Lancet Commission on Cancer And Health Systems

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Perú; University of Washington,  Tulane University, USA; Former Minister of Health, Peru

Dr. Patricia J. García, better known as Patty, is a Professor at the School of Public Health at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru. She is the former Minister of Health of Peru, Dean of the School of Public Health at UPCH, and former Chief of the Peruvian National Institute of Health. Patricia is recognized as a leader in global health. Patricia has been member of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Foundation Technical Advisory Group, board member of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health and President of the Latin American Association Against STDs. She is an affiliate professor of the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington and of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University.

Patricia is actively involved in research and training in global health, reproductive health, STI/HIV, HPV and medical informatics. She has been recently appointed as a member of the United States National Academy of Medicine, becoming the first Peruvian professional with such a distinction. Patricia was introduced to the Trustees by Margot Gill and Angélica Natera. She brings to the Board another connection to Harvard University, important connections to universities in the U.S., and to strong allies in Washington, D.C., and Peru which is one of Laspau’s focus countries. Patricia joined the Board of Trustees in 2018.

Princess Margaret Cancer Center; University of Toronto, Canada Past President, UICC/Union for International Cancer Control

Born in Gdansk, Poland, Mary Gospodarowicz, trained at the University of Toronto where she specialized in internal medicine, medical oncology, and radiation oncology. Mary Gospodarowicz is the University Professor at the University of Toronto and past Chair of Radiation Oncology. She recently completed a 15-year term as medical director of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Regional Vice-President of Cancer Care Ontario.

Dr. Gospodarowicz is the author of more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, with research interests in clinical trials in lymphomas and genitourinary cancers, precision radiotherapy, cancer staging and outcomes of cancer treatment, and global access to radiotherapy. More recently she has been engaged in building global cancer partnerships. Her numerous roles at the provincial, national, and international levels have included several scientific advisory boards, President of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology, and President of the Union for International Cancer Control, and Board member of the City Cancer Challenge Foundation. She chairs the cancer staging and prognostic factors project at the UICC. Among her honors are an Honorary Fellowship of the U.K. Royal College of Radiologists, Gold Medal from the American Society of Radiation Oncology, American Radium Society Janeway Medal, O. Harold Warwick Prize from Canadian Cancer Society, Gray Medal from the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU), and Officer of the Order of Canada. 

University College London, UK 

Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (MBBS, MSc, DPH, FFPH, FRCP, FRCPE, FMedSci) is Dean Designate, University College London (UCL) Faculty of Population Health Science and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health (until 1 August 2021). He is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and NIHR Senior Investigator. Over the last three decades, Dr. Abubakar’s career has spanned leadership roles in clinical, academic, and public service work. Prior to his appointment at UCL, he was head of TB at Public Health England where he led the UK government’s successful strategy to control TB and was Professor in Health Protection at the Norwich Medical School, Norwich, UK.

Dr. Abubakar qualified in medicine in 1992 and initially trained in general medicine. He undertook postgraduate training at LSHTM and the University of Cambridge. Dr. Abubakar is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh, the UK Faculty of Public Health, and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He is Chair of Lancet Nigeria Commission, Lancet Migration initiative, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline group on diabetes, and the Wellcome Trust Population Health Expert review group. Dr. Abubakar was chair of the World Health Organization’s main advisory group on Tuberculosis until 2019.

Over the last year, he served as Scientific Adviser to the UK House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee – Science of COVID-19 Review and as Scientific and Technical Adviser to the Nigerian Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19. He has an established multi-million pound research programme in infectious diseases and global health, and has published over 300 research papers, policy reports, book chapters and textbooks in infectious disease epidemiology and migrant health.

University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Former Minister of Health, Nigeria

Dr. Adewole is a gynae-oncologist, the immediate past Minister of Health, Nigeria, former Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and former President of Africa Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC). He is a former Secretary General and President of National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) and a past Secretary-General of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Isaac had served on several national and international organizational Boards and programs on research and policy for cancer control. Further, he has led several research works on prevention, diagnosis and capacity building on cervical cancer in Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa. Isaac has more than 230 publications that are largely on sexual and reproductive health and rights, abortion, HIV, Human Papillomavirus and cervical cancer. He is the co-founder of African Cancer Coalition (ACC) and currently involved with the review of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Harmonized Cancer Treatment Guidelines for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Isaac is a sexual health advocate, particularly promoting safe sexual and reproductive health among adolescents and young adults. He is currently serving on the Board of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) as well as the Steering Committee of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Market Access Initiative. Isaac also is a member of the International Taskforce on Elimination of Cervical Cancer in the Commonwealth. He is Patron of Boys Brigade and a community man offering professional service to under privileged girls and women through his Isaac Folorunso Adewole Foundation (IFAF).

Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association, Kenya

Dr. Zipporah Ali is the Executive Director of Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association. She is a board member of several organizations including Alzheimer/Dementia Kenya, Kenya Network of Cancer Organizations (KENCO), City Cancer Challenge and Public Health Palliative Care International. Dr. Ali is a strong advocate for pain relief and palliative care across all ages. In her leadership role as the Executive Director for KEHPCA, she has been instrumental in fostering strong relationships with the Ministry of Health-Kenya to integrate palliative care into government hospitals. She also has been instrumental in advocating for palliative care to be integrated in undergraduate medical and nursing schools in Kenya and is keen in development of research in palliative care in Kenya. Dr. Ali is a recipient of several global awards, including:

• British Council Alumni Award for Social Impact for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region (2018)
• International Humanitarian Award; Women For Africa (2018)
• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws-University of Dundee- 2018
• Individual Advocacy Award for commitment to palliative provision care in Africa (awarded by African Palliative Care Association and Open Society Foundations)- 2013
• Honorary Doctor of University, Oxford Brookes University, UK
• Internationally acclaimed contribution to palliative care in Africa
• APCA award for contribution and commitment to palliative care in Africa- 2007

University of West Indies (Emeritus), Jamaica; Pan American Health Organization (Emeritus), USA

Sir George Alleyne, a native of Barbados, graduated in medicine from the University College of the West Indies in 1957 as gold medalist of his class. He began his academic career pursuing research in the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit for his Doctorate in Medicine from the University of London. Sir George was appointed Professor of Medicine in the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 1972 and Chair of the Department of Medicine in 1976. He joined the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1981, became Assistant Director in 1990 and Director on 1 February 1995 and after re-election in 1998, completed a second four-year term on 31 January 2003. In 2003, Sir George was elected Director Emeritus. From February 2003 until December 2010, he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. From 2003 to 2017, he was Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and a visiting professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University also from 2003 to 2017. He is now Chancellor Emeritus.

Mainly from his period in academia, Sir George has over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals as well as numerous scientific abstracts and conference presentations dealing with problems of renal physiology and biochemistry and clinical medicine. During his term as Director of PAHO and subsequently, he has dealt mainly with issues of health policy. Sir George has given several named lectures, many speeches and presentations in international fora on issues such as equity in health, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases, and the basis for international cooperation in health. He has addressed the complexity of the interaction between health and development on several occasions and has been actively involved with several aspects of Caribbean health and the problems the region faces. He has been a member of numerous international committees, working groups and Boards dealing with the issues noted above.

Sir George has received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including honorary degrees, prestigious decorations from many countries of the Americas and national and international honors. In 1990, he was made Knight Bachelor by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Medicine. In 2001, he was awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community, the highest honor that can be conferred on a Caribbean national.

Sir George is married to Sylvan Chen and they have three children.

City Cancer Challenge Foundation, Australia; University of Melbourne, Australia; Past President, UICC/Union for International Cancer Control

Professor Sanchia Aranda has worked in cancer control for more than 40 years, most recently as CEO of Cancer Council Australia (2015-2020). She has held prior roles in healthcare, government, and tertiary education and across the spectrum from prevention, through treatment and palliative care. For the last 28 years Sanchia has worked in international cancer control, with16 years on the board of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, including 4 as President (2006-2010). She was President of the Union for International Cancer Control (2016-2018) serving on the Board for 8 years. She is the inaugural Board Chair for the City Cancer Challenge Foundation and served on the Advisory Council for Cancer Australia for 8 years until 2015. Her contributions to cancer control have been recognized nationally and internationally, most recently through being awarded the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Tom Reeve Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cancer Care in 2020 and in 2013 she was named the 4th Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Distinguished Fellow for her contributions to Cancer Nursing. She was recently appointed Board Chair for Scope Australia, the largest Victorian provider of NDIS services. Sanchia is also a board director of The NSW Dust Diseases Authority and the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting. Sanchia holds a part-time appointment as a Professor of Health Services Research at The University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Harvard University, USA

Dr. Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University. From 2008-12, he was a member of the Executive Management Team of the Global Fund as Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation where he chaired the panel that oversaw annual investments of ~US$4 billion each year.

In 2006-2013, Dr. Atun was a Professor of International Health Management at Imperial College London and Head of the Health Management Group. He is a visiting professor at University of Kyoto, Japan. He has been involved with new ventures in biotechnology, health technology and health IT as an investor, founder, and director.

Dr. Atun’s research focuses on health system transformation and innovation. He has published more than 400 articles in leading journals, including NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Academy of Management Journal, Lancet Oncology, and Lancet Global Health. He has led and participated in more than 10 Lancet Commissions. In 2020, he was recognized by Web of Science, Clarivate as one of the World’s Highly Cited Researchers.

Dr. Atun has advised many governments, the World Bank, the WHO, and leading companies. He served as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine Committee on Health Systems. Dr. Atun also served on the Advisory Boards of the WHO Research Centre for Health Development in Japan and the Norwegian Research Council’s Programme for Global Health Research. He Chaired the STOP TB Partnership Coordinating Board in 2009-2011 and was as a member of the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Group. In 2013-19, he was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Editors, Disease Control Priorities 3. In 2019-20, he was a senior advisor to the G20 Presidency. Dr. Atun is a member of the Longitude Prize Committee, the largest science prize in the world.

Purdue University, USA

Afsan Bhadelia, PhD, MS (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in Global Health at Purdue University. She has nearly two decades of experience in global health and systems analysis, particularly from an equity lens and towards the development of value-based health systems. She focuses on developing new methodologies and metrics at the convergence of public health, complexity science, public policy, ethics, and economics to examine social and structural determinants of health, including those related to chronic diseases (using cancer and palliative care as tracers) and from a gender perspective. Her justice-oriented research seeks to align healthcare with societal values. 

Dr. Bhadelia is a member of multiple Lancet Commissions, including the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death and the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems. She co-chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. She is Visiting Scholar at the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas and a former Fulbright Scholar.

University of Malaya, Malaysia

Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy works as an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, and practices as a public health physician in University Malaya Medical Centre, Malaysia. She is also a visiting scholar at Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom since 2014.

Dr. Bhoo Pathy’s career is focused on optimizing life after cancer through research and advocacy, with a special interest in the state of cancer control in the low- and middle-income countries, and enhancing treatment outcomes and patient-centered outcomes in these settings.

Notably, Dr. Bhoo Pathy was the principal investigator of phase III of the Asean CosTs In ONcology (ACTION) study, comprising close to 10,000 cancer patients from eight low-and middle-income member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN). The study has been crucial in providing country-specific evidence for Southeast Asian nations to prioritize policies and develop local solutions to reduce the financial loss and premature deaths associated with cancer.

Dr. Bhoo-Pathy is also a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Women and Cancer since 2020. Besides her involvement in the Lancet Commissions, she is a member of the Covid-19 and Cancer Taskforce, a globally representative group of cancer leaders who are gravely concerned that decisions made under the duress of the pandemic will have momentous consequences for cancer mortality for years to come https://covidcancertaskforce.org/

Nirmala Bhoo Pathy graduated as a medical doctor from University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2001. Following completion of her master’s degree in Public Health with distinction in 2008, she was awarded a fellowship by the European Commission, under which she completed a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology with cum laude, followed by a PhD (cancer epidemiology) from University of Utrecht, Netherlands in 2011.

University of Cape Town, South Africa

Lynette Denny is a gynecologic oncologist and has been working in the field of cervical cancer prevention since 1995, in collaboration with colleagues from Columbia University in New York. The collaboration began with the intention of evaluating alternative strategies for the prevention of cervical cancer in low resource settings. Cervical cancer was and remains the most common cancer diagnosed among women living in poor countries, due to the failure to either initiate or sustain cytology-based screening programs. The group pioneered the search for alternative protocols for the prevention of cervical cancer in community-based research sites in townships just outside of Cape Town. 

Since that time, Dr. Denny has had extensive research experience in cervical cancer prevention, including three cross-sectional studies comparing different screening tests (such as HPV testing and VIA to cytology) and a randomized controlled trial of over 6,500 women using HPV testing, VIA and delayed treatment in the three-armed trial. Women with positive tests were treated with cryotherapy and followed up for 6 monthly for 36 months, and all underwent HIV testing and cervigram photograph. This study used histopathology as the endpoint, which was performed on all participants. In addition, we performed a prophylactic HPV vaccine trial (with bivalent vaccine) in HIV positive women and a therapeutic vaccine trial in HPV negative women. We participated in a three-country trial of HPV genotyping in women with invasive cervical cancer (other centres were in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria). We are currently engaged in an NCI-funded trial evaluating screen and treat with the HPV Xpert Cepheid HPV test. Dr. Denny works as a clinician in all aspects of Gynaecology Oncology and was appointed the director of the SA Medical Research Council Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre, with 5 years of guaranteed funding (which has recently been renewed for a further three years).

University of Toronto, Canada; The George Institute for Global Health, India 

Dr. Essue is an Associate Professor of Global Health in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is a global health systems researcher and health economist who leads interdisciplinary research focused on strengthening financial risk protection, supporting effective and equitable priority setting and advancing equity and gender equality in health systems. Dr. Essue’s research tackles some of the most pressing issues facing global health and is conducted across multiple low-, middle- and high-income countries. She has led work for key global health initiatives including the Disease Control Priorities initiative and Lancet taskforce on noncommunicable diseases. Dr. Essue was previously a scientific advisor to the Global Tobacco Economics Consortium, an initiative focused on increasing the uptake and use of fiscal policies to advance tobacco control and cancer prevention in India, Mexico, and Colombia.

In her previous role as the senior health economist at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, a pan-Canadian health organization that provides stewardship for, and leadership on, cancer control in Canada, she oversaw a portfolio that provided strategic advice and direction to support evidence informed decision making for the cancer control system. Dr. Essue is currently a scientific advisor to the Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and the World Bank Health Longevity Initiative. She has been recognized on the 2020 list of Canadian Women in Global Health.

University of Miami, USA; Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México; Former Minister of Health, México

Julio Frenk is the President of the University of Miami since August 2015. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, as Professor of Health Sector Management and Policy at the Miami Business School, Professor of Sociology at the College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Nursing and Health Studies at the School of Nursing and Health Studies. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Frenk served for nearly seven years as the Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There, Dr. Frenk pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured persons. He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. 

Dr. Frenk also served as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions. His scholarly production that includes over 180 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited over 23,000 times. In addition, he has written three best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body. Dr. Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico, and El Colegio Nacional. He holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a Master of Public Health and a joint Ph.D. in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Dr. Frenk has received honorary degrees from ten universities.

University of Los Andes, Colombia; Former Minister of Health and Social Protection, Colombia

Alejandro Gaviria completed his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the Antioquia School of Engineering (Universidad EIA). He also has a master’s degree in Economics from Universidad de los Andes and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. 

Formerly, Alejandro Gaviria was an Associate Professor at Universidad de los Andes. After having served as Dean of the School of Economics at Los Andes for six years, he was nominated by former President Santos as Colombia’s Minister of Health and Social Protection, a role which he occupied from 2012 until 2018. After his time working in the national government, he returned to the UniAndes campus as Director of the Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America, until he was elected President of Universidad de los Andes for a four-year period in August 2019.

Alejandro Gaviria has had a broad career as a researcher, professor, and civil servant. In addition to teaching at Universidad de los Andes, he has taught at Universidad del Rosario and most recently, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Outside of academia, he has worked as the subdirector of the National Planning Department and Fedesarrollo, as a researcher for the Inter-American Development Bank and the National Federation of Coffee Growers, and as a consultant for the World Bank. Alejandro Gaviria has written several books, has been a columnist for El Espectador newspaper, and a panelist for the Hora 20 program on the Caracol radio station in Bogotá. 

In 2005, he was awarded the Juan Luis Londoño Medal by the Foundation for Research and Technology Promotion for his research’s contributions to creating positive social impact for the Colombian public. In 2009, Alejandro Gaviria won the Simón Bolívar journalism award for the best opinion article, and in 2010, Portafolio named him the best Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the country. In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Boyacá, which is the highest recognition that the Colombian government awards to distinguished citizens for services to the country. 

One of his most outstanding publications is Assault on Development: Violence in Latin America, a book written during his time at the Inter-American Development Bank, in co-authorship with Juan Luis Londoño and Rodrigo Guerrero. His most recent books include Who Goes Up and Down: Education and Social Mobility in Colombia; At Least We Have the Words; and Today is Still Forever.

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA

Dr. David Jaffray was named the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s first-ever chief technology and digital officer in 2019. In this role, Dr. Jaffray directs the strategic design, acquisition, management and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure to safeguard the integrity and availability of the institution’s systems and intellectual property assets. He also holds a faculty appointment as professor of Radiation Physics with a joint appointment in Imaging Physics. 

University of Toronto, Canada

Dr. Jha is the University of Toronto Endowed Professor in Disease Control at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the founding executive director of the Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR) at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Professor Jha is a lead investigator of the Million Death Study (MDS) in India, which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over 2 million homes from 1997-2014, including the contribution of key risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol. The MDS has transformed disease control in India, and identified reliably the major causes of avoidable death, spurring action on tobacco and infectious disease. 

Dr. Jha is the author of several influential publications on tobacco control, including two that helped enable a global treaty on tobacco control, now signed by over 160 countries. He is an editor for Disease Control Priorities 3, which examines solutions to major global health challenges, including of the Cancer and HIV, STI, Tuberculosis and Malaria Volumes. He also is a senior editor of eLife, an open-source biomedical science journal. Dr. Jha publishes widely on cause of death statistics, disease control, tobacco control and economics. 

Prior to founding CGHR, Professor Jha served as senior scientist for the World Health Organization, where he co-led the work on health and poverty for the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Earlier, he headed the World Bank team responsible for developing the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Program and the National Malaria Control Program, both in India. His advisory work includes the Government of South Africa on its national health insurance plan, the United States Institute of Medicine on global health, and on the board of University of Toronto Schools. 

Dr. Jha’s notable recognitions include Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2013), Officer of the Order of Canada for services to global health and epidemiology (2012), Luther Terry Award for Research on Tobacco Control (2012), The Globe and Mail 25 Transformational Canadians (2010), Top 40 Canadians under Age 40 (2004), and the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2004). Professor Jha holds an MD from the University of Manitoba and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, China

Dr. Ji is Professor of gastrointestinal surgery and President of Peking University Cancer Hospital/School of Oncology & Beijing Institute for Cancer Research. He also is Director of Key Laboratory in “Malignancy Pathogenesis and Translational Research,” Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Ji is a world-renowned surgeon and scientist in gastrointestinal oncology, as well as an experienced healthcare administrator and a leading figure in cancer prevention and control. He and his team have pioneered a multitude of breakthroughs in surgical techniques, professional training, and policy-making reform. Their seminal efforts have led to higher accessibility and quality of health care and contributed to a dramatic increase in patient survival rate. 

During Dr. Ji’s presidency, Peking University Cancer Hospital conducted the largest, decades-long interventional field study of 200,000 population, which has unveiled a variety of environmental and life-style risk factors of gastric cancer and continues to provide valuable evidence for global cancer control policymaking. Dr. Ji’s presidency in the International Gastric Cancer Association established the global consensus and standards on gastric cancer intervention, promoting standardization and equalization of cancer care across the globe. 

As the Vice President of China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare, Dr. Ji standardized gastrectomy, while his training programs around the world have sculpted over ten thousand surgeons. With the vision of delivering the best cancer care through collaborative learning and partnership, Dr. Ji led the establishment of the China Precision Cancer Care Consortium with the top-tier cancer hospitals working together in cancer research and training. To continually improve patient survival, he also formed the national surgical quality initiative, which now covers over 350,000 patients in China. As a member of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of China, Dr. Ji is committed to integrating research findings with clinical practice, and in turn, contributing to the steering of China’s health, medical, and even environmental policy reform.

Kazakh Research Institute of Oncology and Radiology, Kazakhstan

Dr. Kaidarova graduated from the Almaty State Medical Institute (ASMI) with honors and entered the clinical residency of the ASMI with a degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1992, she joined the Gynecology Department at the Almaty City Oncology Center, and since 1999, she has been the Head of the Gynecology Department. In 2006, Dr. Kaidarova was appointed head physician of the Almaty Cancer Center and the Chief oncologist of the Almaty Health Department. In 2012, Dr. Kaidarova was elected a corresponding member of the NAS (National Academy of Sciences) of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and in 2017, appointed Academician of the NAS of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Since 2002, she is a professor in the Department of Oncology of KazNMU (Kazakh National Medical University) named after S.D. Asfendiyarov. 

In May 2016, Dr. Kaidarova was appointed Director of the Kazakh Institute of Oncology and Radiology (KazIOR). Working in cancer care for 27 years, she is passionate about patients and cancer research. For the first time, a woman, a doctor, scientist, teacher, leads the entire cancer service of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Since 2009, Dr. Kaidarova has been actively involved in the work of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). She also is a board member of the Association for Directors of Institutes of Oncology and Radiology, CIS & Eurasia (ADIOR), member of IGCS, ESMO, ASCO, and ECEAO. 

For the last 10 years, oncology care in Kazakhstan developing fast. In 2018 the Government adopted the National Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, with allocated an additional budget of 100 million euros for molecular genetic testing, implementing targeted therapy and immunotherapy drugs, free imaging for patients with suspected cancer, and access to best cancer care for all. Under Dr. Kaidarova’s leadership, a Cancer Control Plan was created by experts from KazIOR. Further, Kazakhstan is the only country among CIS countries that introduced three the nationwide cancer-screening programs fully covered by the State Budget. 

In 2008, Dr. Kaidarova initiated the “Together Against Cancer” Public Fund with the aim of involving all stratum of the Kazakhstan’s society in the fight against cancer, attracting charity to the support of cancer patients, as well as incorporating palliative care in the context of medical care in country. To provide better connections, she is promoting collaboration between KazIOR and leading cancer centers in CIS, Europe, and the U.S. Dr. Kaidarova has authored more than 120 printed scientific works, including four monographs, three textbooks, and two statistical collections.

Harvard University, USA

Nancy Keating, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research examines provider, patient, and health system factors that influence the delivery of high-quality care for individuals with cancer. Dr. Keating currently serves as Clinical Lead of the CMS Oncology Care Model Evaluation Team, in which she and her team are using rigorous methods to assess the effects of this alternative model of paying for and delivering systemic therapy to individuals with cancer. In other work, she is assessing the reliability and feasibility of measures of the quality of oncology care. In newly funded work, she is examining the impact of vertical integration of oncology practices on oncology care delivery. 

Dr. Keating’s research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (with continuous funding as principal investigator since 2003), the American Cancer Society, Komen for the Cure, Arnold Ventures, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and others. She is an associate editor at the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology, and a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Center Senior Oncology Guideline Panel. She completed 3-year terms on the Council of the Society of General Internal Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. Dr. Keating received her M.D. from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and her M.P.H. from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine; Hacettepe University Cancer Institute, Turkey; Past President, UICC/Union for International Cancer Control

Tezer Kutluk graduated from Hacettepe University Medical School Ankara-Turkey in third rank among graduates in 1981. Postdoctoral fellow and Fulbright scholar at MD Anderson Cancer Center USA (1992-94). Member of SIOP, ASCO, AACR, AAP, International Children’s Center, UNICEF National Committee. He had served as a leading healthcare executive at Hacettepe University; Vice-Director of Children’s Hospital (1997-1998), the Director of Oncology Hospital (1999-2007), Director of Children’s Hospital (2000-2007) and President of Institute of Child Health (2000-2004), President of Institute of Oncology (2004-2008), Board Member of Institute for Health Sciences (2000-2007), Member of Senate (2000-2011) & CEO of Hacettepe University Hospitals (2008-2011). 

He also has a long term experience on NGO management; “UICC-International Union for Cancer Control - Board Member – Geneva - Switzerland (2008 - 2012)” “President of Turkish Association for Cancer Research and Control, Ankara-Turkey (2004-2012)”, “President of European Cancer Leagues-ECL – Brussels-Belgium (2009-2011)”, “President of Turkish National Pediatric Society (2009-2012)”, “President of Turkish Pediatric Oncology Group (2011-2013)”. Chair of Turkish UNICEF national committee (2014-still) His experience on healthcare management during the last 15 years brought him to the top of the Hacettepe University Hospitals as CEO between 2008-2011. He is named as honorary fellow of by American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP) in May 2014. He was the President of “UICC, Union for International Cancer Control, Geneva-Switzerland” for the term of 2014-2016. He was the NCD Alliance Board Member (Geneva-Switzerland) in 2017-2019. He is the chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Hacettepe University Oncology Hospital. 

He is invited to give a 10 minutes speech at the opening session on United Nations General Assembly for high level review of non-communicable disease in July 2014 to speak on behalf of civil society. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Global Oncology published by ASCO. His main interests are global oncology, global health, pediatric cancers, child health, health care management.

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami, USA

Dr. Gilberto Lopes is medical director for international programs and associate director for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, interim chief of the medical oncology division, and professor of clinical medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He currently serves in the board of directors for the Union International for Cancer Control and as Editor-in-Chief for the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s JCO Global Oncology. Dr. Lopes completed medical school at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and residency in internal medicine, chief residency and hematology and medical oncology fellowship at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital in the United States. He was assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University and senior consultant and associate director for clinical research at the Johns Hopkins Singapore International Medical Center and served as Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for the Oncoclinicas group, the largest oncology provider in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. 

Dr. Lopes has published more than 200 papers and book chapters in journals, such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, Nature Reviews, Lancet, Lancet Oncology and Health Affairs. In addition to delivering lectures around the world, he has been principal, co-Principal Investigator, or steering committee member in more than 150 studies and clinical trials covering breast, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and thoracic cancers. His other main areas of research interest are disparities, health economics, value, policy and access to cancer drugs and care in low- and middle-income countries.

Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica; Former President, Social Security Institution (CCSS), Costa Rica; Former Minister of Health, Costa Rica

Dr. María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal is a Costa Rican doctor from La Salle University, Mexico, D. F., and a public health specialist. She is the former Executive President of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (2014-2017), as well as the former Minister of Health of Costa Rica and Coordinator of the Social Council (2002-2006). Dr. Madrigal is a member of the PAHO/WHO Health Emergencies Response Team, with an emphasis on Central America, with main functions related to support and assistance in the restoration of basic health services, including water, sanitation and primary health care, and its corresponding evaluation. 

Dr. Madrigal is a is a professor of health promotion and in the master’s degree in public health at the University of Costa Rica. She coordinates the Patient Navigation Project, the Permanent Forum on Cancer in Women in Costa Rica, and the research project on Primary Health Care. Being the first female Minister of Health and Executive President of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund has allowed Dr. Madrigal to consolidate a leadership based on public health and advocate for the role of the State in Universal Health Coverage. It also has helped her to visualize the roles that the various social actors can play, especially the role of the NGO groups with which she is currently working, as President of the Latin American Alliance for Global Health (ALASAG) and the Network for Health Equity in the Americas (HENA / RAES). Dr. Madrigal has published 42 technical articles and 16 scientific articles, most of them related to health promotion, health policy and health systems.

King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan

Dr. Mansour has served as CEO and Director General of Jordan’s King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC), the largest standalone comprehensive cancer center in the Middle East, since 2012. In this role, he leads over three thousand staff members, including four hundred oncologists and consultants in executing KHCC’s vision to provide the highest quality care to cancer patients throughout the region.

Dr. Mansour’s affiliation with KHCC dates to 1998, when he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, and subsequently led the department to become one of the most advanced diagnostic imaging facilities in the Kingdom, with highly qualified staff and state-of-the-art machinery.

In 2006, he became KHCC’s Deputy Director General and was promoted in early 2012 to be the Center's Director General and the Executive Chairman of the Jordan Breast Cancer Program (JBCP), a national program concerned with activating early detection of breast cancer by improving the quality of services provided across Jordan. Dr. Mansour brought an impressive depth of his experience while leading the nursing and the quality management teams, as KHCC became one of the ten most elite international hospitals, and the first Oncology Specialized Center outside of USA to be earning the prestigious Magnet® distinction from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) in 2019. During his leadership, KHCC also became an AHAARP (Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs) fully accredited academic institution in 2019, placing it as one of the top performing research institutions across the Middle East. A renowned certified Diagnostic Radiologist with a subspecialty fellowship in Neuroradiology (ESNR), Dr. Mansour earned his M.D. from the Vitebsk Medical Institute, School of Medicine. He successfully pursued a fellowship through the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR- London) and holds a master’s degree of Medical Management (MMM) from the Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

Dr. Mansour is an accomplished, published author of the famous debut book “Two Years of Solitude”, published September of 2021, in which discussed the most important controversial issues that we faced during the pandemic, and stressed the importance of our reliance on scientific sources to obtain information that help confront the massive global health crisis and the significant psychological burdens it places on individuals, in an effective and safe manner. He is also an editor, a columnist, an active reviewer, who co-authored in over sixty-eight peer-reviewed publications and prestigious medical journals. In 2022, he coauthored an eBook published in Frontiers Journals entitled “Bioethics amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, USA

Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics and founding director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health at the University of Chicago Medicine, Olopade’s research is focused on gaining a better understanding of the root causes and genomic basis of cancer in diverse populations. She has published extensively on genetic and non-genetic risk factors for breast cancer and is internationally renowned for her work in inherited cancer syndromes and clinical expertise in early detection and prevention of breast cancer in high-risk women. Olopade mapped genes frequently altered in cancer and has characterized the molecular pathways defining aggressive forms of breast cancer in women of African ancestry. 

A distinguished scholar and mentor, Olopade has been elected to the most prestigious academies and societies including the National Academy of Science, National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society to mention a few. Olopade served for six years as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board and Chair of the Sub-Committee on Global Cancer Research under the Obama Administration. Olopade has received numerous honors and awards including honorary degrees from several universities, Franklin Roosevelt Freedom from Want Medal, The Order of Lincoln, Officer of the Order of the Niger and a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship for “translating findings on the molecular genetics of breast cancer in African and African-American women into innovative clinical practices in the United States and abroad.” 

Dr. Olopade earned her medical degree from the University of Ibadan College of Medicine in Nigeria. She trained in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and in combined Hematology/Oncology and Cancer Genetics at the Joint Section of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Chicago. An advocate for social justice, she serves as director on several Civic and Corporate Boards in Chicago.

Uganda Cancer Institute, Uganda

Dr. Orem is a medical oncologist and Executive Director of the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI). UCI is a teaching and research institute of the Government of Uganda under the Ministry of Health, affiliated with Makerere University. It is spearheading all aspect of cancer research and training in oncology in Uganda and now designated as the oncology centre of excellence for East Africa, which comprises six countries, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda. Dr. Orem is leading the process of operationalization of the East Africa Centre of Excellence in Oncology (EACOE) at the UCI. The mandate is to provide specialized cancer care research and training for the entire East Africa region under the East African Community (EAC) network of Centers of Excellence (CoEs). 

Dr. Orem also is leading the development of several international collaborations with renowned international cancer centres and institutions for infrastructure, human resource capacity development. Such institutions include Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Case Western Reserve University, National Cancer Center of Korea (NCC) and lately University of Cambridge. He is Principal Investigator in several NIH-supported research projects through NIAID, AMC, and ACTG. Dr. Orem also is the recipient of a number of industry supported grants, such as GSK funded Open Lab, MERCK, ROCHE. He has strong international collaboration with civil society organizations, such as the American Cancer Society, and is the alternate chair for African Cancer Coalition, an initiative with ACS and NCCN to harmonize cancer treatment guidelines for Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Orem has a strong working relationship with IAEA through their support to development of radiotherapy services for which he is the national lead (counterpart). He is a member of the ASCO International affairs committee representing Africa, an active member of American Society of Hematology (ASH) and Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC).

Tata Memorial Hospital, India

Dr. C. S. Pramesh is the Director of the Tata Memorial Hospital and a thoracic surgeon at the Tata Memorial Centre, the largest cancer center in India. He is also a member of the Clinical Research Secretariat of the hospital and the convener for the National Cancer Grid, a large network of 177 cancer centers in India. In the latter role, Dr. Pramesh works extensively on eliminating disparities in cancer care by enabling uniform standards of cancer care, promoting equity in access to care, rational use of healthcare resources and promoting multicentric collaborative research. 

His primary clinical areas of interest include minimal invasive surgery and innovative treatment options in the management of esophageal and lung cancer. Dr. Pramesh is the Principal Investigator in several investigator-initiated research studies including randomized trials on cancer screening, surgical techniques, and neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment of thoracic cancers. Professor Pramesh has strong interests in clinical trial designs, surgical trials, biostatistics and promoting collaborative research. 

He is passionate about promoting training of early career physicians and surgeons in clinical research methods and conducts several formal and informal courses on clinical research methodology, biostatistics, and scientific writing.

Public Health Foundation of India, India

Professor K. Srinath Reddy is the President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Under his leadership, PHFI has established five Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPHs) to advance multi-disciplinary public health education, research, health technologies and implementation support for strengthening health systems. Dr. Reddy was appointed as the First Bernard Lown Visiting Professor of Cardiovascular Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in (2009-13) and presently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard (2014-2023). He holds advisory positions in several national and international bodies and has over 550 scientific publications. 

Dr. Reddy recently published the book titled Make Health in India: Reaching A Billion Plus. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Emory and Sydney Universities. Dr. Reddy is the first Indian to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine (USA) and was awarded several prestigious international and national doctorates and fellowships. He was President of the World Heart Federation (2013-15) and is a Padma Bhushan awardee. Dr. Reddy also is an Advisor to the Governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Health.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA

Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo serves as director of St. Jude Global and chair of the Department of Global Pediatric Medicine. He is also an executive vice president and holds the Four Stars of Chicago Endowed Chair in International Pediatric Research. Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo is leading an effort by St. Jude to ensure childhood cancer patients have access to quality care no matter where they live. 

A native of Barcelona, Spain, Rodriguez-Galindo first came to St. Jude in 1994 as a postdoctoral fellow. He went on to serve as a clinical researcher and faculty member for more than a decade before accepting a position in Boston. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo was director of the Pediatric Solid Tumor Program, medical director of the Clinical and Translational Investigations Program, and director of the Global Health Initiative in Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders. He also served as professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. 

In 2015, Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo returned to Memphis to lead a new Department of Global Pediatric Medicine and a new initiative, St. Jude Global. At that time, St. Jude had 24 partner sites in 17 countries and addressed 2.4 percent of the global childhood cancer burden. Under his leadership, the program aims to expand St. Jude’s reach to 30 percent in the next decade and to develop the intervention models to ensure access to quality care for all children with cancer in the world. At present, the St. Jude Global Alliance includes 143 institutions from 56 countries. Additionally, Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo led an institutional effort to become the first World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Childhood Cancer. As part of this partnership, the WHO and St. Jude are collaborating with other organizations on the Global Initiative in Childhood Cancer. 

Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo’s areas of clinical research and expertise include retinoblastoma, sarcomas, rare cancers, and histiocytic disorders. He has been the chair of the Rare Tumor’s committee of the Children’s Oncology Group and the President of the Histiocyte Society, and has been the principal investigator of several institutional, national, and international trials. Dr. Rodriguez-Galindo earned his medical degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Center for Implementation and Innovation in Health Policies (CIIPS) of the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, Argentina

Prof. Adolfo Rubinstein is currently the director of the Center for Implementation and Innovation in Health Policies (CIIPS) of the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy.

He was Minister of Health/Secretary of Government of Health of the Nation from November 2017 to December 2019 and previously Secretary of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health from February to November 2017.

Dr. Rubinstein graduated with honors from the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Magister in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, diploma in Health Economics at the University of York, United Kingdom, and Ph.D. in Public Health from the UBA. He is a regular professor of Public Health and former director of the master’s in clinical Effectiveness at the School of Medicine, UBA. He is also an independent researcher at CONICET and a visiting professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health.

He has been the founder and General Director of the Institute of Clinical and Health Effectiveness (IECS) since its creation in 2002 until February 2017. He was also the founder and Chief of the Family and Community Medicine Service of the Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires until 2010.

Adolfo Rubinstein has published more than 120 articles in international and national refereed journals in recent years, in addition to textbooks and book chapters in epidemiology and primary care, health systems reform, quality of medical care and universal health coverage, implementation of preventive interventions for the control of cardiovascular diseases, and health and economic impact evaluations of public programs and policies.

Karkinos Healthcare, India

Dr. Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan has MBBS and MD (Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology) degrees from the University of Kerala, India, followed by postdoctoral training in San Francisco (1984), Pittsburgh (1987-88) and Cambridge (1988-89). He worked at the Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, in India (1982-1993) and joined the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO-IARC), Lyon, France, in 1993. At WHO-IARC, Dr.  Sankaranarayanan served in various capacities as a senior medical officer, Special Advisor on Cancer Control, Head of the Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Section, and Head of the Screening Group, until his formal retirement in December 2017. He has widely travelled to more than 100 countries, and advises several countries on cancer prevention, early detection, control and development of efficient, accessible and affordable cancer health services. 

Dr. Sankaranarayanan has successfully conducted several field studies, including clinical trials evaluating breast, cervix, colorectal and oral cancer screening driving policies in developing countries. He has provided cancer control consultancies to many countries. In recognition of his services to global cancer control, Dr. Sankaranarayanan has been awarded the prestigious Princess Lalla Salma International Prize, Morocco; the Paul P Carbone Award for International Oncology, USA; Ruby Hall Award for Excellence in Clinical Oncology, India; Singapore Colposcopy Society Award, Singapore; Ernst Wertheim Prize by Austria; Indo American Cancer Association (IACA) and Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) Award for excellence in global oncology, USA.

Te Aho o Te Kahu (Cancer Control Agency), New Zealand

Professor Diana Sarfati (MBChB, MPH, PhD, FNZCPHM) is National Director of Cancer Control and Chief Executive of Te Aho o Te Kahu, the Cancer Control Agency in New Zealand. Her role is to provide national leadership for, and oversight of cancer control, to provide policy advice to the Government, and to be accountable for ensuring progress towards the goals and outcomes in the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan. 

Previously Diana was Head of the Department of Public Health and Director of the Cancer and Chronic Conditions (C3) research group at University of Otago, Wellington. She has led a large body of research relating to disparities in cancer outcomes. This work has resulted in the identification of key patient and health system factors that influence cancer survival. It has been used extensively by health policy makers, clinicians, and other researchers to develop policies and practices that aim to reduce inequities in cancer outcomes. 

Diana has held a number of national and international roles. She is a current member of the International Advisory Committee to Lancet Oncology, the Advisory Committee to International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Pacific cancer hub, IARC’s international expert group on social inequalities in cancer, the Academic Advisory Committee on the International Cancer Benchmarking Project, and she led a 2019 Lancet Oncology series on cancer in small island developing states. Diana is a former member of the NZ National Cancer Programme Leadership Board, the National Screening Advisory Group, the National Ethics Advisory Committee, the Bowel Cancer Taskforce, and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Advisory Committee.

Hope Institute Hospital, University Hospital of the West Indies, Jamaica

Dr. Spence is a Jamaican physician with training in both clinical oncology and palliative medicine. Dr. Spence is the Senior Medical Officer of the Hope Institute Hospital, Jamaica’s only dedicated oncology and palliative care unit. She also is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, and is currently the Acting Head of the Department of Radiotherapy at the Kingston Public Hospital. In 2005, Dr. Spence instigated and continues to teach an introductory course in palliative medicine for medical students at the University. The Hope Institute Hospital also serves as an educational resource for all persons interested in education in palliative medicine and collaborates with the University in providing a site for the gynecology oncology fellowship rotation and elective rotations in palliative care for internal medicine and anesthesiology physicians. 

Dr. Spence has an interest in improving opioid availability and accessibility in Jamaica and undertook an International Pain Policy Fellowship (2008-2012) at the University of Wisconsin (USA) with this as a focus. By the end of the Fellowship period, immediate release morphine tablets, not previously available in Jamaica, had been made both available and accessible in public hospitals and private pharmacies island wide. 

Dr. Spence is committed to palliative care education, service development, and research and advocacy, both nationally and across the Caribbean region. She is a founding member of the Jamaica Pain Collaborative, the Palliative Care Association of Jamaica, the Caribbean Palliative Care Association and the Jamaica Cancer Care and Research Institute (JACCRI). In collaboration with the JACCRI team, Dr. Spence has developed and delivered two training modules in palliative care, hosted in Jamaica (Oct. 2017 and Nov. 2018) with attendees from across the Caribbean. Dr. Spence is currently working with the Medical School at the University of the West Indies to develop a Diploma in Palliative Medicine and to have palliative care medicine recognized as a medical specialty in Jamaica. 

She was a Scientific Advisor to the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief and is a member of the Lancet Commission Implementation Group. Dr. Spence joined the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) Board of Directors in 2019, and is interested in working on policy development, particularly in community-based palliative care and on palliative care education at all levels.

University of Edinburgh, UK

Dr. Sridhar is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh where she holds a Personal Chair in Global Public Health. She is Founding Director of the Global Health Governance Programme and holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. 

Recipient of a Rhodes scholarship, Dr. Sridhar holds an MPhil and a DPhil from Oxford University, as well as a B.S. from the University of Miami’s Honors Medical Program. Prior to her appointment at Edinburgh, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University and an Associate Professor in Global Health Politics and Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University. 

Dr. Sridhar is the author of two books— Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? (OUP, 2017) and The Battle against Hunger: Choice, Circumstance and the World Bank (OUP, 2007), and has published her work in Nature, Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, and the British Medical Journal. She also co-chaired the Harvard School of Public Health/London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola (with Ashish Jha, Muhammad Pate and Peter Piot). 

Dr. Sridhar has served on Boards of the following organizations:

• Board of Save the Children UK
• World Economic Forum Council on the Health Industry
• Expert review group of the Wellcome Trust

• Advisory Board of the Financial Flows Program at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; UW-Seattle) 

Dr. Sridhar’s fellowships and visiting Chair appointments include the following:

• Visiting Faculty at the Public Health Foundation of India
• Guest lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health
• Former visiting Associate Professor at LMU-Munich
• Associate Fellow at the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security
• Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy 

TecSalud and Tecnológico de Monterrey

Guillermo Torre Amione graduated as a Surgeon from the Tecnológico de Monterrey. Subsequently, he obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago with a specialty in Immunology. In the clinical field, he completed his residency in Internal Medicine and a specialty in Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He is certified as a specialist in Clinical Cardiology by the Mexican Board of Cardiology and by the Boards of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Heart Transplantation of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Medicine, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. Until 2010, he was director of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant service at the Houston Methodist Hospital, where he founded the Transplant Laboratory. He is currently rector of TecSalud and vice president of research at Tecnológico de Monterrey; as well as president of cardiovascular research at the TecSalud School of Medicine and Principal Investigator in the area of ​​Experimental Medicine and Advanced Therapies of the Institute for Obesity Research. His main line of research has been the pathophysiological basis of heart failure, with emphasis on immune regulation. He has published more than 200 scientific articles, receiving the SCOPUS award for the most cited author in Mexico in the area of ​​Medicine and Health in 2012. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has actively participated in the development of health strategies in conjunction with public and private sector leaders. Additionally, at TecSalud he has led relevant research protocols for the control of the COVID-19 pandemic, including phase 3 clinical trials of the mRNA vaccine manufactured by the CureVac laboratory. 

University of Washington, USA

Dr. David Watkins is an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington (UW), where he currently leads the UW site for the Disease Control Priorities Project. Dr. Watkins studies health system reform and policy implementation challenges, with a particular emphasis on universal health coverage and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low-income countries. 

His team works in three thematic areas: population and economic modeling to support policy analysis, integrated healthcare delivery, and improving the use of scientific evidence in policy development. In addition to his research, Dr. Watkins continues to practice as an internal medicine physician and teaches on global non-communicable diseases and policy research methods at the UW School of Public Health.

International Agency for Research on Cancer, France

Dr. Elisabete Weiderpass is a Brazilian cancer researcher who is a naturalized Swedish and Finnish citizen. She is an expert in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention. She took office as Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on 1 January 2019. 

Dr. Weiderpass previously served as leader of the Department of Research at the Cancer Registry of Norway, and of the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the Folkhälsan Research Center in Finland. She was a Professor of Medical Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at the Arctic University of Norway. Dr. Weiderpass also held Adjunct Professorship positions in Cancer Epidemiology in Brazil, China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and was a Visiting Professor in Kuwait. She is the author of more than 700 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals.