Dr. Nizal Sarrafzadegan is Professor of Internal Medicine & Cardiology, Isfahan University in Iran and Affiliate Professor of the School of Population and Public Health(SPPH) in the University of British Columbian(UBC) in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is the founder director of Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center (ICRI), a WHO collaborating center in the EMR, and the Research Institute that consist of 7 research centers. She started her studies on Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) prevention, healthy lifestyle promotion and rehabilitation of cardiac patients since 1992 and published more than 450 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She took part in more than 80 international meetings as invited speaker or WHO advisor.
Dr. Sawsan A. S. Al Madhi has more than 14 years of progressive leadership skills and experience in strategy, operations, and administration for the non-profit charitable sector. Currently working with one of the most reputable charities in the UAE as the Director-General for Friends of Cancer Patients. Alongside being a force to reckon within the UAE’s philanthropy sector, Dr. Al Madhi is a sought-after public and motivational speaker most passionate about the issues of advocacy, health literacy, women’s health, CSR, sustainability and leadership. An MBBS (Medical Doctor), MSc in healthcare management (RCSI) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK, Dr. Al Madhi is also a visiting lecturer at the Canadian University in Dubai. Dr. Al Madhi is an active member on a number of boards including the Breast Cancer awareness program committee (Sharjah, MOH), the National Committee for Cancer Control (NICC, MOH-UAE), the Clinical Research Ethical Committee (Sharjah- UAE), the Gulf Federation For Cancer Control scientific committee representing UAE, and the Executive Committee for the US Middle East Partnership for Women’s Health, Cancer Control and Research, to name a few. Until recently, Dr. Al Madhi held the presidency of the Rotary Club Jumeirah and has been using the club’s platform to push ahead with her volunteering work for the UAE community.
Dr. Zumin Shi is a professor in Nutrition at Qatar University. He got his medical degree at Beijing Medical University and was conferred a PhD in the area of epidemiology from the University of Oslo. Dr Shi is the leading nutritional epidemiologist in several cohort studies in China, Australia and Qatar. He had worked at the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China for more than 10 years before he moved to Australia. In 2018, he joined Qatar University. Dr Shi’s main research interest is the relationship between food intake, food safety, lifestyles and chronic diseases including diabetes, obesity, anemia and cardiovascular diseases. He has over 240 peer-reviewed publications and is an editorial member of Nutrients.
Prof. Brian Godman has been working across many countries and continents in recent years to improve the quality and efficiency of medicine use in patients with both infectious and non-infectious diseases. This includes patients with NCDs including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and mental health issues. This has resulted in over 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals since 2008, many of which are listed in Pub Med, and includes publications with colleagues in Bangladesh. Brian will use this experience to discuss ongoing challenges with the management of patients with NCDs in Bangladesh and potential ways forward’
Amanj Kurdi is a clinical pharmacist with PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology and Healthcare Policy from the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, UK (2016). Currently work as a Senior Lecturer in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacy practice at Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS), University of Strathclyde. Amanj is a member of several professional bodies/groups including ISPE, and MURIA. Amanj has extensive clinical experience in many clinical areas, with particular emphasis around non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and infections with more than 90 peer-reviewed publications. His research interest focuses around optimizing the rational use of medicines through adopting pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Utilization Research methodology approaches in different clinical areas, but with the main focus around cardiovascular, diabetes and infections areas as well as researching adherence and persistence to medications using patient level data through applying various statistical and advanced analytical techniques. He has a strong international research collaboration, mainly across Africa around antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship as well as NCDs. This has included multiple research grant collaborations across Africa, including Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.
Dr. Manuel Carballo is an epidemiologist, specialized in migration and migrant health. He is the Executive Director of the International Centre for Migration Health and Development in Geneva (ICMHD). Before joining ICMHD, he held several senior scientist positions at WHO. He was the Scientific Coordinator of the first International Study on Breastfeeding and Child and Maternal Health undertaken by WHO. In 1993 he was WHO Public Health Advisor in Sarajevo during the Balkan war. Since joining ICMHD he has coordinated major studies on the impact of migration on the epidemiology of viral hepatitis, migration and diabetes, impact of war on maternal and child health, access to healthcare and social integration of migrants, and psychosocial health of displaced populations. He is a technical adviser to the ECDC, the Council of Europe, WHO/EURO and UNAIDS on migration and health.
Dr. Monika Arora is a public health scientist working in the area of health promotion and health advocacy with focus on NCD prevention and control. She is the Director of the Health Promotion Division and Professor at Public Health Foundation of India. She is also Executive Director of Delhi based NGO: HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) in India. HRIDAY serves as the secretariat of Healthy India Alliance (India NCD Alliance). Her expertise is in designing, implementing, managing and evaluating intervention programmes in various health promotion settings, large-scale group randomized trials as well as qualitative and policy research on NCD prevention and management. Dr. Arora’s approach of translating research to policy and programme action have informed National Health Programmes. Prof. Arora has been honoured with the Best Practices Award in Global Health in 2011 by the prestigious Global Health Council. She has been awarded with the WHO Director General’s World No Tobacco Day Award in 2012; “Exceptional Women of Excellence 2018 Award” by Women Economic Forum (WEF) in April 2018.
Prof. James Miller has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) of Glasgow Caledonian University since August 2015. Professor Miller is currently responsible for the three schools based at the Glasgow Campus; The GCU London Campus as well as the professional services portfolios of Strategy, Planning, and Business Intelligence; Internationalisation, Recruitment, and Admissions; The Glasgow Caledonian University Institute of University to Business Education. James is also a Trustee and Board Secretary to the Glasgow Caledonian New York College. Professor Miller gained an MBA from Napier University in 1998 and a PhD from Edinburgh University in 2004. James is an Alumnus of Harvard University’s Institute of Education Management. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a member of the Institute of Directors, and has been a Visiting Lecturer at four Scottish universities, teaching on undergraduate and Masters programmes in nursing, healthcare management and clinical leadership. He has published in peer-reviewed national and international journals on a range of clinical and management issues in healthcare and is a regular reviewer for a number of journals. Professor Miller is a member of the British Council’s Digital Advisory Board and has recently agreed to become a member of the International Advisory Board for the Amity University Group in India.