WEBVTT - Genomics Creative Predictive Power in the Medical Field 

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

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<v Speaker 2>You're listening to Bloomberg business Week with Carol Masser and

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<v Speaker 2>Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Over the summer, on Bloomberg, opinion piece pointed out that

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<v Speaker 1>new research shows Americans need greater access to genetic testing

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<v Speaker 1>and stronger legal protections against genetic discrimination. According to a

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<v Speaker 1>recent study that was published in the American Journal of

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<v Speaker 1>Human Genetics Now, the study of DNA samples from the

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<v Speaker 1>Penn Medicine Biobank found that a quarter of adults under

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<v Speaker 1>the age of forty who had been admitted to the

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<v Speaker 1>Penn Medicine ICU carried a mutation that would have been

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<v Speaker 1>relevant to their treatment. So it's just talking about the

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<v Speaker 1>importance of understanding your genetics and what it could mean for.

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<v Speaker 2>Health, and that genetic testing what becomes available changes so frequently,

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<v Speaker 2>I mean year to year, they can identify more and more.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, And our next guest has a vast body

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<v Speaker 1>of work when it comes to the field of genetics.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's get to our weekly BusinessWeek Women's Health segment, where

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<v Speaker 1>we focus on key issues and developing technologies impacting the

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<v Speaker 1>present and future of women's health around the world and

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<v Speaker 1>really in many ways, everybody's health around the world. Joining

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<v Speaker 1>us right now is doctor Wendy Chung, Chief of Pediatrics

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<v Speaker 1>at Boston Children's Hospital. She is the Mary Ellen Avery

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<v Speaker 1>Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and she joins

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<v Speaker 1>us from London, where it's a little bit later. So

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<v Speaker 1>thank you so much, doctor Chung for joining us. You

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<v Speaker 1>have spent more than two decades as a clinical and

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<v Speaker 1>molecular geneticist and have directed many NIH funded research programs.

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<v Speaker 1>Got to ask, are we at a good time for

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<v Speaker 1>healthcare advantage advancements excuse me? Or are we possibly going backwards?

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<v Speaker 3>We have amazing opportunities, amazing opportunities specifically around genetics, both

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<v Speaker 3>in terms of diagnostics, predicting and being able to tailor

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<v Speaker 3>health and health prevention and health treatment based on that,

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<v Speaker 3>in new things in terms of therapeutics, especially in the

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<v Speaker 3>rare disease space. So it couldn't be a more exciting

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<v Speaker 3>time in terms of the ability to scale this, to

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<v Speaker 3>use data, to do it more accurately, and to get

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<v Speaker 3>it to more people where they're at.

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<v Speaker 2>It sounds exciting and the opportunities sound exciting, But we're

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<v Speaker 2>at a point with the United States, where we don't

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<v Speaker 2>have great outcomes compared to the rest of the world.

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<v Speaker 2>We lag when it comes to other countries and their

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<v Speaker 2>health outcomes. Why is that? From your view?

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<v Speaker 3>In many cases it's due to access. And as we

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<v Speaker 3>think about this, we're trying to think of ways that

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<v Speaker 3>we can provide care anywhere. So are there ways to

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<v Speaker 3>think about how do we get access to patients where

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<v Speaker 3>they are in ways that can fit in with their

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<v Speaker 3>lives and get them really news they can use is

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<v Speaker 3>the way I think about it, when they can use

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<v Speaker 3>it just in time to be able to do it,

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<v Speaker 3>ingest it, understand it, and apply it in ways that

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<v Speaker 3>really fit in with their life. We have amazing opportunities,

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<v Speaker 3>but we don't do them equitably for everyone.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, doctor Chung Tim and I spend so

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<v Speaker 1>much time talking about the case shaped economy, right, and

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<v Speaker 1>that on an economic level, not everybody benefits from the

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<v Speaker 1>US economy, even in good time. So that obviously carries

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<v Speaker 1>over to healthcare. If you could change one thing, what

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<v Speaker 1>would it be that would make healthcare more equitable?

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<v Speaker 3>So if you can imagine this future state, I've been

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<v Speaker 3>running a study in New York City called Guardian genomic

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<v Speaker 3>uniform screaming against rare diseases and all newborns for a

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<v Speaker 3>baby when they get their heel prick right after bruth

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<v Speaker 3>to be able to screen for disorders that are treatable

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<v Speaker 3>and curable, things like penal keaton area. Now, can we

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<v Speaker 3>think about blowing that up in a good way by

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<v Speaker 3>being able to do genome sequencing to identify all the

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<v Speaker 3>treatable conditions so that everyone gets access to this and

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<v Speaker 3>for those same children, if they get sick and have

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<v Speaker 3>symptoms at some point in the future, reinterrogate that genomic

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<v Speaker 3>information to make the diagnosis essentially instantaneously. So if they're

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<v Speaker 3>having breathing problems, growing problems, problems with developments, not hitting

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<v Speaker 3>their milestones, can you get the diagnosis very very quickly

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<v Speaker 3>to start the journey and make sure that diagnostic odyssey

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<v Speaker 3>doesn't go on for very long to start the treatment.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, logical question or follow up? Why don't we

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<v Speaker 1>do that? Is it just too expensive or what?

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<v Speaker 2>You know? It's funny.

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<v Speaker 1>I was talking to an individual who's from South Korea

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<v Speaker 1>or has family back in South Korea and says, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>every year you can go and you can get a

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<v Speaker 1>body scan head to toe, not crazy expensive like it

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<v Speaker 1>would be here in the United States, and you can

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<v Speaker 1>get potentially early signs of something that's that's not good.

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<v Speaker 1>So I'm just wondering when it comes to why don't

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<v Speaker 1>we do these genetic testing? Is it not available? Is

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<v Speaker 1>it too expensive?

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<v Speaker 3>So it is being done on a research baso's on

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<v Speaker 3>a very small number of newborns right now, but all

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<v Speaker 3>throw down the gauntlet. I think we can drive down

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<v Speaker 3>the price of doing being able to do this, and

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<v Speaker 3>right now, let's just say it costs thousand dollars per

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<v Speaker 3>baby to be able to do this. That's probably not

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<v Speaker 3>something that we can scale at three point six million

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<v Speaker 3>babies born each year, but if we can drive down

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<v Speaker 3>the cost by fifty percent seventy five percent, I do

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<v Speaker 3>think if you look at the health economics in terms

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<v Speaker 3>of the return on investment, it easily pays for itself

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<v Speaker 3>over it to in your period.

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<v Speaker 2>What about when it comes to using that data for

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<v Speaker 2>technologies such as gene editing. And we spoke to Jennifer DOWDNA,

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<v Speaker 2>the twenty twenty Nobel Laureate a few months ago at

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<v Speaker 2>our Bloomberg Technology conference back in San Francisco. She was

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<v Speaker 2>very optimistic that we will see this happening more and

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<v Speaker 2>more in humans. Will this become just the standard of

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<v Speaker 2>care in your view for kids who have genetic disorders.

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<v Speaker 3>So I do think for these single gene conditions, platform

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<v Speaker 3>technologies such as what doctor DOWDNA and others have developed,

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<v Speaker 3>they're not quite ready for prime time to just dial

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<v Speaker 3>in any particular genetic edit and fix it. But we

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<v Speaker 3>are getting towards those platforms to be able to do this,

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<v Speaker 3>and I do think that over the next decade we're

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<v Speaker 3>going to make tremendous strides. And I do think from

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<v Speaker 3>a regulatory point of view, the FDA and other regulatory

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<v Speaker 3>agencies understand that within rear diseases, you need to think

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<v Speaker 3>about platforms and being able to use information for one

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<v Speaker 3>rare disease in terms of treatments for others, and to

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<v Speaker 3>understand the safety profile and use that across conditions. And

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<v Speaker 3>so for the seven thousand rare diseases, I don't think

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<v Speaker 3>we have to solve the problems seven thousand times. I

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<v Speaker 3>think it's going to come to a much simpler number

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<v Speaker 3>of solutions.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, one thing we wanted to ask you about recent

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<v Speaker 1>article in Nature. You were quoted that MAHA's spotlight on

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<v Speaker 1>children's health is welcome and that this could be the

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<v Speaker 1>decade of the Kids, and that would be an amazing thing.

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<v Speaker 1>How So, especially when we see an administration a Secretary

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<v Speaker 1>of HHS pushing back on things like vaccines and other

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<v Speaker 1>policies that research has showed has definitely improved health in

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<v Speaker 1>the United States.

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<v Speaker 3>So I think if you think about the technology that

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<v Speaker 3>I talked about with newborn screening, it can be applied

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<v Speaker 3>to any number of things for children. So that again,

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<v Speaker 3>if you know where the pain points are, if you

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<v Speaker 3>know what the susceptibilities, you can think about everything from

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<v Speaker 3>how a child can learn better, if they're going to

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<v Speaker 3>have certain challenges in terms of understanding learning behavior, how

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<v Speaker 3>to be able to tailor things to them, if they're

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<v Speaker 3>going to have problems in terms of a tendency towards

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<v Speaker 3>type one diabetes, asthma, even cancer in the future, how

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<v Speaker 3>do you tailor their surveillance the particular things we monitor,

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<v Speaker 3>how frequently we monitor, So it's not a one size

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<v Speaker 3>fits all for everyone. You really get more out of

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<v Speaker 3>the energy and the money you're putting into it because

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<v Speaker 3>it's tailored for the person. And I do think both

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<v Speaker 3>in terms of being able to have biomarkers looking at

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<v Speaker 3>disease progression and genomics to guide you, we can do

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<v Speaker 3>much better because we have enough data now to be

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<v Speaker 3>able to understand those patterns and profiles.

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<v Speaker 1>We've run out of time, but hopefully come back real

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<v Speaker 1>soon because I know emerging technologies, whether it's artificial intelligence

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<v Speaker 1>or quantum computing, which all of a sudden this week

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking a lot about, are going to be very

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<v Speaker 1>important metrics when it comes to disease predictability. So please

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<v Speaker 1>please come back really soon. Doctor Wendy Chung, chief of

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<v Speaker 1>pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital. She is the Mary Ellen

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<v Speaker 1>Avery Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and she's

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<v Speaker 1>joining us from London