I am Susanne Baars, a biomedical scientist specialized in genomics, philosopher, and visionary healthcare leader. My mission is to empower every patient to get access to the treatment they need.
When I was young, I listened to the stories of my father, a passionate doctor. He talked about parents with sick children and the journey to find a cure. Realizing that millions of people die due to a lack of access to available treatments and research deeply affected me.
Whether you survive depends on the geographical location, where you’re born, and which hospital and doctor you have access to. For example, two 7-year-old girls Anne and Sophie, living in Spain and the Netherlands respectively, were both diagnosed with the same rare cancer with the same gene mutation. Six months later, Sophie died, while Anne went back to school. The difference? One of Anne’s doctors had a colleague who knew someone working on new treatment targeting this gene mutation, in New York. Global connectivity saved her life.
Fascinated by the power of genomic data to discover what treatment works best for which patient and match patients to lifesaving information, I became a biomedical scientist. I lived in over four continents, worked at world-leading institutes such as Harvard University, and traveled through over 15 countries in Africa and Asia. Everywhere in the world, I experienced the same access problem. I realized how fundamentally broken today’s health systems are. There is no universal system to give patients access to the treatments they need.
To solve this, I started SocialGenomics MOONSHOT, a technology company to make precision medicine accessible and affordable for every person on the planet. We connect similar patient cases using AI to help patients find the best treatment based on their genomic profile. I advocate for change while building global partnerships and making lifesaving information universally available. Global data connectivity enables us to overcome geographic barriers and save more lives! Realizing this for the world is my dream.
———–
Get a copy of WE HAVE A DREAM 201 Dreams 201 Countries