Leveraging EU funding for the digital transformation of hospital settings

Daniele Bellavia is a dedicated research fellow at the School of Management Engineering at Carlo Cattaneo LIUC University, and member of the adjunct faculty of LIUC Business School.

His primary research interests revolve around healthcare management, where he applies advanced techniques such as Activity-Based Costing and economic evaluation of health technologies to optimize healthcare processes and enhance operational efficiency.

Daniele’s work aims to bridge the gap between engineering principles and healthcare applications, ensuring that health systems are both effective and economically sustainable.

Grant Carroll is currently working as Chief Pharmacist on the National Cancer Information System within the National Cancer Control Programme in Ireland. Trained as a pharmacist in New Zealand, he has considerable experience in both technical and clinical pharmacy specialising for several years in oncology and haematology. Grant is particularly interested in how health technology can unlock the potential within health systems for improving patient care.

Yassine Dhif began his pharmaceutical studies at the University of Fribourg and continued them at the University of Geneva with a master’s thesis on biodegradable microspheres for liver cancer treatment and where he graduated in 2018. He completed internships in regulatory affairs and community pharmacy before joining a regional hospital pharmacy (Vevey Hospital), focusing on medication services for nursing homes. From 2019 to 2021, he completed a hospital pharmacy residency at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), during which he obtained a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in hospital pharmacy. Since 2022, Yassine has been a hospital pharmacist at HUG, where he contributes to the coordination of pharmaceutical logistics and the management of drug supply across more than 200 care units. That same year, he began a PhD at the University of Geneva, focusing on drug shortage prediction and prevention. He leads a national research project that led to DrugStock, a smart dashboard that forecasts shortages and suggests therapeutic alternatives. The project was selected as a scalable innovation by HUG and has been presented at major hospital pharmacy congresses including GSASA (Swiss Association of Public Health Administration and Hospital Pharmacists) and EAHP (European Association of Hospital Pharmacist). During the COVID-19 pandemic, he completed a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Medicines and Medical Devices in Emergency and Disaster at the University of Bern, further enhancing his expertise in pharmaceutical resilience and health system preparedness during crises. In parallel, Yassine Dhif has served in the Swiss Armed Forces since 2006 and was promoted to Major in 2021 as Chief Pharmacist of Hospital Battalion 66 where he oversees medical logistics and regulatory compliance during emergencies. His dual expertise in hospital practice and military operations positions him as a skilled pharmacist in pharmaceutical resilience and health system preparedness.

Mr Ole Norberg Gjerrestad, Policy Officer at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Health & Food Safety (DG SANTE), Unit Digital Health (C1)

Ole work in DG SANTE on implementation of the European Health Data Space. Before that, he worked 10 years on Digital health in Norway. His background is as an economist.

Board of Governors at SIFO – Italian Society of Hospital Pharmacy

Tomislav Sokol was born in Zagreb in 1982. He graduated in law from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb in 2006 with the distinction magna cum laude. In 2009, he obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree specialising in European Union law from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium, also with the distinction magna cum laude. He earned his PhD at the same university in 2014, defending a dissertation on the free movement of cross-border healthcare services in the EU and its impact on national health insurance systems.

In 2017, he served as Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Science and Education, after which he became a Member of the Croatian Parliament. He held that position until July 2019, when he became a Member of the European Parliament. He is Vice-President of the Intergroup on Freedom of Religion, Belief and Conscience, the EPP Coordinator in the Committee on Public Health (SANT), and a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). He is also a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) in the European Parliament. He is the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the EPP Group rapporteur for the reform of pharmaceutical legislation. In addition, Sokol is active in the EP delegations for relations with Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro.

So far, he has published more than 20 scientific papers and 1 book on issues concerning EU law, including several articles in European journals, such as the European Law Review and the European Law Journal. He has presented papers at many international conferences and worked on various research projects such as: the Jean Monnet module “Organisation, Preparation and Hosting EU Studies – Introduction to the European Union” (2022–), the Jean Monnet Network in Health Law and Policy (2017–), the project for improving the quality of ZŠEM’s study programmes within the Croatian Qualifications Framework (2015–2016), and research on the impact of planned cross-border healthcare on the Belgian healthcare system, conducted for the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Center (2011).

Previously, he worked in legal practice, and he is currently an assistant professor at the Catholic University of Croatia where he teaches courses in Public Law and the Public Administration System, Health Law, and Medical Humanities 4 (Medical Law). He is also a Professor at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management where he has taught Introduction to European Union and Principles of Law courses since the academic year 2010/2011.

His areas of interest include the law of the European common market, EU health law, administrative law, competition law, international and European social law and international and European trade law.

Eleonora Varntoumian is Policy Manager at EHMA, where she ensures that research findings are transformed into actionable and impactful policy recommendations. Her role extends across EHMA’s diverse portfolio, where she provides essential policy inputs on thematic policy networks and working groups, research projects, public consultations, conferences, campaigns and external meetings.

Eleonora has a background in International and European Economic Studies and brings a decade of experience in policy and communications. Since relocating to Brussels in 2018, she has worked with various organisations representing the voice of patients, health professionals and researchers in policy-making at the EU and global levels.