Jessica Baladad

About

An unexpected breast cancer diagnosis at 33 years old empowered Jessica Baladad to channel her experience into a mission that's changing the way women advocate for their medical care. She's the creator of Feel For Your Life, a mobile app that shows women how to perform self exams, get screened and advocate for their breast health. With the growing prevalence of AI, she included a tool inside the app that can take a pathology report, translate it into terms you can understand and automatically populate questions for you to ask your doctor. It's the first app of its kind created by a breast cancer patient and has been downloaded more than 200,000 times around the world. Jessica's history with breast cancer catalyzed her dedication to building Feel For Your Life. She's the fourth generation on her paternal side of the family to be diagnosed with the disease, and yet no known gene mutation has been found in her lineage. She first learned how to do a self breast exam after having a benign tumor removed at 18, and nearly 15 years later, Jessica was diagnosed with Stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma after performing a routine self exam in the shower. She underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, 24 rounds of radiation, a hysterectomy and a 10-hour flap reconstruction. Her advocacy has since expanded beyond breast health into state and federal health policy, where she works to bring the patient perspective into decisions about access, affordability and the policies that shape medical care. Jessica has advocated on issues including prior authorization, prescription drug affordability, pharmacy benefit manager practices, access to specialists, cancer screening and the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. In Tennessee, her advocacy has contributed to efforts addressing prior authorization standards and healthcare access, and she has worked with lawmakers, patient organizations and healthcare stakeholders to translate complicated policy debates into issues patients can understand and act on. She also regularly brings patient perspectives into national conversations about emerging healthcare technology, insurance barriers and access to care.

Event appearances