TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StuffThatWorks today announced that Julie A. Ross, former CEO of global CRO Advanced Clinical, has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer and President, effective immediately. Ross will lead the company’s next phase of growth as it scales its proprietary patient-derived AI model designed to address the most persistent constraint in pharmaceutical development: lack of direct access to engaged patients and AI-ready real-world data.

Despite billions invested annually in drug development, more than 70% of clinical trials are delayed, most often due to protocol feasibility failures, inefficient recruitment, and limited real-world patient insight. In today’s AI landscape, the limiting factor is no longer algorithms; it is proprietary, structured patient-reported experience data and the ability to produce grounded, research-grade outputs that can be trusted in clinical decision-making.

StuffThatWorks was built to solve this foundational problem.

The company operates a self-perpetuating patient data engine connecting over 3 million patients across 1,250 conditions, generating 1.3 billion structured, longitudinal data points purpose-built for learning. This dataset is consistent, cross-condition, and continuously updated—making it uniquely suited for training and operating AI systems in regulated clinical environments.

At the core of the platform is a patient-derived AI model that produces hallucination-free, structured research outputs, not generated text. Instead of summarizing or speculating, the model executes analytical programs directly on live patient data—delivering statistically grounded answers for feasibility assessment, subgroup identification, participation prediction, bias reduction, and real-world safety and effectiveness analysis.

Already, StuffThatWorks is delivering 10× efficiency gains in patient insights and patient recruitment, enabling sponsors to identify eligible patients faster, design more feasible protocols, and significantly reduce time-to-enrollment, often the single largest driver of clinical trial cost and delay.

“AI in clinical research only works if it is grounded and begins with real patients and their connected data,” said Julie A. Ross, CEO and President of StuffThatWorks. “What makes StuffThatWorks fundamentally different is that the model is built on a proprietary patient foundation and produces structured, research-grade outputs you can actually act on. That’s what allows us to deliver order-of-magnitude improvements across feasibility, recruitment, and execution.”

Ross brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across trial operations, commercialization, and M&A. As CEO of Advanced Clinical, she grew the company to $200 million in revenue, with CRO and FSP growth boasting a 25% CAGR over 10 years.  During her tenure, she built global operations and long-term partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Her appointment underscores StuffThatWorks’ focus on translating patient intelligence into scalable, execution-ready solutions for the clinical trial industry.

“Julie has scaled clinical research organizations by understanding both patient realities and operational complexity,” said Yael Elish, Founder and Chief Product & Strategy Officer of StuffThatWorks. “Her leadership positions StuffThatWorks to turn our unique model and fully AI-native, patient-connected data into a solution to address the broken system for how trials are designed, recruited, and executed.”

Under Ross’s leadership, StuffThatWorks will expand its clinical trial offerings, deepen longitudinal and EMR-connected data, and scale its centralized patient intelligence layer—enabling faster trials, at lower risk, resulting in earlier access to better treatments for patients worldwide.

Furthermore, StuffThatWorks will be presenting during the following two sessions at the upcoming 17th Annual SCOPE Summit being held in Orlando, Florida from February 2-5, 2026:

Transforming Clinical Trials with a Patient-Derived AI Model

• SCOPE Venture/Partner Event Track (Venture, Innovation and Partnering)
• February 2, 2026, 12:15pm ET - 1:15pm ET
• Description: Billions of dollars are invested into pre-clinical drug discovery, yet the promise of AI falls short in clinical trials which results in a $1B dollar bottleneck and 7+ years in development. This fireside chat will address the challenge and how StuffThatWorks is transforming clinical trials with a proprietary patient-driven AI model.
  
  

Combining Real-World Claims Data and Patient-Reported Data for Improved Care, Chronic Conditions and Clinical Trials

• SCOPE Track: Real-World Evidence (RWE) 
• February 4, 2026, 9:50am ET – 10:15am ET
• Description: Healthcare is drowning in data but starving for insights. While the potential of AI is encouraging, its impact will ultimately be limited unless we solve for data fragmentation. The panel will discuss how data portability can unlock the true promise of AI. 
  
  

About StuffThatWorks

Together with over 3 million patients across 1,250 conditions, StuffThatWorks is building a new category of health data that has never existed before: the world’s first AI-native, patient-driven, and patient-connected data foundation. Using AI and smart crowdsourcing over more than 1.3 billion data points, StuffThatWorks transforms real patient experiences into structured data that unlocks every layer of health, from care and research to discovery, innovation, and beyond.

For pharma and life sciences, this enables faster end-to-end clinical trials and getting treatments to patients sooner. For researchers, it enables studies to run directly on live, AI-native patient data. And for patients, it creates condition-specific communities where lived experience becomes insight, understanding, and meaningful opportunities to shape research and care.

For more information, please visit www.stuffthatworks.health.

For more information, contact:

Glenn Silver, Media Relations
FINN Partners
M: +1-973-818-8198
glenn.silver@finnpartners.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a4d496b4-17be-47b5-83a0-3080bc2c7bd9