SPEAKERS

Dr. Mélodie Bernaux, Policy officer – Seconded national expert | European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Unit C1 - Digital Health

Dr. Mélodie Bernaux, MD, MPH, MSc,  is a seasoned medical doctor specialising in public health. She currently serves as a seconded national expert in the Digital Health Unit of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (SANTE C1) at the European Commission. In this role, her primary focus is on the secondary use of health data and leveraging artificial intelligence in healthcare. She plays a pivotal role in leading support actions and participating in critical negotiations. Before her tenure at the European Commission, Dr. Bernaux worked at the French Ministry of Health's Digital Health Delegation, where she led the contribution of France to the European Health Data Space Regulation and established European ethical principles for digital health. Her earlier experience includes a position as a Medical Officer for Human Reproduction, Embryology, and Genetics at the French Ministry of Health's Directorate-General for Health. There, she led the 2021 revision and application of the French bioethics laws, covering areas such as medically assisted reproduction, genetics, AI in healthcare, and the medical care of intersex children. Her expertise was further recognised at the Council of Europe's Bioethics Committee, where she chaired working groups on intersex children and public dialogue on genomic medicine. Dr. Bernaux's involvement in healthcare policy and management began at the Greater Paris University Hospitals. There, her responsibilities encompassed strategic project management, including oversight of the COVID data task force and secondary use of healthcare data (electronic health records).

Elizabeth Jenning, Managing Partner | Venture Atlas Labs

As a Managing Partner at Venture Atlas Labs, a commercialisation firm that supports global companies in US market success alongside investors, government agencies, and innovation centres, Elizabeth is focused on solving the most challenging commercial problems that new healthcare technologies face. In addition to strategic partnership creation through VAL’s SCALE programme and capital syndication with CVCs, her expertise is in aligning commercial models between countries to enable greater scale, stronger health economics, and much quicker adoption.
She is retained by various investment funds, governments, and international agencies; is the international partner for the American College of Cardiology's MedAxiom; serves as a grant reviewer for the US Department of Defence; and is a frequent speaker at workshops and conferences. She has authored multiple studies and guidebooks commissioned by foreign trade agencies, including “US Health Economics: How the US Thinks About Value from Fee-for-Service to Value-Based Models” for New Zealand, “Value-Based Model Translation and Care in the US”, and “Commercialisation and Procurement for US Hospitals” for Denmark.
She has worked on each side of the innovation ecosystem in the US, as well as Australia, Latin America, Canada, and Europe, and across startups, large public companies, academia, government, and investment. She served one of the fastest-growing impact-driven business angel networks in the US, SWAN Impact, from the Board of Directors for the last five years.

Nele Labi, Deputy Secretary General for Innovation | Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs

As Deputy Secretary General for Innovation at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, Nele Labi leads national efforts in developing e-services, promoting innovation in health and social care, strategic planning, and data-driven policy. She is passionate about proactive government services and integrating healthcare and social services through user-centred and seamless digital solutions. She advocates for innovation that transcends traditional sectoral boundaries. Estonia’s leadership in digital governance provides a powerful platform for these advancements.

Daniel Naumovas, Vice-Minister of Health | Republic of Lithuania

Daniel Naumovas is a young biomedical scientist and currently serves as Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Health. He was among the first to initiate the development of a national biobank and actively contributed to its growth. Over his career, he has led three Horizon projects funded by the European Commission and co-authored numerous scientific publications. His expertise includes molecular diagnostics, single-cell omics, cryobiology, cell therapy, stem cell research, and bioethics. As Vice-Minister, he oversees health innovation policy, covering pharmacy, personalised medicine, clinical research, data science, artificial intelligence, and the implementation of advanced treatment technologies in Lithuania’s healthcare system.

Dr. Jaanus Pikani, Chairman | ScanBalt / Member of the Board | Tartu Biotechnology Park

Elina Drakvik, Senior Lead | Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund | TEHDAS2 joint action

Jaanika Merilo, Head of Digital Health and Care | Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs

Michel Silvestri, Head of Unit at the Coordination Department | Swedish eHealth Agency  

Michel is a Biomedical Scientist and PhD, with a background as a University Lecturer at Karolinska Institutet and laboratory manager at Visby Hospital, Gotland. Michel is Senior Advisor at the Swedish eHealth Agency, with past and current leadership in government assignments for national digital infrastructure as well as within EU and Nordic projects preparing for the European Health Data Space, EHDS. This includes EU projects such as TEHDAS, X-eHealth and the current Xt-EHR, as well as the VALO Project (Value from Nordic Health Data) under the Nordic Council of Ministers. Michel was also a member of the Swedish team for EU negotiations of the EHDS regulation.

Leon Doorn, CEO and Co-Founder of MedQAIR

Leon Doorn has been working in the field of medical devices for over 15 years, focusing on quality and regulatory affairs. He holds a master's degree in Life Sciences. For the last 10 years, he has been working with Artificial Intelligence techniques implemented within medical devices. In 2024, he founded MedQAIR, a regulatory, quality, and information security consulting firm. Additionally, he serves as the chair of the Dutch working group on AI/ML-enabled medical devices, which is part of the Dutch JTC 21 & JTC1 SC standardisation committees. 

Henry HO, Associate Professor/Executive Director |  National Health Innovation Centre in Singapore (NHIC)

 Henry Ho is the Executive Director of the National Health Innovation Centre Singapore (NHIC), which marked its 10th anniversary in 2024 in supporting innovation, commercialisation, adoption, and transformation for healthcare in Singapore. He is also the Chairman, Division of Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Singapore General Hospital and National Cancer Centre Singapore; Academic Chair of Surgery, Academic Clinical Programme, SingHealth DUKE-NUS. As a Senior Consultant in SGH Urology department, he specialises in robotic surgery for prostate and kidney cancer, and benign prostate enlargement. Henry is also the inaugural graduate of the Singapore – Stanford Biodesign Scholars programme. He started his innovation journey with Mona Lisa, a robotic medical device for accurate and safer prostate biopsy for cancer diagnosis. The start-up, Biobot Surgical, has since raised series B funding and has been successfully adopted in Germany, Italy and Australia. In addition, he played a critical role in shaping the SingHealth innovation ecosystem and launched several initiatives such as the Medical Technology Office (MTO) and the Alice Lee Innovation Centre of Excellence (A.L.I.C.E).