When my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness, I discovered that finding relevant clinical trials is a broken process: outdated interfaces, unreadable medical jargon, and thousands of irrelevant results. Years of manually helping patients navigate this maze led me to build TrialFinder, a free, non-profit platform that matches patients with clinical trials for their medical situation. From smart profile-based search and plain-language trial explanations, through eligibility checking and guidance on speaking with your doctor, all the way to contacting the trial team. This talk covers my journey: the personal story behind the project, how I designed an AI system that handles sensitive medical data without ever storing it, the early viral moment that stress-tested everything, feedback from real patients and doctors, and emerging partnerships with hospitals and health funds. This is a story about building a zero-budget tool with nothing but purpose.
Senior Director of Engineering at Lemonade