Qasim I. Ahmad, MD
MSc Oncology, MSc Pharmaceutical Medicine, MSc Global Health Policy Management, Head of Clinical Development & Medical Affairs, Novartis US Oncology
Yolanda Murphy
Research Specialist and Clinical Trial Ambassador, University of Pittsburgh and Hillman Cancer Center
David Gelbard
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Parachute Health
Andrew Campbell, MD
Director, Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program, Children’s National Health System; Director of the Consortium for the Advancement of Sickle Cell Disease Research (CASiRe)
Airam da Silva, MPH
President and Board Member, The Icla da Silva Foundation
Bio Qasim Ahmad, MD
Dr Qasim Ahmad has 20 years of experience in strategic global medical affairs and clinical development leadership across multiple therapy areas leading cross-functional teams in all major geographies. Trained as an oncologist, internal medicine/pharmaceutical physician, and health policy manager, he currently serves as Head of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Novartis US Oncology. Dr Ahmad has expertise in medical affairs strategy, medical excellence, capability building, launch excellence, and has successful hands-on national and international experience leading large organizations and teams running drug development clinical research. An expert in bridging development data gaps, generating and disseminating data, and innovative medical education programs and translating scientific insights into strategies, he has substantial command improving and creating processes for handling medical compliance and regulations and managing off-label drug use access programs. Dr Ahmad has a track record building capability and efficiency using an innovative new tool for HEOR/real-world evidence data generation, and thorough understanding and in-depth knowledge of changing health system dynamic, regulatory and pharmaco-economic challenges including HTA assessments (i.e NICE) and role of pharmaceutical industry as well as nongovernmental/private health care providers. His experience includes leading corporate responsibility efforts working with health system-supporting sustainable health delivery programs, leading drug development and registration with USA (FDA), EU (EMEA), Japan (PMDA), China (CFDA) and other EU/ROW authorities, and championing ethical practices with command on IFPMA/EFPIA,ABPI/PhRMA. Dr Ahmad is passionate about people development and growth and incorporating on-the-job and role-based trainings to build capabilities and develop next-generation leadership.
Bio Andrew Campbell, MD
Andrew Campbell, MD is the Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. Before his move to Washington, he directed the University of Michigan Comprehensive Pediatric Hemoglobinopathies Program and was the Codirector of the Minority Health International Research Training Program at the University of Michigan Medical School, Center for Human Growth and Development. Dr Campbell also directed a Fogarty Grant Training Program focusing on health disparities affecting child health. He is a faculty member and mentor of the Northern Pacific Global Health Research Fellows Training Consortium, Ghana Site. His projects include Translational Research (Vascular Biology) in Ghanaian sickle cell patients with the Department of Physiology at the University of Ghana Medical School and health outcomes research in the Sickle Cell Clinic in Accra, Ghana. Dr Campbell is a graduate of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and completed his residency training at Harvard Affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston followed by his pediatric hematology/oncology Fellowship at Northwestern University. Dr Campbell’s interest in global health goes hand in hand with his professional focus: sickle cell disease (SCD). “I started to realize a lot of the burden of SCD is in countries outside of the US,” he says, adding “the sickle cell gene has a much higher rate in sub-Saharan Africa than here in the US. 75% of the SCD cases in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, and no more than 1% of the world’s SCD population is in the US.” In addition, most medical centers in sub-Saharan Africa are dramatically lacking in the resources necessary to care for this disease. “So,” recalls Dr Campbell, “I started to partner with SCD centers and students in Ghana to have a better understanding of SCD and the SC phenotype within the Ghanaian population.” Dr Campbell also leads a multinational research group, the Consortium for the Advancement of Sickle Cell Disease Research (CASiRe), focused on understanding the varied phenotypic expression of sickle cell disease. The consortium collects information about pain rate and use of health care facilities during severe pain crises. This research both helps to “bridge the gap in care between developing countries and those with resources,” and helps Dr Campbell to “improve the care of SCD patients here in the US, of which at least a third are first generation.”
Bio Yolanda Murphy
Yolanda J. Murphy was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania. She obtained her BS in Business Management from Carlow University. For several years, Yolanda worked for a health care company and until 2016 was living a “normal” simple life. At the age of 36, things drastically changed. Yolanda was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the left breast. She underwent 4 rounds of chemotherapy and 30 radiation treatments. As a young African American woman, she thought this could never happen to her and more frightening was the inability to find the necessary resources to help her navigate her now new normal. While she is thankful for the organizations that did help her fight for life, she is passionate about advocating and providing resources for young women suffering with breast cancer. She understands how important it is for women to know being “too young to get cancer” is a myth. Yolanda is also adamant in seeing an end to the racial disparities African American breast cancer patients face and to ensure every young adult diagnosed with cancer knows they are not alone. In 2018, she created a blog and podcast (This Exceptional Journey) to share her story and to help others tell theirs. Yolanda serves as an advocacy ambassador with the Susan G. Komen Center for Public Policy, a patient advisory committee (PAC) member for the Steven G. Cancer Foundation and Elephants and Tea Magazine, a community council member with A Glimmer of Hope Foundation, a Pennsylvania state leader as well as serving on the Council of Advisory Board in Patient Education with Young Survivor Coalition (YSC), a Young Adult Cancer Survivor (YACS) advisory board member with Cactus Cancer Society, a board member as well as a support group facilitator of Young Adult Survivors United (YASU), a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Project LEAD science and research advocacy course, and a graduate of the Young Advocate program with Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC). She has participated in the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Susan G. Komen Policy Advocacy Lobby Days at Capitol Hill, was the keynote speaker at the Young Survival Coalition Symposium, and The Anthropologie Fall Fashion Show benefiting LBBC. Yolanda is now 5 years cancer-free and encourages all she meets by declaring: “I am a miracle! Despite what it looks like - if I can make it, you can make it! Find what gives you hope.” Equally important, she wants women to know they have the inner strength and mental tenacity to conquer anything they are going through, including difficult physical challenges.
Bio David Gelbard
In the spring of 2013, at 78 years old, David's father underwent critical back surgery. Due to his age and some existing health risks, ailing health, there was a real sense of living on borrowed time. Fearful he might not wake from the anesthesia, he skipped a dear friend’s wedding and raced home before his father's surgery so he could be at his side for what he was afraid might be their last Father’s Day together. Lucky for all of us, his dad made it through his surgery. But as he would soon learn, this was just the beginning of the challenges he would face as he regained his health and independence. David's father had access to some of the best care in the world at one of the top orthopedic medicine institutions, but after the initial inpatient recovery period, it was time for him to go home and continue his recovery and rehabilitation. To do this, he needed a walker, so the care team at the hospital ordered one for him. Pretty simple, right? Except that the walker that was supposed to be there the day he got home -- the vital piece of medical equipment he needed to safely move around and regain his mobility -- did not arrive for weeks. By the time the walker finally arrived, he had watched his father risk reinjuring himself every day, multiple times per day, as he struggled to get around without the equipment he so desperately needed. David feared he would become one of the tragic health statistics we hear so often, of an older adult who, left unsupervised for a fraction of a second, fell at the wrong angle and hit his head, never to recover. And that was when he saw the problem that would ultimately lead him to found Parachute Health: despite undergoing a complicated major surgery and a rehabilitation process that cost tens of thousands of dollars, it was the inability to obtain a $40 walker that ultimately placed his health, and even his life, at the greatest risk. David's father is his greatest role model. He is a proud and patriotic military veteran and a hardworking business owner, who’s always done whatever he needed to pay the bills and provide for his family. But his father’s story is far from unusual. David did some research and found out that medical supplies and durable medical equipment (DME) fail to make it to their intended recipients up to 80% of the time or more. David feels strongly that he owes people like his father a health care system that actually works, and care and equipment plans that don’t fall apart the moment patients are discharged to their homes. “Our loved ones deserve better, and together, we at Parachute Health know we can provide it.”
Bio Airam da Silva
Airam da Silva is the President of the Icla da Silva Foundation. Originally from Brazil and now living in Dallas, Texas, Airam is a thought leader and well-known patient advocate for traditionally underserved Latino patients diagnosed with blood cancers and other conditions necessitating bone marrow and stem cell transplantation. The Icla da Silva Foundation was established in 1992, in memory of his sister: a 13-year-old Brazilian girl named Icla da Silva. After 2 years of fighting leukemia, Icla passed away in New York City, where she came hoping to get her lifesaving treatment, a bone marrow transplant. A matching donor was never found. After she passed, a note was found from Icla to her mom. She insisted that she was fine…and asked her family to help the friends she had met while waiting for a matching donor. Twelve months after her passing, the Icla da Silva Foundation was formed to help patients in need of a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. For almost 30 years, the Icla da Silva Foundation was the single largest recruitment center for the Be the Match national registry, with a core focus of adding donors from ethnically diverse communities. The Foundation is proud to have added 500,000 donors to the marrow registry and helped 1,000 patients receive their lifesaving bone marrow transplants. Under Airam's leadership, the Icla da Silva Foundation has expanded throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and is continuously furthering its efforts to provide direct assistance and hope to thousands of families in the United States and around the world.