Ives Hubloue - Master Global Health

Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel) and of the Research Group on Emergency and Disaster Medicine (ReGEDiM) at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium). He graduated in Medicine at the VUB (Belgium) in 1988 and started a residency in Internal Medicine (finished in 1993) followed by a training in emergency, intensive care and disaster medicine (finished in 1995). He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine. In 2003 he obtained his PhD in Medical Sciences. As professor at the medical school of the VUB he is involved in the teaching program for medical students (undergraduate and graduate). He is also the program director for the residency training in emergency medicine training (postgraduate) at the VUB. Besides this he is a Faculty member and Chair of the Strategic Management Board of the European Master in Disaster Medicine (EMDM, www.dismedmaster.com) course.

Peter Hoet is a Professor in Biomedical Sciences at KU Leuven’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care. He is chair of the Centre of Environment and Health, including Occupational and Environmental Exposure, Toxicological Assessment and Medicine; Insurance medicine; Youth Health Care; Infection Prevention and Control;. The research undertaken by his sub-unit Toxicology is related to the health effects of exposures at work and/or in the environment; with a focus on pulmonary-, immune- and cardio-vascular toxicology and (epi)-genetic effects.

Niel Hens is Full Professor of Biostatistics at Hasselt University (CenStat, I-Biostat & Data Science Institute) and Full Professor of Biostatistics and Holder of the Scientific Chair in Evidence-based Vaccinology at the University of Antwerp (Chermid, Vaxinfectio and FAMPOP). After completing his PhD, entitled ‘Non- and Semi-parametric Techniques for Handling Missing Data’, in 2005, he developed an interest in modelling infectious diseases. He has authored more than 300 publications and takes positions in the editorial board of Biostatistics, eLife and the Lancet Infectious Diseases. He has recently been involved in several advisory boards on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. He has ample experience of teaching in both Europe and Africa.

Peter Delobelle is a medical doctor with twenty years of experience in public health research, teaching and service delivery. His research focuses on health policy and systems research, health promotion, implementation research and integrated knowledge translation. He is the Deputy Director of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA) and A/Prof at the Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) where he teaches Global Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Essential Skills in Global Health. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK); Royal Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (UK); member of the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) and Health Promotion Development Foundation Network; the International Union for Health Promotion and Education Working Group on Healthy Settings; and Chair of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) Process Evaluation Working Group.

Olivier Degomme is the Scientific Director of the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) and Professor at UGent. He coordinates the research activities of a team of 20 researchers divided into three sub-teams studying sexually transmitted infections; maternal and child health; and sexual and reproductive health in vulnerable populations. He is also providing day-to-day assistance and supervision to several PhD candidates from various countries, including Belgium, Kenya and Mozambique.

Peter Decat is a family doctor with 20 years of experience as a physician in Bolivia and Belgium. He worked at the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) at UGent from 2006 to 2014, where he coordinated a multi-centre intervention research project on community-embedded reproductive health care for adolescents in Latin America, on which he defended his PhD in September 2015. His specific field of interest is the integration of reproductive health services into primary health care. A people-centred approach, combining person-centredness and community participation, is key in this issue. He currently works at the UGent Department of Public Health and Primary Care and as a family doctor.

Stefan Heytens obtained his PhD from the University of Ghent in 2017 on the topic of “Diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections in non-pregnant adult women in primary care”. He is working as a general practitioner and as a part-time postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at UGent. His research focuses on urinary tract infections and medical treatment of low back pain.

Piet Bracke is a Full Professor of Sociology at UGent. Since 2014 he has been Director of the Health and Demographic Research (HEDERA) group at UGent. Presently is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of ERIC-European Social Survey. His research focuses on mental health services, sociology of mental health, psychiatric epidemiology, gender and the family, and comparative health sociology.

Professor dr. Hilde Bastiaens is a researcher and teacher in the department of Primary and Interdisciplinary care and president of the University Centre of Qualitative Health Research Antwerp. She has a number of areas of research interest that, among others, include the following: (prevention of) chronic conditions, empowerment and self-management, natural environment and (mental) health. On the methodological level, her interest and expertise lies mainly in qualitative and implementation research. In the past, she implemented a chronic care program in the Belgian context and participated in a European project on involving older patients in their care. Currently, she is the Project Coordinator for the SPICES project and coordinates a project within a VLIR-UOS program (Flemish University Council), on the improvement of chronic care in a rural area (Limpopo) in South Africa. She supervised many Master theses and is currently promotor of 5 international PhD theses. Besides being an academic, she is works as a general practitioner and as a clinician providing preventive services for young children.