We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Skeen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, how does your business help the community?

SOTERIA Precision Medicine Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, facilitates direct-to-patient, precision medicine navigation support for cancer patients. SOTERIA is firmly patient-centric, addressing the acute and overwhelmingly need for this type of service to help patients navigate a cancer diagnosis across the continuum of care.

20% of cancers are misdiagnosed leading to life threatening results. 50% of patients respond to precision medicine, even with heavily pretreated disease, yet 87% of newly approved cancer drugs are used by fewer than 10,000 patients annually. SOTERIA helps patients navigate precision medicine by facilitating genomic sequencing and a virtual second medical opinion from leading physicians to identify targeted therapies and clinical trials to drive better outcomes.

SOTERIA was founded by a two-time cancer survivor and a cancer caregiver, both of whom are personally and professionally passionate about helping patients access the best care. Over the past 5 years, the founders have established a care navigation team and a world-class network to deliver “Precision Medicine for All”, regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, ancestry, or treating institution.

What should our readers know about your business?
SOTERIA Precision Medicine Foundation’s patient-centricity is rooted in professional and personal experiences of the founders, which shaped the mission of the organization – Precision Medicine for All.

 

In 2017, Julia Civardi, an accomplished life sciences professional, patient advocate, and 2x cancer survivor founded the organization. Julia has a 15-year career in healthcare and genomics and has dedicated her life’s work to helping patients and families navigate a cancer diagnosis.

In 2018, I met Julia as a caregiver seeking support. Earlier in the year, I was married to my husband and two weeks after returning from our honeymoon, through a routine physical, my husband was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer – he was 38 years old. This came as a shock and we were referred to an oncologist to begin treatment.

When my husband stepped into the clinic to receive treatment, we felt completely overwhelmed and we lacked options outside standard of care. I knew statistically, based on the profile of his disease, a “one size fits all” approach would not work for him. It was more than challenging to access the right experts to know our options. We were left to our own devices to identify possible clinical trials and to research the latest advancements. During standard of care treatment, my husband’s quality of life was severely impacted.

Having built my career within genomics and research, I began to ask experts in my network about options for my husband’s care. I quickly learned of Julia Civardi and I hired SOTERIA to help us. SOTERIA was the first organization to look at my husband’s case holistically and provide support with identifying treatment options based on the molecular alterations of his disease. I was provided a precision report with treatment options, an expert medical opinion from a leading physician, and 3 clinical trials immediately relevant to his disease.

Unfortunately, my husband passed away just 7 months after we were married, one month after I met Julia. When he passed, I had his precision report identifying targeted treatment options, provided by Julia & her team – we never had the opportunity to apply the options. It was at that point I left my established career within genomics, specifically in research and development, to step into the patient advocacy side alongside Julia.

In 2019, upon joining SOTERIA, we converted the organization to a non-profit in order to leverage philanthropic efforts to subsidize out-of-pocket patient costs. SOTERIA Precision Medicine continues its work today and remains a leader within precision medicine. SOTERIA helps bridge the gap between the rapid advancements of genomics and targeted therapy to deliver that information directly to the patient to generate better quality of life and outcomes.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Some of my favorite spots in the city include Fiesta Island where I take the dogs to run on the beach. To mix things up, I love to venture downtown to the Gaslamp District to eat at Callie, a noteworthy restaurant. A more peaceful place I visit is the mountain town of Julian where I can hike among the oak trees, or I travel to Fallbrook and Escondido where I can enjoy local wine tasting. I also love spending time in my community of Poway. Here I have lifelong friendships and family and I always up for hosting them for a backyard BBQ.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to the supporters of SOTERIA Precision Medicine Foundation, more specifically to those that have donated and provided mentorship/advice to enable our organization to thrive. Cancer touches many lives, whether you are the patient, the caregiver, or a family friend, most of us know someone that has faced a diagnosis. The support of our network enables individuals to access the best care, regardless of where they live, where they are being treated, or their socioeconomic status or ancestry. These contributions allow us to remain patient-centric to leverage best-in-class experts and navigation care without having the patient and their family incur large out-of-pocket expenses. Our supporters allow us to realize our mission of “Precision Medicine for All” – thank you all!

Website: https://www.soteriaprecisionmedicine.org/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandaskeen/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soteriaone

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnKoPQ38qyueIK0iiQn3MA

Other: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/82-0642928

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