2018 Speaking Faculty

Sandy Balkin, Ph.D. is Senior Director, Global Insights and Analytics with Sanofi. He is responsible for the identification, development and scaling of new data and analytic capabilities that support R&D;, medical and commercial decision making.

Prior to joining Sanofi, Sandy built best-in-class analytics functions at two consultancies as Vice President of Analytics and Commercial Effectiveness with Aptus Health and as Senior Principal with Precision for Value. Prior to that, Sandy held a number of roles of increasing responsibility at Boehringer-Ingelheim where he was Executive Director, Forecasting and Business Analytics and at Pfizer as Director/Team Leader of Predictive Modeling, building and leading teams responsible for providing forecasting and strategic support to key corporate functions including BD&L;, marketing, finance, market research, new product planning and sales.

Sandy has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Penn State University. He also holds a Master of Arts in Statistics from Penn State University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics and Economics and Music from Lafayette College where he graduated with honors.

As a member of the ESI Leadership Team, Robert is responsible for driving strategic initiatives, leading operational projects, managing the portfolio and measuring value creation for the Emerging Science and Innovation (ESI) function of Johnson & Johnson Consumer R&D.; In addition, Robert leads ESI’s efforts to cultivate a culture of innovation and cutting-edge research across the Consumer R&D; organization and in developing an upstream portfolio of early science that will help ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer business. As a member of the broader External Innovation Group, Robert is leading organizational business strategy across Digital Platforms, Digital Data, and Connected Products.

Robert originally joined Johnson & Johnson in 2012 as Senior Manager, External Innovation R&D; IT and was responsible for Oversight, Direction, Development and Management of the US External Innovation Portfolio and Budget spanning the Neuroscience and Immunology TA’s, along with the improving J&J;’s Clinical Trial Innovation capabilities, Internal IT and IT Informatics capabilities while scouting and accessing Open and Disruptive innovative solutions in key “white spaces�. Robert was also responsible for driving US Open and Pre-Competitive collaborations and consortia’s that supported organizational commitments to furthering R&D; goals while building key business relationships and partnerships with IT peers, External Innovation Groups in TA’s and FA’s, Johnson & Johnson's Innovation Centers, and working with Janssen Healthcare Innovation (JHI) to enable transformational and innovative solutions.

Before joining J&J;, Robert was Head of Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) Technology Innovation Group leading an expert team that made significant contributions to designing and managing innovation programs that evaluated and applied cutting edge business models and information technology solutions to unmet MRL (Merck Research Laboratories) needs while leading and delivering low risk experimentation to high value targets across the enterprise.

Robert is an author, a recognized industry thought leader, and honors graduate, who currently holds an Executive MBA from the Lebow College of Business, Drexel University, and a BsC in Computing Technology, Drexel University College of Computer Science and Engineering along with Global Leadership Strategy from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Robert is also a member of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School and sits on the NSF’s Industry Advisory Board for the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics.

There are several words to describe Dr. Christopher Boone: health futurist, patient advocate, executive, professor, social scientist, and self-proclaimed “data hippie.� Boone is recognized as being a dynamic, innovative thought leader and a public voice on the power of health data and its ability to radically change the U.S. health care delivery system. Most recently, he was honored as a 2017 40 Under 40 Leader in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum and Congressional Black Caucus. Boone currently serves as the Vice President of Real World Data & Analytics at Pfizer, an adjunct professor in the health informatics program at the University of Cincinnati, and a co-founder of a few start-up companies. Prior to Pfizer, he was a Vice President at Avalere Health and the Executive Director/CEO of the Health Data Consortium (HDC), a public-private partnership working to build a national movement on the use of open health data to transform the U.S. health care system.

Boone has held appointments on several prominent national committees, including the Executive Board of Directors for the Patient Advocate Foundation and the National Patient Advocate Foundation, the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Interoperability Committee, the advisory group for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Data Across Sector for Health (DASH) initiative, the Board of Directors for SHARE for Cures, the Federal Health IT Policy Committee, the advisory group for the American Society of Clinical Oncologists CancerLinQ initiative, and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Working Group on HHS Data Access and Use.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Dr. Boone earned a B.S. from the University of Tulsa, a M.S. from the University of Texas at Arlington, a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas, and two executive certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he is a certified healthcare executive and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Greg has served as a Director at Eli Lilly and Company where he leads efforts on Real World Data for Global Patient Outcomes Real World Evidence. Mr. Cunningham has more than 31 years of experience in the pharmaceutical research at Eli Lilly with over 7 years devoted to real world evidence. He has expertise in real world health care data and analytics, clinical data flow, and regulatory submissions and approvals. During his time at Eli Lilly, he has worked on regulatory approvals for the following Lilly products: Cymbalta, Evista, Prozac, Strattera, Symbiax, Trulicity and Zyprexa. Greg was the 2000 Lilly United Way Campaign Chair and raised over $11 million for United Way of Central Indiana. Greg was appointed to serve on the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Zoning Board by the Mayor.

Greg holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science from Ball State University.

Since joining Pfizer in Dec. 2014, Dr. Farmer has held the position of Executive Director in the Dept. of Genome Sciences & Technologies in Worldwide R&D.; His focus has been on formulating and advancing an R&D; Data Strategy; on developing a systematic approach to Digital & Data Innovation for R&D; in the Precision Medicine and AI strategic domains at the enterprise level; and on building out the cross-R&D; data access and integration, technical infrastructure and AI / Machine Learning capabilities required to increase the impact of available genomic, phenotypic and exploratory clinical data on the Pfizer R&D; portfolio. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Farmer held the position of Global Head, Scientific Information Management Expert Center within the worldwide IT organization at Boehringer Ingelheim. In this role, he led a team of senior IT professionals responsible for developing and then advancing a global IT strategy around Scientific Information management. Dr. Farmer has been involved in Drug Discovery research for over 20 years, first with Bristol-Myers Squibb and then with Boehringer Ingelheim, and has co-authored over 60 scientific articles. He is a recognized Research leader and scientific expert in Structural Biology, Fragment-based Lead Discovery, and Small-Molecule Drug Design, and has extensive international experience in scouting out and integrating new computational and experimental technologies to advance drug discovery.

Usman Iqbal is a Senior Director, Medical Affairs & HEOR at Trevena, Inc. Usman has 12+ years of diverse experience spanning clinical medicine, R&D;/Med AFF, Health economics & outcomes research across academia and biopharmaceutical. His experience spans number of different therapeutic areas including Neuroscience, as Senior Medical Affairs Leader at AstraZeneca, and Oncology, as former Head of Sanofi Oncology, Global Evidence & Value Development (GEVD). As part of both R&D; and Med Affairs in different bridging roles, Usman has had been responsible for Portfolio Prioritizations, Patient centric trial designs, Integrated Medical Affairs Planning, and end-to-end Evidence generation based on Multidisciplinary Stakeholder engagement (Patient, Provider, Payer), Market insights and Relative Medical Value Assessment Platforms. Prior to working in the industry that also includes Amgen and Boehringer Ingelheim, Usman was at the Boston University Health Outcomes Technology Group as a senior research fellow and served as a research consultant for Veterans Affairs Pharmacy Benefit Management (VA-PBM), the Centers for Medicare &, Medicaid Services’ Health Outcomes Survey Initiative (CMS-HOS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Usman has authored more than 50 publications and his research experience encompasses patient & physician evaluations in BIG Data and large integrated health care systems with a specific focus on comparative effectiveness, patient centered outcomes, physician profiling, and patient access solutions. Usman received his MD from Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan and Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration from Boston University.

Dr. Koenen is currently heading all cardiovascular development, as well as CV Medical within BMS.

Dr. Koenen joined BMS in 2011, and has worked in different medical and development functions in Europe, as well as in the US.

He joined BMS from Novo Nordisk, where his last position was Vice President and Head of Global Medical Affairs. During his 9 years with Novo Nordisk, Dr. Koenen had worked on the development of several compounds for Novo Nordisk, including three different insulin compounds, as well as launched several compounds successfully.

Before joining Novo Nordisk in 2002, Dr. Koenen worked for GlaxoSmithKline in London, UK, as well as in Germany. While at GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Koenen was responsible for the development of anti-diabetic compounds. Dr. Koenen received his medical degree from Ruprecht-Karls University School of Medicine in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1994. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Schiller International University. In addition to attending Heidelberg Medical School, Dr. Koenen attended medical school in Johannesburg, South Africa; Basel, Switzerland; and Columbia, Missouri, USA.

As a board-certified internist and diabetologist, Dr. Koenen has researched the influence of ACE-Inhibitors on diabetic nephropathy, as well as the effect of insulin treatment on weight gain in obese type 2 diabetes patients.

Dr. Miller is a board-certified medical oncologist and informaticist. As Medical Director, CancerLinQ™, he provides clinical insights and informatics expertise to staff and volunteers regarding the design, implementation, and strategy for ASCO’s big data technology platform/rapid learning health system for oncology, including serving as a liaison with the Physician Advisory Committee and other volunteer committees.

Prior to joining the ASCO staff as a full-time employee, he was an active volunteer for the Society, serving in numerous capacities, including on the Board of Directors, the editorial board for the Journal of Oncology Practice, and as Editor in Chief of Cancer.Net. He has also served on the following committees: Quality of Care, Clinical Practice, Cancer Education, Integrated Media and Technology, and the Health Information Technology Workgroup. He has clinical and administrative experience in both community practice and academic medicine.

Dr. Miller earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine, completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his graduate certificate in biomedical informatics at Oregon Health and Science University

Dr Anthony Rowe is currently a Business Technology Leader at Janssen Research and Development where he is responsible for defining the digital strategy for the Janssen’s Immunology Therapeutic Area, ImmunoScience Centre of Excellence, Disease Prevention Centre and Human Microbiome Institute.

He is passionate about Digital Health and Precision Medicine and its use in developing patient centric healthcare solutions and is currently integrating these technologies into new clinical trial methodologies.

Prior to joining Janssen he was a Director of Product Management & Founding Member of InforSense Ltd an innovative big data analytics company that provided Pharmaceutical, Financial Services and Telecommunication customers access to machine learning and high performance computing technology. During his tenure at Inforsense he had roles leading Engineering, Marketing, Technical Sales as well as Product Management and was involved in both fund raising, growing the company from 7 to 150 people and a successful exit of the company.

Dr Rowe holds a PhD in Computer Science and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Imperial College London and a BEng in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Warwick.

Eric is Director, Health Economics and Outcomes Research for Metabolics at AstraZeneca in Wilmington, DE. Eric received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan and subsequently completed residencies at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and a fellowship in critical care at the University of Minnesota. In 2013, he earned a Master’s in Public Health Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For 12 years Eric was faculty at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and achieved the rank of Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy; he was also a clinical pharmacist in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and then at Hahnemann University Hospital. During the subsequent 10 years, Eric was employed by TAP/Takeda and Daiichi Sankyo in various field roles in Medical Affairs, including MSL, Field Scientific Lead, and most recently Executive Health Outcomes Liaison before joining AstraZeneca in early 2016.