Patient Centered Strategies for Clinical Trials & Treatment: Reactions to Payer Perspectives on Patient Reported Outcomes

David Thompson, PhD, Senior Vice President, Real-World Evidence, inVentiv Health

Dr. Thompson is a health economist with over 25 years of experience in the health economics arena, including work in economic modeling, retrospective database analysis, trial-based economic evaluations, and patient-reported outcomes. His work has been global in nature, with extensive experience in North American & European markets as well as the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions. Prior to joining inVentiv Health, he held leadership positions at Quintiles (2012-2016), i3 Innovus/OptumInsight (2000-2012) and PAI (1988-2000).

Dr. Thompson is a frequent presenter at and contributor to the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research (ISPOR), having functioned as Editor-in-Chief of Value & Outcomes Spotlight (formerly ISPOR Connections) from 2008 to the present, served as a leadership member of Task Forces for Good Research Practices on Indirect Treatment Comparisons (2009-2012) and Revision of the ISPOR Code of Ethics (2015-present), and led more than 30 workshops and issue panels at the International, European, Latin American, and Asia-Pac meetings. He has published approximately 50 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Dr. Thompson holds degrees from the University of California Riverside (BS, Economics) and University of Massachusetts (MA, Economics; PhD, Economics).

Joseph O’Connell, MD, Vice President, Medical & Scientific Affairs, Hematology & Oncology, inVentiv Health

Dr. O’Connell completed his Medical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering, where his clinical development experience included work on Phase 1-3 studies in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, and key studies in the development of effective anti-emetics to support delivery of chemotherapy in the outpatient setting. Thereafter, he practiced adult medical oncology for over 15 years in community and academic settings, the latter as a member of the Thoracic Oncology Clinic of Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. O’Connell served as the president of the Connecticut State ASCO Affiliate, where initiatives included promoting payer and provider dialog on pay-for-performance initiatives and representing the Association in State Legislature testimony in support of access for underinsured patients.

Dr. O’Connell joined Pfizer in 2007 in Clinical Development, leading several Phase 1-3 studies for major late-stage assets. Responsibilities included formulation of clinical development plans, opinion leader engagement across North America, Asia and Europe, face-to-face global regulatory discussions, oversight of safety monitoring, input to commercial and market access efforts including launch planning, and participation in business development review. Thereafter, Dr. O’Connell worked in Medical Affair for Pfizer in a field-based role interacting with community and academic HCPs, US payers, and national pathway organizations.

Presently, Dr. O’Connell is VP/ Global Therapeutic Head, Hematology-Oncology division of inVentiv Health Clinical, a role which includes strategic input for large and small Pharmaceutical developers for Phase I-IV protocols, overall development plans, and support of market access discussions.

Heather Gartman, Managing Director, Patient Engagement Practice Lead, inVentiv Health

Heather has nearly three decades of experience in public relations and marketing communications for healthcare clients including Pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, patient advocacy groups, medical societies, trade associations and healthcare non-profits.

As the leader of inVentiv Health’s patient engagement initiative, Heather counsels bioPharmaceutical companies on successfully engaging patient and community voices at all stages of the development process from early stage clinical trials through to product launch. She has a passion for working in the area of rare disease, mental health and oncology and has worked in many rare disease states including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Gaucher disease, Breast, prostate, thyroid, blood and ovarian cancer, Hunter Syndrome and depression. Recently she worked with a diverse group of advocacy organizations to develop the white paper, “Sharing the Mission to Conquer Rare Diseases.”

Heather joined as inVentiv Health PR’s DC Managing Director from Ruder Finn where she opened and oversaw the firm’s D.C. operations. Her efforts focused on strategic oversight for many of the firm’s global and US health care brands. She also has extensive experience in crisis and issues management including product and packaging recalls, scenario planning for failed products, product safety, patient issues and sales force infringement of ethics code.

Prior to Ruder Finn, Heather served as Managing Director and Head of Healthcare for Zeno Group in Washington, DC. In that role, she provided strategic direction for numerous award-winning public education campaigns including Know Your Stats about prostate cancer with the NFL, an asthma education campaign that included the writing of the children’s publication Breathless Bethany Buttercup, and If You Were My Sister breast cancer recurrence education campaign.

Heather resides in the Washington, DC suburbs where she enjoys spending her free time running, and being with her husband, Michael, and her identical twin daughters Hannah and Leah and son Ryan.

Kelly E. White, Director, Managed Markets Research, inVentiv Health

Kelly White leads Managed Markets research for iVH Research and Insights. She brings more than 13 years of experience working as both a managed markets consultant and strategic marketer in the Pharmaceutical field to this position, with a focus on combining her payer expertise and moderation skills with a strong customer focus to help clients solve a wide variety of managed markets research questions. Within the last five years, Kelly has conducted more than 1,000 payer interviews, and has led dozens of market access focus groups, workshops, and advisory boards. Prior to her marketing experience, she worked in the field of healthcare research for several universities as well as Kaiser Permanente. Kelly earned her Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan, her Master of Arts in health communication and consumer psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in psychology from The University of Rochester.