Speakers & Panels – 2016 Questrom Health & Life Sciences Conference

Friday, October 14th, 2016 at the Boston University Questrom School of Business

Delivery Session

Dr. Woodson recently returned to BU as the Lars Anderson Professor in Management and Professor of the Practice at the BU Questrom School of Business; Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine; and Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management at the School of Public Health. Woodson will lead the creation of a university-wide Institute for Health System Innovation as Faculty Director. The Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy will focus on expanding health system research initiatives across Boston University, deepening connections between scholars, policy-makers and corporations, and advancing curricular activities at Questrom and across BU’s schools and colleges. The Institute will focus on bringing together world-class academic, regulatory and industry resources to address important national and global healthcare challenges.

He has served since 2010 as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs in the U.S Department of Defense (DoD), was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all health and force health protection related issues and ensured the effective execution of the DoD medical mission. His organization provided and maintained medical readiness for the medical services including during military operations, those held in control of the military services and those entitled to Tricare. Prior to serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense, Woodson was Associate Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and Professor of Surgery at BUSM. He received his BS in Biomedical Science (magna cum laude) from the City College of New York, his MD from New York University School of Medicine and a Master’s in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. Woodson is a Brigadier General in the US Army Reserve.

Edward J. Benz Jr., MD, is an internationally recognized molecular hematologist who is an active National Institutes of Health-funded Investigator. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, chapters, and abstracts. He is Co-editor of “Hematology: Principles and Practice,” which received the First Place Award for Textbooks from the British Medical Journal, and of the “Oxford Textbook of Medicine,” for which he and his colleagues received the Royal Society of Authors Textbook Award. He was an Associate Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine from 2002-2016.

Dr. Benz’s accomplishments have been recognized by a number of distinctions, including membership in the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. He is a past President of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the American Clinical and Climatological Association, and the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing. In 2015, Dr. Benz was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as a Health Care Hero for Lifetime Achievement, and as a Hero in Health Care by the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston.

Dr. Benz received his training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Yale, Princeton, and Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in internal medicine and hematology.

He served as Dana-Farber’s President and CEO from 2000 – 2016.

With nearly 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Jim is a trusted advisor to provider organizations looking to improve government and commercial payor reimbursement, enhance revenues, and thrive in a value-based environment. As a member of ECG’s Contracting and Reimbursement practice, Jim has conducted dozens of consulting engagements focusing on managed care contracting, innovative and conventional reimbursement strategies, business operations, and strategic planning. He works closely with hospital and physician leaders to evaluate and execute strategies to project and improve upon their organizations’ financial performance, and they trust him to lead their most sensitive negotiations for medical group and hospital agreements. As the healthcare industry shifts toward value-based delivery systems, Jim’s clients rely on his knowledge of evolving payment arrangements such as bundled payments and shared savings, as well as his expertise in assessing the feasibility of developing and implementing clinically integrated provider networks.

Digital Health Session

Paul Carlile’s research and publications focus on managing and understanding risks and boundaries in complex systems. In 2014, he received the Questrom Award for Faculty Excellence in Institutional Leadership.

Carlile combines an expertise in management and business with a passion for cities and tackling urban issues. He is currently working with the Boston Mayor’s Office to develop the city’s first-ever research agenda.

Dr. Paul Bleicher, MD, PhD, is the Chief Executive Officer of OptumLabs, an open, collaborative research and innovation center established by Mayo Clinic and Optum to accelerate improvements in patient care and value through clinical, policy and product innovation driven by new insights from big data. Prior to his current role, he was the Chief Medical Officer for Humedica, a next-generation clinical informatics company that provides novel business intelligence solutions to the health care and life science industry. Humedica was acquired by Optum in 2013. Before Humedica, Dr. Bleicher was a founder of, and spent 11 years building and guiding the growth of Phase Forward, which led the transformation of pharmaceutical clinical trials from paper to the web. He was the original Chief Executive Officer of Phase Forward where he served in various capacities and as a member of the Board of Directors until its 2010 acquisition by Oracle Corporation.

Dr. Bleicher previously served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Alpha-Beta Technology and began his career in industry as a leader of the Early Phase Services consulting group at PAREXEL International where he assisted pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with the initial development of novel therapies. Dr. Bleicher is currently a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium for Value & Science-Driven Health Care (formerly the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Healthcare) and has served in senior leadership positions in the Drug Information Association and was a member of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Leadership Council.

He has been the recipient of a number of awards for his industry leadership, including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in New England, PharmaVoice’s 100 Most Inspiring Leaders in Life Sciences, the Boston Business Journal’s Champion in Healthcare and the 2015 William F. Glaser ’53 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year. Dr. Bleicher earned his BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his MD and PhD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital, and dermatology at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in molecular biology, and began his career as a physician/investigator and Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

As CEO for Aetna’s Accountable Care Solutions organization, Brigitte Nettesheim is responsible for the growth and performance of the Aetna Whole Health product portfolio, including its clinical and care delivery models. Prior to re-joining Aetna, Brigitte was a Principal at The Chartis Group, a provider strategy consulting firm, and leader of their payer segment where she advised clients on the transition to value-based care reimbursement models. Brigitte has held several leadership roles at Aetna, including Regional Head of Strategy & Operations for the Accountable Care Solutions (ACS) division and Director of Sales & Service in National Accounts. Brigitte earned an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She received a B.S. in economics with a minor in systems engineering from the United States Military Academy and served in the United States Army.

BioPharma Session

Dr. Ober is director of the MD/MBA dual degree program at Boston University (BU), a collaborative program between Boston University Schools of Medicine and Questrom School of Business. Over his 25 year health care career he has held leadership positions in early stage and large companies. His main focus is health care analytics and clinical protocol development.

Most recently Dr. Ober served as Chief Medical Officer of Atigeo, an early stage company developing protocols for all aspects of clinical analytics using BIG DATA, including claims and unstructured free text to perform predictive modeling, risk adjustment and outcomes management. Prior to Atigeo, Steve was Chief Medical Officer of Change Healthcare (aka emdeon), a $1.3 billion claims transaction clearinghouse. Before Change Healthcare, Dr. Ober was product manager for DataScout, 3M’s natural language processing solution that interprets clinical text from electronic records to measure quality of care, outcomes, and clinical performance. 3M acquired DataScout through its acquisition of CodeRyte, Inc. in April, 2012. Prior to 3M, Dr. Ober was executive vice president of Verisk Health, a provider of clinical and financial risk assessment products.

In 2004 he became executive director of business incubation in Boston University’s Office of Technology Development. While at BU, he started the New Ventures group in 2006 to support BU faculty and students establish new companies based on BU research and technologies. He was also responsible for BU’s $60M equity investment fund and a small seed capital fund. Prior to joining BU, Dr. Ober was co-founder and president of BG-Medicine, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company that developed and applied a unique “systems biology” approach to drug discovery and development. BG had a successful IPO in 2011. Prior to BG-Medicine, Dr. Ober was president and chief executive officer of Synergy Health Care, a successful health information and data analytics company. Synergy was founded by Dr. Ober in 1995 and was acquired by ENVOY Corp. in 1998. In March 1999, ENVOY was acquired by Quintiles Transnational, the world’s largest Clinical Research Organization. Prior to Synergy, Dr. Ober spent five years as executive vice president and corporate medical director of Private Health Care Systems (now part of Multiplan, Inc.), one of the largest national managed care companies in the country.

Dr. Ober received his BA and MD degrees from Boston University, his clinical training in surgery and orthopedic surgery from University of California San Diego, and his MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

Greg joined GE Healthcare’s Bioprocess organization in Dec 2013 as Product Leader, and has P&L responsibility for GE’s Xcellerex and Microcarrier portfolios. Greg has spent over 20 years servicing the Healthcare Industry working for many industry leading companies, including BD Biosciences as the Commercial Lead for Cell Culture Media; Pall Life Sciences as Vice President of Life Science Research and Millipore Corporation’s Life Science Division, where he held roles as Business Development Manager, Group Marketing Manager, and several research and development positions. Greg holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and MBA from Boston University.

Ken Sawka is President and CEO of Fuld + Company, and a nationally recognized expert in competitive intelligence, scenario planning, and strategy development. He has had a long and acclaimed career as a strategic planning practitioner and consultant, having designed and led scenario planning, war-gaming, and other strategy development engagements for leading companies all around the world. An expert commentator, Ken is a published author and has been quoted extensively on competitive strategy and intelligence matters in Time, Investor’s Business Daily, American Banker, and other prominent journals. He has appeared on CNBC’s acclaimed Squawk Box.

Before joining Fuld, Ken was the managing partner at Outward Insights, a boutique scenario planning and competitive intelligence consulting firm. Prior to Outward Insights, Ken directed pricing and competitive analysis at Deloitte Consulting and also served as a Practice Leader in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations Group, managing the delivery of services in strategy development, competitive analysis, and scenario planning. Earlier, Ken led the competitive intelligence consulting practice at The Futures Group, and was an intelligence analyst with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Ken is a member of the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), where he served on its Board of Directors from 1999-2002. Ken was named a SCIP Fellow in 2003 and received the Meritorious Award, SCIP’s highest honor, in 2010. He is also a member of the Association for Intelligence Officers. Ken holds a Bachelors Degree in Political Science (cum laude) and Masters Degree in International Relations from American University.

BU Faculty Innovators Discussion

Mark Philip has over 25 years experience in the Biopharma, Medical Device and Diagnostic industries, operating in Europe, the USA and Asia. As CEO, president or board member of multiple start-ups, medium size and large businesses, Mark has orchestrated multiple turnarounds, built product pipelines, launched new products, sold companies and created significant shareholder value.

Mark is currently a consultant to the industry advising on acquisitions, product development, commercial strategies and fund raising for a variety of small and large, private and public companies. He is also the Chief Operating Officer of Portal Instruments, Inc. Mark has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Stem Cell Research from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, UK, and was the Leukemia Research Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nottingham University. Mark also has an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Chicago.

Irving J. Bigio received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1974. From then until 2000 he was a scientific staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory (New Mexico), including service as Leader of the Laser Science and Applications Program (1988- 1994). During various leaves of absence he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, a Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and a Guest Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Oxford, England. Dr. Bigio is inventor on a number of patents for biomedical optics methods and instrumentation, and has received three R&D-100 Awards for the development of biomedical optical devices.

Since February 2001 he has been Professor at Boston University, with primary appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering, and affiliated appointments in Physics, and Medicine. He is also Honorary Guest Professor of the University College London, Department of Surgery. Dr. Bigio serves on several government advisory panels and on external advisory boards for companies and academic institutions. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and is a member of the American Physical Society and the SPIE. In addition to other research projects in biomedical optics, Dr. Bigio recently led a multi-institutional program under the NIH/NCI Network for Translational Research in Optical Imaging, comprising several medical research centers in the US and Europe.

Edward Damiano is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. His expertise and training are in the areas of mechanical and biomedical engineering, applied mechanics, and applied mathematics. His basic scientific research has combined fluid dynamics with intravital microscopy to study blood flow in the microcirculation and to elucidate mechanisms by which the lining of blood vessels determines vascular health and disease. In particular, his lab has focused on the endothelial glycocalyx, which consists of a complex mucopolysaccharide and macromolecular assembly that is situated at the interface between the luminal vascular wall and flowing blood. Beyond his basic science research is his interest in translational research.

Ever since his 17-year-old son, David, developed type 1 diabetes (T1D) as an infant, he has been committed to creating and integrating blood-glucose control technologies with a vision of building a dual-hormonal (insulin and glucagon) bionic pancreas that his son could take to college. This work began over a dozen years ago with the design and development of mathematical dosing algorithms for blood-glucose control. He and his group ran those dosing algorithms on a laptop computer back then, and began testing them in experiments in diabetic swine in 2005. Working with his clinical collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital, they progressed through in-patient clinical trials in adults and adolescents with T1D from 2008–2012. From 2013–2016, his team at BU and his clinical collaborators conducted six outpatient clinical trials in adults and children 6 years and older with T1D testing a mobile version of their bionic pancreas, which integrated an iPhone with their mathematical dosing algorithms, two infusion pumps, and a continuous glucose monitor. With $2.5MM in donations from over 1,000 gifts from the T1D community, his engineering team, along with their industrial collaborators in the medical device industry, have recently built the first fully integrated biohormonal bionic pancreas that does not rely upon smartphone technology. They call their device the iLet, in homage to the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. They recently received FDA approval to begin clinical trials testing the iLet in the outpatient setting. His goal is to begin the final pivotal trial testing the iLet in 2017.

Watch Ed Damiano’s TEDx Talk

Mark W. Grinstaff is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University and a College of Engineering Distinguished Faculty Fellow. Mark received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois under the mentorship of Professor Kenneth S. Suslick and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology with Professor Harry B. Gray. Mark’s awards include the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, NSF Career Award, Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Edward M. Kennedy Award for Health Care Innovation, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has published more than 190 peer-reviewed manuscripts and given more than 250 oral presentations. His students and fellows have given more than 100 oral presentations and 300 posters. He is a co-founder of four companies that are commercializing his ideas, and he has four products being sold and used in the clinic. His current research activities involve the synthesis of new macromolecules and amphiphiles, self-assembly chemistry, imaging contrast agents, drug delivery, and wound repair.

Electronic Health Record Panel – Interoperability and Health Data Exchange Standards

While there has been widespread EHR adoption over the past few years as Meaningful Use incentive payments helped convince hospitals and providers to adopt these systems, true interoperable exchange of information has lagged, leaving patients and providers hoping for more. There are many reasons for the lack of interoperability, from lack of mature standards, to lack of a business model for exchange, to a perception that EHR vendors may be interested in keeping the current “walled gardens”. Until these reasons are addressed, patients will be inconvenienced and providers will continue to have to practice with incomplete information about their patients’ health. 

Laurance is the moderator of our afternoon “EHR Interoperability for Value-based Payment Model” Panel.

Greg Carey joined athenahealth in 2012 and his first two years at the company were devoted to implementing and improving athena’s full product offering for both large and small clients.  He has spent a significant amount of time on-site with physicians and practice managers, boosting successful adoption of athena’s services.  Greg joined the Government Affairs team as the Technology Standards and Policy Manager focusing on interoperability policy, private sector initiatives and solutions to the interoperability problem.  Prior to athenahealth, Greg worked as a policy consultant and received a BA in Economics from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

John provides strategic consulting to Edifecs customers, specializing in information exchange and applying the principles of supply chain integration to the healthcare delivery lifecycle. John is a nationally recognized health information exchange expert. His wide-ranging experience includes serving as CIO of healthcare network provider NaviNet, director of eBusiness Architecture at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and managing director of his own health IT consulting firm. John also served as the architect and technical lead for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ statewide HIE project, developing a shared infrastructure for the Commonwealth, which supported both the health information and health insurance exchanges.

Dr. Newman will be a panelist during our afternoon EHR Interoperability panel.

Karla has more than 25 years of Healthcare experience. She is a clinical informatics professional with a background in nursing. She works with clients across the country and globally to strategize and develop solutions to clinical and operational process issues, often utilizing technology to address these challenges.

During the course of her career Karla has worked in direct clinical care both at the bedside as well as in clinical and hospital leadership. She has worked in the technology sector designing and implementing electronic health records and has been a consultant to healthcare clients in the Provider space.

Karla focuses on technology as an enabler to provide safe, quality care in an efficient manner. Karla was able to bring these insights to the design of The Hospital of the Future for a large healthcare system in Northern California. Karla listens and works well with clients across the continuum – rural and remote settings, community hospitals, academic medical centers, ambulatory care centers and physician practices. She develops executable solutions to address problems and challenges in the healthcare environment.

Pharmaceutical Panel – Patient Medication Adherence

Patient non-adherence to prescribed medication leads to significant cost for the healthcare system. In the US, avoidable medical spending due to lack of patient adherence is estimated at $300 billion annually. To improve patient adherence to medication, increased collaboration among different healthcare stakeholders is essential. Changes enforced by the healthcare reform, and advances in digital health and modern technologies will provide the incentives and the tools to make this into reality. 

Bill Prenovitz has been involved in developing and marketing technology-enabled services for Digital Healthcare while at Philips Healthcare and CVS Health. In the last several years, his special focus has been developing and managing medication adherence services. These services were director to payers, providers, and consumers. Bill developed the medication adherence strategy for Philips and designed incentive-based pilot programs for CVS Health. Prior to Philips, he worked for Thomson Financial, several start-ups and smaller companies. Bill has a BA in Film Production from Binghamton University and an MBA from Bentley University.

Leena Dang Dalal has a true passion for marketing and has in-depth experience in launching brands. She has spent the last 18 years in pharmaceutical sales, strategic planning, medical affairs, and marketing. She is currently at Shire as the US Marketing Director, NATPARA, based in Lexington. Leena was with Cubist from December 2013-June 2015, where she was hired onto the launch team for ZERBAXA, an IV antibiotic for resistant gram-negative infections. She led all aspects of the promotional launch for ZERBAXA in the US, including development of disease awareness strategy and campaign, brand positioning, promotional strategy, branding, messages, personal and non-personal tactics

Prior to Cubist, Leena was with Vertex for 3 years in the Hepatitis C Franchise. At Vertex, she received the Platinum Vertex Outstanding Contribution Award for successfully leading the INCIVEK promotional launch in the US, helping make INCIVEK the most successful drug launch ever ($1B in sales in 8 months).Prior to that, Leena worked in both global and US marketing roles at Novartis and Sanofi where she focused on pre-launch, launch, and in-line pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines.

Leena started her career as a Hospital Sales Representative with Merck & Company. Leena graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and has her MBA in Marketing and Health Care Management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

Tom Kottler is the CEO and Co-Founder of HealthPrize Technologies, a company that has developed an Internet and mobile-based platform that uses gaming dynamics, behavioral economics and proven concepts from consumer marketing to motivate patients to start and stay on their prescribed medications. HealthPrize is the fourth start-up venture that Tom has founded or been associated with as part of the initial management team. His first start-up, MedAptus, a healthcare IT company in Boston, is still going strong 12 years later. Celadon Science, now Advanced BioHealing (acquired by Shire in May 2011 for $750M), develops and markets cell-based wound care technology. VeinAid develops non-invasive technology to treat varicose veins, based on patents with Tom as a named inventor.

Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Tom was on the management team of a mid-sized CRO (contract research organization) that conducted trials for pharmaceutical companies. He helped manage the growth and sale of that company to a Fortune 500 company, for one of the highest multiples ever paid for a privately held CRO. Prior to that, Tom practiced law for nine years in Chicago and Connecticut, doing litigation and corporate law. He received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and his law degree from The George Washington University.

Thomas joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in 1997, and is currently the Clinical Pharmacy Director.  He has held that position from March 2005 to present.  During that period of time, Thomas has worked to develop, implement and manage utilization review programs for the drug benefits offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield, including formulary, prior authorization and other cost and quality clinical programs. Thomas has a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from Albany College of Pharmacy and is a licensed pharmacist in both New York and Massachusetts. Prior to joining Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Thomas worked as a pharmacist for over 12 years in New York and Massachusetts.

Jon launches and grows internet services and software, mobile, e-commerce and other digitally-dependent businesses from the ground up, continually innovating through various stages of the life cycle to achieve success. Initially in travel and now in the healthcare industry, Jon has employed a keen understanding of market dynamics and familiarity with online consumer personas to meet critical needs of target customers.

Jon uses his extensive strategic marketing experience coupled with honed execution skills to build and enhance products with exemplary user experience and gain broad-based adoption and engagement. Jon is adept at growing and motivating U.S. and international teams, having served as GM for multiple global business units. He has managed cross-functional teams and overseen a P&L as large at $400 million in annual sales. He also excels at negotiating, closing, and implementing strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 brands.

Jon has a strong record of increasing core KPIs related to sales, conversions, subscriptions, upgrades, engagement, and cost savings. Having spent several years in lean startup environments, he is known for his drive to help companies succeed and thrive through UI/UX optimization, behavioral and attribution modeling, resourcefulness and creativity. Jon holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a BA in Economics. Jon currently resides in the metro Boston area.

Rachel Sha is Global Central Transactions Lead, Business Development & Licensing at Sanofi. She has focused on external opportunities in patient-centric connected health solutions that enable richer understanding of a patient’s condition and real time management of chronic diseases to improve overall patient experience, clinical outcomes, and reduce cost of care. In addition, she is engaged in Sanofi Corporate Strategy initiatives and is the alliance manager for the Sanofi Google collaboration.

She joined Genzyme in 2005 and has held roles of increasing responsibility in Business Development and Corporate Development for Genzyme / Sanofi. She was the Head of Biosurgery Business Development where she led efforts to identify, evaluate, and negotiate licensing and M&A opportunities as well as work with leadership to set business strategy. She also spent two years as Head of Global Marketing & Strategy for Surgical Devices.

Before Sanofi / Genzyme, Rachel was a manager at Accenture. Her experience crossed a broad range of business issues from strategy to process to technology implementation in electronics & high tech, pharmaceutical, financial services, and media and entertainment industries. Rachel holds a BS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemistry and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Medical Device Panel – Value-Based Sales and Marketing

With changes enforced by the Affordable Care Act, MedTech companies need to adapt by identifying new business models aligned with delivering quality outcomes at minimum cost. The evolution of focus includes collaborative, nontraditional partnerships and a changing customer base. Creating partnerships, collaborative business models and new services will play a big role in helping MedTech companies navigate this change. 

Frederick Schoen, MD, PhD received his medical degree from University of Miami School of Medicine, and his doctorate (Materials Science) from Cornell University. Dr. Schoen is Professor of Pathology and Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schoen’s areas of medical research include cardiovascular pathology, cardiovascular biomaterials, prosthetic heart valve pathology, and tissue engineering. Specifically, his research has focused on host-biomaterial interactions, structure-function-pathology correlations in heart valve substitutes and other cardiovascular prostheses, calcification of bioprosthetic tissues, cardiovascular tissue engineering, and heart transplantation.

Josh joined Simon-Kucher & Partners in 2007 and is based in our Boston office. He has over 15 years of healthcare experience and helped establish the company’s US Medical Technology Competence Center. He focuses on contracting and channel strategy development and is an expert in product and portfolio launch/lifecycle strategies, including pricing, positioning and communication. He has carried out projects in most major healthcare markets including North America and Europe, as well as in other emerging markets such as Brazil and China.

Josh is able to utilize his experience prior to joining Simon-Kucher, where he spent several years consulting with hospital systems on their supply chain operations and procurement, paying special attention to products used in surgery. His responsibilities involved spend/utilization analyses, facilitation of clinical and economic stakeholder discussions, and implementing produce evaluation processes. A frequent speaker at industry forums, Josh has also been invited to speak at company conferences and to lecture in Babson College’s MBA program. Josh earned a BS in marketing from Boston College and his MBA in global management from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Dave Pierce is Senior Vice President and President, Urology and Pelvic Health for Boston Scientific and a member of its Executive Committee. In this role, he develops and executes strategies to bring to market industry-leading solutions for treating patients with urological, urogynecological, and gynecological diseases.

Prior to his current role, Pierce was Senior Vice President and President, Endoscopy Division, leading the Endoscopy business with a focus on strategic portfolio expansion and global commercial execution. He joined the Company in 1991 as a Territory Manager before assuming various management-level positions of increasing responsibility.

Before joining Boston Scientific, Pierce worked as a Senior Sales Representative for Airborne Express and served as a Captain in the United States Army. Pierce earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Norwich University and an M.B.A. from Boston University.

Pam joined Quintiles Advisory Services in 2010 and leads Quintiles’ Medical Device & Diagnostics Regulatory team. Pam delivers strategic and tactical consulting services to ensure appropriate linkages between regulatory plans, clinical plans, and business strategy; develop and manage regulatory authority communication plans, serve as liaisons on behalf of clients; conduct assessments of product and labeling-related compliance programs; and assist clients with commercialization planning.

Prior to joining the consultancy ranks, Pam had been bringing medical devices through product development to market in a variety of start-up, mid-size and large companies such as Hewlett Packard’s Medical Products Group (now Philips Medical) for over 25 years.Pam has been a key contributor to the development and implementation of the company business strategies, including regulatory, clinical and early stage marketing, product management and payment strategies.Pam has extensive international experience from working and living in the EU and travels to the Asia Pacific region.She combines a unique mix of marketing and regulatory expertise in the development and implementation of customer-focused strategies. Known for a collaborative approach with regulatory agencies, Pam integrates regulatory requirements to inform but not drive the business strategy.

Pam has been recognized for her contributions to industry/FDA initiatives at the national and regional level and invited to lecture on a variety of FDA issues for industry organizations. In addition to her appointment as HIMA (now AdvaMed) Management Fellow, Pam was also recognized as an AdvaMedAchiever and received Vice President Al Gore’s Hammer Award from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Pam was an AdvaMedsmall company representative in the industry contributions to the drafting of FDAMA and MDUFMA. She currently serves as Regulatory Advisor to the MassMEDIC Board of Directors.

Ms. Weagraff holds a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania State University, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Masters of Business Administration, from Boston University.

Wearables and Connected Health Panel – Partnerships for Effective Commercialization

There’s an explosion of novel wearable devices and connected health technologies that can help us quantify different aspects of health and well-being – the use cases are often unique and non-traditional, and can range from tracking physiological fluctuations of football players, measuring the sweat of beach-goers, to life saving medically-oriented alert systems. No matter whether devices are wellness related, or medically oriented, partnerships are central to an effective commercialization strategy. The realm of partners may include medical researchers to generate necessary clinical evidence, channel partners to reach broader audiences, and supply-side partnerships for materials. 

Carlos is the Founder & Managing Director of Volar Health, LLC — an operations-focused consultancy that helps innovative health companies refine their product strategy and rapidly commercialize their solutions. Areas of expertise include digital health, wearables, biosensors, Internet-of-Things, and genomics.

Previously, Carlos was co-founder & CEO of HealthRhythms, a digital health startup utilizing smartphone sensor technology to quantify behavioral health parameters. Beforehand, at PatientsLikeMe, the leading peer-to-peer research platform, he oversaw strategic partnerships with pharma and biotech, and developed the company’s wearables and biosensors capabilities. After spending 10,000+ hours as a consultant with The Frankel Group (acquired by Huron Consulting Group), Carlos developed a passion for direct-to-consumer healthcare models, identifying methods to engage patients in care, and generating clinical evidence through novel research methodologies.

Carlos is an active startup mentor, member of several advisory boards, and recognized speaker on health innovation. In 2015, Carlos was named a “40 under 40 Healthcare Innovator” by MedTech Boston and in 2016 a “Top 100 Digital Health Influencer” by Onalytica.

Sherri is passionate about Digital & Connected Health, leveraging technology and data for patient engagement, care collaboration and decision support. During the past 18 years, Sherri has consulted with healthcare companies on making strategic investments in Digital & Connected Health technologies. Sherri has consulted for healthcare technology, health plan and healthcare delivery clients including Philips Healthcare /Lifeline Systems, GE Healthcare, Partners’ Center for Connected Health, World Clinic Telemedicine Services, BodyMedia, iGetBetter.com, IMS Health, RedBrick Health, Wellcoaches.com, Aetna and UnitedHealth Group.

Sherri is a member of HiMSS and is participating on two task forces; Provider- Patient Engagement and Patient Generated Health Data. For 5+ years, Sherri continues to serve on the Parent Advisory Board for an 18 office Pediatric Group (part of Partners’ Healthcare), providing ideas, insight and feedback on new online consumer educational tools to support health decisions. Sherri has moderated many conference panels including World Congress Leadership Summit, Healthcare Unbound and Partners’ Center for Connected Health Symposium. During her presentations, Sherri shares innovative approaches and insights from digital & connected health. Sherri has also planned and run workshops on Mobile Health at several conferences. She has participated on the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHi) Consumer Engagement Workgroup and the Healthcare & Social Media Advisory Boards for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.

Sherri has served as a faculty advisor for Harvard University/MIT’s class on Enabling Technology Innovation in Healthcare for six years where she has advised student teams on peer-to-peer online patient communities, an online diabetes community solution, a multi-channel consumer wellness offering, a patient self- management initiative, a mobile mental health solution for students, a care shopping transparency tool and a mobile solution to engage employees.

Isaiah Kacyvenski’s diverse background includes playing in the National Football League for 8 years for the Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the not-for-profit, Sports Legacy Institute. Isaiah is the Global Head of Business Development at MC10, a cutting-edge conformal electronics company based in Lexington, MA, where he is involved in the conceptualization, product development, and business development of wearable technology products in Biomedical Research and Consumer applications–including Sports and Fitness. Isaiah holds a Cum Laude Pre-Medicine Bachelor degree from Harvard University and graduated from Harvard Business School’s MBA program in May of 2011.

Sean Lorenz is Founder & CEO of Senter, a startup creating an IoT cognitive assistant for longer and healthier aging in place. Dr. Lorenz was recently the Director of IoT Market Strategy for LogMeIn’s IoT platform as well as cofounder of the TechStars robotics startup Neurala. He has shaped business models and product strategies in several emerging markets including IoT, robotics, artificial intelligence and healthcare. He holds a PhD in Cognitive & Neural Systems from Boston University and has extensive knowledge in digital health, natural language processing, brain-computer interfaces, adaptive systems, neuroscience-based computational algorithms, and context-aware computing.

Josh’s background is a mix of business, technology, and healthcare. Prior to joining Bayer, Josh helped grow two start-up companies handling a variety of responsibilities including operations, business development, sales, and account management. Josh received his MBA in Healthcare and Entrepreneurship from Boston University.

ACHE Workshop – Strategies for 21st Century Healthcare Partnerships

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) is an international professional society of 40,000 healthcare executives who lead hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations.

Leah Gassett has been a Principal in ECG’s Academic Healthcare practice since 2006. She works with large, university hospitals and their component organizations, as well as with new and existing community teaching hospitals and academic health systems, on issues specifically related to the hospital-based academic enterprise. Since joining ECG, Leah has facilitated strategic planning for complex healthcare associations and membership organizations. She focuses her practice on the integration of academic and clinical strategy, and healthcare executives and physician leaders have come to rely on Leah’s guidance and judgment when making decisions that have significant implications for their clinical and academic missions.

Stanley Lewis, MD, will be a panelist during this afternoon workshop.

Rachel Rosenblum, MHA, will be a panelist during this afternoon workshop.

Greg advises leadership of AMCs (Academic Medical Centers), community health systems, and physician organizations nationally to drive greater integration through the development of forward-thinking organizational and financial arrangements. He has had the opportunity to partner with some of the nation’s leading AMCs on engagements related to enterprise-wide strategy, physician-hospital alignment, mergers and acquisitions, and physician organizational design. Clients value his ability to blend strategic thinking and problem-solving skills with deep technical and analytical expertise in order to identify solutions that align diverse incentives and create sustainable relationships at the organizational and program level. Greg is a regular presenter and speaker on topics including AMC strategy, clinical integration, and service line planning.

Propel Careers Workshop – Navigating a Career in the Life Sciences Industry

Propel Careers is a Boston-based life sciences search and career development firm that is comprehensively dedicated to networking, mentoring and career development.

Lauren Celano is the co-founder and CEO of Propel Careers, a life science search and career development firm focused on connecting talented individuals with entrepreneurial life sciences companies. Propel works with current leaders and actively cultivates future leaders through full time placement, internships, mentoring, career coaching, and networking. Propel Careers is engaged across all areas of life sciences, including therapeutics, medical devices, healthcare IT, diagnostics, consulting, venture capital, and investment banking.

Prior to Propel Careers, Lauren was a senior account manager for SNBL USA where she worked with emerging biotech companies in Europe, Asia, and the US to help characterize and advance their drug molecules. Prior to SNBL USA, she held business development positions with Aptuit and Quintiles, where she focused on IND enabling studies to advance therapeutics from discovery into the clinic. Earlier in her career, Lauren held positions as a marketing manager and account manager at Absorption Systems, where she was responsible for managing life sciences companies in the northeastern United States.

She has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Gettysburg College and an MBA with a focus in the health sector and entrepreneurship from Boston University. Lauren is on the Board of MassBioEd, the Advisory Board of the Boston University School of Public Health Pharmaceuticals Program, and the Advisory board for Endicott College Boston. She also serves on the programming committee of the Capital Network.