breast SPORE and Leader of the Breast Oncology Program in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. van't Veer's research focuses on Personalized Medicine, to advance that patient management is based on knowledge of the genetic make-up of the tumor as well as the genetic make-up of the patient. This allows to optimally assign systemic therapy for those patients that are in need of such treatment and to ensure the selection of the therapy that is most effective. Dr. van't Veer's research shows that molecular diagnostics and microarray genomics technology increasingly impacts patient management. Molecular Genomics contributes to the knowledge of who is at risk for breast cancer, how external factors may influence this risk, whether breast tumors are likely to metastasize or not, and which subtype of tumors will likely respond to what therapy.
