The Disruptor — Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Chief Kathy Giusti Discusses the Organization’s Important Mission

Giusti is a multiple myeloma survivor. Multiple Myeloma is a blood cancer targets plasma cells, and while there has been incredible progress made in treating the disease over the past few years, when she was first diagnosed at age 37, she says, the diagnosis was pretty much a death sentence.

In fact, her doctors told her she would only have three years to live — if she was lucky.

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It’s the rarity of the disease, Giusti says, that makes philanthropy so important.

“When we first started, we realized there are not many research foundations out there,” Giusti says. “Everybody else was doing advocacy and more of the patient support side. So we moved to research so that we looked more like a virtual bio-tech. We built out our own clinical network and we’ve hosted over 80 clinical trials.”

MMRF’s efforts have led to the approval of several drugs in the myeloma space, Giusti says. This is what Giusti refers to when she says “disruptions” to the health care system — finding a problem, doing the work and raising the money to address that problem.

“The beauty of how we try to disrupt and how we put it forward is we keep learning and we keep sharing,” Giusti says. “So every time we see a new model and we know it works, I then use my time up at Harvard Business School to make sure every cancer understands that model — and a lot of time they’ll feed back great information to me to make our models better. At the end of the day, being a builder and a disrupter means you have to raise enough money to let that disruption happen.”

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