Program Co-Chairs & Committee

Hans-Georg Eichler, MD, MSc
Senior Medical Officer
European Medicines Agency, European Union    

Hans-Georg Eichler, MD, MSc, is the Senior Medical Officer at the European Medicines Agency in London, United Kingdom, where he is responsible for coordinating activities between the Agency’s scientific committees and giving advice on scientific and public health issues.
 
Prior to joining the European Medicines Agency, Dr. Eichler was at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria for 15 years. He was vice-rector for Research and International Relations since 2003, and professor and chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology since 1992. His other previous positions include president of the Vienna School of Clinical Research and co-chair of the Committee on Reimbursement of Drugs of the Austrian Social Security Association. His industry experience includes time spent at Ciba-Geigy Research Labs, U.K., and Outcomes Research at Merck & Co., in New Jersey. In 2011, Dr. Eichler was the Robert E. Wilhelm fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, participating in a joint research project under the MIT’s NEWDIGS initiative.
 
Dr. Eichler graduated with an MD from Vienna University Medical School and a Master of Science degree in Toxicology from the University of Surrey in Guildford, U.K. He trained in internal medicine and clinical pharmacology at the Vienna University Hospital as well as at Stanford University.

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Gigi Hirsch, MD
Executive Director
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Biomedical Innovation        

Dr. Hirsch is the Executive Director of the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI), which focuses on improving global health by overcoming challenges to the development, diffusion and adoption of biomedical innovations.

Her current efforts at CBI center on leading the New Drug Development Paradigms initiative (NEWDIGS), a “think and do tank” that is re-engineering pharmaceutical innovation to deliver new, better, affordable therapeutics to the right patients, faster.  Within the broad strategic framework of “Adaptive Biomedical Innovation (ABI),” NEWDIGS’ flagship project focused on aligning stakeholders around more adaptive, patient-centered approaches to the management of risk and uncertainty across the life span of new medicines.  This project helped inspire the Adaptive Pathways pilot program launched by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in March 2014.

Under Dr. Hirsch’s leadership, NEWDIGS continues to channel multi-stakeholder thought leadership to advance other critical enablers of ABI such as adaptive financing and reimbursement models; real world evidence standards; and simulation methods/tools for collaborative innovation.

Dr. Hirsch has held a number of leadership roles that leverage her broad clinical background (Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Psychiatry) along with her passion for innovation, entrepreneurship, and improving patient outcomes.   Prior to joining CBI, she served as Director of Academic and Professional Relations at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and was founder and CEO of a boutique entrepreneurial venture (MD IntelliNet), funded by Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital.  She has held faculty appointments at the medical schools of Harvard, Brown, and Tufts after receiving her medical degree at the University of Cincinnati.

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