Michael B Nichol, PhD, Principal Investigator
Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy, School of Pharmacy, and Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California

Bio:

Dr. Nichol began his health care career as a health planner with the Oregon State Health Planning and Development Agency. He became planning director, associate director, and then executive director of the Western Oregon Health Systems Agency, between the years of 1978 and 1984. During his tenure as executive director, the Agency developed the first physician-specific fee guide, which was distributed to the general public. In addition, the Agency sponsored multiple public hearings as a part of the Oregon Health Decisions project, which resulted in a set of health priorities for the Oregon Medicaid program.

While directing the Department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy, Professor Nichol developed the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy, which has become one of the premier graduate degrees in the field. He has served on a number of national boards and committees, including the National Commission on Quality Assurance Cardiovascular Work Group, the National Quality Forum’s National Voluntary Consensus Standards for the Reporting of Therapeutic Drug Management Quality Education and Adherence Technical Advisory Panel, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Systems Research Study Section, and a study section for the Patient Centered Outcomes and Research Institute (PCORI). Professor Nichol was President of the USC Faculty during the 2008-2009 academic year.

In addition to his present appointment as Professor of Health Policy, Dr. Nichol serves as USC Price’s Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and directs the school’s Graduate Health Programs. These programs includes the Master in Health Administration and the Executive Master in Health Administration. In the last two years, both the MHA and the EMHA have been re-designed to create clear outcomes for student performance and career attainment. Dr. Nichol is also Professor of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy in the School of Pharmacy, and a Research Fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.

Professor Nichol maintains an active research program enabled by federal and corporate grants. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts on a variety of health topics. He regularly consults for pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, as well as large physician groups within California

Megan Ullman, MA, MPH
Gulf States Hemophilia & Thrombophilia Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX

Bio:

Megan began her career in hemophilia in 1993 in Washington, D.C. as project coordinator of an international NIH-funded study of HIV and hemophilia. After joining the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1994, she moved into the Hemophilia Treatment Center setting, contributing to numerous research projects with the Gulf States Hemophilia & Thrombophilia Center. She has served as a HUGS Site Principal Investigator since 2005, and joined the HUGS Steering Committee in 2012.  As a researcher at GSHTC and a member of the HUGS team, she combines her enjoyment of working with data and observing public health in action. Research interests include health disparities, cost of hemophilia care, and access to care for persons with chronic illness and disability.

Randall Curtis, MBA, Steering Committee Chair
Factor VIII Computing, Berkeley, CA

Bio:

Randall Curtis has a bachelor of science in genetics and an MBA in computer information systems. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP retired) by the Project Management Institute and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Throughout his 33 year career with the State of California in Public Health and Industrial Relations, he as always worked on data collection systems for hemophilia in his spare time. Mr. Curtis has served as the IT Operations Manager for a 1,300 person California Public Health Laboratory, and the Chief Information Security Officer and subsequently as the Chief Enterprise Architect for a labor department of 6,000 employees. Now that he is retired, he devotes his time to collecting data on the Hemophilia Utilization Group Studies (HUGS), the Patient Reported Outcomes, Burdens and Experiences (PROBE) study and the Cost of Hemophilia Socioeconomic Survey (CHESS) projects. Mr. Curtis also serves on several non-profit boards of directors including the Center for Inherited Bleeding Disorders and the Hemophilia Council of California. His policy work includes the American Thrombosis & Hemostasis Network (ATHN), the National Hemophilia Foundation MASAC Pain Group and the Pacific Sickle Cell Regional Collaborative Policy Working Group.

Judith Baker, DrPH, MHSA
The Center for Comprehensive Care & Diagnosis of Inherited Blood Disorders, Orange, CA

Bio:

Dr. Baker is a national leader in rare blood disorder healthcare network effectiveness, integrating capacity building in policy, surveillance, workforce development, and community-based organizations alongside team based clinical care.  Her research examines organizational influences on quality, cost, outcomes, and equity. As Regional Public Health Director for the Center for Inherited Blood Disorders in Orange, CA, Dr. Baker co-directs federal CDC and HRSA grants that support the Western States/Region IX Hemophilia Network’s 13 specialty centers serving California, Hawaii, Nevada and the US Pacific Islands. Dr. Baker is also Public Health/Policy Director for HRSA’s 13 State Pacific Sickle Cell Regional Collaborative.  She led the development of the first Hemophilia Treatment Centers in Hawaii, Nevada and Guam, now celebrating >20 years providing team-based care per national guidelines.  Dr. Baker co-created the award-winning adult Sickle Cell Clinic at MLK Jr. Outpatient Center in Los Angeles. At the national level, she Co-Chairs the Steering Committee of the National Patient Satisfaction Survey for the US Hemophilia Treatment Center Network.  And devised the Government Partners Committee of leaders from HHS Regions 8, 9 and 10.  Dr. Baker advises state and federal agencies, currently serving on the FDA’s Blood Product Advisory Committee. She received a National Hemophilia Foundation Meritorious Service Award.  She obtained her Doctor of Public Health from the UCLA, a Master’s in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan, and Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University.

Nicole Crook, RN
The Center for Comprehensive Care & Diagnosis of Inherited Blood Disorders, Orange, CA

Bio:

Nicole is the Manager of the Research Department at the Center for Comprehensive Care and Diagnosis of Inherited Blood Disorders. She is a pediatric Hematology/Oncology nurse with over 15 years of experience in clinical trials.  Her primary focus has been regionally and nationally working to create best practices for data consistency with a focus in the ATHN dataset.  In early 2021, she assumed the role of Regional Administrator for the CDC Bleeding Disorders Surveillance activities for The Western States/Region IX.  She has contributed to numerous research publications and is co-leader of the Data Manager/CRA working group for the Regional Coordinating Committee for The Western States/Region 9.  She is an advisor to ATHN’s National Data Management Community of Practice, and joined the HUGS steering committee in 2020.

Duc Quang Tran Jr., MD
Emory University, Department of Hematology, GA

Bio:

"Bobby" Duc Q. Tran, Jr., MD, MSc, serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Tran works at the Comprehensive Bleeding Disorders Clinic and teaches hematology and medical oncology fellows.

Dr. Tran received his MD from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, where he served as chief resident. He completed his fellowship in Hematology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.  

Dr. Tran is an active clinical researcher in the fields of hemophilia and bleeding disorders. He is particularly interested in patient centered outcomes research in the bleeding disorders community. He has presented his clinical research on hemophilia at national and international hematology and oncology conferences.

Dr. Tran's  articles have been published in a number of leading journals including the Journal of Blood Medicine, Hemophilia and the Southern Medical Journal.

• PubMed

Dr. Tran received the 2013 Fellowship Project Award from Bayer Hemophilia which provided funding to study the impact of health literacy on adherence to factor replacement product in the hemophilia population. He also recently was awarded the 2015 Hematostasis/Thrombosis Research Society/Novo Nordisk Clinical Fellowship Award.  

Brenda Riske, MBA, MPA
University of Colorado, Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, CO
 

Bio:

Throughout my career in health care, I have collaborated with others investigating the impact of models of care on patients as well as outcomes and other clinical research areas in hemophilia and thrombosis.  I have worked at both a direct patient care level but also as a national leader as a Health Resources and Services Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designated Regional Coordinator for the Mountain Region of the US in the Hemophilia Treatment Center Network (HTCN).  It is in this role that I undertook, with others, development of the first US national data collection project for the HTCN with the CDC.  Since 2007, I have worked as part of the Steering Committee for the Hemophilia Utilization Group Studies and participated as a site PI at the University of Colorado.

Marion Koerper, MD, Steering Committee Chair Emeritus
University of California, San Francisco, CA

Marion A. Koerper, MD, is currently the Medical Advisor for the National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) and practiced pediatric hematology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, where she is emerita professor of pediatric hematology.

As the NHF Medical Advisor, Dr. Koerper provides medical expertise on issues related to treatment and standards of care for bleeding disorders, as well as how NHF can better assist the hemophilia treatment center (HTC) network. She also assists NHF staff in developing educational materials for consumers and providers. In addition, she represents NHF at federal meetings related to the safety of the nation’s blood supply.

A graduate of Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, Dr. Koerper received her medical degree from UCSF in 1970. She has been a member of NHF’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Council (MASAC) since 1987 and Vice Chair since 2001. She is Co-chair of NHF’s Blood Safety Working Group and its Publications Working Group. Previously, Dr. ­Koerper worked with NHF as a member of its Standards and Criteria Committee (1988–1994) and as chair of the Medical and Scientific Steering Committee (1994–1997).

Dr. Koerper served as a member of the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) from 1997 to 2001 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Universal Data Collection (UDC) Advisory Committee from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Koerper has also served as medical advisor, president and board member for the Hemophilia Foundation of Northern California. She is still the chapter’s summer camp medical director, a role she has held since 1978.

Participating Hemophilia Treatment Centers

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center, CA
PI: Cathy Buranahirun, PsyD

Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Center for Inherited Blood Disorders, Hemophilia Treatment Center, CA
PI: Amit Soni, MD  

Puget Sound Blood Center, Hemophilia Care Program, WA
PI: Barbara A. Konkle, MD

University of Colorado, Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, CO
PI: Marilyn Manco-Johnson, MD

Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, IN
PI: Amy Shapiro, MD

Gulf States Hemophilia & Thrombophilia Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX
PI: Megan Ullman, MA, MPH

Akron Children’s Hospital Medical Center, OH
PI: Jeffrey Hord, MD

Michigan State University, Center for Bleeding and Clotting Disorders, MI
PI: Roshni Kulkarni, MD

University of Mississippi Medical Center, MS
PI: Suvankar Majumdar, MD

The Hemophilia Center of Western Pennsylvania, PA
PI: Margaret Ragni, MD, MPH

Emory University, Department of Hematology, GA
PI: Duc Quang Tran Jr., MD

Emory University / Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, GA
PI: Robert F. Sidonio Jr., MD

Bleeding & Clotting Disorders Institute / University of Illinois, IL
PI: Jonathan C. Roberts, MD

Kansas City Regional Hemophilia Treatment Center / UMKC School of Medicine, MO
PI: Shannon L. Carpenter, MD

New England Hemophilia Center, UMassMemorial Hospital, MA
PI: Margaret Geary, MA, MBA, MPH

Mary M. Gooley Hemophilia Center / University of Rochester School of Medicine, NY
PI: Peter A. Kouides, MD

Research Staff

Joanne Wu, MD, MS
Research Associate

School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, CA

Jason Doctor, PhD
Methods Consultant

University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy, CA

Femida Gwadry-Sridhar, PhD
Methods Consultant

University of Western Ontario, ON, Canada