Leaders in innovation

Gong Qing, MD, is Associate Medical Director for Fortrea Clinical Development Services, based in Shanghai, China. She has over 16 years of academia and clinical practice experience and more than 4 years of early and late clinical development research experience covering oncology and other therapeutic area. Her industry experience includes global trials in solid tumors, including breast cancer, NSCLC, pancreatic cancer etc., for products including biologics, targeted therapy and chemotherapy. Dr. Gong served as Associate Chief Physician before joining in industry and held medical responsibility in Pharma since 2018. She joined our company in March 2020.

María García Requesens, MD, is a Medical Director at Fortrea based in Madrid, Spain. Dr. García has 5 years of experience in oncology clinical drug development clinical trials in pharma and CROs. She focuses on medical support of global oncology clinical trials for solid tumors. Dr. García earned her medical degree from Universidad Europea in Madrid. She also holds a Nursing Degree and is very patient-oriented, believing in the power of cross-functional communication. She joined Fortrea (formerly Labcorp) in January 2020.

Tanya has over 26 years of experience with Fortrea (formerly Labcorp, Covance and Chiltern), including monitoring, global project management, delivery director oversight and strategic planning and growth. Her clinical research experience includes a broad range of therapeutic experience with the last 15 years specifically focused on ophthalmology. Tanya’s ocular experience covers front and back of the eye indications, inherited retinal and ocular rare diseases across phase I-IV and medical device studies as well as ocular cell and gene therapies. 

Her extensive delivery background, coupled with her ocular experience supports both internal and external stakeholders in the strategic development of a reduced burden approach, as well as an efficient and successfully executed ocular trial. 

Tanya is passionate about ensuring the priorities of a clinical trial are 1) to reduce the burden across all stakeholders 2) a realistic, common-sense approach and 3) at the end of the day, we all do what we do for the patients!

Dana Romano, MD, is a Senior Medical Director at Fortrea. In this position, she has the responsibility of leading the medical team working on global respiratory Phase I, II, III and IV studies, ensuring the Execution of the projects and direct communication with sponsors, including Medical Monitoring to support to Clinical Operations and Pharmacovigilance and ensure the development of compelling medical strategies and integrated solutions to meet sponsors’ needs. 

Dana started her pharmaceutical career as a Principal Investigator conducting Phase IV studies at her GP practice and Phase I and II studies at Richmond Pharmacology (Croydon University Hospital, UK), before moving to the Clinical Research Physician and Medical Monitor roles at Wyeth and Pfizer UK. 

Dana is board-certified in Family Medicine and has strong medical expertise gained through 11 years of clinical practice experience in Romania and the UK. She worked as a GP for 7 years at her own practice and with the largest private service providers. Dana has more than 21 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and CRO industry and managed successfully Phase I-IV clinical trials in biopharmaceutics, from the early protocol development through to medical oversight of enrolled adults, adolescents and children.

Kamal Saini, MD, executive medical director at Fortrea Inc., is a board-certified medical oncologist based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he also practices part-time at the Addenbrooke’s (Cambridge University) Hospital. He contributes to the scientific strategic leadership of the oncology therapeutic area at Fortrea and provides clinical and medical expertise to project teams and other Fortrea departments on clients’ drug development projects. He liaises with key opinion leaders and academic cooperative groups with regard to the design, setup, and execution of cancer trials, especially in the breast cancer subdomain. He manages a team of high-performing medical monitors who are a part of the European oncology team. He leads the Precision Medicine and Emerging Therapies Leadership Center at Fortrea, and is also our global Scientific Publications Lead (Oncology). He brings more than 15 years of experience in clinical research and development to Fortrea. He is the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed journal articles. He joined our company in 2015.

Irina Savina, MD, PhD, is a Medical Director for Fortrea Medical Services, based in Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation. Dr. Savina has more than 13 years of experience in oncology clinical drug development from medium-sized to large-size CROs, focused on medical support of global oncology clinical development projects for solid tumors. 

Dr. Savina earned her medical degree from Medical University of Saint-Petersburg and Philosophy Degree from Oncology Institute in Saint-Petersburg. Dr. Savina has an experience as Lower Gastrointestinal Surgeon and Medical Oncologist. She joined our company in 2019.

Susanne Schmidt, MD, PhD, is a Senior Medical Director of Fortrea’s Rare Diseases, Advanced Therapies and Pediatrics Team (RAPT). She is a Board-Certified pediatrician with more than 14 years of clinical experience across multiple therapeutic areas including pediatric gastroenterology and rare diseases. 

Dr. Schmidt has 10 years of industry experience in the CRO environment, which includes projects in pediatrics, rare diseases and advanced therapies (gene therapy, RNAi) across many indications and all phases of development. She also has broad experience supporting projects across all pediatric age groups including premature neonates.

Verena brings more than 25 years of clinical research experience, with 17 years in global project management across Phase I to Phase IV. She has more than 16 years of experience at Fortrea and offers extensive operational background in respiratory indications, including sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. 

In her previous role as Director of Project Management, Verena provided oversight for several international studies in Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). She currently provides functional support from a strategic perspective to our teams.

Dr. Cheerag Shirodaria is the Vice President and Cardiovascular/Metabolic Therapeutic Area Head at Fortrea. He has over 25 years of clinical experience as an interventional and clinical cardiologist and remains on the Faculty at Oxford University Hospitals. He is an expert in cardiac imaging, having completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford on the role of cardiovascular MRI in the evaluation of vascular function. He is also co-director of the coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) service in Oxford. He is also co-founder and Chief Development Officer of Caristo Diagnostics, an AI image analysis company that has developed proprietary AI image analysis technology that quantifies cardiometabolic risk associated with coronary inflammation plaque and adipose tissue characteristics. He has supported multiple companies through regulatory interactions, protocol development and Scientific Advisory Board interactions. 

Dr. Shirodaria received his medical degree from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, his medical doctorate from the University of Oxford and his MBA from London Business School.

Hannah has more than 12 years industry experience focused on healthcare communications, patient insights and input, recruitment and retention solutions and patient support programs. Her experience spans Phase I-III global trials across range of therapeutic areas including neurodegenerative conditions with specific experience in Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, neuropathy and pain. 

She is driven by a strategic mindset to identify and understand the experiences, challenges and needs of patients and their families and build targeted data-driven recruitment strategies that enable truly patient-centric studies.

Vitaliy Solskyy, MD, PhD, is an OB/GYN doctor by background (Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, AMS of Ukraine) and holds a PhD in the field of gynecological endocrinology. He has authored around 40 scientific publications, did participate in numerous OB/GYN forums around the world, along with presenting at several big national and international congresses. Dr. Solskyy has joined Fortrea (formerly Labcorp/Covance) in 2015 and overall has more than 20 years of clinical research experience running global studies, 15 of which in management roles of increasing responsibility. He has a passion for women’s health with the dedication of his career to this field and has participated in numerous Phase II-IV studies in a variety of women’s health indications, including last eight years predominantly managing and overseeing several large women’s health programs.

Norberto Soto, MD, is Senior Medical Director for Infectious Diseases and Critical Care and is based in Philadelphia, USA. Norberto has more than 25 years of clinical research experience with academia, biopharma and CROs, focused on planning and execution of infectious disease, inflammation and general medicine clinical development from first in human to product registration. He has held regional and global positions of increasing responsibility in fields of infectious diseases, rheumatology, respiratory, gastroenterology, cardiovascular, hematology and urology. 

Norberto has co-authored three book chapters, and author/co-authored more than 30 papers in infectious diseases. Norberto earned his medical degree from the Escuela Colombiana De Medicina, Bogota, Colombia and completed his Internal Medicine residence and Infectious Diseases fellowship at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to joining Fortrea, Norberto worked as Research Physician at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, and held various clinical development positions in pharma and biotech companies. He has been with Fortrea and the legacy companies since 2013.

Alvin Tan is a Director of Strategy Delivery & Growth for Infectious Diseases and Critical Care and is based in Singapore. Alvin has more than 20 years of clinical development experience across operational delivery and global project management, covering all phases of research. He is trained in pharmacology and started as CRA, CRM and PD with increasing responsibility in regional project management and clinical operations to his current position with responsibility to provide operational strategy and planning for studies regionally and globally. He brings extensive experience in designing clinical trial strategy and recommending operational success factors and site selection across multiple therapeutic areas. He aggregates expertise of peers to create value for customers in supporting them to bring innovative medicines to patients faster and efficiently. Alvin joined our company in 2022.

Darby Thomas, PhD, is the Scientific Director of Fortrea’s Rare Diseases, Advanced Therapies and Pediatrics Team (RAPT). She has more than 20 years of experience in virology, cell and molecular biology, gene and cell therapy and biotechnology. 

She also has broad experience in adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy with roles in CMC, discovery, translational development and patient advocacy for several AAV-focused companies including AGTC, StrideBio, and Sio Gene Therapies with an emphasis on rare neurological diseases and ophthalmology. 

Before the formation of Fortrea, Dr. Thomas was the Director of the Labcorp Enterprise Cell and Gene Therapy team. She also worked as the Director of Rare Diseases at Intrexon, where she gained translational experience developing AAV and plasmid-based gene therapies as well as gene-modified cell therapies for the treatment of rare skin disorders.

Carrie Thompson is a Director in Strategic Delivery & Growth for Infectious Diseases and Critical Care and is based in Sheffield, UK. Carrie has over 18 years of clinical research experience, 14 of which with Fortrea. Her experience working in CROs and investigator-led settings, includes Phase I-III clinical trial execution, delivery and strategy. Carrie’s therapeutic experience spans multiple areas, including hematology, rare diseases and IBD. For the last six years, Carrie’s therapeutic focus has been infectious diseases, specializing in CHB with expertise in hybrid and platform study designs, overseeing operational delivery at a global level. 

Carrie earned her MSc degree in Clinical Research at the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff, S. Wales and completed an executive MBA programme at York St John University, UK in 2022.Sonia is a certified Green Belt in Six Sigma and has been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2003 and remains an active member of the Project Management Institute. She earned her master’s degree in operational management from the University of Washington. She joined our company in 2006.

Dr. Todorova is a board-certified Neurologist and Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Movement Disorder-focused medical expert with 19 years of clinical research experience. She has mainly worked with patients with neurodegenerative conditions and demyelinating diseases. Dr. Todorova is a member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society, a chapter author for textbooks in PD and has contributed to 14 publications in international medical journals, 13 of which are in PD and movement disorder as well as 16 abstracts or oral presentations in international medical journals/conferences in movement disorders.

Yulianna Tymovska, MD, PhD, is Senior Medical Director based in Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Tymovska has 20 years of clinical experience, specializing in Oncology (extensive clinical experience in breast, head and neck cancer, melanoma, and gynecology malignancies diagnostic and treatment, as well as research in mechanisms of tumors resistance to anti-cancer treatment and immune oncology). 

Dr. Tymovska has more than 15 years of clinical research experience as a clinical trial investigator and medical director (monitor) providing medical expert oversight and monitoring of clinical trials, contribution and scientific expertise to study design, and regulatory documents, work in cross functional team on all phases of the studies and trials including feasibility assessments, design process, education efforts, and management of medical information. 

Dr. Tymovska earned her medical degree and completed clinical oncology postgraduate training in Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine, and PhD training in Kavetsky IEPOR of NAS of Ukraine. She joined our company in Jan 2023.

• 33 years in industry with experience in pharmaceutical and medical device product development 
• 28 years in Project Management roles 
• Career spans both CRO and Pharma/Biologics/Med Device roles 
• Project Manager/Project Director on two Fortrea home hemodialysis studies 
• Experienced in set up and conduct of hemodialysis studies