Already a DIA Member? Sign in. Not a member? Join.

Sign in

Forgot User ID? or Forgot Password?

Not a Member?

Create Account and Join

Virtual

Jan 26, 2021 9:45 AM - Jan 28, 2021 5:00 PM

(US Eastern Standard Time)

Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management Strategies Conference

Speakers

Stephen  Knowles, MD, MRCP

Stephen Knowles, MD, MRCP

Chief Medical Officer, Halozyme Therapeutics, United States

Steve received his MD from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK and worked in the UK National Health Service for 17 yrs. He joined Halozyme in 2018 as Vice President, Drug Safety & Pharmacovigilance and became Chief Medical Officer in January 2020, with responsibility for Drug Safety, Medical and Regulatory. Prior to this, Steve worked at Eli Lilly for 16 years, 12 years of which was in drug safety in various roles of increasing responsibility involving safety operations and drug safety surveillance

Lesley  Wise, PhD, MSc

Lesley Wise, PhD, MSc

Managing Director, Wise Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management, Ltd, United Kingdom

Lesley Wise has over 20 years of experience in pharmacovigilance both in medicines regulation at the MHRA, and in the pharmaceutical industry as vice-president and global head of Risk Management Centre of Excellence and Pharmacoepidemiology where she worked closely with colleagues to ensure a companywide approach to Benefit - Risk Management and to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements. Lesley has been working as an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical industry for the last seven years and has liaised regularly with regulators, including meetings with PRAC, CHMP and FDA.

Mariette  Boerstoel-Streefland, MD, MBA, MS

Mariette Boerstoel-Streefland, MD, MBA, MS

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Safety Officer , Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, United States

Mariette Boerstoel-Streefland, MD, MBA, MSc(epi), has been in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years, and is currently SVP, Worldwide Patient Safety Officer at BMS. Mariette joined pharma industry from clinical practice in 1989 and held various leadership positions in drug safety at Organon (now Merck), Mayne Pharma (now Hospira/Pfizer), Forest Labs (now Abbvie). In 2014 she joined Baxter to establish a new safety organization for Baxalta, and upon the acquisition by Shire led the new combined safety organizations. In 2018 she moved to Alexion and with the acquisition by AZ was appointed Chief Safety Officer, SVP Global patient safety. In August 2023 she joined BMS. Mariette has an MD degree from the University of Utrecht, a MSc Pharma

Cheryl  Campbell, MS

Cheryl Campbell, MS

Associate Director of Executive Operations/Outreach and Communications, OSE,CDER, FDA, United States

Cheryl L. Campbell, M.S., joined the Food and Drug Administration in 2001. She started at FDA’s Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research (CBER) as a Consumer Safety Officer. She was responsible for the regulatory review of FDA applications for in vitro diagnostics. In 2007 she joined the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology (OSE). Currently she is the Associate Director of Outreach and Communications in OSE where she manages and coordinates regulatory policy and communications projects. She has a B.A. degree from Temple University, and a M.S. in Regulatory Science from the University of Maryland's School of Pharmacy.

E. Stewart  Geary, MD

E. Stewart Geary, MD

Senior Vice President, Eisai Co., Ltd., Japan

E. Stewart Geary, MD, is Global Safety Officer at Eisai Co., Ltd. He is a Councilor of the Japanese Association of Pharmaceutical Medicine and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine. A member of CIOMS XII, he also served on the CIOMS VII Working Group on the Development Safety Update Report, CIOMS VIII on Signal Detection, CIOMS on Standardized MedDRA Queries, CIOMS IX on Medicinal Product Risk Management and CIOMS Working Group on Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Dr. Geary is a DIA Fellow, a Fellow of the Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research and an IFAPP Global Fellow in Medicines Development. He earned a BA from Harvard and MD from Stanford Medical School.

Lisa Melanie Harinstein, PharmD

Lisa Melanie Harinstein, PharmD

Team Leader, Division of Pharmacovigilance, FDA, FDA, United States

Lisa Harinstein is a Team Leader in the FDA-CDER Division of Pharmacovigilance. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan and completed a Pharmacy Practice and Critical Care Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She worked as a Surgical ICU Clinical Specialist at Cleveland Clinic prior to working at the FDA.

Jeremy  Jokinen, PhD, MS

Jeremy Jokinen, PhD, MS

Vice President and Head, Safety Evidence and Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, United States

Jeremy Jokinen is the Vice President and Head, Safety Evidence and Sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb. In this role, he leads a global team of risk management, epidemiology, and safety science experts responsible for insights, evidence generation, and risk minimization programs ensuring the safety of patients worldwide. Jeremy has led numerous cross-industry pharmacovigilance workgroups and initiatives for DIA, TransCelerate, and ICH, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Jeremy has over 20 years of experience as a statistician in early phase to post-market pharmaceutical, biological, medical device, and patient safety research. He holds MS and PhD degrees in quantitative psychology from Ohio University

Annette  Stemhagen, DrPH, PhD, FISPE

Annette Stemhagen, DrPH, PhD, FISPE

Chief Science Officer, UBC, United States

Dr. Annette Stemhagen is an epidemiologist, with >30 years of public health research experience, including 20+ years in the biopharmaceutical industry. She provides strategic consulting in epidemiology, pharmacovigilance, and risk management. She develops and implements creative and innovative epidemiologic study design solutions. She also has extensive expertise designing and implementing risk intervention programs, risk management evaluation studies, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), and risk minimization programs for EU Risk Management Plans for more than 120 products. She was appointed as the first Industry Representative to the FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.

Sarah  Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Head of Vigilance Operations, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), United Kingdom

Sarah has worked in pharmacovigilance at the MHRA for the past 15 years, her current role is the Head of Vigilance Operations, responsible for adverse incident collection & signal management for medicines and medical devices. Sarah is currently leading on the development and transformation of the Agency's vigilance systems for all medicinal product types.

Annette S. Williams, MBA, RPh

Annette S. Williams, MBA, RPh

Vice President, Pharmacovigilance, IQVIA, United States

Annette Williams, M.B.A. R.Ph, is Vice President, Global Head of Lifecycle Safety, leading IQVIA’s comprehensive Safety organization, consisting of more than 4,000 professionals worldwide, providing services across the PV spectrum, including: case processing, regulatory reporting, aggregate reporting, signal detection, risk management, medical information, local affiliate PV support and safety systems. Williams oversees the development and adoption of innovative technologies to streamline the management of safety information and subsequent data analytics. Prior to IQVIA, she held leadership positions in both CRO and Pharma fields, including Drug Safety Alliance, Teamm Pharmaceuticals, and GSK.

Jo  Wyeth, PharmD

Jo Wyeth, PharmD

Associate Director for Postmarket Assessments, OMEPRM, OSE, CDER, FDA, United States

Jo Wyeth is the Associate Director for Postmarket Assessments, serving as a senior-level scientist specializing in the application of risk management principles and leading efforts to implement and oversee medication error pharmacovigilance activities, research and quality assurance activities, and assessment of risk mitigation measures. She also performs complex safety analyses, advises Office and Division management, and provides leadership for planning, program development, policy and program analysis, and the implementation of safety initiatives that support OMEPRM.

Stella  Blackburn, MD, MA, MSc, FFPM, FISPE, FRCP

Stella Blackburn, MD, MA, MSc, FFPM, FISPE, FRCP

Strategy , Consultant, United Kingdom

Dr Stella Blackburn. MB BS, MA, MSc, FRCP(Ed), FISPE, FFPM, DLSHTM, Stella studied medicine at Cambridge and Guys, working in hospital medicine before joining the pharma industry. She has worked in PhV and pharmacoepi for 35 years: in industry (11+ years) as a regulator (16+ years) and CRO (9 years). Following her MSc in Epidemiology from LSHTM, she co-developed their course in PhV and Pharmacoepi. In 1997 she joined the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Stella developed EU strategy and policy on risk management, was lead writer on the EU guidelines on this and was part of the core team implementing the 2010 PhV legislation and ENCePP. She is/was on the CIOMS IX/XI/XIII working parties and is a member of the CIOMS Executive Committee.

William  Gregory, PhD

William Gregory, PhD

Senior Director, Safety and Risk Management, Pfizer Inc, United States

He received formal training in infectious diseases and molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and has more than 15 years of experience directing global product development and registration programs. He also has extensive experience in pharmacovigilance and health informatics as well as the evaluation and exchange of safety data. He has served with other experts and senior scientists on many consensus panels, including ICH, CIOMS, ISO, and HL7.

Valerie E. Simmons, MD, FFPM

Valerie E. Simmons, MD, FFPM

Senior Medical Fellow, Global Patient Safety, Eli Lilly and Company Ltd, United Kingdom

Dr. Simmons is currently Senior Medical Fellow (formally the EU QPPV) in Global Patient safety for Eli Lilly & Company Ltd. She is a registered physician from the University of London and, since joining the pharmaceutical industry in 1987, she has focused her career drug safety through senior management positions in Glaxo/Glaxo Welcome and Eli Lilly and Co. Val is also an active member of various expert working groups , including the EFPIA Pharmacovigilance Expert Working Group, ICH E2D, E2F, E2C (R2), CIOMS VII and IX and speaks extensively on pharmacovigilance and risk management

Gerald  Dal Pan, MD, MHS

Gerald Dal Pan, MD, MHS

Director, Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, CDER, FDA, United States

Gerald J. Dal Pan, MD, MHS currently serves as the Director of the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, where since 2005 he has been responsible for the Center’s programs in adverse event surveillance and analysis, pharmacoepidemiology, risk management, and medication error prevention. In this capacity, he is involved in both the premarket and postmarket regulation of drugs and therapeutic biologics, and in the implementation of the drug safety provisions of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act and other initiatives.

Krisztina L. Debreczeni, MD

Krisztina L. Debreczeni, MD

Head, Medical Safety Review and Expedited Safety Reporting, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., United States

Krisztina has been working at BMS for 15 years. In the past eight years, she has been leading a team of physicians responsible for the medical assessment of ICSRs as well as a team of scientists responsible for the preparation of expedited safety reports. Krisztina also oversees the Company's large ICSR processing outsourcing operation for medical review and expedited safety reporting. Krisztina has been serving as a subject matter expert on Reference Safety Information for several years, working closely with internal and external experts on this topic.

Jay  Dave, DDS, MSc

Jay Dave, DDS, MSc

Technical Director-GPV, COD Research Pvt LTD, India

David  Spiegelhalter, PhD

David Spiegelhalter, PhD

Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He retired from being Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk in 2019, His background is in medical statistics, and he is the author of The Art of Statistics. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, awarded an OBE in 2006, and knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics. He is a Fellow of Churchill College Camridge, was President of the Royal Statistical Society for 2017-2018, and became a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority in 2020. He is @d_spiegel on Twitter.

Kenneth  Lipetz, MD, PhD, MBA, MSc

Kenneth Lipetz, MD, PhD, MBA, MSc

Associate Director, PV Ops – PM, Moderna, United States

Kenneth J Lipetz, PhD, MBA, HCLD is currently the Associate Director, PV Ops – PM at Moderna, Inc. Prior to joining Moderna, he had been with Eli Lilly and Company for over 23 years, Ken has had a number of key strategic, technical and administrative roles in Clinical PM, Clinical Data Management, Data Privacy, Drug Safety, Pharmacovigilance and Drug Development. Ken is also a Certified Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt working on multiple process improvement projects.

Anne M Ambrose, MPharm, MSc, RPh, RAC

Anne M Ambrose, MPharm, MSc, RPh, RAC

Specialist in Post Authorisation Operations and Safety Issues, Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, United Kingdom

Anne Ambrose is an Expert Pharmaceutical Assessor and Specialist in Post Authorisation Operations and Safety Issues in the Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines (VRMM) Division, MHRA, UK. She is a qualified pharmacist and has worked in hospital and retail pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. She worked for a number of years in Regulatory Affairs in the pharmaceutical industry before joining the Medicines Control Agency (now MHRA) in January 1995 as a pharmaceutical assessor. Anne was a UK expert to CMDh 2005-2020 and was involved in various CMDh working groups and was chair of the CMDh Working Party on Pharmacovigilance Procedures Worksharing (formerly EU PSUR Work Sharing Group) 2010-2017.

Achint Kumar  Gupta, DrMed, MD

Achint Kumar Gupta, DrMed, MD

EU QPPV - Safety & Benefit-Riak Management, Biogen Idec Ltd., United Kingdom

Achint Kumar is the EU QPPV at Biogen. He is a physician by training and has been working in Pharmacovigilance since 2005. Currently, he is also an active member at EFPIA PV Expert Group.

Vineet  Kacker, PhD

Vineet Kacker, PhD

Managing Director and Global Technical Head, APCER Life Sciences Limited, United Kingdom

Dr. Kacker is a Pharmacologist by training, having completed his PhD in Pharmacology from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in India. Dr. Kacker switched his interests from academia to pharmaceutical industry more than 18 years ago, and has managed the Regulatory and Pharmacovigilance functions at global organizations. Dr. Kacker is a co-founder of APCER Life Sciences, having started the company out of UK more than 11 years ago. In his current role he operates as the Managing Director and Global Technical Head of APCER. Dr. Kacker has been a Qualified Person/Person Responsible for Pharmacovigilance with experience of more than 17 years as EU-QPPV and in his current role he does operate as the EU-QPPV for some of APCER’s clients.

Fernando  Pereira, RPh

Fernando Pereira, RPh

Director, Regional PV Lead Latin America (PACoE), Abbvie, Brazil

Pharmacist and Lawyer - Director of Pharmacovigilance for Latin America Countries - Abbvie Brazilian - located in Sao Paulo - Brazil

Vita M. Petrik, BSN

Vita M. Petrik, BSN

Senior Director, PV Processes, Partnerships and Contracts , Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, United States

Vita is a registered nurse by training spending the first part of her career working at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. She worked bedside as well as in management and QA. She moved into the pharma world beginning on the CRO side as a CRA, then a PM and then as a safety monitor. After joining AZ Vita has had many roles. In the most recent reorganization Vita has landed as a leadership team member within the PS Center of Excellence leading the Process, partnership and contracts team. It is this role that has lead her to the role of Project VIP Business lead. In this role Vita has accountability to deliver the infrastructure to successfully support the PV activities around AZD 1222, AZ's Covid vaccine.

Larry  Smith, PhD

Larry Smith, PhD

Consultant, Consultant: COVID-19 Countermeasures, United States

Biotech executive with over 25 years’ experience from translational-stage to late-stage product development of biologics and small molecules for infectious disease indications. Former SVP of Research at Vical Incorporated and subject matter expert in immunology, infectious diseases, molecular biology, gene therapy, and vaccine development. Participated in the conduct of 20 Phase 1 – Phase 3 clinical trials including several first-in-human pandemic influenza vaccine trials. Previously served as the Director of Viral Vaccines Immunology at Wyeth (Pfizer) Vaccines. Currently a consultant for various clients developing immunologically-based biologics to prevent or treat COVID-19, including SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.

Meredith  Smith, PhD, MPA, FISPE

Meredith Smith, PhD, MPA, FISPE

Senior Director, Implementation Science Pillar Lead, Evidera, Inc, United States

Meredith Smith, PhD, MPA, FISPE is Senior Director and Head, Implementation Science team within the Patient-Centered Research group at Evidera, Inc., PPD, a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. She is a behavioral scientist and health services researcher by training with over 20 years of experience in health outcomes, drug safety and regulatory policy in the pharmaceutical industry. She has served on numerous FDA expert panels, on CIOMS Working Groups VIII, IX and XI, and IMI-PREFER and is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. She has been a pioneer in the application of Implementation Science methods within the context of drug development and has published widely in the peer-reviewed literature.

Melissa  Burns, MS

Melissa Burns, MS

Senior Program Manager, Office of Combination Products, OCPP, OC, FDA, United States

CAPT Melissa Burns is a Senior Program Manager in FDA’s Office of Combination Products (OCP). In this role, she is responsible for coordinating activities related to combination product review and regulation including development and review of guidance documents, regulations, and procedures and policies. Prior to joining OCP, Melissa worked for several years in FDA CDRH. Melissa worked for several years in the private sector including positions with a medical device manufacturer, a hospital, a healthcare architecture firm, and a consulting firm. Melissa received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Connecticut.

John  Concato, MD, MPH, MS

John Concato, MD, MPH, MS

Associate Director for Real-World Evidence Analytics, OMP, CDER, FDA, United States

Dr. John Concato is Associate Director for Real-World Evidence Analytics in the Office of Medical Policy, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA. As an internist and epidemiologist, his responsibilities related to real-world evidence (RWE) include developing internal Agency processes, interacting with external stakeholders, and coordinating demonstration projects as well as guidance development. Dr. Concato joined FDA from Yale School of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he was a clinician, educator, independent investigator, research center director, and Professor of Medicine. He has a BE degree from The Cooper Union, MD & MS degrees from New York University, and an MPH degree from Yale University.

Vicki  Edwards, RPh

Vicki Edwards, RPh

Vice President, Pharmacovigilance Excellence and International QPPV, Abbvie, United Kingdom

Qualified as a pharmacist in 1981 and started her career in hospital pharmacy. In 1983 she specialised in Drug Information Services and moved to Kuwait to set up and run the first National Drug Information Centre. On her return to the UK, Vicki spent the next four years in community pharmacy. In 1996 Vicki joined GlaxoWellcome and started her career in pharmacovigilance. In 2002 she moved to AstraZeneca UK Ltd as the Drug Safety Manager moving on to become Head of Drug Safety & Medical Information. Vicki joined Abbott in 2005 as European Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance (EU QPPV). In 2013 moved to AbbVie as EU QPPV and Head of Affiliate Safety Excellence (ASE) and is now VP, Pharmacovigilance Excellence and I-QPPV.

Kendal  Harrison

Kendal Harrison

Pandemic Systems Delivery Manager, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), United Kingdom

Mamiko  Kasho

Mamiko Kasho

Executive Director, Global PV Management Dept., Global Safety HQs, Eisai Co., Ltd., Japan

Mamiko Kasho is Executive Director of Global Pharmacovigilance Management in Global Safety HQ of Eisai Co., Ltd, and has been involved in global PV area since she joined the company in 2007. Mamiko has been responsible for PV agreements with licensing partners for 15 years and at the same time in charge of establishing, maintaining the quality management system in PV; and continues working on coordinating activities to comply with regulatory requirements across regions. Mamiko has been participating in several task forces of JPMA PV committee as the team leader, focusing on PV requirements in Europe, US, Asia, and other regions. Mamiko is also the member of MedDRA Management Committee since Mar 2020 as the representative of JPMA.

Peter W. Marks, MD, PhD

Peter W. Marks, MD, PhD

Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA, United States

Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring for patients and in industry on drug development. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in January 2016. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and in 2022 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Anja  Van Haren, MSc

Anja Van Haren, MSc

Eudravigilance coordinator, Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB), Netherlands

Anja van Haren holds a Master in Health Policy and Management from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Her career at the Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB) in the Netherlands started in 1998 as a Pharmacovigilance assessor. Since 2004 she has been responsible for technical and procedural aspects of expedited Adverse Drug Reaction reporting in pharmacovigilance. In her current position at the MEB as EudraVigilance Coordinator the focus of her work is on ADR reports, signal detection and signal management. Anja is co-chair of the EudraVigilance Expert Working Group, co-chair of the Pharmacovigilance Business Team and representative of the EU in the ICH E2B(R3) and ICH E2D(R1) Expert Working Groups.

Nancy  Dubois, MBA, MSN, RN

Nancy Dubois, MBA, MSN, RN

Associate Director, Local Safety Officer US Region, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., United States

Howard  Chazin, MD, MBA

Howard Chazin, MD, MBA

Director, Division of Clinical Safety and Surveillance, OSCE, OGD, CDER, FDA, United States

Dr. Chazin joined FDA in 2002 and has held several leadership positions related to clinical policy and safety of new drugs, biologics and generics. He is the Director of the Division of Clinical Safety and Surveillance in the Office of Generic Drugs' Office of Safety and Clinical Evaluation. He leads several multidisciplinary teams of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and data analysts tasked with identifying and assessing emerging complex safety issues related to potentially inferior generic drug products and addressing all Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies for generic drugs. He also provides oversight on assessment of critical aspects related to challenging, controversial and sensitive generic drug safety issues.

Janine  Collins, MD, LLM

Janine Collins, MD, LLM

Executive Director Safety, Epidemiology , Registries and Risk Management , United BioSource Corporation, Switzerland

Dr Janine Collins is a graduate of St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London and obtained a Master’s Degree in Legal Aspects of Medical Practice from Cardiff Law School. Along with 16 years of clinical practice, she has more than 19 years of industry experience in Drug Safety, Risk Management, Medical Affairs and Clinical Research. Dr Collins is Executive Director of Safety, Epidemiology, Registries and Risk Management at UBC where she provides consultant services focusing on Risk Management including the associated activities such as post approval safety studies, educational programs for risk minimization and assessment the effectiveness of risk minimization. She has extensive experience in both the European Union and Canada.

Jason  Flint, MBA, PMP

Jason Flint, MBA, PMP

Associate Director for Human Factors Reviewer, CDER, OSE, OMERPM, DMEPA, FDA, United States

Jason Flint is the Associate Director for Human Factors with the Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis I (DMEPAI). Jason is the scientific lead for ongoing human factors research on training decay and is actively involved in guidance and standards development in the field of human factors. Prior to joining DMEPAI, Jason spent 13 years planning and conducting medical device human factors testing for the Air Force.

Ellis  Unger, MD

Ellis Unger, MD

Principal Drug Regulatory Expert, Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C., United States

Dr. Ellis Unger is a Principal Drug Regulatory Expert at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara. A cardiologist with 24 years of FDA experience in drug regulation, safety, clinical trial design, and analysis, he started as a Medical Officer in CBER, ultimately serving 8 years as the Director, Office of Drug Evaluation-I, and, after the 2020 reorganization, as Director of the Office of Cardiology, Hematology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology in CDER’s Office of New Drugs. He played major roles in developing several FDA Guidances and ICH Guidelines, including ICH E2F (DSUR), E2C(R2) (PBRER), and E19 (Safety Data Collection). Before joining FDA, Dr. Unger led a translational research effort on angiogenesis in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH.

Francois  Audibert, MSc

Francois Audibert, MSc

Vice President – U.S. Operations, Vitrana, United States

As a young graduate, François Audibert was working for a non-profit in modelization and automation using personal computers (greenhouses, forest replantation, harvesting, etc.) using what was then AI. Having joined a consulting company, Francois developed expertise in large and complex transactional systems used by very large corporations attaining the role of program manager and Solutions Architect. Life led to working in Drug Safety for Relsys, Oracle, Highpoint Solutions, and eventually for the Safety and Clinical Space at BioClinica. Since 3 years, Francois is helping Vitrana to develop advanced solutions and services using AI technologies, specifically to make knowledge available when, where to whom it’s needed most.

Gita  Toyserkani, PharmD, MBA

Gita Toyserkani, PharmD, MBA

Associate Director, Research & Strategic Initiatives, FDA, United States

Gita A. Toyserkani, PharmD, MBA, is the Associate Director for Research and Strategic Initiatives in the Division of Risk Management in FDA’s Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology. She has over 15 years of experience in drug safety and advises on pre and post-marketing activities and policies involving REMS for products regulated by CDER. In her current role, Dr. Toyserkani overseas research activities related to risk minimization. Dr. Toyserkani has led several REMS standardization efforts and initiatives to advance the science of risk minimization. Her career at FDA started in 2005 as a Safety Evaluator in the Division of Pharmacovigilance. Prior to FDA, she was a clinical pharmacist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

James  Duhig, PhD

James Duhig, PhD

Global Head, Office of Health Literacy, AbbVie, United States

Dr. James (Jay) Duhig, Ph.D., is director of Patient Integration for AbbVie Pharmacovigilance and Patient Safety. Dr. Duhig is an expert in the application of human factors and health literacy in the investigation of medication errors and in the development of drug and device instructional materials for patients and healthcare professionals. In his role with AbbVie’s International Pharmacovigilance Network, Dr. Duhig works with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, engineers, and others in the evaluation of multiple sources of post-marketing safety data. He is a passionate advocate for the use human factors and health literacy to problem-solve the needs of patients not just at the hospital and doctor’s office but at the kitchen table.

Jane  Reed, PhD

Jane Reed, PhD

Director, Life Science, Linguamatics, United Kingdom

Jane Reed is Director of Life Science at Linguamatics, an IQVIA company. She is responsible for leading the strategic vision for Linguamatics product portfolio and business development for the pharma and biotech market. Jane has 20+ years’ experience in vendor companies supplying data products, data integration and analysis, and consultancy to pharma and biotech—with roles at Instem, BioWisdom, Incyte, and Hexagen. Before moving into the life science industry, Jane worked in academia with post-docs in genetics and genomics. Jane holds a MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from Birmingham University.

Oanh  Dang, PharmD

Oanh Dang, PharmD

Pharmacotherapy Specialist, Regulatory Science Staff, OSE, CDER, FDA, United States

Oanh Dang is the Regulatory Science and Applied Research Lead for Pharmacovigilance she leads multiple Research and Development projects at the FDA's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Her research focuses on the application of artificial intelligence that aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of pharmacovigilance processes. She also worked as a post market surveillance safety reviewer in the FDA CDER Division of Pharmacovigilance.

Allan  Fong, MS

Allan Fong, MS

Research Scientist and Data Scientist, Medstar Health National Center For Human Factors In Healthcare, United States

Allan Fong focuses on developing, integrating, and applying advanced technologies and techniques to study and improve healthcare systems. Allan has a background in engineering, computer science, and human factors, and is particularly interested in natural language processing, predictive analytics, information visualization, and sensor integration to understand clinical workflow and promote patient safety and health literacy. Allan received a master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in computer science from University of Maryland College Park, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.

Aaron Zachary Hettinger, MD, MS

Aaron Zachary Hettinger, MD, MS

Director of Cognitive Informatics, Medstar Health National Center For Human Factors In Healthcare, United States

Aaron Zachary Hettinger, MD, MS, is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University of School of Medicine and the director of cognitive informatics of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health. He is a dual board certified in emergency medicine and clinical informatics. In these roles, Dr. Hettinger has the opportunity to translate between the languages of medicine, informatics and human factors with the goal of improving patient safety and healthcare processes. His primary interests include health information technology usability, adverse event analysis and data visualization in reference to reduce hazards in healthcare. He has received funding from the NIH, ONC, AHRQ,

Have an account?

Be informed and stay engaged.

Don't miss an opportunity - join our mailing list to stay up to date on DIA insights and events.