Healthcare Finance

Dr. Azad Moopen is an Indian Physician-turned Entrepreneur / Philanthropist based in Dubai. He passed his MBBS with Gold Medal and MD from the Government Medical College, Calicut and did his DTCD from Delhi University, India. In 1987. He is the Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a public listed company in Indian Stock Exchange. Dr. Moopen has earmarked large part of his personal wealth for charity through Aster Volunteers (www.astervolunteers.com) for healthcare related and other social initiatives. Some of the ongoing activities are Free / Subsidized treatments in India, Refugee relief program in Syria since 2016 – Middle East, Cancer Screening Centres for the underprivileged in various countries, BLS Training of general population, Food for Famine affected population in Somalia, Providing jobs for people with special needs etc. Dr. Azad Moopen has received ‘Padma Shri’, ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’, ‘Arab Health Award’ (in 2010) and the ‘Best Doctor Award’. He is the Board Member of Abu Dhabi University and is also the Director of ‘NORKA Roots’ (Non-Resident Keralite Affairs), and the Vice Chairman of SAFI (Social Advancement Foundation of India). He is the Founder President of AKMG (All Kerala Medical Graduates Association, UAE).

Mr. Saleh Al Hashimi has MBA from CASS Business School – City University – London UK. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Health Insurance Corporation. He was Deputy Secretary-General of “Tamaiaz Wa Falak Tayyeb Award” and was a Member in “Absher initiative” which supervised by Ministry of Presidential Affairs and implemented by Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratization in order to provide a decent life for UAE citizens. Additionally, He held executive positions in the banking and insurance sectors and he has great experience in family business.

Rasmus Prior Gjesing is the Director for Health Economics and Market Access with responsibility for Value-Based Healthcare at Johnson & Johnson, Medical Devices in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa). He holds Master of Science degrees in both Pharmacy and Health Economics. During the past 20 years he has lived and worked in diverse settings incl. 6 years in the Middle East. His experience stems from both medical devices and the pharmaceutical industry as well as the WHO (essential drugs programme). His main area of focus is on how decisions are made within the healthcare sector – and in particular how health economics can be a valuable tool for improving such decisions by having a stronger focus on achieving the outcomes that matter to patients and healthcare systems.

Rolf Hartung was born in 1954 in Bonn-Germany. He started his medical studies in Bordeaux-France in 1973 and graduated in Bonn-Germany in 1979. His internship in Argentina was followed by two years of PhD in histopathology department of RWTH – University Aachen-Germany. Hereafter he completed his residency training in general surgery in the surgical department of the university hospital Aachen and became Facharzt in general surgery in 1987. He specialized in visceral and endoscopic surgery and subspecialized in visceral & digestive surgery in 1997. In 2009 he became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Fellow of the International College of Surgeons of America, and in 2012 Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He worked for 16 years as head of consultants in EKM Hospital in Muelheim, an academic teaching hospital of the University Duesseldorf-Germany. In 2003 Rolf Hartung became head of general surgery in Rashid Hospital Dubai. From 2006 till January 2014 he was the head of the new general surgery department in Dubai Hospital. In June 2013 he joined BR Medical Suites in Dubai Healthcare City as consultant general surgeon and Head of Surgical Department, and Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City. He became Medical Director of Mediclinic City Hospital in 2017 and is currently the CMO at Al Zahra Hospital Dubai since November 2020. Rolf Hartung is assoc. professor of surgery in Mohammed Bin Rashid University and member of the academic board of the medical college at MBRU. He also is member of the advisory board in Dubai Medical College. He was program director of Dubai Residency Training Program in general surgery from 2004 until begin 2010. His interests are endocrine surgery, hernia surgery, minimally invasive surgery and high tech developments in medicine such as robotic surgery and OPMI surgery. He is member of numerous committees, international surgical associations and faculty member of multiple international surgical and medical societies. He is UAE governor of ELSA, foundation and main board member of IFSO chapter UAE, past president of GCC Hernia Society-a chapter of APHS, President of APHS from 2019 to 2021 and past-president of ESLES Emirates laparo-endoscopic society of surgeons. He has organized 21 international conferences and congresses in Dubai, and more than 100 local and national meetings. Rolf Hartung is examiner for MBBS in several national and international universities. He is reviewer and editorial board member of international journals and has given more than 200 presentations in international conferences and meetings. He has published numerous articles in international journals and books. In his functions as director of surgery and Medical Director he has been chairing and member of multiple committees including COVID-19 command and control committee, infection control, clinical review, quality and patient safety, OR-committee, ethics and research, medical liability, transplant, brain death committee, clinical utilization, recruitment, IT, M&M, medical affairs board, medical records, head of department and pharmaceutical committee. He also chairs investigation committees and serves as expert advisor in legal cases.

He is a recognised leader within the healthcare field known for crafting the requisite strategic vision to achieve business goals, global team-building and development. David Hadley is the Chief Executive Officer for Mediclinic Middle East, which is owned by Mediclinic International, one of the world’s leading private hospital groups. He has worked for Mediclinic International since 1993, and has enjoyed many positions throughout the company which enabled him to successfully command positions in Human Resources, Finance, Operations and Hospital Management. Mediclinic seconded David to Dubai in 2007 to complete the Mediclinic City Hospital Project and to head up the opening of the company’s first “off shore” facility, which opened in 2008 in Dubai Healthcare City. Since his appointment as the CEO of Mediclinic Middle East the group has grown to become the largest private healthcare provider in the UAE with seven hospitals and more than 20 clinics. They have also recently launched their first project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He completed his commerce undergraduate education in South Africa (B-Comm), dividing his time between work and school, and holds a Master’s in Business Administration.

Director of medical strategy and performance at UNICANCER (a French hospital group, covering 18 French comprehensive cancer centers), Paris, France. Responsible for development of management tools for the French hospital market (benchmarking on economic indicators, branches of activity, market studies), developing organizational audits (operating rooms, radiation therapy, consultation, outpatient care, pharmacy), drafting and defending UNICANCER’s position before the ministry of health concerning financial issues and hospital pricing systems. In 2013, She has supervised a study on the evolution of the treatment of cancer patients (EVOLPEC) to assess the consequences and financial impact. This study was very successful, in 2016 she continued to explore these issues until 2025. Since March 2017, in addition to her previous responsibilities, she is also responsible for the following departments: – Medical information center – Efficiency pole – Quality and risk management, – Medical-Scientific Project and EEQ, – Health Law Since 2018, she has defended the Unicancer’s position before the French Ministry of healthconcerning financial issues of article 51, a new financial plan for experimenting new health system organizations based on innovative funding approaches.

Fodhil Benturquia is the Founder & CEO of Okadoc, the GCC’s leading healthtech startup with the mission to improve the healthcare experience for all. Under his leadership, Okadoc was named 2019 Arabian Business Start-up of the Year, Healthcare Innovator of the Year at the 2019 Entrepreneur Magazine’s Agility Awards and International Healthtech Start-up of the Year by CV Magazine He was named among the GCC’s top 100 inspiring leaders of 2019 by Arabian Business magazine and listed in the same magazine’s 40 top entrepreneurs and business leaders under 40. Fodhil is a veteran of the technology ecosystem in the region having co-founded MarkaVIP in 2010 and later joining the core team of Souq.com where he launched the Deal of the Day and rose to become the company’s head of Saudi Arabia, Souq.com’s largest market. In 2015, Fodhil was appointed Group CEO of Noon.com where he built the company from the ground-up to become one of the largest e-commerce players in the region. After a frustrating personal experience booking a doctor’s appointment, Fodhil founded Okadoc with a vision to leverage technology to simplify and improve the broken patient experience while at the same time improving operational efficiency for healthcare providers. Okadoc is the region’s first instant online appointment booking platform that seamlessly connects healthcare providers and doctors with their patients. Patients can use Okadoc to find in-network (insurance) doctors across any location, specialty, language spoken, or gender and view real-time availabilities, instantly book appointments, receive reminders, reschedule, cancel or even request earlier availability. For healthcare providers, Okadoc provides both a 24/7 intelligent medical calendar system and a fully interoperable solution that integrates with most hospital information systems. Okadoc helps doctors, clinics, and hospitals reduce ‘no-shows’, optimize their bookings, attract and engage new patients.

The Honorable Dr. David J. Shulkin was the Ninth Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs having been appointed by President Trump. Secretary Shulkin previously served as Under Secretary for Health, having been appointed by President Obama and confirmed twice unanimously by the US Senate As Secretary, Dr. Shulkin represented the 21 million American veterans and was responsible for the nation’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,200 sites of care, serving over 9 million Veterans. Prior to coming to VA, Secretary Shulkin was a widely respected healthcare executive having served as chief executive of leading hospitals and health systems including Beth Israel in New York City and Morristown Medical Center in Northern NJ. As an entrepreneur, Secretary Shulkin founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality and has served on boards of managed care companies, technology companies, and other health care organizations including the IsraelUAE Health Collaborative. Secretary Shulkin is the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute Distinguished Health Policy Fellow and Professor at the Jefferson University College of Population Health. He is a board-certified internist and received advanced training in outcomes research and economics as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Over his career Secretary Shulkin has been named, “One Hundred Most Influential People in American Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare.