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Hosted by CRN's Healthcare Practitioner Forum, and moderated by HCPF chair Aaron Bartz, chief strategy officer of Ortho Molecular Products, this webinar explores the latest developments in dietary supplement clinical research.
Participate in this webinar to learn about:
- Best practices for clinical research—setting objectives, appropriate endpoints, blinding and randomization, robust statistical methods, peer review and publication
- Unique features of probiotic and prebiotic research
- Pharmacokinetic studies of dietary ingredients
- Using large sample sizes, diverse populations, and artificial intelligence to drive insights and claims from clinical trials
- Insights from NCCAM—the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine—on natural products research
- Critical perspectives from the panel discussion
With:
Jeff Chen, M.D.
Co-founder/CEO, Radicle Science
Stephanie-Anne Girard, Ph.D.
Director, Scientific Affairs, SGS Nutrasource
Hana Mekonnen
Chief Operating Officer, Amarex Clinical Research, An NSF International Company
Wendy J. Weber, N.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Branch Chief, Division of Extramural Research, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Meet the webinar presenters:
Aaron Bartz, Chief Strategy Officer of Ortho Molecular Products and chair of the Health Care Practitioner Forum
Aaron Bartz is Chief Strategy Officer at Ortho Molecular Products. Since joining Ortho Molecular Products, he has been involved in every aspect of the organization. From 1993 to 2000, he served as a sales account executive and built the Chicagoland territory. In 2000, he took on the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing, where he used his passion for sales to build a thriving, knowledgeable salesforce, which remains a defining feature of Ortho Molecular Products industry-wide.
Under Aaron’s leadership since 2007, Ortho Molecular Products has sustained consistently high growth, expanded internationally, and developed unique lifestyle medicine programs while becoming one of the largest and most respected organizations serving the practitioner channel. Aaron strongly believes team members are the company’s greatest asset and has built a culture of health and wellness at every level. In addition to his duties as President, Aaron serves as Chairman of the executive leadership team and sits on the Board of Directors. From an industry perspective, Aaron has built collaborations and partnerships that have led to industry-first exclusives in raw materials. Throughout his career, Aaron has remained committed to health care practitioners and passionate about Ortho Molecular Products’ mission to transform the practice of medicine.
Jeff Chen, M.D.
Co-founder/CEO, Radicle Science
Dr. Jeff Chen, M.D., MBA is an impact entrepreneur, executive, physician, and scientist on a mission to transform the health of our bodies and minds using non-pharmaceutical solutions. He is co-founder/CEO of Radicle Science, an AI-driven healthtech public benefit corporation providing history's first “Proof-as-a-Service” solution for non-pharmaceuticals to easily prove their true effects at unprecedented affordability, speed, and scale. Radicle Science was named a 2023 “World Changing Idea” by Fast Company and a 2022 Top Ten US “Tech Innovator” by KPMG. Dr. Jeff was invited to give a TED talk on Radicle Science at TED 2023, which can be seen here.
At age 29 he was one of the youngest leaders of a major university research initiative when he became Founder & Director of UCLA’s Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, which he grew to dozens of researchers conducting some of history’s first official cannabis & hemp-related clinical trials, education, and policy research.
Dr. Jeff is frequently quoted in outlets including CNN, Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, Financial Times, ABC News, Politico, VICE, Nutraingredients, Nutritional Outlook and appears on TV on “The Doctors”, NBC News, CBS Sunday, and Fox News. His writings have been published by outlets including Newsweek, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Natural Products Insider, Clinical Leader, and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health
He has given keynote talks for the National Academies of Science, American Bar Association, California Medical Association, the Yale School of Management, Columbia University, Cornell University, Young President’s Organization (YPO), Collision Conference, South by Southwest (SXSW), the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, Expowest, and Supply Side West. Domestically, he has advised Senator Feinstein’s Office and Governor Hickenlooper’s Office, and internationally he has advised the Mexico Senate and the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Bhutan.
Dr. Jeff has been a venture partner, board member, investor, and advisor to companies, non-profits, and venture firms in healthcare, tech, and media. Dr. Jeff was selected to serve as an “Industry Mentor” for the National Institutes of Health Innovation CORPs, named a “Globalshaper” by the World Economic Forum, and sits on the Fast Company Impact Council.
As a singer he's performed in choirs, a cappella groups, and rock bands at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to Dodger Stadium to the Vatican.
Following a BS at Cornell, Dr. Jeff earned his M.D. and MBA concurrently at UCLA.
Stephanie-Anne Girard, Ph.D.
Director, Scientific Affairs, SGS Nutrasource
Dr. Stephanie-Anne Girard, Director of Scientific Affairs at SGS Nutrasource brings 15+ years of expertise designing and overseeing natural health product / dietary supplement, and pharmaceutical clinical research. Her extensive knowledge spans diverse therapeutic areas, including gastrointestinal health, women's health, gut-brain axis, metabolic syndrome/cardiovascular health, immunity, vaccines, and oncology. She published numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at many international conferences and scientific meetings. Dr. Girard holds a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Florida, a Masters’ degree in Pharmacology from the University of Montreal and a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University.
Hana Mekonnen
Chief Operating Officer, Amarex Clinical Research, An NSF International Company
Hana Mekonnen, Chief Operating Officer for Amarex Clinical Research brining almost 20 years of experience in clinical research. Known for an inward focus on the internal operations of a company to ensure efficiency, effectiveness fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Throughout her career, Hana has excelled in various leadership roles, with a strong emphasis on operational efficiency, process optimization, and resource management. Over the last 15 years she has been overseeing the Biometrics department encompassing the Data Management, Data Operations, Statistics, Programming and Medical Writing Departments in the organization.
Hana expertise in statistics has been instrumental in leveraging solutions to enhance the conduct of clinical trials in multiple studies and known for developing statistical analysis plans, creating programs to analyze data, providing statistical opinions of analyzed data, and working with sponsors to develop protocols, study reports and data analysis that is presented to the FDA.
Prior to joining Amarex Clinical Research in 2008, Ms. Mekonnen worked as a statistician for a large pharmaceutical company, and also taught statistics at the university level. She earned a master’s degree in statistics from Columbia University.
Wendy J. Weber, N.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Branch Chief, Division of Extramural Research, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Wendy J. Weber, N.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is Branch Chief for the Clinical Research in Complementary and Integrative Health Branch in the Division of Extramural Research at NCCIH. She joined NCCIH as a program director in 2009. Dr. Weber is the coordinator for NCCIH’s Clinical Trial Specific Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) and point-of-contact for natural product-related clinical trial NOFOs. She is the programmatic lead for the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory and the HEAL PRISM Program. Dr. Weber is also a member of the planning and oversight team for the NIH-DoD-VA Nonpharmacologic Approaches to Pain Management Collaboratory and project scientist for its Coordinating Center.
At NCCIH, Dr. Weber oversees a portfolio of pragmatic clinical trials, natural product clinical trials, studies of complementary medicine to promote healthy behavior, and complex complementary/integrative medicine intervention research. Dr. Weber earned a doctorate of philosophy in epidemiology and a master of public health from the University of Washington. She earned a doctorate of naturopathic medicine (N.D.) from Bastyr University. Prior to joining NCCIH, she was a research associate professor at Bastyr University, where she conducted clinical trials. She has published in the field of complementary and integrative health in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, JAMA, and Pediatrics.