Mentors
The mentorship team will guide groups of participants in their brainstorming process, offering advice and their insights gleamed from their experience in relevant industries and disciplines.
Oniovo Efe – Aluta has a track record of driving health system reforms and support to large scale immunization and disease control initiatives. He is a medical doctor, public health expert and advisor with vast cross organizational experience providing support to the Government of Nigeria. As technical advisor to the Government of Nigeria on routine immunization, he has championed the initiation, development and implementation of strategic initiatives to support the efforts in revamping.
Chester Drum, M.D. Ph.D., is a senior consultant and life-long patient advocate with appointments at the National University Hospital and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Drum received an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and completed a cardiology fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He then worked with Institute Professor Robert Langer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists.
• Lecturer in Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). • Principal Investigator with Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG) within RCSI and Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering (TCBE) within Trinity College Dublin (TCD). • Recipient of Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation funding award and is currently leading a project on the development of a novel heart failure device.
Professor Yahya E. Choonara, PhD is Chair and Head of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa (SA). He is a Personal Professor of Pharmaceutics and Co-Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) and Principal Researcher of the WADDP Research Unit responsible for blueprinting innovation in partnership with research groups globally and pharmaceutical industry since 2007.
- Licensed Filipino Pharmacist - Public Relations Officer of the Philippine Pharmacists Association, Inc. - Immediate Past President, Asian Young Pharmacists Group - Founding Member and Second President of Young Pharmacists Group Philippines, Inc. - Professional Lecturer / Trainor for different Pharmaceutical Companies (e.g. Sanofi Philippines, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Pfizer UPJohn, MSD Philippines, Leo Pharma, United Laboratories) - President, BYP Trading and Consultancy Services
Expertise/experiences - Oncology - Medication therapy management (MTM) service for elderly patients - Education and training (Pre-registration pharmacist, pharmacy technicians) - Medication safety work and quality improvement - Recent study on clinical outcomes & perceptions of influenza vaccination in elderly cancer patients (if you need something relevant for this hackathon!)
Dr. Sindelar is a Professor and Dean Emeritus, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also an elected fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, an elected fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), and Member of the External Advisory Board, Trinity College Dublin, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He previously served as Vice President of Innovation, Research & Academic Affairs at Providence Health Care.
A/Prof Kwa received a B.Sc. (Pharm) from the National University of Singapore, Singapore in1996. She achieved her Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from the Albany College of Pharmacy, New York, USA, in 2006. She also attained Added Qualifications in Infectious Diseases in Pharmacotherapy from the Board of Pharmacy Specialties, USA, since 2007. She has finished her postdoctoral research fellowship of 2 years in anti-fungal resistance and molecular diagnostics with University of Pittsburgh.
Jocelyn Teo is a Senior Prinicipal Pharmacy Researcher at the Singapore General Hospital. Jocelyn Teo received her BSc (Pharmacy) from the National University of Singapore and her MSc in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She completed her residency in infectious diseases at the hospital, and has attained infectious diseases specialist accreditation from Board of Pharmacy Specialties (US) and the Singapore Pharmacy Specialists Accreditation Board.
Wei Jiang GOH, PhD, MBA is currently the Co-Founder & CEO of Craft Health Pte Ltd, which is developing 3D printing technologies to simplify the process of pill taking. Previously a National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate School of Integrative Sciences & Engineering (NGS) PhD-MBA scholar where he earned his PhD and MBA with specialisation in Finance, his research interests include formulation science and Bio-Nanotechnology.
Mark Stibich is an infectious disease epidemiologist and inventor. He founded Xenex Germ Zapping Solutions, which creates devices and services to lessen the suffering and deaths by infectious diseases. Xenex’s products and services have been used in over 700 facilities globally. He holds over 110 granted patents and has received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Global Fund Against TB, Malaria and HIV, the Ford Foundation, the Elton John John Foundation, and European Union
Anthony Tann is the General Manager and Senior Director, Asia Pacific, United States Pharmacopeia, an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve global health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods.. He leads USP’s various functions in the region, including customer engagement and external affairs. He also supports the Science Division and Pharmacopeial Education.
As a clinician and epidemiologist, my interests are in emerging and multidrug resistant bacterial & vaccine preventable infections, in particular, the epidemiology and prevention & control of these infections.
Dr. Zen Hafy is a physician currently serving as FHI Clinical Associate Director, Project Management for Asia and as the Country Director for the FHI 360 Indonesia Office , based in Jakarta. His responsibilities include the planning, execution, monitoring and reporting of clinical research regionally and operations of the FHI 360 Country Office.
Joelle is the Director of Pharma To Market – Asia, responsible for running the overall business, including setting and leading the implementation of the organisation’s strategy and objectives, managing key client relationships, and overseeing the operating model. Over her career in various pharma companies, Joelle has combined her pharmacist training with her knowledge of regulations to develop regulatory strategies, expedite approvals, and establish compliance.
Marlene is a passionate pharmacist and health educator with professional interests in mental health, and children and women’s health and wellbeing. Registered both in Malaysia and Australia, she is also the chief pharmacist and proprietor of ML Maju Pharmacy in Miri, Sarawak. She graduated from Curtin University in Western Australia with a Bachelor of Pharmacy more than ten years ago and currently serves as a sessional lecturer for her alma mater.
Kenneth Leung is a data analyst and a pharmacist registered in both Singapore and Hong Kong. He was a senior inpatient pharmacist at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) for 5 years, where he had special interests in heart failure and anti-coagulation therapy. He was also part of the NHG Pharmacy Transformation team, where he led a study in developing an adapted medication adherence scale in Singapore. Kenneth is a health-tech enthusiast with a strong passion in leveraging data and technology.
Dr Oh Ching Mien obtained his bachelor degree in Pharmacy and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the National University of Singapore. His research focused on pharmaceutical formulation development and process optimisation. Ching Mien has published a number of research papers in internationally renowned pharmaceutical journals. Previously, he was with Health Sciences Authority, where his responsibilities involve critically evaluating and assessing dossiers of therapeutic products.
Dr Teng is a registered pharmacist in Singapore and currently lectures at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health in National University of Singapore. She has patented compounds with anti-malarial activity discovered during the course of her research and volunteers as a pharmacist in medical missions at various countries in Southeast Asia. She previously practiced as a hospital pharmacist and enjoys interacting with youths.
Dr Wee contributes actively to the local and international academic communities. Internationally, she is a recipient of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) Young Investigator Award in 2011 and served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of ISOQOL from 2013-2015. She was also an associate editor of Health and Quality of Life Outcomes (2012 – 2016), a leading journal on health-related quality of life.
Community pharmacist and pharmacy owner (Madrid, Spain) FIP-Community Pharmacy Section (CPS) ExCo member. FIP Technology Forum member. FIP COVID19 Expert Advisory Group member. As a community pharmacist, Jaime has played a significant role over many years on different levels. His work for a global communication platform within CPS, including a long-term plan for developing global webinars that reached colleagues from 150 countries.
Specialist pharmacist in infectious diseases with special interest in Antimicrobial resistance, epidemiology and antimicrobial pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics. Critical care pharmacist in SGH surgical intensive care unit for more than 15 years. Set up the first pharmacist-run antimicrobial stewardship program in Singapore in 2006 with Prof Andrea Kwa. Now seeking to incorporate machine learning and serious games to raise our standard of care.
I have a particular interest in mechanisms that define the pathogenic potential of flaviviruses. My laboratory frequently utilizes high-throughput sequencing and more traditional molecular genetics and microbiological techniques to elucidate mechanisms. These tools readily translate to the mechanistic analysis of other pathogens. In collaboration with clinical partners, we are applying these tools to study the emergence of novel pathogens and known pathogens.