Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Announces Leadership Transition

Founder and President Steve Pearson to transition to advisor role at beginning of 2024; long-time EVP and COO Sarah Emond appointed President-Elect

BOSTON, June 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is announcing that Sarah K. Emond, MPP, most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ICER, is being promoted to serve as President-Elect. In her 14 years at ICER, Emond has led strategic operations of the organization and worked to improve access and affordability to high-value care for all patients. She follows ICER's founder and current President Steve Pearson, who will step down at the end of the year to transition into an advisor role.

"Our health care system can do better in service of patients, and that starts by ensuring that the prices charged are fair and the health plan policies that determine access are fair, too. It has been and will remain our mission to use evidence and public engagement to inform the dialogue about fair pricing and access," said Emond. "I look forward to building on our important work to bring decisions about health care into the open and provide a forum where all can contribute to evidence-based discussions about the value of new health care interventions."

Emond and Pearson will work together through December 2023. Emond will become President and CEO on January 1, 2024. Following the transition, Pearson will remain at ICER as an advisor through the end of 2024. Deputy Chief Operating Officer Ellie Adair takes over now as ICER's new COO, overseeing finance and operations, development, and human resources.

"When I founded ICER, I envisioned a laboratory where people could work together to bring evidence to light in service of building a health care system they could be proud of. A laboratory where good science, honesty, integrity, and mutual respect could combine to break down walls and bring all participants in the health care system together to do the hard work of wrestling with uncertainty and weighing how best to align pricing with value in support of better access for patients," said Dr. Pearson. "In recent years, we have focused heavily on using evidence to support fair pricing and coverage for drugs, and Sarah has been my partner in executing this important work for the last 14 years. In spirit and in skill, there is no one more capable than she to take ICER's vision forward toward a health care system that guarantees affordable and innovative health care to every American."

Founded in 2006 as a research program at Harvard Medical School, ICER today is a 40-person, $10 million organization working to meet the demands of a health care system seeking reliable measures of evidence-based value. ICER's leadership team is comprised of physicians, experts in clinical epidemiology and health economics, and executive professionals, who together represent deep expertise in evidence-based medicine, health economics, comparative effectiveness research, and drug pricing. The team incorporates partnership and engagement with other clinicians, manufacturers, payers, and patients into its work.

"ICER's success over the past 17 years is due in large part to Sarah's leadership as the long-time Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. She was the clear choice to be ICER's next President," said Leigh Purvis, ICER's Governance Board Chair. "We will be fortunate to benefit from Steve's ongoing strategic and clinical advice in the coming year, and we know that the future of the organization will be in good hands under Sarah's leadership. She is a true expert in the intricacies of the health system and how pricing drives access. She has a superb track record of integrating patients', clinicians', manufacturers', and payers' perspectives into ICER's range of activities. She knows how to marshal the expertise across ICER's entire team to produce work of true impact. And she has both the strength and the vision to take ICER forward on its journey. After thoughtful planning for this transition, we know that in Sarah we have the right leader for the future, and that she will assure that ICER continues to play the essential role that it has come to play in the US health care system."

About Sarah Emond

With nearly 25 years of experience in the business and policy of health care, ICER President-Elect Sarah Emond has led the strategic operations of the organization. She joined ICER in 2009 as its first Chief Operating Officer and third employee and worked to grow the organization's approach, scope, and impact over those 14 years. Emond holds a Master of Public Policy degree with a concentration in health policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University and a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Smith College. 

About the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review

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.

SOURCE Institute for Clinical and Economic Review