Takafumi Atarashi is the President of Open Medical Consulting/AKT Consulting Group K.K. After graduating from KEIO University. Takeda experienced MR, marketing, overseas sales, afterwards MBA were acquired in Ashridge, City University in UK, and he was Director of Marketing Division at Roche, BD, Mylan and B+M. He established Open Medical Consulting (OMC) in 2011, and as President of AKT Consulting Group K.K., currently consults life science companies and healthcare organizations using IT technology

Primary Healthcare

Professor Macdonald came to Western Sydney University in 1996 he had taught Primary Health Care in Manchester and Bristol universities in the UK as well as in French at INSERM in Paris. He worked in Zambia for ten years, and has worked for shorter periods of time in many countries, such as Nicaragua, Chile, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong. He has been on three occasions a consultant to the World Health Organisation in Geneva, most recently in January- February of 2016. He was a consultant to the Male Health Policy of Australia (2010).

He is committed to the social determinants of health, applied also to men and boys. He is a leader of men’s health not only in Australia but overseas and has been an invited speaker on men’s health in many countries.

Ronald Dwinnells, M.D. MBA earned his medical degree from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 1983 and his MBA from George Washington University in 2000. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio North East Health Systems, Inc. Located in northeast Ohio. He is the President, Chair and Founder of Butterflies and Hope Memorial Foundation supporting improvements in behavioral and mental health problems.

Primary Healthcare and Primary Care Medicine

Dr Rachel Nissanholtz-Gannot is a lawyer and serves as the head of the department of Health System Management at Ariel University. She is also a researcher at Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem. Her fields of interests are law, health and medical ethics. Her studies include issues, such as: Implementation of the Dying Patient Law; Physician – Pharma Relationship; Quality Indicators in Primary Health System; Changing Role of Community Nurses. The current study was published and Rachel is planning to continue another research on this issue.

Her fields of interests are law, health and medical ethics. Her studies include issues, such as: Implementation of the Dying Patient Law; Physician – Pharma Relationship; Quality Indicators in Primary Health System; Changing Role of Community Nurses.

Dr. Sunil Kumar Joshi is a physician (MD) with post graduate degrees in Occupational Medicine, Diabetology, and PhD in Public Health.

Occupational health and safety, Environmental health, Diabetes, Violence against Women, Injuries, violence and disability control and prevention

Valerie Sloby is Managing Director at PC Healthcare Communications Inc. – an organization with expertise in health and wellness communications. Specialized in communications theory and practice along with working in medical marketing for more than 20 years, Valerie’s experience involves designing, strategizing, and delivering patient-centered care initiatives. Valerie is also a Visiting Lecturer in marketing ,using live and online learning methods, at the University of Western Ontario, and she holds a Master’s degree in communications theory.

Valerie and her team provide strategic counsel, development, and delivery of engaging continuing medical education services in the healthcare arena.

Mustafa Z. Younis was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Research of Healthcare Financial Management and is an Editorial Board member or manuscript reviewer for several national and international journals. As an internationally recognized scholar, Dr Younis has authored and published over 100 articles and abstracts in refereed journals, and has presented at national and international conferences. He has administrative experience as Senior Advisor for the President at Zirve University, Turkey and as Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Florida International University (FL, USA) where he led the accreditation efforts for the Healthcare Management Program. He has collaborated with faculties from the School of Medicine at Jena University (Jena, Germany), as well as those from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. He served with the American University of Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon) and the World Bank training workshops for health sector reforms in the Middle East, which involved training health administrators from several Middle Eastern countries.

His present and future research activities focus on issues related to disparities and access in healthcare, cancer centres, long-term care and nursing homes; capital structure and debt financing for hospitals and healthcare organizations; examination of quality and efficiency in the healthcare sector; hospital mergers, conversions and changes of ownership; and hospital profitability.

I graduated in medicine from Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain. I was trained as a family physician and completed the Arab Board and Irish Board in family medicine. I have practiced as a Consultant Family Physician in Bahrain. I have also graduated from Arabian Gulf University with a Master degree in Health Policy and Population Studies. I joined RCSI- Bahrain in 2008 and in 2014 I was awarded a PhD degree in General Practice from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The title of my PhD was: Quality of life of Bahraini women with breast cancer. In 2015 I have completed a one year program in Global Clinical Scholars Research Training at Harvard medical school-Harvard University. This year I graduated from the health education profession Diploma program at RCSI. I have published many articles in International peer reviewed journals and presented in many international and local conferences. In 2014 I was featured in Gulf Air magazine as the writer of the health page.

My research interests are child and women health, breast cancer, non communicable diseases and evidence based medicine.

Dr. Alfoteih holds a PhD in Environmental Biology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He did his post-doctoral research at Newcastle University, Institute of cellular and medical sciences. Dr. Alfoteih worked across a number of universities in Syria and UAE as an Assistant Professor. He has also worked as a Consultant in industry. Dr. Yassen has published in many international journals, and has presented and chaired sessions at national and international conferences. He is serving now as the chair of the school of public health and health sciences at Canadian university Dubai.

Dr. Alfoteih’s research interests are in Environmental science, Epidemiology, and microbiology and water quality.

Dr. Stefane Kabene is a result oriented Leader, Scholar and Entrepreneur in the fields of Healthcare and education. He is the holder of an undergrad degree from France, a Doctorate from Canada and of post-doctoral studies in the US. He prides himself of having a Protean Career. He always chose challenge over low uncertainty, problem solving over solution management. His international and cross cultural experience, expertise and international network help him in developing and managing both local programs and global strategic partnerships and alliances. A team player, he believes that people working together, with respect for each other, accomplish great things.

His expertise and research lie in the field on strategic management and leadership in Education, Business and Healthcare.

Ahmed Husain Ebrahim is currently working as Head of Rehabilitation in Bahrain’s Ministry of Health.His qualitative study related to Singapore’s medical tourism experience comes at a time when some of destinations in the Gulf region (like Dubai & Bahrain) are seriously working towards medical tourism as a diversification strategy for economic growth. He has found that Singapore’s experience is inspiring and offers many valuable lessons necessary for optimizing strategic decisions related to the development of medical tourism sector. Further, this study has driven him to conduct a quantitative research aimed at investigating the strategic priorities significant for exploiting Bahrain’s medical tourism potential. This has evidently reinforced his conclusive statement that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy to address the question of competitiveness in the area of medical tourism development.

His main subject areas of interest and professional expertise encompass quality of life, strategic management in healthcare, and medical tourism development.

Dr. Kinda Khalaf received her B.S. (Summa Cum Laude with Distinction) and M.S. (Honors) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University, USA. Her Ph.D., also from OSU, is in Biomechanics/Computational Biomechanics, specializing in Biomaterials, and Dynamic modeling and control. Dr. Khalaf has held faculty appointments in Engineering and Medicine at several prestigious universities including the University of Miami and the American University of Beirut, and currently serves as associate chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. She has numerous publications in the areas of Orthopedic Biomechanics, Computational Biomechanics, biomaterials, and neuromusculoskeletal modeling and control. Dr. Khalaf is on the list of International Who Is Who of Professionals. She has been awarded various awards and honors including the prestigious National Merit Scholar. She is a member of many professional organizations and sits on the board of several respected journals in her field.

Dr. Kinda Khalaf has main research interest on the study of the human neuromusculoskeletal system, particularly focusing on quantitative assessment of human movement and performance, biomechanical modeling, and movement simulation and control. Teaching interests encompass biomechanics, orthopedic biomechanics, computational biomechanics, soft and hard tissue biomaterials, biological systems modeling, robotics, biomedical devices, technologies, and mechanical design.

Muhammad Mukhtar is Professor in the Department of Biotechnology and Chairman of the Department. Prior to his arrival at AURAK he was serving as Vice Chancellor/Professor of three Universities in Pakistan concomitantly a unique honor for any academic leader. Dr. Mukhtar received his Master and M.Phil in the field of Biochemistry from Pakistan and PhD in biosciences from the Drexel University of Philadelphia, USA. He served at various academic/administrative positions in the USA on an outstanding scientist (O-1) visa. Professor Mukhtar laboratory developed an in-vitro model of human blood-brain barrier to study viral neuropathogenesis, and with Dr. Mukhtar as Principal or Co-Investigator, has received several awards from organizations including American Diabetes Association, American Society for Microbiology, Diabetes Trust Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Furthermore, human blood brain barrier developed in his laboratory is extensively used to understand ferrying of viruses into the brain and finding cures for neurological ailments.

Dr. Mukhtar holds specialized Certificates in Research Management, Public Health, and Bioinformatics. Committed to the role of technology in biomedical research, he serves as managing editor of Frontiers in Bioscience and is on the editorial board of several research journals. He serves as a role model of a fine researcher, scientist, teacher and administrator for young committed professionals aspiring to excel in their practical life. He has several research publications, including peer-reviewed research, review articles, invited articles, book chapters, commissioned articles and critiques to his credit. Dr. Mukhtar foresee AURAK as hub of science and technology in the Gulf region. He believes in team efforts and striving to develop this department as leader in biotechnology education and translational research in the days ahead.