— New board members will bring their broad leadership experience – spanning patient advocacy, biomedical innovation, and state health policy – to help guide ICER in its mission to produce evidence that will help the health system achieve sustainable access to high-value care for all patients —

Boston – July 23, 2018 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today announced the election of three new members to its governance board: Tanisha Carino, PhD, Executive Director of FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute; Mark Skinner, JD, President and CEO of the Institute for Policy Advancement; and Anya Rader Wallack, PhD, Associate Director of the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health within Brown University’s School of Public Health.

“We are thrilled to expand our board with leaders who have dedicated their careers to making the US health care system work better for patients,” said Steven Pearson, MD, MSc, President of ICER. “They share with us the sense that ICER’s role as an independent, objective source of evidence review is critical to help support more transparent health care policy decisions. Together, their combined expertise will add further diversity to our board and strengthen its ability to guide ICER toward the fulfillment of its mission: to help all Americans achieve sustainable access to high-value care.”

“The fight against disease requires every part of the health industry to come together, put patients first, and follow the evidence toward better care,” said Dr. Carino. “I look forward to supporting ICER’s efforts to create a better balance between incentivizing pharmaceutical innovation and improving patients’ ability to access those innovative products.”Mr. Skinner added, “In leading both national and international patient advocacy organizations, I have seen firsthand how access challenges leave patients without important drugs they need. The safest, most effective drug that is not available, or no one is willing to pay for, is of no benefit to a patient. I have been impressed with ICER’s increasing efforts to engage directly with patients to understand from their perspective which outcomes matter most to them. Enhancing the patient voice is vital if drug makers and payers are to find common ground to keep high-value medicines within reach of patients.”

Reflecting on her time leading state health policy initiatives, Dr. Wallack said, “State and federal policymakers experience firsthand the tension between constituents who absolutely need better health care, and the limited financial resources available to pay for it. Seldom do policymakers have good evidence to support the choices they have to make. By serving as an independent and objective assessor of clinical effectiveness and value, ICER represents a uniquely American solution to help fix what ails our health system.”

ICER’s governance board has fiduciary responsibility for the overall operations of ICER and provides important strategic counsel to the organization’s leadership team. With these three additional members, the governance board now comprises the following national experts:

  • (Chair) Murray Ross, PhD, Vice President and Director of the Kaiser Institute for Health Policy, Kaiser Permanente
  • Ellen Andrews, PhD, Executive Director, Connecticut Health Policy Project
  • Carmella Bocchino, RN, MBA, President and CEO, CRB Strategies
  • Tanisha Carino, PhD, Executive Director of FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute
  • Wendy Everett, ScD, Special Advisor, Network for Excellence in Health Innovation
  • Peter Long, PhD, President and CEO, Blue Shield of California Foundation
  • Ron Pollack, JD, Chair Emeritus, Families USA
  • Lewis Sandy, MD, Executive Vice President of Clinical Advancement, UnitedHealth Group
  • Mark Skinner, JD, President and CEO, Institute for Policy Advancement
  • Frances Visco, JD, President, National Breast Cancer Coalition
  • Anya Rader Wallack, PhD, Associate Director of the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health and Professor of the Practice, Brown University’s School of Public Health

Biographies of New Members

Tanisha Carino, PhD, the respected senior executive with more than two decades of experience in academia, government, and the private sector, is Executive Director of FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute devoted to saving lives and improving the medical research system. Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Carino has been at the forefront of collaborative efforts to promote policies, research, and business practices that support the fight against disease and improve the lives of patients. She previously led the U.S. policy function for GlaxoSmithKline, a U.K.-based science-led global health care company. Prior to her role at GlaxoSmithKline, she spent more than a decade with Avalere Health, where, among other responsibilities, she founded the Center on Evidence Based Medicine and worked with patients, government, and senior leaders at Fortune 500 companies to maximize opportunities and mitigate challenges related to biomedical research and patient access. Prior to Avalere, Dr. Carino worked in the Medicare program to improve access for its beneficiaries and support the development of real-world evidence. Dr. Carino serves on the boards of the Alliance for Health Policy, the Medical Device Innovation Consortium, and Bread for the City. She is also a member of the Drug Information Association’s Patient Group Advisory Council and Women of Impact. She holds a BA in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta and a PhD in health policy from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She is an associate faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Fulbright fellow.

Mark Skinner, JD is President and CEO of the Institute for Policy Advancement, a global health strategies consulting company specializing in patient-centered health care and outcomes research. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University and a Senior Consultant to the Workers Compensation Research Institute. He has led both national and international patient organizations, including the World Federation of Hemophilia and National Hemophilia Foundation, where he currently serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council. He is the principal investigator for the Patient Reported Outcomes Burdens and Experiences (PROBE) study, a global research project to enhance the direct patient voice in health care decision-making. He is a board member of the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network and holds numerous roles as an advisor on critical blood safety and supply matters including serving on the US Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability. Previously, he was Vice President of State Programs with the American Insurance Association and Administrative Assistant/Chief of Staff to the Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives. He received degrees in Public and Business Administration from Kansas State University and a JD from Washburn University School of Law.

Anya Rader Wallack, PhD is the Associate Director of the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health and a Professor of the Practice in Brown University’s School of Public Health. Previously, she served in Rhode Island state government as Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services, Medicaid Director and Director of HealthSource RI, the state’s health insurance exchange. She also served in Vermont state government as Special Assistant for Health Policy for two Governors and Chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, which oversees cost control and provider payment innovation in the state. Dr. Wallack also served previously as interim President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, and ran her own health policy consulting firm, Arrowhead Health Analytics, with a focus on state and federal health policy. She represented Governor Howard Dean on First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force in 1993 and, from 1995-1998, ran the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care, a quasi-governmental agency that specializes in quality measurement and improvement at the state level. Dr. Wallack is a former member of the Vermont Board of Medical Practice and the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council. She holds a PhD in social policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

About ICER

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent non-profit research institute that produces reports analyzing the evidence on the effectiveness and value of drugs and other medical services. ICER’s reports include evidence-based calculations of prices for new drugs that accurately reflect the degree of improvement expected in long-term patient outcomes, while also highlighting price levels that might contribute to unaffordable short-term cost growth for the overall health care system.

ICER’s reports incorporate extensive input from all stakeholders and are the subject of public hearings through three core programs: the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF), the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (Midwest CEPAC), and the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (New England CEPAC). These independent panels review ICER’s reports at public meetings to deliberate on the evidence and develop recommendations for how patients, clinicians, insurers, and policymakers can improve the quality and value of health care. For more information about ICER, please visit ICER’s website.