The Chair’s Autobiography

Dr. Mfon Cyrus-David, M.B.B.S., MS is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive with extensive experience in oncology and precision medicine. He also specializes in the use of the literature and medical informatics for medical affairs (including molecular diagnostics, therapeutics, clinical epidemiology, healthcare economics, and outcomes research), performance evaluation, and strategic management. He has over 25 years of healthcare delivery, research, and management experience, 15 of which has been in the field of oncology (including precision medicine). Currently, he is the Chair of this holding firm, which has a focus on informatics-based healthcare management. Prior to this time, he was a Healthcare Outcomes Research Scientist at Merck & Co. Inc., and before the latter, he was the Director of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston - Medical School Cancer Biomedical Informatics Program, and as such, a partner of the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System through the former UT Physicians-Memorial Hermann Hospital – TMC Consortium. The latter came after serving as a tenure-track assistant professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, and the Cancer Epidemiology and Interventions’ Program Director. He has several years of general medical practice experience in Nigeria, where he also re-established and managed a missionary healthcare center successfully.

His impressive academic background includes a Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Pharmacology) and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and a Master of Science (Epidemiology) degree at the Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC. Beyond these, he was awarded two U.S. National Cancer Institute-funded postdoctoral fellowships at the Wake Forest University Medical School, Winston-Salem, NC, and the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, for additional training in cancer prevention research. Currently, he is a board-certified medical affairs specialist by the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA).

Of great importance is his international background. He hails from Champaign, IL and was raised in Nigeria. He has worked closely with racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse populations in Nigeria, rural North Carolina, Houston, TX, and Philadelphia, PA cosmopolitans for over 25 years. Thus, he is a culturally competent person. He is a Bible teacher and conference speaker with the focus on spiritual maturity; and he is also the Founder of the Newfoundland Foundation located in Sugar Land, TX, which is an organization that is dedicated to reaching out to those who are in need or are sick (especially the medically underserved) with God’s love and benevolent services.

Dr. Cyrus-David’s task-driven personality is exemplified by the previous leadership of various successful programs and projects, including successfully starting up and managing a missionary medical center just after his housemanship, where he delivered comprehensive healthcare services, as well as administrative management. In terms of research and development, he has developed and managed multiple real-world evidence (RWE) research programs that housed projects such as the Acceptance of Breast Cancer Chemoprevention Therapy project, which was focused on the utilization of selective estrogen receptor modulators, such as tamoxifen and raloxifene by the eligible women (US National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant number CA100137), and the Prostate Cancer Stage Study, which was focused on the etiopathogenesis of aggressive prostate cancer (American Cancer Society (ACS) grant number 111094 RSGT). He also provided strategic guidance for the Keytruda Clinical Program with respect to the dissemination of the PD-L1 tests (i.e., a companion diagnostic for pembrolizumab (i.e., an immune therapy). As the director of the multi-institutional Cancer Biomedical Informatics Program, he developed and managed it. He also designed and validated several instruments for RWE clinical risks and stakeholders’ assessments that are currently in use in cancer prevention research. He has also developed several healthcare data management tools that are designed to foster healthcare performance evaluation, reporting, and regulatory compliance. Dr. Cyrus-David has published several peer-reviewed original research reports and made numerous presentations in national and international scientific conferences in the USA, UK, China, and Ireland. Currently, he is a member of several national and international scientific and healthcare organizations (e.g., AACR, ASCO, SMDM, NQF, etc.), a member of several editorial boards, and a scientific reviewer for several scientific journals; and he has served on several peer-review panels of funding organizations, such as the NCI, the ACS, and the Department of Defense.

His overarching goal is to use his skill sets acquired through clinical and research practice and healthcare informatics to improve the overall performance of pharmaceutical organizations. Specifically, his objectives are as follows:

• Strategic Management (i.e. Policy and Planning): To plan and develop effective core strategies that are designed to foster informed and ethical decision-making and excellence in the development or acquisition, regulatory approval, manufacturing, and dissemination of novel drugs, biologic agents or devices (e.g. excellence in pre-, launch, and post-launch product support), enhanced human and material resources-based performance evaluation and reporting (i.e. including pharmaceutical quality metrics), and objectives-related innovative data mining.
• Conduct of Research (i.e. determining the unmet medical needs and related studies): To use medical informatics for the conceptualization, design, and the conduct of relevant studies that would engender informed and ethical decision-making with respect to the products’ life cycle management or to foster the attainment of the objectives of internal knowledge management. These include clinical trial designs and RWE projects (including psychometrics, the assessments of various stakeholders, healthcare resources utilization patterns (including health economics research), and quality-related studies (i.e. structure, process, and outcomes)). Other areas include regulatory compliance and early and late-stage developmental studies.
• Communication: To foster effective communication within and outside the organization that would foster relationship and capacity building and informed decision-making. Accordingly, to disseminate information through internal or external communications, using face-to-face engagements, Sharepoints, Community of Practice or program committees, peer-reviewed publications and presentations in local, national, and international scientific conferences, workshops, seminars, etc.
• Collaborative Sales and Marketing Support: To work closely with the organization’s organs or teams to develop plans for in-line and pipeline products based on the regulatory, marketing, and reimbursement needs of the respective markets.
• Stakeholder Engagements: To network and build or sustain the scientific research infrastructure through the membership of the local document review committees, product evaluation or development teams, value evidence review committees, national and international scientific organizations, study groups/special emphasis panels of funding, and other healthcare organizations.
• Capacity Building: To stay abreast by participating in continuing educational programs and to build capacity in the personnel through educational, training, or mentorship programs or activities.

Check out Dr. Mfon Cyrus-David’s profile on LinkedIn: