Unlocking potentials in Healthcare to foster innovations

Bogi Eliasen

He was born in the Faroe Islands and is educated in Political Science and International Law from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He was previously employed by the Faroe Business Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked as an advisor over the last 25 years for politicians, the public sector and private companies in addition to build and steer  initiatives as FarGen, Nordic Health 2030 and Movement Health 2030

Bogi was initiator of the first population genome project FarGen to sequence the genomes of the entire population of the Faroe Islands. As Director of Health at CIFS, Bogi sets the stage diving into topics such as the future of genomics, data, digital functions, and their integration with health. This is based on a holistic vision of shaping the future personalized health paradigm as a part of ambitious projects and networks around the world. He received the HIMSS Future 50 global award for his work in 2019. He initiated the Nordic Health 2030 process and has a key role in both the global Future Proofing Health Index and Movement Health 2030 that aspires to improve health by applying the new health paradigm. He is a co-chair Sciana Health Leader Network.

In Movement Health 2030, Bogi has the responsibility for the necessary systemic shifts needed to apply and harvest the opportunities of data and digital functions. The work is partly based on the Nordic Health 2030 approach for a new data model and a new social contract with data as a core component. A new social contract for health is also the theme for his work in the Sciana Network of Health Leaders, where data governance is a key focus.

His next big focus is facilitating the shift and building bridges between the fields of personal and public health in order to work much more preventive, e.g. by reducing the avoidable disease burden with secondary prevention and building the data structures for that.  Building fair models is at the heart of his work and Bogi is Danish chair of the World Chairs of Bioethics.
He calls himself a knowledge broker whose expertise lies in combining various fields of knowledge.

Marc Schreiner

Since 2018, Marc Schreiner, lawyer, has been Managing Director of the Hospital Federation of Berlin as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the German Hospital Federation (DKG) and Chairman of the DKG-Committee „Europe and International Hospital Affairs“. Previously, Marc Schreiner was Director for „EU Policy, International Relations and Healthcare Industries“ in Berlin and Brussels at DKG. Previously he worked for a Brussel’s based consultancy as well as for the Parliament of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate as well as for the European Parliament.

Dorjan Marušič

Senior doctor Dorijan Marušič, PhD was the expert director of the Izola General Hospital, state secretary at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, advisor to the general director of the Institute for Health Insurance of Slovenia and minister of health of the Republic of Slovenia.  

He established himself internationally as a member of the committee of experts on effective ways of investing in health at DG SANCO. At the Faculty of Social Sciences, he obtained his master's degree on the topic "Measuring the outcomes of health care services". He participated in numerous national and international projects regarding the health care system and health insurance, payment methods, quality improvement, national data standardization and health informatics. He is widely published and cited in recognized scientific journals and proceedings. He is currently lecturing at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Primorska.

Bogdan Tušar

Bogdan Tušar is a university-qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the management of healthcare organizations. He began his career in 2002 as an advisor in the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for the Prevention of Money Laundering. In 2007, he joined the team of the Idrija Psychiatric Hospital as the assistant director for general affairs. He was responsible for leading, planning, and organizing the operations of the hospital's general-administrative sector. On May 1, 2012, he was appointed as the director of the Idrija Psychiatric Hospital. As director, he organized and led the work of the hospital with 214 employees. During his tenure, the hospital continued with an intensified investment cycle to improve the living conditions of patients, played an active role in the development of psychiatric activity in the Slovenian space, introduced new healthcare programs, and was among the first to successfully establish community-based psychiatric care at home. The hospital also invested significant energy in developing the areas of quality and safety, obtaining international accreditation, and was the first psychiatric hospital in Slovenia to receive an international quality certificate from NIAHO or AACI. It successfully participated in numerous international projects, exchanging good practices and knowledge with domestic and foreign health and educational institutions. A notable feature of the hospital during his tenure was its openness and community orientation.

He remained in the position of hospital director until May 2021, when he prematurely concluded his third consecutive term and took over as the general director of the Directorate for the Development of the Healthcare System at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia. Within the newly established directorate, he was responsible for strategic planning, coordination, and monitoring of process informatization and digitalization in healthcare, preparation and implementation of systemic solutions in the area of long-term care, and planning, monitoring, and control of the quality system in healthcare and long-term care. On November 1, 2022, he was appointed as the head-director of the Regional Unit of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia Ljubljana. Since 2007, he has been a member of various working groups in the fields of healthcare institution management and governance, digitalization of the healthcare system, quality and safety in healthcare, long-term care, and mental health.

He is a member and vice-president of the administrative board of the Association of Economists in Healthcare and a member of the Association of Hospital Directors of Slovenia. He was a member and chairman of the board of the Ljubljana Oncological Institute (2020 – 2022), a member and chairman of the board of the Idrija Health Center (from 2017 onward), and a member of the board of the Idrija Psychiatric Hospital (from 2023 onward).

Karmen Janša

Since 2017, I have been working part-time at the General Hospital Jesenice as a specialist in internal medicine and head of the diabetes clinic, and part-time at the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia as an advisor in the Department of Analytics and Development.

I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ljubljana. I specialized in internal medicine. After college, I was employed at the General Hospital Jesenice in the Department of Internal Medicine. From 2013 to 2017, I served as the Chief Medical Officer at the same hospital. In this role, I focused deeply on the quality and safety of medicine, integration among different levels of healthcare, digitization, and optimization of clinical processes and their coordination.

I participated in projects of the Ministry of Health, mainly in the areas of diabetes, quality, and safety, in the international project on integrated healthcare Jadecare, and at the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia in establishing comprehensive management of SPP for hospital treatments. At the Health Insurance Institute, I primarily deal with the development of quality indicators from data sent by providers for billing healthcare services and the development of billing models. My professional contributions are in the areas of diabetes, quality and safety in medicine, and the economic burdens in healthcare.

Urh Grošelj

Associate Professor Dr. Urh Grošelj, MD, MSc in Bioethics, graduated (2007) and received his doctorate (2012) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, and completed his master's (2008, summa cum laude) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Leuven, Belgium. During his studies, he was the chief editor of the journal Medical Perspectives and received the Prešeren Award and recognition. Since 2014, he has been a pediatric endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism specialist at the Pediatric Clinic of the University Medical Center Ljubljana. Since 2022, he has been an associate professor in pediatrics and an assistant professor in medical ethics, and a member of both departments at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana (MF UL). Since 2013, he has been a member of the Slovenian Commission for Medical Ethics, and between 2012-2016, he was an alternate member of the Council of Europe's Bioethics Committee. Clinically and research-wise, he mainly deals with rare diseases, especially metabolic, with familial hypercholesterolemia, rare dyslipidemias, screening programs in pediatrics, clinical genomics, and medical ethics. Currently, he is (co)author of 92 SCI publications, in about half of which he is the first or leading author; in the Cobiss database, he has over 500 bibliographic units. He is (was) a member of the scientific committees of major international symposiums in the fields of pediatric lipidology or newborn screening (organizations EAS, ISNS, FH Europe). He is a co-founder of the annual Ethics in Medicine symposium, and a co-proponent and founding member of the Department of Medical Ethics MF UL.

Associate Professor Grošelj is a member of the program council of the NOW program (NIJZ) and leads the clinical part of the newborn screening program (also the planned expansion of the program in 2024), and the national program for universal screening of familial hypercholesterolemia, including the program for modern NGS diagnostics of dyslipidemias at the Pediatric Clinic UKC Ljubljana. He coordinated the preparation of the national registry of rare non-malignant diseases of Slovenia (established at the end of 2023). He leads the pediatric part of the national registry of familial hypercholesterolemia and rare dyslipidemias, and the registry for congenital metabolic diseases (part of the international registry U-IMD), EAS FHSC, and EAS LCN. He is a member of the scientific committee of FH Europe, a member of two ERNs for rare diseases – MetabERN (leader for Slovenia) and EndoERN, and a member of the working groups of the ERN, Eurordis, and the Screen4Care project for the area of newborn screening. As of 2024, he is also the vice-president of the Slovenian Heart and Vascular Health Society.

In 2020, he became an "Emerging leader" of the World Heart Federation (WHF), and in 2021 was named the "Name of the Week" on the Val 202 program. In the academic year 2021/2022, he served as a Fulbright scholar, visiting teacher (Asst. Prof.) and researcher in Professor Josh Knowles' lab, and at the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Stanford University, California, USA.

Tanja Španić

She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 26 years old. A good year after her diagnosis, she joined the Slovenian Association Europa Donna and has been an active member and advocate for cancer patients ever since. From 2010 to 2014, she led the section of young patients, which is intended for women who were diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 40. At that time, that was one of the few such groups in Europe. From 2014 to 2017 she was the general secretary of the association, and since April 2017, she has been its president. Her work is directed at both national and international levels. In 2018, she became a member of the executive board of the European association Europa Donna, and from 2020 to 2023 she was also its president. She is the leader of the working group of patient advocates at the professional association ESMO and a member of the organizational committee of the clinical study POSITIV and OlympiA. In 2018, she completed professional training for EUPATI patient advocates. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Health Council at the Ministry of Health and the Ethics Commission at the Oncology Institute.

Iztok Štotl

Iztok Štotl is a diabetologist at the Department of endocrinology and diabetes, University Medical Centre Ljubljana. He is a member of the board for eHealth governance at the Medical Chamber of Slovenia and President of the board for eHealth governance at the Ministry of Health. He is the representative of Slovenia at the General Assembly of SNOMED CT International and in the Digital Health Working Group of Standing Committee of European Doctors.

His research mainly deals with diabetology, eHealth, obesity and physical activity. As an active member of the EUBIROD registry he has participated in various European registry projects (EUBIROD, PARENT and BRIDGE Health). He is also a member of the Sledilnik non-profit scientific society, and as an active Linux user, he tries to promote various open source solutions in research and everyday clinical work.

Janez Poklukar

Janez Poklukar comes from a healthcare family, instilling in him a lifelong dedication to caring for others. He is a physician and former director of Medical Center Ljubljana and Jesenice General Hospital. He has also served as the President of the Assembly and a member of the Board of Directors of the Združenja zdravstvenih zavodov Slovenije. Additionally, he is a former Minister of Health and chaired the Council of Health Ministers during Slovenia's presidency of the European Union. Currently, he is a member of the Strategic Council to Prime Minister Robert Golob. He is married and the father of five lively children.

Jurij Stariha

Jurij Stariha, MSc, joined Novo Nordisk Slovenia in 2016 as MA&PA manager for Slovenian region. In 2018 he had regional responsibility as MAPA manager for Slovenia and Croatia as part of MAPA EUEast tema. In August 2018, he took over position of General Manager of Novo Nordisk. Stariha is also president of the board of Farma Forum (Slovenian EFPIA).

Stariha got his Master's degree at the Faculty of Management Koper and he speaks several foreign languages. He started his professional journey in 2002 in Droga d.d. as a bussines analyst. In 2007 he became deputy director for business at the Hospital for gynecology and obstetrics in Kranj and in 2010 he became deputy director for business of University hospital Golnik.

Stariha is also a guest lecturer as an expert in the field of health economics and has published different articles on the topic of economics in healthcare system and on financing of healthcare in Slovenia. He is a member of Association of economists in healthcare in Slovenia and a member of Association of directors of Slovenian hospitals.

Barbara Stegel

Barbara Stegel, MSc, has several years of experience in management and marketing. At the beginning of her career, she collaborated with major Slovenian companies, where she worked as the head of marketing departments, consultant and director of corporate communication and human resources. Between 2010 and 2011, she advised to Minister and professional associates at the Slovenian Ministry of Health on the healthcare reform. The following year, she took over the position of Secretary General of the Forum of International Research and Development Pharmaceutical Companies, EIG, where she is still employed. Under her leadership, she coordinates the work and manages the projects of Forum, communicates with the stakeholders of the national health system and with the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) on all essential topics in the healthcare system. In 2016, she took over the coordination of the National Medicines Verification Organization – Zavod ZAPAZ, in which she still actively participates.