Dr. Avorn, Alosa Health’s President of the Board and Chief Clinical Consultant, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Avorn did his undergraduate work at Columbia University, received the MD from Harvard Medical School in 1974, and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital. He joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1978. His research group was among the first to use large electronic datasets of medication use and clinical outcomes, beginning in the early 1980s. While at the Beth Israel, he was certified in Geriatric Medicine and helped to establish the Harvard program on aging, building a research program on the use and outcomes of medications in the elderly.
His current work centers on the intended and adverse outcomes of prescription drugs, physician prescribing practices, and medication policy. The Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics he founded currently includes 50 people, comprising 17 faculty members representing clinicians from various medical specialties, epidemiologists, health services researchers, and biostatisticians, as well as programmers, graduate students, and research support staff. Dr. Avorn pioneered the “academic detailing” approach to continuing medical education, in which non-commercial, evidence-based information about drugs is provided to doctors through educational outreach programs. He has served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines and is the author or co-author of over 450 papers in the medical literature on medication use and its outcomes, and of the book, Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs (Knopf), now in its 11th printing.
Dr. Choudhry is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and Executive Director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery Sciences (www.c4hds.org) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he also Associate Physician in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics and a practicing Hospitalist. Much of Dr. Choudhry’s work has dealt with design and evaluation of novel strategies to overcome barriers to the broader use of evidence-based therapies. His work employs many research methods including large pragmatic randomized trials, predictive analytics, and cost-effectiveness modeling and is funded by a wide variety of sources including the NIH, non-profit foundations, and health insurers.
Dr. Choudhry attended McGill University, received his MD and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto and then served as Chief Medical Resident for the Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals. He earned his PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University. He has published over 200 scientific papers in leading medical and policy journals and the quality of his work has been recognized by many national and international organizations. Dr. Choudhry practices inpatient general internal/hospital medicine and has won numerous awards for teaching excellence and mentorship including the George W. Thorn and the Jean Jackson Awards.
Dr. McNagny, fellow of the American College of Physicians and a board-certified internist, is a primary care physician practicing at NWP Primary Care Needham. She works collaboratively with her patients to maximize their health and wellbeing. Prior to returning to clinical practice, she was an independent life sciences consultant who developed biomedical research funding strategies for foundations and bank trust departments. From 2001 – 2013 as Director of The Medical Foundation division at Health Resources in Action, she oversaw the investment of more than $150 million in grant support for life sciences research and training. She also served as Board Chair (2012 – 2013) of the Health Research Alliance, a membership organization of non-governmental funders of medical research and training whose members’ award more than $1.5 billion annually to biomedical investigators across the United States and abroad.
Dr. McNagny holds a BS from Stanford University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her medical residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She served on the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine for 11 years, where she was principal investigator for the Emory site of the National Institutes of Health Women’s Health Initiative and other clinical research trials in the field of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy. She also conducted health services research studies in access to care, high blood pressure management, and smoking cessation. Her research has been published in leading journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS, is a Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Public Health (Health Policy and Management) at the Yale School of Medicine, a member of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Health System, and Co-Director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale. With expertise in health services and outcomes research and the translation of clinical research into practice, his research examines the use and delivery of higher quality care and issues related to pharmaceutical and medical device regulation, evidence development, postmarket surveillance, and clinical adoption. Dr. Ross co-directs the Yale-Mayo Clinic Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), the Yale Open Data Access (YODA) Project, and the Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency (CRIT) at Yale Law School, and leads efforts at Yale-New Haven Health System in collaboration with the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST). He has published more than 450 articles in peer-reviewed biomedical journals, co-founded the preprint server medRxiv, and is currently the U.S. Outreach and Research Editor at BMJ.
Humana Chief Medical & Corporate Affairs Officer William Shrank, MD, leads and implements the company’s integrated care delivery strategy affecting 16 million Humana plan members. He also oversees the companies’ government affairs activity and guides the external advocacy as the company expands its clinical role. Previously, Dr. Shrank held leadership positions at UPMC Health Plan, CVS Health, and Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation at CMS. He began as a practicing physician with Brigham Internal Medicine Associates at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, researching medication prescribing and adherence.
Ms. Tucker co-founded and ran KIDVIDZ, a video production company that designed, produced, and distributed award-winning educational programs on developmental issues such as moving and adjusting to a new sibling. She co-authored the book, Stay Tuned! Raising Media Savvy Kids in the Age of the Channel Surfing Couch Potato, published by Doubleday, and has written and spoken on these topics for national media and professional audiences. She helped establish and lead the Boston Community Jewish Women’s Fund, a philanthropy that educates its members about community issues and effective grant-making.
Dr. Ulbricht serves as Director of Clinical and Academic Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Senior Attending Clinical Pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her background includes experience in the areas of quality improvement, healthcare informatics, regulatory affairs, clinical trial protocol analysis, and drug therapy decision-support. She has held Affiliate Professor positions at more than 50 universities.
Dr. Ulbricht’s work is frequently cited by the scientific community. Her publications include scientific reports for the World Health Organization, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and American Pharmacists’ Association; manuscripts in high impact factor medical journals; texts and book chapters distributed by Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer and FA Davis. She has been quoted in expert press interviews such as the Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on multiple international television shows including the Dr. Oz Show as an evidence-based healthcare promoter and patient safety advocate.
Mr. Zuckernik is a partner in the Business Law Department of Robinson & Cole LLP’s Boston office, concentrating in the areas of finance and business law. For the past 30 years, Mr. Zuckernik has represented owners, developers, and lenders in the areas of financing commercial real estate projects and construction of surgical centers and facilities, and has been involved in large-scale corporate investment projects throughout New England and internationally.
Mr. Zuckernik also advises clients in commercial disputes, including mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He has represented lending institutions, opportunistic lenders, and investors in structuring complex financial transactions, as well as in forming various business entities (including corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and trusts), and in structuring closely held businesses. Mr. Zuckernik has taught Business and Finance Law at Boston University and in the MBA program at Babson College, and served on Robinson & Cole’s Managing Committee.
