How to Enable an End-to-End Digital Transformation Strategy for Better Patient Outcomes

Bob Bois is Innovation Program Director with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Translational Medicine. Mr Bois’ formal training is in Biomedical Engineering and he began his clinical trials career in 1993, subsequently working for both sponsor organizations and CRO’s in roles of increasing responsibility.Mr Bois came to NIBR Translational Medicine (NIBR TM) in 2016 as a Monitoring Liaison Expert, acting as the single point of contact to the monitoring CROs supporting NIBR TM trials in the US. His experience in progressing from CRA to Development Unit Head has engendered in him an ongoing curiosity in how to better conceive of, execute, and oversee clinical trials. Prior to coming to NIBR ™, Mr Bois was the Senior Director of Clinical Innovation at a large CRO.In January 2020, Mr Bois moved to the Novartis Trial Monitoring Organization to build a team of clinical operations professionals to execute NIBR TM studies in the US. In his current role as an NIBR TM Innovation Program Director, he mainly drives the establishment of decentralized trials across the NIBR TM portfolio.

Adama Ibrahim is a UK top 100 influential tech leader passionate about diversity and inclusion practices. She is an innovation award winning pharma industry advisory consultant, founder, disruptor, strategy expert, blockchain advocate, technology enabled clinical trials and patient engagement thought leader with over 20 years in the NHS on commission by the DOH and in Industry. Ms Ibrahim has a deep experience of R&D transformation and led strategies and implementation of decentralized digital clinical trials and regulated digital platforms. She is a driver for change through identifying unmet customer needs, digital strategies, implementation and expansion of disruptive digital platform technologies across drug development and commercial lifecycles and customer journeys.

Najat Khan, PhD, is the Chief Data Science Officer and the Global Head of Strategy & Operations for Janssen Research & Development. In these roles Dr Khan leads a team of 100+ data scientists and data engineers to drive deep impact across Janssen’s pipeline and portfolio and shapes Janssen’s R&D strategy, spanning key pipeline and portfolio decisions to new strategic initiatives to deliver on transformational medicines for patients.  Dr Khan co-chairs the Johnson & Johnson Data Science Council and is a member of Janssen’s Development and Investment Committees. Dr Khan was a Senior Principal at The Boston Consulting Group and received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. in Chemistry with a minor in Economics from Colgate University.

Nuwan Kurukulasuriya, MS, PhD, is Global Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, Medical Affairs at Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. He is determined to make a positive difference by bringing life saving innovative therapies to patients in urgent need and has dedicated 20-years in the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industry, at the intersection of R&D and commercial, across multiple therapeutic areas including Rare Disease, Oncology, Immunology, Hematology and Neuroscience. He has vast end-to-end clinical development and life cycle management experience, across Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Biogen, Shire, MorphoSys and AstraZeneca.Dr Kurukulasuriya’s repertoire of interdisciplinary skills has culminated in several drugs achieving global blockbuster status. His unwavering focus on value creation is realized through cross-sector collaborations with key opinion leaders and extended stakeholders who span the highly complex health care ecosystem.He is expert in applying an integrated Medical, Marketing, Market Access or “3M” lens to accelerating drug development and commercialization. Towards this end, he has gained a reputation as both a leader in the Real World Evidence (RWE) space and a champion for digital transformation. His aspirations include deploying artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics to generate insights that have the power to reimagine healthcare and the medicines of the future.

Dr Michael Sherman is executive vice president chief medical officer of Point32Health, providing clinical medical leadership to enhance quality of care and outcomes for health care consumers. He is responsible for clinical innovation, quality and accreditation, medical policy, and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, which includes the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr Sherman was previously chief medical officer and senior vice president for health services at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which he joined in 2011 and which merged with Tufts Health Plan in 2021. A pioneer in developing innovative, outcomes-based reimbursement models that engage providers and pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, he is credited with cementing Harvard Pilgrim’s position as a leader among insurers in crafting agreements that tie drug payments to performance.Dr Sherman is responsible for overseeing the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, which encompasses the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School—the nation’s only appointing medical school department based in a health plan. He is also a faculty member of the department and previously practiced as a cardiac anesthesiologist. He holds board appointments with several nonprofits, including the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, the Personalized Medicine Coalition, the Harvard Business School Healthcare Initiative, the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation and serves on the Rare Disease Advisory Council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.His previous roles include corporate medical director for physician strategies at Humana, vice president for network and consumer solutions at UnitedHealth Group’s subsidiary Ingenix (now part of Optum), and chief business development officer for United’s Medicare Part D business.  He holds an MD from Yale University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Katherine Vandebelt is Global VP Clinical Innovation at Oracle Health Sciences. With over thirty years engaged in clinical research, Ms Vandebelt loves working in different geographies, across various therapeutic areas, creating and transforming processes and she continues to learn and apply her passion to fuel the digital adoption momentum stimulated by the pandemic. Let’s introduce new and better experiences and make the clinical research ecosystem better for patients, health care professionals, sponsors, regulators by unlocking the power of technology. Let’s achieve the vision of clinical research being an accessible and feasible care option to anyone. For Ms Vandebelt,, there is nothing better than a great mystery or challenge and she is grateful for all the inventors that work unwaveringly to make our world healthier.