– Marc D. Silverstein, MD FACP, Chief Decision Scientist –
– Sarah K. Emond, MPP, Chief Operating Officer –
– Tanya Bobo, MS, MPH, Senior Technology Analyst –
 
Boston, Mass., November 30, 2009 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a leader in comparative effectiveness research, has hired three new personnel to support the expanding mission of ICER to produce and implement rigorous, independent comparative effectiveness research. Marc D. Silverstein, MD FACP, has joined as Chief Decision Scientist; Sarah K. Emond is the organization’s first Chief Operating Officer; and Tanya Bobo is the Senior Technology Analyst.
Dr. Silverstein brings over two decades of experience in medicine, clinical epidemiology and decision sciences to ICER and will lead the critical decision-analytic modeling component of the comparative effectiveness research conducted by ICER. Ms. Emond brings over a decade of experience in the business and policy of healthcare, having worked in strategic communications and in policy research, and will help lead the strategic growth of ICER during this critical juncture in national health reform. Ms. Bobo has advanced training in epidemiology, meta-analyses and evidence synthesis and will conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses to support ICER’s comparative effectiveness appraisals.
“Given the important role independent comparative effectiveness research will play in national efforts to reform our health care system, it is important that ICER have the leadership in place to help drive that innovation,” stated Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, FRCP, President of ICER. “Marc, Sarah and Tanya are contributing their vast expertise to help execute and define ICER’s agenda moving forward. Specifically, Marc’s experience in outcomes research and economic modeling; Sarah’s experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and in health policy; and Tanya’s scientific expertise in evidence synthesis, are essential to supporting ICER’s growth moving forward.”
Dr. Silverstein worked most recently as an independent health services research consultant at Health Care Research, specializing in health economics, decision analysis and cost-effectiveness research. In 2006-2007 he served as Chairman of the Department of Public Health at the Methodist Hospital in Houston and was Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College. Earlier in his career, Dr. Silverstein held positions as a Career Scientist at the Mayo Clinic, and Director of the Center for Health Care Research and Professor of General Internal Medicine, Biometry and Epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Silverstein’s research interests have focused on outcomes research, technology assessment, and the cost-effectiveness of preventive services.
Dr. Silverstein received his SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Following medical school, Dr. Silverstein completed his residency training in internal medicine at the New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical Center in New York and was a Henry J. Kaiser Fellow in General Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, with certificates of added qualification in Critical Care Medicine and in Geriatrics. Dr. Silverstein has served as a member of the research review committees for the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Veterans Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Silverstein has been principal investigator of research grants from the National Institutes of Health and industry. Dr. Silverstein is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles.
Ms. Emond most recently was Principal at SKE Communications, a health policy and communications consultancy, where she provided strategic communications counsel and legislative and literature research support to clients in the life sciences and health care policy industries, including work with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute. Prior to her role at SKE Communications, Ms. Emond was Manager of Corporate Communications at the commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, Oscient Pharmaceuticals. At Oscient, Ms. Emond was responsible for executing communications strategies for various audiences including media, investors, physicians and policymakers. Ms. Emond began her communications career as an Account Executive with Feinstein Kean Healthcare and worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A graduate of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Ms. Emond holds a Master of Public Policy degree with a concentration in health policy and holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Smith College.
Prior to her work at ICER, Ms. Bobo was an Epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health, Division of Zoonotic and Environmental Epidemiology. In that role, she conducted surveillance for various zoonotic diseases, including West Nile Virus diseases, Mycobacteriosis, and Vibriosis. Ms. Bobo also worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Global Migration and Quarantine as a Public Health Specialist during the SARS epidemic. She coordinated surveillance activities to help monitor passengers traveling from SARS-affected areas. Ms. Bobo is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health where she obtained a Master’s of Science in Epidemiology. Ms. Bobo also has a Master’s of Public Health in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health and a Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University.
About ICER
Launched in 2006, ICER is an academic comparative effectiveness research and policy program based at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA). Informed by priorities of payers, clinicians, and patients, and based at arms’ length from coverage decision-making structures in government and the private sector, ICER produces comparative effectiveness reviews linking clinical effectiveness and comparative value together in a rating system that is consistent and rigorous, yet flexible enough to be directly useful to multiple decision makers.