Giving Voice to the Often Voiceless: Advocate-led Research Creating Change

Yasmin Ibrahim is a public health manager at Hepatitis B Foundation (HBF). In the past two years, Yasmin led the patient engagement program, through her role, she supports people living with hepatitis B from around the world. In addition to directly interacting with patients through over 2,500 email consults annually, the program systematically assesses Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) and Quality of Life (QoL) among people living with hepatitis B and liver cancer, to better understand the physical, social, and emotional impact of hepatitis B, and to inform and advocate for inclusion of PROs in liver disease management. The insights developed continue to inform the hepatitis B community partners, providers, regulators and the industry about patients’ challenges living with CHB and their hopes for, and perspectives on, new hepatitis B treatments.

Before joining the Hepatitis B Foundation, Yasmin spent most of her 20+ career working with policy makers, healthcare providers, patients, and patient organizations to improve quality of care, in different disease areas. Her focus has always been on low-resource communities.

Yasmin is a medical doctor, holds an MBA in healthcare, from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in health policy from Brandeis University. She thrives on positively influencing people’s lives, through knowledge transfer and education. She enjoys long walks, traveling, listening to music, watching documentaries about history and human behavior sciences, trying new food from different parts of the world and connecting with people from all over the world.  

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, FACP, FCCP, FESC, FAHA, MSCAI; Mount Sinai Professor in Cardiovascular Clinical Research and Outcomes; Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is an internationally renowned interventional cardiologist, and clinical research expert in the field of cardiovascular disease. She has built a globally-respected academic research center focused on developing randomized clinical trials and has served as principal investigator for numerous global studies, developed risk scores for bleeding and acute kidney injury, participates regularly in developing clinical guidelines, and has authored >1,000 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Mehran is a current member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Board of Trustees and is a founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).  She has been included for three consecutive years in Clarivate Analytics:  “Most Cited Researchers – Top 1%” as well being included in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” (Thomson Reuters). In 2019, she founded Women as One, dedicated to advancing opportunities for women in medicine.

Dr. Mehran is currently leading the Lancet Commission on Women’s Cardiovascular Diseases, which brings together leading female researchers from around the world who have clinical expertise in cardiovascular medicine to identify and bridge gaps in research and care for women with cardiovascular disease.  

Dr. Mehran is a recipient of several awards including the 2016 American College of Cardiology Bernadine Healy Leadership in CV disease award, the 2018 Nanette Wenger Award from Women’s Heart for excellence in research and education, the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2019 ESC Silver Medal and Andreas Grüntzig Lecture plaque.

As Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Michelle Weese oversees the company’s initiatives to protect, promote and enhance the Bristol Myers Squibb brand and reputation through strategic communications, government relations and policy, corporate social responsibility and patient advocacy.

Michelle joins BMS from the global food and beverage company Danone, where she served for two years as General Secretary for North America and also led strategic corporate functions, including government and public affairs, communications, community affairs, scientific affairs and sustainable development for North America.

In 2009 she founded the private consulting firm, strat-igence, serving as its CEO and working with a range of clients from the biopharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries, including Johnson & Johnson, Church & Dwight, PepsiCo and Unilever, on issues such as crisis management, corporate affairs and corporate transformation. Prior to that, she held positions of increasing leadership responsibility in corporate affairs at Mars, Inc. including serving as Global Head of Communications. 

“Our role as biopharma leader has never been more important,” says Michelle. “In an evolving global market, this is a critical time to ensure that the innovative and transformative work being done by the company across multiple fronts is being communicated to our patients, policymakers, colleagues and broader stakeholders.”

Michelle earned her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Georgia State University.

Alex Filicevas is a passionate cancer patient advocate focused on driving meaningful change in cancer research, policy and care. Alex is Executive Director of World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, Global Cancer Coalitions Network member, President of All.Can International and EUPATI fellow. He leads the efforts to foster an international community of strong bladder cancer patient advocates and organizations around the world, empowering patient voices across research and care continuum. Passionate about high-quality, equitable cancer care for all, and the role of efficiency in achieving it, he champions evidence generation and sharing, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Prior to his current roles, he was leading EU affairs work at Europe’s largest cancer patient umbrella organization, where he focused on advocacy activities, capacity building and policy initiatives with a particular focus on overarching issues faced by cancer patients and their careers in Europe. As a healthcare consultant, Alex has supported a number of private and non-governmental organizations in successful advocacy efforts at the EU level on a range of disease areas and issue-specific public health challenges.