Leadership
Editor-in-Chief, VBCC
Burt is a key industry thought leader and accomplished executive within the specialty-biotech pharmaceutical and oncology cancer care ecosystems. Over the last 20 years Burt has incubated and launched specialty bio-pharmaceuticals with industry leaders the likes of Genzyme, Pharmacyclics, Gilead, Janssen, Pfizer, Alexion, Bayer, GSK, Seattle Genetics, Sanofi, Monogram Science, Roche, Genentech, CureVax, Genomic Health, Janssen and numerous emerging biotech incubators.
Burt serves as senior advisor to the shareholder group of Cancer Treatment Centers of America for pharmacy services and is the Past President of the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP), representing the industry on National Policy, Specialty Pharmacy Education and Government Relations based in Washington, DC.
Previously CEO, Vice Chairman and Founder of Onco360, a national oncology pharmacy care management provider for a full continuum of oncology pharmacy service to over 3,000 community and hospital based Hematologists, Oncologists and Cancer Centers of Excellence under managed care contracts for 45 million lives. Under Mr. Zweigenhaft vision and leadership Onco360 developed the industry standards for an oncology pharmacy best practice model by incorporating the strengths of Board Certified Oncology Pharmacists and Oncology Patient Advocates to support the prospective and concurrent patient centered oncology medical home model. In 2014 PharMerica acquired controlling interest in Onco360 and relocated the company in 2015 to Louisville, KY.
Burt previously served as Senior Vice President of Managed Care Sales and Marketing, Government Programs, Trade Relations and Business Development Strategies for Priority Healthcare Corporation, a publicly traded company in the specialty pharmacy sector with $2.3 billion in specialty drug revenues before being acquired by Express Scripts in 2005. Prior to 2002, Burt spent several years serving as a specialty pharmacy consultant to Medco, CuraScript, BioScrip and several Regional National Blue Cross Blue Shield and National Managed Care Payer programs.
Burt holds a Bachelor of Science in Management and Economics from the University of Buffalo School of Management, where he also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee and remains active with the University of Buffalo schools of Pharmacy and Medicine including the Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics and Health Sciences. Burt is a member of AMCP (American Managed Care Pharmacy), HOPA (Hematology Oncology Pharmacists Association) and ASCO (American Society of Consulting Oncologists). Burt also serves on the Editorial Boards of several industry publications and is Editor and Chief of the Journal for Value Based Cancer Care. Burt is also Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the AVBCC (Association for Value Based Cancer Care) and Founder and Past President of NASP (National Association of Specialty Pharmacy) in Washington, DC. Philanthropically Burt serves on the National Board of Swim Across America for Cancer; a NFP organization that has raised $75 million to date to support cancer research laboratories. In 2015 Mr. Zweigenhaft was honored to be the recipient of the CancerCare “Help and Hope Award”.
Linde Wilson, MBA, Managing Partner
Linde Finsrud Wilson is a Managing Partner at Upstream Partners, a consulting organization serving pharma, strategics and investor clients, focusing on strategy, growth planning, partnerships and overall operational excellence employing an innovative model using experts as lead. She is also founder and co-chair of the Alliance for Innovation in Integrated Healthcare. She has been instrumental in developing and growing the business by building trusting relationships with both clients and expert advisors. Wilson has over 30 years experience in healthcare and consulting. She has been a seasoned advisor to many companies, as well as private equity in commercial division, value creation and strategy development and helping to grow targeted investments. She is a known innovator and has a particular talent for advising large corporate clients in their entry into healthcare.
Wilson served as a health system CEO, COO and CAO, as well as the head of the healthcare deals practice at PwC and an executive leader at GE Healthcare. She participated on many national committees to define and redefine the healthcare landscape in the United States. She is also a much requested speaker and has written extensively on healthcare strategy, growth and investment and has lectured as adjunct faculty.
Wilson was awarded Healthcare Innovator of the year by the Health Forum, Healthcare Leadership Award by the American Hospital Association, Commendation for Economic Development award and the GE Sigma award.
During her 30 years of experience, she has worked globally with several multi-national corporations, large corporations entering the healthcare space, offshore companies looking to invest in the US and US companies expanding services overseas.
Wilson holds a bachelors degree from the University of North Carolina magna cum laude and an MBA from the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business with honors.
Brian Tyburski, Managing Partner
Brian Tyburski is an entrepreneur known for his multichannel, medical communications expertise. Brian started his first company in 2002 and sold it in 2006 to found The Lynx Group, a company based on a combination of personal experience in oncology and an identified need within the cancer care ecosystem. Brian created The Lynx Group to fill the growing communications gap between pharma, research, and educational institutions and the healthcare providers caring for oncology patients. To date, The Lynx Group has created and distributed thousands of journals, hosted countless seminars and meetings, and is continually growing the network of providers and patients to increase the flow of information. This network has become a core resource for healthcare providers to keep pace with the latest and most up-to-date information in oncology. Brian published his first journal through The Lynx Group in February 2008, American Health & Drug Benefits. Today, The Lynx Group boasts 9 journals, 4 business lines, and 2 associations, covering every aspect of the cancer care ecosystem. Brian also provides senior relationship management for the company’s top clients across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and agency partners. He is honored to call top management of several Fortune 500 companies not only his clients, but also his friends.
Brian has made it his mission to surround himself with highly effective people to ensure the mission of The Lynx Group family is carried out. He prides himself on a cohesive, highly effective, and motivated team. He measures the success of The Lynx Group not only by balance sheet, but by the success of his team members and their families.
When Brian is not at the office, he can oftentimes be found enjoying the great outdoors. Brian has 2 children with his wife of more than 20 years.
Jayson Slotnik, JD, Senior Partner
Jayson S. Slotnik JD is also a Principle and founding member of Health Policy Strategies, Inc., a Washington, a D.C. based consulting firm representing innovative biotech, pharmaceutical, device, and diagnostic companies.
Jayson specializes in, and counsels clients on, the impact that Medicare and Medicaid coverage, payment, reimbursement, coding, and government policies have on commercial success. He also has experience as a healthcare strategist with demonstrated success in developing and implementing both pre- and post-launch strategies as well as life cycle management tools for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic, and device manufacturers.
Prior to establishing Health Policy Strategies, Inc., Jayson served as the Vice President of Reimbursement and Innovation Strategies for United BioSource Corporation (UBC). There, he was responsible for developing technology-related marketing and sales strategies for current internal and new external customers in the branded specialty pharmaceutical space.
Jayson partnered with the business development team to market technology strategies to over 20 branded specialty manufacturers. In addition, he maintained his policy practice, which helped distinguish UBC’s market access technology as well as affording his clients the ability to have the business drive the policy and not the reverse.
Before joining UBC, Jayson practiced law at two prominent Washington, D.C. law firms where he counseled clients on many complex health care regulatory and legal issues related to coverage, coding and reimbursement. Before returning to private practice, Jayson served as in the initial Director of Medicare Reimbursement and Economic Policy at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the industry’s leading advocacy group. Jayson served as the liaison between BIO and Congress, CMS, and other federal agencies to implement market access policies that stimulate and reward innovation while maintaining appropriate patient access to cutting edge therapies.
Jayson serves on the editorial boards for Value-Based Cancer Care and Specialty Pharmacy Times. He speaks regularly at various healthcare reform and market access conferences. Jayson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Rochester, his Master in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from George Washington University, and his Juris Doctor degree in Health Law from the University of Maryland School of Law.
Nick Sarlis MD, PhD, FACP, Senior Medical Director
Nicholas J. (Nick) Sarlis, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist with deep experience in clinical and translational research in the areas of oncology and immunology. He is currently an Executive Medical Advisor for the Lynx Group, a global strategic alliance focused on medical and scientific communication and a Senior Advisor for SELLAS, a biotechnology company developing cancer vaccines. Previously, Nick was the Chief Medical Officer at SELLAS, and, before that, Head of Medical Affairs at Incyte Corporation, after having held senior positions at the Oncology Franchise at Sanofi (both in the US and France). He is a former Assoc. Professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the largest cancer medical center in the world, and senior clinical investigator at the National Institutes of Health. He is a graduate of the University of Athens, Greece, for his MD, as well as the University of London for his PhD. He trained at the University of Utah, as well as at the National Institutes of Health. Over the years, Nick has managed portfolios for 6 anticancer drugs and contributed to the pipeline advancement and/or pharmacology of 21 compounds across 5 therapeutic areas. He is Assoc. Editor for the Journal of Translational Medicine, and perpetual reviewer for the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Program grants. Nick has published more than 135 papers and monographs mainly with a focus on novel treatments for cancer and has received various awards for his contributions to-date.
Rafael Dodo, BS, Manager
Rafael is a Manager at Upstream Partners, where he leads a team of consultants. Prior to joining Upstream Partners, Rafael has had profound healthcare & life sciences experience in industry, consulting, and academia. Rafael most recently served as Manager of Corporate Strategy at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), where he collaborated with cross-functional teams to solve a variety of business problems.
Prior to joining CTCA, Rafael was a consultant within the Deals Strategy group of Strategy& at PricewaterhouseCoopers. During his time with Deals Strategy, Rafael specialized in commercial due diligence, market entry assessments, and commercial strategy within healthcare & life sciences. Rafael has also worked at a global health insurance company.
Rafael holds a B.S. Cum Laude in Biomedical Engineering and a certificate in Business Institutions from Northwestern University.
Scott Kornhauser, BS, Senior Advisor
Scott brings more than 30 years of health information technology design, development, deployment, and operating experience. He has led the launch and exit of multiple successful healthcare technology ventures, delivering enduring innovative solutions for payers, PBMs, and providers. Scott was CEO of Park Street Solutions, a clinical informatics company focused on semantic interoperability and advanced analytics, enabling large academic medical centers to realize their goal of computable care. Prior to Park Street, Scott was founder and CEO of Healthation, later known as Aldera and subsequently acquired by Evolent Health. Healthation was a leading innovator in SaaS core payer administration and population health management systems. Prior to Healthation, Scott was CEO of ComCoTec, the leading pharmacy information processing solutions company, where he brought RxCLAIM to market, the first and most widely deployed commercially available pharmacy benefits management (PBM) system which today continues to process over 2 billion pharmacy claims a year for large PBMs including OptumRx, CVS/Caremark, and Prime Therapeutics. Scott earned his Bachelors degree from the State University of New York, New Paltz.
Paul Polansky, BsPharm, MBA, Senior Advisor
Mr. Polansky is an experienced pharmacy professional who currently provides services as a consultant and subject matter expert.
Mr. Polansky most recently has over 10 years of experience in Market Access and Medical Affairs supporting multiple therapeutic portfolios. He has spent most of his career developing relationships focused on access and driving appropriate messaging and utilization in various customer segments including Payer Markets, Medicare, Medicaid and the VA/DOD. He has supported these segments not only in industry but in other aspects of his career.
Additionally, Mr. Polansky has a deep knowledge of payer needs, in multiple health and pharmacy segments that allow him to bring innovative solutions to the market. He has direct experience with formulary management, pharmacy benefits at the health plan and PBM level, consulting across market access needs with customers and industry including product launch.
Mr. Polansky also has significant experience in utilization management, Specialty Pharmacy, Health Technology Services, Health Economics and Health Outcomes (HEOR).
He has experience in start-ups with several companies including as a founder of Sanovia Corporation, which was a venture capital funded organization and most recently consulting for Crossbridge Health, a payer – provider value model. Both organizations were founded using technology focused on disease and medication protocols, providing clinical decision support to optimize appropriate therapy and quality of care.
Mr. Polansky has also worked as a pharmacy director in Medicaid, as a consultant with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), The City of Philadelphia – Department of Public Health, and various payer market programs.
Mr. Polansky received his Pharmacy Degree from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA and MBA from Averett University, Danville, VA. He is a member of several professional organizations, frequently presenting at conferences and has been adjunct faculty at seven universities.