Category: Speaker

Doctors 2.0 Event Consultancy

Denise Silber, emcee, speaker, digital opinion leader, and communicator is the founder of Doctors 2.0 event consultancy in Paris, providing innovative programs, speakers, and start-up challenges to medical audiences. An international eHealth pioneer for the past 20+ years, Denise applies her communication and event expertise to the support of digital innovation, patient engagement, and the 21st century physician-patient relationship., A Smith College graduate in political science and Harvard MBA, Denise was awarded France’s Legion of Honor in 2011 and in 2018 was named one of the 50 most inspiring women in tech in France. As Vice-president of the Harvard Club of France, she organizes events on social justice, science, history, and culture.

University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, NL

Prof. Dr. Alex W. Friedrich (48) is head of the department and Chair of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands. He coordinates large international and cross border research networks for the prevention of infections due to antimicrobial resistant microorganisms (http://www.eurhealth-1health.eu; http://mrsa-net.org; http://www.health-i-care.eu). Furthermore, he implemented a vivid full-area regional network for the prevention of infections caused by MDRO (www.remis-plus.net).
His research focus lies in the Genomics for Infection Prevention. His trans disciplinary research, a co-operation of academic, veterinary and public health institutions under a One-health-aspect, is done within the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health. His main focus is the prevention of Healthcare associated Infections (HCAI) and antimicrobial resistant microorganisms. He fosters meta-competent approaches in infection prevention and control and building up European competence through the European training program EUCIC. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), Clinical Director of the European Committee on Infection Control (EUCIC) of the ESCMID and Chair of the non-profit EurSafety-Fund.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Rachel Smith is a physician and epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She leads the Surveillance Team within the International Infection Control Program which focuses on implementing sustainable surveillance for healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance in resource-limited settings. Dr. Smith received her MD and completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She received a Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley.

Fondation Marisa Sophie

Francesca Stingele holds a University Degree in Microbiology and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Munich. She spent the first eight years of her career in research partly in academia and in industry and subsequently shifted to drug development in the biotech industry. Her last position was Managing Director of Neurim Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli-Swiss biotech Company, active in developing novel central nervous system products. She was going to change position to become the CEO of a venture capital funded CNS Start-up Company, when the tragedy hit her family. The youngest family member, Marisa at the time 11 months old, was hit by a streptococcal meningitis, which was not treated in time, and within one week Marisa passed away. After seven years in court the two doctors treating Marisa were charged for homicide by negligence. This trauma would change the course of Francesca’s and her family’s life. She left her biotech career to create a Foundation for Critically Ill children (www.marisasophie.com) and became an advocate for patient safety, lecturing at universities, nursing schools and conferences.

St.Constantin Hospital

MD, PhD in Infectious Diseases, MD in Epidemiology, experience in Infections Prevention & Control as a team leader and as a promoter of good medical practices in many other hospitals and institutions in Romania.

University of Guelph

Jason Tetro is a visiting scientist at the University of Guelph. He has been involved in health-related microbiology and immunology for the last 30 years. He has worked in various fields including bloodborne, food and water pathogens; environmental microbiology; disinfection and antisepsis; and emerging pathogens. He has written two books for the public, The Germ Code, which was shortlisted as Science Book of The Year in 2014, and The Germ Files, which spent several weeks on the national bestseller list. He has also co-edited, The Human Microbiome Handbook, which provides an academic perspective on the impact of microbes in human health. He is currently the host of the Super Awesome Science Show, which explores how science fits into our everyday lives. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

National Centre for Infectious Diseases

Dr. Kalisvar Marimuthu completed his advanced specialty training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Singapore in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Subsequently, Dr. Marimuthu trained in infection prevention and control as a Senior Research Fellow in the Infection Prevention and Control Unit of Geneva University Hospital. Dr. Marimuthu is currently a senior consultant in Infectious Diseases and Infection Control at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore. He is a member of the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee (NIPC) of Singapore. He is also a consultant in the technical advisory committee for the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) guideline. Dr. Marimuthu’s primary research interest is in transmission dynamics of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO), application of next-generation sequencing for control of MDROs, and the prevalence and impact of MDROs in low- and middle-income countries.

NSF International

Dr. Christine Greene is the Principal Investigator for Sanitation and Contamination Control at NSF International, Applied Research Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences and an MPH in Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. Her work serves to improve methods for environmental contamination monitoring and strengthen current guidelines to control healthcare-associated infections and stimulate innovative approaches to reduce the risk of biofilm-related infections, pathogen transmission and the environmental persistence of infectious agents. Dr. Greene is the ISO TC 304 Convener for International Standards on Hand Hygiene and is a member of the Canadian Standards Association work group on cleaning and disinfection standards for healthcare. She serves on the board of The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS) and is a co-founder of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems (HITS) Consortium – an organization that uses a cross-disciplinary, systems approach to addressing the pressing issues around infection control.

Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA

​​Dr. Hayden is an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist with research interest in the prevention of healthcare associated infections, especially those caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Universidad de Guadalajara

Hilda Márquez, MD, is an undergraduate and graduate professor, as well as the coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Quality Healthcare at the University of Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico.

In the Ministry of Health of Mexico and the Ministry of Health of the Jalisco State, she has held various positions which were all related to improving the quality of health services and patient safety.

She is a WHO consultant on Healthcare quality, patient safety and infection control. She is an instructor of the WHO Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy validated by the Collaborating Center for Patient Safety in University Hospitals of Geneva.

At the state, national and international level, she has coordinated various training events for the development of actions to improve quality in healthcare and also focused on Patient Safety.

As an independent consultant, she has developed infection prevention and control projects.