Margaret Piper, PhD, MPH, is a Senior Scientific Analyst and a member of the Hayes Precision Medicine team that produces health technology assessments of genetic tests across a range of conditions and applications.

Previously, Dr. Piper participated in the federally funded ClinGen Clinical Actionability Working Group Knowledge Synthesis Center (Kaiser Center for Health Research), which is evaluating the evidence for the clinical actionability of secondary findings of next-generation sequencing. Before that, Dr. Piper was a Senior Investigator with the CHR-based KP Research Affiliates (KPRA) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), which supports the work of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Dr. Piper is the former director of genomics resources at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Technology Evaluation Center (TEC), at the time also an EPC. She is experienced in systematic reviews of medical technology, including topics in oncology, laboratory medicine, and genomics/genetic testing. She has written more than 30 TEC systematic reviews and reports and co-authored 9 EPC reports.

Dr. Piper’s outreach activities include service on CMS’s Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee and on the working group for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) project. EGAPP was initiated as a demonstration project designed to establish and test methods and processes for evidence-based evaluation of genetic tests and for developing conclusions or recommendations on the basis of the evidence.

Dr. Piper has also directed clinical diagnostic laboratory departments (immunology, serology, HLA, clinical chemistry) in both academic hospital and commercial clinical laboratory settings, designed and evaluated new laboratory diagnostics for biomedical industry, consulted with physicians regarding test results, published, and presented volunteer teaching programs for professional organizations in laboratory medicine. She received a Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Commission on Continuing Education. Following a mid-career NCI fellowship in cancer prevention and control, Dr. Piper was posted to NCI and CDC with a focus on cancer genetics.

Dr. Piper received a PhD in immunology from Duke University and an MPH in epidemiology from Emory University.