A New Beginning

In life, it is rare to get to work on your passion every day.  Over the past 5 years, my interest in healthcare and new treatments has exploded (I know – huge shock).  So, when I was recruited by a group of biotech companies to run the Sacramento office of their trade association, the California Healthcare Institute, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.  My job will be to represent biotech companies (like Genentech), biomedical device companies, VCs and research universities (including my beloved Stanford) before the state legislature.

Although I have loved TechNet, over the past 2 years, I have realized that the issues that interested me the most were the ones that my biotech companies were working on – enabling patients to get access to oral chemotherapy, improving the telehealth network, etc.

To have the opportunity to work full time to try to improve access to healthcare and enable companies and universities to create innovative products that will make life better for so many and actually save lives (such as mine) is a tremendous honor for me.

And, what a time to do it.  As I prove that immunotherapy plus radiation can rid my body of cancer, I will be arguing before the legislature that they need to help companies and research universities create new treatments.   

It’s hard leaving the people at TechNet – my colleagues and member companies.  But – to work every day on issues that I am passionate about – well – it really doesn’t get better than that.

In two weeks I will be starting this new adventure.  And I can’t wait.