--- title: About Us description: >- Learn about Headwater—scientific partners delivering reproducible, decision-grade real-world evidence through validated technology and expert analytics. category: Page canonical_url: https://www.headwaterscience.com/about/ source: Headwater Science license: © 2026 Headwater Science. All rights reserved. slug: about id: 39PZ6itOns1KBE9dLqhk7 contentType: page --- # Company Overview Headwater Science builds the advanced study designs, analytic frameworks, and tooling that consequential evidence increasingly requires. ## Built for the standard the field is moving toward Real-world evidence is now an input to drug development, regulatory submission, and clinical decision-making. The methodological expectations that come with it have risen accordingly: pre-specification, protection against bias, sensitivity analysis, and the ability to withstand scrutiny from reviewers who didn't run the study. Headwater exists to meet that bar. We partner with life sciences partners, academic research groups, regulatory bodies, and other research organizations on the analytical and design problems where standard approaches and current platforms aren't sufficient. ![Outcome — Placeholder](https://images.ctfassets.net/fea4lj2cdgl5/48KcoRFDYwfNaBF1c0yK45/a69b1123c59a1127a67c129bddd2ceb8/outcome-placeholder.png) ## Leadership ### [M. Alan Brookhart, PhD](/people/m-alan-brookhart/) ![headshot-alan-brookhart](https://images.ctfassets.net/fea4lj2cdgl5/5NpSF5kSok4AEO56WcmSQw/72f6f919e4e371ed704333f013b9de3e/headshot-alan-brookhart.jpg) Alan is a biostatistician and an epidemiologist who has spent the last 15 years developing and applying epidemiological and statistical methods for studies using real-world healthcare data. He has more than 200 publications in leading journals in medicine, biostatistics, and epidemiology. In 2021 Target RWE acquired his company NoviSci, Inc., a company that built and applied analytic software and visualization tools for RWE generation. Alan is also a Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University, an Adjunct Professor at UNC Chapel Hill, and an Honorary Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Previously Alan was on faculty at Harvard Medical School and was also a co-founder and chair of the scientific advisory board of RxAnte, Inc., a provider of widely used predictive analytics for decision support. Alan is a member of many scientific advisory groups, review panels, and editorial boards. ### [Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD](/people/amy-abernethy-md-phd/) ![Amy Abernethy](https://images.ctfassets.net/fea4lj2cdgl5/8K9nyqbSDE8lIUe1DzWOG/6dd3da52570471ba8292eba9dda60a8b/Amy_Abernethy_Portrait_Alpha.png) Amy is Co-CEO of Pedestal Health and cofounder of Highlander Health, with a healthcare career marked by changemaking in organizations ranging from Flatiron Health to Duke University School of Medicine and Verily. Prior to Verily, Amy served as the principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2019-2021. Her board roles span public companies such as athenahealth and CareDx to private firms including insitro and Georgiamune. In addition to her standard setting and innovation work, Amy is a hematologist/oncologist, palliative medicine physician, and author of over 500 publications and counting. ### [Brad Hirsch, MD](/people/brad-hirsch-md/) ![Brad Hirsch](https://images.ctfassets.net/fea4lj2cdgl5/3Ey8Rp4EePuuLQGZLESwAs/1e5d4597183a1f220ebf5fe6c8a66e19/Brad_Hirsch_Portrait_Alpha.png) Brad is Co-CEO of Pedestal Health and cofounder of Highlander Health, and an oncologist, trialist, entrepreneur, and product leader dedicated to driving transformation at the intersection of research and care. He most recently led product at Verily, which he joined upon Verily’s acquisition of SignalPath, a clinical research technology company he founded and led as CEO. In addition to past roles at Flatiron Health, Texas Oncology, US Oncology, and Duke University, Brad gives his passion and leadership to a wide range of philanthropic organizations including the National Outdoor Leadership School. ## How Headwater engages Headwater Science engages with research partners across three distinct modes, each tailored to where in the research process methodological capability is most needed. ### Direct sponsor engagements Headwater Science works with life sciences sponsors directly on their own studies, regardless of whether the underlying data comes from Pedestal Health's cohorts, sponsor-owned data assets, claims databases, electronic health records, or other research data sources. The engagement model varies: methodological consulting on a specific submission, end-to-end design and analysis of a comparative effectiveness study, target trial emulation of a randomized question that wasn't or couldn't be studied directly, or technology deployment to support an ongoing program. ### Academic and research partnerships Headwater Science methodologists collaborate with academic research groups, regulatory science partners, and other research organizations on methodological development and applied work. Many of Headwater Science's published methodological papers are co-authored with academic collaborators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other institutions, reflecting the company's commitment to methodological development as a public scientific contribution rather than a proprietary capability. ### Collaboration with Pedestal Health Pedestal projects use Headwater Science methods and technology where the analytical complexity is highest — comparative effectiveness studies that require dynamic treatment design, regulatory-grade external control work, methodological consultation on submission packages, and the kinds of bias-protection frameworks that consequential evidence increasingly requires. The Pedestal collaboration is one expression of Headwater Science's work, not its definition.