Speakers
(Moderator) Robert Madelin
Chairman
Fipra International Ltd
Robert is the Chairman of Fipra International Ltd, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Technology and Global Affairs. Previously (2004-16) Robert was a senior leader at the European Commission: as Senior Adviser for Innovation, as Director General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) and as Director General for Health and Consumer Policy (SANCO).
Robert was also a negotiator for 20 years in international trade and investment, first for the UK, and then for the EU: Robert served notably in the Cabinet of European Commission Vice-President Leon Brittan. Robert studied at Magdalen College (1976-9) and at the French Civil Service College (ENA). He is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Robert is the author of 'Opportunity Now: Europe's mission to innovate' (2016).
Dr Nick Goodwin
CEO
International Foundation for Integrated Care
Nick is co-Founder and CEO of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), a not-for-profit membership-based foundation dedicated to improving the science knowledge and adoption of integrate care in policy and practice across the World (www.integratedcarefoundation.org). Nick is the co-Editor-in-Chief of its open-access and impact rated scientific periodical the International Journal of Integrated Care (www.ijic.org). Nick also holds a range of research, educational and consultation roles worldwide.
Nick works as an expert advisor and consultant to national governments and international organisations including the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the World Health Organisation. In 2017 Nick was appointed to WHO Europe’s Primary Health Care Advisory Group, examining the future of PHC ahead of the 40th Anniversary of the Alma-Ata Declaration in September 2018. Nick continues to actively support the WHO’s work on people-centred and integrated health services.
Nick has also been working with the World Health Organisation to support the development of its Global Strategy on People-Centred Integrated Health Services and is on the Expert Advisory Team to WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Framework for Action Towards Coordinated/Integrated Health Services Delivery (CIHSD) leading work related to change management and adoption of integrated care in policy and practice.
In January 2016, Nick received the Avedis Donabedian International Award for his contribution to Healthcare Excellence.
Carole Absil
Business Group Leader Markets
Agoria
Carole Absil is an economist by training, graduated from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where she specialized in health econometrics.
Passion, dedication & technology are her leitmotifs. It is in this sense that she has created various initiatives, like the eHealth Awards, within the Belgian federation of the technological industry, Agoria, for which she has been working for 11 years. Within the federation, she manages the community of companies active in medical technologies.
Proud of Belgian technological innovations and through her actions, she helps companies to develop in an environment that is more favorable to them, from the regulatory point of view for example, or to position themselves in foreign markets.
Nicola Bedlington
Secretary General
European Patients’ Forum
Nicola was the founding Director of the European Disability Forum (1996 to 1999), and prior to this she worked as an expert for the European Commission, heading the NGO unit within the HELIOS Programme promoting equal opportunities for disabled people (1991-1996).
From 2004 to 2006, she worked for the Swiss Government, leading the Environment and Schools Initiatives Secretariat (ENSI), a network set up by OECD in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Nicola joined the European Patients’ Forum as its first Executive Director in June 2006 establishing the secretariat in Brussels, and became Secretary-General in October 2014. Under her leadership the organisation has grown to almost 70 umbrella patient organisations covering the spectrum of disease areas. Nicola was the Co-ordinator of the European Patient Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) which has now become an EPF programme. She is also a co-founder of the Patient Access Partnership, the chair of the Patient Advisory Group for the European Society of Radiology, a member of the European Health Forum Gastein Advisory Board and co-chairs the EFPIA Patient Think Tank and the Patient Medtech Dialogue.
Birgit Beger
CEO
ECCO – the European CanCer Organisation
Birgit Beger has more than fifteen years of public affairs experience in Brussels and an impressive track record in European health policy and federation management. She was Secretary General of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) for over 5 years. Before her post as CPME Secretary General, she was Senior Legal advisor at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) responsible inter alia for Information Technology Law and European Contract Law.
Birgit Beger is a registered lawyer in Berlin and holds masters in law and political science from the Freie Universität Berlin. She is fluent in German, English and French and lives near Brussels with her husband and their eight-year-old son.
MICHAŁ BONI
Member of European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament since 2014, Vice-Chair of Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Association Committee, Member of Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, Substitute Member to Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee.
Michal Boni holds a PhD from the University of Warsaw where he lectured in the Department of Polish Culture for many years. Involved in the ‘Solidarity’ underground movement since 1980 and a member of the national authorities of ‘Solidarity’ since 1989, he became Chairman of the Mazowsze Region Management Board in 1990. He served as Minister of Labour and Social Policy in 1991 and from 1992 until 1993 as Secretary of State in the same ministry responsible for labour market policy. Between 1998 and 2001 he was the Chief Advisor to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy. From 2008 he served as Minister- Head of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk and from 2011 until 2013 as Minister of Administration and Digitisation of Poland. In 2016 Michal Boni was awarded a MEP award in category research and innovation.
David Brackman
COCIR Lead member in Digital Health and Global Product Manager Advanced Visualization
Products & Solutions at Philips Healthcare
COCIR / Philips Healthcare
David Brackman is Global Product Manager Advanced Visualization Products & Solutions at Philips Healthcare. In this role he leads the development of new products from the initial phase until the final phase, defining the commercial specifications for products, the co-responsibility for the realization of the products and the proper introduction of these products in the market.
Prior to this role, he has held multiple positions at Philips Healthcare in the area of cardiology and radiology including, Coronary Imaging Senior Marketing Manager, Interventional Cardiology Field Marketing Manager and Cardiology Informatics International Clinical Applications Specialist.
David has a technical background and holds an MBA earned at Warwick Business School, UK.
Dr George E. Dafoulas
eHealth Services Clinical Consultant
Cities Net SA, Greece
Dr George E. Dafoulas has completed his training as Internist and holds a Master in Business Administration in Health Services Management from the Nottingham Business School- Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Thessaly on the topic of Health Technology Assessement of e-health service and was a visiting scholar in CSAIL-MIT, Cambridge-Boston, USA working on the topics of open source/open science for Global Health.
He has worked as a research fellow of Ethnikon and Kapodistriakon University (NKUA), School of Medical Science, in Athens, Greece and of University of Birmingham, UK in projects related with Diabetes and real-world data analytics, as well as intergrated e-health and e-care services with e-trikala SA of the Municipality of Trikala in Central Greece.
Nicole Denjoy
Secretary General
COCIR
Nicole Denjoy is the COCIR Secretary General since 2005 and is based in Brussels. She has gathered more than 30 years of experience in the medical technology industry, working for companies including L’air Liquide, Ohmeda, Boston Scientific and Baxter. Nicole has a Masters in Organisation and Change Management.
Nicole represents COCIR in a variety of influential fora at European Level as well as at international level. Nicole is also Vice-Chair of DITTA, the Global Trade Association representing Medical Imaging, Radiation Therapy and Healthcare IT Industry and leads the DITTA Industry activities in official relationships with WHO since DITTA was granted a NGO status. In addition and since May 2010, Nicole is Chair of the BIAC Committee on Health Care Policy representing the private business sector in front of the OECD Health Committee.
Joost Felix
COCIR Lead member in Digital Health and Global Head of Integrated Care Solutions at Agfa HealthCare
COCIR / Agfa Healthcare
Joost Felix is the Global Head of Integrated Care Solutions at Agfa HealthCare.
Prior to this Joost held multiple intrapreneurial roles in Agfa HealthCare, including leading product management and product marketing positions for Enterprise Imaging and Electronic Medical Records.
Common in all of these activities is the desire to make changes and improvements to products, processes and organization. Focus during all of his activities is on improving healthcare through technology with a large focus on impacts on patients.
Nicky S Hekster
COCIR Lead member in Digital Health and EMEA Technical Lead at IBM Watson Health
COCIR / IBM
Nicky has a focus on the conception, design and validation of solutions to a variety of challenges in the complete healthcare ecosystem, including start-ups. Next to eHealth and Big Data, he is an expert on the application of IBM’s Watson platforms to Health, Healthcare and Life Sciences. Before this role he was the Benelux Technical Leader for Healthcare & Life Sciences. From 2010 to 2014, Nicky was the vendor co-chair of IHE Netherlands (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise), in which capacity he contributed to coordinated use of standards in The Netherlands for regional and national exchange of healthcare information.
He has been a guest-lecturer at a number of universities. Nicky holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics, which he earned form the Univ. of Amsterdam.
Maddalena Illario
Representative of the Campania Region, Reference Sites Collaborative Network and Researcher
University of Naples Federico II
Maddalena Illario is Physician Board certified in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. She was awarded a PhD Degree in “Cellular and Molecular Biology and Pathology” in 2001. She was Coordinator of the Research and Development Unit (Hospital University Federico II of Naples from 2010 to 2016), racking up a plurennial experience in designing, managing and evaluating projects funded by the European Commission in health, social, training and research fields.
She was Coordinator of Campania Reference Site for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging in 2013. Currently, she is Promoter (expert) of A3 Action Group on Frailty Prevention and Functional Decline of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing and Coordinator of Promotion and program empowerment of “Health’s Innovation” Unit at Campania Region. She is promoting and managing the regional, nationally and internationally projects aimed at health, funded and / or co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program and the Public Procurement Innovation support, including through the use of digital technologies and enabling the implementation of innovative care models, to support the action of the European Partnership strategies and plans for Active Ageing Innovation and Good Health (EIP on AHA).
Olivier Joffray
COCIR Lead member in Digital Health and Head of GDPR compliance at IDEMIA
COCIR / IDEMIA
With more than 25 years of experience in the field of security, Olivier Joffray is an expert in digital security, security audit, common criteria evaluation, cryptography, PKI architecture, embedded secure element and biometry.
He is CISSP and he has applied his knowledge and know in many applications ranging from remote SIM provisioning, payment processes, smart grids, embedded software and global chain of trust.
He has offered his services in various companies: international industrial companies like Gemalto or OT – Morpho, consulting firms like Trusted Labs or start-ups like AiBiZU DSX.
He is currently in charge of the deployment of GDPR compliance within IDEMIA.
Erik Jylling
Executive Vice President
Danish Regions
Erik is leader of the center for health economy, politics and for health data and IT in Danish Regions, which is the political interest organization for the 5 different and economical independent Danish health regions that drives the Danish health care system including primary care. Erik's professional career has followed 3 different and mixed tracks:
- 25 years experience as hospital doctor and Consultant in intensive care medicine
- As leading politician becoming President for Danish Junior Doctors association. 1997 - 2003 and President for The Danish confederation of professional associations. 2009-2013
- As senior manager and leader in different hospital organizations. Deputy hospital director Copenhagen university hospital Gentofte 2004-2008 and Head of department in Anesthesiology and Intensive care, Odense University Hospital 2013-2014
Kevin Massoudi
COCIR Lead member in Digital Health and Product Manager Oncology Information Systems EMEIA at Varian Medical Systems
Kevin is currently leading Varian’s product and marketing activities in digital health across EMEIA in addition to global responsibilities for digital strategy.
Since attending Imperial College Business school in London Kevin has held several strategic roles managing medical technology innovation in surgery and peri-operative care in and with leading medical device companies. In addition to speaking engagements as a subject matter expert in technology innovation, he has founded several technology startups and consulted on digital health both for and with many of the major global medical device companies.
As a qualified medical doctor and self-professed technology addict, having lived and worked in the USA, Australia, Africa and Europe, Kevin has a global view of healthcare and a passion for digital health. He now lives in Geneva with his wife and daughters.
Despina Spanou
Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity
European Commission
Despina Spanou is the Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity at the Directorate-General Communications Network, Content and Technology. From 2013 to 2017 she was Director for Consumer Affairs at the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. During that time she was responsible for consumer policy, consumer and marketing law, redress and enforcement, and product safety. In that role she oversaw the overhaul of consumer law and enforcement as well as the integration of consumer policy in the digital single market strategy. She also managed the policies for medical devices and cosmetics until their transfer to internal market policy in 2015. From 2010 to 2013 she served as Principal Adviser in the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and was responsible for communication and also led the work on strategies on managing chronic diseases including the EU's contribution to the UN General Assembly on Health.
She was the Deputy Head of Cabinet for the European Commissioner for Health and Consumers Mr. Kyprianou (2004-2008) and for the Commissioner for Health, Mrs. Vassiliou (2008-2010).
Despina Spanou started her career at the European Commission at the Directorate General for Competition. She had previously practised European law with the Brussels branch of a US law firm. She is of Cypriot origin, a member of the Athens Bar Association and holds a Ph.D. in European law from the University of Cambridge.
Krzysztof Szubert
Secretary of State, The Government Plenipotentiary for Digital Single Market
Poland
Graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Organization and Management, specialization in industrial IT systems (Master of Science). He has held managerial posts in both polish and foreign enterprises in the ICT industry for more than twenty years.
Polish entrepreneur, since 1998 he has held the post of President of the Management Board and Chief Operations Officer at CONNECT DISTRIBUTION, which specializes in value added distribution of specialist software - the company has won numerous prizes.
He was nominated for the title of “Personality of the IT” for his contribution to the IT industry. Since 2012 Minister of Digitization, the BCC Economy Shadow Cabinet. Initiator and Chairperson of the Coalition for the Development of the Information Society (KRESI). In 2015 awarded “Polish ICT - Man of the Year ” prize given annually by the Burda-Magazine / CRN. Member of Polish National Commission for UNESCO and United Nations IGF MAG.
In the years 2015-2016 member of the Digitization Council at the Ministry for Digital Affairs. Since the end of 2015, Strategic Advisor to the Minister (Ministry of Digital Affairs), from May 2016 Plenipotentiary of Minister for International Affairs.
Since March 2017, Secretary of State / Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs, responsible for international affairs and The Government Plenipotentiary for Digital Single Market.
Hans Vandewyngaerde
COCIR Board member and Digital Health Lead; President Agfa HealthCare EMEA
COCIR / Agfa Healthcare
Mr. Hans Vandewyngaerde holds his current position of President Agfa HealthCare EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) since 2009. Since 2004, when he joined AGFA Healthcare, he occupied several General Management functions in France, UK, Belgium, The Netherlands, Nordics, Italy, Spain and Agfa Healthcare IT Sales worldwide in 2008. He also was President of the AGFA HCIS division, managing AGFA’s Electronic Medical Record portfolio, between 2014 and 2015. He is chairman of the board and board member of several AGFA Healthcare legal entities. Hans is also responsible within Agfa for the global business of integrated care and the competence centre dealing with Big Data and Business Analytics. Hans Vandewyngaerde holds several university degrees: Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering (EEE), a master’s degree in Informatics and an Executive MBA. During his professional career, he became specialised in Medical and Hospital Management and in Hospital IT management and IT services management. Alongside his Agfa HealthCare EMEA presidency, Hans holds also several external Board Memberships, was until earlier this year Chairman of HIMSS Europe, and is also co-founder and Board Member of IHE-NL.
Bart VERMEULEN
Deputy Director Healthcare
Office of the Belgian Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health
After a short time at the research department of the Belgian construction industry association, Bart joined the department of ‘Operations Research and Business Statistics’ at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Leuven where he obtained his PhD in Applied Economics in 2009.
From 2009 to 2011, Bart worked as a case handler at the Belgian Competition Authority (specializing in the energy sector) and contributed to the development of Belgian competition policy.
Next, he moved to pharma.be, the Belgian association of the innovative pharmaceutical sector, to take on the role of Chief Economist His main responsibilities included the federal budget policy for the reimbursement of medicines and healthcare services, the development of the Belgian policy for biological medicines and the coordination of all economic studies within the team. Bart joined in 2014 UCB Biopharma as Associate Director Commercial Pricing driving the development of the global tendering & contracting strategy and supporting the countries with their most critical tenders and contracts. In 2016, he joined the Cabinet of the Belgian Minister of Public Health and Social Affairs as Deputy Director Healthcare.
In this position, he is responsible for the federal budget of healthcare, medicines policy, medical devices policy and the policy related to ehealth.
Petra Wilson
Managing Director
Health Connect Partners
Petra’s experience in healthcare spans more than 20 years and covers academia, civil service, corporate and NGO sectors. In 2016 she established Health Connect Partners together with Isabelle Andoulsi, an advocate of the Brussels Bar. Petra also works as a Senior Advisor in the large international consultancy firm FTI Consulting, leading new work for the healthcare team, focusing primarily on the pharmaceutical and health technology sectors.
Petra has previously held the posts of CEO of the International Diabetes Federation, and Senior Director of Connected Health in Cisco. Prior to that she served for eight years as a scientific officer in the eHealth Unit at the European Commission. Before moving to Brussels she was a Senior Lecturer in healthcare law at Nottingham University in the UK. Through her years at Cisco Petra developed a deep expertise in eHealth and mHealth and during this time served as chair of the HIMSS (Europe) Council and was the founding Secretary General of the Continua Health Alliance (Europe). She has also served on the Board of Digital Health Institute in Scotland and as a Honorary Fellowship at the Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education at University College, London. Petra has published widely on eHealth including drafting expert reports for the WHO on this issue.
Petra is British and has an PhD in Public Health Law from Oxford University.
Dr Wendy Yared
Director
European Cancer Leagues (ECL)
Dr Wendy Yared is the Director of the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), a pan-European alliance of national and regional cancer leagues created in 1980. ECL’s member leagues provide advice, support and other services in cancer control in 23 countries (as of 2017), to a total of 489 million European citizens. ECL’s vision is for a Europe Free of Cancers. The mission of the European Cancer Leagues is to influence and improve cancer control and cancer care in Europe through collaboration between its members in their fight against cancer, and to influence EU and pan-European policies. Dr Yared has been a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Cancer Control, represents ECL in EU Joint Actions on cancer, and participates in various EU discussions and platforms related to cancer prevention and health promotion.
Dr Yared has over 25 years’ experience in public health and health policy. Her previous professional roles include being the programme manager for regional health policy at the World Health Organization; consultant for the European Parliament; and leader on projects for the United States Public Health Service. A dual EU-USA national, her academic degrees are a Doctor of Public Health in International Health Systems from Johns Hopkins, and a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from UC Berkeley, USA. She has authored numerous articles on public health and cancer policies.