I haven’t been blogging for a while. It hasn’t been due to a lack of inspiration, but it’s been more a matter of finding the time, while trying to balance multiple priorities.
The last two months have been exciting, but also hectic and exhausting. Where 2013 was a year of planning and making preparations, the time has now come to execute those plans. In January, I got together with fellow patients Robbert Jan en Garmt to discuss our strategy and to clarify the path forward. It turns out that we have 35 projects on our plate! So we have a lot of work to do, but we found time to make a nice picture of us three 🙂
Along with former classmates, Garmt recently organized an MBA class with a group of MBA students to discuss our strategy, centered around the following 5 pillars: patients, funds, cause, cure and care. We received a lot of great feedback from a business perspective. On the other end of the spectrum, I collected some very useful scientific feedback while attending the ALS/MND congress last December. We’ve had multiple talks with large biotech investors, health insurance providers, and other influential stakeholders, including visits to research centers in Europe that are focusing on a variety of innovative technologies. We’ve discussed hypotheses with key thought leaders and investigated the overall ALS/MND market worldwide.
We make every effort to prepare ourselves as thoroughly as possible and do not want our efforts to ever be compromised by a lack of resources. Because of this, we try to have a leader for each project and at least one or more patients involved, as well. We are assisted by numerous experienced, skilled and enthusiastic volunteers. You could say that it’s now full speed ahead!
In the coming months, I will regularly update you on our progress, so stay tuned…
