Dr Jongwha Chang

Department of Internal Medicine, Wayne State University, Michigan, USA

Dr. Chang obtained his PhD from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with a focus on health management, health services research and outcomes research in 2012. In addition, Dr. Chang completed two other master’s degrees focusing on Statistics from Columbia University in the City of New York and Health Policy and Management from Texas A&M Health Science Center. Dr. Chang was previously an Associate Professor of Health Outcomes in Texas A&M University (USA).

His research generally focuses on examining issues related to effectiveness of medical care delivery and health outcomes in chronic disease and cancer. His research work in this context has examined diverse topics related to economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals, risk adjustment of health outcomes, quality of primary care, medication and patient safety, applied statistical methodology in health services evaluation, and patient-centered outcomes evaluation.

Dr Gulsum Kubra Kaya

Safety and Accident Investigation Centre, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, United Kingdom

Dr. Gulsum Kubra Kaya is a Lecturer at the Safety and Accident Investigation Centre, Cranfield University. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in Engineering, focusing on risk assessment and patient safety, and she developed a systems-based risk assessment framework to ensure safety in hospitals.

Dr. Gulsum Kubra Kaya has experience in developing, applying and teaching safety engineering methods. She is a chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist. Her particular areas of interest are system safety, safety culture, human factors/ergonomics, risk assessment and decision-making. Most of her research studies focus on exploring system interactions and applying Safety-II techniques to ensure system safety in complex healthcare processes.

Dr Steven McPhail

Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI) and Centre for Healthcare Transformation, School of Public Health & Social Work, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Professor Steven McPhail is a health systems innovator, health services researcher, health economist and clinician. He obtained his PhD from The University of Queensland in 2011. Professor McPhail is Centre Director for two related research centres, the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI) and the Centre for Healthcare Transformation at the Queensland University of Technology, where he is also the Professor of Health Services Research.

Professor McPhail is passionate about empowering health services to deliver safe, high-value patient-centred care, particularly improving care for vulnerable members of our community and their families. This includes bringing new innovations to life through use of digital health systems and clinical decisions support, including implementation of integrated AI solutions in healthcare settings. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles. His work has been impactful in local health systems and internationally, including having been cited in policy-related documents from the World Bank, EU, OECD and World Health Organisation.

Dr Mecit Can Emre Simsekler

Department of Management Science and Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr. Simsekler is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Khalifa University of Science and Technology. He is the founding director of the MSc in Health Systems Management program and holds visiting fellow appointments at Boston Children’s Hospital (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School), University College London (UCL) School of Management, and ADIA Lab.

He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge, during which he was a visiting researcher at the Center for Medical Innovation System at the University of Tokyo and the Center for Patient Safety and Quality Research at Boston Children’s Hospital. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a Research Associate at the UCL School of Management.

Dr. Simsekler’s research focuses on health systems design and management to improve operational performance, patient safety, and risk-based decision-making. By leveraging business analytics, design thinking, and systems thinking, his work explores AI-driven digital transformation to build high-value, human-centered, and sustainable health systems. His current research explores the intersection of human and AI-driven technology adoption in healthcare, emphasizing usability and explainability for safe, inclusive implementation within sociotechnical health systems.

He teaches across undergraduate, MSc, and PhD levels, with courses including Healthcare Analytics Management, Healthcare Operations Management, and Artificial Intelligence for Health Systems, Business, and Society.

Dr. Simsekler is also the founding director of the Health Systems and Management Initiative (HSMI), an interdisciplinary platform that brings together stakeholders to explore innovative approaches for enhancing the value of healthcare delivery.

He is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and a member of INFORMS and the European Operations Management Association (EUROMA). In recognition of his contributions, he received the 2022 Outstanding Global Faculty Advisor Recognition Award from IISE, the world’s largest professional society for industrial and systems engineers.

Professor Kyriakos Souliotis

School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece

Kyriakos Souliotis is Professor of Health Policy and Dean at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Peloponnese. He was Vice Rector of Social and Regional Development (2016-2017). He also teaches courses on health policy, health economics and health care management at the Medical School of the University of Athens and the Medical School of the University of Crete. He is currently President of the Scientific Board of the Hellenic Association of Political Scientists and President of the Scientific Committee of the Greek Patient Association. He is also serving as a member of the Steering Committee of PACT (The Patient Access Partnership on Equity of Access to Quality Healthcare - Brussels) and as a member of the Scientific Committee of the OIS (Osservatorio Internazionale della Salute - Rome). He is the founder, chair and scientific director of the Health Policy Institute.

He has acted as Scientific Advisor to the Social Insurance Institute (IKA) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (2002 -2004), Member of the Board of Directors of the A’ Health Care Trust of Attica (2002 -2004), Head of Human Resources Management at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center (2002-2006), Administrative Director at MITERA (Hygeia Group, 2006-2007) and Managing Director of Planning and Development and Chief Planning Officer at the Mutual Health Fund of the National Bank of Greece Personnel (2007-2010). From May 2010 to December 2011, he served as President of OPAD (Health Care Organization for Public Servants), and from May 2011 to September 2012, as Vice President of EOPYY (National Organisation for Health Care Services Provision). From June 2010 to August 2013, he was a member of the National Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials and the Steering Committee for Rare Diseases. 

He has acted as a country expert on cancer at the OECD and Senior Associate Director at the Medical Technology Research Group of the LSE Enterprise. He has extensive research experience in Greece and abroad and he has acted as the Scientific Lead / Project Manager in 40 research projects. He has published 29 books and more than 300 chapters in books and papers in peer reviewed journals on health policy and economics, organization and administration of health services, economic inequalities, etc.