In 2018 Brad Power was a process innovation researcher and consultant with over 35 years experience and an author of over 75 articles for the Harvard Business Review when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Brad went through a standard course of chemotherapy, which led to “no evidence of disease” for four years.
While attending a conference on personalized medicine at Harvard Medical School, he spoke up to provide his experience as a patient, and was told in the breaks afterward by many attendees that he had a voice. He felt this must be his calling, and he decided to focus his skills and experience on accelerating innovation and personalization in cancer treatment. Because of his experience in working with large, successful companies, he was skeptical that incumbents would drive the big, disruptive process changes as fast as patients need. He decided to do what he could to help (1) advanced cancer patients that actively engage in solving their problems and make them available to others, and (2) startups that are disrupting the health system to help patients get educated, navigate, and form community. He is also exploring how AI software agents can shift more power to patients from incumbent institutions (pharma, payers, and providers).
In late 2020 Brad was talking to his friend Bryce Olson, who said he had hit a wall in keeping his metastatic prostate cancer at bay. Brad suggested to Bryce that they could run a hackathon (a collaborative effort of a diverse crowd of experts) for him to find his best next treatment option, which they did. Brad then hosted two hackathons: one for Linnea Olson, a lung cancer patient, and another for Kasey Altman, a young woman with a rare cancer.
In 2022 Brad launched Cancer Patient Lab with two advanced prostate cancer patients to help them and other patients make complex testing and treatment decisions, to learn, and to accelerate innovation. Brad hopes to make hackathons and other resources available to many more patients who are facing complex testing and treatment decisions.
Brad is a founding member of ennov1; an advisor to 4DPath, Alva10, Cancer Commons, Consuli, Rabble Health, and Travera; and is an active contributor to the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
