Innovations and good practices in the health sector - part 2

Prof. Dr. Asen Dudov, MD

Head of the Clinic of Medical Oncology, Acibadem City Clinic Mladost

Prof. Dr. Asen Dudov, MD, is the head of the Clinic of Medical Oncology at "Acibadem City Clinic University Hospital Mladost", medical director of the hospital and chairman of the Bulgarian Oncological Scientific Society.
He specializes in Saint John's College, University of Oxford, UK; Jules Bordet Institute, Belgium; Thoraxklinik Heidelberg, Germany; Gustave Rossy Institute, France; San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA; Harvard Medical School, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, USA; MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA.
Prof. Dudov is a member of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC); European Medical Oncology Association (ESMO); European Organization for the Study and Treatment of Neuroendocrine Tumors (ENETS); American Cancer Research Association (AACR). His interests are focused on the treatment of solid tumors and in particular approaches to overcoming drug resistance. He is also a specialist in the field of targeted therapy of breast cancer, neuroendocrine tumors of the colon and rectum, kidney and prostate.

Prof. Dr. Krassimir Antonov, MD

Chairman of the Bulgarian Society of Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Abdominal Ultrasound

Prof. Dr. Krassimir Antonov, MD, is one of the most prominent hepatologists in Bulgaria. He acquired the specialties Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and Dietetics in 1995 and 2000.
In 2000 he defended his dissertation on "Study of the replication of hepatitis Delta virus (HDV) in the evolution and treatment of chronic Delta infection." and obtains the educational and scientific degree of Doctor. In 2010 he became a doctor of medical sciences with a dissertation on "Chronic HCV infection - characteristics and features of treatment." Since 2012 he has been a professor of gastroenterology. He specializes in the Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College, London. Prof. Antonov is the author of 98 scientific articles, reviews, participations in collections and textbooks in Bulgarian and English; 108 scientific communications at national and international congresses and conferences.
Chairman of the Bulgarian Society of Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Abdominal Ultrasound; member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). Prof. Antonov is responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic viral hepatitis at the Clinic of Gastroenterology at St. Ivan Rilski University Hospital, Sofia.

Art. cor. Prof. Dr. Asen Gudev, MD

Chairperson of the Society of Cardiologists in Bulgaria, Head of the Cardiology Clinic at the University Hospital "Queen Joanna-ISUL"

Corresponding Member Prof. Dr. Asen Gudev, MD, is the head of the Cardiology Clinic at the University Hospital "Queen Joanna - ISUL" since 2004, chairman of the Society of Cardiologists in Bulgaria and chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Medical Specialists, which unites 70 companies of specialists from all medical disciplines. Prof. Gudev specializes in internal medicine and cardiology, specializes in internal medicine and emergency cardiology in the UK, Austria and Germany and public health in the UK.
He is also a member of the board of the Bulgarian League of Hypertension, secretary of the Scientific Medical Society for Internal Medicine, secretary of the Bulgarian Lipid Committee, reviewer of Heart magazine, BMJ Publishing Group London; Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. His research interests are in the areas of disorders of lipid metabolism, preventive cardiology, free radical processes in medicine, vascular adhesive molecules and acute coronary syndrome.

Dr. Kiril Nikolchev

General Manager for Bulgaria, AbbVie

Dr. Kiril Nikolchev has been General Manager for Bulgaria of the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie since 2013. Prior to that, he worked at Abbott Laboratories, where he went through all hierarchical levels - from product to general manager. Prior to joining Abbott, he worked at DePuy, Johnson & Johnson and Solvay Pharma. In 1999 he graduated in medicine at the Medical University in Varna, and in 2012 he obtained a master's degree in business administration from the City University of Seattle.

Dr. Krassimira Chemishanska

Executive Director of Amgen Bulgaria EOOD

Dr. Krassimira Chemishanska is a business leader in the pharmaceutical industry with more than 20 years of experience in the Bulgarian market. He graduated medicine at the Medical University in Sofia and worked for two years as a research associate in the field of clinical immunology. Following the challenges of her professional career, she received a marketing degree, an MBA in General Management from City University Seattle, and a master's degree in management from the International Business School.
From 1994 to 2009, she held various management positions in multinational innovative pharmaceutical companies, as a longtime Marketing Director and Member of the Board of Directors of AstraZeneca.
In 2009 he took on the role of Executive Director of Amgen Bulgaria, opening a branch of the largest biotechnology company in the world in our country and realizing the organization and development of the business on local soil to this day.
Since 2011 she has been a member of the Board of Directors of AmCham, and in 2015 she was elected President of the Chamber - a position she held until the beginning of 2019.
Since 2013, Dr. Chemishanska has been a member of the board of ARPharM and the Junior Achievement Foundation, and since 2019 he has headed the Association of Research Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria in his capacity as Chairman of the Board. She is a longtime member of the BBLF and a lecturer in the Master Classes of the Pharmaceutical Industry Forum.
Dr. Chemishanska is also an honorary member of the Council of the European Business Community and winner of the Golden Seal Award for Innovative Management and Social Responsibility. In 2013 he received the prestigious "Certificate of Appreciation" from the US Department of Commerce for his contribution to the development of bilateral trade and investment in healthcare between the United States and Bulgaria.

Luka Chichov

General Manager, IQVIA Bulgaria

Luka Chichov has been the General Manager of IQVIA Bulgaria since September 2019. Luka has more than 12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, holding various roles in several European countries. From 2009 to 2013 he was part of the global consulting team of IQVIA (IMS Consulting Group) - based in Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, where he works on strategic projects for various pharmaceutical clients in Europe and the United States. He then continued his career in the pharmaceutical industry, holding various positions in Marketing, Sales, Commercial Excellence, his last role before joining IQVIA again being regional director for the German market of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi-Sankyo.
Luca holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, ​​Spain and a Bachelor's degree in International Economics and Management from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.

Deyan Denev

Executive Director, Association of Research Pharmaceutical Companies (ARPharM)

Prof. Dr. Zdravko Kamenov, MD

Head of the Clinic of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the Medical University - Sofia

Prof. Dr. Zdravko Kamenov, MD, is the head of the Clinic of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the University Hospital "Alexandrovska".
He has specialties in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and Internal Medicine and a Master's degree in Health Management, as well as a qualification in Sexual Medicine from the Examination Committee of the European Society of Sexual Medicine. Professor Kamenov was Head of the Department of Internal Medicine for two terms Faculty of Medicine - Sofia and National Consultant in Internal Medicine He is the first Bulgarian doctor to receive for his work in endocrinology the medal of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, as well as a number of Bulgarian awards - "Prof. K. Chilov" of the Faculty of Medicine ; "Golden Panacea" of the Medical University-Sofia "Pythagoras" of the Ministry of Education and Science, etc.
He specializes in endocrinology in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan, Austria, Italy and the United States. Member of a number of boards of local and international professional organizations and editorial boards of scientific journals. There are over 270 publications, of which 130 in international journals, cited more than 2,000 times abroad.

adv. 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.

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.

Alexander Simidchiev, MD

Deputy Chairman of the Healthcare Committee of the 47th National Assembly

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.

Dr. Svetoslav Tsenov

Deputy Chairman of the Board of ARPharM and Director of Astellas for Bulgaria

Dr. Svetoslav Tsenov is the Executive Director for Bulgaria of the pharmaceutical company Astellas. He graduated in medicine and finance, with more than 12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held various local and international positions in the field of marketing, medical activities, relations with institutions in multinational companies.

Georgi Kudrev

Executive Director, Kelvin Health AD

In 2008, Georgi created the Imagga project, which grew into a technology leader in the field of image recognition based on artificial intelligence worldwide. It was recognized as a "Global Innovator in the Image Analysis Area" for 2016 by IDC.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Imagga co-founded Kelvin Health, an artificial intelligence thermal imaging company that set itself the ambitious goal of making screening and monitoring of a number of health conditions and diseases accessible and harmless. . This would allow the prevention of complications and prevention to detect unsuspected health problems.
Georgi himself was also awarded as one of "30 under 30" by Forbes Bulgaria for 2013.

Momchil Zarev

Chief Commercial Officer at Sirma Solutions AD

Evgenia Alexandrova

Chairman of the Association of Cancer Patients (APOZ)

Dr. Slaveyko Djambazov, PhD

Executive Director, Health Technology Assessment

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tonka Varleva, Ph.D.

Director of the Health Promotion, Disease and Addiction Prevention Directorate, Ministry of Health

Prof. Dr. Plamen Dimitrov, MD

Deputy Director of the National Center for Public Health and Analysis and Director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kaloyan Davidov

Medical Director and Head of the Urology Department, Acibadem City Clinic Tokuda Hospital

Dr. Asen Kelchev, d.m.

Head of Cardiac Surgery Department at Acibadem City Clinic - Cardiovascular Center

Dr. Valeri Gelev, MD

Head of the Cardiology Clinic at Acibadem City Clinic Tokuda Hospital

Dr. Maria Yankova

Manager of Oscar Clinic and President of the Association of Maternal and Fetal Medicine

Biliana Dimitrova

Founder of "St. Raphael" Foundation

Biliana Dimitrova is among the founders of  "St. Raphael" Foundation, that built the first sheltered housing for people with mental suffering in Pancharevo. She joined the cause due to the lack of such a service in our country. The sheltered housing has a bed capacity for 20 users and a day center. She has many years of experience in the field of hospitality and import of fast moving consumer goods from the European Union to the Bulgarian market.