E-solutions for better health

Prof. Asena Serbezova, Ph.D.

Chairperson of the Board of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union

Prof. Asena Stoimenova, Ph.D., DPh Sofia and Master's degree in Health Policy and Pharmacoeconomics from Barcelona School of Management, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. From November 2008 to July 2018 she held the positions of Senior Assistant, Chief Assistant and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, MU Sofia. In July 2018, after a competition, Prof. Serbezova was appointed at the Faculty of Public Health, MU Sofia.
Author and co-author of more than 150 publications in the field of drug policy, quality management in healthcare, еtc.
Chairperson of the Quality Commission of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union (2007-2010) and Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union for the period 2010-2013. Since 2019 she was elected Chairperson of BPU. Member of the National Council on Prices and Reimbursement of Medicinal Products (2013-2104). During the period July 2014 August 2018 she was the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Medicines under the Minister of Health. Member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency from 2014 to 2018.
Member of the Scientific Committee for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products for Human Use (CEMPHU) of the European Medicines Agency. Member of the Health Technology Assessment Commission (02.2016-08.2018). For the period 07.2018-08.2019 Prof. Serbezova is an advisor to the Minister of Health in the field of drug policy.
Leading researcher of research projects from GRANT-2014 and GRANT-2012 at the Medical University of Sofia, funded by the Council of Medical Science and participant in research teams in the development and implementation of seven projects from GRANT-2016, GRANT-2015, GRANT-2014, GRANT -2012 and GRANT-2011.Winner of the Award of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union "Master of Pharmacy of the Year" in 2011 and the Award of the Bulgarian Football Union for contribution to the development of pharmacy in Bulgaria - 2008.

Dimitar Marinov

Secretary General of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union

He graduated in pharmacy at the Medical University of Sofia in 2004.
He has a specialty in Organization and Economics of Distribution and Pharmacy Practice and a doctorate in Social Medicine and Health Management.
Since 2009 he has been a member of the Management Board of the Sofia Regional Pharmaceutical College, and in 2013-2019 he was Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of RFC Sofia.
Since February 2020 he has been the General Secretary of the Board of the Bulgarian Football Union.

Konstantin Boev

Director of Digital and Multichannel Strategies at Astellas Pharma

Konstantin Boev is Director of Digital and Multichannel Strategies at Astellas Pharma. He has more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing and digital transformations. He has held management positions in companies such as Progress Software (Telerik), Philip Morris, and was also the founder of a digital consulting agency.
In 2007 graduated in Business Administration and Information Systems at the American University in Bulgaria.

Sachin Sony

Senior Manager, Segment Marketing, Equinix

Sachin Sony is a senior manager and cloud evangelist at Equinix, responsible for managing and evolving their Cloud & IT services ecosystem across EMEA. He has over 14 years of experience in the telecom industry. Prior to joining Equinix, Sachin held positions in a variety of roles including product management, product marketing and business development. At Level 3, he was responsible for driving the product management and marketing strategy for their cloud, security, data centre and content delivery network solutions. He joint Equinix in 2014 and has since been advising service providers and  enterprises across manufacturing, healthcare, automotive and Energy on numerous areas including digital transformation, hybrid multi-cloud adoption, network agility, security and application optimization.

Deyan Prokopov

Manager at Gamma Consult

Deyan Prokopov has over 20 years of experience in company management and implementation of business development projects. His competencies as a manager are in creating and imposing new products and services for the Bulgarian market in the field of information technologies. He has over 15 years of experience in the development and implementation of information systems and technologies in the field of healthcare. He leads the analysis and design and development of software systems and databases in the field of healthcare. Since 1995 participation in various projects and joint work with Bulgarian and foreign experts of the NHIF, MH, NCHI, CFUTZ, WB, USAID, KPMG, Bulgarian Health Project, 3M, Health Level 7Australia. In the period 1995-2011 development and implementation of information solutions with different scope in over 250 medical institutions for hospital care in the country. Among our most important partners: Military Medical Academy, University Hospital "St. Marina "Varna, University Hospital Pleven, University Hospital Alexandrovska, Tokuda Hospital Sofia, Stara Zagora Hospital, University Hospital Queen Joanna, etc.

Iliyana Paunova

Executive Director of the Bulgarian Organization for Verification of Medicines (BOVL)

Iliana Paunova is the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Organization for Verification of Medicines (BOVL). The association was established in April 2016 by the five organizations representing stakeholders in the implementation of Directive 2011/62 / EU in Bulgaria.
Prior to that, as Director of GlaxoSmithKline for Bulgaria and the Adriatic, she worked for the development of the pharmaceutical industry and the introduction of innovative projects and investments in our country and the region. She has been Chair and Vice President of the Association of Research Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ARPharM) several times.
In 2020, Iliana Paunova was invited by the European Organization for the Verification of Medicinal Products (EMVO) to participate in the working group for the implementation of the Directive against falsified medicines for medicines and vaccines for COVID-19 in the Member States of the European Economic Area.
She graduated in Informatics at the University of National and World Economy and specialized in Finance, Marketing and Management at INSEAD, Henley Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management and others.

Prof. Dr. Petko Salchev

Manager of the National Health Insurance Fund

He graduated in Medicine in 1987 and Economics in 2003. From 1989 to 2011 he worked at the Department of Social Medicine and Health Management at MU - Sofia, having passed through all scientific and teaching degrees - assistant, chief assistant, associate professor. In the period 2008-2011 he was the Head of the Department. In 2001 he defended his dissertation on "The role of the general practitioner in Bulgaria". In 2003 he was elected associate professor, and in 2012 professor of social medicine. In 1996-1997 he was the Director of RHI - Sofia city. 2001-2003 - Director of Queen Joanna University Hospital. 2003 -2005 - Deputy Minister of Health. In November 2011 he was appointed to the Macroeconomics Section of the Institute for Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Since 2011 he has been the Director of the Classification Systems Directorate at the NCPHA, which in 2015 was renamed the Classification Systems, Standards and Innovations Directorate. On March 13, 2020, with the votes of the MPs from the 44th National Assembly, he was elected governor of the National Health Insurance Fund.

Dipl. Eng. Mihail Kalachev

Manager of SKYWARE Group

He graduated in Robotics, at the Faculty of Automation, TU-Sofia in 1997. He has been working as a service engineer of laboratory equipment of Ciba Corning and Shimadzu at Perfect Medica Ltd. In 1999 he created the first in Bulgaria Laboratory Information System (LIS iLab) through his company SKYWARE Group Ltd. LIS iLab for the first time in Bulgaria used material barcoding and LIS-device connection. In 2001 he implemented the first online lab results. In 2004 he was the main developer of the first electronic reporting system of the National Health Insurance Fund at Manro Ltd. He works actively in LIS and HIS integration projects, successfully integrating six different HIS into LIS iLab. In March 2006, the Arenal electronic referral system was developed and put into operation, through which a two-way connection between doctors and laboratories is carried out at national level.
 

Deyan Denev

Executive Director, Association of Research Pharmaceutical Companies (ARPharM)

Mr. Deyan Denev has been the Director of ARPharM since October 2003. Lawyer by education, graduated from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski ", expert in pharmaceutical legislation and drug policy. As director of the association, he leads the activities of the pharmaceutical pharmaceutical research industry on key issues concerning drug policy and regulations, intellectual property and the development of the pharmaceutical market.
Member of the Transparency Commission as a representative of the pharmaceutical industry in Bulgaria from January 2008 to February 2013.

Dr. Yavor Drenski

Executive Director of Assarel Panagyurishte Health

Dr. Yavor Drenski is CEO of Assarel Panagyurishte Zdrave Ltd. - the company governing UniHospital Pamagyurishte Hospital and the whole medical complex around it. was the CEO of Tokuda Hospital Sofia from January 2011 until July 2016. He has been а team member of the Japanese hospital since its founding and he was consecutively the administrative director (2005 – 2009) and the medical director (2010 – 2011) of the hospital.
Dr. Drenski graduated in medicine from Medical University, Sofia, in 1992. He continued his education with a specialization in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He worked as a physician for eight years, three of which in Libya.
Dr. Drenski graduated from the master’s degree programme in Healthcare Management in 2009, he holds a master’s degree in Finance from 2003, he has several specializations in the field of hospital management and hospital finances. He specialized in the USA, Switzerland, Hungary, Great Britain, Japan, and other countries.
From 2000 until 2005, Dr. Drenski was an international consultant in healthcare for global companies such as Bearing Point (USA), 3M, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and others.
From 2002 until 2004, he was head of the Hospital Care Department of the National Health Insurance Fund.
During the Founding Assembly of the National Association of the Private Hospitals, on 16 February 2013, he was elected as a chairman of the organization, unifying the private healthcare institutions in Bulgaria.
In 2015, Dr. Yavor Drenski received the award "Hospital Manager of 2015" during the National Medical Awards. In November 2015, he received the award "Manager of 2015" in the campaign "Junior Medical Specialist", organized by the newspaper Standart, Darik Radio, and the Ministry of Healthcare in order to actively support the development of young physicians and health care professionals.
On 3 November 2016, he was elected as a chairman of the Administrative Board of the Bulgarian Association for Personalized Medicine.

Kountcho Trifonov, MD, MBA

Founder and Manager at HealthPR

Kountcho Trifonov, MD, MBA is healthcare and pharmaceutical sector professional with 6 years of experience as GM of biopharmaceutical company (Organon Bulgaria – 1997-2003) and more than 14 years of experience as GM of healthcare and pharmaceutical sector servicing company (IMS Bulgaria – 2003-2017), along with 6 years of experience as academic teaching physician as Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine (1991-1997). The strong assets of Dr. K. Trifonov include but are not limited to complex consulting projects management, extensive data projects, client servicing outsourcing processes, sales force effectiveness consulting and efficacy improvements. Recent involvement of Dr. K. Trifonov includes digital healthcare and in detail in digital communication tools with HCP for pharmaceutical industry.

Maria Sharkova

Managing partner in Sharkova & Partners Law Firm

Lawyer Maria Sharkova is a managing partner in Sharkova & Partners Law Firm. The company's team has many years of experience in consulting medical institutions, non-governmental organizations and patients and successfully leads cases in the field of healthcare. Lawyer Sharkova specializes in the United States and has worked as an intern in the Legal Program of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. In the field of medical law, there are many short-term trainings in the Netherlands, Spain and other European countries, and recently acquired the right to train for the Council of Europe platform HELP.

Nevena Preslavska

Business Development Manager at Alcor Soft EOOD

Nevena Preslavska has a master's degree in engineering technology. In 2006 he completed a second master's degree at the University of National and World Economy with a specialization in Japan in Global Management and Leadership.
From 1994 to 2002 she worked at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Author of numerous publications in specialized scientific journals.
Since 2002 she has been working in the private sector for companies that create software in the field of healthcare. She has almost 20 years of experience in the design and development of specialized software for healthcare facilities - pharmacies, hospices, hospitals, pharmaceutical warehouses for wholesale.
Actively participates on behalf of software developers in communication with the NHIF, MH, BFU, BOVL in the development of projects such as: electronic reporting of pharmacies in the NHIF, the system for verification of drugs, the system for tracking drugs from BDA - SESPA and electronic prescription.
She is currently Business Development Manager at Alcor Soft EOOD - a software company that specializes in the creation and distribution of specialized pharmaceutical and medical software.

Alexander Simidchiev, MD

Head of Non-Invasive Diagnostics Department, Medical Institute at the Ministry of the Interior

Dr. Alexander Simidchiev has three medical specialties, but he practices pulmonology most biasedly. He is the head of the Department of Non-Invasive Diagnostics at the Medical Institute of the Ministry of Interior, he is also part of the team of the Pulmonology Department and the Respiratory Function Testing Laboratory at Lozenets University Hospital, a member of the Bulgarian Society of Pulmonary Diseases and the European Respiratory Society. He is a former pulmonologist in chief of GlaxoSmithKline, Canada. He has specialized at the Ruhrland Clinic in Essen, Germany and Hôpital de la Charité, Paris, France.

Nedyalko Kalachev

Manager of Cibalab Laboratories

Radina Velcheva

Founder and Chief National Coordinator of the "I Want a Baby" Foundation

Founder and longtime main national coordinator of the "I Want a Baby" Foundation, a member of the European Association of Patients with Reproductive Problems "Fertility Europe". She has extensive experience in developing media and health projects related to the reproductive health of young people in Bulgaria; initiator of state policies in the field of reproductive health; member of the Public Council of the State Fund in vitro. Initiator for the creation of regional policies related to reproductive health and development of regulations for the functioning of municipal in vitro funds.
Initiator for the creation of the first National Program for emotional and social adaptation of couples with reproductive disorders - since 2008.
Between 2006 and 2008 she led a media project on the "Communication Strategy of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria for EU Membership" in connection with the strategy for demographic development of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.
She is currently a PR manager at Tissue Bank for Stem Cells "Bioregeneration", where he is involved in the development of information campaigns and media projects related to tissue banking in Bulgaria.
She graduated from the Faculty of Slavic Philology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski ", specialist in Bulgarian language and literature. She has a postgraduate qualification in "Marketing, Advertising and Business Communications" at UNWE. Master of Integrative Bioethics at Sofia University.

Ivaylo Stoyanov

Corporate Client Manager, Hewlett Packard Enterprise managed by Selectium

Ivaylo Stoyanov is responsible for corporate customer relations at Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium. He is involved in a number of key projects related to innovative technological solutions for some of the leading businesses in the country and public organizations. Ivaylo has more than 20 years of experience in the field of high technologies with wide expertise in projects related to the development and implementation of complex technological solutions in Bulgaria and abroad.

Dr. Petar Velev

CredoWeb Manager

Dr. Petar Velev graduated in medicine in Sofia. Founder and manager of the pharmaceutical company Ecopharm. Together with an Austrian company he owns a pharmaceutical plant in Botevgrad, which works for over 40 countries. Founder of the digital communication platform in the health sector CredoWeb.

Dr. Asen Medzhidiev

Head of Ear, Nose, Throat Department, NI Pirogov University Hospitalж

He graduated medicine at the Medical University of Sofia in 1994.

He has a one-year internship in the Lung Diseases Department of the Fifth City Clinical Hospital as a resident doctor. From 1995 to December 2011 he worked as an ENT specialist and bronchoscopist at the University Hospital "St. Anna", Clinic of Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Specialties: ENT specialty, bronchology.
Publications: 10 on ENT and bronchology in Bulgarian and international publications
Participation in forums - 3 world congresses on ENT - Rome, Cairo and Sao Paulo.
Member of the BMA.
Conducted specializations - Germany, Berlin, University Hospital "Sharite" - rhinoseptoplasty - Croatia, Zagreb, University Hospital - endoscopic surgery of the nose and sinuses.
Since March 30, 2018, Dr. Asen Medjiev is Chairman of the Sofia Medical College at the Bulgarian Medical Association.

Dr. Kostadin Sotirov

Bulgarian Medical Association

Since 1986 until now he works in the village of Belashtitsa, district Plovdiv as a general practitioner.
He defended his specialty in General Medicine in 1999. He has been a member of the Bulgarian Medical Association since 1991.
He has been a member of the National Association of General Practitioners in Bulgaria since 2003.
Since 2017 he has been a member of the Management Board of NSOPLB.
He is the founder of the Association of General Practitioners Plovdiv, and since 2017 he is a chairman of the Association of General Practitioners Plovdiv.
He is a representative of BMA and NSOPLB in the talks on building the e-health system in Bulgaria from 2019.