Sarah’s BEAM

Sarah Snider: “What I do is to make sure the company keeps running.”

Dan Smith

By Dan Smith

Warren Bickel, a world-renowned behavioral scientist, was direct and unequivocal when he answered the question, “Would there be a BEAM Diagnostics without Sarah Snider?”

“No,” he said, quickly and firmly. Bickel, a researcher at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, and James McKillop, a professor of psychiatry in Ontario, had this great idea and she seemed likely to be able to carry it through. Their substance use research was ready to move beyond the theoretical and be built into what became Beacon. It fell to Snider, a 35-year-old PhD who worked with them, to get educated in the business end of the equation.

She did, taking the company and herself through the RAMP regional business accelerator learning process. “She was the driving force in implementing the company,” says Bickel. “The idea rose among the three of us and the theory was strong and concrete in literature, but it had never been translated.” Snider helped translate it.

platform that simplifies assessment delivery and equips providers with accessible, predictive technology that improves the proactive quality of care for patients in a time-efficient, cost-effective, and non-stigmatizing manner.”

In essence, patients are given important medical assessments of potential destructive behavior. First was alcohol and opioid misuse. To come are smoking, eating, diabetes, depression, dementia, and the like. BEAM provides hospitals with a digital platform for those assessments, a few questions that help determine vulnerability. It is a huge step forward in working with the addicted and those with substance disorders and other behavioral risks.

Sarah Snider has been an overachiever from the beginning. She is the daughter of a Pfizer chemist in Sparta, New Jersey, (her mom sold Mary Kay and works in a jewelry store) and Snider “knew I wanted to study neuroscience. An advisor [at Allegheny College) introduced me to behavioral pharmacology [which studies] why people take drugs when they shouldn’t.”

The product is not yet commercial but is expected to hit the market with a bang in 2023. So far, it has operated on $2.3 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and state organizations, among others. The potential is “enormous,” says Snider.

Her vital job has been to “solicit hospitals to integrate [the program] into their systems,” a big task toward the commercial end. Snider says she and her “team helped build a digital application platform to deliver to [providers] for feedback.”

She has worked impressively across disciplines, but says with a degree of modesty, “my biggest struggle has been ‘imposter syndrome.’” That was eased because “we all learned together.”

It helps that every day is different with fresh challenges, successes and even failures. “I love that role,” she says. “What I do is to make sure the company keeps running. I spend a lot of time with the team, building the culture. I’m also the fund-raiser and like all small businesses, we are looking for revenue. I’m the relationship-builder.”

One of the relationships she built recently— outside the company—was to marry former Marine Brad Wise. The company has five employees, mostly working from home now, and when it launches next summer, it should move quickly toward 25 to 35, Snider says.

Bickel has considerable confidence that the third leg of the partnership, Sarah Snider, will be a smash hit because “she is smart, effective and gets things done. She has been excited about the business potential and jumped in with both feet. She had to learn how to form a company and she has been tearing it up ever since.” Snider, he says, has been responsible for “bringing science into the real world. Research doesn’t do that.”