People working on methodology

Esther de Bekker-Grob, Associate Professor of Health Economics and Health Preferences at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Erasmus MC, and co-director of the interfaculty Erasmus Choice Modelling Centre. As a young academic, Dr. de Bekker-Grob has an impressive amount of peer-reviewed publications in high-quality journals, and for many of those she is the first author. Her research is closely linked to the theme of the proposed application. Quality and relevance of her research have been recognised inside and outside of academia, as she has already obtained about 2.5 million euro funding for her own line of research, including prestigious personal grants.

Juhaeri Juhaeri, PhD, is Vice President and Head of Global Safety Sciences at Sanofi. Juhaeri is an epidemiologist and statistician with over 20 year experience in epidemiologic research in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry. He joined Sanofi in 2001 where he built a Big Data system for epidemiologic research and signal detection. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the IMI PROTECT, a public-private project on Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology by a European Consortium. Juhaeri is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the IMEDS program, or Innovation in Medical Evidence Development and Surveillance, which was created under the Reagan-Udall Foundation to help advance the regulatory science needs of the FDA. Juhaeri is an Adjunct Faculty at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He received his PhD in Epidemiology from the same university.

Ulrik Kihlbom is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics at Uppsala University's Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB). He is part of the Mind the Risk team and responsible for the course in Medical Ethics and Medical Law at the Uppsala University Medical School. He is also responsible for an advanced-level course on Public Health Ethics. His research has focused on the issue of how bioethics can be empirically informed and contextually relevant, both in theoretical projects as well as in clinically-oriented projects. The theoretical issues concern moral judgement and guidance, autonomy and informed consent, value and genetic risk. His more clinically-oriented projects includes work on participation in Phase 1 and 3 cancer clinical trials, risk information to acute myeloid leukaemia patients as well as the role of family members and close ones in health-care decisions.

Bennett Levitan, MD-PhD is Senior Director, Epidemiology, at Janssen R&D. He introduced state-of-the-art patient-focused benefit-risk assessment to Janssen and has led numerous teams in preparation of benefit-risk assessments for regulatory submissions and health authority meetings. Bennett has published widely on both theoretical and pragmatic aspects in this field. He co-led development of the PhRMA Benefit-Risk Action Team (BRAT) Framework for benefit-risk assessment and serves on several committees that inform policy on patient preference and benefit-risk methods.

Charis Chirvalaki (ECPC) works to build bridges between policy and research project management, support the collaboration with research institutions, EU regulatory authorities, policymakers, industry and patient organizations and help the European Cancer Patient Coalition put cancer at the frontline of the European agenda. She has ten years of experience in European and International projects and has worked with a wide range of key players and stakeholders, including European and governmental institutions, academia, health services, local authorities. Charis Chirvalaki graduated from the Chemistry Department at University of Crete, Greece. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and Healthcare Management specialised in Epidemiology and a PhD from Medical School, University of Crete, Greece.

Ziede Burage (IAPO) provides patient input to PREFER’s methodology and recommendations. She also contributes toward the IMI-GetReal Initiative project. Ziede is IAPO’s Policy Manager and is leading policy development and research activities to ensure patients' voice is better heard in health policy making at global and regional levels. Before joining IAPO, Ziede worked at several international health NGOs and, most recently, at Cancer Research UK on policy development and research grants management. Ziede holds a Master in Human Rights from the City University London.

Kathi Apostolidis (ECPC) provides input to PREFER methodology work. She is a Board Member of ECPC-European Cancer Patient Coalition and the President of the Executive Committee of ELL.O.K., the Hellenic Cancer Federation in Greece. Kathi Apostolidis is a Public Affairs Consultant with a very broad and diversified experience in regulatory and public affairs, diplomacy, strategy, marketing and communications with international companies and public service. Jointly with the President, she is responsible for strategy, strategic alliances, relations with the European Commission and other EU and national high level cancer stakeholders.

Valentina Strammielloas (EPF) is part of the PREFER patient stakeholder advisory group.

Jenny Sharpe (MDUK) leads the patient input in the clinical case studies. She also gives input to PREFER communications, methodology and recommendations. Jenny is MDUK’s Research Communications Officer and is primarily responsible for translating research findings into a language that patients can understand. This involves engaging with a range of people, including scientists, industry representatives, clinicians, and individuals and families affected by neuromuscular conditions. Prior to joining MDUK, she completed a PhD in mitochondrial biology at University College London.