Dr. Andrew Norden, Former IBM Watson Health Deputy Chief Health Officer, Joins Cota as Chief Medical Officer

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cota, a healthcare data and analytics company that bridges precision medicine to population health, today announced that Andrew Norden, MD, MPH, MBA, has joined Cota as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). With his extensive clinical expertise and background in healthcare data analytics, the board-certified neurologist and neuro-oncologist will oversee the development of Cota's clinical offerings and solutions, and bring a wealth of knowledge in data and oncology. Previously, Dr. Norden served as Deputy Chief Health Officer and lead physician for oncology and genomics at IBM Watson Health.

The rapidly growing New York-based company is at the forefront of enabling precision medicine through its patented disease classification system, the Cota Nodal Address ™ (CNA). The CNA is designed to precisely categorize patient factors, diseases and therapies delivered by creating cohorts of clinically identical patients. The CNA technology can be leveraged to accelerate the pace of pharmaceutical research and development and enable value-based care programs between providers and payers.

"This is an extremely exciting time for Cota as we have reached a major inflection point in the evolution of the company," said John Hervey, Cota's Chief Executive Officer. "We have brought on some of the brightest minds in healthcare and health tech and assembled a stellar executive and senior leadership team – each of these individuals brings decades of experience that will usher Cota into the next phase of hyper growth."

"The healthcare market is ripe for change and Cota is positioned to empower doctors with the information they need to personalize treatment and drive optimal decisions at the point of care," said Dr. Norden. "I look forward to bringing my clinical and data-driven technology experience to take Cota to the next level, designing and developing effective solutions that will completely transform how physicians leverage data to optimize patient care."

Dr. Norden will lead all of Cota's clinical partnerships and solutions, bridging providers' needs with Cota's offerings. Prior to IBM Watson Health, he worked for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in several capacities, including Associate Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of Satellites and Network Affiliates. He also served as a physician leader for the Dana-Farber community network for more than five years. Dr. Norden attended the Yale School of Medicine, conducted his residency training at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals and completed a neuro-oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals. He also earned a MPH degree from Harvard School of Public Health, a MBA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and received his undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Brown University.

Cota's prior Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Stuart Goldberg, will assume a new role as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Goldberg will lead Cota's research and publication efforts that demonstrate the value of the CNA across multiple clinically driven use cases. He will also spearhead the company's collaborations with academic teaching hospitals.

"Through our work over the last few years, Cota has proven that there is significant variance in care – either too much or too little," said Dr. Goldberg. "As our data set continues to expand and we increase the richness of our database, we will have new and numerous opportunities to showcase how the CNA is improving outcomes and reducing costs through peer-reviewed journals and publications. I am eager to help the company grow in this new role as it closely aligns with my passion for scientific research."

In addition to Dr. Norden and Dr. Goldberg, the following leadership changes and new appointments are effective immediately:

• Thomas L. Gallucci will join as Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for managing Cota's finances, overseeing related business segments and contributing to the strategic direction of the company. Most recently, Gallucci was a Managing Director at Cain Brothers where he focused on merger and acquisitions within the healthcare services sector and brings over 20 years of healthcare industry experience to Cota.
• Elizabeth Rushforth will join as Chief Legal Officer, serving as the primary counsel and legal expert for Cota. Rushforth has deep experience in several areas of law, including securities, regulatory and compliance. Rushforth was most recently the Chief Legal Officer for Sungevity, a technology-driven solutions provider and spent three years at MedeAnalytics as SVP and General Counsel.
• Emmet O'Gara will join as Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer and is responsible for business development and account management activities. O'Gara has spent the past eight years at MedeAnalytics, most recently as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Payer and Provider Solutions. O'Gara brings over 25 years of strategic payer market experience to Cota.
• Ann Collins will join as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Strategy and is responsible for Cota's life sciences and pharma solutions and for driving the clinical vision and strategy. Collins, who has over 20 years in life sciences and oncology, previously held leadership roles at Vion, Agios and Schering Plough and is trained as an oncology physician associate.
• Janhvi Patel will join as Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, and is responsible for managing and cultivating Cota's partnerships like the collaboration with IBM Watson for Oncology. Previously, Patel was with IBM Watson Health in Strategic Partnerships.
• K. Marinka Natale will join as Vice President of Payer-Provider Solutions and is responsible for Cota's payer product vision and strategy. Natale, who has 15 years of healthcare informatics experience on the payer side, was most recently Senior Director of Informatics – Data Science at Aetna.
• Eva Werk will join as Vice President of Marketing and will oversee all marketing and communication activities at Cota. Most recently, Werk spent three years at Saffron Technology, an AI data analytics software company acquired by Intel Corp.

As Cota continues to scale its solution offerings and technology capabilities within data and analytics, the expanded domain expertise will enable Cota to rapidly innovate and execute to meet the market's demands.

About Cota, Inc.

Cota, Inc. is a technology platform that enables providers, payers and life science companies involved in diagnosing and treating complex diseases to optimize the outcomes of individual patients and lower the overall cost of the patient population served. It is powered by the patented Cota Nodal Address™ (CNA) system, a unique digital classification methodology built by leading physicians and data scientists. The CNA is the first and only system that precisely categorizes patient factors, their diseases and intended therapies, enabling precision medicine at scale.

Cota's technology enriches medical records to create research-grade data and joins it with a suite of analysis, visualization and management tools. This enables providers, payers and life science companies to analyze, report on and research outcomes, costs, treatments and quality at any granularity and stage of the patient journey. The result is a constantly improving system that merges technology and medicine to improve the lives of patients everywhere. For more information, go to www.cotahealthcare.com

Media Contact: 
Victoria Khamsombath 
SHIFT Communications 
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415.591.8464

SOURCE Cota

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