Fellows

Khulud Alharbi is an Assistant Professor specializing in health economics and health services management research. She has been actively involved in various projects aimed at developing tools to screen for frailty in Saudi Arabia, collaborating closely with the Ministry of Health. Additionally, she leads the research unit in the Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics, where she spearheads projects focused on improving the health of the elderly and caregivers in the country.

Alharbi's dedication to addressing the healthcare needs of the elderly population in Saudi Arabia is evident through her leadership in several initiatives and collaborations with key stakeholders. Her expertise in health economics and management research has positioned her as a valuable asset in advancing the understanding and implementation of effective healthcare strategies.

Furthermore, Alharbi is a member of the Saudi Society of Home Care, showcasing her commitment to promoting and enhancing home care services for those in need. Through her work and leadership roles, Alharbi continues to make significant contributions to the field of healthcare in Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Sophiya Benjamin is a geriatric psychiatrist with extensive experience in clinical practice, research, and education. She holds an MHSc from Duke University and an MBBS from Christian Medical College in India. Dr. Benjamin is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in both Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry.
Currently, Dr. Benjamin serves as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McMaster University and holds the Schlegel Chair for Mental Health in Aging. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of GeriMedRisk, a consultation and education service aimed at optimizing geriatric pharmacology.
Dr. Benjamin's clinical expertise is complemented by her active involvement in research, focusing on evidence-based interventions for older adults, particularly in the areas of insomnia and medication optimization. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to education and clinical practice, including the Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching and Mentorship Award from McMaster University.
An active member of several professional organizations, Dr. Benjamin has made significant contributions to the field of geriatric psychiatry through her leadership roles, scholarly activities, and dedication to improving mental health care for older adults. Her work is widely recognized and respected both nationally and internationally.

Aynie Berhane, (M.Sc., M.ph.) is a senior monitoring and evaluation and public health
expert with more than twenty years of experience in the higher education industry in
Ethiopia. He is currently serving as an academic and research vice president at KEA-
MED University College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Aynie is a senior healthcare researcher
with special focus on the health and well being of older adults. He has a profound
experience in doing and advising quantitative research areas. He is also highly engaged
in strategic planning, project planning & implementation, resource mobilization, capacity
building and monitoring and evaluation areas.

Aynie is an interRAI fellow since 2023 and Ethiopia country coordinator of the Pan
African Utilization of Lay Assessment Systems (PAULAS) research project on aging.
Aynie has a Master’s of science degree in Monitoring and Evaluation from Addis Ababa
University and Master of public health in general public health from the same University,
and a Bachelor of Education from Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia).

Dr. Iwona Bielska is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with work experience in academic and government settings. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Policy and Management, Institute of Public Health at Jagiellonian University, as well as an Assistant Professor (Part-Time) in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University. Dr. Bielska is certified as a Project Management Professional. Previously, she held the position of Lead for Business Intelligence and Analytics at Ontario Health, where she worked on health system planning and resource allocation among various populations, including those from marginalised communities. Her research focuses on investigating healthcare access and healthcare use patterns among vulnerable groups, such as refugees, immigrant populations, patients with multiple chronic conditions, residents of long-term care homes, and those experiencing homelessness. Dr. Bielska is leading the Polish-Ukrainian arm of a qualitative study for the Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict and Forced Displacement, where she is investigating the humanitarian response system and the health needs of refugees from Ukraine who were displaced to Poland due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Through this project, she is also researching the barriers and facilitators to accessing health services, and the resulting healthcare system adaptations. Dr. Bielska is involved in international research projects with academics from the United Kingdom and Canada. She is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Dr. Claudina Elington Cayetano, MD, MPH, is a psychiatrist with more than thirty years of experience in the mental health system and policy reform, service delivery, stigma reduction, and integration of mental health services into all levels of care. Her formative experiences as a mental health advisor at the country level and her commitment to advancing the rights of people with mental health conditions have equipped her well for her regional position. During her practice, she has advised governments on national policies related to mental health service delivery.

After obtaining her Medical Degree at Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala, she completed her Postgraduate Degree in Psychiatry at McGill University, Department of Psychiatry in Montreal, Canada, and her master’s in public health from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.

She also served as the director of the Mental Health Program for the Ministry of Health, Government of Belize, from 1995 to 2012, and for over a decade, she was the only psychiatrist in the country. During that time, she provided technical support to the Pan American Health Organization to various Caribbean and Latin American Countries on the organization of mental health services.

In 2012, Dr. Cayetano joined the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) as the Mental Health Regional Advisor, initially based in Panama. She worked in Washington, DC, from 2015 until her retirement in May 2025. During this time, she provided technical cooperation to PAHO’s Member States in all matters related to mental health policy, humanitarian crises, suicide prevention, brain health, including child and adolescent mental health as a public health issue.
Dr. Cayetano is a strong advocate for the rights of people with mental health conditions, integrating clinical expertise with policy and leadership. She has also contributed chapters to several publications.

Among her honors, she received the 2011 Laureate Award for “Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Mental Health Care,” presented by the Swiss Foundation for World Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization. More recently, she was recognized by the University of Edinburgh on International Women’s Day 2025 for her pivotal role in addressing pesticide-related suicides

Dr. Enock Madalitso Chisati is an Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), Malawi. He holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology obtained from the University of Malawi, College of Medicine in 2020, and a Master of Science Degree in Exercise Physiology and Sports Sciences obtained from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway in 2014.

Dr. Chisati is a member of the Academic Standards and Compliance Committee (ASCCo), a subcommittee of the KUHeS senate. Since 2020, he has been the Country Contact for Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA), As a GoPA country representative, he is part of a strong global network of over 164 countries dedicated to physical activity and health research, policies, and surveillance at the national level. Additionally, he is a member of the Malawi Anti-Doping Organisation and an Academic Editor of the PLOS ONE Journals since 2022. Dr. Chisati’s research interests are in physical exercises and health as well as sports performance and injury prevention. He has a number of peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in the area of exercise and health associated with his name (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5596-9386).

Prof Tracy Comans is the Director of the National Ageing Research Institute, a position she leverages to influence aged care policy and quality on a national scale. She is also an interRAI fellow and a Professor in the School of Public Health, University of Queensland and honorary Professor, University of Melbourne. With her extensive background in health policy, health economics and physiotherapy, Prof Comans brings a unique perspective to her role, bridging the gap between evidence and policy. Prof Comans has been instrumental in shaping aged care policy, using her research to inform and influence implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations. Her work has led to significant advancements in the reporting of the quality of aged care services.

Andrew Costa is the Schlegel Research Chair in Clinical Epidemiology & Aging and an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact as well the Department of Medicine at McMaster University (https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/acosta). He serves as the Scientific Director of the St. Joseph’s Centre for Integrated Care (https://stjoescic.ca/) and is an Associate Scientific Director of the Canada Longitudinal Study on Aging. He is an interRAI Fellow, and member of the Instruments and Systems Development (ISD) Committee. His program of research makes use of health information (‘big data’) to target, develop, and evaluate models of care in home and community care, emergency departments, hospitals, and long-term care (https://bdg.mcmaster.ca/). He also leads work on digital platforms that help patients and their caregivers navigate home and community care services (https://www.yourcareplus.ca). From 2014 to 2022, he has over 100 publications and has held more than $8 million CAD in research funding as the nominated primary investigator.

I am a clinical psychologist and research manager at LUCAS KU Leuven – Center for Care Research & Consultancy, led by prof. Anja Declercq. My research adopts a public (mental) health perspective and examines the integration of multiple care levels and service types in mental health care with home care, primary care, social services, acute care, youth care, services for people with disabilities, and elderly care, as well as with employment, education, and the justice system. Specifically:

1. I investigate how collaboration across sectors within primary care enhances access to mental health care.
2. I am developing a decision-support tool to guide referrals to appropriate psychological care within both primary and specialized care settings.
3. I am developing and evaluating an integrated BelRAI assessment system tailored to individuals with mental health needs. I also study its implementation in primary care, respite care, mental health care, and penitentiary care. Because sustainable implementation is essential, my work includes implementation research on how facilities, care providers, umbrella organizations, and governments assume their roles in this process. This research is embedded in the international interRAI consortium, where I serve as a fellow and vice-chair of the interRAI Network for Mental Health.
4. I conduct intersectoral research on the monitoring, prevention, and use of seclusion and restraint in residential care settings.
   The interdisciplinary, co-creative, and policy-relevant nature of my research enhances its practical impact. In addition to national and international publications and conference presentations, my research has led to multidisciplinary guidelines for care providers and managers, BelRAI assessment tools for individuals with mental health needs, and policy reforms concerning the organization of mental health care and the reduction of seclusion and restraint in integrated youth care.

My familiarity with the professional field in which my research findings are applied further reinforces this impact. During the first part of my career (1998–2016), I worked at the KU Leuven University Psychiatric Center. As a behavioral therapist, I provided psychotherapy to individuals with mood disorders, personality disorders, and/or eating disorders, as well as support to their families. I earned my doctoral degree in 2014. My doctoral research, conducted with prof. Dirk Hermans, prof. Guido Pieters (†), and prof. Laurence Claes, examined automatic perfectionism associations in students and individuals with an eating disorder.

Dr Egbujie is an Implementation and Research Scientist at the Toronto Grace Health Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, University of Waterloo. He is an Associate Fellow of the interRAI Network, an international consortium of researchers spanning over 40 countries, and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications.

His research focuses on ageing, physical function trajectories in older adults, and the application of data-driven approaches to improve care in both institutional and community settings. A licensed medical doctor in Nigeria (MDCN) and South Africa (HPCSA), he has over a decade of experience supporting public health programs across sub-Saharan Africa and brings advanced expertise in data analytics and machine learning, with a strong commitment to translating research into policy and practice to improve outcomes for ageing populations.

Dr. Elliott is a Scientist with Lawson Research Institute, and Adjunct Research Professor at Western University (Faculty of Health Sciences & Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry). Jacobi is also the Director, Research & Strategy, for the Regional Geriatric Program of Southwestern Ontario hosted by St. Joseph's Health Care London (Canada). She has relevant expertise in health system integration, patient and caregiver engagement, geriatric health system challenges, and mixed methods and case study approaches. Dr. Elliott completed her PhD in Health Studies and Gerontology from the University of Waterloo and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award with the Canadian Frailty Network (NCE). In her Director Role, Dr. Elliott works across health care settings, to implement and evaluate best practices, including standardized assessments, to better care for older adults and their caregivers.

Elton Ferlin is a research engineer at the Biostatistics and Data Analysis Unit at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in both Physics and Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and an MBA in Data Science and Analytics from the University of São Paulo. He has developed software and hardware solutions for instrumentation, acoustics, and teaching applications, holding 10 patents in Brazil and 2 abroad. His expertise encompasses a wide range of areas including heart rate variability, hypertension, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, and the modeling of electrophysiological signals. Research interests include spatio-temporal analysis in epidemiology, big data models and data-driven decision-making.

Professor Jason Ferris is a drug and alcohol epidemiologist and biostatistician with over 20 years of public health research experience. He leads the Global Substance Use and Mental Health Unit and is the Director of the Research and Statistical Support Service (RASSS) in the Faculty of Medicine. University of Queensland. His extensive research portfolio, at the intersection of Substance Use and Mental Health, represents his efforts to increase public understanding of the harmful impacts of substances on mental and physical health. Involved in more than 50 funded research projects (over $50M) as a chief investigator. He is also the Chief Biostatistician for the Global Drug Survey since 2013. 2020 The University of Queensland recognised his contributions to his research field: he was awarded and Academic Leader of the Future Award, and in 2019 The Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher within the Centre for Health Services.

Head of Psychiatry and Mental Health Department. Complejo Asistencial de Zamora/Zamora Hospital. Head of Psychiatry Research Group of the Biomedicine Research Institute (IBSAL). Associate Professor of the Salamanca University (Dpto. PETRA). Member of the Salamanca Medicine Academy. Secretary of the Ethical Committee for Research of Zamora. President of the Spanish Geriatric Psychiatry Association. Member of the board of Interdem Network (www.interdem.org) and the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Vjenka Garms-Homolová, has PhD in Psychology, is Professor Emeritus for Health Management at the Alice Salomon University, and Honorary Professor for Theory and Practice of Health Services Research at the Technical University of Berlin. She worked as a Health Scientist for most of her academic career. Her research focuses on health care for chronically ill and elderly people and on coping with disabilities in the social context. She is an active member of the State Network for Women's Health (www.frauengesundheit-berlin.de), and member of the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics (https://www.dggg-online.de/). As an interRAI-Fellow she cooperates with a worldwide network of researchers on the development and implementation of standardized assessments for various care settings (interrai.org). She is the author and co-author of numerous scientific and popular publications. Since 2016, she has been writing textbooks for students of social psychology and psychological diagnostics.

Sospeter Gatobu, PhD has progressive experience in research (qualitative and quantitative), monitoring, evaluation and learning, knowledge translation/implementation science, communication (corporate, development, health), strategic planning, project management, resource mobilization, and capacity building. Sospeter has worked with local and international organizations to translate research into practice to improve health, food security, health and general community development especially for the rural poor in Africa. Sospeter has managed large-scale programmes and projects in Canada and in Africa in research, health, education and development, in non-profits, and academics.  Sospeter is a trained teacher with experience lecturing at different levels of education in Kenya and in Canada. He is a member of the Centre for leading Research in Education (CLRiE) of the Wilfrid Laurier University, and the Canadian Association for Global Health. He is also a visiting lecturer/scientist at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, where he is currently developing a gerontology course for the University. He is also the Kenya coordinator of the Pan African Utilization of Lay Assessment Systems (PAULAS) research project on ageing. Sospeter has a PhD in Health Studies and Gerontology from the University of Waterloo, Master of Arts (Communication) from Daystar University (Kenya), and a Bachelor of Education from Kenyatta University (Kenya). He is proficient in English, Swahili, and four other Kenyan languages.

Dr. Darius GISHOMA is a Senior Lecturer at the Mental Health Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda. He is holding a PhD in clinical Psychology obtained from Catholic University of Louvain/ Belgium. For the last ten years, he have been involved in training of mental health professionals in Rwanda at different levels: Mental Health Nurses, Psychologists, General Practioners, Counselors and nonprofessional volunteers. In addition to being a lecturer at University, he maintains a clinical practice for individuals affected by genocide-related consequences and other Mental Health issues in Rwanda.

Darius Gishoma has research interests in treatment development and evaluation of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Depression and Substance Abuse, Global Mental Health, Maternal and Child Mental Health and Community-based interventions.

He is a member of the Rwanda National Ethics Committee.

Dr. Samantha Goldfarb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine. She holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Health Care Organization and Policy, with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health Policy. Dr. Goldfarb’s research focuses on maternal and child health through a life course perspective, emphasizing how complex interactions between risk factors (e.g., chronic stress and perceived discrimination) and protective factors (e.g., educational attainment and access to mental health services) shape health trajectories across the lifespan. Her work is particularly concerned with the impact of state health and drug policies on maternal and perinatal populations. In addition to her research, Dr. Goldfarb teaches undergraduate- and master’s-level courses in research methods, public policy, community-based needs assessment, and program evaluation. She has also contributed to multiple state and federal contracts in Florida and Alabama aimed at improving population health through surveillance, assessment, and applied public health practice.

Len Gray is a Professor in Geriatric Medicine and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Health Services Research at the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia.
Within interRAI he is a Board member, leads the interRAI Network for Acute Care, and fills the role of international Contracts Director.
Beyond his interRAI research interests, his work focusses on clinical informatics, decision support systems and telehealth.

Jeffrey Harman, PhD, a health economist, is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at the Florida State University College of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration from the University of Minnesota. His research explores utilization and expenditures of health services, with an emphasis on the impact of health policies on costs and services for vulnerable populations, such as individuals with limited incomes and individuals suffering from mental illness. Dr. Harman currently leads two evaluations of Florida’s Medicaid programs, which provides health insurance for Florida’s poorest residents.  He is an active member of AcademyHealth, which brings together stakeholders to inform health policy and practice, and the interrRAI Network of Mental Health (iNMH). Dr. Harman’s research has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Dr. Hermans has a degree in Psychology and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. She defended her doctoral thesis on the validation of the interRAI Palliative Care instrument in nursing homes in 2017. Currently, she is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Leuven (LUCAS) and Brussels (End-of-Life Care Research Group). Her research mainly focuses on quality improvement in palliative care in nursing homes and home care using interRAI Palliative Care and interRAI Home Care data. Dr. Hermans became an Associate interRAI Fellow in 2018. She is a member of the interRAI Network of Integrated Care and Aging (iNICA).

Dr Joanna Hikaka is a co-director for the Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research (CoCREATE-AGE) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is a registered pharmacist with over 20 years in clinical practice. Joanna’s clinical and research work focuses on older adult and Māori health, spanning primary, secondary and aged residential care settings.

https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/j-hikaka

Elizabeth P. Howard is a Professor in the Connell School of Nursing, as well as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development, at Boston College. Dr. Howard is an Adjunct Scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, and Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Howard is a member of interRAI’s Network in Integrated Care and Aging and the Instrument and Systems Development Committee. Dr. Howard has experience examining healthy aging interventions including web-based arts intervention, comprehensive geriatric assessments, and wellness coaching program. She also contributes nursing expertise to development, testing and implementation of geriatric models using interRAI’s national and international data to address risks for common geriatric syndromes such as cognitive decline, falls, and frailty. As a certified adult/geriatric primary care nurse practitioner and an acute care nurse practitioner, Dr. Howard maintains a practice in an internal medicine clinic setting.

Her scholarly activities focus on vulnerable, underserved older adults with 2 intersecting domains. Dr. Howard has experience examining healthy aging interventions including web-based arts intervention, comprehensive geriatric assessments, and wellness coaching program. She also contributes nursing expertise to development, testing and implementation of geriatric models using interRAI’s national and international data to address risks for common geriatric syndromes such as cognitive decline, falls, and frailty.

Dr. Iantosca is a Professor in the School of Early Childhood Education at Seneca College in Ontario, Canada and supervises undergraduate research in the Bachelor of Child Development program. Dr. Iantosca obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Education, specializing in Applied Psychology at Western University. She has a Master of Education degree, an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Developmental Psychology, and Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Windsor. Dr. Iantosca is also an Ontario certified teacher (OCT) and registered early childhood educator (RECE).

Dr. Iantosca’s research focuses on developmental trajectories in the early years with a focus on early assessment. She authored the interRAI 0-3 instrument, associated collaborative action plans, and validated the developmental domains of the interRAI 0-3 for her doctoral dissertation. Dr. Iantosca has successfully received community and provincial grants for her doctoral research and volunteers in the non-profit sector as a grant proposal manager.

Naoki Ikegami is Professor Emeritus at Keio University, Tokyo. He was Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Keio School of Medicine, from which he received his MD and PhD. He also received a Master of Arts degree with Distinction in health services studies from Leeds University (United Kingdom). During 1990-1991, he was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Medical School. He is a founding member of interRAI (a non-profit international consortium of researchers and clinicians focused on care planning instruments), and served as a consultant to the WHO and the World Bank. He has been President of the Japan Society of Healthcare Administration and of the Japan Health Economics Association. He has sat on various national and state government committees, including the Chair of the Investigative Specialist Sub-committee on Case-mix Based Reimbursement for Chronic Inpatient Care and member of the Reforming Elder Healthcare Council and of the End-of-Life Health Care Council. His research areas are health policy, long-term care and pharmacoeconomics. His publications include “The Art of Balance in Health Policy - Maintaining Japan’s Low-Cost Egalitarian System” (Cambridge University Press, 1998) with John C. Campbell, “Japanese universal health coverage: evolution, achievement, and challenges” (lead author) (Lancet, 2011), “Universal Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Lessons from Japan” (editor) (World Bank, 2014). He has contributed a chapter in “Regulating Long-Term Care Quality” (edited by Vince Mor et al, Cambridge University Press, 2014) and in “Long-term care reforms in OECD Countries (edited by Chistiano Gori et al, Policy Press, 2016).

Inga Kristinsdóttir is a PhD student at the University of Iceland and an Advanced Practical Nurse at the Home Care Center of Iceland’s Primary Care of the Capital Area. She implemented the interRAI Home Care (HC) assessment in the Home Care Center at the Primary Care of the Capital Area in Iceland. She was a coordinator in Iceland to gather data for the IBenC study, and is using them in her PhD project, in which she has also presented results from studies using interRAI data. She is also in a research group where a doctoral student uses the interRAI ScaN assessment to explore the well-being of caregivers.

Dr. Ljunggren earned his medical degree from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and is a specialist in internal medicine and geriatric medicine. Between 1990 and 2006 he ran the Centre for Gerontology and Health Economics (CGH), based in Stockholm County, after which he joined the county council as a medical advisor. Now retired, he is linked as a researcher to Karolinska Institutet. His dissertation in 1992 included a validation of the RUG system in Swedish nursing homes and the first articles on cross-national comparisons, using interRAI instruments.

In addition to performing training in the various interRAI instruments, Dr. Ljunggren has been involved in studies in health economics and health services research for older persons as well as for people in mental health, palliative care, and acute care settings. Dr. Ljunggren is one of the two interRAI Fellows in Sweden and has served on the interRAI board. He has also been involved in several projects funded by the European Union. From its start almost twenty years ago, he has been a member of the Instrument and Systems Development (ISD) committee, developing new instruments and scales.

Currently, most of his time is spent evaluating health care using the administrative databases available in Stockholm and some local studies on care for older persons.

A registered medical practitioner and professor of medical physiology with over thirty years of experience in teaching undergraduate, postgraduate and supervision of doctoral students; a mentor and researcher. Holder of MD and PhD degrees, I have accumulated vast experience and skills in leadership and management of academic institutions from heading departments, college Deputy Principal (planning, finance and administration), Director, planning and development (University of Dar es Salaam), Director, Postgraduate Studies and Research; Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences (University of Botswana); Adjunct Professor of Medicine (UPenn, USA)  and current Vice Chancellor, Kairuki University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I have experience in research methods (qualitative and quantitative) and management of donor funded projects; ethical issues in research involving human subjects and, in monitoring and evaluation of implementation of research projects. Former Chairman of the Southern Africa Nordic Centre (SANORD) and Co-Director, Afya Bora Consortium for Global Health, I am committed to research on the elderly (InterRai); eradicating trachoma disease in Tanzania (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); assessment of HIV infection and risks factors among refugees in campus in Tanzania (UNHCR); recently, completed study on Assessment of prescribing of antibiotics in surgical and ICU wards among hospitals in Dar es salaam Tanzania (Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association).

Amanda Mofina is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo. She completed her PhD in Rehabilitation science and MSc in occupational therapy at Queen’s University. Prior to pursuing her clinical degree, Amanda completed a thesis-based MSc in Kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Amanda has clinical experience across the care continuum in acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and complex continuing care settings. Her current research interests combine her clinical experiences as an occupational therapist with her previous areas of research. Areas of research interest include health care and care transitions, mental health, primary care, community care, health care in correctional services, health care for adults with multiple chronic health conditions, and use of population-level health data.

Mauricio Molinari Ulate, BSc., MSc., PhD, obtained his PhD in Biosciences: Biology, Cancer Clinic and Translational Medicine at the University of Salamanca in 2023, and was part of the Dementia: Intersectorial Strategy for Training and Innovation Network for Current Technology (DISTINCT) (MSCA-ITN) between 2019 and 2023. Between 2022 and 2023 he was coordinator of the Memory Clinic of the INTRAS Foundation and the Iberian Institute for Research in Psychosciences (IBIP) in Zamora, Spain. His line of research focuses on improve mental and brain health across the life course and the development and implementation of digital health and assistive technologies for cognitive disorders. Currently works as a research associate at the Instituto de Estudios Interdisciplinarios de la Niñez y la Adolescencia of the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica and as a lecturer at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

Fabrice Mowbray is Assistant Professor & Research Methodologist at the Michigan State University College of Nursing. Dr. Mowbray has extensive clinical experience as a trauma trained Registered Nurse. Trained at McMaster University, Dr. Mowbray is a quantitative research methodologist, with particular interest in prognostication and pragmatic experimental methods. Dr. Mowbray is interested in the design and evaluation of geriatric emergency management models as well as advanced care planning.

Dr. Reem Mulla is a physician and population health scientist with over a decade of clinical experience working at the intersection of clinical care, population health research, and improved patient outcomes and quality of life. She holds an MBBS from the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (Sudan), a Master’s degree in Community Medicine from the University of Khartoum (Sudan), a Master’s degree in Health Management from McMaster University (Canada), and a PhD in Public Health Sciences from the University of Waterloo (Canada). Her doctoral research, Transitions in Mood Among Residents of Canadian Long‑Term Care Facilities: The Effects of COVID‑19, Individual Risk Factors, and Regional Characteristics, examined population‑level patterns in resident mood using standardized assessment data.

Dr. Mulla is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo (Canada), where she collaborates with Choosing Wisely Canada on initiatives addressing the appropriate use of antipsychotics in long‑term care. Her work emphasizes the use of routinely collected data to support quality improvement, equity‑oriented care, and health system learning, drawing extensively on interRAI assessment systems and advanced longitudinal analytic methods.

She serves as Principal Investigator of the MENAULAS project, an internationally funded and competitively awarded extension of the PAULAS initiative expanding its scope to the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Mulla is the recipient of the Thumbay International Research Grant (2025), with MENAULAS receiving the third award in a highly competitive funding round selected from 192 submissions across 17 countries. Through this work, she leads cross‑national collaborations focused on strengthening health system learning and equity‑oriented analytics.

Dr. Mulla has held significant teaching and leadership roles, including serving as a Lecturer with the Khartoum State Ministry of Health and holding leadership positions at Dar Alelaj Specialized Hospital and Yastabshiroon Hospital in Sudan. She has been recognized for teaching excellence and holds certifications in Community‑Based Research and SAS Programming. Her research interests center on mental health, aging, equity-deserving populations, and the design of assessment tools and data infrastructure, including the development of a standardized refugee screener to support the early identification of complex health and psychosocial needs, including mental health problems, among displaced and war-affected populations.

Indrakshi Narula is a policy expert with nearly 20 years of experience in strategic policy development, transformation, and stakeholder engagement within the Government of Ontario, the Federal Government of Canada, healthcare, and academia. Currently, she serves as the Assistant Director of Policy within Health Canada's Oral Health Branch, where she played a pivotal role in implementing the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), making oral health care more affordable for millions of Canadians.

Previously, Indrakshi held the position of Senior Manager in the Policy and Program Implementation Unit at the Ontario Ministry of Health, where she led multiple high-profile policy initiatives, including modernizing emergency health services and developing new patient care models within the 9-1-1 system. Her leadership has been recognized with several awards, including the Amethyst Award and the Deputy Minister’s Award for Excellence.

Indrakshi is also actively involved in mental health research, collaborating with universities and Global Affairs Canada to advance mental health knowledge and improve outcomes globally. Her dedication to equity, diversity, and inclusion is evident through her contributions to anti-racism and mental health initiatives within the Ontario Public Service. Indrakshi's career is marked by her commitment to innovative policy solutions and her ability to build strong, high-performing teams.

Dr Ng Wai Chong is the Founder and CEO of NWC Longevity Practice, a start-up providing aged care consultancy, training, and research, as well as direct clinical services. For more than 20 years, Dr Ng has worked as a community aged-care physician in a non-profit organization in Singapore. He currently consults and trains for international and regional organisations, government agencies, healthcare institutions and universities. His areas of expertise are person-centred care, frail care, dementia care, end of life care, healthy ageing, and population health, spanning clinical work from policy formulation and implementation to care system design. Dr Ng has also been the chair and member of various government committees. Dr Ng received the Minister for Health Award 2018 from Singapore’s Ministry of Health and The Courage Fund Healthcare Humanity Award 2016 and was named the Global Ageing Influencer by Ageing Asia in 2018.

Positions held at the Regional Institute of Public Health:

• Associate Professor at CAMES Universities
• Scientific Secretary of the IRSP Doctoral Program
• Head of the Health Promotion Department
• Deputy Head of the Health Promotion Department
• Coordinator of the HELP course (Health in Relief Operations and Health, Ethics, Law, and Policy) organized with the ICRC.

Courses taught :

• Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology
• Epidemiology of Aging
• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Biostatistics
• Organization of Healthcare for the Elderly
• Principles of Emergency Health Management

Founding Member of the African Society of Public Health

My thesis focused on : the epidemiology of dementia among people aged 65 and older in Benin. I completed it at the University of Limoges in France.

Born into a family of mental health professionals, I obtained my medical degree from the Central University of Venezuela and later specialized in psychiatry at Hospital Vargas de Caracas. Throughout my career in Venezuela, I worked extensively across mental health centers, public hospitals, and private institutions, gaining experience in acute psychiatry, general adult psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and addiction treatment. I also pursued postgraduate studies in criminal law and criminology, which I was unfortunately unable to complete after relocating abroad.

After spending two years in Aruba, I have been practicing in Curaçao since 2016, primarily at Klinika Capriles, where I worked as a Psychiatrist until 2023, when I became Medical Director (still Psychiatrist). My work has focused on mental health legislation, patient rights, mental health data collection and statistics, and the early development of suicide prevention initiatives. In recent years, I have strengthened collaborations with Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization and promoted closer cooperation among the Dutch Caribbean islands to support the advancement of regional mental health policies.

Since last year, I have also been developing a fruitful collaboration with interRAI and the University of Waterloo, contributing to a pilot project on mental health self-assessment in the Pan-American region, specifically in Curaçao, where we successfully achieved the project’s first implementation milestone. My work continues to expand international collaborations beyond the Dutch Kingdom, fostering partnerships aimed at strengthening mental health care systems, assessment methodologies, and evidence-based policy development across the Caribbean and the wider international community.

Licensed Psychologist in the province of Ontario, Canada. Specializations- Clinical and Neuropsychology. Currently working at CAMH. Has been working with interRAI for more than 8 years. Primarily, working o bring inter RAI tools to India. Supporting research there.

Dr. Lina Spirgienė has a PhD in Nursing, and is associate professor in nursing at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing (https://lsmuni.lt/). Her areas of expertise are patient safety, geriatric nursing, patients, and caregivers’ need. She is a principal investigator in international of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office project, as well as national projects. She cooperates with an interRAI worldwide network of researchers on the development of standardized assessments for long term care and home care settings (interrai.org). She is a member of Editorial board of the journal Nursing Education, Research and Practice – NERP. She is the author and co-author of 153 scientific and popular publications, textbooks, learning materials and other articles.

Dr. Stewart is a Full Professor and Clinical Training Director at the School and Applied Child Psychology Program at Western University, Faculty of Education, London, Ontario Canada. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Division at Schulich School of Medicine at Western University.  She is also an Associate Scientist at the Children’s Health Research Institute (CHRI), interRAI Research Fellow and Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of School Psychology.  Dr. Stewart is leading the international development and implementation of the interRAI suite of instruments for children and youth with mental health needs within a variety of service sectors (e.g., education, health).

Katarzyna Szczerbińska, MD, PhD, Professor of Geriatrics with expertise in Long-term Care and health promotion among elderly people. Head of the Research on Aging Society Laboratory at Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków, Poland; a specialist in geriatric medicine and long-term care at the Geriatric Clinic in the University Hospital. A principal investigator in several high-budget international research projects (FP5 CLESA, FP7 PREDICT, FP7 PACE; SPRINT-T. Currently, in I-CARE4OLD and NAVIGATE funded from HORIZON.  Since 2004 a Fellow of InterRAI, and ISD member. Since 2019 the Secretary General of the ExCom IAGG-ER; a Board member in the Polish Society of Gerontology and the Collegium of Geriatrics Specialist in Poland. A member of the EUGMS task for FRIDs and the EAPC RG on Aging and Palliative Care. Author of over 250 scientific publications available on JU Repository, and on Scholar Google.

Gilbert Tremblay is a Clinical Psychologist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal Quebec. He specializes in the assessment and treatment of complex disorders as well as co-occurring mental health and substance-related disorders, including as an expert witness in juvenile courts assessing parenting skills of parents with substance use disorders and young people in difficulty. He also serves as the interRAI mental health assessment coordinator for the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. He has a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has served as project manager in research and development of mental health technologies and intervention methods since 2011.

Dr. Vadeboncoeur is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a Pediatrician who works with the Palliative Care Program at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, at Roger Neilson house and in the community.  She is involved in a Canadian network of pediatric palliative care researchers, and collaborates on population data research in Ontario.  She is involved in piloting the interRAI Pediatric Home Care instrument in Ontario and developing the Clinical Assessment Protocols for the PedsHC instrument.

Prof. Dr. Chantal Van Audenhove is full professor at Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven (Belgium). She teaches psychology and applied communication for medical students and for students in dentistry. She is the director of LUCAS, Center for Care Research and Consultancy of the KU Leuven. As an expert in practice- and policy-oriented research her focus is on mental health and the care for people with dementia. Previous research projects dealt with – among others – the relationship between informal caregivers and patients, the quality of the living environment, Expressed Emotion in the professional and informal care relationship, vocational rehabilitation, stigma and discrimination, prevention of depression and suicide. She is an active member of international networks, such as: the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), the interRAI Network of Mental Health (iNMH) and INTERDEM, a pan-European network of researchers focusing on psychosocial interventions in dementia.

Dr. Vetrano is a geriatrician and epidemiologist, and works as an assistant professor at the Aging Research Center of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. His main research focus is to investigate the longitudinal trajectories of multimorbidity and frailty in older adults, understanding their determinants and their impact on survival, quality of life and healthcare use. He is currently the PI of three projects on multimorbidity and frailty funded by the Swedish government, and WP leader in two Horizon2020 projects on multimorbidity (one of which is based on interRAI data). Dr. Vetrano is author of more than 170 articles published in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 33) and several book chapters. He is currently main supervisor of two PhD students, two postdoc fellows, and several research assistants.

Dr. Nasir Wabe is an Associate Professor at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, with a multi-disciplinary background (pharmacy, epidemiology, data science). He has expertise in the areas of outcome-based health services research, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology and quality use of medicine. Dr. Wabe has extensive experience in conducting data linkage and analysis of big health data obtained from primary care, hospitals, and residential aged care. Dr. Wabe has a strong track record of research outputs including >90 peer-reviewed articles. Within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Dr. Wabe leads the Aged Care Evaluation and Research (ACER) stream. CI Wabe has secured >$15 million in research funding as a chief investigator.

With over 22 years of experience as a registered nurse, Julie’s background includes leading provincial initiatives including the appropriate use of antipsychotics and leading the implementation of the interRAI LTCF assessment across all nursing homes in New Brunswick. Currently pursuing her PhD, she continues to provide quality improvement and evaluation coaching through Healthcare Excellence Canada and is a Long-Term Care Clinician Co-Lead for Choosing Wisely Canada. Currently, Julie serves as Clinical Director of Operations & Patient Flow with Horizon Health Network at The Moncton Hospital and is extremely proud to be named as an interRAI Fellow.