Palo Alto Health Sciences Strengthens Executive Team

Palo Alto Health Sciences (PAHS), developer of the Freespira Breathing System, has hired Dr. Robert Cuyler as chief clinical officer and Christopher Jaquis as vice president of business development. Both men PAHS’ management team in bringing extensive experience in the behavioral health industry as the company expands partnerships with payers and health systems to increase access to Freespira.
 
“Palo Alto Health Sciences is dedicated to solving significant behavioral health conditions with evidence-based, non-invasive, drug-free solutions,” said Debra Reisenthel, CEO of Palo Alto Health Sciences Inc. “Robert joining us now as we raise additional funding for expansion is another example of our commitment to clinical excellence and achieving great patient outcomes.”
 
“I have seen first-hand in my clinic how Freespira changes the lives of patients suffering from panic disorder and panic attacks,” said Cuyler. “This technology has been tested and proven in clinical research and commercial practice, and I look forward to working with clinicians to offer the Freespira treatment to their patients.”

Cuyler brings more than 30 years of clinical and business development experience in the mental health arena. He previously was the Interim CEO of JSA Tele-psychiatry and senior vice president of Diamond Healthcare. Cuyler has more than a decade of experience designing and implementing telemedicine and technology programs throughout the United States. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Louisiana State University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychology from the Menninger Foundation (Topeka, Kan.). While serving as chief clinical officer, he will continue to provide psychological services to clients in his Houston, Texas, practice on a limited basis.
 
“We are also thrilled to have Chris Jaquis accept the newly created vice president of business development role,” said Reisenthel. “Chris will greatly increase our ability to expand Freespira’s footprint with health systems and payers to make it more broadly available to people suffering from panic.”

Jaquis is a strategic growth expert with more than 20 years of experience partnering with payers and providers within the behavioral healthcare industry. He most recently served as the vice president of development at Townsend Addiction Treatment Centers (Lafayette, La.) where he grew in-network payer relationships, which played a significant role in Townsend’s acquisition by American Addiction Centers. Before joining Townsend, Jaquis served as strategic accounts director for Breakthrough Behavioral, a leader in tele-behavioral health delivery. Jaquis was responsible for execution of the company’s sales strategy; Breakthrough’s success led to acquisition by MDLive in November 2014. At CRC Health Inc., Jaquis held various senior leadership positions over 14 years. CRC became the largest for-profit drug and alcohol treatment system in the United States.

“Freespira represents a rapid, cost-effective, clinically proven solution that has already garnered attention from the behavioral health community. I am thrilled to be working with the PAHS team to translate this interest into wider availability through major health systems and payers,” said Jaquis.

Cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2013, Freespira is a non-invasive, drug-free, four-week at home treatment for panic disorder and symptoms of panic. Completed under the supervision of a licensed healthcare provider, Freespira is clinically proven to reduce or eliminate the symptoms of panic disorder, the mental health condition in which debilitating anxiety and panic attacks result in avoidance behaviors. Panic symptoms include sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, dizziness or nausea. Although people with panic disorder are typically unaware of their breathing patterns, many breathe differently all of the time, not just when they are having a panic attack. Freespira directly addresses this key physiological component of panic: “chronic hyperventilation.” Freespira trains the patient to stabilize their respiration rate and normalize their exhaled carbon dioxide (EtCO2) level and, over the course of treatment, this results in changes in the body’s chemistry, eliminating or reducing the symptoms of panic, including panic attacks. In a recent Freespira clinical trial, 98 percent of patients demonstrated reduction in their panic disorder severity scores (PDSS) and 62 percent were free from panic attacks after the four-week Freespira treatment. In prior clinical trials, 96 percent of patients reported symptom reduction and 68 percent of patients remained panic-attack free at 12 months post-treatment.
 
Palo Alto Health Sciences Inc. is a privately held Silicon Valley medical device developer of evidence-based, non-invasive, drug-free solutions. In the United States, more than 6.7 million adults annually suffer from panic disorder; panic attacks affect a total of 27 million adults in the United States every year and are a common component of other anxiety disorders. Freespira is commercially available throughout the United States.