Jeff Kozloff of TrialScope: 5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System
By: Carly Martinetti
Tags: Healthcare, Leadership, Startup Lessons, Entrepreneurship, Wellness

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Originally, I thought I was going to be a doctor when I was younger. I did a stint with an ER doctor, doing 12-hour shifts. When I did a stint in the pathology lab, I realized I didn’t have the stomach for medicine. But my interest in healthcare remained. In a college bioengineering course, we had to bring an imaginary product to market. I ended up handling the business side and enjoyed it; I switched to business school and never looked back.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Prior to joining TrialScope, I didn’t realize that many patients do not receive results of clinical trials they participate in. To me, it’s crazy that this doesn’t happen. That’s why, as in industry it’s important that we continue to close that gap, and at TrialScope that we build products to tackle this issue.

Can you tell our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the healthcare field?

I’ve had a pretty interesting journey in healthcare. I started on the strategy/consulting side, supporting large pharmaceutical companies. I spent a lot of time understanding and researching consumer behavior related to healthcare: market research on patients, physicians, payers and other various roles, and how the different stakeholders interact. My focus was — and is — barriers and how to overcome them.

Many pharmaceutical marketers rely on recall, not on reality. And so I obtained insights on what was really happening in the exam room. Better communication was needed to support both patients and clinicians at point of care. I also spent more than five years on the clinical side, looking at the gaps in accelerating breakthroughs, such as trial awareness, trial access and misperceptions.

In any industry, before you can have value, you must have trust. TrialScope is that authoritative source of information — we’re helping sponsors stay on top of global disclosure.

What makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We’re the global authority on clinical trial disclosure. It’s crucial to know what’s worked and what hasn’t. Through results sharing, sponsors have access to important data before they start a new trial. TrialScope customers represent 40 percent of all industry trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and EudraCT, creating a hub of verified clinical trial information. Our mission is to repurpose this data for different audiences — regulators, researchers, patients.

Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to and/or see in the healthcare industry?

We use modern consumer best practices to address the current challenges around trial recruiting. We incorporate digital technologies, geo-location and social sharing to spread awareness and provide people with access to trials near them. Previously, people were sent to ClinicalTrials.gov, a dense, non-engaging experience.

On the flip side, the digital distribution of plain-language summaries or PLS gives patients a forum to see what happened after trial participation. They can see results years after a trial; this is important to families, too, to see what their family members sacrificed for the advancement of health.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

One of the bigger challenges in the industry is trying to accelerate time to market. It costs upward of $2 billion to bring a drug to market. The question is: How do you reduce patient burden in clinical trials? You need to set expectations and match the right people to the right trial. We’re just playing a small role in trying to bring these disparate things together.

Which “pain point” is this trying to address?

Healthcare is so dynamic; pharmaceutical companies, clinicians, researchers and patients all have pain points. Our platform of data transparency/data neutrality addresses all of these. We give all of them access, but they all view the data with a different lens.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

Don’t develop in a vacuum — get out of the lab and into reality as quickly as possible. As a CEO who has developed product, I understand the need to look beyond the four walls — with and for your customers. Team is everything — surrounding yourself with the best talent is probably the biggest barometer of whether you’ll be successful or not. Wouldn’t we all love a magic wand for recruiting? Trust your gut — don’t linger too long on certain decisions. Mentors matter — align yourself with trusted advisers and soak in their lived experiences. It will save you years of frustration and they are terrific sounding boards. Most successful entrepreneurs enjoying paying it forward and mentoring/encouraging the next generation of disrupters. Communication is critical — Learning how to over-communicate and how to continuously keep people informed and motivated is challenging. In work and in life, finding new and improved ways to communicate it critical. I’m still in the early innings here and always looking for helpful tips.

Let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. According to this study cited by Newsweek, the US healthcare system is ranked as the worst among high income nations. This seems shocking. Can you share with us 3–5 reasons why you think the US is ranked so poorly?

One of the biggest challenges for the U.S. healthcare system is price transparency. It’s the only element of our lives where you make a purchase decision and, going into it, you don’t know what it’s going to cost you or the full list of products/services you’re going to get. It’s challenging for people to make proper financial and medical tradeoffs decisions under the current scenario. There are just so many moving parts in the U.S. healthcare system. Because there are so many different entities requiring coordination. The patient must be his or her own best advocate or quarterback. And, from a communications standpoint, as soon as someone starts talking in “medicalese,” people shut down. There’s a real power struggle going on. There is some movement toward coordination of services and elimination of silos, but where are the incentives? We must promote alignment among the different constituents in healthcare, so that the system works for patient outcomes, not just for those who are billing their services. I’m a big fan of performance-based pricing. As Dr. David Nash, dean at the Jefferson University College of Public Health, says: ‘No outcome, no income.’ I think that really needs to hold true. We need more evidence-based medicine, spurred by a financial motivation or kicker.

You are a “healthcare insider.” If you had the power to make a change, can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system?

Let’s not boil the ocean. Healthcare is hard to change, so I’ll just take 3 changes to start:

Price transparency Aligning incentives Equal the playing field — partner with patient advocates

Thank you! It’s great to suggest changes, but what specific steps would need to be taken to implement your ideas?

We should challenge ourselves to tell people what healthcare is going to cost. And then people can make tradeoffs among the care they need, want and will pass on. We need to focus more on end-of-life care, where a majority of the expenses exist. We need better education and better discussion to tackle some of the big expenses. In short, we need more communication within in healthcare system.