Dr. Afzal Javed (WPA president)

MBBS, MCPS, D.PSYCH (LONDON), BOARD CERT.PSYCH (UK),

F.R.C.Psych. (UK), M.PHIL (Edinburgh), FRCP (Ireland)

Lecture - WPA Action Plan 2020-23: An update

Dr. Afzal Javed is a Consultant Psychiatrist & Honorary Professor, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham & Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick UK. He is also chairman of Pakistan Psychiatric Research Centre & a Board member of Fountain House Lahore.

He graduated from King Edward Medical College Lahore, Pakistan and received higher specialised training in Psychiatry in Pakistan & UK. He is a fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrist and has also been awarded with Fellowships of Royal Colleges of Physician of Edinburgh & Ireland.

He has served the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK as Deputy & Associate Registrar & Chairman of West Midlands Division of the College.

He was elected to the Honorary Fellowship of the College in 2022. This is the highest award of membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrist.

His role in international psychiatry is highlighted by his current position at World Psychiatric Association (WPA) as President from October 2020 to October 2023.

He has also been the Past Presidents of Asian Federation of Psychiatrists Associations (AFPA) from 2017-19 & World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR) from 2012-15.

His areas of special interest are Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Research. His academic skills have been invaluable when publishing more than 175 scientific papers and being author of six books/monographs on different topics of psychiatry.

He recently received one of the highest Civil Award (Sitar -I Imtiaz) by Government of Pakistan.

Danuta Wasserman

WPA President-Elect

Univ. Prof. Dr. Med. in Psychiatry and Suicidology at Karolinska Institutet (KI)

Director and Founding Head of the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP) at KI

Lecture - Gender Paradox in suicidal behaviours and preventive possibilities

Danuta Wasserman (DW) is a Univ. Prof. Dr. Med. in Psychiatry and Suicidology at Karolinska Institutet (KI), and the current Director and Founding Head of the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP) at KI, since 1993. DW is appointed as the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research, Methods Development and Training in Suicide Prevention since 1997 until 2024 and assists in the development of suicide preventive research and suicide preventive programs on five continents. She is the former President of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) and the International Academy of Suicide Research (IASR). In October 2020 DW was elected as the President-Elect of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), incoming as President in 2023 – 2026. Professor Wasserman is the Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, Honorary Member of the Hungarian, Polish and Romanian Psychiatric Associations and Honorary President of Estonian-Swedish Mental Health Institutet.

DW has won numerous national and international honours and awards, including the Public Health Prize from the Nordic Council of Ministers of Health for the outstanding contribution to public mental health research and prevention, the Distinguished Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Research (AFSP), the Hans Rost Prize from the German Association for Suicide Prevention for the outstanding contribution to suicide research and prevention, the Stengel Research Award for outstanding contributions in the field of suicide research and prevention from the International Association for Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention (IASP), Morselli Medal from the International Academy for Suicide Research (IASR), Pascal-Boyle Prize from European Psychiatric Association and from the British Medical Association (BMC) Board of Science Award for the Public Understanding of Science for her book Depression: the facts published by Oxford University Press.
DW is the author of numerous scientific articles, reports and book chapters. She is the editor of the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention: A Global Perspective, published by Oxford University Press in 2009 and 2021. Her comprehensive book for busy clinicians and the broad audience interested in suicide prevention “Suicide an unnecessary death” published by Martin Dunitz (2001), has been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Russian and updated for a new edition by the Oxford University Press (2016).

DW’s research activities comprise epidemiological, psychodynamic and genetic studies of suicidal behaviours. In 2009, she received the honour from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska

Institutet, to organize the “Nobel Conference on the role of genetics in promoting suicide prevention and the mental health of the population.” Summary of the whole conference was published in a special issue of European Psychiatry, 2010;25(5):249-310. She was responsible for organizing several national and international conferences in psychiatry and suicidology.
DW is the Principle Investigator for two large-scale European randomized controlled trials (RCT), “Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE)” and “Working in Europe to Stop Truancy Among Youth (WE-STAY),” assessing the effectiveness of different intervention approaches and prevention strategies for adolescents. Both RCTs are funded with €3 million each by the European Union (EU). DW leads also a large RCT in Sweden involving 163 schools, with the aim to test the effectiveness of the mental health promoting, Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) program in comparison to a control group. DW is the Swedish site-coordinator of the NEVERMIND project (NEurobehavioral predictiVE and peRsonalized Modeling of depressIve symptoms duriNg primary somatic Disorders through ICT-enabled, self-management procedures) and POTION (Promoting social interaction through emotional body odours), both funded by the EU in the Horizon 2020 framework program. She also is a part of the EU funded project Extended-Personal Reality: augmented recording and transmission of virtual senses through artificial-Intelligence (EXPERIENCE).

DW leads a global COVID-19 BIC project to prevent suicide together with the WPA, supported by the European Investment Bank. She serves as the Principle Investigator for the Genetic Investigation of Suicide and Attempted Suicide Project (GISS project), funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Research Foundation in Sweden. DW serves as a consultant to the mental health promotion and suicide preventive studies among youth to several universities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and to Montana State University, Texas University and Columbia University in the United States.
Professor Wasserman is also the chair and a member of several national and international working groups on mental health promotion and suicide prevention.

Prof. Kostas Fountoulakis

WPA Zonal Representative in South Europe
Professor of Psychiatry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and director of the 3rd Department of Psychiatry at AHEPA University Hospital, in Thessaloniki, Greece
National Representative for Mental Health in the World Health Organization
Vice-President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association.

Lecture - Mental Health during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of the COMET studies

Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and director of the 3rd Department of Psychiatry at AHEPA University Hospital, in Thessaloniki, Greece

He is currently, zonal 8 representative (South Europe) in the Board of the World Psychiatric Association, National Representative for Mental Health in the World Health Organization and Vice-President of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. He chairs the Mental Health Section of the Institute of Scientific Research of the Greek Medical Association. For the years 2020-1 he served as director of Cochrane Greece

General background

Dr. Fountoulakis received his medical degree (1989), performed his residency in psychiatry (1998), and earned his doctorate in psychiatry (1999) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received a 3-year fellowship in psychosomatic medicine and a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship for research from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece. Until 2003 he served as a medical officer in the Greek Armed forces retired with the rank of major. In 2005, Dr. Fountoulakis was a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuropsychiatry, at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Research and teaching topics

Dr. Fountoulakis’ areas of clinical and research interest are reflected in the topics that he teaches: general psychiatry, biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology, mood disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders. He has coauthored more than 500 papers and more than 300 of them are published in international journals such as the LANCET, BMJ, Am J Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Affective Disorders, Schizophrenia Research, Psychiatry Research, Bipolar Disorders, and the Annals of General Psychiatry among others, with over. 15,000 citations and h=64 (Publish or Perish). During the years 2016-8 he was ranked by expertscape.com within the top 25 world experts concerning Bipolar disorder (0.068%) and among the top 50 concerning suicidality (0.097%). In 2022 he was ranked in the top 0.31% concerning year and in the top 0.56% concerning whole career among all scientists of all scientific fields according to the Stanford ranking.

Books:

He authored or co-authored a number of chapters in books including the Mood disorders chapter for the Wiki project of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). He has authored the book ‘Bipolar disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide to Manic Depression’ (Springer-Verlag 2015), the book ‘Psychiatry: From its historical and Philosophical roots to the modern face’ (Springer 2022) and the ‘Human connectome: how the brain works (Springer 2022). He also co-edited the WPA book ‘Advances in Psychiatry vol 3’ (Springer-Verlag 2018), and the book ‘Psychobiology of behavior’ (Springer-Verlag 2019)

Membership in scientific associations

He chairs the ISNP and since 2006, he served as Secretary, since 2008 as co-chair, and currently as Chair of the Private Practice Section and also currently is chair of the section of Evidence Based Psychiatry, of the World Psychiatric Association. He served as Chair of the CINP Credentials and Membership Committee (2010-2) and the Neuropsychological and Psychometric Instruments Section, of the Greek Psychiatric Association. He is an active member of a number of national and international professional organizations, including the EPA, APA, WPA, CINP, ECNP, ISAD, ISBD, EBF and others, peer referee for the Cochrane Collaboration and member of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) Advisory Board to the Task Force on the Usefulness of Antidepressants and the Mental Health Economics Task Force of the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA).

Publications and related issues

Dr. Fountoulakis served for almost 20 years as Editor of Annals of General Psychiatry and stepped out at the end of 2019. He currently serves as field editor of CNS Spectrums (IF=3.9). He also served as Section Editor of Current Opinion in Psychiatry as well as guest editor in other international journals.

Administration experience

In 2009 was appointed member and in 2012-4 chair of the Greek Ministry of Health Committee for the Administrative, Economic and Scientific Supervision of the Mental Health Units of the deinstitutionalization project. In 2013 was appointed chair of the Independent Committee of Experts for the Assessment of Mental Health Services of the Greek Ministry of Health.

Since 2019 he is head of the Mental Health Section, Research Institute, Greek Medical Association.

International awards

He has received a number of national and international research awards, including the 2012 Kraepelin-Alzheimer medal of the University of Munich and the 2015 Excellence in Education Award of the WFSBP.

Since 2014 he is honorary member of the WPA

Neznanov N. G., Vasileva A. V.

Psychotherapy as epigenetic modulator in the treatment of mental disorders a new challenge for research and practice.

Prof. Neznanov N. G., MD

Since 1995 till now head, Department of psychiatry and narcology, St.Petersburg State Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia

since 2002 till now  director Federal State Budgetary Institution «V. M. Bekhterev National Research Medical Center for Psychiatry and Neurology» of The Russian Federation Ministry of Health

since 2005 till now president World Association of the Dynamic psychiatry (WPA, affiliated member)

since 2010 till now president, Russian Society of Psychiatrists (RSP)

Head nonominal Roszdravnadzor expert-specialist in psychiatry

Honored higher education professor

Honored science leader

Prof. Anna Vasileva

Chief  research associate, department of non-psychotic mental disorders treatment and psyhcotherapy

Head of the international liasons department,  V. M. Bekhterev National Medical Research Center  for Psychiatry and Neurology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation

Psychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst (DAP, Munich, Germany)

professor, psychotherapy, sexology and clinical psychology department, North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov  , St. Petersburg, Russia chair Russian branch, World association for Dynamic Pscyhiatry, affiliated WPA member

Prof. Thomas G. Schulze, MD

WPA Secretary for Sections

Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich

Lecture - Multiomics of major psychiatric disorders

Professor Thomas G. Schulze, born in 1969, studied medicine in Germany, the USA, and Catalonia. He trained as a psychiatrist and held various positions in Germany (Bonn, Mannheim, Göttingen) and the USA (Chicago, IL; Bethesda, MD; Baltimore, MD)Lecture - Multiomics of major psychiatric disorders

Since 2014, he has held the position of Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics (www.ippg.eu) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (IPPG). He is a research affiliate with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD, and on Faculty with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 2019, he also joined the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor. He is licensed to practice medicine in the European Union and the State of New York. He resides both in Germany and the USA.

Dr. Schulze’s research focuses on genotype-phenotype relationships and personalized medicine approaches in psychiatric disorders. He coordinates a German-wide center grant on longitudinal psychosis research (www.PsyCourse.de) and spearheads an international study on the genetic basis of response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder (www.ConLiGen.org), comprising several research groups from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. He has authored over 300 papers. In addition to national German awards, he is the 2006 recipient of the Robins-Guze-Award of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA), the 2006 recipient of the Theodore-Reich-Award of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG), and the winner of the Colvin Prize 2016 of the Brain & Behavioral Research Foundation (BBRF). He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the APPA, and served as President of the APPA from 2015 through 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, he also held the office of President of the ISPG. From 2011 through 2017, he served as the Chair of the Section on Psychiatric Genetic of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), which he is an Honorary Member of. In 2017, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the WPA, starting a 6-year term as Secretary of Scientific Sections. In 2021, he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina.org).

DINESH BHUGRA CBE

President, Royal College of Psychiatrists (2008-2011)
President, World Psychiatric Association (2014-2017)
President, British Medical Association (2018-2019)
Professor Emeritus of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity, Kings College London

Lecture - GeoPsychiatry: dawn of a new discipline

As a cultural psychiatrist he has been always interested in the impact of culture on mental health. As part of WPA programme he led on and crafted 20 Position Statements on various topics some of which have strongly influenced policy in governments around the world. He established Presidential task Forces on Child abuse and Neglect, Inter-personal Violence, Prisoner mental Health care, Migrant health care, LGBT populations’ mental health care and those of people with intellectual disabilities. He created programmes for mental health promotion and appointed Good Will Ambassadors from Bollywood and Hollywood along with patients and religious leaders. He established 6 WPA Collaborating centres in different parts of the world to share research, policy and training. Following a survey of discrimination against people with mental illness in 193 countries, he developed Bill of Rights for Individuals with mental Illness signed by 60 organisations which was followed by Bills of Rights for Children and young people and for those with intellectual disabilities.

He has authored/co-authored over 500 scientific papers, chapters , editorials and 40 books. Three of his books  have been translated into Mandarin and Japanese and various books have won awards including Oxford Textbook for Public Mental Health which was BMA Book of the Year in psychiatry in 2019. The same year, Practical Cultural Psychiatry was highly recommended. He is the Editor of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry and International Review of Psychiatry. On the occasion of 75th anniversary of the NHS, Conversations on the NHS including interviews with policymakers, doctors, patients and journalists will be published by Routledge. His new book Psychiatrists on Psychiatry will be out in May 2023.

He is on the Board of  Sane and Psychiatric Research Trust charities. Between 2019-2022 he  chaired DocHealth charity which provides psychotherapy to doctors and medical students.

RAMUNE MAZALIAUSKIENE, MD

President of Lithuanian Psychiatric Association
World Psychiatric Association Zone 7 Representative (Northern Europe)
Head of Psychiatric clinic at Lithuanian Health University Kaunas hospital, Lithuania
Chairman of Nordic Psychiatric associations

Lecture - Psychotherapeutic Methods in Knowledge Creation Process in the Mental Health Care System

Education/Training

INSTITUTION AND LOCATIONDEGREE (if applicable)  Completion Date MM/YYYY  FIELD OF STUDY  
Kaunas Medical Academy, LithuaniaDoctorate06/1991Medicine
Kaunas Medical Academy, LithuaniaResidency06/1993Psychiatry
Kaunas Medical University, LithuaniaPsychotherapy08/2004Systemic Family Therapy
Kaunas Technology University, Lithuania, in collaboration with SDA Bocconi, Italy, and Roskilde University, DenmarkInternational Diploma02/2013International Executive MBA

Employment and Positions

1991-1993            Resident in psychiatry, Kaunas Medical Academy, psychiatric clinic, Kaunas, Lithuania

1993-2014            Psychiatrist at Ziegzdriai Mental hospital, Kaunas, Lithuania

2005-2007            Head of psychiatric department at Ziegzdriai mental hospital (reorganized into Republican Kaunas hospital’s division Mariu hospital), Kaunas, Lithuania

2008-2010             Medical director at Republican Kaunas hospital’s division Mariu hospital, Kaunas, Lithuania

2011-2013             Director at Republican Kaunas hospital’s division Mariu hospital, Kaunas, Lithuania

2014-2020, Feb     Psychiatrist, psychotherapist and director at JSC “Neuromeda”, Kaunas, Lithuania

2015-2020 Feb     Psychotherapist at Lithuanian Health Sciences University Psychiatric clinic, Kaunas, Lithuania

2017-Present         Assistant lecturer at Psychiatric clinic of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania

Since Mar 2020    Head of Psychiatric clinic at Lithuanian Health University Kaunas hospital, Lithuania

Membership in associations

2020 – present      Zone 7 (Northern Europe) representative at World Psychiatric Association (WPA)

2021 – present      Chairman of Nordic Psychiatric associations

2018 - Present       President of Lithuanian Psychiatric association

2011-2018            Chairman of Kaunas branch of Lithuanian psychiatric association

2012 – Present      Joint Committee of Nordic Psychiatric associations

2011- Present        Systemic family therapy association, board member

2014 - Present       Board member of Mental Health Management association

2018 - Present       Board member of Lithuanian Biological Psychiatry association

Other Related Activities and Current Positions:

2013-2022             Assistant editor in the editorial group of “Nordic psychiatrist”- journal of the Joint Committee of Nordic psychiatrist associations

2013 – Present      Assistant editor in Psychiatric News – a journal of Lithuanian Psychiatric association

2015 – 2018           Project by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania “Support to East Ukraine areas in the Field of Re-organizing Sector of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Managing the PTSD Consequences” (2015-2018).

  • Awards & Honours

2013                     Letter of acknowledgement by the Lithuanian Psychiatric association

2013                     The Honored worker of Health System (award by the Ministry of Health)

2013-2017            Chief specialist in the field of psychiatry in Kaunas area appointed by the Lithuanian Ministry of Health

  • Contributions to Science

Schizophrenia and first episode psychosis (assessment and intervention):  My research team has focused work on improving the lives of people with schizophrenia focusing on use of psychotherapy in this group.   Throughout my career my research has included a focus on better identifying substance use disorders amongst individuals with mental illness.

The Use of Psychotherapeutic approaches in Management:  My research and leadership work has seen the value of approaches of systemic family therapy not only in clinical practice, but in guiding teams and in leadership skills, particularly shared decision making, transparency, tolerating uncertainty, etc..

Edmond H. Pi, M.D.

WPA Secretary for Scientific Meetings

WPA Honorary Fellow

APA Distinguished Life Fellow

Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences USC, Keck School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA

Lecture - Psychotropic Medication-induced Movement Disorders: A current Clinical Perspective

Edmond H. Pi, M.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences

at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine. He is also Clinical

Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at University of California Los Angeles

(UCLA). Dr. Pi is former Medical Director of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), State of

California, USA. The DMH had oversight of $2 billion public mental health annual budget. He was

the Department’s highest-level psychiatrist and was responsible for ensuring the development

and implementation of statewide mental health treatment services.

Professor Pi is an esteemed educator and an accomplished researcher in the fields of clinical psychiatry and psychopharmacology, particularly ethnic and cross-cultural aspect, with an extensive list of publications including authorship in psychiatric textbooks. Dr. Pi is listed among the Best Doctors in America and America’s Top Doctors. Professor Pi has been very active on the international scenes in organized psychiatry in the past 30 years, including Vice President and Treasurer of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists (PRCP), Board of Directors, American Psychiatric Association (APA) Foundation, Vice Chair of the Scientific Program Committee of the 2019 and 2020 Annual Meetings of APA. Professor Pi is a Distinguished Life Fellow of APA and an Honorary Fellow of World Psychiatric Association (WPA). He served as the Representative for Zone 2 – USA within the WPA Board (2014-2020), currently, he serves on the WPA Executive Board as the Secretary for Scientific Meetings (2020- ).

Eka Chkonia, Honorary Member of WPA

Head, Society of Georgian Psychiatrists
Clinical director at the Central Psychiatric Hospital (Tbilisi Mental Health Center)
Professor at Tbilisi State Medical University

Lecture - Mental Health of Mental Health Professionals

Education

2021-2022 – Diploma in Clinical management (Georgian Institute of Public Affairs- GIPA)

2015-2016 - International diploma in mental health law (WHO program in Human Rights Law and Policy)  

2006 – Certificate in Business Administration, Free University (European School of Management - ESM)  Certificate in

2002 – PhD in Psychiatry

1999 – Certificate in Adult Psychiatry

1983 - 1989 - Doctor of Medicine from Tbilisi State Medical University

Current position:    

  1. Head of the Society of Georgian Psychiatrists
  2. Professor at Tbilisi State Medical University
  3. Program Director in Psychiatry at Tbilisi State Medical University
  4. Clinical director at the Central Psychiatric Hospital (Tbilisi Mental Health Center)
  5. Editorial board member, medical journal “The Georgian Psychiatric News”
  6. Member of the International Advisory Board for Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports, the official journal of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.    

Memberships: 

  1. The World Psychiatric Association Honorary Member
  2.   Vice-chair of the Steering Committee of the EPA (European Psychiatric Association) Council of NPAs

  1. Member of the EPA Ethics committee
  2. Head of the WPA Expert Committee on the Ukrainian mental health crisis
  3. 2013 - 2017 - European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Ambassador for Georgia

Current Research Grants:

  1. 2023-2025 - HORIZON EUROPE, Georgian Artificial Intelligence Networking and Twinning Initiative), GAIN., Mephesto IDRCB: N° 2021-A01271-40.
  2. 2022 – 2024 - NCCR consortium ((National Centres of Competence in Research – Swiss National Research Foundation). “SYNAPSY – Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases”

Current Projects:

  1. 2022-2024 - Inter-clinical partnership BER-LISI: Klinikpartnerschaft mit Tbilisi, Georgien - Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Hospital Charité at St. Hedwig Hospital part 2 (The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH - GIZ).
  2. 2023-2024 - Promotion of the comprehensive management of mental disorders due to psychoactive drug use (OSGF)

Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4FwljZEAAAAJ

DR. SANDEEP VOHRA

Chairperson of Digital Mental Health -Task Force
Advisor –Digital Mental Wellness Program, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation. & Advisor-Digital Mental Health Initiatives
Entrepreneur, clinician, academician, researcher, media mental health expert & a pioneer of tele mental health in India

Lecture - Digital Mental Health- Present & Future

Dr. Sandeep Vohra is an entrepreneur, clinician, academician, researcher, media mental health expert & a pioneer of tele mental health in India with 30 years’ experience. His health tech start-up company, No worry No tension Healthcare (NWNT) which specializes in augmented human intelligence / machine learning based innovations and algorithms covering the whole spectrum of emotional wellness from prevention to cure has recently been funded by the former Chairman of world’s largest natural healthcare company - Dabur Group, Mr. Amit Burman.
He runs a mental health clinic catering to patients from all 28 states in India and around 37 countries of the world through his hybrid model of telepsychiatry named as Vohra Neuropsychiatry clinic (VNC) in New Delhi. His client-profile is made up by a wide-ranging diaspora, consisting of top-notch business honchos, actors from movies & television, sportspersons, artists, politicians, celebrities, high achievers and eminent dignitaries from government & judiciary.
He is presently chairperson of Digital Mental Health -Task Force of Indian Psychiatric Society (2023-24), Advisor –Digital Mental Wellness Program, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation. & Advisor-Digital Mental Health Initiatives, BLK MAX hospital
He has more than 1500 TV appearances on various Indian news channels, has been awarded “Healthcare Leadership Award” at World Mental Health Congress & awards in Feb’2023, has been profiled on the cover page story by The CEO Magazine, featuring “25 dominant leaders in healthcare industry” in May 2019, was Awarded with “Technological Innovation in the field of Emotional & Mental health” by ET Now at the “World Mental Health Congress & Awards”, in February 2019 and was Awarded with “Outstanding contribution in the field of Psychiatry” by Indian Association of Private Psychiatry, Delhi Chapter in June 2018.
He believes firmly in the changing landscape of mental healthcare globally, contributed by the technological advancements alleviating the limiting impact of scarce mental health professionals, cost-prohibitive ness, the stigma imminent with seeking mental healthcare and thus for screening of masses for emotional health problems after almost 10 years of research, he has developed 2 software based emotional wellness assessment scales named and patented as Emotional wellness Index for both student & adults in collaboration with Houston university (2018) and for checking the happiness levels he has developed Goulston Vohra Happiness scale (2021) in collaboration with Dr Mark Goulston who is MG100 Coach USA.

Christina Hoven (USA)

Lecture - Overview on Global Women’s Mental Health

Christina W. Hoven is a Child Psychiatric Epidemiologist at Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she is a Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, College of Physician and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health, and a Research Scientist, Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene. As Director of the Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group (GPEG), a multidisciplinary Research Group, Professor Hoven’s research takes a life-course perspective, focusing on risk for and persistence of psychopathology, including needs assessment and longitudinal sequelae of exposure to violence and disaster. Another major focus of her research is suicide, conducting community probability investigations, suicidal autopsy studies and school-based intervention assessments. Her research primarily involves large-scale longitudinal, epidemiological investigations with communities of special interest, such as minorities, criminal justice involved families, 9/11 exposed individuals, immigrants and post-disaster/traumatic events, such as war and natural disaster. Dr. Hoven carries out research throughout the world, having worked in more than 30 countries.