040. David Fajgenbaum: How I Saved My Life with Data

TODAY'S GUEST   Dr. David Fajgenbaum is a groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, speaker, and author of the national bestselling memoir, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action, which has been translated into five languages and named one of the "Best Non-Fiction Books" by the Next Big Idea Club.   Best known as the 'doctor who cured himself', Fajgenbaum went from being a hyper-fit college quarterback to receiving his last rites while in medical school and nearly dying four more times battling Castleman disease. To try to save his own life, he spearheaded an innovative approach to research through the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) and discovered a treatment that is saving his life and others.   Now, he is spreading this approach to other diseases, including COVID19. His CDCN launched the CORONA Project in March 2020 to identify and track all treatments reported to be used for COVID-19 in an open-source data repository. The CORONA team has reviewed 29,353 papers and extracted 2,399 papers on 590 treatments administered to 437,936 patients with COVID-19, and in continuing to help researchers to prioritize treatments for clinical trials and inform patient care.   Beyond his medical work, he continues to share the lessons he learned about life, hope, and resilience.   I was inspired by David’s unbounded optimism and focus on hope that leads to action. This conversation is one of dozens of conversations we have lined up for you with researchers, designers, makers, and thinkers who are re-imagining our world in all walks of life. If you don’t want to miss them, please follow this show on your favorite podcast app.   And now, let’s jump right in with Dr. David Fajgenbaum.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS [3:23] Life During Covid [5:44] Do Your Own Research [8:48] Early Childhood Driving Forces [10:02] Two Parallel Paths [13:08] From Doctor to Patient [17:00] From Alignment to Action [21:08] The Collaborative Network Approach [24:49] A Scientific Intuition [29:15] Open Innovation [33:55] Identifying a Pathway [39:10] The Power of Hope [41:46] A Long Tail of Rare Diseases [46:38] A Complex Relationship with Authority [49:49] A Mindset of Co-Creation [53:26] Wise Engagement [56:39] A Short Sermon   EPISODE LINKS David's Links 🔬 Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) 🔬 Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory 🔬 Chasing My Cure Website 🔬 ACCELERATE 📕 Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action 💼 LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile 📣 Twitter: @DavidFajgenbaum 📺 YouTube Channel Other Links 🌍 Wikipedia 🌍 UpToDate 🏫 The Wharton School 🎧 Dr. Hila Lifshitz-Assaf Interview 🔭 NASA 🎤 TED Talk - Alain de Botton   ABOUT US Remake Podcast: Visit us: RemakePod.org 🙏🏻 Rate the show on iTunes 🙏🏻 Support us! Join the Podcast Member community 💌 Share your thoughts: [email protected] 👉 Listen or Subscribe to the show: Apple Podcasts・Google Podcasts・RadioPublic・Overcast・Stitcher・PocketCasts・Castro・SoundCloud・Spotify・YouTube・Deezer Remake Labs:  RemakeLabs.com・Medium・LinkedIn・Community・Twitter・Facebook・Instagram Eran Dror:  EranDror.com・LinkedIn・Twitter・Medium