Summit speakers

Prof. Alessio Aghemo, MD PhD

Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy

_speaker

Alessio Aghemo received his medical degree from the University of Milan in 2001, where he also specialized in gastroenterology and later completed his post-doctoral research in gastroenterology.

He served as the Director of the Hepatology Outpatients Clinic at the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit at the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, until 2017.

Since 2017, Prof Aghemo is Associate professor of Gastroenterology at the Humanitas University School of Medicine  in Milan, where he is the Head of the Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology. He also serves as Vice-President of the Humanitas University School of Medicine.

From 2013 to 2016 Prof. Aghemo served as a member of the governing board of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). From 2017 to 2020 he served as a member of the United European Gastroenterology Scientific Committee. He currently sits in the governing board of the Italian Association for the Study (AISF) and is the Co-Editor- in - Chief of Liver International.

He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and is involved in many national and international clinical trials on viral hepatitis and NASH. 

He has contributed to the European and Italian clinical practice guidelines on the management and treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Dr. Pilar Aparicio Azcárraga, MD, PhD

Director General of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Spain

_speaker

Dr. Pilar Aparicio Azcárraga, MD, PhD is currently the Director General of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Spain.

Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga graduated in medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid, where she specialized in Internal Medicine. She also holds a diploma in Tropical Medicine. Prior to taking up her position at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga was the Director of the National School of Public Health Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII) and Director of the IMIENS Joint Research Institute, formed by the ISCIII and the Nacional Distance University (UNED).

Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga’s main areas of research interests are Infectious diseases and microbiology applied to Public Health - Global health.Throughout her professional career, she has carried out different tasks in clinical-care areas (University Hospital of Mostoles in Madrid, Hospital Teodoro Álvarez, in Buenos Aires, Argentina); research applied to the epidemiology of infectious diseases (National Center for Microbiology of the ISCIII and Central Public Health Laboratory of England), teaching and activities related to international public health and technical scientific cooperation, aimed at strengthening public health systems and control of communicable diseases World Health Organization (WHO) and National Center of Tropical Medicine of ISCIII in different countries of Latin America and Africa. Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga is the author of 32 peer-reviewed research publications.

Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga’s main research projects were Health Cooperation Projects. She took part in a research project to support the Public Health Laboratory of Equatorial Guinea on: “Diagnostic and reference of Sexual Transmitted Infections” and control of Tuberculosis; Malaria; HIV and other Neglected tropical diseases (NTD).

Dr. Aparicio Azcárraga was a researcher for WHO in a project entitled “Assessment of the outbreak of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Libo (Amhara State)” and “Control of Leishmaniasis in the Horn of Africa”. She was also a member of a Direction of a Cooperation programme against AIDS and other prevalent diseases in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Haití.

Mr. Kostas Bakoyannis, MD, PhD

Mayor of Athens, Greece

_speaker

Mr. Kostas Bakoyannis is Mayor of Athens. He served as Governor of Central Greece from 2014 to 2019 and as Mayor of Karpenissi, from 2011 to 2014.

Βorn in 1978 in Athens, he graduated from Millfield School (UK)  in 1996 before going to Brown University (USA) to study History and International Relations. He continued with postgraduate studies in Public Policy, with a specialization in Macroeconomics, at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (USA). He holds a Ph.D.  in Political Science and International Relations, from the University of Oxford (2019).

He has worked at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as executive manager in the private sector in Athens. He has also held positions in the European Parliament in Brussels and the World Bank in Kosovo.

He is a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Greek Leadership Council member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).  

Mr Bakoyannis has served in the Greek Special Forces as a Paratrooper and speaks English and German.

Mr. Marco Bartoli

EpaC Onlus, Italy

_speaker

Marco Bartoli graduated in Molecular Biology in 2011 from the University of Naples Federico II, where he worked as a researcher until 2012, which he followed with a brief experience at CNR the National Research Institute.

Since 2015, Marco has been working at EpaC, an Italian liver patients association, as head of the observatory for access to therapies.  As a project manager, he manages numerous projects dedicated to patients with liver diseases.

EpaC Onlus was establised in 1999. EpaC has seven full-time collaborators, and eleven websites, forums and social networks with thousands of members. The Association has carried out free daily counselling activities, developed awareness campaigns and produced epidemiological dossiers. In addition, EpaC has  carried out advocacy activities and collaborations with the highest national and regional health institutions, scientific societies, and interacted with the entire spectrum of stakeholders that deal with liver diseases. For all these reasons EpaC Onlus is considered the most important NGO committed to advocating for the rights of patients with hepatitis and liver diseases in Italy.

As a representative of  EpaC  Marco Bartoli has participated and continues to particpate in various working  groups and technical tables dedicated to liver diseases in different Italian regions and at a National level (MOH, Italian  Drugs Agency - AIFA).
Marco has spoken in several national and international conferences, establishing relationships and collaboration with numerous national and international stakeholders.
From July 2017 to Nov 2018 he  collaborated with the European Medicines Agency as an external consultant and was a member of the ELPA scientific committee.
Marco is currently  a member of LPI, Liver Patients International.

He has published two papers on the estimation of the number of patients living with HCV in Italy.

Dr. Philip Bruggmann, MD

Arud Centre for Addiction Medicine, Zurich, Switzerland

_speaker

Philip Bruggmann is internal medicine specialist and has worked as Head of Internal Medicine at the Arud Centre for Addiction Medicine in Zurich,  since 2003. Arud runs two outpatient clinics for addiction medicine that provide an interdisciplinary care setting with substitution treatment, psychiatric and psychosocial therapy, and a full range of hepatitis and HIV care.

Dr. Bruggmann is serving as head of the executive board of Swiss Hepatitis. In this function he leads the Swiss Hepatitis Strategy project, which was initiated by civil society. The vision of the Swiss Hepatitis Strategy is the elimination of hepatitis B and C by 2030.

Philip Bruggmann is a Privatdozent and research fellow at the Institute of Family Medicine at the University of Zurich.

Dr. Cristian-Silviu Buşoi, MEP EPP

Romania

_speaker

Cristian-Silviu Buşoi   is a Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee. He is also Member of the Delegation for Southeast Asia, as well as substitute Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Delegation for the Arab Peninsula.

Mr. Busoi graduated in Medicine from Carol Davila University in Bucharest, in Law from Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest, and in Diplomacy from the Romanian Diplomatic Institute in Bucharest. His political career started in 1996 when, as a student, he became a member of the National Liberal Party. Eight years later, he entered the Romanian Parliament and, in 2013, became President of the Romanian National Health Insurance House. Since 2007, he has been elected to the European Parliament for three consecutive terms for  the European People’s Party (EPP).

Prof. Maria Buti MD, PhD

Hospital General Universitari Valle Hebron, Barcelona, Spain & EU Affairs Councillor EASL

_speaker

Maria Buti earned her medical degree at the University of Barcelona and her PhD in Internal Medicine at the University “Autónoma” de Barcelona, Spain. She is currently Professor of Medicine and Chief of Internal Medicine and Hepatology at the Hospital General Universitari Valle Hebron, Barcelona.

 Professor Butí has worked in viral hepatitis for the last 35 years, particularly in diagnosis and therapy of hepatitis B and C. She has published more than 450 papers in the field of liver disease. Professor Butí is a former President of the Spanish Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and is currently the   EU EASL Public Health and Policy Councillor. She is an active member of EASL and AASLD and various professional societies.

Dr Rodrigo Coutinho MD

“Ares do Pinhal", Lisbon, Portugal

_speaker

Rodrigo Coutinho graduated in medicine in 1980 from the University of Lisbon and specialized in psychiatry in 1989. He has been a senior psychiatrist since 1999.
Dr Coutinho is currently the clinical coordinator of “Ares do Pinhal” an NGO for social inclusion which he co-founded in 1986.  At present the association manages three Therapeutic Communities that count 52 places, a shelter for homeless persons (48 places), and a Mobile Outreach Program (MOP) in the city of Lisbon attended by 1300 patients daily. Dr  Coutinho is the Clinical supervisor of the project for the micro elimination of the Hepatitis C Vírus in the Mobile Outreach Programme.

Dr Coutinho is a co-founder and member of the board of the first facility created by the Portuguese Ministry of Health for drug addiction (1987-1995). He was a Member of the board of the Directorate for the drug addiction health facilities of the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (1995 – 2003). Dr Coutinho was a Representative of the Ministry of Health in the Portuguese Delegation to the UNODC Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna (1995 – 2002) and a director of a drug addiction facility in Lisbon of the Ministry of Health (1997 – 2006). He has been a Senior Psychiatrist at the Ministry of Health department for drug addiction of the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley since 2006.

Dr. Joan Colom Farran, MD, MBA

Public Health Agency Catalonia, Spain

_speaker

Joan Colom Farran holds a Medical Degree from the University of Barcelona, a Diploma in Public Health from the Spanish National School of Health, a Master’s Degree in Drug Abuse from the University of Barcelona and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

Dr Colom Farran has been the Director of the Program on Substance Abuse (Catalan Public Health Agency) since 1985 and Director of the Program for Prevention, Control and Treatment of HIV, STIs and Viral Hepatitis of the same agency since 2016.

At a national level, he has been a permanent member of the Sectorial Conference and the Inter-autonomic Commission created by the Spanish National Plan on Drugs (NPD) to coordinate and strengthen the policies related to drugs in Spain since 1985.

He has been an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and is the Coordinator of the Program Drink Less of this organization in Catalonia.

Dr Colom Farran has published many articles in leading and high-impact scientific journals. He has coordinated and led teams of more than 100 people. He has founded, directed and coordinated international projects and networks.

Dr. Yuval Dadon, MD MBA

Ministry of Health, Israel

_speaker

Dr. Yuval Dadon is the head of the National Program of Hepatitis C Elimination at the Israeli Ministry of Health Deputy Director Office.

Dr Dadon specializes in public health and epidemiology, holds MD-MPH degrees from the Sackler faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, and  completed his MBA at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Prior to his work at the Israeli Ministry of Health, where he previously led the National Program for Health Quality Indices, Dr. Dadon led R&D projects at TEVA pharmaceuticals at his position of Director of Clinical Development, where we worked for 15 years in a variety of positions for the development of innovative medicinal products in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

 Dr. Dadon also lectures at the Public Health Faculty at the Academic College of Ashkelon, Israel.

Prof. Gamal Esmat MD, B.Ch MSc.

Faculty of Medicine University of Cairo, Egypt

_speaker

Professor Gamal Esmat is a professor of Hepatogastroenterology & Infectious Diseases and former vice-president of Cairo University.

Prof. Esmat is a former president of the International Association for the Study of the Liver (IASL), 2006-2008. He was a board member of the strategic and technical advisory committee for viral hepatitis (STAC-Hep), WHO and member of the scientific committee for the World Hepatitis Alliance. Prof. Esmat has served as principal investigator of numerous research studies in Egypt and has a long list of international and regional publications in the field of hepatology. He has also been included in the Who’s Who biography book as one of the most effective contributors to the field of hepatology (2007) and was nominated as one of the top 100 health professionals in 2008 by an international biographical center in the United Kingdom.

Mr Mark Gillyon-Powell

NHS England

_speaker

Mark Gillyon-Powell joined NHS England in 2016 and is currently the Head of Programme for Hepatitis C Elimination.

In his previous role within NHS England Health & Justice, Mark led on Public Health in secure and detained settings and was policy lead for the health and care of transgender prisoners and Gypsy, Roma & Traveller communities.

Previously, Mark had spent 15 years as a senior manager in the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and Public Health England, developing addiction treatment policy and delivery.  Mark also spent a period overseeing the implementation and roll out of new cancer screening technologies for Public Health England, project managing the development of the bowel scope screening programme.

Before these national roles, Mark was an operational manager and practitioner within sexual health, alcohol and drug services within local authority and third sector organisations.  As a part of his practitioner role, Mark trained in Counselling and Psychotherapy as well as gaining management qualifications.

Outside of NHS England, Mark is an active Justice of the Peace (adult criminal court and family court justice) on a bench in the north of England.

Mr Alexis Goosdeel

Director, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs & Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

_speaker

Mr. Goosdeel joined the EMCDDA in 1999 as a project manager in the area of EU enlargement and international relations. From 2005, he headed the agency's Reitox and international cooperation unit. In this capacity, he played a central role in coordinating a network of 30 national drug monitoring centres; preparing EU candidate and potential candidate countries for membership of the EMCDDA; developing cooperation with neighbouring countries to the EU; and nurturing relations with countries beyond the Union (Central Asia, Russia, Latin America). Much of his 30-year career has been working in health at national, European, and international level.

Before joining the EMCDDA in 1999, Mr Goosdeel worked at the Catholic University of Louvain and the University Cliniques St-Luc in Brussels. He was one of Modus Vivendi's founding members, a Belgian NGO responsible for developing harm reduction programmes, and has 14 years of clinical practice as a psychoanalyst and family therapist.

He holds a Master's degree in clinical psychology from Université Catholique de Louvain and a diploma in advanced management from ICHEC Brussels Management School. He is proficient in six languages.

Prof. Sharon Hutchinson BSc MSc, PhD, CStat, HonMFPH

Glasgow Caledonian University and Health Protection Scotland

_speaker

Sharon Hutchinson is a Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Glasgow Caledonian University and holds an honorary appointment at Health Protection Scotland. She has over 20 years experience in conducting epidemiological research to inform on the design and impact of public health interventions. Authoring over 200 publications and PI/co-I on grants worth over £15 million, she leads a broad translational research programme on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and other blood-borne viruses. Her research provided the key evidence to guide a public health response to HCV in Scotland, which culminated in Scottish Government investing significantly in their Action Plan. The evidenced-based National Plan was the stimulus for WHO and the World Hepatitis Alliance staging their inaugural World Hepatitis Summit (involving governments and civil society representatives from over 80 countries) in Glasgow during 2015.

Mr. George Kalamitsis

Liver Patients International

_speaker

George Kalamitsis, is a founding member and Chair of the Board of Liver Patients International (LPI), since 2019  and has been  Chair and founding member of the  Hellenic Liver Patients Association "Prometheus", since 2012.

He is also a founding member of Greek Patients Association and recently (2020) he became a Co-Chair of the ACHIEVE Coalition. In 2017, he was appointed President of the Committee Protecting the Rights of Recipients of Health Services, under the Greek Ministry of Health. He is also a member of the Committee Monitoring the Implementation of the National Action Plan for Hepatitis C, under the Greek Ministry of Health (2018). Since 2016, he has been a member of Hepatitis B & C Public Policy Association. Between 2014 and 2016, he was a Board Member of World Hepatitis Alliance.
George Kalamitsis focuses daily on providing support to people living with liver diseases, as well as on advocating for their rights. Furthermore, he is dedicated to raising awareness, promoting prevention, supporting marginalized populations disproportionally affected by liver diseases and implementing community-based programs. He has been working extensively with multiple stakeholders, focusing on patients’ rights as well as building communication channels with organizations and stakeholders, on a National and International level.

Dr. Nebojša Kavarić MD, PhD MSc

Coordinator of the Commission for Health Protection and Promotion, Podgorica, Montenegro on behalf of the Mayor of Podgorica

_speaker

Dr Nebojša Kavarić is the Coordinator of the Commission for Health Protection and Promotion for the territory of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.  He graduated in medicine in 1988 from the University of Belgrade, where he completed postgraduate studies in pediatric cardiology.  Dr Kavarić undertook postgraduate studies at the Royal College London and at the Institute for Infectious diseases at Lazzaro Spallanzani, Rome, Italy.   Dr Kavarić obtained an MSc in 2010  and a PhD in 2013.

Dr Kavarić as well as being the Coordinator of the Commission for health protection and prevention in Podgorica is also a lecturer at the Universities of Montenegro and European Center for Peace and Development.

Dr Kavarić has been a participant at numerous seminars, scientific and professional conferences in the field of health management, preventive pediatrics, reproductive health, HIV-AIDS, addiction in Montenegro and abroad. 

Dr Kavarić’s professional and scientific papers have been published in domestic and international journals, of which 27 in SCI-listed journals, in the following areas: primary health care, pediatrics, preventive pediatrics, preventive pediatric cardiology, social health care and health systems management.

Dr Kavarić   has participated in several US government projects in Montenegro as well as projects of national importance, including leadership in Health System Reform in Montenegro in collaboration with the World Bank. He has won several awards and recognitions for the organization of health care, management and contribution to the improvement of the health system.

Dr Kavarić besides Montenegrin, speaks English and Italian

Mr. Petros Kokkalis, MEP GUE/NGL

Greece

_speaker

Petros Kokkalis has been actively involved in public service for the past 25 years, developing social innovation focused on human and sustainable development.

He studied Modern History at the University of Hampshire, and earned his master's degree in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

As Vice President of Olympiacos, he reformed the club into one of Europe's leading professional teams (1996-2008) through the modernization of its physical and intangible infrastructure. He was also the founding president of the Super League of Greece.

He is co-founder and secretary of the non-governmental environmental organization Earth (2009 - present) whose work on environmental awareness and education for sustainable development has been awarded by the International Union for the Protection of the Environment (IUCN).

He was elected and served as the Vice-Mayor responsible for economic development and climate change in the municipality of Piraeus (2014 - 2019), where he promoted sustainable entrepreneurship and support of start-ups in the maritime economy.

The European Commission has acknowledged its work, awarding the Blue Growth Piraeus initiative at the European Entrepreneurship Promotion Competition 2018.

During his term of office, he led the humanitarian support during the Refugee Crisis in the period 2015-2016 and served as the President of the Municipal Council for Refugees.

In 2019 he was elected MEP, representing Kosmos, a political movement seeking to achieve the UN SDG’s, with the Progressive Alliance - Syriza ticket.

Dr Loreta Kondili, MD PhD

National Centre for Global Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

_speaker

Loreta Kondili   received her medical degree from the University Medical School of Tirana, Albania and from the La Sapienza University Medical School Rome, Italy. She has been  a specialist in Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy since 2005 and  was  trained in the Policlinico Umberto 1- Rome and in the Liver Unit of Queen Elisabeth Hospital/ University of Birmingham (UK). She is Professor of Medicine in the University of Tirana and Researcher in the Center for Global Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome. Dr Kondili has worked in viral hepatitis and liver diseases for the last 25 years and her main research areas are epidemiological, clinical and virological studies on different populations with viral hepatitis infections, as well as on the diagnosis and effectiveness of antiviral treatments.

She has been an advisor to the Italian Drug Agency and is currently an  expert of the European Medicines Agency (2012 to present). She has been involved in the scientific coordination of several Italian Networks in the field of acute and chronic viral hepatitis and is currently the principal investigator of the Italian Platform for the study of Viral hepatitis (HCV, HBV and HDV) Therapies (PITER). She has strong competencies in Health Tecnology Assesment. and is one of the principal investigators for the definition of the HCV screening strategy in Italy. She is currently serving as an expert to the Italian Ministry of Health for the implementation of the HCV Screening Law Decree. She is a member of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver, European Association for the Study of the Liver and several other scientific organizations. She has co-authored over 100 publications on hepatitis and is a frequent speaker on the subject.

Prof. John Lambert, MD PhD

Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

_speaker

Professor John Lambert is an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the MMUH and Professor at UCD School of Medicine with over 25 years experience working in HIV, Hepatitis C, STI and other disease areas. Trained in the USA and in the UK, he worked for 6 years in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Institutes and the University Of Maryland Institute Of Human Virology, where he developed skills in vaccinology, HIV, and International Health.

Professor Lambert holds consultant specialty certifications in adult and pediatric infectious diseases, general medicine and in sexual health. As lead of the National Isolation Unit of Ireland from 2010-2018, he has managed all emerging infections, including Ireland's Ebola effort and has taken a clinical lead at the MMUH on the management of COVID-19. He has led HepCare Europe, a 1.8 million euro project aiming at improving the elimination of HCV in the European Union and co-funded by the European Third Health Programme.

Prof. Jeffrey V. Lazarus PhD, MIH, MA

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and University of Barcelona, Spain

_speaker

Professor Jeffrey V Lazarus serves as head of the health systems team at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain. He is Vice-Chairman of the board of the EASL International Liver Foundation, a member of the EASL Policy and Public Health Committee, and co-chair of the HIV Outcomes Beyond Viral Suppression Coalition. He is the author of more than 200 publications including a co-author of the Lancet GastroHep Commission on Viral Hepatitis (2019), and lead author of The Lancet HIV series “HIV outcomes beyond viral suppression” (2019) and COVID-SCORE (Nature Medicine and PLOS ONE (2020)).

He has presented at more than 100 conferences, as well as in the Danish, Finnish, and European parliaments, and is on the COLDA, HepHIV, and INHSU conference organising committees. Prof Lazarus is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Drug Policy, HIV Medicine, the Journal of Health Communication and the Journal of Hepatology, where he launched the micro-elimination approach in 2017. He is a member of the Danish, Spanish (AEHVE) and European (ACHIEVE) hepatitis elimination coalitions. Previously, he worked for 11 years at WHO Europe and 3 at the Global Fund as well as serving as the founding director of Health Systems Global and the board chair of the foundation AFEW International.

Prof Lazarus leads four viral hepatitis projects piloting new models of care across Europe and in Africa and is a co-investigator of INTE-AFRICA, a European Commission funded cluster RCT in Tanzania and Uganda. He is also currently a commissioner of the EASL-Lancet European Liver Commission, chair of the HIV 4th 90 Consensus Statement, chair of the NAFLD Public Health Consensus Statement and on the public health taskforce of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission.

Dr Antons Mozalevskis, MD

Joint Tuberculosis, HIV and Viral Hepatitis Programme, Regional Office for Europe, World Health Organization, Copenhagen, Denmark

_speaker

Dr. Antons Mozalevskis is a physician with a special interest in infectious diseases epidemiology, prevention and management and emergencies, including outbreak investigation and response. 

He completed his medical training and residency in Family Medicine at Riga Stradins University, Latvia. He worked as a general practitioner and emergency and accident physician in Latvia for seven years while being involved in several civil society and professional organizations and regional expert networks in the field of HIV and viral hepatitis prevention and research. In 2012–2014, he completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) and received a Master’s Degree in Applied Epidemiology from the National School of Public Health in Madrid, Spain.

His international experience in health emergencies includes participation in the response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa (2014) and Covid-19 pandemic in the WHO European Region (2020).

Since 2015 he has worked as a Medical Officer with the Joint TB, HIV and Viral Hepatitis (JTH) Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a regional focal point for hepatitis, he is responsible for all viral hepatitis-related activities at the Regional Office and technical support to the Member States in the WHO European Region. His other area of expertise within JTH includes HIV prevention and key populations.

In 2016, he coordinated the development of the Action plan for the health sector response to viral hepatitis in the WHO European Region adopted by 53 Member States as a guiding document towards the elimination of viral hepatitis in Europe. He has also served as the member of the Technical Advisory Group for the Georgia Hepatitis C Elimination Programme and participated in the development of WHO guidelines on viral hepatitis surveillance, testing and treatment.

Dr Lina Nerlander, BMBCh, MPH

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

_speaker

Lina Nerlander is an epidemiologist working at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. ECDC works with data to support EU/EEA countries understand the hepatitis B and C epidemics and to monitor the progress towards elimination. This includes surveillance data on newly diagnosed cases, prevalence data, morbidity and mortality data, and data on prevention and control activities such as vaccination, testing and treatment. ECDC also provides guidance and scientific advice on hepatitis related issues including testing and the prevention and control of infections amongst key populations such as people who inject drugs, migrants and people in prison. ECDC works closely with members of the hepatitis B/C network who represent EU/EEA Member States. For much of 2020, Dr. Nerlander was also engaged in ECDCs COVID-19 response with a focus on contact tracing, including the role of mobile apps.

Prior to joining ECDC in 2017, Dr. Nerlander spent six years at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. She completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellowship, based in the Division of Reproductive Health. Dr. Nerlander subsequently worked with the US National HIV Behavioral Surveillance team where she led the work on surveillance among people who exchange sex for money or drugs. Dr. Nerlander has also worked for the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre where she led the organisations’ work globally on adapting to the health effects of climate change.

Dr. Nerlander did her medical training at Oxford University and holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in quantitative methods from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Prof. George Papatheodoridis MD, PhD

Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

_speaker

George Papatheodoridis is Professor in Medicine and Gastroenterology at Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Director of the Academic Gastroenterology Department and Liver Transplantation Unit of “Laiko” General Hospital of Athens, Greece. He has been also the President of the Hellenic Transplant Organization since December 2019.

He was trained in Medicine at the Medical School of Athens University and graduated with excellence (9.2/10) in October 1986. He completed his PhD thesis at the Medical School of Athens University in February 1996. He was trained in Gastroenterology at Tzaneion Hospital of Piraeus, Greece and had a 2-year research fellowship in Hepatology at the Royal Free Hospital of London, UK (01/1997-01/1999).

He has served in many international and national associations. In particular, he was a member of the Scientific Committee/Governing Board of European Association for Study of Liver [EASL] and he is a member of EASL and American Association for Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD, fellow) and founding member and treasurer of Hepatitis B & C Public Policy Association. He is president of Hellenic Foundation of Gastroenterology & Nutrition and was president of the Hellenic Association for Study of Liver and general secretary of Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology.

He has served in several international and national committees, such as co-ordinator (2011-2012) and member (2016-2017) of the panel for HBV EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines, current chair of Scientific Committee for Viral Hepatitis of the Hellenic Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases, current chair of committee for Implementation of National Plan for Hepatitis C Elimination, current Chair of the National Committee for Gastroenterology – Central Health Council.

His main research interest has been focused on viral hepatitis. He has (co-)authored >330 papers published in PubMed journals having total IF >2400 and >17000/25000 citations (h-index 62/77) in Scopus/Google Scholar. He was Associate Editor of Liver International and has served as Editorial Board member of several international journals and as reviewer for all gastroenterology/hepatology journals, many major internal medicine journals (New Engl J Med, Lancet, Ann Intern Med, BMJ etc), ILC/EASL-UEGW abstracts, EU 7th Framework Programme for research and Horizon 2020. He has given >165 lectures, chaired >50 lectures/round tables and presented >320 abstracts in international meetings.

Mr Aldo Patriciello, MEP EPP

Member of the European Parliament

_speaker

Aldo Patriciello is an Italian politician. He has been a member of the European Parliament since May  2006.

He’s a member of the Member ITRE Committee (Industry, Research and Energy ) and a  substitute on the ENVI Committee ( Environment, Public Health and Food Safety ).

Mr. Patriciello  is also the Vice-president of the “Challenge cancer intergroup” and a substitute member of the Special Committee on Beating  Cancer.

He is also a member of the Delegation for relations with India.

He launched, with other MEPs, a written declaration on heart failure and the 1st EU Stroke Summit in the European Parliament.

Prof. Stanislas Pol MD, PhD

Université Paris Sorbonne, Paris, France

_speaker

Stanislas Pol is Professor of Hepatology and Gastroenterology at Université Paris Sorbonne, Paris, France. He is the Head of the Liver department at Cochin Hospital, Paris, France. He attended a Hepatology and Gastroenterology residency, chief residency at the Necker-Enfants Malades University and molecular enzymology fellowship in Henri Mondor hospital. Professor Pol completed his MD thesis on hepatitis B virus occult infections in 1983 and his PhD thesis on the regulation of iso-enzymes of ALT in liver disease in 1992. Professor Pol’s research interests involve:  Hepato-virology (diagnosis and therapy of viral hepatitis, especially in populations with immune deficiency; the management of hepatocellular carcinoma and reversal of cirrhosis.

He is the recipient of several research awards and fellowships.

He has published more than 400 primary and review articles in the field of liver diseases.  He has previously chaired the coordinated action 24 of the French Agency for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS: therapeutic trials in viral hepatitis) and he is the clinical head of the French ANRS Hepather (HBV and HCV hepatitis) cohort.

He was a the head of a group in the research Inserm unit 1223 studying the immune pathology of Hepatitis C virus infection in Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

He was the director of the Center of Translational Research of Institut Pasteur until 2019.

Prof. Mario Poljak, MD, PhD

FESCMID, F(AAM), Slovenian HIV/AIDS Reference Centre, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

_speaker

Mario Poljak, specialist in clinical microbiology, is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Head of Laboratory for Molecular Microbiology at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

He was President of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) from 2016-2018 and member of ESCMID Exective Committee from 2012-2020.

He is author of 400 original research or review articles published in PubMed-cited journals. His papers have been cited more than 12,500 times (Hirsch index = 54).

As an invited speaker he has given more than 380 lectures at international and national scientific and professional meetings.

Prof. Corina Silvia Pop, MD, PhD

Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania

_speaker

Prof Corina Pop graduated in medicine from the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest where she specialized in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Prof Pop was the chief of the departments of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology between 2011-2015 and  2018-2020. Since 2020, she has been the Medical Director of Bucharest University Emergency Hospital.

Prof Pop has  had a keen interest in hepatology since the  beginning of her career. Together with  teams of multidisciplinary experts and other specialists from Romania and Portugal she developed and published the results of clinical and public health studies in hepatology. Along with clinical research activity, as well as the publishing activity in the field of viral hepatitis, especially chronic viral hepatitis,she has actively participated in working groups responsible for elaborating public policies documents in the field of viral hepatitis.  Since 2016 Prof Pop  has been invited as an expert in the Specialized Committees of the European Parliament together with specialists from other Member States to participate in consensus meetings and promotion of good practice policies in the field of viral hepatitis. Prof Pop had the honour to present the Romanian National strategy in this field which included population screening projects of viral hepatitis financed by  European Funds.

In May 2019,  as State Secretary for Health in Romania,  she  launched the National Framework Plan for the control of viral hepatitis in Romania, for the period 2019-2030. This was developed as part of the National Health Strategy 2014-2020 in line with the Global Health System Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016-2021 adopted by the WHO General Assembly in 2016 and also with the Action Plan on the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis 2016-2021. viral hepatitis in the Europe region, adopted by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in 2017.

Dr. Homie Razavi

Center for Disease Analysis, Lafayette, CO USA

_speaker

Homie Razavi  is the managing director of the CDA Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to hepatitis elimination.  Homie led a team that was first to publish the feasibility of hepatitis elimination, brought down the global HCV prevalence from 185 to 71 million, ran the analyses for UNITAID before their decision to fund hepatitis HIV co-infection studies, ran the analyses for the Medicine Patent Pool before their decision to expand to hepatitis, ran the analyses for Gavi before their board’s decision to support HBV birth dose vaccination, and started the Polaris Observatory.  He is currently working on making hepatitis elimination feasible through innovative financing mechanisms.

Homie has a broad background, which includes basic research, business development, commercial development, portfolio management, and decision analysis. He is a fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals and a member of AASLD and EASL.  He is also a member of the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) and the CDA Foundation board of directors.  He has co-authored over 70 peered reviewed publications on hepatitis and is a frequent speaker on the subject.

Mr. John F. Ryan

Director Public Health and Food Safety, Country Knowledge, Crisis Management, European Commission

_speaker

John F. Ryan is Director of the Commission Public Health directorate since September 2016.

Previously, in the same department, he was the Head of Unit responsible for a number of public health policy areas (cancer, drugs, promotion, monitoring, infectious diseases).

He was a Commission representative on the Board of the EU Lisbon Drugs Agency, and is currently the Commission representative on the Board of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

He also had the charge of dealing with tobacco control issues.
Current priorities include the development of an EU cancer plan, antimicrobial resistance, vaccination policies, and the negotiation of financial instruments to support health, including research.

He has previously worked on the completion of the internal market, and on international trade negotiations. He is also an official of the Irish civil service (on leave). He is a fellow of the UK faculty of public health.

Mr Stefan Schreck

Stakeholder Relations, Public Health Directorate, DG SANTE

_speaker

Between 1997 and 2008, Stefan has been working in the public health directorate of the European Commission in Luxemburg, in particular in the areas of communicable diseases, health threats, and substances of human origin.

 In 2008, he became head of the health unit in the executive agency for health and consumers (EAHC), with responsibility for implementing the EU health programme.

In January 2011, he was appointed head of the health information unit of DG SANCO, with responsibility for health information policy, and providing the secretariat for the non-food scientific committees of the European Commission. From February 2016 to November 2020, he was head of the DG SANTE unit’s health programme and chronic diseases', dealing with policies for all non-communicable diseases, planning and drafting annual work programmes of the EU health programme, and contributing to the implementation of the health cluster of the Horizon Europe.

Since December 2020, Stefan is adviser for stakeholder relations in the Public Health Directorate of DG SANTE.

Mr Tomislav Sokol, MEP, HDZ/ EPP

Member of the European Parliament, (EPP)

_speaker

Tomislav Sokol has been a member of the European Parliament,( EPP),  since 2019.  

He is a Member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and a Substitute Member of the Committee on Regional Development and a Substitute Member of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.

He obtained his first degree in law at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, in 2006, magna cum laude. He then obtained a Masters of Law (LL.M.) specialising in European Union Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium, in 2009, magna cum laude. He defended his PhD at KUL, dealing with free movement of cross-border health care services in the EU and its impact on national health insurance systems in 2014.

During his studies, in 2004, Tomislav Sokol became a Member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). He climbed the party ranks during the next decade, always emphasising Christian Democratic values as the cornerstone of its identity. He was an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Science and Education, after which he became a Member of the Croatian Parliament. He was a Member of the Croatian Parliament until July 2019, when he became a Member of the European Parliament.

So far, he has published around 20 papers and 1 book on issues concerning EU law, including several articles in European journals, such as the European Law Review and the European Law Journal. He has presented papers at many international conferences, worked on different research projects and is currently taking part in  a Jean Monnet project related to EU health law and policy. Previously, he worked in a legal practice and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management where he has taught Introduction to European Union and Principles of Law courses since the academic year 2010/2011. He is also an assistant professor at the Catholic University of Croatia where he has taught since the academic year 2016/2017. His areas of professional interest include the law of the European common market, EU health law, competition law, International and European social law and International and European trade law.

Prof. Vana Sypsa, MD, PhD

Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

_speaker

Vana Sypsa is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics in the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She participated in advisory boards appointed by the Greek Ministry of Health to prepare and implement the national hepatitis C and HIV plans, where she provided expertise for the PWID and prisoners populations. She was President of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics in 2019-2020. She is member of the national scientific committee of experts for COVID-19 in Greece.

Her research interests include the epidemiology and modeling of hepatitis C, HIV, COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. She has led interventions concerning HIV and HCV infections among people who inject drugs and prisoners.  She is principal investigator in major community-based programs targeting the population of active PWID in Greece.

Prof. Rui Tato Marinho, MD, PhD

Santa Maria Medical School, University of Lisbon, Portugal

_speaker

Prof. Rui Tato Marinho is Head of Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Santa Maria Hospital and Full Professor of the Medical School of Lisbon.  He is the Director of the Center of Palliative Medicine and a Member of the Pedagogic Committee of the Medical School of Lisbon.

Prof Tato Marinho is the President of the Portuguese Society of Gastroenterology (2019-2021).

He is a Member of College of Gastroenterology, Portuguese Medical Association, and  is a member of the Governing Board of European Liver Patient Association (ELPA).

Prof Marinho holds a Medal of Merit from the Portuguese Medical Association.

Prof Tato Marinho was the organizer of 35 meetings including Digestive Week (National Congress of Gastroenterology) 2017, 2020 and International Network Hepatitis in Substance Users, Portugal.

He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases AASLD, and was a European Commission (Expert for the Programme H2020, Brussels, 2016, 2017, 2019).

Prof Tato Marinho has been an Advisory Memberof the  Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, since 2008.

Prof Tato Marinho has collaborated with the Portuguese Parliament in several fields (alcohol and traffic accidents, hepatitis C, Health Day).

Prof Tato Marinho currently collaborates with 15 PWID/prisons/homeless NGOs.

Prof Tato Marinho has published 122 papers in PubMed including New England Journal Medicine, Gastroenterology, Liver International, Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Annals of  Oncology, Lancet Gastr Hepatol, World J Gastroenterol, Endoscopy, etc.

Prof Tato Marinho has made 700 presentations at conferences.

Mr. Ivan Vuković, BA, PhD

Mayor of Podgorica, Montenegro

_speaker

Mr. Vuković began his term as the Mayor of Podgorica in May 2018. Before taking office, he worked as an Assistant Professor and Vice-Dean for International Cooperation at the Faculty of Political Science in Podgorica.

Mr Vuković completed his undergraduate and specialist studies in 2007 at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Montenegro. After his specialist studies in International Relations and Diplomacy, he completed his internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, after which he enrolled in postgraduate studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

In 2008, Ivan Vuković defended his master thesis on the topic of "European Integration and Political Competition in Montenegro: The Determinants of Party Consensus".

Upon his return to Montenegro,Ivan Vuković began working as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Montenegro.

From September to November 2013, Ivan conducted a PhD thesis research at Harvard University and in June 2014 defended his PhD thesis on "Party Outcomes in Hybrid Regimes in the Western Balkans and Beyond" at the Central European University in Budapest.

In the period 2014-2015, Ivan Vuković acquired the title of Lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science; In November 2015 he was appointed Assistant Professor and Vice-Dean for International Relations at the same Faculty.

Mr Vuković then spent the academic year, 2016-2017 at the George Washington University as the first Fulbright Postdoctoral scholarship holder from Montenegro. During his stay in America, he taught a course on Politics in Central and Eastern Europe.

Dr. Vuković is fluent in English and has a working knowledge of French.

Prof. Heiner Wedemeyer, MD, PhD

Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

_speaker

Heiner Wedemeyer has been Professor and Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School since April 1, 2020. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Clinic Essen between February 2019 and April 2020.

He received his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1996 and subsequently started his training in Internal Medicine at Hannover Medical School in Germany. From 1998 to 2000, he was a research fellow in immunology at the Liver Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. Since 2001, he completed his training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at Hannover Medical School, where he became Professor of Medicine in 2011.

Professor Wedemeyer has been involved in the scientific coordination of the German Network of Competence on Viral Hepatitis (Hep-Net) and the German Liver Foundation for more than 15 years. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director of the German Hepatitis C-Registry. Heiner Wedemeyer is a member of several scientific organizations and was Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), from 2009 to 2011.

Professor Wedemeyer has a long-term research interest in liver diseases with a main focus on viral hepatitis, liver transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma. He has been principal investigator in numerous clinical trials, focusing on antiviral therapy and immunotherapy of viral hepatitis B, C, D and E. He has authored over 360 original articles; his current Hirsch-Index is 90 (google scholar; January 2020) and his work has been quoted more than 37.000 times.

Heiner Wedemeyer has received numerous awards including the Hans Popper Award of the International Association of the Study of the Liver in 2002, the Innovation Award of the German Medical Faculties (2011) and the Rudolph-Schoen-Awards (2011). His research has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the German Ministry of Research and Education, the European Union, the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Ruth Zimmermann, MD MPH

Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

_speaker

Ruth Zimmermann has been working at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, since 2008. She studied medicine in Germany and France, completed her clinical training, worked for Médecins sans Frontières and studied International Health and Public Health.

Since 2010 she has been working as a senior epidemiologist for viral hepatitis surveillance and related epidemiological research with a focus on hepatitis C. For more than 10 years her main research interest is epidemiological research in vulnerable groups and generating data for action. She initiated the first national multi-centre bio-behavioural study on HIV and viral hepatitis among PWID in Germany 2011-2014. Since 2020 a monitoring system for infectious diseases in PWID in Germany is being established under her lead. In the frame of the recent EMCDDA harm reduction initiative, she developed a manual to support countries in identifying barriers of HCV testing in PWUD. Currently, a project on viral hepatitis, TB, HIV, STI and COVID-19 among homeless people in Germany is being piloted in her unit.

Between 2016 and 2019, she led the RKI team of the SPHERE-C project in cooperation with ECDC and several EU countries to develop protocols for HCV seroprevalence surveys in Europe. Since 2019, she has been part of WHO missions advising countries in their efforts to monitor the progress towards hepatitis elimination as a consultant.

As the National Focal Point’s drug-related infectious diseases expert at EMCDDA, she represents the RKI, as well as a member of the ECDC Coordination Committee for Hepatitis B and C Surveillance.

Mr. Bertrand Audoin

International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC)

_chair

Bertrand Audoin has been  Vice-President of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) since 2014.

He also teaches Ethics and Compliance in Public Health at EDHEC Business School since 2008.

Bertrand is a 1992 EDHEC- and a 2008 French Defense Institute alumni and has been working in the fight against HIV/ AIDS for almost 30 years, starting in New Zealand in 1992. He was Chief Executive Officer of French NGO and fundraiser Sidaction from 1996 to 2011, and Executive Director of the International AIDS Society, from 2011 to 2014.

Dr. Manuel Carballo PhD MPH DSc

International Centre for Migration, Health and Development (ICMHD) Switzerland

_chair

Manuel Carballo PhD MPH DSc is an epidemiologist and Executive Director of the International Centre for Migration, Health and Development (ICMHD). Prior to joining ICMHD, he was a senior scientist at WHO where he initially led WHO’s International Collaborative Study on breast feeding and the impact of breast-milk substitutes on infant and maternal health. He then led development of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes which still guides infant food industry action in the field of infant and young child feeding.

In 1986, he was one of a three-person team asked to create WHO’s Global Programme on AIDS (GPA) and worked with countries in Africa and Asia to set up National AIDS Committees, and was Chief of Behavioral Research until 1992. From 1993 to 1995 during the Balkan war he was based in Sarajevo as WHO Public Health Advisor for Bosnia. While at ICMHD, he has also held a joint appointment as Professor of Clinical Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he helped establish the Program on Forced Migration.

He has been a team leader for UN conflict assessments of maternal and child health in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004 he was a UN lead on tsunami recovery in the Maldives, and with UNFPA he helped develop a number of civil-military and police activities on HIV/AIDS in DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia. At ICMHD he led the first study of migration and viral hepatitis, and is a co-founder of the Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Public Policy Association.

Prof. Laurent Castera, MD, PhD, FAASLD

University of Paris and Hôpital Beaujon, Clichy, France

_chair

Laurent Castera is Professor of Hepatology at the University of Paris (Department of Hepatology, Hôpital Beaujon, Clichy, France) and Visiting Professor of Medicine in University College of London (Institute of Liver and Digestive Health, Royal Free Hospital London, UK). He received his Medical degree from the University of Paris-VI and his PhD from the University of Paris-XII. His research interests focus on non-invasive methods for liver fibrosis assessment and NAFLD. He has published more than 200 papers in international peer reviewed journals and also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Hepatology, Gut and Liver International. He was the chairman of the first international guidelines on the use of non-invasive tests (EASL-ALEH Clinical Practice Guidelines J Hepatol 2015). He has served on the Scientific Committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) from 2011 to 2013 and is a member of the UEG Council since 2017. He was a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Governing Board from 2012 to 2013, EASL Vice Secretary from 2013 to 2015 and EASL Secretary General from 2015 to 2017.

Prof. Massimo Colombo MD

Liver Centre, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy

_chair

Massimo Colombo is currently Director of the Liver Center at San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy. For the last 3 years he was Director of the Center of Translational Research in Hepatology at Humanitas Hospital, Milan, Ital . Before that he was Chairman of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Liver, Kidney, Lung, Bone Marrow and Organ Transplantation at IRCCS Maggiore Hospital in Milan, Italy for fifteen years. He has also been a Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Milan for more than 25 years. Professor Colombo gained his medical degree from the University of Milan, before completing a residency in gastroenterology at IRCCS Maggiore Hospital. Subsequently, he undertook an international fellowship in liver diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, USA (1974-1975), before returning to IRCCS Maggiore Hospital.

Professor Colombo’s research interests include the diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis and liver cancer. A member of many professional societies including EASL, AASLD and several Italian societies, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2010 European Association Study Liver (EASL) Recognition Award for outstanding medical and scientific contributions, the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF) Distinguished Service Award, the Thannhauser Medal Award of the German Society of Gastroenterology and the Nelson Fausto Award of the International Liver Cancer Association(ILCA). Professor Colombo was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hepatology from 2005–2009 and currently sits on  the editorial boards of many hepatology journals, is Special Section Editor of Journal of Hepatology (2015-2019), Strategic Advisor of Editor of Liver International (2015-2019) and contributor of Selected Summary for Gastroenterology(2000-2021).He was Associate Editor of Journal of Hepatology  in 1996-2000 and chaired the writing committees of EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines of Benign Liver Tumors in 2014 and of Occupational Liver Diseases in 2017. In September 2016 he was appointed Chairman of EASL International Liver Foundation (Geneva, Switzerland). He has authored more than 500 original manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, with an H-index of 94(Google Scholar) and more than 27,000 citations.

Prof. Antonio Craxì MD, PhD

University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

_chair

Antonio Craxì, is a Full Professor of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine at the University of Palermo, Italy, where he is also Head of the Academic Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties.

He is a member of several professional societies including the European, International, and American Associations for the Study of Liver Disease. He has coordinated or participated on the board of authors of various editions of the EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines on Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Antonio Craxì was the President of SIGE, the Italian Society of Gastroenterology from 2016-2018. In 2016 he was awarded the EASL Career Award and in 2018 the AISF Career Award, the PHC Award and the Sheila Sherlock’s Career Award.

Prof. Craxì’s main research interests include viral hepatitis C and B, antiviral therapy, NAFLD, hepatocellular carcinoma, iron overload states, auto-immune liver diseases and inflammatory bowel diseases. He has served on the editorial board of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Gut and Liver International, and has been Associate Editor of Digestive and Liver Disease.

Prof. David Goldberg, DSc, FRCP, FRSE

Public Health Scotland

_chair

Professor Goldberg is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine / Clinical Epidemiology at Public Health Scotland (PHS), and is an Honorary Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow and a Professor of Public Health, Glasgow Caledonian University. He is Programme Lead for Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections at HPS. He is a former Henry Mechan Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow and former Deputy Director of Health Protection Scotland. He serves on several UK and Scottish committees and is involved in the postgraduate supervision/teaching of students affiliated to the University of Glasgow. He is the author of approximately 300 peer-reviewed articles and has been a holder of many grants from a wide range of funding bodies. He led the team which secured a £43 million investment for Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment services during 2008-2011. He, as Chair of Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan Governance Board, led the co-ordination of the Plan during this period and also chaired Scotland’s Hepatitis C Treatment and Therapies Group. He now co-leads Scotland’s Hepatitis C Elimination Strategy Implementation Group.

He is also Chair of the UK’s Advisory Panel for Healthcare Workers infected with BBVs and is one of two COVID 19 Incident Directors within PHS.

Prof. Hatzakis MD, PhD, MSc

Medical School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

_chair

Angelos Hatzakis, MD, PhD, MSc, served as Professor of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine and Director of the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology & Medical Statistics at Athens University Medical School. He was also Head and Founder of the National Retrovirus Reference Center. He trained in Internal Medicine (“Hippokratio” General Hospital of Athens) and Epidemiology (Harvard School of Public Health). He has served in many Executive Committees including the presidency of the Hellenic CDC. Professor Hatzakis is  Co-Chair and the  founder of the Hepatitis B and C Public Policy Association. His research interests cover epidemiology, virology, prevention and public health of viral diseases and oncogenic viruses. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific papers published in journals like Lancet, JAMA, Plos Medicine, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science/PNAS, AIDS, Journal of AIDS, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Antiviral Therapy, Blood, Cancer Research, Pediatrics etc.

Prof. Harry LA Janssen MD, PhD

Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

_chair

Harry Janssen is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he holds the Francis Family Chair in Hepatology. He currently works at Toronto General Hospital as Chief of Hepatology and Director of the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease. 

Professor Janssen graduated from medical school in the Netherlands. During his study he spent one year as research student in Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic. He obtained his PhD in Rotterdam on the role of immune modulating therapy in hepatitis B. Following his training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in the Netherlands, he returned to the Mayo Clinic for a Research Fellowship in Hepatology. In 2001 he became a faculty member and in 2006 he was appointed as full Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section Liver Diseases and Transplantation in Rotterdam. In 2013 he came to Toronto where he merged all 3 liver programs into the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, to become one of the largest liver programs in North America based at the Toronto General Hospital.

Professor Janssen has coordinated numerous clinical and translational studies on treatment for chronic viral hepatitis and other liver diseases. His main research interest is cure of chronic hepatitis B. He has published more than 500 original peer-reviewed papers and many book chapters. His H-index is over 100 and he has been cited 45,000 times (Google Scholar). He has received several prestigious international awards and has mentored over 50 PhD students, of whom many have taken leadership positions in the field of Hepatology or Virology.

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite, MP, MD, PhD(c)

National Parliament Portugal & UNITE – Global Parliamentarians Network

_chair

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite is a Member of the Portuguese National Parliament. He is the national spokesperson for health for the Social Democratic Party. Besides being a Member of Parliament, Dr.  Baptista Leite is Head of Public Health, a medical doctor and a public health advocate.

Dr.  Baptista Leite is the Founder and President of UNITE – Global Parliamentarians Network to End HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and other Infectious Diseases, a global platform of current and former policy makers created under the auspices of UNAIDS and committed to ending these public health threats by 2030 in accordance with the UN SDGs. Dr. Baptista Leite  is vice president of the ‘Parliamentary Network on The World Bank & International Monetary Fund’. By working directly with The World Bank Group and IMF, the network’s mission is to provide a platform for parliamentarians around the globe to advocate for increased accountability and transparency in International Financial Institutions and multilateral development financing. Dr. Baptista Leite is a former coordinator of the Sustainable Healthcare Unit at NOVA Information Management School. He is a Senior Fellow at New Westminster College (BC, Canada) and PhD candidate in Public Health and Health Systems at Maastricht University (The Netherlands).

Ricardo Baptista Leite is a medical doctor and trained in infectious diseases and is Head of Public Health at Católica University of Portugal and Guest Lecturer at NOVA Medical School. Formerly, he was a practicing physician for 7 years, including a 5-year Infectious Diseases residency program at the Western Lisbon Hospital Center, Coimbra Hospital Center and Amadora-Sintra Hospital.  Dr Baptista Leite was an Intern in public health (HIV, Hepatitis and STI’s) at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, based in Copenhagen (2011).

Dr. Baptista Leite completed post-graduate studies in many universities in Europe and abroad, among which are Johns Hopkins University (MD, USA), Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), Harvard Kennedy School of Government/IESE (Madrid, Spain), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY, USA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and AESE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal).

Dr. Baptista Leite is a Global Ambassador of the ‘G20 Health & Development Partnership’ aimed at advising and advocating G20 countries on health policies aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Awarded by ‘The Economist Intelligence Unit’ as a ‘HCV Change Maker’ (2016). This acknowledgment, attributed to solely six people globally, came in due recognition of Ricardo Baptista Laite’s academic work and policy leadership in the field of hepatitis C.

Prof. Mojca Maticic MD, PhD

Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Illnesses, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia

_chair

Mojca Maticic is Head of the Viral Hepatitis Unit and Head of the STI Outpatient Service at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Illnesses, University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is also a Full Professor of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana. After gaining her medical degree, Professor Maticic specialised in internal medicine and in infectious diseases at the University of Ljubljana, before completing a masters and PhD in HIV/AIDS and HCV, respectively. Subsequently, she undertook international postdoctoral training at the Middlesex Hospital and Royal Free Hospital in London, UK. Professor Maticic’s research interests focus on viral infections, primarily viral hepatitis, antiviral treatment and STIs.

An active member of numerous professional societies including EASL (European Association for the Study of the Liver), where she is a member of the Policy and Public Health Committee (PPHC), Hepatitis B&C Public Policy Association (HepB&C PPA), ESCMID (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases), and INHSU (International Network for management of Hepatitis in Substance Users), she currently leads a hepatitis C study group at C-EHRN (Correlation-European Harm Reduction Network), serves as an advisor to ECDC (European Center for Disease Control) and the VHPB (Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board), and used to advise at the World Health Organization HIV/Viral Hepatitis/STI Committee. Professor Maticic is also a member of the HIV/AIDS Committee of the Slovene Ministry of Health and a co-author of the National Strategy for the Management of HCV Infection in Slovenia. She leads the Slovene National Viral Hepatitis Expert Board and co-authored the national clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of HCV and HBV infections. She has authored or co-authored more than 450 articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and organised numerous national and international conferences.

Prof. Rafael Esteban Mur MD, PhD

Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

_chair

Rafael Esteban is Clinical Chief of the Liver Unit , Department of Internal Medicine, at Val d’Hebron University Hospital Barcelona, Spain and Professor of Medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. He is also the Coordinator of Research of the Liver Unit Group at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research.

Prof. Esteban is a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). He had been a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and former Secretary of the Spanish Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AEEH). Prof. Esteban has authored more than 350 original articles in peer-reviewed journals on the subject of viral hepatitis.

Prof. Markus Peck-Radosavljevic MD, MBA

Klinikum Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Klagenfurt, Austria

_chair

Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, MD MBA, is Professor of Medicine and Chairman at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Nephrology at Klinikum Klagenfurt in Klagenfurt, Austria.

Prof. Peck is a graduate of the Medical University of Graz Medical School, he did his research training at the Medical University of Graz, University of Alberta in Edmonton Canada, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas, and completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Infectious Diseases, and Intensive Care Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

He began his research in liver disease in the field of thrombocytopenia in portal hypertension and worked on the role of Thrombopoietin (TPO) in advanced stage liver disease for many years. He has also ran a translational lab testing novel approaches to the treatment of portal hypertension and HCC for many years, while working at the Medical University of Vienna. He was  actively involved in the management of post-OLT hepatitis C ran clinical trials in HCV-infection in hemodialysis and post-OLT patients HIV-HCV coinfection, and most HCC-trials in Austria.

Professor Peck served as Vice-secretary of EASL from 2011 to 2013 and as Secretary General of EASL from April 2013 to April 2015. He also served as the Secretary General of the Austrian Association for Internal Medicine from 2006-2014. He has been a member of the UEG Council since 2015 and Chair of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Public Affairs Committee (PAC), which he took over in 2018. Starting 2019, he is also serving as the Secretary General of the International Association for the Study of the Liver (IASL), which he will take over as President in 2021.

Over many years until the end of 2015, Professor Peck led the Portal Hypertension, the HIV-HCV-Coinfection, and the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Study Groups at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he conducted a number of clinical trials in these indications as well as on new antivirals in HCV-infection in special indications. Since January 2016, he has taken over as Chair of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in Klagenfurt, which also includes the Centralized Endoscopy Service Endocrinology, Rheumatology, Nephrology and the Emergency Medicine service. He has set up a new Clinical trials study unit there and is running a broad range of clinical trials in various different indications, including HCC, NASH, and viral hepatitis.

Prof. Nurdan Tözün MD, FRCP

Acibadem University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

_chair

Nurdan Tözün earned her medical degree from Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine and completed her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the same Faculty.

She worked at Marmara University School of Medicine as head of GI department, Dean of medical school, founder and Director of the first Institute of Gastroenterology of Turkey established in 1992.

She has been president of the Turkish Association for the Study of the Liver (TASL) for 6 years and the Turkish Society of Gastroenterology Prof. Tözün actively worked as a member of various international councils, executive committees or subcommittees including UEG (PAC, Head of E&D Task force and UEG Council member), AGA (Ethics committee), APASL (administrative council) and WGO. She served as the Chairperson of the Training Recognition Committee of the European Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Her main areas of research and interest are: Viral Hepatitis, colorectal cancer and Inflammatory Bowel diseases.

Prof. Tözün is the author of 145 articles in peer reviewed journals, 69 articles in Turkish, 4 book chapters in English. She received several awards for her studies and accomplishments.

She has concentrated her efforts on the prevention and control of viral hepatitis as well as colorectal cancer in the Mediterranean Region. She is the past president of Mediterranean Task Force for Cancer Control (MTCC), an organization which aims to raise public awareness about cancer.

Since 2008 she has been the Head of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine departments at Acıbadem University School of Medicine where she acted as founding Dean and Vice-Rector for academic affairs until 2012.

Prof. Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MPH, FACP, FACG, AGAF

Inova Fairfax Medical Campus VA, USA

_chair

Prof. Zobair Younossi is the Chairman, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. He is also Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus and Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at George Mason University.

Dr. Younossi earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York (Alpha Omega Alpha, 1989), and completed his residency in internal medicine as well as a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California. During his residency and fellowship, he earned his master of public health degree from San Diego State University (SDSU) School of Public Health in San Diego, California, being awarded both the Hanlon Award and Outstanding Student Award for SDSU.  He then served as the Staff Hepatologist and Senior Researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio (1995– 2000).

In 2000, Dr. Younossi was recruited to establish Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases. The center is currently well known for its excellence in clinical hepatology, teaching, and research. Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases is not only involved in “cutting-edge” clinical trial protocols and outcomes research projects, but also has pioneered research in genomics and proteomics of obesity and its related liver diseases. The center has participated in over 90 research projects in translational research, outcomes research, and “cutting edge” clinical trials.

In 2006, Dr. Younossi was appointed Executive Director of Research for Inova Health System. In this capacity, he has developed new research infrastructure to support clinical, translational, and outcomes research carried out by Inova investigators. These efforts resulted in establishing the Center for Integrated Research in Fall of 2008. In 2008, he was then promoted to Vice President for Research of Inova Health System. In 2010, He was selected to become Chairman for the Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. He also serves as Vice Chairman as well as Senior Executive for the Inova Foundation Board. In 2013, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association for the Mid-Atlantic region and was recently appointed to the Board of the American College of Gastroenterology Institute.

Academically, Dr. Younossi has authored over 360 articles and 20 book chapters. He has authored three textbooks and has served as guest editor of 5 journal supplements. He has also presented more than 270 abstracts at national and international meetings. He has given faculty presentations to over 270 local, national, or international meetings. He sits on multiple local and national committees and has served on the editorial board of Hepatology, World Journal of Gastroenterology and served as the associate editor of Liver International and Evidence-Based Gastroenterology. He has also been honored by being listed in the “Best Doctors” (2002), “Top Doctors” (2012-2017), Who’s Who in Health Care (2002), Cambridge Who’s Who in Medicine (2007), and the Alumni of the Year, George Mason University (2008). In 2008, Dr. Younossi was appointed by the governor of Virginia to the board of directors for the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority and Research Park Corporation Boards. Over the past decade, Dr. Younossi has been actively involved with the American Liver Foundation as the Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of the National Capital Chapter as well as multiple committees of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and American College of Gastroenterology.