Holly L. Peay

Patient-Focused Drug Development

Holly collaborates with patient advocacy organizations, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, government agencies, and professional societies to obtain rigorous qualitative and quantitative data to assess patient experience, determine priorities and inform patient-focused drug development. She is expert at survey and instrument development, data collection and analysis, and qualitative and quantitative interpretation. Data from her studies are used to understand symptom impact, treatment priorities, meaningful and valid outcome measures, acceptable and meaningful benefits, and risk and burden tolerance. She works with clients to use data to generate feasible and acceptable research protocols that are patient-centered, decision aids and shared decision making tools, and education and consent materials. She brings skill in engagement and collaboration across rare and common disorder communities, including transdisciplinary engagement as well as professional and community experience.

Prior Experience

In her decade-long prior role as a senior research scientist at RTI International, Holly developed and led work for industry, research and advocacy groups, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies, related to common and rare health disorders, with a focus on genetic disorders, newborn screening, and gene therapy and gene editing. Holly led patient preference and experience studies, clinical research, studies that explored the ethical use of emerging technologies, research to inform the disclosure of research results to participants, and decision support and informed-consent tools. She also conducted community-engaged research in which Holly ensured that diverse perspectives were included in study planning, implementation, reporting, and the development of recommendations and guidance.

Previous to RTI, Holly was senior VP of community research at Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD). She has also been an intramural researcher and associate graduate program director at the National Human Genome Research Institute; a senior project director and principal investigator at the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG); a genetic counselor at Greater Baltimore Medical Center; and a genetic counselor at Johns Hopkins’ Epidemiology and Genetics Program in the Department of Psychiatry.

Personal Interests