Kate: Thank you so much for sitting down with us at Medspoke here today, Martine. Could you start off by introducing yourself?
Martine: Sure. I'm Martine Elias. I'm the CEO of Myeloma Canada, and I also am a board member of the International Myeloma Foundation.
Kate: That's amazing. And so what inspired you to come out today?
Martine: Well, other than the beautiful California sunshine – no, I'm just kidding. It's to learn. To learn about, you know, what's happening in the US and take some of the things that are happening with the International Myeloma Foundation back to Canada so we can learn and share best practices. So that's why I'm here.
Kate: Absolutely. And what message would you share with others living with myeloma?
Martine: Hope. There's a lot of hope. There's a lot of really exciting new research that is coming very close to patient care, so I find that very exciting.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. And what do you wish more people understood about this disease?
Martine: That it is not a death sentence, really. There is so much new therapies, new combinations of drugs, and understanding about the biology of the myeloma so that you can adapt the treatment based on - of your profile of your myeloma. And with all the treatments that you have, there's a lot of tools in the box that you can use. So, you can live a really good life with myeloma.
Kate: For sure. And I believe you may have touched on this earlier…is this your first time at this specific event? What other events do you attend? And what does it mean to you to show up?
Martine: So I've been to a few of the International Myeloma Foundation patient/family seminar, and I've been to the IMWG Conference, the International Myeloma Working Group. I've been to their GMAN Conference, the Global Myeloma Action Network. I've been participating in many of the activities because I really believe that if you can change the trajectory of the disease, you gotta start where everything happens, and you have to be pretty much everywhere. So being connected internationally is really important for me. So the IMF, I also work very closely with European myeloma patient organizations so that we can, you know, band and change the world and make it better for myeloma patients.
Kate: Absolutely. And is there anything else that you would like to add on to that I didn't touch on?
Martine: No, I think, you know, I think patients being educated is really, really important, but you also have to make sure that physicians are also educated in what, you know, is coming down the pipeline. We see - we heard about some of the doctors that are here today. They're experts in myeloma, but not everybody has the sort of benefit to be connected to experts. So, if you got your sort of general hematologist or general cancer specialist, you know, they need to also be made aware of what's going on in myeloma because they may not see many patients in their, you know, in their career, but it's important that they are also really, you know, at the cutting edge and know a lot about what's happening.
Kate: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for taking the time today.
Martine: You’re welcome.
