Invited speakers

Aristomenis Exadaktylos (Switzerland)

Dr. Aristomenis Exadaktylos is a professor and head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University Hospital in Bern (Inselspital). He is the founder of the Centre for Excellence in Emergency Medicine (CEEM). He also serves as the Vice President of the Swiss Society for Emergency Medicine and Rescue, with which the Croatian Society for Emergency Medicine has a bilateral cooperation agreement. 

Charles Haviland Mize (USA)

Dr. Charles Haviland Mize is an emergency medicine and out-of-hospital intensive care specialist. He is involved in the education of residents at Yale University, where he also graduated. Currently, he works in Bangladesh with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Dr. Mize has contributed to various projects in countries like Myanmar and Bhutan, introducing trauma patient care and helicopter emergency medical services. He has received several awards for his teaching and clinical work.

Chistopher L. Moore (USA)

Dr. Christopher L. Moore is an emergency medicine specialist currently working at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). Since 2002, he has founded and led the Emergency Ultrasound Division at Yale. He is a professor at Yale University, and his research interests include diagnostic tests in emergency medicine, particularly imaging tests such as ultrasound. In addition to his professional and scientific activities, Dr. Moore leads ultrasound education, teaching medical students, residents, fellows, and other staff. He has taught abroad in Europe, China, South America, and New Zealand. Dr. Moore is the chair of the Yale Point-of-care Ultrasound Council (YPUC), a multidisciplinary group dedicated to improving the quality of point-of-care ultrasound within YNHH.

Martina Pavletić (Croatia)

Dr. Martina Pavletić is a specialist in internal medicine, subspecialist in nephrology and intensive care. She is the head of the Department of Unified Emergency Hospital Admission at Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka. Her expertise and team leadership contribute to the excellent organization of emergency medical care, setting high standards for the treatment of emergency patients. Dr. Pavletić is the author of several scientific articles and the president of the Rijeka branch of the Croatian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Ashraf Butt (Ireland)

Ashraf Butt is a physician and leading consultant in emergency medicine at the HSE RCSI Hospitals group in Ireland. He is the director of various courses (ATLS, ACLS, PALS, BLS) and the chairman of the Irish Heart Foundation. He is also an examiner and co-chair of EMERGE, the Reference Group for conducting the European specialist examination in emergency medicine. He leads the working group for the European curriculum in emergency medicine (EM European Training Requirements), and we are looking forward to hearing updates on the curriculum during the congress.

Anđela Simić (Hrvatska)

Dr. Anđela Simić is a physician, a specialist in emergency medicine, and holds a university masterdegree. She is an instructor and course leader for advanced and basic life support courses (ALS and BLS). She is a national instructor for out-of-hospital and hospital emergency medical services and a co-author of emergency medicine manuals. Dr. Simić is a member of the Emergency Medicine Section of UEMS and a member of the working group for developing the curriculum (ETR) of pediatric emergency medicine subspecialization. She is the secretary of the Croatian Society for Emergency Medicine.

Saša Ignjatijević (Srbija)

Dr. Saša Ignjatijević is an emergency medicine specialist, the president and one of the founders of the Emergency Medicine Physicians Society of Serbia. He is also one of the founders and an instructor of PHTLS-Serbia.

With decades of experience in prehospital work as a field doctor at the Emergency Medical Service Institute in Niš, he has been working in the Urgent Center of the University Clinical Center in Niš for the past two years, becoming a primarius in December. He is a state instructor and mentor in the field of emergency medicine.

Murat Ersel (Turkey)

Murat ERSEL, MD, PhD, is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Ege University in İzmir, Turkey. Since 2002, he has worked as an emergency medicine physician in different institutions, and and he has been a faculty member since 2005 at Ege University. He participated three times in the EMAT Committee (Emergency Medicine Association of Turkey) from 2004 to 2014, and he is the former president of the Disaster Medicine Committee and the Academy of Emergency Medicine of EMAT. Currently, he is the president of the International Committee of Emergency Medicine of EMAT. His areas of special interest include critical emergency care, public health, airway management, and digital emergency medicine. He is married and father of two children.

Snježana Benko Meštrović (Croatia)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Snježana Benko Meštrović is a physiotherapist and gerontologist with extensive clinical experience in cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. She is the head of the pulmonary rehabilitation team at the Special Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Zagreb, an associate professor at the Faculty of Health Studies in Rijeka, where she established the course “Physiotherapy in the Intensive Care Unit,” and the president of the Croatian Society for Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy and NIV. She organized numerous courses in respiratory physiotherapy and is the author of many articles and chapters in textbooks for physiotherapy students.

Tatjana Rajković (Serbia)

Prim. Dr. Tatjana Rajkovic has been a specialist in emergency medicine since 1999. After years of working in the pre-hospital emergency medicine system, she is currently the Assistant Director of the Emergency Center at the Clinical Center of Niš. She is one of the founders and vice president of the Society of Emergency Medicine Physicians of Serbia and the honorary secretary of the board of EUSEM. She is an examiner for the European Board Examination in Emergency Medicine (EBEEM) at EUSEM. She has worked on projects for the reorganization of emergency medicine systems, education, and the development of national guidelines in the Republic of Serbia and the region.

Ivan Gornik (Croatia)

Controversial figure. Internal and intensive care medicine specialist, and emergency medicine enthusiast. Head of the Emergency Department at the University Hospital Center Zagreb, full professor at the School of Medicine in Zagreb. President of the Croatian Society for Internal Medicine, President of the Network for Excellence in Clinical Emergency Medicine, mentor of the Student Section for Emergency Medicine at the School of Medicine. The initiator of the Ultrasound Festival. Enjoys writing papers, but doesn’t have time, loves statistics. Enjoys working with patients. Loves teaching, they say he’s good at it. Enjoys debunking medical myths, advocate of the „no-bullshit“ approach. Triathlete, learning French.

Ali Kaan Ataman (Turkey)

Dr Ali Kaan Ataman has completed his emergency medicine specialization at Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey. After working in various hospitals across Turkey, he is currently employed at Tepecik Training and Research Hospital in Izmir. His areas of particular interest include Emergeny Airway Management and Mechanical Ventilation. He serves as the Secretary of the Airway Working Group within the Emergency Medicine Association of Turkey. Moreover, he is actively involved as an instructor for mechanical ventilation courses under the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM) and as an instructor for the Emergency Medicine Core Competencies Course (EMCC).

Rachel Liu (USA)

Dr. Liu is currently the Director of Point of Care Ultrasound Education at the Yale University School of Medicine, USA. She focuses on developing curriculum and implementing the use of ultrasound in basic, physical, and clinical education for medical students. In addition, she brings educational initiatives to the training of emergency medicine specialists, fellows, and other interested individuals. She was the president of the Emergency Ultrasound section of the American College of Emergency Physicians, president of the Academy for Emergency Ultrasound in the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and president of the Society of Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships.

Cristiana Baloescu (USA)

Cristiana Baloescu, MD MPH, is an assistant professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, USA, with a scholarship and education in the field of point-of-care ultrasound. She graduated from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, completed her emergency medicine residency at Yale New Haven Hospital, and earned a Master of Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health. Her research aims to advance the field of ultrasound globally, with a special focus on expanding the ultrasound use among beginners using artificial intelligence and utilizing ultrasound for stratifying chronic diseases in acute settings. She chaired the community ultrasound organization within the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM). Dr. Baloescu is also dedicated to ultrasound education and has contributed to mobile ultrasound applications such as Bulldog Sonobites and the American College of Emergency Physicians Critical Ultrasound Guide, as well as books such as “Fundamentals of Emergency Ultrasound” (McGahan, Elsevier publisher). She has organized or lectured at several ultrasound courses focused on emergency medicine in Romania, Kenya, Egypt, and the United States. She looks forward to visiting Croatia – Pula was one of her father’s favorite destinations!

Adis Keranović (Croatia)

Adis Keranović is a specialist in emergency medicine and holds a master’s degree in healthcare management. With over 10 years of experience in all fields of emergency medicine—pre-hospital emergency medicine, helicopter emergency medical services, and clinical emergency medicine—he currently works in the emergency department of the Clinical Hospital Center Zagreb. In his previous work, he gained education beyond the borders of the Republic of Croatia, notably at the emergency department of the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, and the emergency department of Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale University in the USA. He is a doctoral student at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, and an external collaborator on several courses.

He is an instructor for Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Trauma (ETC) of the European Resuscitation Council, a national instructor in the fields of hospital and pre-hospital emergency medicine, and a national instructor in the field of mass casualty incident management.

He is an active member of the Croatian Society for Emergency Medicine of the Croatian Medical Association, a workshop leader at this congress, and the president of the Organizing Committee.

Slaven Babić (Croatia)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Slaven Babić, MD, is a specialist in general surgery, orthopedics, and traumatology. He is employed at the Clinic for Traumatology of the Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital Center, where he serves as the head of the Department of General Traumatology and Pelvic Surgery. He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of the Croatian Catholic University and leads the section on orthogeriatrics at the Croatian Traumatology Society.

Throughout his 20-year medical career, Dr. Babić has specialized in the treatment of geriatric traumatology, primary, revision, and tumor endoprosthetics of the hip, as well as the treatment of bone and joint infections.

In his early surgical days, he gained experience in leading European orthopedic and traumatology clinics in Muenster, Berlin, and Basel. From those days until today, he actively participates daily in the hospital care of trauma patients.

Aleksandar Džakula (Croatia)

Prof. Aleksandar Džakula, MD, PhD, was born on October 5, 1973 in Sisak, Croatia. He graduated and earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb. He completed specialization in Public Health and further advanced his skills in health systems management in the United States and France. He is employed at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, at the Department of Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care. His professional focus is on improving health policy and developing specific studies and interventions addressing the right to health and accessibility of healthcare. He has published over fifty scientific and professional papers. Since 2015, he has been leading the program of operational research and interventions “Public Health Hub (PUB HUB),” focusing on optimizing and improving the quality of healthcare.

Damir Važanić (Croatia)

Damir Važanić, PhD is the deputy director of the Croatian Institute for Emergency Medicine. He is the founder of the Croatian Nursing Society for Emergency Medicine, where he served as president in two terms. He completed his nursing studies at the School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, and his graduate and postgraduate doctoral studies at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb. He completed the Management in Healthcare program at the Experta Business School. He also completed additional education in emergency medicine at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He works as an external collaborator at the Croatian Catholic University School of Nursing and as a nursing instructor at the University of Zagreb Health College and the University of Zagreb Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry. He is a member of the Expert Group of the Crisis Staff of the Ministry of Health and a member of the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia. He has participated in the health system response to major accidents and disasters. He is the author and co-author of several books, manuals, professional, and scientific papers.

Višnja Nesek Adam (Croatia)

After graduating from primary and high school in Zagreb in 1985, she enrolled in the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb. She graduated in 1990, and since 1993, she has been employed at the Clinic for Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care at the Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh. She completed her specialization in anesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care in 1999, and since 2009, she has been a specialist in intensive care. Since 2014, she has been the Head of the Clinic.

She has also been a specialist in emergency medicine since 2011 and also holds the position of Head of the Emergency Department of the the Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh. She is the main mentor to residents in anesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care and emergency medicine, as well as a member of the examination committee.

She was elected an associate professor and a scientific advisor in 2018. Since 2013, she has been participating in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and is actively engaged in scientific research and has published about 100 scientific and professional papers.

She is the president of the Croatian Society for Emergency Medicine, Croatian Medical Association.

Robert Leach (Croatia)

Dr. Robert Leach is the President Elect of the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM), Chair of the Emergency Department and SMUR (pre-hospital medical team) of St. John’s Hospital in Brussels, President of the Ethics Committee on Human Experimentation at St. John’s Hospital.

He was appointed by the Belgian Minister of Health to the College of Physicians, represents Belgian Emergency Physicians at UEMS, is on the Scientific Committee of the Belgian Society of Emergency & Disaster Medicine and on the Board of the Belgian College of Emergency Physicians representing the heads of ED.