SPEAKERS 2024

Dr Teodor Blidaru is a Romanian doctor, contributing to health policy and healthcare innovation. Recently, he took on the role of Project Coordinator for the Health Innovation Hub of Romania. This new initiative, a partnership between public and private sectors, aims to foster innovation in healthcare policies and technologies, particularly to enhance Romania’s abilities in clinical trials and health promotion.

Dr Blidaru is deeply interested in healthcare public policy, with a focus on planning, developing human resources for health, and managing healthcare systems. He currently serves as an Honorary Advisor to the Minister of Health. In this capacity, he is working on significant projects, including creating Romania’s first strategy for health workforce development, enhancing healthcare management education, and engaging with a broad range of stakeholders both in Romania and internationally, including the WHO.

Dr Blidaru is a radiology and medical imaging physician, educated at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. He is also pursuing a PhD in Medicine and building a career in teaching at the same university. Beyond his studies and teaching, Dr Blidaru is involved in the university’s administration, managing projects related to international relations.

Civically, Dr Blidaru recently led the resident doctors’ committee at the Romanian College of Physicians and served on the board of the Romanian Multidisciplinary Society of Resident Doctors. He played a key role in initiatives aimed at enhancing the training programs for Romanian doctors.

In the past, particularly in 2019 and 2020, Dr Blidaru was selected as the United Nations Youth Delegate for Romania and attended numerous international events, including the UN General Assembly. He was also the first student to join the Romanian delegation at the World Health Assembly. Before this, he was active in the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations and various NGOs, taking on leadership roles and focusing on student representation and building networks among young professionals at the local, national, and international levels.

Prof Sandra C. Buttigieg is a Professor and Head of the Department of Health Services Management (HSM), Faculty of Health Sciences, UOM. She is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Head-Clinical Performance Unit, and Chair-Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Team, at Mater Dei Hospital. She is President of the European Health Management Association. She lectures in HSM, Public Health, Family Medicine, Research Methodology and Evidence-based Health Research (EVBRES).

She authored/co-authored several articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and widely participated in international conferences, and congresses. She is on the Editorial Boards of PloS One, Health Services Management Research, International Journal of Human Resources Management, Journal of Health Organization and Management, and Frontiers Public Health. She is Frontiers Topic Editor: “Network for Evaluation of One Health (NEOH) Case Studies”; “Patient Safety: Delivering Cost-Contained, High Quality, Person-Centered, and Safe Healthcare” and “Health Service Management and Leadership: COVID-Style”.

She is a Fellow of two programmes of the Salzburg Global Seminar, related to health care, which were led by amongst others, past presidents of the Institute of Medicine, namely, Donald Berwick and Harvey Fineberg.

Professor Buttigieg has been visiting scholar in the US (JMU -Harrisonburg, VA), UK -University of Birmingham and Aston University, Birmingham, and Kuwait (Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Kuwait University).

Dr. Caroline Clarinval works in conflict affected settings. Since 2015, she’s worked for the World Health Organization and before that, she was with he International Committee of the Red Cross for ten years, where she managed large-scale relief operations in contexts affected by conflict and natural disasters.

She’s been based in Egypt, in Ukraine, in Kazakhstan and now in Romania where she’s the WHO Country Office Representative.

Prof Federico Lega, PhD, is a Full Professor of Health Administration at the Public Health Department at Milan University, where he runs all courses in healthcare management and policy for medical students and leads the Research Centre in Health Administration (HEAD).

He is also a Professor at SDA Bocconi School of Management (SDA) where he teaches courses in Public Management and Health Services Management. He leads the research in strategy and organisational development in healthcare at the Bocconi Research Center on Health Policy and Management (CERGAS). From 2007 to 2014 he has been the Head of executive education for health managers, clinicians and medical industry leaders at the Bocconi School of Management (SDA).

Since 2015, he is acting as Editor in Chief of the journal Health Services Management Research, Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research and Medical Care Research Review. He has published eight books and over 150 articles in journals.

As a consultant, he has advised health systems on health policy matters and governance issues, several hospitals and networks in re-organisations, strategy-making processes, value-based approaches, economic evaluations, and process management, both at the national and international level.

In the last ten years, he has advised several companies in the medical industry on their transformation toward value-based models and on the development of effective market-access initiatives. Since 2002 he has coordinated over fifteen initiatives of duality or study tours, involving the exchange of managers and senior clinicians between countries (Italy, UK, USA, Germany and France). He currently sits on the boards of hospitals and local health authorities, advises health departments of regions, national health agencies and insurances, and works as a consultant for WHO.

Tuomo Nieminen serves as the Chief Medical Officer in the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme, Finland.

Previously, he has been a professor of internal medicine at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Professor Alexandru Rafila has been appointed Minister of Health of Romania on 25 November 2021.
He held different key leading positions, such as Vice-President of the Romanian Parliament, Secretary of State, Director General for Public Health and personal advisor to the Minister of Health. He has also served as Director of the Institute of Public Health in Bucharest. Alexandru Rafila is the elected president of the Romanian Society of Microbiology and Professor at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”.

He attained his medical degree in 1987 and his PhD in microbiology in 2004. Professor Rafila is an expert internationally recognised, who worked with WHO, NATO and the European Commission. He played a key role as a member of the Standing Committee of the WHO Regional Office for Europe and represented Romania in the Management Board of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. In 2018, he was elected to represent Romania in the Executive Board of the WHO.

Professor Rafila is an active organizer and participant in national and international medical conferences and events on public health topics. He wrote articles, textbooks, book chapters and practice guidelines in the field of public health and microbiology.

Julie Spony is Policy Officer at the European Patients’ Forum (EPF), the voice of patient organisations in Europe. In this role, she contributes to EPF’s policy and advocacy work, including leading EPF’s activities on the revision of EU pharmaceutical legislation.

Julie has a multidisciplinary background in Law, Economics and Political Science and holds a Master’s degree in European Affairs from Sciences Po Lyon (France).

Prior to joining EPF, Julie worked at the European Commission and the European Parliament, focusing on rule of law and human rights.

Dr. Ștefan Strilciuc is the Director of the Research Center for Functional Genomics, Biomedicine and Translational Medicine (genomics-center.ro) at the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy.
As Associate Research Professor, his work lies at the intersection of public health and medicine, having been involved in over 50 interventional and observational clinical trials and studies, including economic evaluation in health.

Strilciuc is also an advisor to the Romanian Health Minister and has served as an international expert for central healthcare institutions such as the National Health Insurance House, actively contributing to healthcare reform and management of an annual health budget of over €10 billion.
As a member of the Romanian Health Observatory, he has also contributed to designing and disseminating original research reports and advocacy plans for patients in Eastern Europe.

Dr. Marius-Ionuț Ungureanu, MD, PhD is a medical doctor with extensive training in healthcare management and policy, and a background in health workforce, health systems & public health research.

He is currently serving as Chair of the Department of Public Health, and Director of the Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy, both within the School of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences at Babeș-Bolyai University (BBU) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He has served in Government in various capacities, including as Advisor to the Health Minister, Chief of Staff to the Health Minister, and Deputy Health Minister, in the Romanian Ministry of Health.

His main areas of expertise are: human resources for health research, policy, and development; leadership & healthcare reform; quality management in healthcare; health services research; primary and community health care; research design; research management. Dr. Ungureanu is a member of European Public Health Association’s (EUPHA) Governing Board, representing BBU’s Department of Public Health, and President of EUPHA’s Health Workforce Research Section.

As a health systems researcher, Eva desires to find and implement safe and sustainable healthcare delivery models globally through co-creation and smart technologies and digital solutions.

She has 15 years of experience in health systems research, currently working as Senior Researcher in Gravitate Health project led by the University of Oslo. She is also an associate professor working on task shifting, digital health, ethics in AI and digital health literacy at the University of South- East Norway. Her research has been focused on person centred care, digital health, patient safety, health technology assessment and quality of life. She teaches Public Health at the Medical Faculty, University in Maribor and is Public Health delegate – Emergency Response Unit with the Norwegian Red Cross.

Eva serves as a Board member of Polytekniske Forening- Helse, Women in Global Health Norway and is a member of the Expert Council at the Slovenian Digital Health Innovation Lab.

She holds an MBA in Healthcare Management and a PhD in Health Sciences. Originally from Slovenia, she has studied, lived and worked in Austria, Japan, Finland, Spain, Argentina, Syria and Norway.

She believes that knowledge transfer, capacity building, motivation and empowerment through education represent a cornerstone for improving the society, therefore, she founded SanAstra Foundation, dedicated to improve digital health literacy.

Apart from the healthcare expertise, Eva is passionate about the sustainable development and the SDG’s, in particular SDG 5, Gender Equality. As the President of Professional Women’s Network Norway, she is contributing to raising awareness about gender balanced leadership and opportunities for empowering female professionals.

Cristian Vladescu graduated in 1988 from the Faculty of Medicine at UMF “Carol Davila” in Bucharest, with a PhD in Medicine in 2000 and a MPH from the Nuffield Institute of Health, University of Leeds, UK in 1993. He also attended numerous postgraduate courses in public health, health economics, epidemiology, health policy, health management in UK, USA, France, Spain. He is Professor in Public Health and Management since 2002, Head of Public Health Discipline, UMF Victor Babes, Timisoara (2002-2020), Associate Professor, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (1995 – 2018); Visiting Scholar of Health Policy, Wagner School for Public Service, NYU (1994, 2007) and is currently Professor of Public Health and Management at the Faculty of Medicine, Titu Maiorescu University, Bucharest and General Director, National School of Public Health and Management, Bucharest.

Prof. Cristian Vladescu is full member of the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences. During his career he fulfilled numerous positions in his areas of expertise such as : General Director, Directorate for Reform, Ministry of Health (1997-1998), Executive Chairman, Center for Health Policy and Services (1999-2004);President of the Public Health Commission of the Ministry of Health, (2005-2006); President of the National Health Insurance House (2005-2007), Chairmen of the Presidential Commission for the analysis and elaboration of public health policies (2007-2008), President of the National Commission for Attestation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) in Medicine, Ministry of National Education (2010-2012), President of the Commission for Clinical and Epidemiological Management of COVID-19 of the Ministry of Health (2021-2022) together with membership in various other professional societies in Romania and abroad.

Prof. Cristian Vladescu authored and co-authored over 50 books and treatises, published more than 100 scientific articles in indexed journals, gave over 40 presentations in international conferences and participated in more than 35 research projects, both national and international. His work has over 2.000 citations in international scientific data bases (BDI). Prof. Vladescu acted as consultant/expert for international organizations such as WHO, The World Bank, Council of Europe, EU, USAID, Global Fund, OSI. He received for his professional and academic activity different awards and distinctions such as the Romanian Academy Award Iuliu Haţieganu in 2010, Diploma of Excellence of the Ministry of Interior in 2005 in Bucharest, Diploma of Excellence of the Ministry of Defense in 2006 in Bucharest, USAID / AIHA Certificate of Recognition in 1998 in Chicago, USA.