President & Co-Founder
Rita E. Numerof, PhD, President of Numerof & Associates is an internationally recognized consultant and author with more than 25 years of experience in the field of strategy development and execution, business model design, and market analysis.
Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Merrill Lynch, BMO, AstraZeneca, BMS, GSK, Merck, Abbott Laboratories, major healthcare institutions, payers, and government agencies. The focus of her consulting addresses the challenges of maintaining competitive advantage in highly dynamic and regulated markets.
Under her leadership, Numerof has developed proprietary approaches that provide precise insight and practical solutions to some of the industry’s most complex business challenges. Taking a systemic approach, Dr. Numerof has addressed such diverse issues as merger/acquisition integration, portfolio management, the identification of growth platforms that provide sustainable differentiation, and effective commercialization based on value propositions that matter to key constituencies.
She has guided organizations in the design and implementation of new business models to address market transitions; developed licensing and acquisition initiatives; developed pre-clinical and clinical research design for new products; conceptualized change strategies and scorecards/metrics for increasing operational effectiveness; and guided organizations in the design and implementation of global regulatory, clinical, and reimbursement processes.
Dr. Numerof has been a consistent advocate for the importance of strategic differentiation, organizational alignment of structure, competencies and metrics to ensure effective implementation, and anticipating, rather than reacting to industry trends. She’s been a pioneer in the area of economic and clinical value, anticipating the impact of changing global payer attitudes on the fundamental business model of the healthcare industry. Her work across the entire healthcare spectrum globally gives her a unique perspective on the challenges and needs of suppliers, physicians, payers, and healthcare delivery institutions.
She has served as an advisor to members of Congress and CMS on healthcare reform and comparative effectiveness research. She wrote the Heritage Foundation’s policy paper, Why Accountable Care Organizations Won’t Deliver Better Health Care – and Market Innovation Will. In addition, she led a tri-partisan, cross-industry work group on payment reform and developed recommendations for new payment models that incent better health outcomes at lower cost. She provides guidance to policy organizations and agencies on the relationship between innovation and regulation, working to support innovation and ensure responsive regulatory oversight.
Dr. Numerof is widely published in business journals, and has authored six books, including Bringing Value to Healthcare: Practical Steps for Getting to a Market-Based Model (2016) and Healthcare at a Turning Point: A Roadmap for Change (2013). She has written extensively on the subject of clinical and economic value creation, innovation, and the emerging role of real-world evidence in corporate strategy. In addition, she is a regular contributor to Forbes, where she writes about the business of healthcare and the need to move to a market-based model.
Dr. Numerof graduated magna cum laude from the Honors College, Syracuse University and received her MSS and PhD from Bryn Mawr College. She’s been a member of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women executive leadership team and is listed in Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who Among Top Executives. She serves on the executive committee of the board of Jazz St. Louis. She served on the board of directors for H.D. Smith, one of the largest national wholesale distributors for the healthcare industry, until the company was sold to AmerisourceBergen in January 2018.