International Conference on Communication in Healthcare 2024

Gozie Offiah, Planning Committee Chair, Ireland
Dr Gozie Offiah practised medicine (with a background in Surgery) for over 15 years in the Health Service Executive (HSE). Dr Gozie Offiah is an Associate Professor and Director of Curriculum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.  Gozie has been an EACH member for about 10 years and a member of tEACH, the teaching subcommittee of EACH.

Corina Barbaros, Planning Committee Co-Chair, Romania
Corina Barbaros Associate Professor at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Lasi, Romania.  Corina has been a member of EACH since 2018, where she took on the role of National Representative for Romania in 2020, she is also a member of the pEACH sub-group.  Taking up the role of vice-chair of ICCH2024 offered Corina a unique opportunity to drive meaningful discussions that can transform global healthcare practices. She is passionate about fostering collaboration and innovation among healthcare professionals to improve patient outcomes and communication strategies. This position allows her to leverage her expertise and contribute to the advancement of the field, ensuring that effective communication becomes a cornerstone of healthcare delivery worldwide.

Richard Brown, Presidential representative, USA
Richard Brown Ph.D  FACH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Policy at VCU School of Medicine. He is the Director for Communication Innovations in Health Care Laboratory, a Co-Director at Massey Health Communication and Digital Innovation Core and an Associate Editor at Patient Education and Counseling.  Richard has been with EACH since 2000 and joined to attend the inaugural conference in Warwick England.  His motivation to join the planning committee was to serve as a member to advance to goals of the conference and to act as liaison as president elect between the PC and the Executive.

Lode Verreyen, EACH Networking committee chair, Belgium
Lode was trained as physiotherapist and works as such in a large multidisciplinary private practice in Antwerp. He also was assistant at the department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of the Ghent University.  He also was responsible for the training program of simulated patients. Within tEACH he is co-lead, together with Prof. Katrien Bombeke, of the Work Place Based Teaching Tips group.

Claudia Kiessling, EACH teaching representative, Germany
Claudia Kiessling is a medical doctor by training with a master in Public Health working as a full professor at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany since 2018. She has been involved in teaching and assessment of clinical communication for the last 25 years with a focus on undergraduate medial education.  Claudia Kiessling has been involved with EACH activities since 15 years. She has been member of TEACH, subgroup assessment, since 2011.  EACH is the most important scientific community for her when it comes to networking and exchanging experience and evidence regarding clinical communication. Therefore, it is a great pleasure for her to support the planning of ICCH 2024 to make it to a fantastic, exciting and inspiring conference for all participants.

Panayiota Andreaou, EACH research representative, Cyprus
Panayiota Andreaou is a health psychologist working at the University of Nicosia Medical School, involved in teaching and assessment of healthcare communication skills for the past 8 years.  Panayiota has been involved with EACH activity in the past few years but more systematically in the last 2-3 years. She is a member of rEACH and the scientific committee, representing at the planning committee.  Being part of the PC and the SC is a great learning experience of what’s happening behind the scenes to set-up such a fascinating and exciting conference! It is also a fantastic opportunity to meet and work with so many people across the world, to share thoughts, questions and think of solutions to arising challenges linked to practical and scientific-related issues of the conference.

Shak Rehman, EACH policy representative, USA
Dr. Rehman is the Chief of Education & Founding Director of Academic Practice at the Phoenix VA Healthcare Systems. He also serves as the Chair/Professor of Department of Informatics, Professor of Humanism, Chair, Admissions Committee & Graduate Medical Education Committee at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.  Shakaib has been attending ICCH/EACH since 2000.  He is representing pEACH on the Planning Committee as well as being one of our Plenary Speakers for 2024.

India Pinker, Young@EACH representative, Luxembourg
Dr India Pinker is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ageing Cancer and Disparities Research Group at the Luxembourg Institute of Health. She is originally from South Africa which has culminated in her love for animals, sport and exploration.  India has been a member of EACH since she took part in the rEACH Summer School in 2021 and never looked back. She now chairs the Early Career SIG and co-chair rEACH.  EACH has provided India with the warmest and most inspiring community, helping her find her place in the fascinating and multidisciplinary field of health communication. ICCH conferences are the actualisation of this community ethos and this is why she was thrilled to have the opportunity to join the planning committee to help bring it to life once again for 2024.

Anita Laidlaw, Scientific Committee Lead, UK
Anita Laidlaw is currently Director of the Centre for Healthcare Education Research and Innovation at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.  Anita has been a member of EACH for 13 years and a member of rEACH for four years.  Anita joined the Scientific committee for the ICCH 2024 as it’s interesting to get an overview of all of the research that is going on and consider how best to assist attendees by ensuring they experience quality presentations on up-to-date research that is co-ordinated into a logical structure.

Julia Menichetti Delor, Scientific Committee Lead, Norway
Julia Menichetti is a Psychologist, researcher at Akershus University Hospital (Norway), experience with video-analysis and qualitative methods, focus on doctor-patient information sharing.  She has been a member of EACH for 6 years.  Julia joined the Scientific Committee because she was moved by desire for learning and connecting with new people, and supporting an organization that she considers her extended homeplace.

Alexia Papageorgiou, Scientific Committee Lead, Cyprus
Professor Alexia Papageorgiou, BA, MSc, PhD. Clinical Communication Professor and Chair of the Centre of Medical Education, University of Nicosia Medical School, Basic and Clinical Sciences Department, Nicosia, Cyprus.  Alexia has been affiliated with ICCH since 2004.  Serving on the Scientific Committee allows Alexia to directly experience the latest advancements in her field and, most importantly, to contribute meaningfully to our exceptional community of educators, researchers, and policymakers in healthcare communication.

Evelyn Watson, Scientific Committee Lead, UK
Dr. Evelyn Watson is a Lecturer within the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews. She is lead for communication skills teaching in Undergraduate medical students and is involved in delivering Health Professions Education course. She has been involved in researching/developing teaching of empathy in Medical Education.  She has been involved with EACH since 2020 as co- lead for training groups and has recently taken up the role of chair for rEACH.

Rosa Magallón, Local representative, Spain
Dr Rosa Magallon is a family doctor, with more than 30 years of experience in clinical practice. She is Professor of the Department of Medicine of Zaragoza University, expert in Healthcare Communication. Coordinator of the Primary Care Research Program of the Health Research Institute of Aragon. Rosa is Researcher of the Research Network on Chronicity, Health Services and Primary Care of the Carlos III Health Institute.