My name is Craig Cole and I'm a myeloma doctor at Carmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, an associate professor of medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit where I see patients and I'm an associate professor at Michigan State University in Lansing where I also see patients. Both institutions, both Wayne State and Michigan State along with the International Myeloma Foundation have partnered up with Health Tree to do a survey to look at some of the problems that we have with access to new myeloma therapies and specifically access to CAR-T and to bispecifics, the T-cell engaging therapies which you know do an incredible, incredible job at controlling relapse and refractory multiple myeloma. Despite these drugs being FDA approved over the past three or four years, there's still problems with access. We've realized that patients of different races, ethnicities and ages have difficulty accessing these treatments. And so the question that we have and that we're working with the Health Tree's Cure Hub database is to see why are those disparities occur? Why are older people having a difficult time accessing CAR-T bispecifics? Why blacks and Latinos are having a difficult time accessing these care? Why people in rural areas are having difficulty accessing care? So we're sending out a survey to the Health Tree populace and asking them, you know, of every race, every ethnicity and every age, what has been your experience in talking to your doctor about CAR-T and bispecifics? What has been your impression? Have you been asked or haven't you been asked? And how long did it take for you to actually get these therapies if you were able to receive them? This is going to give us a world of knowledge into figuring out how can we bridge the gaps that occur right now in patients having access to these fantastic therapies.
HealthTree • August 21, 2025