Dr. Ronald Merrell
Dr. Ronald Merrell is a long term innovator, teacher, practitioner and leader in telemedicine. He is professor of surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University in the USA. He previously led the Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium and served as chairman of surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University and Yale. His research work addresses integration of telecommunications with sensors, software and middleware to allow apprehension of a medical situation afar and incorporate expertise at a distance for medical management. His work with NASA for space medicine led to numerous awards from the space agency and long term research support. International projects have included collaborative projects in Pakistan, Ecuador, the Balkans, Russia and Africa. Dr Merrell is an editor-in-chief of Telemedicine and e-Health, the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association. He lectures widely on telemedicine and has over 300 publications.
Prof. S. Yunkap Kwankam
S. Yunkap Kwankam is CEO of Global eHealth Consultants, a Swiss consulting firm based in Geneva. He is also Executive Director of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH). From 2004 until August 2008 he was eHealth Coordinator at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, responsible for overall coordination of eHealth work across the Organization. His work covered development of appropriate frameworks and tools to support policy and practice improvements in ICT-based knowledge management and sharing in countries; creation of, and support to, networks to assist countries in building national capacity for effective and efficient use of ICT in their health systems; and development of the evidence base and best practices in the area.
He holds the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Before joining WHO in 2001, he was Professor and Director, Center for Health Technology, University of Yaounde I in Cameroon. He has also been Chairman, Technology Commission of the National Epidemiology Board of Cameroon; member, Board of Directors, SatelLife; IT consultant to the US National Library of Medicine, and consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on information systems.
Dr. Richard E. Scott
Richard focuses his interests on examining the role of e-health (telehealth + health informatics) in the globalisation of healthcare, including aspects impacting the implementation and integration of e-health globally and locally (‘glocal’ e-health). He promotes the application of ‘culturally sensitive and technologically appropriate’ e-health solutions, and is pursuing collaborative research, capacity building, and implementation activities with colleagues throughout the world.
His research program and interests are directed towards four areas: inter-jurisdictional e-health policy (management and facilitation of the complex interactive trans-border environment of glocal e-health), strategic implementation (developing glocal strategies to guide introduction of appropriate e-health solutions to address current and future needs), outcomes and evaluation (identifying and defining suitable outcome indicators and developing tools and frameworks for rigorous yet pragmatic demonstration of the value of e-health), and environmental e-health (to understand the environmental costs [e.g. e-waste] and benefits [e.g. reduced greenhouse gas and particulate emissions] of e-health). E-mail: rescott@ucalgary.ca (Back-up only: rescotty@hotmail.com)
Dr. Maurice Mars
Maurice Mars is Professor and Head of the Department of TeleHealth at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he was previously Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology. His department initiates telemedicine and tele-education services and he has established postgraduate programmes in both Telemedicine and Medical Informatics. Mars serves on the joint WHO Global Observatory for eHealth and the U21 Global eHealth Policy Committee, chairs the ISfTeH’s Education Working Group and serves on the Editorial Board of the Telemedicine and eHealth Journal. He holds several international and national grants for eHealth development.
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