We are delighted to announce the 6th medical laboratories conference under the patronage of his excellency minister of health, titled as Advances in clinical microbiology and quality assurance in medical laboratories, scheduled to be held on the 21st and 22nd of October 2024 at the Regency Hotel in Kuwait. This esteemed event has become a cornerstone for professionals in the medical laboratory field, providing an invaluable platform for knowledge exchange, professional development, and networking.
The conference will bring together leading experts, researchers, and practitioners to discuss the latest advancements, challenges, and innovations in medical laboratory science. We anticipate the attendance of over 500 delegates, including healthcare professionals, laboratory technicians, researchers, and industry leaders from around the globe.
Conference Chairman
Dr. Remaa Al-Safi Director of Medical Laboratories Services Administration Ministry of Health, Kuwait.
Honorary Emeritus Professor of Infection, The University of Dundee, Scotland
Dr. Dilip Nathwani is an Honorary Emeritus Professor of Infection at the University of Dundee, Scotland.
Dr. Nathwani served as the Chairman of Scotland's National Clinical Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme (SAPG) from 2008 to 2017. He was the Chair of the European Study Group on Antibiotic Policies (ESGAP-ESCMID) from 2011 to 2014 and served as the President of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) between 2015 and 2018. Dr. Nathwani was also the External Advisor on Antimicrobial Stewardship & Education Policy to a number of professional societies, government, and non-UK governmental bodies including the World Health Organisation.
In 2015, Dr. Nathwani was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen for outstanding services to the treatment of Infectious Diseases. He was also awarded the prestigious fellowship of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious diseases (ESCMID) in 2020 for long and outstanding and excellent contributions to the society and specialty. In 2021, he was elected as Fellow to the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).
Dr. Nathwani has authored more than 265 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of e- learning education in AMS, value-based healthcare, evaluation of value of new antibiotics, quality improvement and implementation science, guidelines, and policy, particularly in the field of antimicrobial stewardship and AMR.
Samih Alqawlaq is a Senior Clinical Sales Specialist at Illumina Middle East, with five years of experience in the Emerging Markets. He is a passionate genomics educator and an advocate for improved patient access to precision diagnostics.
Samih has a solid scientific background and a track record in precision genomics sales and market development. Serving in the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa, Samih supports a broad range of applications, including Oncology, Rare Disease, and Infectious Disease
Prior to joining Illumina, Samih worked at QIAGEN as a Genomics Field Applications Specialist. In this role, he became experienced in the hands-on aspects of NGS- and PCR-based assays.. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with numerous public health units across MEA to set up NGS-based surveillance programs.
Samih completed his PhD at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. He also completed a master’s degree at the University of Waterloo, School of Pharmacy, with a focus on gene therapy and nanotechnology.
When he is not traveling to speak with customers, Samih mentors graduate students from his alma mater. He believes that professionals should give back to their community and promote an environment of mentorship and collaboration.
Dr. Hassan Aziz is the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. Dr. Aziz is a past President for the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). He is a Fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists (ACS) and of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is a certified Green Belt Six Sigma and TEDx speaker.
With a distinguished career spanning over 30 years, Dr. Aziz has been a leader in integrating research and education, experiential learning, and curricular innovations across multiple disciplines. He has an extensive international presence in higher education, consulting and advisory work. He is an active member of national and international professional and scientific societies and organizations. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science (IFBLS).
In addition to numerous international conference presentations and guest speaking engagements, Dr. Aziz has over 80 peer-reviewed publications. He is the recipient of the prestigious ASCP Lifetime Achievement Award and the Distinguished Author Award by ASCLS.
Indu Singh has more than 40 years of experience as practising medical scientist and trainer in Clinical/Medical laboratories in India, Hong Kong and Australia including 20 years of formal academic teaching at undergraduate, post graduate and doctorate level in universities. She developed and designed the medical laboratory science program at Griffith University to meet the national (AIMS) and international (IBMS) accreditation standards. She coordinates and teaches in various courses every year in field of Hematology, Immunohematology, Clinical Pathology, Molecular Diagnostics and Quality Management of Laboratory Medicine. Her research shared as invited guest speaker at multiple conferences is focussed on life-style induced platelet dysfunction, thrombosis, metabolic syndrome, and innovation in teaching and learning laboratory medicine. She has supervised 11 PhD, multiple master’s graduates to successful completion with help of more than A$1 million in research grants resulting in more than 50 publications, 2 books and 12 book chapters. Professionally she contributes to global industry through her role as external academic advisor and external examiner for Biomedical Science Programs of City University of Hong Kong, Medical Laboratory Science Fiji National University, Kuwait University and Qatar University. In Australia she is Industry advisor for Queensland University of Technology, and Sunshine Coast University, Australia.
Dr. Nafouri is an advocate in Total Quality Management, Excellence Models, Strategic Planning, Leadership Coaching and Mentoring, Safety Culture, Infections Prevention and Occupational and Environmental Health with over 25 years of experience, tangible achievements and proven track records.
He serves on the Saudi Quality Council (SQC) Board as an Executive Officer and Chairman of the Healthcare Interest Group (HIG). Currently, Nashat is the Quality and Organizational Excellence Consultant at security forces hospital in Makkah, Health Services, Ministry of Interior and 1st Medical Cluster in Riyadh, Ministry of Health. He gained the trust of the Public Health Authority (PHA) leadership and became a part time consultant and advisor setting on many vital and strategic committees to shape the promising future of public health in the Kingdom with PHA leaders. Appointed as a Consultant by the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) to assess the health sector readiness based on King Abdulaziz Quality Award Standards as foundation to structure the 2025 -2030 National Quality Strategy.
To pave the road for the excellence culture, Nashat had led many assessment teams in Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Government Performance, Taif Excellence Award and King Abdulaziz Quality Award since 2007 where many authorities and organizations had won the awards and benefited from his and his team feedback reports. Nashat’s expertise in crafting and revising quality of care standards and operating procedures (SOPs) were recognized by joining the Australian Accreditation Standards development Committee as international member which materialized by publishing the seventh addition of Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP7) for hospital and primary care standards in 2020.
His quality networking were recognized by many accrediting bodies since 2002 either by commending his efforts such as the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for spreading quality culture in medical laboratories kingdom wide or by appointing him as regional advisor/partner on different types of healthcare accreditations including, Joint Commission International (JCI), Accreditation Canada and the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), international.
He has many professional affiliations to advance quality in the region by being the ambassador of the Program Office for Laboratory Quality Management of the University of British Columbia, Canada, where many quality professionals were recommended by him, graduated and leading quality in their organizations.
Nashat in his capacity as regional representative keeps on promoting prominent non-for-profit standards organization including the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), USA and formerly the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), USA. He achieved the 1st CAP accreditation with distinction in 2004 for King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard and led the nomination of 85 national candidates to become CAP inspectors and set the foundation of quality in medical laboratory kingdom wide which is recognized by the regional CAP commissioner.
In 2019, Dr. Nafouri has been recognized as quality giant by the European Center for Best Practice Management for his valuable contribution, dedication, and commitment to promote quality on a sustainable basis in an unrelentless manner for 25 years. He is the 2015 Quality Leadership Award winner endorsed by the World Quality Congress and Awards and Asian Confederation of Business.
Nashat earned his B.Sc. in Medical Technology from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1991 then completed his post graduate Diploma in Biotechnology from British Columbia Institute of Technology, Vancouver, Canada in 1998 and finally achieved his Ph.D. in Business Administration with Healthcare Quality Management focus from the International Washington University, USA in 2005.
Professor, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Denise Hogan is a Functional Lead and Technical Product Manager at Roche Diagnostics, Global Customer Support.
Denise has worked in the field of Molecular Diagnostics for almost 20 years in the areas of research & development, customer support and business development.
Denise holds a BSc (Hons) Microbiology & MSc (Applied Sciences) Biotechnology from University College Cork in Ireland and carried out her research in Universitat Rivera i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Dr. Ali Omrani is a Senior Consultant Adult Infectious Diseases, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha. He completed his specialist training in adult infectious diseases and medical microbiology at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff followed by consultant positions in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, before moving on to Qatar in July 2018. He has taken several leadership positions throughout his career, including Head of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Wales and Head of Infectious Diseases and Deputy Chairman of Medicine at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH & RC), Riyadh. He founded and led major infectious diseases services in different organizations, including outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) at Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), Riyadh, and Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASP) at PSMMC and KFSH & RC.
Dr. Omrani’s clinical and research interests focus on the management of infections caused by extensively resistant pathogens, infections in immune compromised hosts and infections in critically ill patients. Dr Omrani is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal College of Pathologists. He is an editorial board member of several medical journals, a frequent speaker at national and international medical events and is lead author on numerous of original research articles, reviews and editorials.
Dr. Rana is a consultant in quality, Operation, strategy, ESG and value measurements In Medical Laboratories, with an executive management track record and experience of over 28 years in operations and quality of Medical labs.
Dr.Rana has extensive experience in achieving international accreditation such as JCI, CAP, ISO 15189, AABB, Business Continuity and Integrated Management System (IMS)
Dr. Rana Led operations, Licensing and logistics of Covid-19 testing in government and private labs in the Emirate of Dubai during Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Rana earned a PhD in Quality Management, a Master's in Genetics, Bachelor's in Medical Laboratory Sciences, and an INSEAD Global Executive MBA. She is also a Fellow of American College for Healthcare Executives (FACHE), a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), EFQM assessor and Certified for Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB).
Specialist Clinical Microbiologist and Head of the Antimicrobial stewardship committee at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital.
Dr. Khaled Alobaid is a consultant medical microbiologist, who obtained a fellowship from Royal college of pathologists in UK. He was leading infection control committee and antimicrobial stewardship team in Al-Amiri hospital.
He then obtained a Master degree in medical mycology from University College London in 2016. Since then, he is almost dedicated to the field of medical mycology in terms of epidemiology, and laboratory diagnostics. Alobaid is currently leading Mycology reference laboratory as well as medical laboratory department in Chest diseases hospital. He is also in charge of mycology unit in a central dermatology centre.
Dr. Alobaid aims for raising awareness of fungal diseases and improving laboratory skills in diagnosis of fungal diseases. He is interested in studying epidemiology of fungal diseases such as chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, dermatophytes, and antifungal resistance.
Dr. Abdulhadi A M Ahmad holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in medical laboratory technology from Kuwait University and University of Wales College of Medicine – UK, a Professional Fellowship from United Kingdom, and a PhD in Quality of services in healthcare sector from UK.
He worked in the Ministry of Health for 16 years, gradually working as a laboratory technician to a Chief laboratory specialist, and in administrative work from the quality control officer to the deputy chief technologist and Chief laboratory specialist in the Capital Health District.
During his work at the Ministry of Health, he participated in many technical and administrative committees (quality, training and development, procurement, etc.) and became a member of the GCC Unified Procurement Committee.
After that, he moved to work in the Oil sector for 18 years, progressing from the position of Manager of Health Planning to Manager of Consulting Services to Manager of Commercial Group and Consultant for Health Services, He participated in many technical and administrative committees at the Oil sector.
He has teaching experience at Kuwait University and the Public Authority for Applied Education, and has several scientific papers published in international journals in his field of specialization. He holds many professional and training certificates in the field of leadership and management, quality, Balanced scorecard, strategy management and others.
B.Sc in Biology and MBA with 20 years of experience as Global Marketing Manager, Product Manager, Application Specialist and Regional B2B and B2C Sales Representative for IVD and research solutions for Molecular Biology, Immunology and Clinical Chemistry
Dr. Benjamin Schoenbeck is a biologist with a background in analytics, immunology, virology, developmental biology, and molecular biology and obtained his Bachelor of a Master’s degrees from the University of Kiel (Germany). Following his studies, he obtained a PhD for investigating the role of proteolysis in pathophysiology.
Scientific marketing manager for urinalysis within the EMEA-region, supporting studies and expanding the clinical application of Sysmex urinalysis products.
