Using Sustainability to Empower Patient Engagement Goals in Medicine Development

Nicholas Brooke is the Founder and Executive Director of The Synergist, an incubator and managing organization to multi-stakeholder platforms that brings key players together with the express aim of solving significant societal problems through collective actions. The Synergist also helps individual organizations to build the capacity and capability to better engage with key stakeholders in partnerships to solve societal issues. Under Mr Brooke’s leadership, The Synergist acts as a backbone, providing vision, strategy, stakeholder alignment and execution on multiple international, multi-stakeholder programs. Bringing his Synergist and caregiver hats together, he is the Executive Director of PFMD.org, a pre-competitive multi-stakeholder global collaborative platform dedicated to stimulating innovation in medicine and device lifecycles, digital health and health system through systematic patient engagement, WITH patients. Mr Brooke is Economist by training and was previously CEO of an award-winning digital agency, providing cutting-edge digital strategy to global corporations across multiple sectors. His deep understanding of how digital strategy can facilitate and accelerate collective action, and generate evidence for informed decisions drove him to see the potential for an independent organization that can enable partnerships and drive them to jointly solve societal challenges. Working with key players from across the public-private spectrum, The Synergist currently manages shared value programs including From Testing to Targeted Treatment (FT3), Motherhood Collective Impact, and PFMD as well as contributes to European public-private partnerships including IMI-Conception, IMI-Paradigm, and IMI-Gravitate.

Gunnar Esiason is a cystic fibrosis and rare disease patient leader. He is the head of patient engagement at RA Capital's venture group, RA Ventures. Mr Esiason has been the face of fundraising efforts for the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which has yielded close to $200 million raised for the fight against cystic fibrosis since 1993. He was a founding advisor of the non-profit No Patient Left Behind, and previously led patient operations at a leading clinical trial technology startup. Mr Esiason has been a leading voice on rare disease market access issues with health policies opinions featured in The Hill, Wall Street Journal and STAT News. Mr Esiason holds an MBA and MPH from Dartmouth College and a BA from Boston College.

After nearly 30 years of experience working with non-profits across the country, Susan Gaffney joined the National Health Council in March 2020 and is now its Executive Vice President of Membership, Development, and Events. Ms Gaffney provides strategic direction for the groups fundamental work of ensuring that its robust membership is engaged and supported while tackling the critical issues related to chronic health conditions, which are at the heart of the NHC’s mission. Ms Gaffney’s progressive experience in both the health and non-profit sectors allows her to draw on a range of skills and experiences in helping to drive the NHC’s work. Previously, Ms Gaffney had been the National Director of Membership and Governance at NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where she focused on nonprofit governance, compliance, strategy, and member support. She has also worked in a variety of roles in the nonprofit education and health sectors in Washington, DC, New York, and San Francisco including the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. Growing up in Long Island, New York, Ms Gaffney is especially proud of her background as a first-generation American who maintains dual citizenship with her family’s ancestral home in Ireland. As a mother of three boys, family is near and dear to Ms Gaffney’s heart and just as part of the NHC’s work includes advocating on behalf of caregivers, Ms Gaffney herself has firsthand experience in that role, having spent over 10 years helping to care for her own parents during their struggles with chronic health issues. Ms Gaffney earned a master’s in Nonprofit Management and Public Policy from the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment at The New School in New York City, and a bachelor’s in history from St. Bonaventure University. She is certified in Group Facilitation by the Institute of Cultural Affairs and as a Change Management Practitioner by Prosci.

Rebecca Vermeulen, RPh, brings a variety of experiences and capabilities to her role as Head of Patient Partnership for Global Medical Affairs at Roche. She has spent over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry and has served in a variety of functions including Medical Affairs, Clinical Research, Sales, Medical Communications, Medical Science Liaisons, Patient Partnership, Digital Health and Six Sigma. Ms Vermeulen has led teams spanning multiple organizational units and has been responsible for creating global standards for engaging with healthcare professionals and patients. Having served as a senior leader for a number of years, she knows how to demonstrate value in bringing new medicines to patients. Ms Vermeulen is currently a board member for Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD), Champion for the Roche International Women’s Network, Past Chair Board of Directors for the Drug Information Association (DIA), Chair Emeritus Corporate Board of Directors for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Ms Vermeulen was also recognized as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Life Science Industry by PharmaVOICE 2020.