AES 2021 – UCB’s New Data Across Epilepsy Portfolio

Grant Simic, Executive Population Health Partner for U.S. Neurology at UCB, discusses real-world studies addressing topics such as the cultural attitudes regarding epilepsy across various stakeholders that were presented at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) 75th Annual Meeting 2021. He also discusses work UCB did in partnership with the Arizona State University College of Health Solutions on social determinants of health as they relate to epilepsy. ​ 

Grant Simic is an Executive Population Health Partner for U.S. Neurology at UCB. He leads the development, negotiation, and management of new partnerships for the co-creation of non-drug solutions and population health research with the goal of addressing health disparities, improving the patient journey and optimizing health outcomes. Recent achievements include a collaboration with the University of Washington, and a research partnership with Arizona State University. After spending 25 years working to advance scientific innovations to improve health outcomes, Grant defines his purpose as creating and executing solutions that ‘extend life without disease, for all humans’.

Grant’s primary interest is in population health research and human-centered solution design. He is passionate about understanding the patient journey, and curious to learn how this varies for different subpopulations living with chronic diseases. Grant is currently conducting research to evaluate the impact of health disparities and social determinants on health outcomes, and he is leading a human-centered research process to design, build and validate new community-based services to improve health outcomes. Grant is also a core member of an initiative to develop culturally relevant support services for patients of Hispanic/Latinx heritage.

Grant originally trained as a medical scientist with a focus on anatomy and pharmacology and he has studied strategic marketing and consumer behavior. Grant spent his early career in commercial roles within biopharma companies, he has worked in medical/scientific leadership roles in healthcare communications organizations, and he co-founded a startup physician online education company.

Grant is motivated by a strong long-term company vision, building solutions that scale, seeing measurable impact on patient outcomes, and working with an inspired team in a creative environment. He enjoys moving between big-picture ideation and working to understand intricate details, as well as using an empathetic, storytelling approach to communicate with internal and external stakeholders. Grant is excited about future opportunities for digital health and wearable technology to improve the trajectory of people living with chronic diseases.