Healthcare Economics

The explosion of health data and data science techniques, coupled with the challenge of improving the healthcare system, from both a cost and quality standpoint, has led to renewed interest in health data analytics. However, effective solutions must be communicated in ways the invested parties can intuitively understand and buy into. Health Economists, Policy Analysts, Bio-statisticians and the like, serve this role in Pharma, Medical Devices, and BioTech, and have been using data analysis and modeling to understand the application of their products to problems of cost and care. They have a practical understanding of the issues facing companies looking to build next generation products.

In particular:

1. On what metrics are new products/interventions evaluated? How are they reimbursed?
2. How do Health plans make buying decisions, and how do they set the price?
3. What is the role of randomized controlled trials at each stage of the development process?
4. Where can analysis substitute? Where does it not work?
5. What role does "real world evidence" play? What about bias? How does "big data" fit in?
6. Where might we see data used in the future?

To take the field to next level, the data science community needs to work together with those who have been living in the reality of the current system day in day out, learning and incorporating the lessons of the past. Our panel of industry experts will help us understand how products are developed for healthcare today, what works and what might be improved, and how we can leverage analysis to move our healthcare system forward.

Meet the experts:

Vrunda Rathod, Policy Expert, Engine Advocacy

Vrunda holds an undergraduate degree from USC in Biomedical Engineering (with an unofficial concentration in Football Watching) and a graduate degree in Biomedical Science Policy from Georgetown University. She got her start in the policy world doing advocacy work for biomedical engineers, where she got to pick some of the top minds in the industry and help create a new policy agenda for the organization, dealing with a diverse range of issues from patents to bioethics.

Vrunda most enjoyed her time working as a legislative aide for a Member of Congress on Capitol Hill, where she dabbled in health care reform, free trade agreements, and environmental policy. Here she was able to read and write speeches about whale treaties whenever she wanted, which was often. She joins Hattery on return from Liberia, where she worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative to combat maternal and newborn deaths.

Having mostly grown up in Los Angeles, her interests include frozen yogurt, beaches, and flip-flops. She spends her free time hiking, doing yoga, and eating chocolate.

Bill Evans, Health IT Initiative, Genentech

Bill currently works for Genentech developing and supporting Digital Health partnerships that will advance outcomes for patients and Genentech alike. Previously at Genentech he managed the Physician Facing Technology organization where he was accountable for product development, software engineering, and technology operations for a portfolio of online services. After starting his career at Goldman Sachs, he joined epinions.com where he was fed very well and given interesting problems in directed graph data representations to work on all day and night. Bill holds a degree in Economics from Harvard and is in the process of rebuilding an IH-345 V8 engine in his garage.

Jason Tsai, Director of Translational research for CV therapeutic, Gilead Sciences

Dr. Tsai is an experienced physician scientist with broad experience in both medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. He has worked in clinical development, biomarkers, medical affairs, and business development in several therapeutic areas, including oncology, cardiovascular medicine, inflammation, and neuroscience.
He now works for Gilead in Cardiovascular Therapeutic Area, where he runs clinical trials and biomarker studies. He also perform due diligence on potential in-licensing proposals/interdisciplinary indication explorations, and is the team expert on bioinformatic tools. He is an advisor to several start-ups in Silicon Valley

Ian Blumenfeld, Data Scientist and co-founder, InSample (moderator)

Ian is the CEO and cofounder of InSample, a health economics company with a mission to enable data driven development and decision making to the health and wellness space. He has an extensive background in advanced mathematics and analytics, with a PhD in physics and 4 subsequent years experience in health space data science. He has produced award winning research and best in class predictive disease models of Cardiovascular Disease and Heart Failure. With InSample, he is passionate about building products for companies dedicated to health and wellness to understand and communicate their value through quantifying their Return on Investment. Outside of InSample, he enjoys hiking and running with his dog off leash (and especially watching him run!), and has a real weakness for artisan coffee and ice cream, making the bay area a perfect place for him to live.

Agenda:
6:00-6:45pm: Registration and pre-party (with food & beverages)
6:45-7.30pm: Presentations
7:30-8:15pm: Panel discussion
8:15-8:30pm: Q&A session
8:30-9:00pm: Networking session