Speakers

Prof. Dr. Oliver Aalami

Director of Biodesign Digital Health, Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Oliver Aalami is Director of Biodesign for Digital Health at Stanford University and a vascular surgeon. He directs Biodesign for Digital Health and Building for Digital Health, teaching need-driven innovation to translate digital health potential into real-world applications. He co-founded Stanford Spezi (formerly CardinalKit), an open-source framework that democratizes digital health development and now powers 20+ research and clinical projects. His focus is advancing healthcare access through digital health education, validated research, and scalable implementation.

Prof. Dr. Ian Abbs

Strategic Advisor, Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Ian Charles Abbs is a distinguished transplant nephrologist, clinical academic, and healthcare leader.  Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) from July 2019 to September 2025, overseeing a £3.2 billion turnover and more than 23,000 staff across five hospitals.  

Previously, he was Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer at GSTT. Ian holds a BSc in Immunology, medical degrees, an MBA from Cambridge, and is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Arts.  

He is a Professor at King’s College London and has driven digital transformation, innovation, and genomics adoption at GSTT. Ian chairs the South East Genomic Medicine Service Partnership Board and is active in NHS England’s genomics and digital transformation initiatives. He now serves as Strategic Advisor to GSTT and leads national genomics programs.

Dina Al-Alami

Founder & Career Coach, Major Confusions Ltd

Dina Al-Alami is an ICF-certified career coach, and founder of Major Confusions, a career support company dedicated to creating a healthier world where career well-being is treated seriously.

Dina grew up in Amman, Jordan, completed her BS & MS in engineering at Stanford University, and her coaching training at the University of Cambridge. She spent her career building products and teams from zero to one within HealthTech companies, leading them from seed stage to IPO, in London, UK.

By blending her product development, design thinking and coaching expertise, Dina supports individuals and teams in identifying core challenges, prototyping and implementing necessary frameworks and changes. Dina’s coaching client base includes individuals across all levels from diverse organisations such as Google, Apple, IKEA, Imperial College and Miro, as well as mission-driven start-ups at different stages from seed stage to growth stages.

Dina has also built coaching and speaking partnerships and with diversity, equity and inclusion-focused networks and non-profits such as The Shuri Network at the NHS, Female Invest, One HealthTech, the International Stanford University Alumni Network and SheSharp. 

She is also the host of The Intertwined Podcast, where she interviews underrepresented professionals on their career journeys.

Dr. Dorothee Andres

Senior Policy Advisor, German Federal Ministry of Health

I am a Senior Policy Adviser on health data use and new technologies in the federal ministry of health in Germany. 

I currently work on the German Helth Data Lab (FDZ Gesundheit), and I planned, coordinated and implemented genomDE. 

I have a demonstrated history of working in the research industry and academia. With my strong research professional experience and policy development expertise I drive innovations and developments from science into action. 

Dr. Patrik Bächtiger

NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Digital Health, Imperial College London

Dr. Patrik Bächtiger is an NHS clinician, NIHR academic at Imperial College London, and venture partner with the first NHS-backed venture capital fund. He co-founded the Health Impact Lab at Imperial, which delivers pioneering implementation trials for AI technologies. His work is underpinned by previous experience as a Knox Fellow in public health at Harvard and MIT. He is an expert member of the UK National Commission on AI Regulation and award-winning innovator in technology-enabled patient care.

Maro Bader

Excellence Lead Digital Transformation, Roche Pharma AG

Maro Bader serves as the Excellence Lead Digital Transformation at Roche Pharma AG, where he spearheads strategic initiatives at the intersection of industry, policy, and technology to unlock the potential of health data for research and patient care. In addition to his corporate leadership, he is the Chairman of the Board of sphin-X e.V., a key initiative dedicated to establishing a sovereign, networked, and interoperable health data ecosystem in Germany. Committed to European standards such as Gaia-X and IDSA, Maro acts as a bridge-builder between the healthcare industry and public institutions, driving collaborative innovation to accelerate digital progress and medical advancement in the German healthcare sector. 

Dr. Mina Baumgarten

Head of Business Processes and Healthcare Innovation, Vivantes

Dr. Mina Baumgarten leads the division Process and Innovation of care  at Vivantes-Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH, where she also serves as an authorized officer. She studied medicine in Münster, Wales, Brazil, and France and completed a medical-ethical doctorate, followed by specialty training in psychiatry and psychotherapy at Münster University Hospital. She later earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from King’s College London. 

Her career includes work as an international healthcare expert in London and a leadership position in corporate development at Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, where she continues to oversee research projects on innovative care. At Vivantes, she is responsible for shaping a digitally supported, data-driven, patient-centered care journey, focusing on the strategic and sustainable use of new technologies to improve healthcare quality and outcomes. 

Lina Behrens

Head of Strategy & Content, HLTH Europe

Lina Behrens is the Head of Strategy & Content for HLTH Europe, the leading conference for healthcare innovation in Europe. Before joining HLTH, Lina was the Managing Director of Flying Health, the main ecosystem for Next Generation Healthcare in Germany. Previously, she worked at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Social Finance in London, as well as at Polymath Ventures, one of the largest company builders in Latin America. Lina is a Member of the Bertelsmann Foundation's 30 under 40 in Digital Health, and until recently she served as a Member of the Advisory Board Young Digital Economy to the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Change and as a Board Member of the German Startup Association.

Dr. Leo Benning

Chief Medical Officer, Vivira Health Lab GmbH

Leo is a clinician scientist by training. As the Chief Medical Officer at Vivira Health Lab, he leads the company's research, therapy and market access teams, specializing in evidence generation and implementation of digital therapeutics within the German prescription digital therapeutics (Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen, DiGA) framework. He holds an MD from the University of Freiburg and an MPH from Harvard University and has published on digital health and health system innovation.

Inga Bergen

Founder, Visionäre der Gesundheit

Inga Bergen is a digital health entrepreneur, investor, and podcast host focused on the intersection of technology, medicine, and innovation. She is the founder of the Future Health Academy and host of the “Visionäre der Gesundheit” podcast, where she speaks with leading thinkers shaping the future of healthcare. A former CEO and advisor to health-tech companies and public institutions, she works at the interface of AI, prevention, and system transformation—helping organizations translate innovation into measurable impact.

Dr. Linda Bienemann

Digital policy advisor, German Federal Chancellery

Dr. Linda Bienemann works as a digital policy advisor at the Federal Chancellery since March 2026. She previously served as the personal advisor to the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information and as project director of ReguLab, which she founded together with Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider. Prior to that, she worked as an attorney at a law firm specializing in intellectual property and data protection law. The GDPR already played a major role in her dissertation on the need to reform the Artistic Copyright Act in the digital age. She regularly publishes on data protection topics, such as commentary on the GDPR and employee data protection.

Otto Birnbaum

General Partner, Revent

I am a founding partner of Revent. We are an early-stage specialist VC fund investing across Europe. We focus on technology companies in healthcare, climate and empowerment. In particular we invest in the most ambitious founders leveraging technology to address generational problems.

Prof. Dr. med. Katarina Braune

Professor; Chair of Digital Health – Non-Communicable Diseases, Hasso Plattner Institute

Prof. Dr. med. Katarina Braune is Chair of Digital Health – Non-Communicable Diseases at the Hasso Plattner Institute. She is a board-certified pediatrician, diabetologist and medical informatician. Her work sits at the intersection of medicine, digital health, and participatory innovation, with a particular focus on diabetes technology, wearable data, and patient-centered design. Before joining HPI, she worked at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and has led numerous national and international collaborations on digital health, diabetes , and equitable technology access. Her research and teaching focus on how data-driven and user-centered approaches can improve care for people living with non-communicable diseases.

Dr. Sandra Bütow

Research & Project Coordinator, Robert Koch Institute I ZKI-PH

 Dr. Sandra M. Bütow is a life sciences expert working at the intersection of biotechnology, digital healthcare innovation, and strategic collaboration. She currently serves as a Research and Project Coordinator at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Research at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, where she contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives that strengthen public health research, data integration, and collaborative networks. Dr. Bütow holds a background in chemistry from Freie Universität Berlin and conducted research at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Throughout her career, she has held leadership and advisory roles in biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, focusing on medical affairs, scientific communication, and innovation management. She has developed particular expertise in the application of artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches in healthcare and life sciences, with a strong interest in leveraging health data to protect and improve public health. 

Jennifer C. Goldsack

CEO, Digital Medicine Society

Jennifer C. Goldsack is the founder and CEO of the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to advancing digital medicine to optimize human health. Her work focuses on practical approaches to the safe, effective, and equitable use of digital technologies to improve health, healthcare, and health research. 

Jennifer serves on the boards of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) and Sage Bionetworks. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health, serves on the World Economic Forum’s Digital Health Action Collaborative, and is an Executive Committee Member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS). 

She earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford, a master’s in the history and sociology of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the George Washington University. 

Chenzhe Cao

Principal Technology Strategisst, Mass General Brigham

Chenzhe (Chen) Cao is an experienced digital health strategist with over a decade of expertise in the healthcare industry. As the Principal Technology Strategist for Emerging Technologies at Mass General Brigham, Chen leads strategic initiatives that integrate cutting-edge solutions into clinical operations and research. He has successfully driven a number of high-impact projects across the integrated academic health system, fostering critical collaborations between providers and emerging and established technology partners. 

His primary areas of focus include the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, as well as the exploration of extended reality (AR/VR) and robotics within academic medical centers. In addition to his strategic leadership, Chen serves as an Adjunct Faculty member at the Boston University School of Public Health, where he helps educate the next generation of healthcare professionals. He is also deeply engaged with the alumni community, serving as a member of the Boston University Alumni Council. 

David Champeaux

CEO, Evidentli

David Champeaux is the CEO of Evidentli, a startup that accelerates the design and dissemination of Evidence in Health and Life Sciences via an AI-enabled platform that accelerates the normalisation of healthcare data with near-perfect accuracy and enables researchers to collaborate on knowledge assets. David has held founder, leadership, and advisory roles at more than a dozen digital and AI startups, starting in the late 90s, and has been a Partner focusing on Data and AI-enabled transformation in Health and Life Sciences at professional services firms such as McKinsey, Accenture, Alvarez & Marsal and Infosys. Throughout his career, David has combined his entrepreneurial and advisory roles to pursue a mission of driving sustained performance and outcome improvements for all stakeholders in health and care ecosystems worldwide, with a focus on converting data into actionable insights and enabling collaboration across the ecosystem. 

Jeremy Dähn

Managing Director, Minddistrict DACH

Jeremy is a digital health enthusiast and strategy manager. He is currently the CEO of the German speaking arm of Minddistrict and responsible to establish Minddistrict as the leading mental health platform in the DACH region. With his passion, Jeremy wants to shape the healthcare system to a more inclusive and digital one with a focus on chronically ill patients. In his vision, Minddistrict will have a leading role to respond to these unmet needs.

Before that, he was the Chief Digital Officer at Johanniter, one of the leading non-profit healthcare providers in Germany. He was responsible for fostering the digital transformation, implementing new digital business models and supporting innovation projects. Moreover, in his capacity as CDO, he used to be the CEO and founder of DT - Deutsche Telemedizin, a joint venture between Johanniter and iATROS with a focus on tele-cardiology.

In his years at Curalie (formerly known as smart Helios) and Axel Springer, Jeremy gained an inside knowledge of digitization from Europe’s biggest hospital provider, as well in the transformation from a newspaper company to Europe’s leading digital media company.

Jens Dommel

Head of Public Sector, EU & Germany, Amazon Web Services

Jens Dommel is an entrepreneur, sales expert, and marketing strategist with extensive management experience in IT enterprises, specializing in the public sector and healthcare industry. He is recognized as a thought leader and was honored by CIO Times as "The Most Inspiring Trailblazer Leader 2025" and by World Top Leaders (WTL) as "Most Inspiring Leader in Digital Transformation." 

Jens holds a degree in Information Systems and Mechanical Engineering from Technische Universität Berlin. At CompuGroup Medical SE (CGM), he served as General Manager R&D Health Connectivity Services, driving innovation across primary and acute care. Previously, he built Microsoft's Public Sector division and led the healthcare division in Germany as Vertical Lead and served as Head of Business Development for the Microsoft Health Solutions Group in Western Europe.  

At Amazon Web Services, Jens has held multiple senior leadership roles, including EMEA Manager Healthcare. Currently, he serves as AWS Country Manager Public Sector Germany and Head of European Union and International Organisations. In these roles, he has systematically developed strategies and processes for digital transformation and AI adoption, especially positioning Germany as a key driver of public sector innovation across Europe. 

Dorothée Marie-Louise Döpfer

Deputy Head of Digital Labs, Berlin Institute of Health, Charitée-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Dorothée Marie-Louise Doepfer, PhD, is a healthcare innovation leader and Program Manager of the Digital Health Accelerator at the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité, where she oversees a €4+ million annual program translating academic and clinical research into reimbursed, system-integrated healthcare solutions. 

Her work is centered on clinical innovation — supporting physicians and hospital departments in developing scalable, meaningful solutions that improve patient outcomes while strengthening healthcare systems. She has supported more than 60 digital health and life science ventures, contributed to 13+ spin-offs, and helped multiple solutions achieve reimbursement and integration into care delivery. 

With a background in Public Health and a PhD in Economic History focused on innovation and financing systems, she brings an interdisciplinary perspective combining healthcare systems expertise, regulatory and reimbursement strategy, and deep understanding of how innovation ecosystems evolve.  

Over the past decade, she has built strong international partnerships across Europe, Israel, Canada, Australia, and the United States, bridging academia, hospital systems, policymakers, investors, and industry to ensure that innovation moves beyond pilots and into sustainable clinical practice. 

Prof. Dr. Christian Dörr

Professor; Chair of Cybersecurity and Enterprise Security, Hasso Plattner Institute

• Professor of Cybersecurity and Enterprise Security at the Hasso Plattner Institute (Potsdam)
• Research focuses on situational awareness and threat assessments, detection of highly distributed attackers, cybercrime, security governance, and hybrid attacks
• Chair of the Potsdam Conference on National Cybersecurity
• Runs the Identity Leak Checker, one of the world’s largest platforms dedicated to the issue of identity theft 

Prof. Dr. Jessilyn Dunn

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke Biomedical Engineering

Jessilyn Dunn, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Duke University. She directs the BIG IDEAs Lab, which is focused on digital health innovation, wearable sensors, and the development and validation of AI-driven digital biomarkers. Dr. Dunn is the Principal Investigator of research initiatives funded by the NIH, NSF, and FDA which are developing digital biomarkers of conditions ranging from pre- and type 2 diabetes to influenza-like illness to Opioid Use Disorder. She sits on the Google Consumer Health Advisory Panel and is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award for her leadership and innovation across engineering and medicine. 

Florence Dupré

International Leader in Healthcare

Florence Dupré is leading companies and has dedicated her career to make medical, pharmaceutical, and/or technological innovations that improve healthcare efficiency more quickly accessible to the patients for whom they are indicated.  

Florence Dupré holds a master's degree in biology and biochemistry from the École Normale Supérieure ULM and a master's degree in marketing management from ESSEC. After contributing to numerous launches in international pharmaceutical laboratories, she embarked on more entrepreneurial roles by creating the French subsidiaries of BioAlliance Pharma (now Onxeo) and then Vifor Pharma, before joining Abbvie in an international commercial and transformation role. She then joined the French subsidiary of Medtronic, a world leader in healthcare technologies, where as president of the affiliate she changed the governance and trajectory of the company to get back to growth in a sustainable way.   

In 2023, she joined Dominique Pon at La Poste to implement the healthcare strategy, manage a portfolio of companies, and develop international healthcare activities as Global Healthcare Officer. La Poste Santé & as a trusted third party gathers 7 different business model companies in digital, human and data services. It reflects the desire to provide a comprehensive, sustainable, and responsible response to the growing needs of citizens and healthcare stakeholders, in a context of demographic aging and increased chronic pathology pressure on the healthcare system, based on a philosophy of trust, proximity, and public interest, which is at the heart of La Poste Group's DNA. 

In 2024 she founded Women for CEO : a parity by design  movement gathering 600 cross industry leaders personally committed to develop themselves toward a more inclusive and efficient leadership.

Prof. Dr. Bjoern Eskofier

Professor of AI-Supported Therapy Decisions, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Bjoern M. Eskofier (SM, IEEE) currently directs the Institute for AI in Medicine (I-AIM) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU). Until September 2025, he headed the Machine Learning and Data Analytics (MaD) Lab at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg (FAU). Bjoern also served as founding spokesperson of FAU’s Department Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering. Since April 2023, he is an associate principal investigator and leader of the research group “Translational Digital Health” at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munich.

Dr. Eskofier studied Electrical Engineering at FAU and graduated in 2006. He did his PhD in Biomechanics under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Benno Nigg at the University of Calgary (Canada). He authored more than 400 peer reviewed articles, holds 5 patents, started 3 spinoff startup companies, and is in a supporting role for further startups. He won several medical-technical research awards, including the “Curious Minds” award 2021 in “Life Sciences” by Manager Magazin and Merck and the “Unipreneurs” award 2023 from the German Minster of Education and Research and the Minister for Economy. In 2016, he was a visiting professor in Prof. Paolo Bonato’s Motion Analysis Lab at Harvard Medical School (February-March), in 2018, he was a visiting professor in Prof. “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group at MIT Media Lab (March-August), and in 2023 (April-August), he was a visiting professor in Prof. Scott Delp’s NMBL lab at Stanford University’s Schools of Engineering and Medicine.

Bjoern Eskofier has defined his research and entrepreneurial agenda to revolve around contributions to a “Digital Health Ecosystem”, where patients are connected to other stakeholders within the healthcare system using digital support tools. His digital health research philosophy is that only multidisciplinary teams of engineers, medical experts, industry representatives and entrepreneurs will have the tools to actually implement changes in healthcare.

Prof. Dr. Aldo Faisal

Director UKRI Centre AI for Healthcare at Imperial College & Chair in Digital Health, University of Bayreuth

Aldo Faisal is Professor of AI & Neuroscience at Imperial College London (since 2009) and Chair in Digital Health at Universität Bayreuth, Germany (since 2022). He held a 5-year UKRI Turing AI Fellowship and directs the £55m UKRI Centres in AI for Health—one of the world’s largest research and training programmes in medical AI. His textbook Mathematics for Machine Learning is an Amazon Global Top 10 in computer science, and he has co-created university and executive AI degrees across three countries to help bridge the global skills gaps. Internationally recognised as one of the first computer scientists leading clinical trials that translate AI from algorithms to the bedside, Aldo develops solutions unimaginable before AI—such as AI-driven discovery of digital biomarkers that de-risk drug development in rare disease (now commercialised through his spin-out Ethomix Ltd), and the AI Clinician, a breakthrough system for AI-driven intensive care treatments. 

Beyond research, he has actively shaped global AI policy and regulation, co-authoring white papers with governments and regulators. His expertise was recognised by the German Parliament, which appointed him as the first computer scientist to the German Ethics Council in 2024 and was appointed to the AI panel of the German Bundesärztekammer. 

He now spearheads Nightingale AI, an international effort to build the world’s first health foundation model, trained on millions of donated patient records and powered by Europe’s largest supercomputers. 

Dr. Jorge Fernández

Chief Innovation Officer, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona

Jorge defines and executes the innovation agenda at Hospital Clínic Barcelona, a top public tertiary hospital, among the top 30 in the world according to the Newsweek Rankings. According to Newsweek's ranking of the World's Best Specialized Hospitals, Clínic Barcelona ranks #8 in Obstetrics & Gynecology, #19 in Urology, #34 in Cardiac Surgery, and #35 in Cardiology worldwide. Jorge coordinates the innovation agenda at all the institutions that compose Campus Clínic Barcelona: Hospital Clínic Barcelona (a top public tertiary hospital), IDIBAPS (the research foundation), ISGlobal (the global health research foundation) and Mon Clínic (the private not-for-profit foundation). 

He also acts as Venture Partner at Nina Capital, a specialized venture capital firm investing exclusively in the intersection of healthcare and technology at the pre-seed and seed stages. As a venture partner, Jorge helps the firm identifying the right companies and then helping the founders of those portfolio companies with advice and connections. 

Previously, Jorge was Director of Innovation (portfolio of over 140 large-scale projects) and member of the Executive Management Board of EIT Health (Munich, 2018-2022), an independent official body of the European Union, mandated to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare and life sciences in Europe. He has extensive knowledge of healthcare systems in Europe, both from the providers' side as well as corporates, startups and investors. 

Jorge was Director of Digital Health at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona (2010-2018) and Director of d·HEALTH Barcelona (2012-2018), a Stanford Biodesign program where interdisciplinary teams experience a full cycle of innovation, from need identification in clinical settings through invention to early-stage implementation. 

Jorge is a founding member of the European Society for Artificial Intelligence in Health (ESIAH) and serves on its Executive Committee. He contributes to the Society’s establishment and early growth, supporting its mission to advance the responsible integration of AI into clinical practice, research, and health innovation.

Prof. Dr. Malene Fischer

Deputy Chief Executive and Research Director, Rigshospitalet

Malene Fischer is Deputy Chief Executive at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital. 

Malene is responsible for research, innovation and AI, mono-disiplinary and cross-diciplinary development and partnerships at Rigshospitalet. 

She is MD, PhD, Doctor of Medical Science, specialist in Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine and professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 

Davera Gabriel

Director of Client Success, Evidentli

Davera Gabriel is a globally recognized nurse informatician and semantic interoperability expert whose career spans clinical practice, translational research, and international health data standards development. She currently serves as Director of Client Success at Evidentli. Her prior institutional affiliations include Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), and the University of California, Davis Center for Health and Technology. 

Ms. Gabriel played a pivotal role in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), the largest HIPAA-compliant clinical research repository in history — where she helped build the interoperable data infrastructure that unified electronic health records from 80+ sites into a single AI-ready research platform, accelerating real-world evidence generation for COVID-19 at national scale. 

Currently, she co-leads the HL7 Vulcan FHIR-to-OMOP project, driving the first formal Implementation Guide for standardized transformations between the world's two dominant health data standards - work that reached HL7 ballot in 2025 and was nominated twice for an OHDSI Titan Award. As inaugural co-chair of the HL7 Terminology Services Management Group, she has shaped terminology governance and policy across the global standards community. 

Peer-elected as a Fellow of HL7 (FHL7) after 15+ years of sustained leadership in international standards development, and recognized as a Fellow of AMIA (FAMIA) for over a decade of demonstrated impact in applied informatics across clinical, research, and population health settings, Ms. Gabriel brings a rare combination of bedside nursing experience, deep technical expertise, and strategic vision for how interoperable data infrastructure can unlock the full potential of AI, precision medicine, and equitable digital health transformation worldwide.

Prof. Dr. Ishani Ganguli

Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Ishani Ganguli is an Associate Professor of Medicine, health services researcher, and practicing primary care physician at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research focuses on primary care payment, delivery, and policy; the use and consequences (cascades) of low-value care; innovation and tradeoffs in ambulatory care for older adults; and gender equity. Dr. Ganguli serves as an Associate Editor at JAMA Internal Medicine and as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Standing Committee on Primary Care. She is also a former journalist who has written about science and health care for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. She received her AB, MD, and MPH from Harvard University and completed internal medicine/primary care residency and a health policy and management fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Anne Sophie Geier

CEO, German Digital Healthcare Association (SVDGV)

Dr. Anne Sophie Geier is CEO of the German Digital Healthcare Association (SVDGV), representing leading companies in digital therapeutics (DiGA), telemedicine, prevention, and other digital care models within the statutory health system. In this role, she works at the intersection of innovation, regulation, and health policy to advance the integration of digital solutions into routine care.

Dr. Saira Ghafur

Co-Founder & CMO, Prova Health

Saira is the co-founder and chief medical officer at Prova Health (a company focussed on evidence generation in digital health). Saira is also the Digital Health Director at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London and an honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at Imperial College Healthcare Trust. At Imperial College, she has spearheaded the College’s work for healthcare cybersecurity and also leads work on evidence generation for digital health, the value of healthcare data and inequities in digital health.  

Saira is also the co-founder of a start-up called Psyma (mental health). Saira holds a MSc in Health Policy from Imperial and was also a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy and Practice in New York (2017). 

Pauline Gieseler

PhD student in the Department of Digital Health, Economics and Policy, Hasso Plattner Institute

Pauline Gieseler is a PhD student in the Department of Digital Health, Economics, and Policy at the Hasso Plattner Institute. Her research focuses on quality of life in neurological diseases, exploring the integration of medical computer science and patient-centered care to improve the patient experience for individuals with neurological conditions. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Medical Computer Science and graduated from the Digital Health Master from HPI.

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Glicksberg

Associate Professor, Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health

Benjamin Glicksberg, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health and the Founding Director of the Center for AI in Children’s Health at the Icahn School of Medicine. Formerly, he served on the leadership team as the VP and Head of Data Science and Machine Learning of Character Biosciences, a precision health drug development company. His research broadly uses machine learning on multi-modal and multi-omic patient data for personalizing medicine, for applications ranging from predictive modeling to drug discovery. Dr. Glicksberg received his Ph.D. from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and completed post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco. 

Bettina Goerner

Chief Data Officer, Eterno Health

Bettina Goerner is Chief Data Officer at ETERNO, leading data strategy for AI-powered clinical software in German healthcare. Previously CDO at Centogene, she built the data partnership function for multi-omics patient data. Before that, she ran a 450-person global data business at Springer Nature. 

A molecular biologist by training (Max Planck), Bettina advises PE/VC investors on healthcare data, cloud and compliance through her company Data Money Group. She has served as Non-Executive Director at Deepmatter and Advisory Board Member at Eagle Genomics.

Prof. Dr. Moritz Göldner

Institute Director, Technology and Innovation Management at TUHH

Moritz is an assistant professor for data-driven innovation at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). In his research Moritz aims to explore the intersection of innovation management, healthcare and engineering with a focus on data-driven innovation. One of his focus topics are digital health applications (DiGA) and their impact on the digital health care system in the future. Furthermore, he is studying the interactions of sustainability and healthcare and the data streams that connect the two. Lastly, he aims at further exploring how big dataset might help to design user-centric innovation in the future.  

Prior to his position at TUHH, Moritz was an innovation consultant for user-centric innovation in healthcare and a co-founder of Innovatinghealth.care. He is a biomedical engineer and innovation scholar with significant experience in developing digital and non-digital projects in the healthcare sector. His passion on this topic is rooted in his PhD-related research on patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals as user innovators with respect to their own unmet medical needs.

Dr. Anna Haas

Chief Commercial Officer, Oviva

Dr. Anna Haas is Chief Commercial Officer at Oviva, Europe’s leading provider of reimbursed digital therapies for obesity and related chronic conditions. She is responsible for Oviva’s country operations in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland, driving the company’s mission to make high-quality chronic care accessible at scale. Anna is also a board member of Germany’s National Association of Digital Health Care e.V.. She is a Biochemist by training with a PhD in HIV Immunobiology from ETH Zurich. Her business career started by working in consulting at McKinsey & Company and later in the pharmaceutical industry at Shire. 

Founded in 2014, Oviva combines behavioral science, clinical expertise, and modern technology to deliver effective, human-centred digital care. Its evidence-based approach has already supported more than one million people across Europe. At the forefront of digital health innovation, Oviva increasingly integrates AI to personalise treatment, enhance patient engagement, and strengthen preventive care within healthcare systems. 

Thomas Hagemeijer

Founder & CEO, HGM Advisory

Thomas Hagemeijer is the founder of HGM Advisory, a decentralized HealthTech consultancy that helps senior leaders drive healthcare innovation. As a business angel with Springboard Health Angels, Thomas invests in early-stage AI and HealthTech startups. He is also an ambassador for HLTH Europe, the leading HealthTech conference, and HBI, a conference on Private Equity in Healthcare. His LinkedIn posts on HealthTech and AI reach over 2 million people each year.

Prof. Dr. Lutz Hager

Professor for Healthcare Management, SRH Fernhochschule

Prof. Dr. Lutz Hager is professor for healthcare management at SRH Fernhochschule – The Distance Learning University. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the German Managed Care Association and as Vice-Chair of the Gesundheitsplattform Rhein-Neckar. He is a fellow of Sciana – The Health Leaders Network.  

From 2019-2021, he held a position as Managing Director of a group of ambulatory care practices; previously he served for eight years as Executive Director of regional payor IKK Südwest. He is a political scientist by training and holds a degree from Free University of Berlin and Sciences Po Paris. After his Ph.D. he spent six years with McKinsey&Co. as a consultant. 

Isabell Halletz

CEO, Employers' Association for Nursing Care e.V. (Arbeitgeberverband Pflege e.V.)

Since April 2016, Isabell Halletz is leading the Arbeitgeberverband Pflege e.V. (German Employers’ Association of Care Providers) in Berlin, Germany.

In May 2018 she initiated and co-founded the National Association of Foreign Nurses in Germany (BAGAP). When in comes to immigration of skilled professionals, the association has become an important partner for the federal ministries and local authorities. 

Ms. Halletz has been working in various positions in nursing and healthcare for 15 years now and shares her knowledge as an author and speaker at various conferences.

She was an appointed member of two working groups of the German government's Concerted Action on Nursing Care and is an appointed member for various committees and advisory boards at federal and state level, including the administrative board of the Employment Agency Aschaffenburg, the executive board of the German Federal Pension Insurance Fund, and the advisory board of the German Competence Center for International Skilled Workers (DKF).

Ms. Halletz is also a member of the supervisory board of Korian Deutschland GmbH. 

Prof. Dr. Neil Hawkins

Professor of Health Technology Assessment, University of Glasgow

Neil Hawkins is Professor of Health Technology Assessment at the University of Glagow, UK. Trained as a health economist and statistician, he works primarily in evidence synthesis and the development of cost-effectiveness models. More recently, he has developed a growing interest in qualitative methods. He is Vice Chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Diagnostics Advisory Committee (DAC) and a member of the NICE Medical Technologies Advisory Committee (MTAC). He previously served on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Neil also contributed to a NICE project to develop a new model for the evaluation and purchasing of antimicrobials in the UK. Neil is also a partner is a Health Economics Consultancy, Visible Analytics Ltd, which is based in Oxford in the UK. 

Dr. Steffen Heß

Head of Health Data Lab, Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArm)

Dr. Heß earned his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics before immersing himself in the world of data science. His scientific interest centered on pharmacoepidemiology and healthcare research using secondary data. In 2020, he assumed leadership of the Health Data Lab at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), where he plays a key role in establishing the center. Dr. Heß has extensive experience in combining scientific expertise with data analysis in the healthcare sector and is passionate about advancing innovative solutions to improve healthcare. His commitment to international collaborations—such as the Joint Action TEHDAS and the EHDS2 Pilot—and his contributions to the development of research infrastructures make him a highly respected expert in his field.

Michael Hübner

Managing Director, Sana Data Solutions

Michael has held various positions in the healthcare industry for more than 18 years. He is a qualified health economist (M.Sc.). Since November 2021, he has been a manager at Sana Kliniken AG, as a part of corporate development. In his role, he manages innovative digitization projects throughout the group and develops strategies and new business areas for the executive board. Since June 2025 he is CEO of Sana Data Solutions GmbH, which aims to make health data available for secondary use such as research. He also helps healthcare Start-ups succeed with their business models in the German healthcare market as a coach. Since November 2024 he is a member of the board for the health industry association sphin-x e.V. that aims to create a collaborative health data space in Germany. 

Before Sana Kliniken AG, Michael advised international healthcare organizations for KMPG and worked as a project lead for a digital health startup. Michael also has a successful entrepreneurial track record as a co-founder of a health insurance broker and has in-depth knowledge of the German healthcare system. 

Dr. Ben Illigens

CEO, Data4Life & Director of the Master's Program in Clinical Research, Dresden International University

Dr. M. W. Ben Illigens is a physician-scientist, educator, and healthtech executive, serving as CEO at Data4Life, a non-profit funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation. With academic affiliations at Harvard and Dresden International University, Dr. Illigens brings over 15 years of leadership in clinical research, real-world evidence, and digital health. He has overseen the design and execution of multinational clinical trials across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with a strong focus on integrating digital infrastructure for scalable, privacy-preserving data platforms. His work centers on advancing ethical, patient-centered ecosystems that drive global health innovation. 

Prof. Dr. Maria Margarete Karsten

Lead Senior Physician, Charité

Prof. Maria Karsten is a lead senior physician at the Charité Breast Center in Berlin, Germany. She is a Society of Surgical Oncology–trained breast surgeon and is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. She holds an MD and a Master’s degree in Social Work and trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Ludwig-Maxillians-University Munich. 

Prof. Karsten’s clinical and research work focuses on improving outcomes and quality of life for patients with breast cancer, with particular emphasis on patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Since joining Charité in 2016, she has developed and led the Breast Center’s PRO Program, which has been part of standard clinical care since 2017. 

She leads a research group at Charité and was principal investigator of the multicenter randomized controlled PRO-B trial, which demonstrated survival benefits as well as reductions in fatigue and pain, improvements in quality of life, and health economic benefits through alarm-based PRO monitoring. This work led to the founding of the ida startup, which will provide PRO monitoring as part of routine breast cancer care across Germany starting in 2026.

Prof. Dr. Jochen Klucken

Chair and Full Professor of Digital Medicine, University of Luxembourg

Prof. Dr. med. Jochen Klucken is a neurologist, neuroscientist, and full professor and Chair of Digital Medicine at the University of Luxembourg and the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg. His research focuses on I) shaping and innovating personalized digital healthcare solutions, II) evaluating the medico-socio-economic benefit of new digital medical devices and services, and III) assessing the societal impact of AI driven health technologies on patients with Parkinson disease, their healthcare professionals, related researchers, regulators, and policy makers. This implementation research approach targets all healthcare stakeholder needs: patient empowerment, healthcare provider quality, payers’ efficiency, social transformation, and acceptance, as well as regulatory and policy changes. With a broad interdisciplinary experience on health technology development and deployment he also supports start-ups, public and private clinical research requirements for innovative healthcare technologies, business cases, and sustainable data-driven healthcare services. 

Katja Kohfeld

State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Health

Born on July 18, 1968, in Hamburg.  

• In 1985, completed secondary school at Gymnasium Heidberg in Hamburg, then attended school in England.
• 1986, trained as a nurse, graduating in 1989.
• 1986 to 1992, worked in home nursing and clinical dialysis in Hamburg.
• From 1992, studied economics at the University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Politics in Hamburg, graduating as a graduate economist in 1996.
• 1996 to 1998, worked as a consultant in the AOK Federal Association for the hospital sector in Bonn.
• 1998 to 2003, consultant for the hospital sector at Techniker Krankenkasse in Hamburg.
• 2004 to 2006 and 2008 to 2010, consultant in the policy staff department at Techniker Krankenkasse in Berlin.
• 2006 to 2008 and from 2010 to 2015, consultant in the health working group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
• 2016 to 2019, Head of Department at the Federal Chancellery, responsible, among other things, for statutory health and long-term care insurance as well as European and international health policy.
• 2019 to 2025, Deputy Head of Department for Health Insurance at the Federal Ministry of Health.
• Since June 11, 2025, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health. 

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Kolstad

Professor, Founder, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

Jonathan Kolstad is the Henry J. Kaiser Chair at the Haas School of Business and a Professor in the Economics Department at UC Berkeley and the Computational Precision Health Department, which is jointly between UC Berkeley and UCSF. His research spans health economics, industrial organization, and the application of causal inference and machine learning to understand human behavior and to redesign system-wide decisions and care delivery. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Knit Health, where he leads the development of clinical intelligent AI that enables the healthcare system of the future by expanding access, improving patient experience, and advancing better health at scale. Kolstad previously founded Picwell and Healthpilot and advises a range of healthcare and life-science organizations. Kolstad received his PhD from Harvard University and BA from Stanford University.

Dr. Jochen Lennerz

Medical Director, CA, USA, Natera

Joe Lennerz, MD, PhD, MSc is Medical Director, Pathology Innovations at Natera, where he leads pathology strategy and innovation across molecular and AI-enabled diagnostic platforms. He is a molecular genetic pathologist focused on integrating genomics, digital pathology, and regulatory science into scalable clinical implementation. 

Dr. Lennerz previously held leadership roles at Massachusetts General Hospital and was Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, in addition to executive scientific leadership at BostonGene. He co-founded two FDA-recognized collaborative communities and advises the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on diagnostic policy and reimbursement strategy. 

He co-founded the Data for Health Initiative in collaboration with the German Federal Ministry of Health and is contributing to international policy efforts with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the development of a declaration for trustworthy AI in health. 

His work bridges clinical diagnostics, AI governance, and international health data policy to enable responsible innovation in precision medicine. 

Dr. Johanna Ludwig

Head of Staff Unit for Care, gematik GmbH

Dr. Johanna Ludwig is a board-certified specialist in orthopaedics and trauma surgery with many years of experience in acute and emergency clinical care. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford. Alongside her clinical work, she has been deeply involved in medical education, wrote a book and founded a start-up in medical education. 

She currently heads the Staff Unit of Care at gematik GmbH, where she combines her expertise in clinical care, digital health to radvance how digital healthcare services are delivered.

Betsabeh Madani-Hermann

Global Head of Research, Philips

Betsabeh Madani-Hermann is a global innovation leader known for speed of execution and turning bold ideas into market-shifting outcomes. In 2023 she became the first non-Dutch and first female head of research at Philips in the company’s 134-year history, where she leads breakthroughs translating advanced technology into real-world impact.

With a background in physics, biochemistry, and engineering, and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School, she brings more than 20 years of experience as an operator, investor, and strategist. Her career spans early-stage startups to $30 billion enterprises, across sectors from health care and biotech to AI, robotics, and cleantech. Sector-agnostic and global, Madani‑Hermann thrives on ambiguity, mobilizing cross-disciplinary teams to challenge limits and accelerate transformation. Her leadership blends systems thinking with a builder’s mindset, driving growth, aligning stakeholders, and scaling innovation across industries and geographies. 

Dr. Lars Masanneck

Clinical Scientist in Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf

Lars Masanneck, MD, MSc, is a clinician-scientist in neurology with a strong focus on digital medicine and translational research. He works at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, where he co-leads the working group “Digital Translation in Neurology.” His research integrates clinical neurology, digital biomarkers, and advanced data analytics, with a particular interest in neuroimmunological diseases. He holds a Master’s degree in Digital Health from the Hasso Plattner Institute, where he is a guest researcher in the working group of Ariel Stern. Since 2023, Lars Masanneck has served as Chair of the German Society for Digital Medicine. 

Dr. Henrik Matthies

Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Honic

Serial entrepreneur, former Managing Director of the health innovation hub of the German Federal Ministry of Health, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the digital health pioneer Mimi Hearing Technologies. Diploma from WHU Vallendar, Ph.D. from RWTH Aachen University.

Building with Honic the leading EU-sovereign, health data research platform to enable scientific research and health AI development at scale - but on EU laws and values.

Prof. Dr. Timo Minssen

Professor of Law, University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

Professor of Law at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH), specializing in Health & Life Science Innovation. He is the Director of UCPH's Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL). In 2025 he was appointed as the UNESCO Co-Chair in the “Right to Science”. He is also an Inter-CeBIL Research Affiliate at Harvard Law School and at the University of Cambridge, as well as an affiliate with the Centre of Genomics and Policy at MacGill University. His research & law firm practice concentrates on IP-, Competition & Regulatory Law in health and life science innovation, including AI, quantum technologies, ATMPs, medical devices, and emerging biotechnologies. His research comprises 9 books, and 240+ publications in law & science journals, such as in Science Magazine, JAMA, and in Nature, NEJM, and The Lancet journals. It has been featured in international media, such as The Economist, Financial Times, El Mundo, Politico, Times of India, WHO Bulletin & Times Higher Education. 

Timo holds a German law degree from the University of Göttingen, and biotech & IP -related LL.M. M.I.C.L., LL.Lic. and LL.D. degrees from Lund & Uppsala University. Previously he was an Epigenetics fellow at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, and a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich, the Universities of Cambridge & Oxford, Waseda Law School, Harvard Law School, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition, and at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Moreover, he has been trained in the German Court system, the European Patent Office, law firms & start-ups. Timo serves as an advisor to the WHO, WIPO, the EU Commission, companies, national governments, and law firms.  

At UCPH he leads several large interdisciplinary and international European/UK/US research projects on legal issues in emerging biotechnologies, precision medicine, antimicrobial resistance, pandemic preparedness, advanced computing (AI/quantum tech), & sustainable innovation. 

Dr. Mohit Misra

Co-founder and CEO, Mango Sciences

Dr. Misra is the Co-founder and CEO of Mango Sciences, an AI Cancer data company working across the ecosystem of drug development and access. He has 20 years of experience across all aspects of Healthcare, Life Sciences & Tech. Mohit is an ex-surgeon, trained health economist, ex top tier strategy consultant and most recently an investor at TPG's Evercare Health Fund – a $1B Impact Investment Fund, where he was managing investments in health tech, diagnostics and primary care. Prior to this he was Chief Medical Officer & Commercial VP of a Harvard ‘big data’ spin out called Aetion which exited in 2025 for $500M USD. Mohit was also member of the UK NICE Health Technology Assessment Committee which is similar to the FDA in the US for 6 years focused on oncology. He was voted top 50 global Health Tech CEOs of 2022. He obtained is Bachelors in Immunology and Medical Degree from King’s College London and his Master’s in Health Economics from the London School of Economics.

Dr. Mirja Mittermaier

Head of Research Group, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Dr. Mirja Mittermaier is a board-certified specialist in Internal Medicine with a focus on Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and a Digital Clinician Scientist at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). She leads the research group AI and Digital Health in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, where her work centers on developing interoperable, AI-ready clinical data infrastructures and translating artificial intelligence into patient-centered care.  

She studied Human Medicine at Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover) and completed her doctoral thesis at the Institute of Virology. Her international experience includes research stays at the University of Cambridge (UK) and Tongji University (China). She additionally holds a Master of Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School (USA).  

As a physician and trained biomedical informatician with a strong computational background, Dr. Mittermaier’s research explores how artificial intelligence can transform the understanding and management of complex respiratory diseases by decoding heterogeneous medical data into clinically actionable insights. A central focus of her work is semantic interoperability, enabling harmonized, standardized, and machine-interpretable data across systems, sectors, and countries as the foundation for trustworthy and reproducible AI systems. By integrating clinical expertise with computational innovation, she aims to bridge the gap between data streams and diagnosis, advancing interoperable AI-based decision support systems that empower physicians to make faster, more precise, and personalized decisions.  

Driven by a strong commitment to digital transformation in medicine, she actively shapes the responsible implementation of AI-based clinical decision support from within the medical profession, fostering robust, explainable, and translational AI systems for routine care. 

Alexandre Momeni

Partner, General Catalyst

Alex Momeni is a partner at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that partners with founders from seed through growth stages and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. At GC, Alex focuses on investments in enterprise and healthcare companies in Europe and all over the world. He is based in London.  

Prior to joining GC, Alex was a head of product strategy and operations at Nabla. Previously, he was an analyst at Goldman Sachs and a visiting research fellow at Stanford University. Alex is on the board of, or actively involved with, the following GC companies: Aidoc, Argmax, Doccla, Hippocratic AI, and Mistral. 

Alex graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a BS in Economics. He received a master’s degree in Management at HEC Paris and a master’s degree in Machine Learning at École Polytechnique.

Philipp Müller

Director-General "Digitalization and Innovation", German Federal Ministry of Health

Since January 2026, Philipp Müller has been leading the Department of Digitalization and Innovation at the Federal Ministry of Health. He has extensive professional experience in the field of digital transformation and has served, among other roles, as Managing Director of the Association for Digital Infrastructure (ANGA) and as Vodafone Foundation’s Head of European Digital Education Initiatives.

Prof. Dr. Kyle Myers

Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School (USA)

Kyle Myers is an Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. Professor Myers studies the economics of innovation, and his work is at the intersection of science and business. He is focused on making markets for new ideas more efficient.

Lucy Orr-Ewing

Director of Strategy and Policy, Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)

Lucy Orr-Ewing leads Policy, Strategy and Research for CHAI, driving state and federal health AI policy engagement and material development. Previously, she was a Harkness Fellow at Stanford Medicine and Chief of Staff for Technology Policy for NHS England.

Dr. Sofia Palmieri

Post-Doctoral Fellow in Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law, Harvard Law School

Sofia Palmieri is a postdoctoral researcher at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School. She holds a PhD in Health Law from the University of Ghent and graduated with honors in Law from the University of Bologna. 

Before joining Harvard, she was granted an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship within the Metamedica research group at Ghent University.

Sofia serves as Managing Editor of the European Journal of Health Law. She is also a core team member of AI4Health, a subgroup of AI4Belgium, and in 2024 she joined the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD) as Healthcare AI Policy and Compliance Officer. 

She is the founder and former co-chair of the Young Scholar Interest Group of the European Association of Health Law, and has co-led the Ethics and Law Group within HINT.gent. 

Her research sits at the intersection of law, ethics, artificial intelligence, and healthcare, focusing on the regulatory frameworks necessary for the safe, patient-centered, and evidence-based use of AI in medicine.

Dr. Jordi Piera Jiménez

Director, openEHR International

Dr. Jordi Piera Jiménez is Director of Digital Health Strategy at the Catalan Health Service, where he leads Catalonia's health system transformation initiatives. He serves as core architect for the WHO's Digital Public Infrastructure for Health and is an elected Board Member of openEHR International. 

A Fellow of both HIMSS and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, Jordi’s research focuses on the intersection of technical standards and real-world health system change. Key interests include the provision of digitally-enabled integrated care services, semantic interoperability across healthcare systems, the transition from vendor-specific data silos toward open platform architectures, and implementation research.  He holds editorial positions at JMIR and the Journal of Integrated Care, and is the PI for the DS3 research group. 

Sascha Platen

Country Lead Germany & Head of Consulting, Myneva GmbH

Sascha Platen is Country Lead Germany and Head of Consulting DACH at myneva. He is responsible for the delivery and scaling of digital transformation programs for care and social care organizations across Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland, working closely with international teams to develop scalable solutions for the European care market. 

For many years, Sascha has supported providers, facility groups, and care organizations in managing digital transformation. His focus is on the implementation of modern care documentation, process optimization, the use of AI and automation, and the establishment of delivery structures that remain stable and effective as organizations grow. 

Sascha understands the operational realities of the care sector. He works closely with executives and organizations on the ground, combining strategic perspective with practical execution. His approach is straightforward: digital solutions must reduce workload for staff, improve quality of care, and deliver measurable economic value. 

At a European level, he focuses on how digitalization can help address workforce shortages, rising demand, and increasing regulatory pressure. In his talks, he shares practical insights on scaling digital transformation in regulated environments and on which technologies create real impact in care today.

Dr. Anne Sophie Platzbecker

Head of Medical Innovation and Transformation, Medizinische Universität Lausitz – Carl Thiem

Dr. Anne Sophie Platzbecker is an internist, hematologist, and oncologist currently working as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the Digital Health Cluster of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam and as a Research Fellow at the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health in Dresden. In parallel, she serves as Head of Medical Innovation & Transformation at the Medizinische Universität Lausitz – Carl Thiem (MUL-CT). 

Previously, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the ARC Innovation Center of Sheba Medical Center in Israel and earned an MBA in Healthcare Innovation from Reichman University. Her work focuses on Hospital-at-Home, hybrid care models, and the digital transformation of healthcare systems.

Catherine Pollard

Director of Impact, Google Deepmind

Catherine Pollard is the Director of Impact at Google DeepMind. In this role, she helps shape how AI technologies can be applied to complex societal challenges, focusing particularly on life sciences, global health, climate change, and education. Her work is driven by a long-standing interest in how science and technology can deliver practical, long-term improvements to health and society globally. 

With a career spanning over 20 years, Catherine has navigated the intersection of health, technology, and biotech across both the public and private sectors. Before joining DeepMind, she served as the UK Head of R&D for Moderna. There, she oversaw a 10-year strategic investment plan and supported tech-driven improvements in clinical trial delivery. Previously, as Director of Tech Policy for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, she helped guide the digital transformation of the UK's health and social care systems. Her public sector work included oversight of the citizen-facing NHS App and establishing programmes to safely harness health data for research. 

Catherine's earlier background includes strategic delivery roles within the NHS, as well as time spent as an analyst at McKinsey & Company. She holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MA from University College London. 

Prof. Dr. med. Akira Poncette

Head of Research Group Clinical Implementation Science in Digital Health, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Institute of Medical Informatics

Prof. Dr. med. Akira Poncette is Professor of Clinical Implementation Science in Digital Health and Deputy Director of the Institute of Medical Informatics at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. As a board-certified anesthesiologist with a background in medical informatics, he combines clinical experience with technological expertise.  

Since 2021, he has led the research group Intelligent Patient Monitoring (IPAM), and since 2024, additionally the group Clinical Implementation Science in Digital Health (CIDH). He is an alumnus of the Charité BIH Digital Clinician Scientist Program funded by the DFG.  

His research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of digital technologies for vital sign monitoring, AI-documentation, telemedicine, as well as on the digital transformation of clinical care processes. Within IPAM, his work centers on next-generation alarm management. In CIDH, he advances and applies implementation science methods to ensure the sustainable integration of digital innovations into clinical practice.  

As Associate CMIO at Charité, he is responsible for the domains of monitoring and medical technology. He is also the initiator of the interdisciplinary format Patient Monitoring Roundtable, which brings together clinical challenges, research perspectives, and digital innovation in patient monitoring and digital health through participatory dialogue.  

His vision is to help shape hospitals as learning health systems. Systems in which science, technology, incentives, and culture are aligned to enable continuous improvement, with best practices embedded in care delivery and new knowledge generated as an integral by-product of routine care. 

Prof. Dr. Vishnu Ravi

Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine; Lead Architect for Digital Health, Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign; Stanford ARISE Network

Dr. Vishnu Ravi is a practicing physician, software engineer, and clinical informaticist creating transformative digital health solutions. As the technical architect of Stanford Medicine's flagship innovation program, he has designed and implemented digital platforms for Parkinson's care, cardiovascular disease management, and precision pharmacogenomics, enabling more personalized patient care. At Stanford's Mussallem Center for Biodesign, Vishnu leads digital health initiatives in education, research, and translation. He created frameworks for modular, standards-based digital health solutions adopted at Stanford and by leading institutions worldwide and teaches courses bringing interdisciplinary teams together to build real-world digital health solutions. Vishnu is also instrumental in integrating AI into Stanford's medical curriculum and serves as Director of Technology for ARISE, a Stanford-Harvard research network evaluating clinical AI's real-world performance. Alongside his technology work, Vishnu maintains his clinical practice as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford, providing comprehensive primary care to a diverse patient population.

Thomas Renner

Head of Directorate "New Technologies, Data and Research", German Federal Ministry of Health

Since 2019 Thomas Renner Head of the Directorate “New Technologies, Data and Research” in the German Federal Ministry of Health.  

He is responsible at the ministry for issues related to data availability and data usage in healthcare, for questions of interoperability, for new technologies such as AI, and for matters concerning the transfer of innovations into the healthcare system. 

Before he was Head of the Division “General Aspects of Health Policy, Financing and Statistics” for several years. Prior to his work at the Federal Ministry of Health Thomas Renner worked for the International Labour Organization in Geneva and for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. He holds a degree in economics and studied at the University of Regensburg and the University of Bonn. 

Dr. Sandra Ruggles

Director, Policy Research, Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign

Sandra Ruggles leads Policy Research at Stanford Biodesign, at the intersection of innovation, reimbursement, and regulatory policy. Her recent work focuses on pathways for novel medical technologies, including AI-enabled devices, to achieve market access and coverage. She is also President of Summit Rock Strategy Consulting, a boutique firm that works with companies developing disruptive healthcare technologies. Sandra brings expertise in designing market research strategies, capturing and synthesizing physician input, and guiding commercial and portfolio strategy for both emerging and established medtech firms. Sandra was named a Top Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review and holds over 20 patents across domains, including therapeutic proteins and consumer medical devices. She earned her PhD in biophysics from UCSF and is an alumna of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship.

Marek Rydzewski

Deputy Chairman of the Board, AOK Nordost

Member of the Board at AOK Nordost, the health insurance fund, since November 1, 2025. Since January 1, 2026, Deputy Chairman of the Board there. 
 
Since 2004, he has held various leadership positions in today’s AOK Nordost in the areas of customer service, sales, insurance, and care management. From 2021 to 2025, he was Chief Digital Officer at BARMER, responsible for digital strategy. 
 
In addition, Marek Rydzewski is committed to German-Polish cooperation in cross-border healthcare.

Prof. Dr. Lipika Samal

Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Lipika Samal, M.D., M.P.H. is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and a Principal Investigator in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). She is a practicing Internal Medicine primary care physician. She is the Lead for Research for the Mass General Brigham Enterprise-wide Epic and Clinical Systems group, as well as Medical Director of Research for the primary care practices of BWH. The main focus of her research is developing and evaluating clinical decision support tools to help primary care physicians to improve quality and safety of chronic disease management. Currently, the majority of her time is devoted to research on clinical decision support in the area of chronic kidney disease. Her research has been funded by federal agencies including NIH, AHRQ, and PCORI, as well as the Moore Foundation. She is Board-certified in Clinical Informatics. She is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. She is co-Editor-in Chief of the Applied Clinical Informatics Open Access journal.

Shireen Saxena

VP External Affairs and Chief of Staff, Ada Health

Shireen Saxena is the Chief of Staff and VP External Affairs at Ada Health, the global AI-powered symptom assessment and care navigation platform focused on accelerating time to diagnosis and treatment. She is a seasoned healthcare leader with more than 15 years of experience in care system redesign, payment reform, health policy, and clinical AI/tech. She has worked with state and federal governments, providers, foundations, and life sciences companies across the US, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on business development, strategy, and implementation. Shireen holds a BA in psychology from Barnard College of Columbia University and MSc in international public health and gender studies from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Carsten Schicker

CEO, World Health Summit

Mr. Schicker is the CEO of the World Health Summit, the leading international platform for global health. Since 2009, the World Health Summit has been bringing together stakeholders from all sectors worldwide to shape the agenda for a healthier future and well-being for all. 

In his previous role, Mr. Schicker served as Chief Strategy Officer at Bauer Media Group, a family-owned company operating in 11 countries with over 15,000 employees and a legacy spanning 140 years. His leadership fueled the group's evolution from a publishing powerhouse to a diversified multi-business entity. 

With an extensive background in strategy and finance, M. Schicker held key management positions at Bertelsmann, a global media, services, and education conglomerate operating in nearly 50 countries. A lawyer and journalist by training, Mr. Schicker began his career journey as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Dr. Paul Schmiedmayer

Lead Artificial Intelligence Assistant and Director Digital Health, Stanford Mussalem Center for Biodesign

Dr. Schmiedmayer is the Lead Artificial Intelligence and Assistant Director of Digital Health at Stanford University’s Mussallem Center for Biodesign. As a researcher at the intersection of AI, medicine, and software engineering, his work explores novel approaches to developing scalable, patient-centered platforms that harness AI and connected devices to deliver real-time, personalized health insights. His research addresses a critical gap by creating and investigating methodologies in healthcare software engineering, focusing on scalable platforms that enhance patient access to healthcare. 

Dr. Schmiedmayer's research addresses these challenges by developing scalable, intelligent, data-driven systems that leverage patient data and connected devices to provide real-time, personalized healthcare. He aims to validate these solutions by deploying AI-based models on resource-constrained, patient-facing devices, such as smartphones and smart devices, ensuring that personalized medicine is both cost-effective and privacy-preserving. The research's long-term goal is to create closed-loop systems that seamlessly integrate cutting-edge AI research with clinical practice, leveraging software and hardware integrations to identify novel digital biomarkers and making healthcare personalized, scalable, equitable, and accessible to all. 

You can learn more about Dr. Schmiedmayer's research projects at https://profiles.stanford.edu/schmiedmayer.

Caroline Schmutte

Senior Advisor, Delivery Associates

Caroline Schmutte is an experienced Senior Advisor committed to supporting private, social, and public organizations in maximizing their impact. She serves as Senior Advisor for Delivery Associates, a global consultancy that works with governments and mission-driven organizations to implement with maximum results. In addition, Caroline advises a range of organizations in global health strategy, policy, and innovation. She chairs the Supervisory Board of Save the Children Germany and is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

With over twenty years of experience in the private and social sectors, Caroline has worked with leading figures in global health philanthropy, multilateral organizations, and management consulting. Caroline established Berlin Global Dialogue, a global summit on geoeconomics, and spent a decade working for the world’s largest philanthropic organizations in global health.  She was Head of Europe at the Wellcome Trust and previously led the German office of the Gates Foundation. Earlier in her career, Caroline was a Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank Group and an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where she led projects in healthcare, pharmaceutical innovation, sustainability, and public sector strategy.  

Caroline holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Spanish from Dartmouth College. 

Nick Schneider

Head of Division "New technologies, secondary data use and ethics in healthcare", German Federal Ministry of Health

Nick Schneider leads the division on new technologies, secondary data use and ethics in healthcare at the German Federal Ministry of Health and is a passionate advocate for the European Health Data Space (EHDS), secure access to health data for the improvement of research, healthcare and technological development as well as trustworthy AI for the benefit of EU citizens.  

In recent years, his team has played a key role in putting secondary use of health data on the agenda of the German Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2020, and in leading the negotiations for the EHDS and national legislation on secure and data protection-friendly access to health data at federal level. The National Health Data Use Act (GDNG), which came into force in spring 2024, paves the way for the EHDS and easier use of health data for health research and development in Germany.  

He was born and raised in Latin America and studied medicine in Heidelberg. After working in health policy for the European Medical Students' Association (EMSA) and the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) in Brussels, as well as several years of research and research management at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), he joined the Federal Ministry of Health in 2011, where he inter alia coordinated the negotiations on the EU General Data Protection Regulation and its implementation in health law at federal level. 

Prof. Dr. Stefan Scholtes

Professor of Health Management, University of Cambridge

Stefan Scholtes is Director of the Cambridge Centre for Health Leadership & Enterprise and holds the Dennis Gillings Professorship in Health Management at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on business model innovation in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on scalability and governance. He chairs the board of the largest primary care practice in the East of England and works closely with organisations across the English NHS, as well as with Intermountain Health in the United States. 

Guido Schwartze

Innovation Manager, UKSH Gesellschaft für IT-Services mbH

Guido entered the healthcare sector in January 2025 after a life between operational roles in industry and consulting corporates in strategy and innovation. Winning two healthcare hackathons triggered his motivation to finally drive innovation in this sector not only by transferring industry standards and procedures but also by addressing challenges specific to the health care sector. He is responsible for the development / implementation of three digital products at UKSH with the Health Data Dock being the most prominent as it will bridge the gap between data and ideas. If you are in for some energetic exchange get in touch and find experience crossed with forward thinking and leadership. 

Igor Schwarzmann

Founder, Explicit Protocol

Igor Schwarzmann is an advisor working at the intersection of culture and technology. He designs systems and narratives for what’s next. For 20 years, he has operated across industries and categories, advising brands, institutions, and NGOs across Europe, the US, and Asia. In 2022, the strategic design studio he co-founded was acquired. He is currently in the process of co-founding a new venture focused on sovereignty and AI. 

Dr. Mohammed Seyam

Project Officer, International Alliance for Diabetes Action

Mohammed Seyam is a medical doctor and PhD candidate at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) within the Digital Health cluster. His work focuses on integrating noncommunicable disease (NCD) care into humanitarian preparedness and response, with particular attention to continuity of diabetes and other chronic disease care in fragile and conflict-affected settings. 

He works across evidence synthesis, global health policy translation, and operational guidance development, collaborating with international partners, including the World Health Organization and the International Alliance for Diabetes Action, to strengthen health-system readiness and service delivery under constraint. He has worked on system mapping, vulnerability assessment, and the design of response protocols to inform more equitable NCD programming in emergencies. His writing and speaking engage themes of health equity, access to essential care, and health justice in crisis contexts, and the role of digital innovation in enabling resilient chronic care models.

Prof. Dr. Carmel Shachar

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health Law and Policy Clinic at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School (CHLPI). Ms. Shachar focuses her scholarship on law and health policy, in particular the regulation of access to care for vulnerable individuals, the use of telehealth and digital health products, and the application of public health ethics to real world questions. Her work has been published in leading health and law journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and she has been interviewed by major media outlets, such as BBC News, Politico, CNN, and Slate. She has co-edited several books, including “Innovation and Protection: The Future of Medical Device Regulation,” “Consumer Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies,” “Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics,” “Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States,” and “COVID-19 and the Law.” She also has authored amicus briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court on health care and access to care issues. Previously, Ms. Shachar was the Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Doreen Soeder

Head of Compliance, PRRC, Tiplu GmbH

Doreen Soeder is a compliance and regulatory expert specializing in European digital and medical device regulation. She focuses on helping organizations navigate complex regulatory environments while building structures that support innovation, quality, and sustainable growth.

At Tiplu, a healthcare software company, she serves as Head of Compliance and PRRC. In this role, she develops integrated management systems and supports the organization in preparing for evolving European regulations such as the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and the AI Act.

Alongside her role at Tiplu, she works independently with highly regulated companies on EU regulatory strategy, compliance frameworks, and organizational readiness for regulated markets. Her approach is to make regulation clear, practical, and empowering, helping teams use regulatory frameworks as a driver for quality, trust, and innovation.

Isabelle Sonnenfeld

Founder, Explicit Protocol

Isabelle Sonnenfeld is a technology leader and strategic advisor with 15 years’ experience in building ecosystems at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. As Twitter's first employee in Germany and Head of News Lab EMEA at Google, she has spent her career turning technological innovation into real-world impact. She is currently co-founding an AI venture at the intersection of institutional knowledge and AI sovereignty. 

Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider

Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Prof. Dr. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider has served as Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information since September 2024. Previously, she was Chair of Civil Law, Data Economy, Data Protection, Digitization, and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bonn. She directed the Institute for Commercial and Business Law and the Center for Medical Data Usability and Translation (ZMDT). She contributed to founding the national Data Institute under the leadership of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI) and serves on the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Innovation and Competition. She is the author of numerous publications, including on data protection law, and editor-in-chief of the journal Künstliche Intelligenz und Recht. 

Dr. Alberta Spreafico

Senior Vice President of Health Innovation, EVERSANA

Alberta Spreafico is a global health innovation pioneer with 15 years of experience advancing digital health policy and systemic innovation strategies. She has co-founded and led international development programmes integrating digital technologies across health systems in both high- and low-income settings, contributing to NASA’s Benefits to Humanity programme and UN expert initiatives. As SVP of Health Innovation at EVERSANA, she drives end-to-end innovation initiatives — from co-ideation and development, to go-to-market and system readiness. Alberta is also the Founding President of the Innovation for Global Health Institute (I4GHI), advices Governmental Institutions on Digital Health policies, health technology assessment, reimbursement and systemic value models for integrating Digital and AI-driven innovations. Alberta is a TEDx speaker on enhancing access to quality care worldwide, serves on the EHDS HealthData@EU Board, founded and Directs the Digital Health Policy Summit at Frontiers Health. Working at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, she is also an Academic Fellow in the Government, Health and Not for Profit Division at SDA Bocconi School of Management and Adjunct Professor of Policy and Economics at the University of Pavia.

Prof. Dr. Ariel Stern

Alexander von Humboldt Professor; Chair of Digital Health, Economics & Policy, Hasso Plattner Institute

Melpomeni Styliadou

VP Global Program Leader – Health Data Partnerships, Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG

Meni is leading a Takeda Global Program to build sustainable health data partnerships to unleash the power of data and digital for the benefit of patients, science and society. Meni is also the Founder and Project Leader of the H2O, a public private partnership among 23 organizations funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The goal of the H2O is to equip patients with digital tools to monitor their outcomes in a standardized manner while being in control of their data.   

Meni is a lawyer specialized in anti-trust law. She has started her career in the European Commission working on telecoms and competition law and has spent most of her career in public policy, both in the public and private sectors.   

Prof. Dr. Maja Thiele

Chief Scientific Officer, Evido.health

I work to reduce morbidity and mortality from steatotic liver disease by developing and implementing biomarkers for early detection of individuals at highest risk of significant fibrosis and liver-related events. My focus is on translating best-practice biomarker science into clinically actionable medical devices that improve risk stratification, screening strategies and opportunities for timely pharmaceutical interventions. 

Before assuming the role of Chief Scientific Officer at Evido.health in 2026, I served as Professor of Hepatology at the University of Southern Denmark, where I pioneered the development and validation of imaging- and blood-based non-invasive tests for fibrosis detection and prognostication. I contributed to European, American and international guidelines on the diagnosis and risk stratification of steatotic liver disease and cirrhosis, and held leadership roles in multiple pan-European research consortia and scientific organizations, advancing the field of biomarker-driven hepatology.  

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1854-1924 

Dr. Yiannos Tolias

Legal Lead AI and AI Liability in Healthcare, European Commission (DG SANTE)

Yiannos is the legal lead on AI and AI liability in Healthcare in the DG for Health and Food Safety at the European Commission. He is also part of the team that developed the European Health Data Space (EHDS) legislative initiative and a member of the EC teams that contributed to the development of the AI Act and Product Liability Directive. He was a Senior Emile Noel Fellow at NYU Law School carrying out research on AI in medicine and law. Prior to joining the European Commission, he was an Assistant Professor of EU law at the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee. He holds a Ph.D. in EU Constitutional law from the University of Edinburgh, and he was later a Post-doctoral Research Fellow.

Dr. Guy Tsafnat

Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Evidentli

Tsafnat is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded 11 tech companies since 1997. He also held research fellowships at the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University, where he is an Adjunct Fellow at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation. A prominent figure in evidence production automation, he also co-founded the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR) 10 years ago, uniting experts from over 20 countries in the mission to accelerate the generation of medical evidence.  

He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works. His contributions are recognized through roles as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), and as a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health and Associate Fellow of Sigma Xi (ΣΞ). His work aims to make healthcare more effective and efficient by advancing evidence-based medicine through technology. 

Dr. Robin van Kessel

Hoffmann Fellow of LSE Health and the World Economic Forum, London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr. Robin van Kessel is the Hoffmann Fellow of LSE Health and the World Economic Forum. At the LSE, he co-founded and leads the AI and Digital Unit focusing on the regulation, implementation, and evaluation of digital health and AI technologies. He holds a PhD in Comparative Health Policy from Maastricht University. His research portfolio focuses on the intersection of digital health and artificial intelligence, and health systems, policies, and inequalities. His work is published in leading medical and health policy journals such as npj Digital Medicine, The Lancet Digital Health, The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, and The BMJ. He is listed in the 2025 Stanford–Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List in medical informatics, underscoring the impact of his research in digital health and AI.

Dr. Paul von Bünau

CEO, idalab

Dr. Paul von Bünau is Managing Director (CEO) of idalab, a Berlin-based consulting company for artificial intelligence in life science and healthcare. Since 2013, he has supported numerous biotech, medical device and pharma companies in Europe and the US. A mathematician by training, Paul’s focus today is on strategic advice for AI in healthcare, from innovation to implementation. Paul holds a Ph.D. in machine learning from TU Berlin and teaches AI strategy at the European University Viadrina.

Damian Washington

Patient Advocate, NoStressMS

Damian Washington is a Paris based patient advocate living with multiple sclerosis. He leads NoStressMS, a YouTube channel built to help people with MS feel seen, heard, and understood through clear, practical education. He has produced 300+ videos that translate MS symptoms, treatments, and daily self management into simple language patients can use right away. 

With 10+ years of experience in communications, editorial work, and digital media production, Damian brings a patient centered lens to health storytelling. He collaborates with clinicians, patient organizations, and industry teams on education and engagement projects designed to reduce confusion, support informed conversations, and improve the everyday care experience. A global video campaign he led reached 37,000 views and helped amplify the resilience and needs of the MS community. 

Damian also contributes his lived experience in advisory settings and conference conversations, including moderating and chairing sessions at ECTRIMS 2024 in Copenhagen focused on how benefit and risk are discussed in MS care. 

Topic focus: Patient empowerment through simple digital tools that help people notice subtle change, reduce cognitive load, and show up prepared for shared decision making.

Nicolas X. Weber

Head of Innovation & Activation, Novartis Germany

Nicolas X. Weber is Head of Innovation & Activation at Novartis Germany and part of the country leadership team, where he leads the company’s AI strategy. With 20 years of experience across the pharmaceutical and digital industries in Europe and North America, he focuses on transforming healthcare systems through data, technology, and new partnership models.  

At Novartis, Nicolas works on strategic collaborations with healthcare providers, innovative care models, and the use of health data and AI to improve patient outcomes and system efficiency.   

His career includes senior general management and commercial leadership roles at Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, Eli Lilly, and Novartis. He has also founded and exited two IT startups. Nicolas began his career at the World Economic Forum and holds degrees from IMD Business School and the University of Geneva.

Dr. Sievert Weiss

Co-Founder & Medical Director, AMBOSS

Dr. Sievert Weiss is a physician turned self-taught med-ed-tech entrepreneur known for his insatiable curiosity in exploring innovative ways to enhance healthcare. Serving as the co-founder and Director of Medical of AMBOSS since June 2011, he has played a pivotal role in revolutionizing the transfer of medical knowledge to the point of care. AMBOSS, under his co-leadership, has become a cornerstone for over two million medical professionals worldwide, providing instant, up-to-date information for efficient, evidence-based healthcare. 

Apart from his role at AMBOSS, Dr. Weiss is an active angel investor in healthcare and education tech startups. His educational background includes a thesis on a molecular biology topic, training in anesthesia and psychiatry, and a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. 

Prof. Dr. Lothar Wieler

Coordinator of the Digital Health Cluster; Chair of Digital Global Public Health, Hasso Plattner Institute

Isabelle Zablit-Schmitz

CEO & International Digital Health Advisor, Clavesis

Isabelle Zablit-Schmitz is an international Advisor in Digital Health, working from strategy to implementation of Tech and AI-driven initiatives, on EU coordination and governance. Her moto is “no trust no use” while improving our health systems and care delivery, and her action targets unlocking barriers, driving efficiency, ensuring respect of values and taking a pragmatic approach. She worked for the French Ministry of Health, driving international digital health cooperation initiatives with a focus on strategy and ethics. Isabelle managed major European and international partnerships and projects, including EHDS negotiation for France. She founded 2 companies in the digital health space after where she held executive roles in finance, consulting in business process reengineering and outsourcing, IT outsourcing and business development at IBM, PwC, Tenneco Automotive, and LafargeHolcim.  

She is a certified Board Member, and her experience includes board positions at DIGITALEUROPE, Numeum, IHEST, in digital health startups and in a social care institution.  

She has always devoted time to teaching, more recently at Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, INSP, in different universities and schools in France and in Belgium. 

Dr. Aydin Zahedivash

Clinical Informatics Fellow Physician, Clinical Informatics Lead & Clinical Advisor (Biodesign Digital Health Group), Stanford University

Aydin is a physician, educator, and innovator whose interests lie at the intersection of technology, health equity, and children’s health. Aydin completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and went on to complete an MD and MBA at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and McCombs School of Business. He has over 10 years of experience in the medical technology space, having contributed as a researcher, mentor, inventor, and consultant in both the academic and private industry settings. He is a project coach and part of the teaching team within the Biodesign Digital Health Group and is leading a study exploring the role of wearable devices for arrhythmia event monitors in children. He is currently a clinical informatics fellow and is passionate about designing digital solutions to integrate and distribute access to care. 

Susanne Zweyer

Commercial Innovation & Market Access Lead, Roche Diagnostics

Susanne Zweyer is Market Access Lead for Digital Health and the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolics (CVRM) portfolio at Roche Diagnostics, and Co-Lead for Strategy & Business Model Innovation EMEA-LatAm. She leads cross-sector and cross-industry flagship initiatives focused on translating AI-driven innovation from the laboratory into clinical practice and scalable healthcare business models. With more than 15 years at Roche, Susanne has held senior roles across marketing, pricing, and market access at local, regional, and global levels, shaping pathways for diagnostic and digital innovation to reach patients and healthcare systems. Prior to joining Roche, she worked in Public & Government Affairs at Novo Nordisk and Sales at Merck. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics, postgraduate qualifications in Health Economics and Pharmacoeconomics, and an MBA from Munich Business School.