ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — GRYT Health (“GRYT”), an award-winning, mobile app-based social community for people affected by cancer, today announced the formation of its advisory board to provide strategic counsel as the Company continues to execute its business strategy. 

“Together, we are moving healthcare forward with GRYT. I am honored to assemble this advisory board of outstanding individuals with exceptional track records as changemakers in each of their respective fields,” said Dave Fuehrer, CEO of GRYT Health. “Their extensive experience working with the cancer community will serve as a great resource to the GRYT team as we grow our business. These healthcare disruptors have made a significant impact on our industry and their guidance and contributions will be invaluable to furthering GRYT’s mission of connecting people affected by cancer with each other and to information that empowers them to live on their own terms.”

GRYT’s new strategic advisors include:

• Catherine Benedict, Ph.D.: Research Advisor. Catherine is a licensed clinical psychologist and behavioral science researcher, specializing in adolescent and young adult cancer survivorship. She is an assistant professor within the Stanford University School of Medicine and works within the Stanford Cancer Institute to build clinical programs addressing cancer survivorship needs. Broadly, the goal of her work is to improve cancer survivorship through a better understanding of survivors’ long-term difficulties, unmet needs, and preferences for support, and through the development of evidence-based patient resources and interventions. This research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute. Another aspect of Catherine’s work aims to improve clinicians’ and researchers’ engagement with patients to guide clinical and research initiatives that respect and reflect the preferences and priorities of the young adult cancer community. Catherine is also a board member to Stupid Cancer, volunteer and grant reviewer for The Samfund, and advisory council member for the Alliance for Fertility Preservation.
• Terry Cross: Veteran Angel investor and entrepreneur. While Terry has served on many boards over the years, his current board memberships include: RealKidz; PureEntropy as Chairman; MIST Innovations as Chairman; and Monarch Antenna, a Delphi Corp. spinout. Terry serves as the first Executive in Residence for Entrepreneurship at The School of Business Administration at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, where he administers the prestigious Adams Entrepreneurial Fellowship and received the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award. Terry was a co-founder of Sonoma Photonics, which was eventually sold to Lockheed-Martin. He was a founding investor in three startups from MIT’s tech transfer department and served on MIT’s Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity. In September of 2007, he was named to the Task Force for A World Financial Center by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Since 2002, he has mentored over 50 company founders in Southeast Michigan and has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs raise in excess of $100 million of capital funding.
• Ty Curran: Chairman of Harrison & Star and Biolumina. In his current role, Ty leads and motivates a growing team that always gives 110 percent to its clients. And, like a chief of surgery who’d rather be in the OR than behind a desk, Ty enjoys nothing better than immersing himself in a strategic challenge – and helping a client score a victory for the brand. Prior to Harrison & Star, Ty was Managing Director at NCI Communications. In his career, Ty has helped build brands and portfolios for Genentech, Roche, Novartis, Merck, Aventis, and Gilead. Ty has extensive oncology experience working on brands such as Avastin, Taxotere, Erivedge, Zelboraf, Zometa, Herceptin, and Femara. He is also on the National Advisory Board for the Family Reach Foundation.
• Ellis Emerson: Ellis is a mother, runner, and cancer survivor who was diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma in October 2017, right after her 32nd birthday. After her diagnosis, Ellis did not want to let one second of her life get away from her. In a little over a year, Ellis had thrown the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game, went cliff jumping in Puerto Rico, took a flying lesson in Iceland, and learned white water kayaking in New Zealand. In July of 2018, she ran 135 miles across Death Valley California as part of the Badwater Ultramarathon, often considered one of the world’s most challenging races. Ellis believes that “our experiences, while unique, are not different.” Sharing our stories is what brings people together and a community makes all the difference. Ellis shares her personal story to help others on her website, www.cancerpurgatory.com.
• Shwen Gwee: Co-Founder and General Manager/Head of Open Innovation, Novartis Biome. Shwen is a recognized pioneer in digital strategy and innovation within the biopharma industry who was named a Top 40 “Healthcare Transformer” by MM&M in 2015 and a PR Week and MM&M “Health Influencer 50” in 2017 & 2018. He sits on various advisory boards, including Google (Healthcare), SXSW (Health), MM&M Healthcare Transformers, conversationHEALTH and the Digital Health Coalition. Shwen is regularly featured in industry publications and speaking events and chairs the Social Innovation Day for the Digital Pharma Series. In 2017, he spoke on Innovation in Healthcare at the prestigious Cannes Lions Health festival. Shwen is very involved in the health tech startup community; he organizes and participates in several startup boot camps and pitch contests, and plays an active role running healthcare hackathons as part of the MIT Hacking Medicine team.
• Kathleen Griffin: Executive Director, Customer & Digital Engagement at Syneos. At Syneos, Kate identifies opportunities to harness data and technology to improve clinical trial execution and commercial success. She monitors the digital health environment, supports business development efforts and looks for ways to partner across the organization. Prior to her strategic business role, she served as an Executive Director at INC Research and was responsible for IT strategy, communication and business relationship management. Kate was a founder of AVOS Life Sciences, a management consulting firm in the biopharmaceutical industry. Her industry experience includes holding several strategic development roles at Quintiles Transnational and efforts supporting pharmaceutical practice initiatives at IBM’s Wilkerson Group.
• Kamala Maddali, DVM Ph.D.: Dr. Maddali is a global precision medicine executive with deep healthcare experience at large global companies including Merck and Co, Quintiles, Quest Diagnostics, and Cancer Genetics. As an ongoing warrior with multiple sclerosis, Dr. Maddali’s vision is to “educate global communities with hope from science and innovation,” which she hopes will foster awareness towards precision treatments and early disease diagnosis and prevention. She is a board member for several U.S. patient advocacy organizations and serves as an executive advisor for healthcare technology companies focused on artificial intelligence, blockchain genomics, nutraceuticals, bioinformatics, and biomarker driven drug targets. Dr. Maddali was the recipient of the 2016 NJBiz Healthcare Heroes Finalist Award and in 2019, she was awarded “Women Empowerment in Healthcare” by North American Indian Association for her contributions to innovation in healthcare.

ABOUT GRYT HEALTH
GRYT Health is an award-winning, social community and research platform founded by cancer survivors and caregivers. Through GRYT’s technology, people affected by cancer are able to connect to others with similar experiences, access information that is tailored to their specific needs/diagnosis and collaborate with the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to provide insights that help these firms improve quality of care.

GRYT’s community of patients, survivors, medical professionals, researchers and advocates, extending across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 100 countries worldwide, have participated in almost one million interactions to date. The company’s research initiative, The GRYT Project, bridges the communication gap that has traditionally prevented the cancer community and industry from optimizing care through an equal partnership. GRYT values and partners with socially-conscious brands and brand experiences that inspire people to live according to their own standards. The company is headquartered in Rochester, NY. For more information, please visit www.grythealth.com. To download the app, please visit www.grythealth.com/app.To join The GRYT Project, please visit www.grythealth.com/the-gryt-project.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Vikki Christian
424-610-1241
vikki@grythealth.com

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SOURCE GRYT Health