Scientific Advisory Panel
Kathy Belk, BA
Health Clarity Solutions
Kathy Belk, BA
Health Clarity Solutions
Kathy Belk is a clinical informaticist, data scientist and health services researcher with over 25 years of experience conducting healthcare research and performance improvement initiatives. With experience in both hands-on research and workflow integration, her passion is to transform healthcare through data-driven care redesign.
As a researcher, she has extensive experience leading predictive, operational, and health economic and outcome analyses for hospitals, specialty societies and government agencies as well as pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Her work in real-world-evidence spans a wide range of topics and clinical areas, resulting in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and/or presentations in scientific journals and conferences.
Ms. Belk excels in translating research from theory to practice. She has extensive experience leading high-impact studies and providing data-driven insights to inform healthcare policy. Ms. Belk previously served as data expert and lead researcher for an innovative pay-for-performance demonstration project with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Additionally, she supported Premier’s Advocacy team, leveraging public and private data to assess the impact of proposed and enacted legislation on hospitals and health systems. More recently she has led a range of data science, analytics and clinical technology initiatives for effective development and deployment of clinical decision support technology to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.
Jon Campbell, MS, PhD
National Pharmaceutical Council
Jon Campbell, MS, PhD
National Pharmaceutical Council
Jon Campbell, MS, PhD, is the Chief Science Officer (CSO) of the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), which sponsors and conducts research on health policy issues related to the development and use of innovative biopharmaceuticals to improve the health of patients. NPC’s research contributes to the body of evidence that supports discussions and decisions about patient access to treatments, appropriate use, and the value innovative treatments provide to both patients and the health care system.
As CSO, Dr. Campbell leads NPC’s research agenda in concert with NPC’s board and research team. As a researcher and advocate for improving the U.S. healthcare system through sustainable access and biopharmaceutical innovation, Dr. Campbell is dedicated to conducting research that helps decision-makers understand the tradeoffs and consequences of health policies that impact patient access to treatments and the ecosystem of biopharmaceutical innovation.
Dr. Campbell shaped his career within academics. After training at the University of Washington, he joined the faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, earning multiple appointments in Pharmacy and Public Health from 2009 to 2020. During his academic career, Dr. Campbell gained insights on the work of biopharmaceutical manufacturers through a summer internship at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland (2004) and expanded his research and training network through a sabbatical in Budapest, Hungary with Syreon Research Institute (2018).
Prior to joining NPC, Dr. Campbell served as Senior Vice President for Health Economics at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), where he made contributions to ICER assessments and their value assessment methodology. Dr. Campbell is an author of over 250 manuscripts and abstracts in the field of health policy research and value assessment and holds an adjunct faculty appointment within the Center for Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dr. Campbell is passionate about mentoring others and enjoys supporting individuals working to deepen their expertise in the health economics and outcomes research field. Dr. Campbell’s training includes graduate degrees in pharmaceutical outcomes research (PhD) and biostatistics (MS) from the University of Washington. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Bachelor of Arts degrees in mathematics and chemistry from St. Olaf College.
Sarah Daugherty, PhD, MPH
Carelon Research
Sarah Daugherty, PhD, MPH
Carelon Research
Sarah Daugherty, PhD MPH, is a Principal Scientist at Carelon Research. In her role at Carelon Research, Dr. Daugherty provides senior leadership and oversight for a broad range of patient-centered research studies using qualitative and quantitative methods.
She values multi-stakeholder engagement and has co-produced innovative research in partnership with a broad array of healthcare stakeholders. She has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts in patient-centered outcomes research, oncology, and COVID-19 and has served as a guest lecturer at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Dr. Daugherty is a former Senior Program Officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) overseeing comparative effectiveness research studies and has led evidence-based solutions for molecular diagnostic companies as a Principal Consultant at Optum Genomics, United Health Group.
Dr. Daugherty is a graduate of the genetic epidemiology doctoral program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds a Dual Masters Degree in Epidemiology and Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute.
Karam Diaby, PhD
Otsuka
Karam Diaby, PhD
Otsuka
Karam is currently the Health Economics Lead (Director) in the Global Value and Real-World Evidence (GVRWE) group. He oversees the design and implementation of economic modeling activities for all Otsuka products. Karam graduated with a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Population Health) at University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada) and completed a coveted post-doctoral fellowship in health economics and decision sciences at the Programs for Assessment of Technology in Health – McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). He served 1 term on the Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) Health Equity Initiative Steering Committee from 2021-2023 and currently represents Otsuka in the advisory board for Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR). Prior to joining Otsuka, he spent a decade in academia (FAMU & UF) where he served as an Assistant Professor of Health Economics and Outcomes Research and Director of an Applied Pharmacoeconomics Online Masters program at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
Isaac Ghinai, MBBS, MSc*
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Isaac Ghinai, MBBS, MSc*
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Isaac Ghinai is a physician, epidemiologist, and public health scientist with extensive experience in clinical management, disease surveillance, outbreak response, and the application of advanced analytics to public health decision-making. He currently leads a team at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center (CDC) that works closely with state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to translate complex models and analytics into actionable policy guidance.
Previously, Dr. Ghinai served as a Director of Medical Countermeasures for the Global Medical Affairs team at Emergent BioSolutions, and Medical Director at the Chicago Department of Public Health, where he led infectious disease surveillance, laboratory strategy, and emergency response efforts during multiple public health crises. Over the course of his career, he has managed multimillion-dollar public health programs, secured over $100 million in grant funding, and led cross-sector teams spanning government, academia, healthcare systems, and community organizations. His work emphasizes rigorous evidence generation, real-time analytics, and the integration of novel technologies to inform high-stakes policy and resource allocation decisions. Dr. Ghinai has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, including articles in The Lancet, Nature, and Nature Communications, and has received numerous honors for his contributions to public health leadership and international health. He holds an MSc in Global Health Sciences from the University of Oxford and a medical degree (MBBS) from UCL. His work is driven by a commitment to strengthening health system resilience and advancing evidence-informed approaches to assessing value, preparedness, and equity in public health.
Michael Johnsrud, PhD, RPh
TxCORE, U. of Texas at Austin
Michael Johnsrud, PhD, RPh
TxCORE, U. of Texas at Austin
Michael Johnsrud, PhD, RPh, is Executive Director of the Texas Center for Health Outcomes Research and Education (TxCORE) and a Senior Research Scientist in Health Outcomes at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy, where he designs and conducts research to assess how prescription drugs, medical devices, and various clinical interventions and services impact resource utilization and costs, patient health outcomes, and quality of life. Mike has particular expertise in prescription drug pricing, as well as coverage and reimbursement policy in Medicaid, Medicare, and private-sector health plans. He also studies the economics of the marketplace that includes community pharmacy and prescription drug benefit programs.
Prior to his role at TxCORE, Mike was a Senior Vice President at Avalere Health in Washington, DC, where he led the Health Economics and Advanced Analytics Practice. While at Avalere Health, Mike provided strategic and scientific guidance to the firm’s clients to support the design and generation of clinical and economic evidence to inform stakeholders in the marketplace in determining the value of various medications and interventions.
Mike received his BS in Pharmacy from the University of Iowa and a MS and PhD in Pharmacy Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a registered pharmacist in Iowa and Texas.
Adrian Kielhorn, Dipl.-Oek.
Alexion
Adrian Kielhorn, Dipl.-Oek.
Alexion
Adrian leads the Neurology Therapeutic Area within Global Health Economic and Outcomes Research at Alexion, the Rare Disease Unit of AstraZeneca. He has spent most of his career working for pharmaceutical companies in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) roles. He broadened his experience working in market access, strategic pricing, marketing, and sales roles. As a leader, he instills in groups, teams, and organizations a passion for generating high-quality and patient-relevant value evidence that directly impacts market access. As a value evidence architect in rare diseases, he pioneers new approaches to measure value of pharmaceutical interventions. His interest in health equity has led him to develop diversity measures and identify barriers to improve access and treatments in rare diseases.
Adrian is the author of the Market Access Guide (available on Amazon.com), the Health Economics Handbook and has been a co-author in over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He believes in the partnership of men and women in all fields of endeavor and is a member of EBBF, an organization dedicated to building ethical businesses.
Tara Lavelle, PhD
Tufts University, School of Medicine
Tara Lavelle, PhD
Tufts University, School of Medicine
Dr. Lavelle is a health economist and decision scientist specializing in assessing the economic value of vaccines, medical devices, genomic sequencing, and pharmaceuticals. Her expertise spans cost-effectiveness analysis, preference assessment, and survey research, with a strong emphasis on incorporating the perspectives of patients, caregivers, and stakeholders into her work. She is widely recognized for her research quantifying the societal burden of illness on patients and caregivers and integrating these insights into cost-effectiveness analyses to support informed healthcare decision-making.
Russ Montgomery, PhD
GSK
Russ Montgomery, PhD is the Senior Director of US Value Assessment Strategy at GSK. In this role, he is responsible for value evidence planning and response to assessments conducted by government agencies and HTA organizations and external engagement on value-related policies and methods best practices.
Prior to joining GSK, Russ worked on global value policy and US value assessment planning at Gilead Sciences. Additionally, he previously worked as a Vice President at Discern Health (now part of Real Chemistry), leading consulting work on quality and value issues, and held policy roles at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and health agencies in Maryland and Arkansas. Early in his career he led projects on value assessment methods at the Center for Medical Technology Policy. He holds a PhD in health services research from Johns Hopkins University, where he previously served as affiliate faculty.
Cheryl Neslusan, PhD
Johnson & Johnson
Cheryl Neslusan, PhD
Johnson & Johnson
Cheryl Neslusan, Ph.D. is currently a Group Director of Market Access Scientific and External Strategy (MAxSES) in the U.S. Value and Evidence Scientific Engagement team at Janssen Scientific Affairs part of Johnson & Johnson. The MAxSES Team is responsible for U.S. market access scientific strategy for medicines in early development, anticipating future market access trends. In addition, the group engages with scientific leaders and performs research to support Janssen’s health policy positions. Cheryl has over 25 years of experience in health economics, with specific expertise in data analytics, synthesis and modeling. She joined Johnson & Johnson in 2000 and held various roles within Janssen’s Global Market Access Teams until 2018. Her responsibilities included developing evidence generation strategies and tactical plans as well as conducting evidence substantiation projects to optimize value assessments globally and inform stage gate decisions for a wide range of products in a variety of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Janssen, she had research roles at the MedStat Group and the Social Security Administration’s Office of Research and Policy. She began her career in the Economics Department at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Cheryl received her B.A. in Economics from Clark University in Worcester, MA and holds both a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Penn State.
Surachat Ngorsuraches, PhD, MS
Auburn University
Surachat Ngorsuraches, PhD, MS
Auburn University
Dr. Surachat Ngorsuraches is a pharmacist by training. He earned his doctoral degree in Social and Administrative Pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. He has more than 20 years of experience in teaching, conducting research, and leading administrative and research teams. He has served as the principal investigator for several funded research projects and authored over 100 peer-reviewed abstracts and publications. His research primarily focuses on patient-centered and equity-centered value assessment. For over a decade, he has applied the discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine health preferences as a part of patient-centered value assessment. Recently, he has worked on incorporating equity and efficiency considerations into preference-based value assessment. He has received multiple research grants and contracts from various agencies, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Dr. Ngorsuraches has hands-on experience in engaging patients with multiple sclerosis and their family members in patient-centered outcomes research. He has also been an engagement partner of three PCORI-funded projects to build patient-centered outcomes research/comparative effectiveness research (PCOR/CER) capacity for underrepresented populations in obesity, maternal health, and healthcare access research. All of these projects are located in the Deep South States.
Dr. Ngorsuraches has been an active member of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and has served in various leadership roles, including chair of the Asia Consortium. He has served iConquerMS, a patient-centered research community, in various capacities. He coordinated “Chat with Chat”, a webinar that allows researchers to share their research results with the iConquerMS community. Additionally, he has been on the steering committee of the RIDE (Research, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) Council of iConquerMS.
Pam Pawloski, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP
Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Research Institute
Pam Pawloski, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP
Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Research Institute
Pam Pawloski, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP is a Principal Research Scientist at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Research Institute. She is a board-certified oncology clinical pharmacist with 30 years of research experience spanning pre-clinical, clinical, health services, cancer care delivery, and population-based studies. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) and North Dakota State University School of Pharmacy (PharmD). She completed pharmacy practice and oncology pharmacy practice residencies at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center, and a clinical pharmacology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Before joining AMCP Research Institute, her prior roles included Senior Research Investigator at HealthPartners Institute, Manager of the Hubert H Humphrey Cancer Center Research Program, and faculty at the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy. She is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and an Affiliate Member of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Her research includes utilizing real-world data and evidence to inform treatment optimization, specifically through the study of medication use, adherence, and precision medicine.
Debbie Smith, PhD
UCB
Debbie Smith, HEOR Strategy Lead for Rare Disease, leads the strategic development, execution and delivery of HEOR plans for UCB’s rare/orphan portfolio. Since joining UCB in 2015, Debbie has held a variety of field engagement and strategic leadership roles in Medical Affairs and Market Access. Debbie is committed to corporate social responsibility and is engaged in health equity work across UCB’s broader portfolio.
Debbie has more than 12 years of experience in the biomedical industry across neurology, rare disease, and immunology. In addition to her PhD in Neuroscience, Debbie is certified as a Sustainability Excellence Associate (SEA) through the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP, GBCI).
Claire Telford, PhD
Pfizer
Claire Telford, PhD
Pfizer
Claire Telford has almost 15 years of global and country level experience within HEOR and HTA Access Policy. Claire has been in the role of Senior Director, Methods Innovation Team Lead at Pfizer since the beginning of 2023, leading a team of subject matter experts in HEOR and PCOA, to develop and execute the HTA, Value & Evidence Methods Innovation Strategy and advance access evidence capabilities, processes, and methodologies. She held previous positions at GSK in US Value Assessment and Policy. Prior to this she was in a Global HEOR position at AstraZeneca supporting a number of oncology products from early pipeline to post-launch.
Claire received her PhD in Health Economics from Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. She also has a Master’s in Finance and Bachelor’s in Mathematics, Statistics & Operational Research. She is currently completing Masters Theology at Franciscan University Steubenville. She resides in Maryland. Claire is passionate about ensuring patients have meaningful outcomes data on their treatments and are able to access to their required medications.
Junling Wang, PhD
University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy
Junling Wang, PhD
University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy
Junling Wang, Ph.D., is a Professor, Vice Chair for Research, and Director of Graduate Affairs in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Translational Science at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy. Her research focuses on medication utilization and economic evaluation. She has received funding from the NIH, foundations, industry, and state government, and her research team has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Wang serves as a chair and reviewer on multiple NIH study panels. She is also Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Value Assessment–Health Outcomes Research program of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation. In addition, she has held multiple leadership positions with the American Pharmacists Association and the American Public Health Association and currently serves as Chair of the Health Economics Interest Group Advisory Committee at AcademyHealth. Dr. Wang has been recognized with a student-nominated Excellence in Teaching Award and multiple mentorship awards at her institution.
* Dr. Ghinai is serving in a personal capacity.