Maya Zlatanova — Designing Trials for Real Patients (Not Unicorns)

Adam Walker:I am Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed Podcast where leaders, innovators, and hidden voices in healthcare open up, no sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data protocols and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions.

What drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear?

Adam Walker:Today we\'re joined by Maya Zlatanova, a visionary leader in clinical research and host of the podcast trials with Myers Z, where she explores the future of trials with global experts and patient advocates as CEO and Co-founder of Find Me Cure and Trial Hub, Maya is on a mission to make clinical trials more accessible, transparent, and patient-centric.

Her platforms empower sponsors and CROs to design smarter trials by integrating real world data, local standard of care, insights, and feasibility \[00:01:00\] analytics. With many years of experience, clinical trial regulations and patient recruitment, Maya has trained health ministries, pharma teams.

And global organizations, including the UN and NHS. Maya, welcome to Pharma Prescribed. Today, for anyone who is not familiar with you, who are you and what do you do?

Maya Zlatanova:Adam, first of all, thank you for having me. And I, now I lost my words because after this description of myself, I forgot who I am.

And especially this last part. By the way, when you mentioned the training of the UN and some ministries of health that was in my, like previous life. I completely forgot about this part to be honest, but who I am, there are multiple ways that , I would answer this question.

Maybe I would actually mention what I\'m not, and what I don\'t feel I am. I\'m not a visionary like visionary leader, as you said. I think I\'m just a normal human being who actually thinks, going back to basic principles and \[00:02:00\] tries to make a super important industry for all of us to be slightly more efficient from at least one piece of the puzzle.

That\'s who I am. I\'m also a mom. I\'m an entrepreneur. I\'m a wife, I\'m a daughter, all of these type of things. Probably the shortest answer to your question is I am who I choose to be today and now because we all actually are who we choose to be today. And now,

Adam Walker:thank you for answering that so succinctly.

And so honestly, Maya, you mentioned a couple of things there, which did resonate. Of course. You mentioned the fact that you\'re a mother, a daughter, a wife. I think that\'s a lovely place to start. So you start from a position of caring.

Adam Walker:I\'m very curious, when I looked at your profile, I happened to notice that your background was in business history and geography.

I\'m wondering how on earth you came into life sciences with a background in history and geography, and I have to ask that.

Maya Zlatanova:Oh, that\'s a very long story, but I\'ll make it short. Let\'s say that \[00:03:00\] me starting to, , in the university history and geography was my, one of my greatest gifts in life. And, , actually this was the thing that I wanted to do the least, and I was very miserable.

When I realized that I\'m gonna study geography and history in the university because that was the least thing I wanted to actually start studying, not because I don\'t like geography and history. On the contrary, I love it. It\'s just that I had completely different picture in my head for how do I develop, and there is a caveat.

I\'m from Bulgaria, which is an ex-communist country, and. Basically from the very beginning my, my parents, they taught me that I need to really aim high like work towards some managerial positions. And definitely teacher wasn\'t like the best option or anything like that. But why was the greatest gift?

Going back to what I said because actually that for the first time in my life I actually felt big time felt naming my \[00:04:00\] dreams. Beforehand I was a normal kid, but more or less achieving my goals one way or another with a lot of work, a lot of efforts. But still, I put the work and I did receive the results at the end.

And for the first time in my life, that wasn\'t the case. And that happened to me when I was 18, 19. And it was a big lesson that you don\'t have, you shouldn\'t put the efforts. Only with the caveat, you\'re going to succeed. Sometimes you don\'t, but you still have to put the effort because you know that this is the right thing to do.

And that changed really my, let\'s say, destiny after that.

Adam Walker:I appreciate you explaining that. So I think most of our listeners will wonder how on earth you came into clinical research and subsequently into supporting the actions of patients into

Maya Zlatanova:Yeah,

Adam Walker:clinical trials.

Maya Zlatanova:So it actually has to do with exactly what I said, that sometimes you have to put the effort, even if you\'re not sure that you\'ll succeed.

And \[00:05:00\] actually when I started my journey in clinical research, like maybe 10 years ago when I co-founded Fmic Cure it was really one big dream. How can we make clinical research be more efficient? Why I started dreaming in that direction? Actually, it\'s because of my family again. I went through a really hard time with my sister.

She had a very severe disease for which there is even today, no standard of care. And unfortunately, it\'s not just for her, but for many people worldwide. And she managed to find a way to manage her disease, but it\'s one of these diseases that. Comes and goes. So you\'re always is she okay?

Is she going to survive the next time, for example. And that really changed my perspective of how I look at healthcare how I look at to be honest, not even healthcare, but life sciences and clinical research. Because for the first time I saw how dependable we all are on life sciences and precisely clinical research, because that\'s for the first time when I \[00:06:00\] saw that.

These are not yet some clinical trials there. These are the processes that bring the next generation of treatments, and sometimes not the next generation, but the new treatments that we all need. And that was exactly the same time when I also became a mom. So it wasn\'t just my sister, it was all these other people like my kids.

So all these other people with their kids, with their parents with their own lives and all these destinies that are really depending on clinical trials being successful. So yes, this dream started out of something very personal. It became very big, and I know maybe this dream is like super big to make these clinical trials more successful.

But even with a single drop, like I said, even if we achieve a single drop of improvement, then it\'s worth.

Adam Walker:That\'s wonderful. And you\'ve really. Made me think at that point. So many of the people that come onto this podcast have their real essence around \[00:07:00\] a personal story and a personal connection to driving change through this industry.

Adam Walker:What kind of challenges have you come across in getting over some of those humps along the way?

Maya Zlatanova:I started laughing. The moment you said challenges, what kind of challenges? What kind of, like what? Yeah, tell me a challenge that we haven\'t faced. That\'s the situation. I think that we went through a lot.

I wouldn\'t say that it\'ll be hard to shortlist the challenges. There were many from. Maybe I\'ll actually mention one particular challenge because I think that this is a great example also for other entrepreneurs in our space. Why healthcare is difficult because it\'s so complicated when it comes to stakeholders.

Their interaction interaction with regulators, between the healthcare providers the patients, their families, their employers and so on and so forth, and many stakeholders in involved. And they\'re very close connected. If you \[00:08:00\] change one thing, then another thing changes.

Or if you change one thing, then the other thing wouldn\'t work. So you have to have this really multidimensional understanding of how these different stakeholders interact with each other. And this is especially true when we speak about clinical research, because here it\'s not only the patient and the healthcare professional and the the facility, let\'s say the hospital, but you have also very, like these regulators and the goal of clinical trial.

The goal for the patient obviously is one more alternative, perhaps. The goal for the healthcare professional is extra, let\'s say income or just be a part of a research, but the goal for the sponsor is actually to gather data so that they can get an approval and so on and so forth. And that makes solving problems so hard.

So one particular challenge that we had at the very beginning is understanding. Where should we put our efforts? Also, knowing our strengths as a team. Where do we put our efforts so that we really make a difference? So we have an impact, right from day one. We wanted to \[00:09:00\] make clinical trials more successful, more patient aligned, but how do we do it with impact?

And at the very beginning, we actually thought like many other people out there that if we increase the awareness towards clinical trials among patients and caregivers and their families in general, the general society, if we prove this awareness that we will definitely. Changed the course of clinical trials, but we were so wrong.

We were so wrong. And for a couple of years we tried so hard and the good news is that we were successful with patients. We definitely managed to bring this education, what clinical trials are to definitely help many patients to benefit from clinical trials as well to be part of clinical trials.

But we also saw that clinical trials, and so patient recruitment, let\'s say, it\'s a nice work. You see the problems on top of the water, and that\'s what you\'re solving with increasing the awareness. \[00:10:00\] But the real problems are somewhere deep in the waters. And unless you actually fix them, you are not like actually not fixing, solving them.

You\'re only trying to fix something that\'s getting bigger and bigger with the time, especially with personalized medicine and so on and so forth. So we had to do a pivot. A very interesting pivot, something that\'s probably today one of the most successful decisions we\'ve done, but that was definitely a challenge from day one, to see this iceberg and make the right decision.

How do we bring impact?

Adam Walker:Thank you for explaining that.

Adam Walker:Now for my understanding, how do you measure impact in patients? Is it uptake of clinical trials? Is it access to medicines that they wouldn\'t otherwise have? Is it improving quality of life measures? How do you qualify or quantify that success or otherwise?

Maya Zlatanova:Thank you for this question because actually we should be speaking about it more \[00:11:00\] often.

I\'ll start again with the awareness. If you increase the awareness among patients about clinical trials, that\'s definitely helping them. That\'s definitely impactful. Because suddenly more people will know that they have one more option, not just the options that they were aware, but one more option, and they can decide if that\'s an option they can try or not.

However, the way clinical trials are shaped and the way they work is, it\'s not like I decide today I wanna be part of a clinical trial just because I think this is an option for me or not Actually. Clinical trials have very strict criteria and very strict requirements. I\'m not speaking about just the eligibility criteria, but even things like where the clinical trial is taking place.

In the UK we say the zip code lottery. What\'s the schedule of events that are happening, which may prevent you, even if you\'re eligible to be part of this clinical trial and all sorts of \[00:12:00\] requirements and procedures that may prevent you from being part of the clinical trial? So only that, clinical trials that exist?

Yes, it\'s definitely a step towards the right direction, but it\'s definitely not guaranteed that you can actually benefit on the other side. We also know that clinical trials. Get delayed miserably, like 80, 85%, like different numbers, but more or less most clinical trials. Get delayed. And the majority of them, because of that also fail.

We know that most of the times they don\'t fail because of scientific reasons, because the good news is that technology allowed us so far to have much better understanding early on if the science is there. We just have to prove it with patients. So usually it\'s somewhere in the design of the clinical trial, but actually fails.

The clinical trial. So here\'s the thing, if you spent all your efforts in bringing awareness to patients, you could definitely help them. But you know that you help just a tiny bit \[00:13:00\] of people that somehow managed to fit these criteria and managed to fit the schedule and managed to fit the location and whatnot.

But if you try to shape. The design of the clinical trial to be more, inclusive to the right people, the ones with the right motivation, with the actual need. And that also allows these clinical trials to be faster and more successful. Then suddenly you impact the right people during the clinical trial process, but also clinical trials become more successful and that actually is an option on the market for way more people out there.

So I didn\'t actually answer your question. How do you measure impact? But I shared how we measure impact thinking, how we can impact more people out there. And to be honest, if you have a way to impact someone, even if it\'s one person and you can do that, go for it. But when we speak about disrupting, like changing the whole industry, you have to \[00:14:00\] think big and you have to be really logical and realistic.

What can you do with your efforts and your strengths?

Adam Walker:I think that\'s a really compelling observation that you shared there, and as you were describing that, I was thinking about small populations and large populations of people who are impacted directly by those clinical trials that you\'re describing.

Adam Walker:What are the kind of services that you\'re offering both through finally Cure and Trial Hub, where patients and their relatives, family, friends can access these? Trials and gain knowledge. Are there tools through your platforms that enable people to access that information?

Maya Zlatanova:Yeah, so when we first started we first developed find me cure.com, which is today a platform that\'s absolutely dedicated to supporting patients and their families.

The way we do that is by organizing this. It\'s the largest database of \[00:15:00\] clinical trials worldwide. We bring all these clinical trials together and we support patients with, on one side a little bit more simplified language but basically to better understand what clinical trials are.

On the other side, a way to identify what clinical trials are out there for their specific indication. And the third bit is actually the most important bit because. Let\'s say that you can get to information, but getting in contact with the right people is actually the hardest, and that\'s where we decided to create a very interesting infrastructure that is a mix between patient coordinators and automated processes that allows you to one forward this clinical trial to your doctor. Because let\'s face it, your doctor is the person that you trust now or in the best scenario, this is the case. This is the person who can also read this information and really understand if that will be something that you will benefit or maybe at least have a better understanding than you.

\[00:16:00\] And this is also the person who speaks the language that the people who are actually running the clinical trial are. So in the ideal scenario, you have a companion in the eyes of your doctor who helps you discuss these clinical trials and help you go to the next steps if you decide to do that.

However, for many patients that\'s not the case. I\'ve been trying to speak loud about the issue that since we have the boom of all these search engines and internet and so on and so forth, actually people do trust their doctors. But they also go to multiple doctors, and they also use Dr.

Google, probably now Dr. Chad, GPT. So let\'s say that they\'re a little bit more disconnected. To their, and also doctors don\'t have time. That\'s the other issue. So that\'s why we have the option of you also connecting with we connect to connect you actually with the sites and investigators who are behind these clinical trials.

And that\'s how you can actually start the conversation with them and see if that\'s \[00:17:00\] an option for you or not. We\'ve helped in many different places in different cases, depending on the situation. Sometimes even with advice, Hey, you know what, instead of just looking at the list of clinical trials, if you do this personalized diagnostic, like in oncology, for example, something that people don\'t know unfortunately and doctors don\'t advise, which is very weird to me, but if you do this type of diagnostic in the results.

You\'ll actually see if there is a clinical trial that is suitable for you without having to figure it out on your own. So that\'s fmic cure.com, and it works actually as an NGO. So we do it for free with our hearts. The trial hub is actually the machine that helps us drive everything, like the resources for care and everything basically.

And Trial hub is actually this instrument. That allows us to have this bigger impact, this indirect impact that hopefully in the future will actually bring these, not in the future, but it does it even \[00:18:00\] now. It helps clinical trials to be more optimized, more strategic, and more successful. The way we do that is by supporting these amazing, brilliant, smart people in clinical development and clinical operations and feasibility and patient recruitment to help them see the blind spots of what will make or break their clinical trials through data and analysis so that they can better position their clinical trials and avoid, if possible, prevent.

Challenges with patient recruitment, challenges with any operational challenges and so on and so forth. And one thing I have to say, it\'s the last thing I\'m gonna say on the topic, but I\'m really proud of is early on when we created Trial hub, we follow the track.

Okay, let\'s automate some of the data gathering. And we more or less created an easier process to gather, insights than other, let\'s say, platforms on the market. But couple of years later, when we started realizing what are the gaps of these professionals that were \[00:19:00\] supporting, we decided to take a very high risk, but actually think something that we truly believe, which is that in clinical trial planning.

There are one thing that\'s missing and we\'re not paying enough attention is the patient feasibility. So since probably 20 20, 23, 20 22, 20 23, we\'ve been investing a lot of our efforts into bringing innovative tools that actually support better patient feasibility.

Adam Walker:You\'ve touched on so many things that have just ignited thoughts in my mind as you were explaining that Maya the fact that Find Me Cure is really out there for patients is testament to your motivation and to the very first thing that you said today about, supporting patients in accessing.

The medication that they need and the trials that they need. But I think combining that with trial hub.com, it\'s extraordinary what you\'ve done and what you\'ve \[00:20:00\] achieved.

Adam Walker:And I\'m wondering, you must be surrounded by some very clever technologists and scientists and people that are bringing those things together.

I\'m sensing that you are the kind of person that\'s a super connector that brings brilliant people together to do brilliant things.

Maya Zlatanova:That\'s exactly the case. There is one saying that you\'re in the right room when you look around and there are only smarter people than you. And that\'s exactly the place that I am in from starting with my co-founders.

And then moving to the entire team. We\'re actually a relatively small team, but we like to say we\'re a sports team and we are truly a sports team. We play on our strengths and we support each other because we all care for what we\'re doing one way or another. We all have our stories.

Everyone has such stories. Let\'s face it. And yeah, I try to be the glue not only within my team, but also we have amazing advisors. Amazing clients like all of them. I wa I was going to say, especially the \[00:21:00\] early ones, but all of them to be honest, because what we\'ve achieved is thanks to this transparent, radical candor interaction between each other, where we know, we recognize we are going after a heart problem and we are tackling this problem with the full transparency that we don\'t know all the answers, but we\'re there to work on.

Fighting these challenges and bring something, forget about innovative, something that works better.

Adam Walker:That\'s awesome. It really is truly awesome.

Adam Walker:Something that resonated for me earlier when I was looking at your details online, you had this tagline that you designed trials for real patients, not unicorns.

I\'d love to know where that came about because I think that\'s what we\'re all looking for, isn\'t it? We\'re looking to find the truth out there, and there\'s an awful lot of noise, and there\'s even more noise today than there ever has been in this space, in every space that we\'re in. I\'d love to hear your thoughts around that.

Maya Zlatanova:I like to say, actually \[00:22:00\] the first time I use this analogy with unicorns. Was this year in September, I was on the Dharm stage, Dharm ILE stage actually. And I was one of the six companies that was competing for the Dharm ILE Award. To be honest I wasn\'t even competing because there are so many brilliant entrepreneurs out there, like even so many like brilliant solutions.

So I was just using the stage to tell my story. To tell our story and to just spread the word about something that I deeply care about. So when I went to stage, I wanted to not just present our solution, but actually give a message that people will understand and hopefully they will work towards changing it.

And that\'s when I decided to use this analogy that we are looking in clinical trials, we\'re looking for the perfect patients. These perfect patients are defined by these eligibility criteria, by these procedures, by these like schedule of events or requirements, locations \[00:23:00\] and whatnot, like I explained at the very beginning.

And somehow these perfect patients are defined in the clinical trial protocols as if we have the unicorns in fairytales. And the thing that is in common is that they both don\'t exist. So unless we realize that and start changing that, we\'ll just repeat over and over. The same mistake, and we\'ll have the same results.

Because this 80% of clinical trials getting delayed, 90% of clinical trials failing. We haven\'t changed at all. And when I started working in the clinical research industry, that\'s probably I dunno, 20 years ago. So we\'re repeating the same in like number over and over again. So unless we change something, fundamentally we won\'t change.

So that\'s why I wanted to speak loud about this problem. And there are many other problems, of course I know about them, but I think this is one significant problem that the way we define patients in protocols \[00:24:00\] as if we are defining unicorns in fairy tales, and that\'s not okay.

Adam Walker:If I can just follow on from that particular point as well.

Adam Walker:I\'m wondering how identifying those really hard to find patients that fit in those boxes has been enhanced or not by the implementation of new technologies and what\'s now out there in enhancing finding those patients through trial hub.com.

Maya Zlatanova:So the first of all, defining is one issue, but actually the defining is a different issue. And actually the defining of what these patients are is a bigger issue than defining, because if you\'ve defined them, if you\'ve defined these patients and they actually exist. Then the question is, okay, if these patients exist and there are enough out there and they\'re motivated to join our clinical trial, then the question will be how do we find them?

But very often \[00:25:00\] these patients either don\'t exist, or what you\'re offering doesn\'t make any sense for them. So the finding is not even, you haven\'t even started thinking about finding you. I\'ll give you an example. Imagine I\'m a patient in like in Germany. And Germany is like very famous for the fact that it\'s reimbursing almost everything, which is great.

So I have, let\'s say, access to all the latest treatments, which is really awesome. At least that was, until lately. There\'s starting to change that, but let\'s say that yeah, that\'s the case now and you\'re coming with a clinical trial. And this investigator, top performer recruited many patients.

He comes to me and he says, Hey, why don\'t you join this like clinical trial? I think it\'ll be a great benefit for you. It offers this and that. And of course my first question would be, okay what\'s the benefit for me? And compared to what I currently have. Is it better? Is it much better?

Because here I\'m actually risking, I may be \[00:26:00\] on, let\'s say, I don\'t know, like a procedure that may even worsen my condition. For example, there are risks. It\'s a clinical trial and the perception of societies. That\'s a Guinea pig type of like experiment, right? So why would I change the treatment that I\'m on right now for something that is unknown?

And it\'s another story whether a doctor that actually respects him or herself will even suggest clinical trial that they don\'t believe like it\'s better than the local standard of care. So something as simple as checking the local standard of care can actually transform the way you define this perfect patient in your protocol, knowing that you\'re going to Germany to perform your clinical trial.

So something as simple as that. Or actually, we won the Dharma Award exactly because we introduced an AI tool for global patient journey mapping, actually country specific patient journey mapping across 76 countries, all indications. And that\'s \[00:27:00\] transformative because up until now, that was a manual work.

That was something that either market research companies will do or let\'s say, you\'ll do like a desk research that will take you a lot of time, and very often you won\'t have the full picture and now boom in seconds. You have all the different steps from symptoms to diagnosis of treatment, palliative care, and all the treatments and procedures and unmet needs, and healthcare providers included.

Why this is critical. Because you may find out that a patient with alterative colitis is usually prescribed a drug for actually managing how many times they go to the bathroom. Sorry. But that\'s, yeah, that\'s the real experience for these patients and it\'s something that, it\'s a standard of care for the last.

I dunno, 10 years. So because of that, yes, these patients are still sick, but at least they have a way to manage very severe symptoms. And if you introduce a placebo as part of your clinical trial, that\'s a huge no-no. \[00:28:00\] You may actually offer a cure. You may not, you don\'t know. But that means for months, these people cannot work.

They cannot function, they cannot be with their families. And it\'s a lot to ask for someone. No matter how desperate they are to be cured. So there are ways for us to actually predict and better define what are the patients and what would be their motivations and barriers to join a clinical trial. And then start the next question.

So how do we find them now? And one last thing. The problem today is that because we have so many different stakeholders in the planning process of a clinical trial, very often these things, the definitions start from a very scientific, very statistical point of view. By the time this reaches people who may care, or whose job is actually to care, is that feasible for patients?

Maybe it\'s too late. So our job mission in TRH Hub is to actually support these early \[00:29:00\] decision making where they actually see from a statistical point of view how just looking at the scientific point of view, the destiny of your clinical trial is doomed to fail.

Adam Walker:Yeah, that\'s a really, that\'s a really amazing insight you\'ve shared there. I\'m wondering.

Adam Walker:With all of that information that you now have at your disposal, how do you play that forward? What do you think the future looks like for these patients? For anyone that\'s engaging with Trial Hub in the next few years ahead?

Because things are moving at such a pace, aren\'t they? And whilst we are not necessarily at that precipice of. Finding all cures for all issues. You must feel more hopeful for people like your sister.

Maya Zlatanova:Oh yeah, absolutely. Days I\'m hopeful. Days I\'m not because, this industry is very resistant to change and you really have to take baby \[00:30:00\] steps because it\'s a dance.

You need to understand what your partner is ready to do, and you need to follow and you need to suggest also moves, but like you also need to wait for the partner to suggest the moves and you dance together towards the right direction. Right? So sometimes I\'m hopeful, sometimes I\'m not, unfortunately.

But to, to your question, yes. I think we live in some of the best times to actually make a big change in clinical research in drug development as a whole. Life sciences I know I\'m gonna sound very boring. I know that you\'ve heard that many different times because I\'m gonna say yes, AI is one thing that can definitely transform how life sciences work.

AI not as a AI alone, but AI as a tool to help us accelerate drug discovery to accelerate, data gathering and data analysis to accelerate repetitive \[00:31:00\] tasks and automate them. So suddenly you have a tool or we can build these tools. That\'s exactly what we\'re doing to really empower.

But when I say empower, to make 10 times more powerful, these brilliant minds in life sciences and make them be more successful. In their decision making, in their operations processes, everything. Basically what we only need is two things. First, we need this industry to be open to change their habits.

have the same issues. Like now my team introduced the need to, I haven\'t tested it. They started a month ago and I haven\'t tested it yet, and I\'m so much to blame, so I know I\'m in the same shoes, guys I\'m like. All of you, but if we also don\'t change our habits, we are not gonna change anything else, right?

We need to give it a try. Second, we need to look at AI as a tool, and I\'m saying this for a second \[00:32:00\] time because I also know that there is this huge push on leadership. Let\'s bring ai, let\'s bring ai, let\'s bring ai. And sometimes when you push. You have a resistance on the other side because there is no translation.

Why do I get ai? Why do I need it? How it will change my life or change the work that I do. So we should speak about AI as a tool and not AI for the sake of ai, right? And I said two, but there is a third, one last thing, which is we need to, we need collaboration. I\'ve always said it.

But now more than ever, if we want to have an impact, if we want to utilize ai again, I\'m going back to the dance vendors, sponsors, zeros, all the stakeholders we need to work together. The way you work together is through direct communication. Oh, your product. It looks very interesting, Maya, but actually it\'s not solving my pain.

My pain is this and that. \[00:33:00\] Oh, Maya, I see that your product does that and you said that IT is gonna help me with patient recruitment. Actually it\'s gonna help me with this and that. So it, we have to and Maya. So me on the other side shouldn\'t be, oh, you don\'t understand anything.

I need to go and speak with another person. Tell me more. How can I actually bring you value? I\'m here not to just tell you something. I\'m here to really bring you value. How can we do that together? How can we make this clinical trial next? Clinical trial more successful together?

Adam Walker:I share that equal hopefulness for the future of drug development and bringing medicines to market sooner, and I wanted to reinforce that.

Adam Walker:At this point in the conversation, I like to finish with a quick fire round May okay. If I can ask the first question, what is the one piece of advice that you would give to your younger self?

Maya Zlatanova:Trust your gut feeling.

Adam Walker:What are the top three qualities you value most when building a team?

Maya Zlatanova:Transparency, proactivity and \[00:34:00\] focus.

Adam Walker:I think you\'ve alluded to it, but what would be your favorite thing outside of work?

Maya Zlatanova:That\'s a tough question because I always been into dancing. So dancing. But now I started piano lessons, so I\'m somewhere in between.

Adam Walker:That\'s fabulous.

Maya Zlatanova:Grow.

Adam Walker:Wow, that one hit hard.

Adam Walker:Maya, you have shared so much. Your energy is remarkable, and I can\'t imagine when you actually sleep because you are juggling that many balls in the air or spinning that many plates. I can only imagine in your working professional and personal life. But honestly. The enormity of what you are doing today is beyond anything I could have expected in this conversation in a very short period of time.

You have elevated my understanding, not just of trial hub.com and find me cure.com, but also I can understand now why it was \[00:35:00\] I wanted and needed to speak to you. So I really want to thank you so much for being so honest and so generous with your time. I couldn\'t help but notice on your jumper if you can just lean forward a touch.

Maya Zlatanova:like this?

Adam Walker:Yeah.

Maya Zlatanova:Oh yeah, the hearts,

Adam Walker:I believe in signs, and I hope you believe in signs as well. And I do have a lot of hearts around our house, and you are wearing a heart today for those that are listening to this on a podcast. I wanted to connect my heart with your heart because you\'ve shared some real truth today.

And I can\'t thank you enough for being on Pharma Prescribed. It\'s been an absolute delight and a pleasure to speak to you. And I can\'t wait to speak to you again very soon.

Maya Zlatanova:Thank you, Adam. It\'s been a real pleasure and , yeah you\'re a great host. Thank you so much.