We are changing neurodegenerative disease care as we have lived it

Sandra Abrevaya is the Co-Founder and CEO of Synapticure, a leader in neurodegenerative virtual care. Synapticure provides transformational support for patients and caregivers through access to specialized neurologists, cutting-edge medical treatments and trials, and personalized, wraparound services. She is also the Co-Founder of I AM ALS, an advocacy organization she established with her husband, Brian Wallach, after his ALS diagnosis in 2017 at the age of 37.Before Brian's diagnosis, Sandra served as the founding CEO of a nonprofit organization and held senior roles in public service, including positions with the City of Chicago, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Department of Education, and the White House.Sandra's journey is shaped by her dual role as a caregiver—to Brian and mom to their two spunky daughters, aged 7 and 9—and as an advocate. Their story is the subject of the documentary For Love and Life, which highlights their fight against ALS and their commitment to making a difference in the lives of others facing similar challenges.

Brian Wallach, ALS patient, Co-Founder and Board-Co-Chair of Synapticure, a specialty telehealth clinic transforming the experience & outcomes of neurodegenerative disease for patients and caregivers across the U.S. Brian was diagnosed with ALS in November 2017 and since then has become an outspoken, well-known and impactful patient advocate in the neurodegenerative disease space. In addition to co-founding the nonprofit I AM ALS, Brian was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois and Senior Vetting Counsel in the Obama White House. Brian received his BA from Yale University and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

As Chief Operating Officer, Joe is responsible for growth and operations, including scaling Synapticure’s care model to serve individuals and caregivers nationwide who are living with neurodegenerative diseases, and structuring partnerships with payers and providers to improve costs and outcomes.

Joe’s career has focused on building and operating health tech start-ups. He was most recently GM and Head of Market Development at Cityblock Health, providing technology-enabled primary care, behavioral health and social care to Dual Eligibles and individuals with Medicaid. He was previously Managing Director of Strategy and Transformation at Evolent Health, working with health systems and primary care providers to deliver value-based care for seniors. He started his career with Deloitte Consulting. Joe received his BA from the University of Pittsburgh and MS from Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Peter entered the healthcare space after Brian’s diagnosis, originally focusing on investing in targeted therapeutics that had the potential to be truly disease altering in ALS. With Synapticure, Peter hopes to resolve the lack of early intervention, access to quality care, holistic patient data and clear subgrouping of people living with ALS. These shortcomings of the current system have hindered the success of ALS trials broadly and made it difficult to bring forward drugs that focused on specific subsets of the ALS patient population and could better the lives of all people living with ALS.

Prior to working to help solve ALS, Peter worked in the cleantech industry before becoming a consultant at Bain & Company in their Chicago office. Peter received his MBA from Columbia University and undergraduate degree from The University of Virginia.

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Dr. Anderson is passionate about leveraging technology to develop novel specialty practice models focused on creating the greatest value, outcomes, and experiences for patients. He is recognized as a national leader in telemedicine, mobile health, and alternative practice models. He trailblazed the use of mobile telemedicine in emergency neurology and was the first to demonstrate and publish that remote stroke assessment could be performed with an iPhone. He speaks nationally on the topics of telemedicine, mobile health, and practical applications of technology in the enhancement of patient care. He joined Synapticure from SOC Telemed where He had previously served as the Director of Scientific Affairs, National EEG Director, and Chair of Neurology, where he developed and managed the largest teleneurology practice group, seeing a volume of 8500 consults per month across 300 hospitals. Dr Anderson has led multiple efforts to support and define the practice of teleneurology with the American Academy of Neurology and other organizations.

Christie Byrne is the Head of Product at Synapticure. She previously worked at Cricket Health, a start-up focused on early-intervention for chronic kidney disease patients, where she oversaw development of clinical products. Prior to transitioning into the digital health sector, Christie worked in clinical research at the Parkinson’s Institute, as well as at UCSF in the Memory and Aging Center, where she helped lead Care Ecosystem, a study designed to expand access to dementia patients via a remote care model. Having studied behavioral neuroscience in college, and after watching multiple family members battle neurodegenerative diseases, she feels a sense of urgency to help patients gain access to personalized, life-saving treatments, and is passionate about making that world a reality at Synapticure.

Jason Langheier, MD, MPH, is the CEO and Founder of Foodsmart – the leading provider of telenutrition and value-based foodcare -- making eating well simple and affordable for millions of Americans. Dr. Langheier did neuroscience, genetics and bioinformatics research at Williams, Duke, Cambridge and NIH, and received his MD from Duke, and his MPH from Harvard. Applying behavioral neuroscience and nutritional epidemiology training, he developed the pediatric obesity clinic at Boston Medical Center (Nutrition & Fitness for Life), Fitness Forward and the Coach K Drive 2 Fitness. He was the CTO and Co-Founder of Proventys (now US Oncology/ McKesson), collaborating with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network to deliver personalized cancer care decision support. He is an active member of the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) Board of Directors, and loves hiking, playing sports and music with family and friends.

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Jonathan Hirsch is a company founder, investor, and advisor at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and data. Jonathan founded Syapse in 2008, and during more than a decade of building the company, Jonathan defined and implemented a vision for transforming cancer care through precision medicine and real world evidence. Jonathan serves on the Advisory Boards of companies including Freenome, VizAI, and PaigeAI, and has helped shape the regulatory use of real world evidence through creating and serving as Principal Investigator for a Research Collaboration with the FDA. Jonathan has catalyzed national cancer data sharing networks, including serving on the White House Cancer Moonshot Data Sharing Working Group. As both an active investor and partner in venture funds, including the Kleiner Perkins seed fund and Rebel Fund, Jonathan has incubated and invested in dozens of companies at the intersection of healthcare and technology.

Dr. Andrews has over 15 years of experience caring for people with neuromuscular disorders, primarily Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In addition, she has extensive experience conducting and overseeing clinical trials in both the academic and industry setting and has held several leadership positions in organizations that focus on ALS clinical trials and care.

Dr. Andrews received B.S. from Union College, M.Sc. in Biostatistics (Patient-Oriented Research) from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and M.D. from Albany Medical College. Dr. Andrews completed her residency in Neurology at the University of Connecticut and completed fellowship training in both Neuromuscular Medicine and Clinical Neurophysiology at Columbia University. Dr. Andrews is board certified in Neurology, Neuromuscular Disease, and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

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Aaron Gitler is the Stanford Medicine Basic Science Professor in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. He received his B.S. degree from Penn State University and did his PhD studies on cardiovascular development in the laboratory of Dr. Jonathan Epstein at the University of Pennsylvania. Then he performed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Susan Lindquist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and MIT. In 2007, he established his laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to Stanford in 2012. His laboratory has been using a combination of yeast and human genetics approaches to investigate pathogenic mechanisms of ALS. He and his colleagues discovered mutations in the ATAXIN2 gene as a genetic contributor to ALS and has identified several therapeutic targets for ALS. He is a scientific co-founder of Maze Therapeutics

Geoffrey Clapp has been involved with digital health before it was called digital health. As a founder, operator, and investor Geoff has helped lead and guide some of the most important and influential companies to fuse healthcare and technology. At Synapticure he is a partner to the leadership team and key advisor on technology and product directions. He is currently the SVP of Renal Care and Transplant for Optum.

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