Some of the most meaningful innovations in pediatric care don’t start in labs or boardrooms, they start in hospital rooms, infusion centers, and waiting areas where parents sit at their child’s bedside, trying to make sense of a new reality.
In this episode of A Dose of Optimism, we meet two extraordinary guests who transformed their personal experiences into solutions that support families navigating illness.
A mother’s journey toward better support: Aubrey Kelly
When Aubrey Kelly’s 22-month-old son became critically ill, her life shifted overnight. Although she and her husband both worked in biopharma, no amount of professional experience prepared them for the emotional toll of hearing the word leukemia applied to their own child.
Aubrey shares what it felt like to live at a children’s hospital with a newborn, a toddler with cancer, and a four-year-old at home, all while trying to process complex medical information and make urgent decisions. At one point, she had to get her own diagnosis of acute situational depression and anxiety in order to qualify for disability leave.
Through this experience, Aubrey saw a clear gap: families need tools to understand their child’s diagnosis, find support, navigate clinical information, and connect with others who have walked a similar path. That insight led her to create Rabble Health, a digital patient-engagement platform designed to make the journey more manageable for families facing serious illness.
A childhood idea that now helps thousands: Ella Casano
At age seven, Ella Casano was diagnosed with ITP, a platelet disorder requiring regular IV infusions. Sitting under intimidating bags of medication, some labeled with the word “poison”, she noticed how frightening it felt, especially for young children.
A few years later, she turned that feeling into an idea for her school’s Invention Convention: a soft, friendly IV-bag cover shaped like a teddy bear. That idea became Medi-Teddy.
What started as a fifth-grade project evolved into a nonprofit distributing more than 15,000 Medi-Teddys to children in all 50 states and 30 countries, always at no cost to patients. Ella now leads Medi-Teddy Inc. while attending Stanford University.
Aubrey and Ella have something powerful in common:
They noticed something that made their own medical experiences more difficult, and they built a way to make it better for someone else.
Their stories remind us that innovation in children’s health can come from anyone: a parent, a teenager, a patient, a caregiver.
And sometimes the most impactful ideas begin with one simple question: “How can we make this easier for families like ours?”
Key Topics Discussed:
- How personal experience with childhood illness can lead to innovation
- The emotional and logistical realities of being a parent in the hospital
- The inspiration behind Rabble Health’s patient-engagement tools
- Shared decision-making and clinical trial literacy for families
- Childhood trauma, mental health, and parental support needs
- The origin and evolution of Medi-Teddy
- How a school project became a global nonprofit
- The role of digital health in improving family-centered care
- What families need most during medical crises
- Why parent and patient voices are essential in healthcare innovation
About Aubrey Kelly:
Aubrey Kelly is CEO of Rabble Health, a digital patient engagement company in Thousand Oaks, California. Ms. Kelly is a 15-year pharma professional turned health-tech entrepreneur in 2020.
In her roles at Amgen, where she spent the last 15 years of her career, Ms. Kelly led multiple strategy and innovation initiatives and was responsible for the Office of Commercialization Excellence. She has extensive experience in oncology, inflammation, and cardiovascular disorders, improving access to clinical trials and driving life-cycle management strategies.
In 2017, Ms. Kelly’s son was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and had a successful Bone Marrow Transplant at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her son’s experience, coupled with her passion to improve patient access inspired Ms. Kelly to create myRabble, a patient engagement product line that decreases the burden of cancer. Rabble Health completed the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator cohort in 2020, is part of the Scale LA Health Tech and Cancer Hacker Labs Ecosystem.
Ms. Kelly is a member of the Board of Trustees at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and a Board Member at Make-A-Wish Tri Counties. Ms. Kelly received her MS from the University of Colorado and her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. She lives in Thousand Oaks with her husband, three kids, and two dogs.
About Ella Casano:
Ella Casano is a current sophomore at Stanford University, and is the Inventor of Medi TeddyTM IV Covers. She currently sits as Board President of Medi Teddy Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit which works to get Medi Teddys to pediatric infusion patients at no cost to them, and as Co-Owner of IV Comfort Solutions LLC. Outside of her work with Medi Teddy, she is a coxswain on the NCAA champion Women’s Rowing Team at Stanford, and has three younger sisters and two rescue dogs.You can make a tax-deductible donation to our 501(c)3 nonprofit at www.medi-teddy.org, in order to help us get more Medi Teddys to kids!
