OurBrainBank App Aims to Improve Glioblastoma Treatment

A commercial health care executive with more than three decades of experience, Stacy Chick currently serves as chief commercial officer with Inivata Inc., after joining the firm as a consultant and leading commercialization strategy for InVisionFirst®-Lung. A volunteer at Emory Winship Cancer Center and a patient advocate in glioblastoma as well as rare blood cancers, Stacy Chick also serves as a board member with OurBrainBank.

An innovative approach to fighting cancer, OurBrainBank leverages cutting-edge technology to improve treatment outcomes for glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. The free app invites patients to track symptoms on a daily basis, ideally for a minimum of 100 days, in order to give BrainBank-approved researchers from Columbia University in New York and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston an improved understanding of the disease and the experiences of people living with it. Additionally, the aggregated data helps inform new trials and improve treatment methods.

The app involves testing neurological symptoms through balance and comparison games, as well as monitoring health data such as blood sugar, weight, and blood pressure.

Inivata Announces Commercialization Partnership with NeoGenomics

Healthcare and life sciences executive Stacy Chick is the chief commercial officer of Inivata, Inc. In her role at the molecular oncology diagnostics firm, Stacy Chick leads product sales, marketing, and commercialization efforts. She was part of the team that delivered the collaboration between Inivata and NeoGenomics, Inc.

On May 26, 2020, Inivata announced a strategic partnership with NeoGenomics, a leading cancer diagnostics and services company, for the commercialization the of InVisionFirst(R) Lung liquid biopsy test. NeoGenomics can rapidly deploy InVisionFirst(R) Lung across its network, helping patients with lung cancer who need highly sensitive liquid biopsy tests within a short time.

NeoGenomics will also initiate opportunities for collaboration between Inivata and biopharmaceutical companies. Additionally, NeoGenomics will accelerate the rolling out of other Inivata products, such as the recently launched RaDar for detecting residual disease and recurrence.

NeoGenomics will invest $25 million in Inivata, taking a minority equity stake with the option of buying the company as a whole. The investment will be used to accelerate Inivata’s pipeline of liquid biopsy products.

Advancing Women in Healthcare through Leadership Project

Atlanta resident Stacy Chick is the chief commercial officer at Inivata, Inc. In addition to her work with Inivata, Inc., Stacy Chick is involved with the Atlanta chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Stacy Cick has been involved with HBA Metro and Atlanta chapters since its inception and served as an Executive Steering Committee member in 2006-2008.

HBA is an international non-profit comprised of professionals across the industry. Established in the late 1970s, the HBA developed from a need for women to organize and exchange industry information. Its mission is four-pronged, focusing on gender parity, networking, and effective business practices.

One of the ways this mission is carried out is through the HBA Leadership Project for MLRC (medical, legal, regulatory, and compliance) activities which focuses on four pillars. The first objective is to create a collaborative community of women (professionals) within healthcare. The project also focuses on a core strategy within HBA to exchange information among female healthcare professionals.

Other strategies include providing women with tools that will help them with career advancement (i.e. career coaching and mentoring). Finally, the project’s objectives include sharing and integrating insights from developmental programs.

Those visiting the HBA Leadership Project’s website can find more resources. In addition to articles, visitors can view podcasts on related topics.

How Successful CEOs Conceive and Navigate Corporate Strategy

Stacy Chick is a business leader and consultant with over 30 years’ experience in the healthcare industry. Having worked with leading executives in firms like Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi, Stacy Chick knows the importance of top-tier planning. She recently shared an article by McKinsey on the key mindsets and practices for powering growth in organizations.

What are the unique practices CEOs can apply to drive organizational excellence? To answer this question, McKinsey mined a quarter century’s worth of data from 7,800 CEOs of 3,500 public companies in 70 countries. It came up with a list of mindsets and practices successful CEOs apply while fulfilling their six core roles: corporate strategy, organizational alignment, board engagement, maintaining relations with external stakeholders, leading top teams, and managing time and energy.

With regard to corporate strategy, researchers found that successful CEOs achieved standout results by focusing on three things: vision, strategy, and resource allocation. On the first, high achieving CEOs reframe what winning means to the organization. Rather than simply focusing on opportunities in a limited scope such as within a region or sector, they go a step further to define broader, much larger goals and visions. Such reframing puts other companies in different industries in the picture, ensuring staff members see the market holistically, benchmarking the company against larger peers on a much bigger stage. This helps to eliminate individualistic biases that cause complacency.

On the part of strategy, great CEOs make bold moves early. McKinsey found that companies that shifted on average 30 percent before the industry median were more likely to reach the top quintile of their industry. This likelihood rose dramatically when several bold moves were made early on.

For resource allocation, McKinsey found that companies that reallocated more than half of their capital across business units over the course of a decade created 50 percent more value than those that allocated more slowly. Top CEOs were in fact more likely to reallocate capital dynamically, ensuring resources are directed where they will have the most impact.

Our Brain Bank Highlights Need for Better Glioblastoma Treatment

Stacy Chick, a healthcare professional with over three decades of experience in the field, currently serves as the chief commercial officer of the Morrisville, North Carolina-based Inivata, Inc. During this time, Stacy Chick has been a member of several nonprofits, including serving as a board member of Our Brain Bank (OBB).

The organization, which focuses on treating and preventing glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, recently held its first Glioblastoma Awareness Day on July 17. As part of the awareness campaign, OBB released the results of a survey of people with the disease, which noted that 55 percent of patients believe that the elimination of co-pays is essential.

Furthermore, Ninety-four percent of respondents said they believe receiving the best treatment available, regardless of a patient’s financial situation, is essential. Alongside this, the survey highlighted the need for better treatment options and care with the majority of respondents noting that a 24-hour turnaround for MRI results would be welcome. With the current system, the time it takes to receive these results can vary depending on a radiologists schedule and current workload.
Increased transparency is also of concern for patients, with many asking for clinicians and hospitals to be more open and communicative with the possible side effects of treatments and the disease.