NEWDIGS at Tufts Medical Center is excited to announce that Sharon Phares, PhD, MPH, has joined the team as our Associate Director for Research, Center for Biomedical System Design (CBSD), Tufts Medicine earlier this month. Dr. Phares will direct CBSD’s research strategy and oversee all quantitative and qualitative research activities.

Sharon Phares is an accomplished health researcher and author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, as well as book chapters and white papers on a variety of healthcare topics. Her research focuses on the economics of biomedical innovation, access to healthcare, utilization and payment for medications, the healthcare payment ecosystem, and the impact of medicines on health and productivity. She has a passion for patient access to care balanced with payment design that supports a sustainable healthcare system.

Prior to NEWDIGS, Dr. Phares’ was the Director, Analytic Consulting, at Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG), an EPIC company. She has also served as the Chief Scientific Officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), as well as Vice President of Research and Education at the Pharmaceutical Benefit Management Institute. She has held senior positions in research and analytics at Laboratory Corporation of America, Walgreens Health Services and Express Scripts Incorporated. 

Dr. Phares holds both a PhD and a Master of Science in sociology from North Carolina State University, a Master of Public Health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbus State University. She also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Sharon was named as one of the top 100 Women Leaders in STEM and has considerable expertise in survey design, prescription drug benefit design and evaluation, health outcomes, employee health, wellness, and productivity, developing epidemiologic and population-based models of healthcare costs and utilization, behavioral economics, research methods, predictive modeling, and program evaluation.

“We are delighted to welcome Sharon to our team!” said Dr. Gigi Hirsch, Director of CBSD and NEWDIGS. “Her deep expertise, broad experience across healthcare and biomedical innovation, and commitment to improving patient outcomes will advance our NEWDIGS projects, and help to evolve our plans for the Center for Biomedical System Design at Tufts Medical Center.”

Please join us in welcoming Sharon to the NEWDIGS team!