Chaired by: Dr David Powell

Medical Advisor, IATA

Dr Ian Hosegood

President AMDA

Ian Hosegood is currently Director of Medical Services with Qantas. Ian is a long time member of ASAM and has been involved in Aviation Medicine throughout his career including military, commercial, government and aeromedical experience. His former roles include ADF Medical Officer (RAAF), Avmed specialist and VP-Medical Services with Emirates Airlines, Principal Medical Officer at CASA and General Manager – Health Services with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (QLD).

He is an IAASM academician, a current and past member of the IATA medical advisory group (MAG) and a former representative on the ICAO Medical Provisions Study Group. He teaches Aviation Medicine on various courses and holds an Assistant Professor position at Bond University.

Dr Raman Velayudhan

WHO

Dr Raman Velayudhan, MSc, PhD is at present Coordinator, Vector Ecology and Management unit (VEM), Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases of World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva.  He is the global focal point for dengue prevention and control, Integrated Vector Management and coordinates dengue and other arbo-viral vector borne disease control activities at WHO/HQ. In his present assignment he also supports the organization of Vector Control Advisory Group and the implementation of vector surveillance and control at the points of entry under the International Health Regulations (2005) requirements. He joined WHO in 1989 and has worked in Solomon Islands, Fiji and the Philippines. His field of expertise includes malaria control and neglected tropical diseases. He coordinated the organization and technical support for the World Health Day 2014 – Vector Borne Diseases. He is also a recipient of the WHO DG’s reward for excellence (2017) as a member of the Zika incidence management team.

Prior to joining WHO, he worked for the Govt of India at the Vector Control Research Centre, Pondicherry (WHO collaborating centre for vector biology and control).

Dr Jan Semanza

ECDC

Jan C. Semenza the head of the Scientific Assessment Section at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm.  He was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1995, when a record-breaking heat wave claimed the lives of more than 700 individuals in Chicago.  He led the CDC response to this environmental calamity and elucidated the underlying environmental, societal, and behavioral causes of heat-related mortality.  He also worked internationally on a number of infectious disease issues in Uzbekistan, Sudan, Egypt, Denmark, Brazil, and Haiti.  He was a faculty member at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Oregon Health and Science University, and at Portland State University where he taught in the Oregon Masters Program of Public Health.

Currently he is working at ECDC on environmental and climatic drivers of infectious disease transmission.  He has analyzed infectious disease threat events in Europe that were detected through epidemic intelligence activities at ECDC.  He has identified, disaggregated and prioritized the underlying drivers of these infectious disease threat events in order to enhance our understanding of the process underlying increases in emerging infectious diseases and guide public health interventions. Insights from this analysis may accelerate outbreak detection and response and inform emergency control measures.

Dr Kamran Khan

BlueDOT Global

Dr. Kamran Khan is an infectious disease physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto. Motivated by his experiences as a frontline healthcare worker during the 2003 Toronto SARS outbreak, Dr.Khan has been studying outbreaks over the past 15 years to lay the scientific foundation for a global early warning system for infectious diseases. His research has been published in scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Science and Nature. To translate and disseminate scientific knowledge into timely action, Dr. Khan founded BlueDot, a digital health company that uses human and artificial intelligence to help governments protect their citizens, hospitals protect their staff and patients, and businesses protect their employees and customers from dangerous infectious diseases. His research during public health emergencies has led him into numerous advisory roles from the World Health Organization to the White House. Dr. Khan recently received a Governor General’s Award for his work transcending clinical medicine, public health, big data, and artificial intelligence.

Dr Ali Walker

CDC

Allison Taylor Walker attended Northwestern University, completed a Master of Public Health degree at Emory University and a PhD in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control at Johns Hopkins University.   She joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2005, and has worked on almost all continents for global health programs at CDC.  Her work includes serving as CDC’s subject matter expert for polio eradication in the Horn of Africa, conducting research in the field of global multidrug resistant tuberculosis, studying the transmission of and response to global waterborne diseases, and serving as the Epidemiology team lead for the Travelers’ Health Taskforce for the Zika Response. Allison is currently a senior epidemiologist and team lead for the Epidemiology and Surveillance Team in the Travelers’ Health Branch.

Elizabeth Speakman

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Elizabeth Speakman is an English solicitor who worked in legal practice in London for many years as a specialist in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation, before training in public health.  Apart from her professional legal qualifications she has MA Medical Ethics & Law and MSc Public Health. She has worked as a consultant for WHO Geneva and now combines health law research with teaching global health policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Elizabeth is based in Edinburgh and has a particular interest in public health law for control of infectious diseases in aviation.

Claire Coombes

BALPA

Claire Coombes MSc (Cognitive Science) BSc is a Human Factors Scientist at the British Airline Pilot Association (BALPA), PhD research candidate at University College London and member of the Flight Crew Human Factors Advisory Panel to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Over the last five years, the focus of Claire’s work has been to research and advise on the scientific, legal and operational issues connected with pilot fatigue. This work has involved the investigation of fatigue measures, reporting systems and the existing academic research on fatigue issues in shift workers. Claire’s most recent research involves the aggregate analyses of pilot work schedules for their associated fatigue risks and sleep opportunities.

Dr Ries Simons

TNO Netherlands

Ries Simons is senior consultant in Aerospace Medicine. He worked as General Practitioner and Medical Officer in Zambia and Chad. Since 1985, he was Senior Research Physician at the National Aeromedical Institute, which since 2002 is incorporated in the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

He is co-chairman of the Advisory Board of the European Society of Aerospace Medicine (ESAM), member of the Space Medicine Group of ESAM, and member of the Air Transport Medicine Committee of the Aerospace Medical Association (USA). He was/is lecturer at several EASA workshops and FAA refresher courses.

He is adviser on Fatigue Risk Management and medical aspects of fitness to fly to several airlines and authorities EASA, ICAO, and the Royal Netherlands Air Force. As contract-expert he was actively involved in the recommendations of EASA concerning the German Wings crash. He is member of the Founding Board of the European Pilot Peer Support Initiative (EPPSI).

Ries is author of the chapter “Assessment for fatigue among pilots” of the book “Pilot Mental Health Screening and Assessment: A Practitioners Guide” (2016) and the chapter “Physiology in different microgravity environments” of the book “Space Safety and Human Performance”(2017).

Dr Ed Nicol

Royal Air Force Consultant Cardiologist

Group Captain Ed Nicol MD MBA DAvMed FRCP FRCR FRAeS FACC FSCCT RAF is a Royal Air Force consultant cardiologist who works as an honorary consultant at both the Royal Brompton and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals. He is an honorary senior lecturer at both Imperial College, London (Cardiology) and Keele University (Healthcare Leadership) where he gained his Doctorate and MBA respectively. He has published over 150 original papers, book chapters and a book covering military and aviation cardiology and medicine, cardiovascular CT, and healthcare leadership.

He was Chairman of the NATO Aviation Cardiology Working Group and has published widely on occupational and aviation cardiology in both Heart and the European Journal of Cardiology. He has deployed as a consultant physician to Afghanistan and Iraq and is due to undertake a UN Operation to South Sudan in late 2018. He has also has undertaken numerous Operational aeromedical evacuations including transferring patients with Viral Haemorrhagic Fever using the RAF Air Transport Isolator.

Dr Paola Salvetti

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Dr Paola Salvetti is an experienced ophthalmologist and retina specialist with substantial clinical and research experience in the diagnosis and treatment of retina diseases, gained in the USA, France and Italy. In addition, Dr Salvetti has a special interest in aviation ophthalmology and neuroscience research.

Dr Salvetti studied medicine and ophthalmology in her native Italy prior to undertaking a fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. She was a Retina Fellow at the Schepens Eye Research Institute & Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School in Boston, before taking up a position as a General Ophthalmologist & Medical Retina Specialist in France; she was then appointed Medical Director of the Centro Oculistico Bergamasco in Italy.

She is GCAA & CASA approved Specialist AME and Clinical Lead of Aviation Medicine at Moorfields.

Dr Richard Pleus

Intertox

Richard C. Pleus, Ph.D., is chief toxicologist/pharmacologist, founder and president of Seattle-based scientific research and consulting company Intertox, Inc, as well as the co-founder of Intertox Decision Sciences. Dr. Pleus has over 25 years of experience assessing the risk for humans exposed to chemical and biological agents via food, consumer products, medicinal and nutritional agents, therapeutic agents and the environment as well as over 15 years of experience focusing on potential exposures in the aviation and aerospace industry. He has conducted at least 600 chemical assessments – from those that are relatively benign, to chemical warfare agents. He has worked internationally with public and private stakeholders in aviation including major airlines and working groups. His expertise in the field of aviation includes risk assessment as it relates to the operation and maintenance of aircraft; assessing human exposure to bleed air in aircraft cabin environments; the toxicology of various chemicals including jet engine oil and hydraulic fluid; and much more. Dr. Pleus is currently a member of the Aerospace medicine, physiology, and toxicology clinical review team for the Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) Team for Naval F/A-18 and T-45 aircraft, established in 2018. He earned a Ph.D. in environmental toxicology from the University of Minnesota, where he had earlier completed his M.S. in environmental health. Dr. Pleus’ undergraduate work was at Michigan State University, where he graduated with honors in physiology. He conducted his post-doctoral training in neuropharmacology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr Antti Tuori

IFALPA

Antti Tuori is Vice-Chair of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Association’s (IFALPA’s) Human Performance (HUPER) Committee and is responsible for medical matters at IFALPA. He is a medical doctor (University of Helsinki, 1996), Doctor of Philosophy (University of Helsinki, 1998) and EASA aeromedical examiner (Trafi 2013). He started flying at Finnair in 2002 and has flow as a first officer in A320 (2002-2007) and in A330 & A340 (2007-2016), and as a captain in A320 (2016-2019) and is currently flying as a captain in A320 and A330. He has been involved in the EASA medical rulemaking tasks as well as in the ICAO medical activities.

Paul Roux

Senior Principal Engineer, R&D, PALL Aerospace

Paul Roux joined Pall Aerospace as an aerospace engineer in 1989 and has over 30 years of experience working on almost every aspect of aerospace filtration.  In his current role Paul’s main responsibilities are related to the development of technologies to improve cabin air quality.  Paul was part of the Pall team that developed the first cabin air HEPA filters for A320 and A330/340 and has continued to support recirculation filter research and development to the present day, including the Advanced Cabin Air Filter (ACAF) found on many of today’s aircraft.  The ACAF is a recirculation air filter that includes a HEPA filter and odour adsorption stage.  As well as the development of new cabin air filter materials to improve performance, Paul is instrumental in an extensive returned filter program.  This program provides a detailed analysis of the returned filters to not only establish the performance of HEPA filters and ACAFs, but also to provide an insight into the cabin air quality of the aircraft in which they are installed.  Currently Paul’s expertise is employed on the development of a cabin air filtration system that will include filtration of the outside air before it enters the cabin.  Such a system will represent a step change in the air quality in the cabin.

Paul has been a key member of the Pall Aerospace team that have worked on numerous European Commission funded research projects under the Clean Sky and Clean Sky 2 from 1999, all of which study the future of cabin air filtration systems.  The current project is EC aECS (Adaptive Environmental Control System) which has a target of reducing the fuel consumption of the ECS.

Pall Aerospace are represented in many of the standards and guidelines being drafted by SAE, ASHRAE and CEN, and Paul has been a key part of CEN TC436: a new European standard for cabin air quality which is soon to be issued for review.

In addition to cabin air systems, Paul has developed many other technologies including CBRN protection systems for military applications, inertial separator systems for helicopters that operate in desert environments, carbon dioxide adsorbers for rail carriages, regenerable diesel particulate filters for automotive applications, high capacity fuel, lubrication oil and hydraulic fluid filters amongst many others.

Dr Deborah Donnelly-McLay

Harvard University

Dr. Deborah Donnelly-McLay has been involved in the aviation industry for over 25 years. She is currently an international Boeing 767 airline Captain with United Parcel Service. Her background and experience in aviation include many diverse roles, including: Flight Attendant, FAA Certified Flight and Ground Instructor, FAA Certified Check Airman, Flight Simulator Instructor, Flight Engineer, LOSA Observer and Airline Transport Pilot. She is proud to have been awarded the UPS Crewmember of the Year Award in 2012. She was also selected as safety observer in the UPS Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) program.

Dr. Donnelly-McLay has been able to utilize her experience and education in aviation to lead the Harvard Pilot Health Survey and other research studies involving aviation and environmental health issues, including the Harvard Carbon Dioxide/Flight Simulator Study and the Harvard DNA Damage/Radiation Study. She has published research papers with her team at Harvard University at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Recently, she presented her aviation research at MIT/Molecular Frontiers Science Symposium in November 2018. She also works with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Nobel Academy, with a program to promote science for children in conjunction called Molecular Frontiers, where she serves on the Strategic Board, alongside 11 Nobel Laureates in the Sciences. This program promotes science interest and education for children worldwide, including third world countries and has the Nobel Laureates as mentors.

She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide in the Graduate and Undergraduate programs of Aeronautical Science. She is also a professor at Everglades University in Boca Raton, FL, teaching both Graduate and Undergraduate classes in the Aviation Science Program.

Dr. Deborah Donnelly-McLay’s educational background includes: Education EdD Organizational Leadership, Nova Southeastern University,  2018 ALM History, Harvard University, ABT, 2018, MAS Aeronautical Science, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, 1998 BS Aeronautical Science and Technology, Thomas Edison State College, 1995.

Dr TJ Doyle

UPMC Communications/Aviation Consultation

TJ Doyle MD MPH is the Medical Director for UPMC Communications and Aviation Consultation. He is also the Medical Director for the STAT-MD Ground Based Airline Medical Support Service. Dr. Doyle has been providing Airline Medical Consultation services for 16 years. He is also one of the Medical Directors for the STAT MedEvac critical care helicopter service.  This service provides rotary wing transport services to 8 US states using 17 base sites.

Dr. Doyle is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine and Subspecialty Board Certified in Emergency Medical Services. Dr. Doyle is a member of the Airlines Medical Director’s Association and the Aerospace Medical Association. Dr. Doyle is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine.

Dr David Kodama

Air Canada

Dr. Kodama is a senior Emergency Medicine resident at the University of Toronto. He completed medical school at the University of Toronto and holds a Master of Science in Environmental and Occupational Hygiene from the University of British Columbia. In addition to his training in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Kodama has developing interests in both Aviation and Occupational Medicine. He has worked with Air Canada on research initiatives aimed at improving physician response during in-flight medical emergencies as well as characterizing departure-gate medical events.

Dr Simon May

Qatar Airways Health Services

Simon is a specialist in Aviation Medicine who has recently located from Australia to Qatar to head up a new Aeromedical Centre for Qatar Airways. Simon started his medical career training in critical care, anaesthesia and retrieval medicine prior to entering the world of airline medicine.

Simon has previously worked for both Qantas and Virgin Australia based in Sydney as well as being an active AME in private practice.

Dr Paulo Alves

Aviation Health, MedAire

Paulo Magalhães Alves, MD, MSc, provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service, as well as is a member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board.

A cardiologist, Dr. Alves previously was the Medical Director for Varig Brazilian Airlines and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006. Dr. Alves is a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and a member of the American Telemedicine Association.

He is past president for the Airlines Medical Directors Association and past-president of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine. Dr. Alves is presently the Chairperson of the Air Transport Committee of the Aerospace Medical Association.

Dr Sara Souter

Virgin Australia Airlines

Sara has been involved in the Aviation and Occupational health area for almost 20 years, and practising as a specialist in this area for 12 years. Sara has previously enjoyed work roles with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (NSW), Air New Zealand, CASA, as well as a CAA NZ Medical Examiner and CASA (DAME) in private practice for over 15 years. Sara has worked for and within a range of other industries as an Occupational Physician in both Australia and New Zealand in the last 10 years, in both rural/remote and urban communities. Sara is an accredited MRO (Medical Review Officer) and has a strong interest in workplace mental health as a part of overall workplace health and wellbeing. Virgin Australia Medical currently have a team of 6 who advise on passenger health, employee health and health related regulatory compliance across the Virgin Australia Group.

Dr Nah-Lee Park

Aeromedical Center, Korean Air

Nah-Lee Park, MD, is an AME for Korean Air. She is also a board member of ASMAK(Aerospace Medical Association of Korea), and is one of the three judging members for ASMAK’s Aviation Medical Examination Review Committee.

She received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA, U.S.A.), and went on to obtain her M.D. at Yonsei University Medical School (Seoul, Korea). She completed her residency  and fellowship at the Family Medicine department of Severance Hospital (Seoul, Korea), and has been working for Korean Air since 2016.

Dr Kimmo Ketola

Medical Director, Finnair Health Services

Kimmo Ketola, M.D., is a specialist in Occupational Medicine and Aeromedical Examiner (AME1) certified by CAA Finland. He has previously worked as Chief OHS Physician of a large chain of medical centres (Diacor Health Services) and as Chief OHS Physician of a large construction corporation after which he took his present position as Medical Director of Finnair in April 2012. He currently works as Medical Director and Chief Occupational Health Physician at Finnair being in charge of the provision of occupational health care for all Finnair Group employees (numbering currently at appx, 6500) leading a team of 17 medical professionals and utilizing supportive resources of other medical and non-medical professionals. He is  member of Finnair’s HR Leadership Team and Well-being Steering Group and also Accountable Manager of Finnair Aeromedical Centre and Medical Advisor for Nordic Regional Airlines as well as other stakeholders in aviation as well as in occupational health.

Dr Anabela Jorge

UCS TAP Airlines, Portugal

• Current CEO of UCS – TAP Air Portugal Group Health Services.
• Education includes General Practice/Family Medicine, Aviation Medicine, Travel Medicine, Health Management and Occupational Medicine
• Current activities are related to health services management, quality programs, assistance to the airline’s management on health related issues, including assistance to passengers and safety matters

Dr Tim Stevenson

The Healthy Company

Tim is an exepreiced  Occupational Physician and Aviation Medical Examiner .

He has had a 35 year portfolio career in medicine, which as well as having considerable experience in the commercial aviation arena  has also included General Practice and sports medicine.

Tim was company medical adviser to Virgin Atlantic for 17 years and for easyJet for two.

He continues to work as an independent AME.

He has recently branched out into podcasts where his passion for wellbeing and especially mental wellbeing can be seen and heard at the Healthy Company.

www.theheathycompany.com

Dr Robert Perlman

Dr. Robert Perlman is a senior Aviation Medical Examiner for Transport Canada, FAA, and EASA, with over 30 years Aviation Medicine experience.

Dr. Perlman received degrees in Psychology, Medicine, and the Executive MBA course from McGill University, Montreal. He completed the Advanced Course in Aviation Medicine from King’s College , London UK, and is a Fellow of the Canadian College of Family Medicine. Dr. Perlman has worked as an Aviation Medicine consultant for multiple Canadian airlines. He worked as an MRO and managed DOT Drug Testing programs for 13 years. In 2012, Dr. Perlman was appointed as a Member of the Transportation Appeal Tribunal Of Canada, and in 2019 he wrote a Tribunal educational guideline on Cannabis and Aviation Safety.

Dr Jim Chung

Air Canada

Served in the Canadian Forces in various roles with the Royal Canadian Regiment and 2 Field Ambulance in CFB Petawawa also having deployed to Bosnia with Canada’s commitment to NATO and also deployed to Turkey with Canada’s DART team post earthquake in 1999.

Dr Chung attained his flight surgeon training through the Canadian Forces and also received his Masters in Aviation Medicine and Post graduate diploma in Occupational Medicine through Otago University, New Zealand. Dr Chung completed his family medicine and emergency medicine training at U of Toronto.

Dr Mark Popplestone

Qatar Airways

Mark Popplestone is currently an Aviation Medicine Specialist with Qatar Airways.  Originally trained as an Occupational Physician, he has worked in Aviation Medicine for over 20 years with spells at British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and the UK CAA.

Dr Elizabeth Clarke

Emirates Airlines

• I am Scottish and I am currently working for Emirates Airline, in Dubai, UAE.
• I have worked for the last seven years, as an Aviation Medical Examiner, registered with the GCAA. I do Class I pilot renewal and initial and pre-employment medicals and over age 60 years pilot medicals, in addition to case management in Aviation Medicine and Occupational Medicine.
• I have had a wonderfully varied and international career. I trained as a GP in Milton Keynes, England and was a Calman trainee in Paediatrician in the Oxford region, in the nineties. I continued my paediatric training in Singapore, at the National University Hospital and enjoyed working at NUH and NUS, in total for 8 years. I then moved to northern Greece and worked for a centre of the European Union in Thessaloniki as a provider in Occupational Health before moving to Dubai in 2012..

Linda Porter

Virgin Atlantic

Linda Porter is Senior Manager Medical Services/Passenger Health at Virgin Atlantic Airways. Linda has spent a critical mass of her nursing career in aviation, with her clinical background in several areas of critical care. She has spent the last two decades in the airline industry leading several AvMed divisions including medical  training, passenger health and operations medicine. Her current role delivers a 24/7 service to Virgin Operations and to its passengers which includes leading the pre-flight medical clearance team and a dynamic cross functional medical ops team who primarily manage passenger health risk as part of the Virgin SMS.

Her particular interests and achievements have included introducing AvMed simulation training into the Virgin programme in the 90’s including extended skills training for Cabin Crew, a data driven proportionate passenger health programme including the introduction of an end to end telemedicine system and in concert with the Resuscitation Council UK the research and introduction of alternate CPR techniques into the national guidelines to better suit the cabin environment. A personally poignant project she led was the introduction of AEDs into all Virgin offices with the resulting save of a 21yr old employee Imogen Guest who completed the BHF London to Brighton bike ride this year with Linda and her team. Linda has a particular interest in training and remains an active ALS Instructor for the Resuscitation Council UK.