WHO Digital Health Technical Advisory Group - Declaration of interests

Mr. Anurag Agrawal

Mr. Agrawal is the head of India's premier genomics laboratory, the CSIR Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology.  He is also a co-chair of the forthcoming Lancet and Financial Times Global Commission, Governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world.

Dr. Dari Alhuwail

Dr. Alhuwail is an assistant professor in Kuwait University. He has experience working on policy and implementation of digital health programs in middle east countries.  He founded the Kuwait Health Informatics Network, a not-for-profit research-focused group to promote health informatics as a discipline and create a platform for evidence sharing and networking in Kuwait as well as the region.  He is also part of the newly created Middle East and North African Health Informatics Association (MENAHIA).

Ms. Jovita V. Aragona

Ms. Aragona is the senior Vice-President & Chief Information Officer of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.  She has over 30 years of country and international experience working on digital health through the government health insurance agency and Department of Health in the Philippines.  She has successfully implemented several health information exchange platforms. 

Dr. Clemens Martin Auer

Dr. Auer, as a Director General in the Ministry of Health in Austria since 2005, was among many other matters also responsible for the strategic planning process, the development and eventually the implementation of a national digital health infrastructure, the regulatory framework of such, the (public) financing and all other aspects of coordinating organizational or political matters in this context.

Dr. Auer is also the Austrian member of the WHO EB (2019-2022). 

Dr. Subhash Chandir

Dr. Chandir has extensive experience working in EMRO and SEARO on digital registries for immunisation.  He is one of the six founding directors of IRD Global, a not-for-profit with the goal of improving global health through research-based innovations in technology and healthcare practices. He is a member of the Ethical Review Board at IRD-IRB (FWA # 00023738). He has academic affiliations with Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University on public health and digital implementation.

Mr. Jackson Hungu

Mr. Hungu is Clinton Health Access Initiative Deputy Country Director in Kenya.   He leads global engagement with diagnostic point of care device manufacturers on integration of patient data with national systems using mobile connectivity solutions. He also works with private sector, government, and bilateral partners.

Dr. Indra Joshi

Dr. Joshi holds a national role as Digital Health and AI lead for UK's National Health System (within organisation NHSX). She is currently developing the AI in health and care policy and strategy for the United Kingdom with international partners, including WHO. She has previously served as deputy medical director with oversight of online health services; founding ambassador of network advocating for inclusion in health-tech sector.

Mr. Marten Kaevats

Mr. Kaevats, being National Digital Advisor of Estonia, is responsible of the whole digital ecosystem in Estonia. He has never worked in health-specific positions.

Dr. Boonchai Kijsanayotin

Dr. Boonchai is the senior research manager of the Thai Health Information Standards Development Center (THIS), Health System Research Institute (HSRI), Ministry of Public Health and biomedical and health informatics lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University Thailand.

Dr. Alejandro Lopez Osornio

Dr. Lopez Osornio is currently appointed as National Director for eHealth in the National Ministry of Health in Argentina.  His position is a regulatory and political position with the task defining policies and adoption plans for the National eHealth Strategy.  He is also a member of several global advisory groups, including the Global Digital Health Partnership and SNOMED International. He authored Argentina’s national eHealth Strategy and created network to connect provinces and the private sector enabling longitudinal patient care.

Ms. Deborah Rogers

Ms. Rogers is the Managing Director of Praekelt.org, a 55-person digital technology non-profit company. She has spearheaded the design and implementation of many large scale digital health programmes in low- to middle-income countries (LMIC). Praekelt.org has been given a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to carry out research on the MomConnect platform, a digital health platform in South Africa.

Dr. Alexander Ng

Mr. Ng is currently the Vice President of Tencent Healthcare.  He previously served as the Deputy Director and China Country Office Head of Health and Innovation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has built partnerships with health and technology stakeholders in China to identify high-quality, low-cost health products.

Dr. Susann Roth

Dr. Roth is a Principal Knowledge Sharing and Services Specialist and leads the digital health work at the Asian Development Bank.  She helped establish the Standards and Interoperability Lab Asia, co-led the development of digital health strategy several Asian countries, and contributed to the WHO Regional Action Agenda on Harnessing E-Health for Improved Health Service Delivery in the Western Pacific.

Ms. Kriti Sharma

Ms. Sharma is the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Ethics at Sage Group. She is an artificial intelligence technologist, business executive, and humanitarian. She leads efforts to create more diverse and ethical artificial intelligence. She is also the Director of AI for Good Ltd and has a current contract with WHO for developing a mental health intervention.

Dr. Kenji Shibuya

Dr. Shibuya has been an advisor to both central and local governments, and most recently he was appointed as Special Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization on health metrics and data. He spearheaded the future strategic directions of the Japanese global health policy agenda after the Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit in 2008. He led the Lancet Series on Japan, published in 2011 in an effort to jump-start debates on Japanese domestic and global health policy reform. In 2015, he chaired the landmark Advisory Panel on Health Care 2035 for the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Dr. Robyn Whittaker

Dr. Whittaker is an Associate Professor at the National Institute for Health Innovation at the University of Auckland.  She has extensive experience implementing large scale digital health programs at country level. She has drafted several handbooks on digital health programs, extensively published, and highly regarded for developing scientific methodology used to evaluate digital health programs in several countries.  She is also a leader within the health service in Auckland, New Zealand as Clinical Director of Innovation.

Dr. Petra Wilson

Dr. Wilson is the founder of Health Connect Partners, a specialist advisory firm focusing on data governance in the health sector.  She has provided consultancy services to a number of entities, commercial, academic and not-for-profit which have interests in digital health.  The main one is HIMSS, a not-for-profit organization in digital health where she is acting as EU Programme Manager for the Personal Connected Health Alliance. Her company has been engaged on several EU funded research projects and contracts, notably under Horizon2020 budget.

Mr. Harold Wolf III

Mr. Wolf III is the current President and Chief Executive Officer at HIMMS.  He worked with The Chartis Group, LLC from 2015-2017 on Chartis' project for Digital Health for Providers.

Mr. Yanwu Xu

Mr. Xu is the Chief Scientist/Architect for AI Innovation Business, Baidu Online Network Technology. He is a member of several high-profile technology industry groups, well-published and adjunct professor on the topics of AI and machine learning.

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