The reproductive health research community is paying tribute to Michael Rosenberg, MD, MPH, founder and chief executive officer of the Durham, NC-based clinical research organization, Health Decisions. Rosenberg was killed in a Dec. 8 plane crash in Maryland.
He was an adjunct professor of epidemiology and of maternal and child health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Rosenberg, a member of the Contraceptive Technology Update Editorial Advisory Board since 1992, had been involved with design and execution of pharmaceutical development programs for more than 25 years. Rosenberg and Health Decisions under his leadership garnered numerous awards for innovation and growth, including the Association of Clinical Research Professionals’ 2014 Award for Innovation in Clinical Research and the Triangle Business Journal 2014 Life Sciences CEO of the Year Award.
Rosenberg was an “innovative individual” who early recognized the need to organize clinical trials and their results to capture information in such a manner that would be compatible with a Food and Drug Administration New Drug Application, recalls David Archer, MD, fellow CTU Editorial Advisory Board member and professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Clinical Research Center at the Eastern Virginia Medical Center in Norfolk. This information would be stored appropriately from the beginning and would use advanced technologies to reduce the need for paper and duplication in moving the data from the clinical site to the central data storage facility, Archer explains.
“He was well-liked and had an outgoing personality,” said Archer. “He was committed to his company, Health Decisions, and moved it forward to its current role as a significant player in the field of clinical research organizations.”
Anita Nelson, MD, professor in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles and CTU board member, says Rosenberg will be “seriously missed.” “I worked mostly with Michael as the CEO of Health Decisions, where he so very competently oversaw the conduct of many of the most important contraceptive trials of our time,” says Nelson. “His advice was sage; his experience invaluable; his dedication to getting quality data inspired his people and gave credibility to the results.”
A graduate of University of California, Davis and Harvard University, Rosenberg also was an award-winning author. His book, The Agile Approach to Adaptive Research: Optimizing Efficiency in Clinical Research (Wiley 2010) received the Journal for Clinical Studies’ JCS Library Award and was selected for the First Clinical Research Bookshelf by The Journal of Clinical Research Best Practices.
In a statement from the company, Patrick Phillips, DPhil, Health Decisions’ vice president of clinical affairs, said, “We can best honor Michael by carrying on and realizing his vision of a more efficient approach to clinical development. We are committed to that goal.”
