Dena Mendelsohn joins Elektra Labs
We’re pleased to announce that Dena Mendelsohn has joined Elektra Labs.
At the heart of what we do at Elektra is to assess the novel benefits and risks that connected technologies pose to people. One of the emerging risks involves data rights and governance. The advantages of connected health technologies do not have to come at the expense of privacy. Yet that is often the false choice forced on users. Dena has been at the forefront of this movement, outlining these trade-offs and highlighting them particularly to those less informed about systemic shift. Her advocacy around how consumers’ data is collected and used created shifts in both public discourse and policy.
Dena previously served as Senior Policy Counsel at Consumer Reports, focusing on health and privacy portfolios. In that role, Dena tackled some thorny issues and shared her findings and stories in an accessible way — -read more about her work on “how to protect your health data” and “what your period tracker app knows about you”. Before that, she was a Health Policy Analyst at the Pacific Business Group on Health. Dena earned her JD from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Public Health degree from Saint Louis University. Dena lives with her family in the Bay Area, her chosen home after years of living in cities all around the country.
Dena joins Elektra Labs as the Director of Health Policy and Data Governance, and will lead our efforts to ensure that people will have improved tools to evaluate whether potential patient signal tracking technologies are worthy of the trust the healthcare system places in them. In the face of a global pandemic, the need for remote monitoring and reliable biometrics has never been stronger. The role for data governance also remains clear. To learn about how Dena and Elektra Labs views data governance, check out our Data Rights Primer.
Please join me in welcoming Dena to our team!
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Elektra Labs is advancing healthcare by enabling the safe, effective, and personalized use of connected products in real-life settings.
Technology has always moved faster than our ability to safeguard ourselves from its consequences. Connected health products are no exception. The increase in FDA clearances for these products has accelerated their adoption in clinical trials and routine care, but not without major concerns regarding data security, accuracy and biases.
Similar to pharmacies, which safely and effectively evaluate and dispense drug components, Elektra Labs offers free and paid services to better evaluate and dispense the >750 connected products on the market today for clinical trials and remote health monitoring.
Since Elektra’s inception in 2017, the company’s mission, values and progress have garnered attention in several top publications, and funding from several prominent health, bioscience and tech investors as well as the National Science Foundation and the Harvard Business School Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
Sign up for an account at ElektraLabs.com to get access to our Academy and learn more about digital biomarkers, decentralized clinical trials, novel endpoints and deploying safe and effective connected technologies in research and clinical care.
If you’re an engineer, security researcher, or research collaborator with a passion for digital medicine we’re hiring! We’re looking to grow the team, and we need your help in building the infrastructure for safe, effective and ethical tools in the digital era of medicine.
