Denis Coulombier

Biography

Dr Denis Coulombier is a medical doctor, specialist in tropical diseases and in public health. He has an extensive international experience worldwide, including preparing for large sporting events in the field of communicable disease and response, acquired as a surveillance manager in 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, as a coordinator of public health surveillance and response in the 1998 FIFA world cup in France and as a WHO advisor for public health surveillance in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991 and subsequently worked in the Epidemiology Programme Office of the CDC in health. In 2000, Dr Denis Coulombier was seconded to the World Health Organisation to lead the team in charge of epidemiology capacity strengthening. Since the start up of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)in May 2005 and until March 2011, Dr Denis Coulombier was the head of unit for preparedness and response and since April 2011 he is the head of unit for Surveillance and Response Support. The centre is established in Stockholm, Sweden.

S. Yunkap Kwankam

Biography

Prof. S. Yunkap Kwankam holds the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, and was elected to the following American honor associations; Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering), Tau Beta Pi (Engineering) and Sigma Xi (Research). He is currently CEO of Global eHealth Consultants, based in Geneva Switzerland. He is also Executive Director, International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH). From 2004 until August 2008 he was Coordinator eHealth, at the World Health Organization, Geneva Switzerland, where he was responsible for overall coordination of eHealth work across the Organization. In this role, he oversaw a number of WHO programs on the use of ICT in health. His work covered issues such as 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 also directed the development of new policies and their implementation and provides authoritative advice in relation to policy and procedures as they relate to eHealth.

Before joining WHO in 2001, he was Professor and Director, Center for Health Technology, University of Yaounde I. He has also been Chairman, Technology Commission of the National Epidemiology Board of Cameroon; member, Board of Directors, SatelLife; IT consultant to the NLM, and consultant to UNIDO on information systems. Prof. Kwankam has published 2 commissioned books, numerous scientific papers and technical reports.