Staff

Dr. Hornberger received his M.D from the University of Rochester, New York, and his M.S. in Health Services Research from Stanford University. His Master’s dissertation was a technology assessment of high-flux dialysis, the findings of which were quoted in studies leading up to the first randomized trial sponsored by the NIH (The HEMO study). He trained as a general internist and nephrologist. Dr. Hornberger specializes in health outcomes and economic research. His methodological expertise is in designing and conducting decision analyses and data analyses to examine the clinical and economic consequences of novel healthcare interventions. He has received federal funding for studies in renal medicine, and has worked on projects in HIV, HCV, influenza, obesity, renal dialysis, transplantation, and cancer. He is a Board Certified Internist and a staff physician at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital. As an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Dr. Hornberger teaches and supervises resident and postdoctoral physicians at the Stanford-sponsored Willow Clinic, Menlo Park. He is Co-Editor of Value in Health and on the Editorial Board of Medical Decision Making, two of the leading international journals in health outcomes and economics.

Tamara Love joined Cedar in 2009. She supports John and the team. She has been an executive/administrative assistant at several companies in Silicon Valley including The Packard Foundation, Apple Computer, and Chemdex (a dot.com, B2B start-up). She has an AS in Environmental Horticulture and Design.

Ashwini Shewade has over four years experience working as a statistician researcher in both the health care and consumer goods industries. As part of her responsibilities at Cedar, she has been working on various economic and statistical analyses for leading pharmaceuticals. As a graduate student at the University of Texas, School of Public Health in Houston, Texas, Ashwini contributed to two National Cancer Institute funded studies, estimating the repeated prevalence rates of non-responders for the mammography screening of women veterans, and evaluating the economics of behavioral intervention in colorectal cancer screening. Before moving to the Unites States, Ashwini worked as a Consumer Science Officer in the Hindustan Lever Ltd, a leading consumer goods company. Ashwini holds a MS in Biostatistics and Health Economics, from the University of Texas School Public Health, and an MSc in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Mumbai.

Richard Hornberger has over twenty-five years of experience as a practicing architect, with extensive project experience with financial institutions and high-tech research and engineering campus development. His experience in the field of architecture gives him unique skills for managing complex projects to bring them in on time, on budget and with a high level of quality control. Since joining Cedar Associates, he has managed projects such as a diagnostic for lung cancer based on a genetic biomarker and a diagnostic for schizophrenia based on a genetic biomarker. Richard holds a BA in Environmental Design with a major in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mark Friedmann came to Cedar Associates after over 30 years at Abbott Laboratories where he served in a variety of sales and marketing related functions including managed care sales. In this role, he facilitated technology assessments and coverage policy development, and negotiated provider contracts including coding and reimbursement rates with UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser, numerous BCBS, regional and local health plans and IPAs in the western states. His managed care responsibilities also extended to state capitol representation to facilitate MediCaid reimbursement. Mark’s experience includes managing the launch of diagnostics, molecular diagnostics and biologicals in the managed care environment and anti-infectives and lung surfactant as a sales manager. He also coordinated partnership relationships with Adeza Biomedical, Genentech, and MedImmune. Mark received a BBA (Management) and minored in biology and chemistry at the University of Cincinnati.

Victor R. Cruz graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology and a focus in International Health and Infectious Diseases. While at Stanford, he conducted research on a tuberculosis diagnostic, comparing its performance in children vs. adults. He was a science writer for the Stanford Daily newspaper and the Service in Global Health Journal and worked with an NGO (Gawad Kalinga) to create medical volunteer trips to the Philippines. Most recently, he worked at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research on a study investigating chronic renal insufficiency. His interest in applied statistical research and diagnostics motivates his work on the Cedar team.

Tiffany Yu graduated from University of California, San Diego with a BS degree in Human Biology and a BA in Economics. She focused on human diseases, molecular biology and the economics of public policy and medicine. Prior to joining the team at Cedar, she conducted academic biological research in laboratories at UC San Diego’s Pathology Department and Moores Cancer Center. She was also a board member for Rotaract Club at UCSD and is now an active member of Rotaract’s Silicon Valley Chapter.

Amal Al-Saadi graduated from Amherst College magna cum laude with a BA in Neuroscience where she gained insight into the neural circuitry of the brain that underlie our basic drives and neurodegenerative diseases. She has conducted laboratory research as a Howard Hughes fellow and an independent honors thesis in which she investigated the role of neuropeptide Y receptors in the parabrachial nucleus to mediating the feeding response as relevant to the issue of obesity. Spurred by her interest in economics, Amal aims to bring her science background and research skills to the Cedar team.

Irina Degtiar graduated from University of California, Berkeley with simultaneous degrees in Business Administration and Molecular & Cellular Biology, with a concentration in Genetics, Genomics, and Development. While at Cal, she conducted research in child epidemiology and molecular toxicology, as well as in plant genetics at Stanford. Her interest in the economic and business perspective of healthcare and life sciences drives her work at Cedar Associates.

Cedar also partners with an group of consultants/contractors with expertise in clinical science, statistics, clinical trial research, and economic modeling. All Cedar contractors have advanced MD and/or PhD degrees. Some work as sole proprietors, having usually worked in the life science industry for more than 20 years each; they now provide consulting services to many of the life science companies in the Bay Area. Others are employed as faculty by either Stanford or UCSF, providing contract work to Cedar in addition to their primary positions.