Panelists

Delain Wright

Delain Wright has dedicated his life to the field of hearing care. Growing up in a retail hearing care practice, he later worked with multinational companies at an executive level, gaining a deep understanding of the U.S. market as well as the global hearing aid market. Over the past 15 years, Delain has focused extensively on value-based hearing care, with a particular emphasis on over-the-counter hearing care in the U.S. market. Currently, Delain works with Intricon, a hearing aid manufacturer, and with TUNED, an AI-based self-fitting hearing aid software developer.

Julia Marcus, PhD, MPH

Julia Marcus, PhD, MPH is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and Adjunct Faculty at The Fenway Institute. She received her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

Dr. Marcus leads a research portfolio focused on improving the implementation of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to promote HIV prevention and sexual health in the United States. She has used electronic health record, survey, and qualitative data to identify people likely to benefit from PrEP, evaluate clinical outcomes among PrEP users in real-world healthcare settings, and characterize gaps and inequities in the PrEP continuum of care. She recently co-authored a perspective piece “Free the PrEP — Over-the-Counter Access to HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis” in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Marcus conducts research that has a direct impact on policy and clinical practice. Her studies are cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in multiple clinical guidelines and by the Equal Insurance HIV Act, a California state law that protects people with HIV from discrimination by insurance companies. She is currently leading multiple projects funded by the National Institutes of Health. You can read more about her publications on her faculty page.

Britt Wahlin

Britt Wahlin is the Vice President for Development and Public Affairs at Ibis Reproductive Health, a global nonprofit research organization working to advance sexual and reproductive autonomy, choices, and health. She leads fund development, communications, and policy and advocacy initiatives and serves on the senior management team. She is proud to be part of the leadership of Free the Pill, a coalition-driven campaign operated by Ibis that aims to move birth control pills over the counter in the United States and ensure they are affordable, covered by insurance, and available to people of all ages without a prescription. The coalition achieved a historic victory in July 2023 when the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first daily-use over-the-counter progestin-only pill with no age restriction. Before Ibis, Britt created public engagement campaigns for social justice-themed films and worked in women’s and girls’ philanthropy. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Modern Thought and Literature and Master of Arts in Humanities from Stanford University. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and two daughters.

Harold (Harry) DeMonaco

Harold (Harry) DeMonaco is a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has had a long-standing interest in biomedical technology assessment, and diffusion of innovation in healthcare. During his 35 -year career at the Massachusetts General Hospital he served in a variety of positions including director of pharmacy, director of the Innovation Support Center, co-chair of the Innovative Diagnostics and Therapeutics Committee, chair of the Human Research Committee and as an Assistant Chief Medical Officer for Care Transitions.

In addition to his activities at the MGH, he served as a medical editor for Harvard Health Publications (Intellihealth), the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making and Health News Reviews. During his over 20-year association with Sloan, his main area of research has been directed at both clinician and patient innovation. Patient self-management and self-monitoring of chronic illness are topics of interest in his research.