Conference “ODESS: Celebrating a decade of commitment to Digital Health” October 15th 2026

Dr. Smisha Agarwal specializes in strengthening primary health care through community health systems and digital innovation. Her work has informed guidance from the World Health Organization, donor investments, and national digital health strategies globally.

Interested in the use of digital technology from the early years of his medical studies, he has strengthened his skills in the field through several degree programs, including a PhD. He has solid experience in the formulation and implementation of national strategies, the development of tailored tools, as well as the evaluation of e-health projects. Through his teaching, research, and advisory activities, he constantly works to build stakeholder capacity and support the structured development of digital health, particularly in Africa.

Dr. Darin Areechokchai is a medical epidemiologist with over two decades of experience in public health. She completed her training through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) and holds a Master of Clinical Tropical Medicine. Her technical expertise is recognized through a fellowship in Public Health Emergency Management with the U.S. CDC. Throughout her career, Dr. Darin has held leadership roles in communicable disease surveillance, spearheading responses to critical health threats including pandemic influenza and COVID-19. Her landmark contributions to public health include developing digital disease surveillance systems for national notifiable diseases and leading outbreak investigations. On an international level, she serves as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination, contributing her expertise to regional disease elimination strategies.

Fatou Fall is an international expert in the digital transformation of health systems, with over 20 years of experience in information technology, enterprise architecture, and digital health. She has led strategic programs in more than 25 African countries, supporting Ministries of Health, regional organizations, and technical and financial partners in strategy definition, governance, interoperability, as well as the design, implementation, and scaling of digital solutions tailored to national contexts. Her expertise spans enterprise architecture (TOGAF), interoperability standards (HL7 FHIR, OpenHIE), data governance, cybersecurity, change management, and capacity building. She also works on health data, artificial intelligence applied to health, and digital innovation, promoting sustainable, user-centered approaches adapted to African realities.

Steven Wanyee is a formally trained biomedical and health informatics professional and a digital health practitioner with over 28 years practising experience and expertise. During this time, he has supported more than 25 Ministries of Health in Africa to develop digital health policies, strategies, and various standards and guidelines to support their digital transformation in health journeys. He has designed, developed and led teams comprising diverse professionals in implementing digital interventions, services and applications in health predominantly in Africa. Steven runs a digital health engineering development firm, IntelliSOFT Consulting Limited based out of Nairobi which he founded in 2007. He is the Founder Secretary General of the Kenya Health Informatics Association, and the Immediate Outgoing President of HEalth INformatics in Africa, HELINA.

Thomas has pioneered an era of expanded reach, scale and impact for child-centered innovations worldwide in close collaboration with private sector and government leaders worldwide. Thomas spearheads a radical reinvention of the UNICEF Innovation team as a core change catalyst for UNICEF’s impact globally, and harnesses the indomitable energy and deep expertise of his team to spot innovations that offer transformational potential for children, from data science to AI, blockchain, innovative finance constructs or innovative products to be picked up, co-created and scaled with the expertise and support from young innovators and partners across public and private sectors, so that, together, we create global social goods that advance humanity. Before assuming his current role, Thomas served UNICEF in leaderships role across the Balkans, South Asia, and the Middle East, and served as Head of Mission for country offices in Thailand and Algeria.

Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo is a general and trauma surgeon with more than three decades experience in health informatics. He serves as president of APAMI, president of the Philippine Society for Digital Health, director-treasurer of AeHIN, and director at the Asia OpenRAN Academy, while also heading UPM SILab and teaching at the UP College of Medicine. He previously held CIO roles at PhilHealth and St. Luke’s Medical Center, and directed the UP Manila National Telehealth Center, where he co-established the MS Health Informatics program. He has advised WHO, ADB, UNICEF, and USAID on eHealth and health information systems, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in medical informatics at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. A fellow of the Philippine College of Surgeons and IAHSI, he also holds certifications in CGEIT, TOGAF, Archimate, and COBIT5.

Prof. Esron D. Karimuribo is a Tanzanian veterinary epidemiologist, One Health specialist, and Full Professor at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). He holds a BVM and MVM degrees from SUA and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Reading. Currently Principal of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at SUA, he previously served as Director of Postgraduate Studies, Research, Technology Transfer, and Consultancy (2017–2023). At the SACIDS Foundation for One Health, he leads the Digital and Data Science Programme. He conceptualized and developed AfyaData, an open-source mobile platform for real-time epidemic tracking. His 2019 Fondation Pierre Fabre award supported a framework connecting brucellosis patients to healthcare facilities and laboratories for accurate diagnosis. With over 140 publications, his work demonstrates how digital tools enhance epidemic preparedness in the Global South

Sonali Das is a Programme and Insights, Research and Learning Manager at Maternity Foundation, where she leads the organisation's global learning agenda and supports global project and programme activities across multicountry maternal and digital health initiatives, mainly the Safe Delivery App. Holding an MSc in Dental Public Health and a Bachelor in Dental Surgery, she brings a public health and clinical foundation to her work, complemented by consulting experience conducting market assessments and feasibility studies across Southeast Asia and hands-on programme implementation and monitoring experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. This combination gives her a datadriven, cross-context approach to research, learning, and digital health programming.

Dr. Khine Pwint Nwe is a physician, digital health entrepreneur, and Founder and CEO of Z-waka, a Singapore-headquartered digital health platform strengthening healthcare professional education across Asia. With more than 12 years of experience spanning clinical care, public health, health informatics, and digital health innovation, she has led the design and delivery of scalable CME/CPD-accredited programmes for doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and allied health professionals. Through Z-waka, she works with over 120 healthcare organizations, including medical societies, hospitals, universities, and global partners, to build continuous, technology-enabled learning ecosystems. Her work focuses on locally relevant education, peer learning, and data-driven engagement that help frontline clinicians apply knowledge in practice. Dr. Khine is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honoree, Chevening Scholar, and YSEALI Fellow.

Ram Chandra Poudel (RC) is a technology executive with over twelve years of experience leading digital transformation across Nepal's healthcare and government sectors. As Chief Technology Officer at Amakomaya, he defines technology strategy, leads multidisciplinary engineering teams, and delivers the digital platforms that strengthen public health services. His work spans every level of Nepal's health system, from architecting a vaccine verification service covering five million records and the case-tracking platform to modernizing municipal health information systems. At Amakomaya, he leads the technology behind a maternal health service supporting over two million mothers and families. RC holds a Master's in Health Informatics from Kathmandu University and an MBA, and has mentored more than 500 university students. Passionate about digital public infrastructure, he turns emerging technologies into resilient solutions that improve health at national scale.

Edil Tilekov is the Kyrgyzstan Country Director at Intelehealth, bringing over 15 years of experience leading health programmes, humanitarian response, and innovation initiatives across Central Asia. He specializes in scaling telehealth solutions, driving cross-sector health sector partnerships, and integrating digital tools to strengthen national public health systems. Edil has previously served as Programme Officer for UNICEF Kyrgyzstan and led regional health and emergency responses with the International Red Cross. He holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and a background in International Relations, with a strong focus on inclusive digital health, gender mainstreaming, and workforce digital literacy.

Arup Chandra Saha is the Executive Director of TraumaLink and a Team Leader under the Bangladesh Road Safety Project (BRSP), implemented by the Roads and Highways Department of the Government of Bangladesh. BRSP is a fleet management and bystander care project covering 500 km and includes the creation of the country’s first comprehensive and integrated post-crash response service. He leads operations involving 600 BRSP employees. Since 2013, Arup has worked in road safety and post-crash care, leading the development and scaling of TraumaLink, a volunteer-based response model now covering 279 km of national highways with 1,000+ trained volunteer responders. He has led 500+ road-safety awareness workshops and 100+ first-aid training activities across Bangladesh. His work has been supported by the Pierre Fabre Foundation, WHO, USAID, and the World Bank, documented in peer-reviewed publications, and featured as a case study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He holds a Master’s degree in Health Economics from the University of Dhaka.

Ruchit Nagar is the CEO and Co-founder of Khushi Baby. Over the last 12 years he has grown Khushi Baby to a team of 150 members, which today enables public health departments to turn data into action at the last mile in India. Khushi Baby's Community Health Integrated Platform is used by over 85,000 community health workers, tracking the health of over 60 million people. Ruchit is also currently a pediatric critical care medicine fellow at Yale. He received is MD from Harvard, MPH from Yale, and completed his internal medicine and pediatrics residency from Yale. He has been recognized as a the Yale Pediatric Fellow of the Year, Yale School of Public Health Distinguished Young Alumnus and Forbes 30 under 30 leader in health care.

Martha is Executive Director of Neotree, a digital health intervention that helps frontline health workers deliver safer, better care for sick and vulnerable newborns in low-resource settings, closing the gap between policy and practice. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, she brings extensive experience in digital health, , health system strengthening, and UK charity leadership. Martha is passionate about how health innovations can be sustainably scaled - including through government institutionalisation - and is excited to be leading Neotree's approach to scaling for lasting impact.

Karim Lekadir is an ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona and Director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM). His research focuses on trustworthy, human-centred AI in healthcare, developing fair, robust and accessible methods to advance health equity, particularly in underserved settings. He promotes citizen engagement in AI research to align innovation with local needs, socio-ethical values and cultural contexts. Applications of his work span obstetric imaging, breast cancer, heart disease and tuberculosis across Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. He received a European Research Council (ERC) grant to develop AI for resource-limited settings and the 2026 ERC Public Engagement with Research Award. He is the lead author of the FUTURE-AI international guideline and served as General Chair of MICCAI 2024 in Marrakesh, the first MICCAI conference held in Africa.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana (Phil) is the CEO of Dynamik Africa and a senior advisor to foundations, governments, and international public and private organizations working to unlock the full potential of technology and data for Africa's prosperity. He chairs the Africa HealthTech Summit (AHTS) and the Africa Digital Health Networks (ADHN), and serves as Senior Advisor to the Gates Foundation, The Commons Project, Sand Technologies, and Proximie, among others. He previously served as Chief Digital Advisor at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Before that, he was Minister of Youth and ICT in the Government of Rwanda for six years, where he spearheaded the Smart Africa Alliance and YouthConnekt Africa, two pan-African organizations focused on accelerating digital transformation and youth empowerment. Phil holds a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Global MBA in Information Technology from the SP Jain School of Global Management in Singapore, and a Master's in Software Engineering and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of Rwanda. He serves on several boards, including Africa Digital Health Networks (Chair), Mobile Money Rwanda, ThinkMD, Global Communities, Place Fund, and the International Centre of Expertise in Montreal on Artificial Intelligence (CEIMIA).

Marina Baton Gning is a social entrepreneur, trainer, director, and expert in social innovation dedicated to women's health and support. After ten years in film and audiovisual production, she founded Apiafrique in Senegal in 2017, then co-founded Weerwi in 2025—a social enterprise created as an offshoot of Apiafrique—to accelerate the development of digital solutions promoting women's access to information, healthcare, and rights. Winner of the 2023 ODESS Award, she has initiated several high-impact projects, including Weerwi, a multi-channel information platform on the menstrual cycle, and La Carte Rose Sénégal, which lists more than 430 support organizations for women across the country and guides them using a website, a directory, and a WhatsApp chatbot. She also leads training sessions on the menstrual cycle for teenage girls, businesses, organizations, sports coaches, and healthcare professionals, while mentoring entrepreneurs and founders of high-impact projects. Convinced that the best innovations stem from cooperation among local stakeholders, she designs tools and facilitates collaborative ecosystems that sustainably strengthen women's access to information, healthcare, and their rights.

Théophila is the Director of E-Heza Data Solutions at TIP Global Health, where she leads the design, implementation, and scale-up of E-Heza, a digital health platform strengthening primary health care across Africa. An award-winning digital health leader with over 14 years of experience, she has driven the rapid scale-up of E-Heza during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling continuity of essential primary healthcare services through innovative digital solutions. She leads strategic partnerships and expansion efforts across Rwanda, Burundi, and Somalia and serves as a key liaison between frontline healthcare workers, Ministries of Health, technology teams, and implementing partners to ensure digital solutions address real health system needs. Théophila actively contributes to Rwanda's Ministry of Health Digital Health Technical Working Group and is passionate about advancing human-centered, interoperable, and sustainable digital health systems that improve health outcomes.