The 4th UNGA Digital Health Symposium

Event Overview

The Innovation Value Institute (IVI) are thrilled to announce the upcoming 4th Digital Health Symposium at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), taking place on September 24-26th 2024 in New York City.

We have made remarkable progress in health as a global society, more than doubling life expectancy in just over two centuries. Public health and clinical innovations have been major contributors to this improvement. But across the world, healthcare systems are facing a major crisis caused by a perfect storm of factors – rapidly rising healthcare costs, clinician burnout and attrition, and demographics going in the wrong direction. Since 2018, there are more people over 65 than under the age of five in the world. Equally half the world do not have access to affordable care and for the half that do, it is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Time magazine recently wrote about the coming collapse of the US healthcare system, and the New York Times published an opinion piece about how that doctors aren’t burnt out from overwork, but demoralised by a broken healthcare system. According to the WHO and the World Bank Half the world lacks access to essential health services, 100 million still pushed into extreme poverty because of health expenses.

Registration is now closed. The event is fully booked.

Note: This event is by invitation only.

Date and time:

24-26th September 2024
08:30 – 17:30 (US ET)
13:30 – 22:30 (IST)

Location:

24-25th: Northwell Health,
UJA Conference Centre,
130 East 59th Street,
New York, 10022, USA.

26th: Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus,
First Floor, McNally Amphitheatre,
140 West 62 Street,
New York, 10023, USA

According to the World Bank Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 11 percent of the world’s population yet bears 24 percent of the global disease burden and commands less than one percent of global health expenditure. It also faces a severe shortage of trained medical personnel, with just three percent of the world’s health workers deployed in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ex UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the UK’s NHS is making people sicker and saying “the entire British state is on the verge of becoming a subsidiary of the NHS”, he argues, “pointing out that the cost of healthcare has risen from 27% of day-to-day public spending to 44% since the turn of the century”.

Healthcare is stuck in a time warp. Adapting from Peter Drucker “Every Organization or indeed Industry needs a theory of the Business” and “a valid theory that is clear, consistent, and focused is extraordinarily powerful.” An example is Moore’s Law which set a competitive challenge for the collective semiconductor industry that drove alignment, amplification and acceleration for the entire industry and has created the engine to transform our world into a digital and perhaps the most sustainable one.

We proposed “Stay Left, Shift Left-10X as the Moore’s Law for the Healthcare Industry. Stay Left is about first keeping well people well or if you need rehab or have a chronic disease this can be done best of all from home. Shift Left is about getting patients as quickly as possible from Hospital to Community to Home. 10X is the notion that when digital technologies are applied to health, we can do things 10X better, faster, cheaper and higher volume.

In 2021, the first Digital Health Symposium produced a white paper ‘The Digital Transition for Healthcare’ based on the “Stay Left, Shift Left, 10X” strategy outlining the need, rationale, and benefits for doing this with fifteen global co-authors. In 2022 the second Digital Health Symposium co-created theManhattan Manifesto’ including 12 guidelines for governments and organizations for achieving digital health equity, signed by fifty collaborators. In 2024, the 4th Digital Health Symposium will focus on moving from “Ambition to Action” and creating plans for alignment, amplification, and acceleration of our collective efforts to achieve health and wellbeing for all at all ages.

You are invited as a thought, clinical, practice, political or patient leader to attend, co-create and speak at the Symposium. The format of the conference consists of TED style stimulus keynotes, panels and working sessions. The symposium is designed to enable discourse, co-design, reflection, and exchange of ideas, concepts, policy, and practice to inform innovative action and build the relationships, trust and shared vision and values to accelerate SDG 3 and global health equity for all, Stay Left Shift Left 10X.

Chair:

Prof. Martin Curley, Director, Digital Health Ecosystem, Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University

Co-Chairs:

Dr John Sheehan, Clinical Radiologist, Blackrock Health and Medical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics

Ryl Jensen, CEO, New Zealand Digital Health Association

Agenda DAY 1 (24th)

Proposed Agenda subject to limited changes

08:30 Welcome
  Prof Martin Curley Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University
  Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
  Ryl Jensen (& Maori Blessing) Chief Executive Officer – Digital Health Association, New Zealand
08:40 Program Review
  Russ Branzell President & Chief Executive Officer – CHIME
  Prof Martin Curley Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University
  Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
08:50 Welcome and Opening Address, Scene Setting
  Patient Message Video  
  Gary Boyle Vice President – Parkinsons Europe
  Dr Kevin Bock Chief Health Information Officer – Northwell Health
  Opening Address  
  Prof Eeva Leinonen President – Maynooth University
  Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite Head – Australian Institute of Health Innovation
  Michael Carey Chairman – Enterprise Ireland
09:05 Stay Left, Shift Left-10X -Global Health Transformation
  Prof Martin Curley Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University
09:30 Opening Ted Talks: AI & Stay Left, Shift Left-10X & Design Doing
  Prof Matt Mullarkey Professor – University of South Florida
  Richard Jones President – C2-Ai
10:00 Leadership Panel 1: The Global Health Landscape
  Prof Pam Cipriano President – International Council of Nurses
  Dr Kevin Bock Chief Health Information Officer – Northwell Health
  Ann Aerts President – the Novartis Foundation
10:30 Break
10:45 Opening Keynote: “Metamorphosis in Global Health: Lessons from The Journey of Humanity”
  Prof Oded Galor Professor – Brown University
11:15 Panel 2: Provosts Panel
  Prof Eeva Leinonen President – Maynooth University
  Prof Katia Passerini Provost and Senior Executive Vice President – Seton Hall University
  Dr Mangal Rawal Vice Chancellor – the Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal
11:45 Dr Kevin Bock Digital and Data at Northwell Health
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Track Sessions
16:00 Break
16:15 Closing Keynote: The Future of Health: Building Our Tomorrows Today
  Dr Rasu Shrestha EVP/Chief Innovation and Commercialization Officer, Advocate Health
16:50 Closing Remarks
  Russ Branzell President & Chief Executive Officer – CHIME
  Prof Martin Curley Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University
17:00 Reception at Venue
 Track Session – Cybersecurity
13:00 Carter Groome Chief Executive Officer/ President, First Health Advisory
13:30 Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
14:00 Hazel Chappell Founder & Principal Consultant – ishca health
  Charles Aunger Founder & Chief Executive Officer – HEAL Security
  Aaron Miri SVP & Chief Digital & Information Officer – Baptist Health
14:30 Break  
15:00 Theresa Meadows Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer – Cook Children’s Health Care System
15:30 Panel  
  Lisa Gallagher National Cyber Advisor, CHIME
  Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
  Carter Groome Chief Executive Officer/ President, First Health Advisory
  Theresa Meadows Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer – Cook Children’s Health Care System
 Track Session – Digital Health
13:00 Design Doing – Tampa General Hospital; Hospital at Home
  Dr Peter Chang Chief Transformation Officer and SVP– Tampa General Hospital
13:30 Fireside Chat: Leadership in Digital Health
  Prof Katia Passerini Provost and Senior Executive Vice President – Seton Hall University
  Hani Eskander Head of Digital Services Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau – ITU
  Ryl Jensen Chief Executive Officer – Digital Health Association, New Zealand
14:00 Best Practice – Spotlight on Saudi Arabia
  Dr. Abdulrahman Alshaikh Director of Population Health – Lean Business Services
  Ahmed Alnaji Director of Unified Health Record – Lean Business Services
14:30 Break  
15:00 Panel Discussion: 2 *Ted Talks – Resilient Health and Medtech Futures
  Prof Judy Kuriansky Professor Columbia University & Author Resilience Health
  Ruchica Singal President, Medtronic Labs
  Hani Eskander Head of Digital Services Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau – ITU
15.30 International Best Practice: Stay Left, Shift Left-10X
  Dr Amar Ahmed Director – NHS Wilmslow Health Centre
  Dr Fairi Admed  
  Urga Azat Oddariya Foundation, Mongolia
 

Chuck House (video)

AstroVirtual Inc – Digital Health Observatory

 Track Session – AI/Tech
13:00 AI & IOT Transforming Health
13:00 AI, Digital Health and Rare Diseases
  Tamar Thompson, MS Vice president and head of global corporate affairs, Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, United States (moderator)
  Dr Tom Defay Deputy head, diagnostics strategy and development – Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, and vice chair, BeginNGS Consortium, United States
  Sheela Upadhyaya Consultant and former associate director of the Highly Specialized Technology Program – NICE, United Kingdom
  Dr Durhane Wong-Rieger Chair – Rare Diseases International, Canada
13.30 AI in Health – The Potential (tbc)
  Rebecca Distler Strategic Partnerships, OpenAI
  David O’Malley SVP, Strategy and Innovation, VNS Health
14:00 Focus on Learning & Skills Envisioning AI-powered MicroLearning for Clinicians
  Prof Ralucca Gera Professor – Naval Post Graduate School, Monterrey
  Dr Osama El Hassan GCC (UAE)
14:30 Break  
15:00 Matt Kull SVP/CDO – Innova Health System
15:30 Focus on Digital Nursing  
  Romina Elias Chief Nursing Informatics Officer – Dell Technologies
  Fintan Sheerin Professor of Nursing – Maynooth University
  Vaishali Kamat Pocus Lead, GE Healthcare

Agenda DAY 2 (25th)

08:30 Welcome Address and Program Review
  Prof Martin Curley Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University
  Ryl Jensen Chief Executive Officer – Digital Health Association, New Zealand
  Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
  Russ Branzell President & Chief Executive Officer – CHIME
08:45 Opening Keynote  
  Aaron Miri SVP & Chief Digital & Information Officer – Baptist Health
09:15 Panel 1 Africa’s Role in the Digital Health Transition
  Dr. Rasha Rady Co-founder – Chefaa
  Mara Hansen-Staples Founder at Salient Advisory
  Prof Prashant Yadav INSEAD
  Souwelimatou Amadou Amani Chair – Girls Engaged in Medicine and Sciences  (GEMS-Niger)
10:00 Global Ted Talks  
 

Derrick Muneene

Dept of Digital Health & Innovation – World Health Organization

 

Antonio Spina

Digital Health, AI and Data Lead, World Economic Forum

10:30 Break
11:00 Panel 2 Can Open Source EHR software deliver better health equity and health IT economics and functionality
  Stephen Nielson

Lead Community Developer, Open-EMR

  Maxine Radcliffe Clinician and Research Associate, Innovation Value Institute (IVI)
  Prof Anthony Staines Dublin City University – Ireland
  Pete Boyd CEO- OpenPlanIT
11:30

Fireside Chat: Stay Left and the Unified Care Model  – by Zoom

  Yeuk Fan NG Head of Corporate Development – Yishun Health
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Track Sessions
16:00 Break and Transition
16:15 Closing Keynote
  Jon Manis SVP/ Chief Information Officer, Christus Health
16:45 Closing Remarks
  Russ Branzell President & Chief Executive Officer – CHIME
  Ryl Jensen Chief Executive Officer – Digital Health Association, New Zealand
  Dr John Sheehan Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health
17:15 Reception (10 minute walk)

Northwell Health/ Maynooth University

Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital

210 East 64th Street New York, NY 10065 United States

Track Session – Best Practice

13:00

Aaron Miri

SVP & Chief Digital & Information Officer – Baptist Health

13:15

Rasu Shrestha

EVP/Chief Innovation and Commercialization Officer – Advocate Health

13:30

Jon Manis

SVP/ Chief Information Officer, Christus Health

13:45

Prof Judy Kurianski

Professor Columbia University & Author Resilience Health

14:00

David Toohey

Chief Executive Officer – Syncrophi Systems Ltd

14:15

Alain Labrique

Director, Dept of Digital Health & Innovation – WHO

14:30

Break

15:00

Peter Sogaard

Clinical Professor Cardiology – Aalborg University Hospital & Ventriject

15:30

Mark Hilz

HeartSciences

 Track Session- Digital Health
13:00 5 Digi Techs – HeartSciences, Syncrophi, OpenPlanIT
  Mark Hilz Chief Operating Officer, HeartSciences
  David Toohey Chief Executive Officer, Syncrophi Systems Ltd
  Pete Boyd CEO and MD, Open Plan IT Ltd
  Maxine Radcliffe
Clinician and Research Associate, Innovation Value Institute (IVI)
13:30 5 Digi Techs – Seismofit, Digicare
  Peter Sogaard Clinical Professor Cardiology – Aalborg University Hospital & Ventriject
  Ade Stack Managing Director at Stacks Pharmacy Group
14:00 Standards, Regulation, Legislation in Digital Health
  Elise Anthony ONC
  Nollag Conneelly PrivacyEngine
14:30 Break
15:00 Advances in Cardiovascular – AI and Digital Health in extremes, 2 *Ted Talks
  Karen Kelly CEO – Heartpath
  Tico Blumenthal

Digital Health Innovator

15:30 Implementation Science
  Mark Hindle Vice President EMEA – Orion Health
  Carolyn Steel Gray Sinai Canada

 Track Session – AI/Tech

13:00

Tressa Springmann

SVP/ Chief Information Officer, Lifebridge Health

13:30

Israel Krush

Chief Executive Officer/ President – HyroAI

14:00

Adam Walzcak

Deputy Director – John Hunter Health and Innovation Precinct

14:30

Break

15:00

Aaron Hillman

Philips Healthcare

15:30

Advanced Technology & Virtual Reality

 

Raghu Dharmaraju

CEO, ARTPARK at IISc, Bangalore

 

Prof Harmehr Sekhon

McGill University

 

Chuck House (video)

AstroVirtual

Agenda DAY 3 (26th)

08:15

Check-in

09:00

Welcome by Co-Chairs

 

Prof Falguni Sen

Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center; Professor Strategy and Statistics, Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business

 

Prof Martin Curley

Director of Digital Health Ecosystem – IVI & Maynooth University

09:10

Introduction

 

Prof Lerzan Aksoy

Dean, George N. Jean Ph.D. Chair, Professor of Marketing, Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business

09:15

Introduction to GHIM Center

 

Prof Falguni Sen

 

09:25

Stay Left, Shift Left-10X & AI

 

Prof Martin Curley

 

09:45

Generative AI as a Strategic Option Within Healthcare Organizations

 

Prof Navid Asgari

Associate Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center; Associate Professor, Grose Family Endowed Chair in Business, Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business

10:05

An AI Adoption Capability Maturity Framework

 

Richard A D Jones

President, C2-Ai

 

Prof Martin Curley

 

10:25

The Future of AI in Healthcare and a Companion That Helps You Get There

 

Dr John Sheehan

Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health

10:45

Break

11:10

Keynote 1: AI for the Human Touch: Empowering Healthcare Professionals and Enhancing Patient Care

 

Jan Beger

Head of AI Advocacy – GE Healthcare

 

Dr Anand Iyer

Chief AI Officer – WellDoc

 

Sanjay Doddamani

Founder and Chief Executive Officer – Guidehealth

11:55

Keynote 2: AI in Diagnostics

 

Vidur Mahajan, M.D.

Chief Executive Officer – CARPL.ai

 

Ryl Jensen

Chief Executive Officer – Digital Health Association, New Zealand

 

Dr John Sheehan

 

12:25

Lunch

13:45

Keynote 3: AI in Drug Discovery 

 

Dr Stanley Shaw, M.D.

 

Associate Vice President – Digital Medicine Amgen

 

Prof Navid Asgari

 

14:30

Keynote 4: Investing in AI for Healthcare

 

Richard Mulry

 

President and Chief Executive Officer – Northwell Holdings & Ventures

 

Prof Falguni Sen

 

15:15

Break

15:45

Regulations and Entrepreneurship in AI in Healthcare

 

Sean Khozin, M.D.

 

Chief Executive Officer – Roundtable on Cancer; Founder – Phyusion

 

Prof Doni Bloomfield, J.D.

Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University, School of Law

16:45

Closing Summary

 

Prof Falguni Sen

 

 

Prof Martin Curley

 

17:00

Reception

Invited Speakers & Panelists

Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University and Digital Health Lead at IVI

Professor Martin Curley

President, Maynooth University

Professor Eeva Leinonen

Chief Innovation Office, Advocate Health, USA

Rasu Shestra, MD

Director of Health Equity Initiatives, Purdue University

Dr Jerome Adams

Director, Digital Health and Innovation Department, WHO, Switzerland

Professor Alain Labrique

Chief Information Technology Officer, United Nations Mozambique/USA

Dr Bernardo Mariano Joaquim Junior

Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Health Association, New Zealand

Ryl Jensen

CEO and President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)

Russell P. Branzell

CEO, Elevance Health, USA

Gail Boudreaux

Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health

Dr John Sheehan

Founder and CEO of iHeal HealthTech Pvt Ltd

Romita Ghosh

Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, Fordham University

Professor Falguni Sen

Vice-President, International Council of Nurses

Professor Pam Cipriano

Executive Director, Global Strategic Partnerships at Northwell Health, USA

Elaine Brennan

CIO, Common Spirit Health, USA

Daniel Barchi

Secretary General, ITU, Switzerland

Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Executive Director consus.international, Germany

Dr Monika Suryavanshi

Clinical psychologist, TV commentator, Author, United Nations NGO representative & Columbia University Teachers College, USA

Professor Judy Kuriansky

Director, Corporate Development, Yishun Health, Singapore

Dr NG Yeuk Fan

Co-Founder/ Policy Lead, HealthEnabled, Egypt/USA

Professor Patricia (Patty) Mechael

Chair of Implementation of Digital Health Innovation, Canada

Dr Carolyn Steele Gray

Professor of Mathematics, Director of CHUNK Learning, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey

Professor Ralucca Gera

Professor and Director, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite

President and CEO of Sinai Chicago

Dr Ngozi Ezike

Senior Digital Health Consultant, Lightfoot, New Zealand

Carolyn Gullery

Chair person, ZIMAN, UAE

Dr Osama El Hassan

Deputy Director, Hunter Innovation District, Australia

Adam Walczak

President of Copeland Clinical Ai (C2-Ai), UK

Richard A. D. Jones

Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Dell Technologies

Romina Elias

Head, Digital Services Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU

Hani Eskandar

Assistant Professor at McGill University; Associate Scientist at St. Mary’s Research Centre in Montreal, Canada

Dr. Harmehr Sekhon

Provost and Senior Executive Vice President, Seton Hall University

Dr Katia Passerini

Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University and Digital Health Lead at IVI

Professor Martin Curley

Martin Curley is Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University. Most recently, Martin was Director of the Digital Transformation and Open Innovation at the Health Service Executive (HSE), helping enable the digital transformation of Ireland’s health service and also served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the HSE. Prior to joining the HSE Martin was Senior Vice President and group head for Global Digital Practice at Mastercard. Previously Martin was vice president at Intel Corporation and Director/GM of Intel Labs Europe, Intel’s network of more than 50 research labs which he helped grow across the European region. He also served as a senior principal engineer at Intel Labs Europe leading Intel’s research and innovation engagement with the European Commission and the broader European Union research ecosystem. Prior to this Curley was Global Director of IT Innovation and Director of IT Strategy and Technology at Intel. Earlier in his Intel career, he held a number of senior positions for Intel in the United States and Europe. He also worked in research and management positions at GE in Ireland and Philips in the Netherlands.

Martin has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and a master’s degree in business studies, both from University College Dublin, Ireland. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Curley is the author of eight books on technology management for value, innovation and entrepreneurship. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the British Computer Society and, the Irish Computer Society. Martin is co-founder of the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University, a unique industry-academia collaboration driving research and development of advanced IT and Digital maturity frameworks. He was previously a visiting scholar at MIT Sloan Centre for Information Systems Research and a visiting research fellow at the CERN Open Lab in Geneva. He was the inaugural winner of the Engineers Ireland Innovation engineer of the year in 2006 and was jointly awarded European Chief Technology Officer of the year for 2015-2016.

President, Maynooth University

Professor Eeva Leinonen

Professor Eeva Leinonen joined Maynooth University as President in October 2021, after five years of service as Vice Chancellor and President at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.

Professor Leinonen was born and raised in Finland, where she completed her schooling. She and her two brothers were the first in their family to attend university. Her own experience has cemented her belief in the role of education as a social equaliser, with the power to transform for the better the lives of individuals, families and whole communities.

As part of her education in Finland Professor Leinonen spent a year as an exchange student in Michigan, USA, prior to entering university in England, where she studied linguistics and psychology. She obtained a BSc (Hons) in Linguistics and Psychology (First Class) from Aston University, UK; MPhil in Text Linguistics from Exeter University, UK: PhD in Clinical Linguistics from De Montfort University, UK; Docent (Higher Doctorate) from her hometown university, University of Oulu, Finland; and DSc (Honoris Causa) from Aston University, UK.

Professor Leinonen’s academic research focuses on pragmatic language processing deficits in children and young adults with autistic spectrum disorders. She collaborates with colleagues in Finland and Italy, including recent work on cross-cultural comparison of pragmatic development in typically developing children in these two cultural contexts. She also speaks and writes about higher education topics, including institutional leadership, curriculum and technology enhanced learning.

Professor Leinonen has extensive experience in higher education in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and internationally. Prior to joining Maynooth University, she spent over eight years in Australia, where she first held the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of Wollongong and then Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University.

Chief Innovation Office, Advocate Health, USA

Rasu Shestra, MD

Rasu has nearly 30 years of industry experience as a physician leader delivering results across strategy, innovation, health information technology, marketing, communications, strategic investments and commercialization. Before joining Atrium Health in 2019, Rasu was with UPMC, where he led the payor-provider organization’s innovation and strategy, and built the industry’s largest and most successful innovation, commercialization and venture capital engine. He serves on the boards of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, U.S. Radiology, ML Bio and AcademyHealth in Washington D.C., the leading national catalyst at the intersection of the industry’s public, private and policy spheres.

Director of Health Equity Initiatives, Purdue University

Dr Jerome Adams

Dr. Jerome Adams was appointed as a Presidential Fellow and the Executive Director of Purdue’s Health Equity Initiatives on October 1, 2021. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Practice in the departments of Pharmacy Practice and Public Health. As the 20th U.S. Surgeon General and a prior member of the President’s Coronavirus task force, Dr. Adams has been at the forefront of America’s most pressing health challenges. A regular communicator via tv, radio, and in print, Dr. Adams is an expert not just in the science, but also in communicating the
science to the lay public, and making it relevant to various audiences. Dr. Adams is a licensed anesthesiologist with a master’s degree in public health, and ran the Indiana State Department of Health prior to becoming Surgeon General. In the State Health Commissioner role he managed a $350 million dollar budget and over 1000 employees, and led Indiana’s response to Ebola, Zika, and HIV crises. Notably, Dr. Adams helped convince the Governor and State Legislature to legalize syringe service programs in the state, and to prioritize $13 million in funding to combat infant mortality. As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams was the operational head of the 6000 person Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and oversaw responses to 3 back to back category 5 hurricanes, and to a once in a century pandemic. In addition to his recent COVID19 work, Dr. Adams has partnered with and assisted organizations as they navigate the opioid epidemic, maternal health, rising rates of chronic disease, the impacts of rising suicide rates in our Nation, and how businesses can become better stewards and stakeholders in promoting community health.

Director, Digital Health and Innovation Department, WHO, Switzerland

Professor Alain Labrique

Dr. Alain Labrique is the Director for the Department of Digital Health and Innovation at the World Health Organization. He is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative and Editor-in-Chief for the Oxford Open Digital Health journal. An infectious disease and population epidemiologist, he served until September of 2022 as Professor and the inaugural Associate Chair for Research in Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Labrique has led research in maternal, neonatal, and infant health in resource limited settings and was recognized as one of the Top 11 mHealth Innovators in 2011. He served as a lead author on the 2012 Bellagio Declaration on mHealth Evidence. In 2018, he was awarded the Excellence in International Public Health Practice Award and a Distinguished Alumnus award from Johns Hopkins University. Labrique has authored over 150 publications in high-impact journals, as well as many book chapters and technical reports on Digital Health and Emerging Infectious Diseases. His frameworks for Digital Health remains among the most cited. Labrique has served as a Technical Advisor to several international and global health agencies and Ministries of Health, was the Chair of the WHO Digital Health Guidelines Development Group and a member of the WHO Digital Health Roster of Experts.

Chief Information Technology Officer, United Nations Mozambique/USA

Dr Bernardo Mariano Joaquim Junior

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 1 June 2021 the appointment of Bernardo Mariano Joaquim Junior of Mozambique as Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO), Assistant Secretary-General, Office of Information and Communications Technology at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  The Secretary-General conveys his deep appreciation to the former CITO, Atefeh Riazi of the United States, and the Acting CITO, Patrick Carey of Ireland, for their work and dedication to the Organization.

He brings to the position 28 years of experience within the United Nations system and international organizations, most recently serving as the Chief Information Officer and Director for Digital Health and Innovation at the World Health Organization (WHO), where he led the organization’s digital transformation journey, leveraging digital technologies and innovations to accelerate the achievement of WHO strategic goals.

He started his career in 1993 with International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Mozambique and continued with IOM in Haiti, Mali, Angola, Kenya, Kosovo and South Africa in addition to Geneva, Switzerland before joining WHO in 2018.  He served as IOM Senior Regional Adviser for Sub-Saharan Africa (2017-2018), Regional Director for Southern Africa (2009-2015) and served as IOM Chief Information Officer (2015-2017, 2002-2011), having championed several business transformation initiatives, driving innovations in operation and management systems, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, information technology, project management and network infrastructure.

He holds a Master of Science in Global Management from Salford University (United Kingdom), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.  He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish, with a very good knowledge of French.

Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Health Association, New Zealand

Ryl Jensen

Ryl Jensen is the Chief Executive Officer of the DHA with a background in IT having previously worked for the likes of IBM, EDS, and Merrill Lynch HSBC in London. She worked in Customer Relationship Management and Disaster Recovery, responsible for Service Level Agreements and Service Delivery Management. She has a strong customer focus and is passionate about health policy, research, and helping people. Ryl’s goal would be to see New Zealand’s Health System in a stronger, more resilient and connected position through digital health, driving better and more equitable health outcomes for all.

Ryl has been active in the Health and Disability Sector for a number of years, firstly being an advocate for women’s health and then later for digital interoperability. At a Government level she has written and contributed to health policy. She has a strong passion for the health sector, in particular digital health, and how it can be a key enabler to improve health outcomes and healthcare delivery.

Ryl has a Master of Health from Victoria University of Wellington, with a focus on health policy, planning, and systems structures. Her thesis completed in 2022 is titled Exploring a Digital Health Governance Framework for New Zealand – A mixed methods study.

Ryl was one of three main contributors to the DHA’s Health Opportunities Report Hauora, Mauri Ora: Enabling a Healthier Aotearoa New Zealand, released in 2021 by the Minister of Health Andrew Little.

Ryl is married with two children and lives in the Kapiti Coast on a small lifestyle block with her family. She is an avid reader, and loves cycling and walking along the river near her house with her dog Benji.

CEO and President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)

Russell P. Branzell

Russell P. Branzell is the CEO and President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and its affiliate associations, the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Technology (AEHIT) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Applications (AEHIA). In addition to his position at CHIME, he serves on the faculty at CHIME University and Columbia University, where he teaches executive classes in health information technology. He also is a member of the Baldrige Foundation Board and a former member of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a position that was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce.

Mr. Branzell joined CHIME as President and CEO in April 2013 after being an active member for 15 years. He served on the CHIME Board of Trustees from 2004-2008, as chair of the CHIME Education Committee from 2004-2008 and as chair of the CHIME Education Foundation.

Prior to taking his position at CHIME, he was the CEO at the Colorado Health Medical Group; Vice President of Information Services and CIO for Poudre Valley Health System; President/CEO of Innovation Enterprises (PVHS’ for-profit IS entity); and Regional Deputy CIO and Executive Director of Information Services for Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, MO. He served on active duty in the United States Air Force and retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2008. While on active duty, he held numerous healthcare administration positions, including CIO for the Air Mobility Command Surgeon General’s Office.

CEO, Elevance Health, USA

Gail Boudreaux

Gail Boudreaux serves as president and chief executive officer at Elevance Health, where she leads the company in improving lives and communities, simplifying healthcare, and building trust with customers. Regarded for her ability to skillfully scale multi-billion-dollar businesses, Boudreaux leverages her more than three decades of healthcare industry experience to helm one of America’s largest health companies.

Clinical Director, Mobile Medical Diagnostics & Consultant Radiologist, Blackrock Health

Dr John Sheehan

John is deeply engaged in healthcare technology, with a focus on emerging innovations like cloud computing, AI, Augmented Reality, Robotics and Quantum Computing. His work revolves around bridging the clinical, digital, and industrial realms to advance technology policy.

John’s journey in Radiology commenced in 2005 when he embarked on fellowships in MRI (Body, Neuro & MSK) and Cardiovascular Imaging at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. His dedication led him to become the Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging at NorthShore University Health System by 2009.

Currently, John serves as a Consultant Radiologist at Blackrock Health (Hermitage & Blackrock Clinics) and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, specialising in Diagnostic to Interventional Radiology. His expertise shines in Cardiovascular, Hepatobiliary, Prostate, MSK, and Colonography, where he continues to set new standards.

John also holds the role of Clinical Director at Hermitage Clinic and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, while providing valuable advice to xWave Technologies. In this capacity, he brings his clinical insights to inform administrative decision-making.

As the Vice Chair of Ireland’s Digital Health Association, John plays a role in shaping Ireland’s Digital Health Strategy.

Known for his calm diligence and solution-focused approach, John balances his professional life with diverse hobbies like music, gardening, and photography.

Join John on his journey to drive healthcare technology and innovation for a brighter future.

Founder and CEO of iHeal HealthTech Pvt Ltd

Romita Ghosh

Ms. Romita Ghosh, an esteemed Founder-CEO at the forefront of the MedTech industry, spearheads innovative and impactful ventures that transform healthcare in India. With an unwavering commitment to revolutionize the industry, she has founded highly successful MedTech companies. Transitioning from research at the Tata Cancer Center, Romita’s passion for tangible change led her to become an exemplary entrepreneur. Through visionary leadership, her ventures have positively impacted more than 200,000 lives. Recognized with the Women Transforming India Award 2021 by Niti Aayog, Romita’s contributions are highly regarded. Romita holds double majors in Biotechnology and Biochemistry, alongside an MBA. She is an alumnus of IIM Udaipur and served as an ICMR research fellow at IIT Hyderabad. Her achievements include being named one of the Top 50 Women in Innovation by CII PwC. Additionally, her groundbreaking solution, Maap AI, revolutionizing child nutrition, earned her a place in the prestigious Top 10 of the Bayer Women Empowerment Award. Receiving numerous accolades such as the Most Inspiring Woman Entrepreneur Award and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Romita’s journey is recognized for its impact. Falicitated by Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and invited to the United Nations General Assembly, she is a sought-after speaker and advocate. In line with her ethos, Romita Ghosh received specialized training at the German Institute of Sustainability and Development, further strengthening her commitment to sustainable practices in the field of healthcare. Contributing to the startup ecosystem, Romita mentors aspiring founders and leads the India-Germany Bilateral Business Council, championing women in science. Her media presence includes appearances on TV programs and features by renowned outlets, further solidifying her influence. Romita Ghosh’s exceptional journey, pioneering spirit, and unwavering dedication to transforming healthcare establish her as an influential figure, inspiring countless individuals and shaping the future of the industry

Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, Fordham University

Professor Falguni Sen

Falguni Sen is head of Fordham’s Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, which aims to promote a high-level international conversation about business, social and health issues. He also is a professor and area chair of atrategy and statistics. Before coming to Fordham, Professor Sen acted as a consultant for numerous private, public and government organizations in the United States, India and Ireland.

Professor Sen has won Fordham’s Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence. He also received a dissertation grant from the National Science Foundation and a graduate fellowship at Northwestern University from the Ford Foundation.

Vice-President, International Council of Nurses

Professor Pam Cipriano

With over 40 years’ experience as a globally recognized nurse leader, strategist, educator and advocate, Dr. Pam Cipriano was ranked number 2 on Healthcare Global’s list of the Top 10 women in healthcare for 2021. She was previously named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in U.S. Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine for four years running.

Pam has gained international recognition for her work improving working conditions, quality, and services in nursing environments worldwide. She leads national and international efforts to increase nurse involvement in healthcare policy decisions; boost nurses’ social impact; and protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the nursing community. Pam was the inaugural editor of the National Nurses Association journal for eight years and publishes regularly on nursing issues in respected journals and media outlets.

Pam is currently first Vice-President of the International Council of Nurses and Dean & Sadie Heath Cabiniss Professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.

Executive Director, Global Strategic Partnerships at Northwell Health, USA

Elaine Brennan

Elaine Brennan is Executive Director, Global Strategic Partnerships at Northwell Health where she has responsibility for developing collaborative and strategic relationships and has created innovative new programs at Northwell.

Ms. Brennan originally joined Northwell Health to create the Pharma Ventures group and led the innovative approach to managing and developing collaborative and strategic relationships with the pharmaceutical/ biotech and device industry to establish Northwell as a premier destination for clinical research, health outcomes and digital innovation.

Ms. Brennan subsequently created Northwell’s International Program developing strategic alliances with government trade agencies to enable access to a pipeline of international innovative technologies and companies for procurement, research and investment.

In addition, Ms. Brennan manages several strategic network and individual relationships on behalf of Northwell that drive value across many cross functional areas of the health system.

Previously, Ms. Brennan was the CEO of Socrates, a health care information technology company, where she led the development and launch of its technology platform in the United States. She also headed up Life Sciences for Enterprise Ireland (Irish Government), managing life science companies entering the US market, screening them for market readiness, assisting with fund raising and commercialization path ways. She also founded Gastroenterology Ireland, which combined a cluster of companies, research and development, and Irish opinion leaders in Ireland and the US with the purpose of creating a niche competency for a country, driving funding and innovation.

Her pharmaceutical career at Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb and AbbVie included marketing/sales and clinical roles launching blockbuster products in the virology sector.

Ms. Brennan has published scientific articles on genetic engineering and biodegradable polymers applications, and patented many products in the same area. She earned her science degree in the United Kingdom and her early education in Ireland and Belgium.

CIO, Common Spirit Health, USA

Daniel Barchi

As Chief Information Officer at CommonSpirit Health, Daniel provides vision and leadership to support growth, operational performance, digital innovation and IT security. Daniel joined CommonSpirit in 2022 to contribute his more than 20 years of experience advancing and integrating information technology, digital clinical and consumer applications and financial tools for large and complex health care systems. Before his work at CommonSpirit, he served as CIO of NewYork-Presbyterian Health System, where he led operations of information technology, business systems, innovation, analytics, telemedicine and pharmacy teams. Prior to this role, Daniel served as CIO of Carilion Clinic, Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine. Before his career in health care technology, Daniel worked in the telecommunications industry, leading global project operations for MCI and WorldCom in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Daniel earned his Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and served as a U.S. Naval Officer at sea on guided missile cruisers. He was twice awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for leadership, the Southeast Asia Service Medal for Iraq operations in the Red Sea and the NATO Service Medal for Bosnian War operations. As he prepared to complete his Naval service, Daniel earned a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University.

Secretary General, ITU, Switzerland

Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Doreen Bogdan-Martin took office as Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023.

Ms Bogdan-Martin has held leadership positions in the field of international telecommunications policy for over three decades, with a track-record of brokering innovative partnerships to expand digital inclusion and connectivity for everyone around the world. Following her historic election by ITU Member States in September 2022, she became the first woman ever to head the organization, which was first established in 1865 and became a UN specialized agency in 1947.

As ITU Secretary-General, she aims to drive innovative solutions, maximize ITU’s relevance for its 193 Member States, intensify global cooperation on connecting the unconnected, and strengthen the alignment of ITU’s programmes with the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations. Ms Bogdan-Martin has consistently emphasized the need for digital transformation to achieve economic prosperity, job creation, skills development, gender equality, and socio-economic inclusion, as well as to build circular economies, reduce climate impact, and save lives.

As Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau for a four-year term starting in 2018, she helped put sustainable digital development at the forefront of international cooperation, including with the private sector and civil society. She actively promoted the Partner2Connect initiative, which has mobilized unprecedented pledges of funding and support for meaningful Internet connectivity in developing countries.

Earlier, she was instrumental in establishing the ITU-UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, serving as its Executive Director for more than a decade, contributed to the success of ITU’s Global Symposium for Regulators as the pre-eminent worldwide meeting for digital policy makers, and led in the formulation of  ITU’s youth engagement strategy. She also pioneered ITU’s ongoing contribution to the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age and initiated collaboration with UNICEF on the Giga project to connect every school worldwide to the Internet. ​

Within ITU, she has promoted gender equality and encouraged bringing more women into the workforce, as well as helping women grow professionally and contributing to networks of women pursuing gender-balanced participation in conferences and policy making.

From 2008 until 2018, Ms Bogdan-Martin served as Chief of ITU’s Strategic Planning and Membership Department, overseeing corporate communications, external affairs, corporate strategy, and membership. Earlier, she headed the Regulatory and Market Environment Division and Regulatory Reform Unit in the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau​.

Before joining ITU in 1994, she worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce as a Telecommunication Policy Specialist in the National Telecommunication and Information Administration.

Ms Bogdan-Martin holds a Master’s in International Communications Policy from American University in Washington, DC, a post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a certification in Accountability and Ethics from the UN Leaders Programme. She is also a qualified amateur radio operator.

Ms Bogdan-Martin is married with four children.

Executive Director consus.international, Germany

Dr Monika Suryavanshi

With over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, Dr Monika developed a deep understanding of health and care systems, bringing both clinical and managerial expertise from different markets and cultures. As an expert on a wide range of strategic, operational and compliance projects, ranging from developing new business and care models to improving processes and workflows in hospitals, she worked with various stakeholders in different countries such as USA, Spain, Kazakhstan, Georgia, China, and Kenya.
Amongst others, Dr Monika worked as Executive Director of Helios Healthcare Architects, a consulting business unit of Fresenius Helios, one of the largest healthcare groups in Europe. Before joining Helios group, Dr. Monika has worked in clinical and management capacities as an emergency physician and hospital manager for 15 years in India. She headed her own hospital and a clinic in Pune, a first-tier city in India.
She was also a faculty member and trainer in Emergency Medicine and American Heart Association courses at Symbiosis International University, Pune, India.
Dr Monika’s academic background includes Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, USA and International University, Germany.

Clinical psychologist, TV commentator, Author, United Nations NGO representative & Columbia University Teachers College, USA

Professor Judy Kuriansky

Dr. Judy Kuriansky is a world renowned radio advice host, clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist, popular lecturer, newspaper columnist, and author of many books. She is a pioneer of radio call-in advice, and Internet advice. On the faculty of the Clinical Psychology Program at Columbia University Teachers College and visiting professor of Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, she is a frequent commentator on international media –including CNN — on various news issues.
Dr. Judy is on the Advisory Board of several magazines and public service organizations, and works extensively in Asia on health and women’s issues, and Known for her relationship advice, Dr. Judy is also expert on emergency mental health services, and has worked at Ground Zero and many other disasters worldwide, and lectures about coping with world conflicts, including in the Middle East.

A graduate of Smith College, Dr. Kuriansky earned a masters degree at Boston University and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from N.Y.U. where she taught psychology.  She spent ten years at Columbia Medical Center and London’s Maudsley hospital, as a Senior  Research Scientist, and has conducted hundreds of workshops and published many professional journal articles including in the distinguished American Journal of Psychiatry. She has held many leadership positions, including at the Center for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, and teaching at universitiesa around the world, inclhding in the Clinical Psychology department for graduate students at Columbia University Teachers College and as visitng porfessor in Hong Kong adn in Beijing China.

Director, Corporate Development, Yishun Health, Singapore

Dr NG Yeuk Fan

Dr Ng Yeuk Fan is a Senior Consultant Public Health Physician experienced in health systems and services planning and evaluation, healthcare corporate transformation, organization development and change management.

He is currently Director & Head of Corporate Development in Yishun Health, a member of the National Healthcare Group. As the Director, he is responsible for value based care & services planning, health system & services evaluation, insights & analytics, corporate planning, and organization development. Ongoing focus areas include the development and deployment of a Unified Care Model for the Yishun Zone Regional Health System in NHG, development of a health system and health services performance measurement framework, value-based transformation of lifelong care and episodic care services, development of person-centered needs assessment tools, implementation of needs-based population segmentation tool, development of population outcomes and financial risk prediction models, deployment of population health survey for the North of Singapore, development of a unified data model for population health systems, and development of organization development methods to accelerate health system transformation.

Dr Ng is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, as well as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Health Systems & Services Research Program in the Duke-NUS Medical School. He is also a physician faculty in the National Preventive Medicine Residency Programme in National University Health System, and a clinical teacher in the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

His academic interests include the application of systems thinking, design thinking and complexity thinking in health systems, value based care, integrated care, population health systems and health system transformation.

Co-Founder/ Policy Lead, HealthEnabled, Egypt/USA

Professor Patricia (Patty) Mechael

Patricia (Patty) Mechael is co-founder and policy lead at HealthEnabled, a global non-profit focused on improving health outcomes and strengthening health systems in low- and middle-income countries through digital health transformation.

She leads the Global Digital Health Monitor, a web-based platform to measure and monitor digital health maturity at the country level.

She is a Senior Associate Professor in the Department of International Health in the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

She also serves as a member of the WHO Roster of Digital Health Experts and the Guidelines Development Groups for Digital Health and Self-care Interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

She is a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow, Johns Hopkins University Knowledge for the World Distinguished Alumnus Awardee (2011), and British Council UK Education Social Impact Award (2016) recipient. She is also a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2023).

She is on the editorial board of the Oxford Open Digital Health Journal and Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Chair of Implementation of Digital Health Innovation, Canada

Dr Carolyn Steele Gray

Carolyn Steele Gray, MA, PhD holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Implementing Digital Health Innovation. She is a Scientist at the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation in the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto in Canada, and a Senior Associate with the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC). Dr. Steele Gray previous held a 2020-2021 AMS Healthcare Fellow in Compassion and Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health. She co-leads an IFIC Special Interest Group in Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care and is a Co-Founder of the International Learning Collaborative for Goal-Oriented Care. Dr. Steele Gray’s program of work focuses on the role of digital health in supporting integrated and person-centred care delivery for patients with complex care needs, applying implementation science and evaluation methods to uncover to how best to integrate technology in novel delivery models. She applies mixed and multi-method approaches to design, implement and evaluate innovations, focusing on integrated models that connect to community-based primary care settings. Her projects centre on how innovation can lead to transformation by attending to both the formative activities, as well as normative values of people, teams, organizations and systems.

Professor of Mathematics, Director of CHUNK Learning, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey

Professor Ralucca Gera

Dr. Ralucca Gera, a distinguished graduate of WMU is now a Professor of Mathematics at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Recognized for her exemplary leadership and contribution in the academic community, she serves in diverse capacities as the Academic Associate Chair for the Math Department, Director of CHUNK Learning, Program Manager of the Network Science Academic Certificate, the liaison between NPS and the US Naval Community College, and the lead for several AI-based Education Innovation projects that look to revolutionize learning.
Prof. Ralucca Gera is the Schieffelin Award recipient for Excellence in Teaching beyond the classroom, and the Hamming Award recipient for an excellent job in the classroom as evidenced by the students’ mastery of the course material, thesis supervision, and contribution to NPS students’ education.  A forward thinker, Prof. Ralucca Gera is a leader in the classroom and research, with an education strategy focused on quality, effectiveness, and incorporation of innovative techniques in teaching and learning. She supports personalized education through intentional learning strategies that emphasize excellence, exploration, and HyFlex environment experimentation – be it face to face or online. She empowers students to be confident learners by cultivating curiosity and inquiry, inspiring them to take ownership of their learning.  Moreover, her exemplary leadership skills have been particularly vital during the pandemic, as she spearheaded the successful transition to remote teaching and learning during the pandemic, and the Distance Learning Quality Initiate (DLQi) that developed teaching resources and educational experiences emphasizing course quality and cohesive learning experiences.
Professor Gera’s research endeavors are equally impressive and have been instrumental in the progression of various AI-based educational innovations. She has directed reimbursable research projects such as CHUNK learning, Classroom of the Future with the output of Flexible Spaces and Campus of the Future, with recent focus on AI-based learning approaches, by leading the Future of Learning project with Microsoft under the MSFT-NPS CRADA, and she is the Educational Lead for ASPIRE. Her presentations and insights at international conferences have yielded a wealth of invaluable contributions and have played a formative role in advancing the impact of academic innovation excellence of NPS and the broader international community.
Professor and Director, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Director of the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science and Professor of Health Systems Research at Macquarie University.

Professor Braithwaite is a leading health services and systems researcher with an international reputation for his work investigating and contributing to systems improvement. He is visiting or adjunct Professor at Newcastle University and University of Birmingham in the UK; University of Southern Denmark; University of Stavanger, Norway; University of New South Wales; and Honorary Senior International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo, Japan. He is the Immediate Past President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), having been President from 2020 to 2023. He has considerable expertise in researching the culture and structure of acute settings, leadership, management and change in health sector organisations, quality and safety in health care, accreditation and surveying processes in international context and the restructuring of health services.

Professor Braithwaite is well known for bringing management and leadership concepts and evidence into the clinical arena. He has published extensively about organisational, social and team approaches to care (over 835 refereed contributions and 1,490 publications) with more than 34,650 citations. He has presented at or chaired international and national conferences, workshops, symposia and meetings on more than 1,470 occasions, including over 135 keynote addresses. Theories and ideas he has shaped or devised are now in common use; for example, multi-method, triangulated approaches to research, the boundary-less hospital, accreditation models in general practice and beyond, clinician-managers as key players in reform initiatives, fundamental principles for the governance of health systems, diversity in clinical professional groups, and inter-professional learning and culture change as a more sustainable strategy for reform. His empirical results have exposed the distinctive attitudes of clinical professional groups, how clinician-managers enact their leadership responsibilities, the behavioural displays of clinicians in service structures and the status of system-wide patient safety improvement initiatives.

Professor Braithwaite referees for 31 journals and the health research bodies of Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom as well as for many international conferences and symposia. He publishes in the leading journals in three convergent fields and thus expresses his work at a unique intersection of organisational studies, health services research and clinical care. Journals he contributes to include Nature Climate Change, The Lancet Psychiatry,  Journal of the American Medical Association, BMC Medicine, the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, PLoS Medicine, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Health Services Management Research, BMJ Quality and Safety, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Social Science & Medicine, BMC Health Services Research, International Journal of Health Planning and Management and Journal of Health, Organisation and Management.

President and CEO of Sinai Chicago

Dr Ngozi Ezike

Dr. Ezike is the President & CEO of Sinai Chicago. She’s a board-certified internist and pediatrician who has dedicated her career to addressing issues of health equity and health justice. Sinai Chicago is the largest private safety set health system in the State of Illinois with a service area of over 1.5 million people living in the communities of Chicago’s West and Southwest Sides.

Senior Digital Health Consultant, Lightfoot, New Zealand

Carolyn Gullery

Carolyn is a Digital Health Consultant at Spark New Zealand, where she applies her 30 years of experience and expertise in healthcare system design and transformation to help clients improve their performance and outcomes. She holds certificates in Public Policy Analysis and Analysing Health Systems: Lessons from COVID-19 from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), as well as a Certified Chair Executive Program from the Advisory Board Centre.

As a strategic leader and innovator, Carolyn has influenced the design and delivery of integrated, patient-centered, and efficient systems in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the UK. She has a proven track record of leading complex and challenging transformations, guided by clinical leadership and data-informed decisions. She is passionate about supporting health and social care systems to achieve their vision of providing high-quality, sustainable, and compassionate care to the communities they serve.

Chair person, ZIMAN, UAE

Dr Osama El Hassan

Dr. Osama Elhassan is the Vice President of UAE Health Informatics Society and a co-founder & the coordinator of the GCC Taskforce on Workforce Development in Digital Healthcare (ZIMAM). He is an elected member of several regional and international boards such as the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfteH), the Middle East and North Africa Health Informatics Society and the Roaster of Healthcare IT Experts at World Health Organization. He contributes to academia through his adjunct lecturer role at Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. He also serves as a Health Informatics specialist at Dubai Health Authority.

Dr Elhassan obtained a PhD in Software Engineering from University of Leicester and an MSc in Advanced Computing from Imperial College in UK. Throughout his 15 years journey within the healthcare domain, Dr Elhassan gained substantial experience in Health Informatics,  eHealth workforce development, Health Information Governance and Tele-Health.

Deputy Director, Hunter Innovation District, Australia

Adam Walczak

President of Copeland Clinical Ai (C2-Ai), UK

Richard A. D. Jones

Richard currently serves as President of Copeland Clinical Ai (C2-Ai), a digital health company that has developed, tested, and proven unique clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI)-backed systems that help hospitals and health systems worldwide demonstrably reduce avoidable harm, mortality, and cost.

Aside from this, Richard is a business mentor for GE Healthcare, and is an

Richard is also the author of Strategy Genius: 40 Insights From the Science of Strategic Thinking, and this book makes it easy to apply what researchers know about strategic thinking to the real world. It includes 40 chapters based on hundreds of cutting-edge business and psychology research projects reveal what works and what doesn’t work in strategy. Each of the 40 chapters is a mini-masterclass in strategic thinking, explaining the research and showing you how to apply it for yourself.

Richard serves as a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Dell Technologies

Romina Elias

Romina Elias is the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Dell Technologies. She comes with over 18 years of healthcare experience and is part of the Healthcare and Life Sciences practice within Dell. A nurse by trade, Romina’s passion for patient care and healthcare IT motivates her to help deliver technologies that
positively impact care delivery for both clinicians and patients alike. Prior to joining Dell, Romina was a Nursing Executive where she drove quality outcomes and patient experience results by developing efficient processes in healthcare delivery. Her team received the prestigious Beacon Gold award for clinical excellence as well as the Guardian of Excellence Award for outstanding patient experience 3 years in a row. Romina has led a diverse team of nurses and physicians through two successful Joint Commission surveys, DOH visits and the COVID pandemic. Utilizing limited resources and managing dynamic healthcare needs, she leveraged years of operational leadership experience to implement processes to safely care for patients throughout the pandemic. Romina leveraged her experience in health informatics
to lead organizations through electronic medical record upgrades and implementations. In the spring of 2021, she served as the Nursing lead for the Epic EMR implementation, ensuring patient safety and clinician satisfaction while maintaining and improving key performance indicators. Romina also has a passion for learning. She has a Master of Science in Nursing Informatics from Walden University and a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Capella University. She holds both a Nursing Informatics
and a Nurse Executive – Advance certificate from the American Credentialing Center. Romina is an advocate of furthering the nursing profession through education and has mentored several nurses through their pursuit of advanced degrees.

Head, Digital Services Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU

Hani Eskandar

Mr. Eskandar is the Digital Services Senior Coordinator at the Digital Society Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU. Mr. Eskandar is currently involved in providing assistance to several developing countries by advising on digital applications and services strategies and policies, assisting in implementing technical co-operation projects in areas of digital health, agriculture, governance and education. He has led the development of several guidelines and best practices reports on digital applications particularly on digital Health, digital Agriculture and digital Government. Mr Eskandar is currently leading major joint programmes on digital health, digital agriculture, digital government, smart learning and smart villages in collaboration with several governments, UN agencies and other stakeholders.

Mr. Eskandar has more than 25 years of extensive on-the-ground experience in the field of ICT for Development where he, through working with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in Switzerland and, UNDP, Ministry of ICT and other NGOs in Egypt, was involved in several development projects in the fields of Health, Education, Illiteracy Eradication, Community Development, SME development and Micro Credits.

Mr. Eskandar has an educational background in Electrical Engineering (Telecommunications) and has completed an MBA from McGill University, Canada and a Master Degree in Social and Economic Development Studies from University of Paris I, France.

 

Assistant Professor at McGill University; Associate Scientist at St. Mary’s Research Centre in Montreal, Canada

Dr. Harmehr Sekhon

Dr. Harmehr Sekhon is an Assistant Professor at McGill University and Associate Scientist at St. Mary’s Research Centre in Montreal, Canada (CA). She is also a Collaborator Scientist a the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, CA and a Fellow at the Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts in Boston, USA.
Her work is in novel digital technology interventions, including randomized controlled trials for older adults with and without cognitive impairments to improve mental and physical health. She has expertise in designing and assessing digital interventions for older adults, with a focus on virtual reality.
She has published 45 publications since 2017, and received 18 awards and grants. Dr. Sekhon has completed her Honours BSc at the University of Toronto and her Masters and Doctorate at McGill University. Her Lab’s goal is to use digital interventions to support the healthy aging of older adults across the care spectrum.
Provost and Senior Executive Vice President, Seton Hall University

Dr Katia Passerini

Dr. Passerini joined Seton Hall on June 5, 2020 as Provost and Executive Vice President, a role that she returned to after serving as Interim President in 2023-24. Katia was the Lesley H. and William L. Collins Distinguished Chair & Dean of the Collins College of Professional Studies at St. John’s University, where she also held a Professor appointment in the Division of Computer Science. From 2003-2016, she was Professor and Hurlburt Chair of MIS and Dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College (2013-16) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the George Washington University. Prior to academia, she worked as a management consultant for Booz Allen and Hamilton in the automotive and telecom industries. Her research spans knowledge management, entrepreneurship education, technology management and computer-supported learning. She has published over a hundred peer-reviewed journal and conference proceedings articles and has received numerous teaching, research, and service recognitions.

More speakers will be announced soon.

Symposium Sponsors

Hotel Recommendation

 

Concorde Hotel New York

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6 minutes’ walk from the UJA conference centre

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15 minutes’ walk from the UJA conference centre

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Courtyard New York Manhattan/Midtown East

 

 

The Shelburne Sonesta New York

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10 minutes’ walk from the UJA conference centre

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Empire Hotel New York

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