Dr. Anderson is a professor of health policy and management and professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Public Health, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Program for Medical Technology and Practice Assessment. He recently stepped down as the National Program Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored program "Partnership for Solutions: Better Lives for People with Chronic Conditions".
Dr. Anderson is currently conducting research on chronic conditions, comparative insurance systems in developing countries, medical education, health care payment reform, and technology diffusion. He has directed reviews of health systems for the World Bank and USAID in multiple countries. He has authored two books on health care payment policy, published over 200 peer reviewed articles, testified in Congress over 35 times as an individual witness, and serves on multiple editorial committees.
Prior to his arrival at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Anderson held various positions in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he helped to develop Medicare prospective payment legislation.
Julie Brill
Julie Brill is an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Vermont. She was author of the 2005 Nation Association of Attorneys General Presidential Initiative Report, “Addressing the costs and Benefits of Prescription Drugs”. Julie was co-leader on the State Attorneys General consumer protection investigation involving Neurontin, which resulted in a 50-state settlement agreement in 2004. Julie has spearheaded Vermont’s litigation and legislative efforts in a wide variety of areas affecting consumers, including pharmaceutical issues, privacy, fair credit reporting, tobacco, and antitrust. Julie has been a Vice-Chair of the Consumer Protection Committee of the American Bar Association since 2002. In 2001, Julie received the Brandeis Award from Privacy International for her work in Vermont and nationally promoting consumers’ interests in privacy issues. In 1995, Julie received the Marvin Award from the National Association of Attorneys General, for her “outstanding leadership, expertise and achievement in advancing the goals of the association.” Julie lectures frequently on pharmaceutical, privacy and consumer protection issues around the country. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, and from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden scholarship for her commitment to public service.
Timothy Carey, M.D.
Dr Tim Carey received an MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 1976 and an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985. He is a practicing internist and Professor of Medicine at UNC. He currently directs the Cecil G Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC, which conducts over 60 projects each year on a variety of clinical and policy questions, with a special emphasis on underserved populations. Dr Carey's research interests include treatment of low back pain, health disparities and evidence-based medicine. He has been Co-principal Investigator of the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center for the past 9 years, and has also worked with the Oregon Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP) and is currently collaborating on information dissemination regarding Neurontin.
Richard Cauchi
Richard Cauchi is a Health Program Director at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Denver office, where he directs projects and research on Pharmaceuticals, Health Finance, Insurance and Managed Care. He has written issue reports on subjects including "State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs", "What's the Benefit? Medicare Rx and the States" and Consumer-Directed Health Care. In the past four years he provided special briefings on health policy at national meetings of state legislators in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, Washington, D.C. and for 20 legislative sessions including Alaska, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Utah. He has been cited recently in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Modern Healthcare and National Public Radio. Prior to joining NCSL in 1997, Richard spent 25 years working on public policy analysis and tracking bills in the Massachusetts State Legislature, including a 7-year stint working on Medicaid budgets. He majored in history at Tufts University in Massachusetts and also completed graduate courses in Asian studies. He presently resides in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
Jim Donahue
Pennsylvania Chief Deputy Attorney General, Antitrust
Sean Flynn
Sean M. Flynn is the Associate Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) at American University's Washington College of Law. His primary research focus is on legal frameworks governing access to essential goods and services, including constitutional and human rights law, intellectual property law, utility regulation, antitrust and consumer protection law.
He currently teaches an advanced legal seminar on Intellectual Property and Human Rights. Previously, Mr. Flynn taught South African Constitutional Law and Legal Reasoning and Argument at the University of Witwaterstrand, South Africa, and Harvard Law School, respectively. He is author of numerous published articles and book chapters on rights to access to medicines, water and other essential goods and services.
Prior to joining American University, Mr. Flynn completed clerkships with Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson on the South African Constitutional Court and with Judge Raymond Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Flynn has represented consumers and local governments in private practice and as Senior Attorney for the Consumer Project on Technology in Washington D.C.
Mark Gibson
Mark Gibson is currently a program officer for the Milbank Memorial Fund and Deputy Director of the Center for Evidence-based Policy at the Oregon Health and Science University.
Mr. Gibson became directly involved in state health policy deliberations when he served as Chief of Staff to Oregon Senate President John Kitzhaber M.D from 1985-1993. In this role Gibson supervised the staff of the Senate, and advised the President on the full range of issues considered by the Senate. During this time, Gibson participated directly in the drafting and passage of the groundbreaking Oregon Health Plan.
From 1995 through January of 2003, he served as Policy Advisor for Health, Human Services, and Labor to Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon. In this role he led Oregon's numerous health initiatives from Workers' Compensation Reform, to creation of the Oregon Children's Health Insurance Program and to a reorganization and expansion of the Oregon Health Plan. Most recently, Gibson led the effort to enact the Practitioner Managed Prescription Drug Plan, Oregon's answer to runaway drug costs in its Medicaid program. This approach uses systematic reviews of global drug effectiveness research to guide the creation of a preferred drug list that is both clinically sound and economical.
From 2000 - 2002 Gibson served as Co-chair of the Reforming States Group, a voluntary nonpartisan collaboration of senior health policy officials from both the legislative and executive branches of state government.
J. Kevin Gorospe, Pharm.D.
Dr. Gorospe graduated from the University of the Pacific, School of Pharmacy in 1982 with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Dr. Gorospe has a diverse background covering retail, long-term care consulting, and public policy in his more than 25 years of experience in pharmacy. Dr. Gorospe has worked in the area mental health and geriatric medicine as a long-term care consultant pharmacist and as pharmacy administrator with the California Department of Developmental Services.
Dr. Gorospe is currently the policy chief for Medi-Cal's pharmacy program. He joined Medi-Cal as a Senior Pharmaceutical Consultant in April 1995, becoming policy chief in November 2000. Since becoming chief, Dr. Gorospe has provided oversight in the expansion of the pharmacy program's mission and activities. The program is now comprised of three distinct units that are responsible for the management of the drug, medical supply and nutritional supplement benefits. In addition, the Medi-Cal pharmacy program has more than doubled its staff of pharmacists and analysts over the past two years. Dr. Gorospe, as chief of policy, is responsible for budgeting, legislation, policy changes, and to act as the primary consultant on pharmaceutical issues for the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Governor, as well as the Legislature.
Over the past eleven years in Medi-Cal, Dr. Gorospe has been a key individual in the development of many new systems and policies within the Medi-Cal program including Medi-Cal's Rebate Accounting Information System, the California Mental Health Disease Management (CalMEND) program, the California Medicare Discount Drug program, the California Discount Prescription Drug Program, and in the implementation of Medicare Part D. Dr. Gorospe also serves as an advisor to the Medicine for People in Need Advisory Board, the California Long Term Care Council, and to the Pharmacy Access Partnership.
Marcia Hams
As Director of Prescription Policy Initiatives, Ms. Hams directs The Prescription Project's state and public payer initiatives. She has worked for over sixteen years to expand access to health care through her work at Community Catalyst, a national non-profit advocacy organization, and its partner organization, Health Care For All, one of the most influential state consumer health organizations in the country. Ms. Hams directed Community Catalyst's Medicaid Matters project, a national collaboration to provide effective materials, messages and policy analysis for the defense of Medicaid. As HCFA's Deputy Director for Programs, she managed the major program areas; previously she conducted policy analysis, coordinated campaigns, did legislative advocacy and provided assistance to community organizations on children's health access, Medicaid, managed care, free care and community benefits. Ms. Hams also managed HCFA's survey research on the insurance status of fishing communities in New England and helped develop the Massachusetts Fishing Partnership Health Plan, a comprehensive, subsidized plan to meet the needs of uninsured families. She has a Masters Degree in Anthropology from Boston University and completed her doctoral work in health policy at the Heller School, Brandeis University.
David Hart
David joined the Oregon Attorney General's office in 1999 after a 16-year career as Physical Therapist practicing in Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Home Health Agencies in New York City and Portland, Oregon. His current practice consists exclusively of the investigation and prosecution of consumer health fraud. He has organized and led numerous multistate actions relating to pharmaceuticals and medical devices. David has degrees from Oberlin College (Government), New York University (Pathokinesiology), and the Northwest School of Law at Lewis and Clark College.
Elinor Hoffmann
Elinor R. Hoffmann specializes in antitrust law and complex litigation in both the public and private sectors, and teaches Antitrust Issues in Health Care as an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School.
Prior to joining the Office of the NYS Attorney General, she spent 25 years in private practice, including 16 years as a partner in the international law firm of Coudert Brother, LLP.
Ms. Hoffmann has litigated, arbitrated and mediated antitrust, RICO, fraud, contract and other cases through trial, appeal and settlement. In addition, in private practice, she counseled domestic and foreign clients on a large variety of antitrust and dispute resolution issues, and as an Assistant Attorney General, her work has included competition policy and advocacy projects. Among other things, Ms. Hoffmann testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General concerning repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Ms. Hoffmann’s career has spanned the health care, construction, energy, transportation, finance and manufacturing sectors, among others. She has written extensively on antitrust, litigation and project finance topics, and most recently, served as a member of the Board of Editors of Antitrust Law Developments (Sixth), a respected antitrust treatise published by the American Bar Association.
Ms. Hoffmann received a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School, where she served as Managing Editor of the Law Review, and holds an LLM in Antitrust and Trade Regulation from New York University School of Law.
Jerry Kassirer M.D.
Jerome P. Kassirer, a native of Buffalo, NY, graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine in 1957. He trained in Internal Medicine at Buffalo General Hospital and in Nephrology at the New England Medical Center in Boston. He joined the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine in 1961, was named Professor of Medicine in 1974, and was the Sara Murray Jordan Professor of Medicine from 1987 to 1991. From 1971 to 1991 he was Associate Physician-in-Chief of the New England Medical Center and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Kassirer served as Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine between 1991 and 1999. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Senior Assistant to the Dean at Tufts University School of Medicine. He was also on the adjunct faculty of Yale (2000-2005) and Case School of Medicine (2005-2006).
Dr. Kassirer has published numerous original research and clinical studies, textbook chapters and books on nephrology (in particular, acid-base equilibrium), medical decision making, and the diagnostic process. He was a co-founder and co-editor of Nephrology Forum in the journal Kidney International and of Clinical Problem Solving in Hospital Practice until 1991.
Dr. Kassirer was elected to AOA as a student and was named the AOA Distinguished Clinical Teacher of the Year in 1989. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and has received the College's John Phillips Award. He was named Distinguished Alumnus by the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo and has received the Distinguished Faculty Award from Tufts University School of Medicine and the Distinguished Service Award of the Alumni Association of Tufts University. He has six honorary degrees, including one from L'Universite Rene Descartes in Paris. He is an honorary member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin.
Dr. Kassirer has served on the American College of Physicians' Board of Governors and Board of Regents, chaired the National Library of Medicine's Board of Scientific Counselors, and is a past Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and Open Medicine. He has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In editorials in the New England Journal of Medicine, and in multiple publications since, he has promoted professionalism, ethical scientific conduct, patient involvement in decision making, appropriate use of firearms, and reliable approaches to the assessment of the quality of health care. He was been highly critical of for-profit medicine, the abuses of managed care, political intrusions into medical decisions, and financial conflicts of interest. His latest book, about financial conflict of interest in medicine, "On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity With Big Business Endangers Your Health," was published by Oxford University Press in October, 2004.
Aaron Kesselheim, M.D., J.D.
Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., is a Faculty Development Fellow at the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics and at the Harvard School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his postgraduate training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Law School. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and serves as a primary care internist and general medicine attending at the hospital. His research focuses on the interplay of intellectual property laws and patents with the drug approval process and the costs and availability of therapeutic entities. However, he has also published numerous articles on the impact of different legal constructs and government regulatory efforts on the American health care system, including expert testimony in malpractice cases, ERISA, insurance reimbursement practices, and presidential health. He is a member of the New York State Bar and is a Patent Attorney.
Marvin Lipman, M.D.
Marvin M. Lipman, M.D., has been Consumers Union's Chief Medical Adviser since 1967. He is the Medical Editor of Consumer Reports magazine and, since its beginnings in 1989, of Consumer Reports on Health. His monthly column, "Office Visit", has appeared in virtually every issue of that newsletter.
Dr. Lipman has represented Consumers Union on advisory panels of the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). He was a member of the 2000-2005 Board of Trustees of the USP, representing the public. He currently serves on the USP's Council of the Convention.
A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons, Dr. Lipman is a practicing physician, board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Endocrinology and is Clinical Professor of Medicine (emeritus) at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y.
Pat Lupinetti
Patrick Lupinetti is an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State MFCU and was the initial Director of the MFCU Special Projects Unit, which operates throughout New York State with the primary mission of investigating facilities, institutions and cost-based providers. Investigations conducted by the Special Projects Unit include statewide surveys of personal care and long term home health care providers, a review and recovery of multi-million dollar overbillings by hospital outpatient clinics, Medicaid fraud prosecutions of deficient nursing home care and participation in numerous joint state-federal investigations of pharmaceutical pricing practices and Medicaid drug rebate underpayments. Pat has served on the Training Committee of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and as an instructor in the Association's Advanced Training Course. He was graduated from the Columbia University School of Law in 1979 and has been an Assistant Attorney General with the MFCU since 1986.
Lew Morris
Lewis Morris is the Chief Counsel in the Office of Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, Lew is responsible for coordinating the OIG’s role in the investigation and resolution of health care fraud cases, including cases brought under the civil False Claims Act. He also is responsible for deciding whether to exclude a health care provider from participation in the Federal and State Health care programs, as well as negotiating the imposition of corporate integrity agreements in cases where the decision has been made not to seek exclusion. As part of the OIG’s effort to promote compliance with program requirements, Lew oversees the issuance of the compliance program guidance, advisory opinions and other assistance to the health care industry.
Prior to serving as the Chief Counsel to the Inspector General, Lew served in a variety of capacities within the OIG and the Office of General Counsel, including the Inspector General=s Special Prosecutor. He has been a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
Patricia Molino
Patricia Molino is Vice President, Issues and Communications Management, Johnson & Johnson, with responsibility for Public Affairs and Policy Communications for Johnson & Johnson's worldwide enterprise.
A seasoned counselor in healthcare, Ms. Molino has developed and implemented successful corporate, policy and other communications programs for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals, and health care systems, managed care, professional organizations, industry groups, advocacy groups and others.
Ms. Molino has served on many industry groups, including at PhRMA, where she was instrumental in the development of the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, the industry's DTC Principles on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising, as well as several other initiatives to enhance the industry's engagement in a changing healthcare marketplace.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Molino was VP of the healthcare practice at a New York agency, led public information at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and was President of Molino & Associates, a full-service healthcare communications firm. Clients included Pharmaceutical Partners for Better Healthcare as well as pharmaceutical, biotech and device companies, associations, government agencies and others stakeholders in healthcare. Ms. Molino serves on several boards including the Public Affairs Council and National Medical Fellowships.
John Rother
John Rother is the Policy and Strategy Director for AARP. He is responsible for federal and state public policy formulation and for policy research and analysis across the broad range of issues that affect Americans 50 and older. He is also responsible for AARP's Global Aging Initiative, and for developing the overall advocacy strategy that guides the work of AARP staff and volunteers.
John Rother came to AARP in 1984, after 4 years as Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging under Chairman John Heinz (R-Pa). Prior to that he was Special Counsel for Health and Labor to Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY). He is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Rother is a frequent presence in the media and has testified before the Congress on many occasions. He is expert on a wide range of issues, including Social Security, pensions, Medicare, private health insurance, Medicaid, long-term care, older workers, and consumer protection.
David Rothman, Ph.D.
David J. Rothman is President of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons.
Trained in American social history at Harvard University, David Rothman began his career by exploring the history of mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. His 1971 book, The Discovery of the Asylum (new editions 1990 and 2003), was the co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. Conscience and Convenience (1980), and the Willowbrook Wars (1984, new edition 2005, co-authored with Sheila M. Rothman) brought the story to the present.
David Rothman joined the Columbia medical school faculty in 1983 and his subsequent work has examined the history of health care practices and health policy. He has published Strangers at the Bedside: A History of how Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (1991), Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care (1997), and The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman).
David Rothman's other interests include organ transplantation and human rights and medicine. Together with Sheila Rothman, he received a Robert Wood Johnson health policy award to study the social and policy implications of the rise in living kidney donation, and in February 2006, published an article entitled "The Hidden Cost of Organ Sale" in the American Journal of Transplantation. He has also written extensively on the ethics of human experimentation; in the New York Review of Books, he has addressed such issues as how AIDS came to infect Romanian orphans, the ethics of research in third-world countries, and how trafficking in organs for transplantation has become worldwide phenomena. Their work in these areas was published as a New York Review book: Trust is Not Enough: Bringing Human Rights to Medicine.
David Rothman is now addressing the place of professionalism in medicine. His initial publication in this area appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine: "Medical Professionalism - Focusing on the Real Issues." He has more recently, in collaboration with the ABIM Foundation, published the JAMA article "Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest." With an endowment from the Open Society Institute and George Soros, he established IMAP, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making professionalism a field and a force within medicine.
Meredith Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Meredith Rosenthal, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Health Economics and Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management and a 2006 Sloan Industry Fellow. Dr. Rosenthal received her Ph.D. in health policy at Harvard University in 1998. Dr. Rosenthal's principal research interests revolve around economic incentives that influence consumer and provider health care decisions. Her other substantive interests include the pharmaceutical industry, mental health policy, and the economics of smoking. She is currently working on a series of related projects that examine evolving trends in the health insurance market, including consumer-directed health plans and financial incentives for improving health care quality and patient safety.
Pat O'Connell,
Pat O'Connell, Texas Assistant Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud
David Ogden
Partner and Co-Chair, Government and Public Policy Litigation Group, Wilmer Hale, Washington D.C.
David Ogden focuses on high-stakes disputes with complex legal and policy dimensions and serious financial implications. His clients include leading companies in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, insurance, financial, airline, defense, automotive, media, and internet industries, as well as major trade and professional associations, nonprofit foundations, and individuals. Representative matters include:
national and international class actions and government enforcement actions under regulatory regimes such as the antitrust or competition laws, the False Claims Act, and anti-discrimination laws;
cases raising issues of public and private international law, such as investor-state disputes, enforcement of foreign judgments, and injunctions against foreign litigation;
litigation to restrain the enforcement of federal or state statutes, including federal preemption, Commerce Clause, equal protection, due process, and expropriation issues;
administrative law and other litigation involving defects in government regulations or other official actions;
media litigation, including censorship, commercial speech, defamation, and First Amendment issues; and
Supreme Court litigation, including representation of parties and amicus curiae.
A nationally recognized litigator with more than twenty-five years' experience, Mr. Ogden has served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice (1999-2001), the Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General (1997-99), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1995-97), and Deputy General Counsel and Legal Counsel at the US Department of Defense (1994-95).
Tom Snedden
Tom Snedden, Director, Pennsylvania's prescription drug assistance program, PACE
Shirley Stark
Shirley Stark is a Section Chief in the NY Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection. Over the last twenty years in the Bureau, Ms. Stark has led many New York state and multistate investigations into a variety of industry-wide practices involving prescription drug advertising, pharmaceutical pricing, food and nutrition advertising, sweepstakes solicitations, privacy issues and predatory lending. Many of these investigations have resulted in industry-wide reforms.
Sharon Treat
Representative Sharon Anglin Treat serves on the Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Insurance & Financial Affairs and the Maine Citizen Policy Trade Commission. She is an attorney and since 2004 has served as Executive Director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, a nonpartisan organization of state legislators working jointly to reduce prescription drug prices and expand access. Rep. Treat is in her eighth term in the Maine Legislature including four terms in the Maine Senate where she was Senate Majority Leader (2002-04) and Assistant Leader (2000-02).
Rep. Treat has taught environmental law at several colleges in Maine and at the University of Maine Law School and has practiced law with an environmental advocacy group, in state government and in private practice. In the Legislature, Rep. Treat has chaired the Health and Human Services, Judiciary, and Natural Resources Committees, and has sponsored significant environmental and health care legislation including reducing mercury and other toxics in the environment; Maine Rx Plus discount drug program; Dirigo Health (Maine's uninsured health access law); PBM regulation; and drug marketing disclosure.
Rep. Treat has an A.B. degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and graduated with a J.D. with honors from Georgetown University Law Center.
Michael Valentino, R.Ph., MHSA
Michael A. Valentino was assigned to the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Office as the Chief Consultant for the Pharmacy Benefits Management Strategic Healthcare Group in June 2004. In that position, Mr. Valentino is responsible for planning and directing a wide variety of VA pharmacy issues including drug benefit design, formulary management and pharmaceutical contracting, automated prescription fulfillment, professional pharmacy practice, emergency pharmacy services and drug therapy policy development.
Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Valentino served as the Associate Chief Consultant for the Pharmacy Benefits Management Strategic Healthcare Group in Hines, Illinois where his responsibilities included management of VA National Formulary initiatives, and drug therapy outcomes assessment.
Mr. Valentino has also served as Director of Primary Care and Chief of Pharmacy Service at the Topeka VA Medical Center, Formulary Leader for VA Network 15 and in a variety of other VA positions. Mr. Valentino received a B.S. in Pharmacy from Creighton University in 1983, a Master of Health Services Administration from Arizona State University in 1991 and is a U.S. Army veteran.
Mr. Valentino is a recipient of Vice President Gore's National Performance Award for Reinventing Government for participation in the development of VA's prototype bar-code medication administration system (BCMA) and of the American Society of Military Surgeons' 2006 Andrew Craigie Award.
Carlton E. Wessel
Mr. Wessel is Senior Corporate Counsel for Pfizer Inc. He is the head of the government investigations group at Pfizer, which handles all government investigations, including those conducted by United States Attorney’s Offices, the Department of Justice, state Attorneys General, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Congress. Mr. Wessel also works on other litigation and compliance issues at Pfizer. Prior to joining Pfizer, Mr. Wessel was Senior Director for Litigation at Schering-Plough Corp. Prior to his employment in the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Wessel was an Assistant U. S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey. There, he prosecuted health care fraud, political corruption and other white collar criminal cases. While at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Wessel was awarded the Director’s Award (Justice Department’s highest award) from the Attorney General for superior performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Mr. Wessel was a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court in New Jersey. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Boston College Law School.
Deborah A. Zarin, M.D.
Deborah A. Zarin, M.D. is the Director, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Assistant Director for Clinical Research Projects at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications in the National Library of Medicine. In this capacity, Dr. Zarin oversees the development and operation of an international registry of clinical trials.
Previous positions held by Dr. Zarin include the Director, Technology Assessment Program, at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Director of the Practice Guidelines program at the American Psychiatric Association. In these positions, Dr. Zarin conducted systematic reviews and related analyses in order to develop clinical and policy recommendations. Dr. Zarin’s academic interests are in the area of evidence based clinical and policy decision making.
Dr. Zarin graduated from Stanford University and received her doctorate in medicine from Harvard Medical School. She completed a clinical decision making fellowship, and is board certified in general psychiatry, as well as in child and adolescent psychiatry.
