Health Decisions CEO Michael Rosenberg, Nuventra Pharma VP David Hartman killed in plane crash
CRO Health Decisions, based in Durham, N.C., confirmed yesterday its founder and CEO Michael Rosenberg, M.D., MPH, died at 11 a.m. Monday in a private plane crash near Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Md., a Washington, D.C. suburb.
“Everyone at Health Decisions is devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague Michael Rosenberg,” said Patrick Phillips, D Phil., Health Decisions’ vice president, clinical affairs. “The thoughts of the management and employees of Health Decisions go out to Dr. Rosenberg’s family, as well as to the other families.”
“We can best honor Michael by carrying on and realizing his vision of a more efficient approach to clinical development,” he said. “We are committed to that goal.”
According to a WUSA9 report, Nuventra Pharma Sciences has confirmed Dr. David Hartman, its vice president of clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and nonclinical development, was a passenger on the plane and also died in the crash.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of David and will miss him both personally and professionally," wrote Dr. Geoffrey Banks, CEO of Nuventra, based in North Carolina. "On behalf of all of us at Nuventra, our thoughts and prayers are with David's family as well as others affected by this terrible tragedy."
According to Health Decisions’ web site, Dr. Rosenberg had been involved with design and execution of pharmaceutical development programs for more than 25 years, and was focused on utilizing new technology and processes to improve efficiency and quality in clinical research.
Dr. Rosenberg founded Health Decisions in 1989 with the conviction that the development of new medicines and medical devices could and should be more efficient. Dr. Rosenberg’s focus on improving the efficiency of clinical development never wavered. The Association of Clinical Research Professionals recognized Dr. Rosenberg’s contributions with the 2014 Innovation in Clinical Research Award. Also in 2014, the Triangle Business Journal honored Dr. Rosenberg with its Life Sciences CEO of the Year Award.
The Journal also named him a 2013 Health Care Hero Innovator/Researcher in recognition of his quest to improve the efficiency of clinical research and, most recently, it recognized him as CIO of the Year for 2014.
In addition to serving as Health Decisions’ CEO, Dr. Rosenberg 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.
He is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and serves on editorial boards or as a reviewer for multiple journals. His most recent article, “Key Considerations in the Transition to Risk-Based Monitoring,” appears in the Drug Industry Associations’ Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science.
Dr. Rosenberg received his medical degree from the University of California at Davis and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. He also was an adjunct professor of epidemiology at UNC’s Gillings Global School of Public Health and held several patents.
According to published reports, Dr. Rosenberg was piloting the jet. Six people were killed in the crash, including Dr. Rosenberg, Dr. Hartman and the third passenger. The plane crashed into a house, killing a mother and two young children. The plane was traveling from Chapel Hill, N.C., and approaching the Montgomery County Air Park, about ½ to ¾ of a mile from the crash site.
A report in Triangle Business Journal said the jet, an Embraer EMB-500/Phenom 100 twin-engine jet, was registered to Sage Aviation, owned by Dr. Rosenberg. The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., reported Dr. Rosenberg had crashed at the Montgomery County Airpark once before, in March 2010, when he was landing a turbo prop plane and lost control and came to rest in some trees, according to an NTSB report. He was not seriously injured.
Dr. Rosenberg had been flying planes since 1975 and had experience piloting both smaller and larger planes, according to the News & Observer.
Health Decisions said it would announce succession plans at an appropriate time. No changes are anticipated in the company’s day-to-day business activities.