The Team
Patti Engel, R.N., B.S.N.
President
Patti is President of TeleRare Health® which was founded in 2023 to create a company that is uniquely built around providing care to rare disease patients in a manner that is consistent with true engagement and an understanding of their needs. This includes designing a novel care model that will fundamentally change the speed of diagnosis and care delivery, as well as challenging traditional beliefs around care coordination, referrals and other issues central to the empowerment of patients and families impacted by rare diseases.
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Patti began her career as a pediatric oncology nurse where she gained a unique patient-centered perspective. She joined 3M Pharmaceuticals – where she worked in sales and marketing. Patti was a founding member of Orphan Medical, an organization committed to the development and commercialization of rare disease therapies. In 2001 Patti founded Engage Health, a health research firm that has worked to bring patient experience and voice to the rare disease drug development process for over 20 years.
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Patti graduated from the College of St. Catherine in St Paul MN, sits on a variety of boards on a volunteer basis and enjoys spending time with family and traveling.
Austin Letcher, M.S.
Chief Operations Officer
As a co-founder and the Chief Operations Officer of TeleRare Health®, Austin provides a strong background in the biomedical sciences. In 2014, he joined Sanford Research working for their rare disease program called the Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford (CoRDS). His experience allowed him to build a variety of long-lasting relationships with rare disease advocacy groups, patients/families, and medical experts in order to further the development of several disease-specific patient registries. He remains passionate about enabling patients and patient organizations to leverage their data to further research and collaborate with industry in the development of new therapies.
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Austin took his experience to WCG where he was able to manage several patient recruitment projects for a variety of clinical trials. After which, he began his work with Engage Health, leading their project and operations team in order to conduct health and market research studies, heavily focused in the non-interventional, qualitative research space.
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When not working, Austin enjoys taking his dog (Toshi) on walks to the park or taking time off to visit new places around the country with friends and family.
Pete Celano
Advisor
Pete co-founded and sold an early remote patient monitoring company, BeClose.com. He then spent 8 years in Innovation at the largest hospital system in the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia region (MedStar Health). Pete has been a principal with two National Virtual Clinics, in cardiovascular (Heartbeat Health) and rheumatology (Remission Medical).