David Palacios is Head of Global Patient Advocacy, Pharma. He is a physician, masters in health administration and specialist in marketing management. David has been exposed to managing global, regional and local roles initially in Market Access. He developed the patient relations role for Oncology Latin America and subsequently led the global function, building strategic relationships with non-traditional stakeholders such as NGOs, Patient Groups and officials from different markets and health care environments. Aligned with Novartis patient focus, he has been working on increasing the internal understanding of the role of patient groups their relevance in healthcare and patient outcomes.