In this episode of Doing the Opposite: Business Disruptors, Jeff Dewing speaks to Dr. Joan Fallon, Founder and CEO of Curemark, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of neurological and other disorders. Joan is considered a visionary scientist who has dedicated her life’s work to championing the health and wellbeing of children. Her recent book Goodbye, Status Quo, equips readers with the tools to be agents of change: as entrepreneurs, leaders, and individuals.

Dr Joan has been disrupting in her field her entire life. Born out of curiosity, she describes disruption as discovering ‘seams’ or ‘faults’ in our continuum; a desire to understand and question leads to disruption. This curiosity and tenacity to discover an answer has been Joan’s key driver throughout her research into Autism. “When we finally got to a place where I thought, ‘oh this could be a why’, then I had to go and test it and figure out whether that was right or not.”

Dr Joan reveals the challenges she faced in trying to research and treat autism; how she managed to stay the course despite obstacles and pushbacks to become a trailblazer in medical innovation. She also reveals how she challenged the status quo in healthcare spending, and how often societal biases can influence healthcare priorities.

Dr Joan’s book Goodbye, Status Quo: Reimagining the Landscape of Innovation’ is out now.