Featured Physician Executive: David B. Karpf, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is David B. Karpf, M.D.

David B. Karpf has more than 20 years of experience in guiding the clinical development of novel therapeutics, both at growing biotechnology firms and within large pharmaceutical companies. David is responsible for all clinical, regulatory and medical affairs functions related to advancing Virobay’s growing pipeline of novel product candidates.

Featured Physician Executive: Maurizio Voi, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Maurizio Voi, M.D.

Earlier this week, the following press release was issued about Dr. Voi:

Curis Announces Appointment of Maurizio Voi, M.D. as Chief Medical and Chief Development Officer

- Dr. Voi brings over 20 years of broad industry experience including development of XALKORI® (crizotinib), Erbitux® (cetuximab), Sprycel® (dasatinib) and Gemzar® (gemcitabine for injection) -

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced the appointment of Maurizio Voi, M.D., as Chief Medical and Chief Development Officer. Dr. Voi will be responsible for the Company's development, clinical trial and regulatory affairs operations, as well as biomarker and translational medicine activities.

Featured Physician Executive: Dr. Douglass Given

This week, our featured physician executive is Dr. Douglass Given. The following information about Dr. Given is from the Arrowhead Research Corporation website:

Dr. Douglass Given is a biotechnology industry executive and investor with extensive experience in founding, operating, and financing companies for the successful development and commercialization of innovative technologies. Dr. Given is Chairman and CEO of Vivaldi Biosciences Inc., Chairman of VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and an Investment Partner at Bay City Capital LLC.

Featured Physician Executive: Cristoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Cristoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder and Partner, Longwood Founders Fund

Dr. Westphal founded Longwood Founders Fund, a venture capital fund based in Boston, and serves as General Partner.

In addition to these roles, Dr. Westphal is the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sirtris, which he co-founded in 2004 and led as Chief Executive Officer until 2010. Under his leadership, Sirtris established itself as a recognized pioneer in the research and development of drugs targeting the aging process enzymes. In 2007, Dr. Westphal successfully guided the company through its initial public offering, resulting in recognition by the Boston Globe as one of the Globe 100 top companies of 2007. In June 2008, GSK acquired Sirtris for $720 million.

Featured Physician Executive: Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.
President/CEO Lahey Clinic

A physician, attorney and health care chief executive, Howard R. Grant, JD, MD, the president and chief executive officer of Lahey Clinic, has played a vital role in influencing patient safety and superior clinical care for more than two decades at some of the nation’s most preeminent health care institutions.

At Geisinger Health System, Dr. Grant was the executive vice president and chief medical officer responsible, with his administrative colleagues, for operations and budgets for 27 clinical service lines, and physician and administrator recruitment. He was also charged with aligning clinical operations with Geisinger Health Plan, a not-for-profit insurance company.

Featured Physician Executive: Samuel Nussbaum, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Samuel Nussbaum, MD
Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, Chief Medical Officer for WellPoint, Inc

Dr. Samuel Nussbaum is Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, Chief Medical Officer for WellPoint, Inc., and Interim President of WellPoint’s Comprehensive Health Solutions Business Unit.

Within Clinical Health Policy, Nussbaum oversees corporate medical policy, clinical pharmacy programs, and public health policy. He also has responsibility for HealthCore, WellPoint’s clinical outcomes research subsidiary. As the leader of Comprehensive Health Solutions, which includes WellPoint’s provider relations, care and disease management, imaging management, personal health guidance companies, and WellPoint’s pharmacy solutions group, Nussbaum is responsible for focusing on the issues of medical cost, quality of care and enhancing member value through innovative health solutions.

Featured Physician Executive: Andrew J. Sussman, M.D., M.B.A.

This week, our featured physician executive is Andrew J. Sussman, M.D., M.B.A. President, MinuteClinic, SVP and Associate Chief Medical Officer, CVS/Caremark

Andrew J. Sussman, M.D., M.B.A. has been President of MinuteClinic, the largest retail clinic provider in the United States, since 2009, growing them over 40%, and expanding its scope of services and health system affiliations. He is also the SVP and Associate Chief Medical Officer of CVS/Caremark.

He was previously Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of UMass Memorial Medical Center, the largest healthcare provider in central New England, and was responsible for all clinical services and daily operations at the 800 bed academic medical center, the major teaching affiliate of UMass Medical School. Dr. Sussman is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Featured Physician Executive: Barbara Gastel, M.D., M.P.H.

Interested in medical writing? This week, our featured physician executive is Barbara Gastel, M.D., M.P.H.

Barbara Gastel, a physician specializing in biomedical writing and editing, is professor of integrative biosciences, humanities in medicine, and biotechnology at Texas A&M University, where she coordinates the master's degree program in science and technology journalism.

Dr. Gastel earned a BA from Yale and an MD and an MPH from Johns Hopkins. After medical school, she did an American Association for the Advancement of Science mass media fellowship at Newsweek. She then worked in communication and administration at the National Institutes of Health. She also has taught science writing at MIT, and she spent two years as visiting professor of technical communication at Beijing Medical University (now Peking University Health Science Center). Before coming to Texas A&M University in 1989, she was assistant dean for teaching at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Featured Physician Executive: Steve Ondra, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Steve Ondra, MD.

Steve Ondra, MD, Co-Chair of Health IT, National Office of Science and Technology Policy, Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Veterans Affairs
Dr. Stephen Ondra, M.D., was appointed as Senior Policy Advisor for Health Affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by President Obama on May 10, 2009. Prior to that, he served on the Veterans Affairs group in the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, as well as on the Obama-Biden Campaign Health Policy and Veteran’s Policy committees.

Featured Physician Executive: Roni Zeiger, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Dr. Roni Zeiger.

Dr. Roni Zeiger is Chief Health Strategist at Google where he leads health efforts including health search and the recently launched Google Body. He continues to see patients on occasional evenings and weekends at a local urgent care center. Roni co-founded the blog Seduce Health, and writes for ABCNews.com and The Huffington Post. He has written and edited several medical textbooks and has published articles on topics including continuing medical education, clinical decision support tools, and searching for health information on the web. Roni also created a tool called Diagnosaurus which helps clinicians remember the possible diagnoses for given symptoms.

Featured Physician Executive: Benjamin Kanter, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Benjamin Kanter, MD. He is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) of Palomar Pomerado Health.

Dr. Kanter is board-certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease, and received special certification in critical care in 1990. He has been in private practice in Escondido, CA, for 22 years. Dr. Kanter graduated from the University of Michigan with distinction and honors, after which he received his medical degree and internal medicine training at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Dr. Kanter completed his post-doctoral studies in both pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at the UCSD Medical center. Dr. Kanter continued to teach at UCSD as an associate clinical professor of medicine after going into private practice. He has served in numerous leadership roles within PPH including chairing the Departments of Medicine at both Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital, directing respiratory and critical care services at Pomerado Hospital. He founded and maintains his directorship over the Palomar Medical Center Sleep Disorders Laboratory.

Featured Physician Executive: Murray M. Lumpkin, M.D., M.Sc.,

This week, our featured physician executive is Murray Lumpkin, MD, Senior Advisor and Representative for Global Issues at the FDA.

Dr. Murray M. Lumpkin was formerly the deputy commissioner for international programs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Lumpkin was responsible for all of FDA's international activities, including:

• interactions with foreign counterpart agencies and major multinational public health organizations
• foreign confidentiality and other agreements
• foreign technical cooperation and harmonization programs
• interactions with embassies in Washington, D.C.
• activities of FDA’s Office of International Programs, including the 13 FDA foreign posts in China, Europe, India, Latin America, and the Middle East

Featured Physician Executive: Martin S. Kohn, MD, MS, FACEP, CPE

This week, our featured physician executive is Martin S. Kohn, MD, MS, FACEP, CPE. He is IBM's Chief Medical Scientist. We both share the fact that we have undergraduate degrees from MIT. He was course 6 (electrical engineering/computer science) and I was course 2 (mechanical engineering).

Dr. Martin Kohn, Chief Medical Scientist, IBM Research
Martin Kohn, MD, is Chief Medical Scientist, IBM Research where he is leading efforts to apply IBM’s Watson super computer and its underlying Deep Question Answering technology to advanced analytics in the healthcare industry.

His work focuses on combining IBM’s Deep QA, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning capabilities for the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Featured Physician Executive: Krishna R. Polu, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Krishna R. Polu, M.D.

Earlier this month, Affymax, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFY) announced the promotion of Krishna Polu, M.D. to vice president, Clinical Development. Dr. Polu, a nephrologist, joined Affymax in 2009 as executive director, Clinical Development.

Prior to joining Affymax, Dr. Polu was executive director, Global Development at Amgen where he was responsible for clinical programs in nephrology, diabetes and heart failure. Specifically, he led the global clinical development programs for both EPOGEN and Aranesp while at Amgen. Before joining Amgen, he was a clinical and research fellow at Harvard Medical School in the Renal Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He earned a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and a M.D. from University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado.

Featured Physician Executive: Jeffrey A. Spaeder, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Jeffrey A. Spaeder, M.D.

Recently, Quintiles announced the appointment of Jeffrey A. Spaeder, M.D., as its Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. He succeeds Dr. Oren Cohen who now leads Quintiles’ Phase I clinical research business.

In this role, Dr. Spaeder will serve as Quintiles' lead medical expert, representing the company's position on a wide variety of governance, ethical and scientific issues. As Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Dr. Spaeder will provide leadership in the ethical conduct of studies. He will chair Quintiles’ Drug Safety Committee and serve as vice-chair of Quintiles’ Council on Research Ethics. Additionally, Spaeder will provide guidance on strategic scientific initiatives.

Featured Physician Executive: Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD

This week, our featured physician executive is Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD.

Dr. Spielberg was recently appointed the deputy commissioner for medical products and tobacco for the FDA. Dr. Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD, a former dean of Dartmouth Medical School and current director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, will oversee the Centers for drug, biologics, medical devices and tobacco products, and will also oversee Special Medical programs. Spielberg, who becomes deputy commissioner for medical products and tobacco, spent seven years at J&J, where he headed pediatric clinical trials internationally until 2003, having joined from Merck, where he did research in pharmacogenetics and chaired PhRMA's pediatric task force. He has served on the FDA's scientific advisory board for the past two years.

Featured Physician Executive: Rodney Hamilton, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Rodney Hamilton, M.D.

Rodney Hamilton, M.D. is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) of PointClear Solutions, Inc. – an innovation leader specializing in health information technology (HIT) product development services.

Prior to joining PointClear Solutions in 2011, Dr. Hamilton was the Corporate Director of Medical Informatics for Vanguard Health Systems, a 26 hospital investor-owned health system based in Nashville, TN. His responsibilities included the creation of the overall clinical information systems strategy for the inpatient and outpatient settings, the development of Vanguard’s health information exchange strategy, the creation of a business intelligence infrastructure for the clinical operations and quality departments, and the development of tools and process for developing and managing clinical content and clinical decision support. In addition to these responsibilities, he also actively participated in key quality and patient safety initiatives and corporate strategic planning activities. He was routinely engaged to suggest innovative informatics approaches for continuously improving performance throughout the health system.

Featured Physician Executive: Paul Rubin, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Paul Rubin, M.D.

Paul Rubin, M.D. as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of XOMA Ltd. A senior biopharmaceutical executive with expertise in antibodies, small molecules and inflammatory diseases, during his career Dr. Rubin was responsible for clinical development and approval of several products while at Sepracor, Inc. and Abott Laboratories. Patrick J. Scannon, M.D., Ph.D., a XOMA founder who had been Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer since March of 2009, will now serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.

Featured Physician Executive: Steven M. Fruchtman, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Dr. Steven M. Fruchtman.

Steven M. Fruchtman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Head of Medical & Regulatory Affairs, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Fruchtman joined Spectrum in February 2011 to head clinical development. Previously, Dr. Fruchtman was with Allos Therapeutics, where he was involved with the development of pralatrexate (Folotyn) for hematologic and oncologic indications. Prior to joining Allos, Dr. Fruchtman was Senior Director of US Clinical Development and Medical Affairs for Novartis Pharmaceuticals. At Novartis, he was responsible for the development of LBH589 (Panobinostat) for hematologic and oncologic indications and was responsible for registration trials in the United States for several indications; lead development of post marketing trials for Proleukin (IL-2) in renal cell carcinoma and melanoma; and lead development of RAD001 (Afinitor) for hematological indications.

Featured Physician Executive: Binh Nguyen, M.D., Ph.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Binh Nguyen, M.D., Ph.D.

Binh Nguyen, M.D., Ph.D. is Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Endocyte. Dr. Nguyen has more than 20 years of experience in clinical drug development. He was previously Chief Medical Officer at Tigris Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, he worked at Eli Lilly for 10 years, most recently as Executive Director, Global Oncology Platform Team, for which he was responsible for the global development of Gemzar®, Alimta®, and Enzastaurin. Dr. Nguyen's work contributed to the global approvals of Alimta® and Gemzar® in six indications: mesothelioma, first and second-line non-small cell lung cancer, as well as pancreatic, bladder, breast and ovarian cancers.