The people behind the Initiative
One region.
Many voices.
A trusted network of public-health leaders shaping evidence-based decisions across Eurasia.
Directorate
Leadership with purpose.
Chair
Rabia Kahveci, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Turkish Evidence Based Medicine Association
Rabia Kahveci is the current and founding Chair of the Turkish Evidence Based Medicine Association. She graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 1999. She specialized in family medicine at Ankara Training and Research Hospital, gained a master’s degree in Health Technology Assessment and Management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, and an associate degree in Management of Health Care Institutions at Eskişehir Anadolu University.
In relation to HTA, she completed certificate programmes on Epidemiology (Université de Montréal), Management of Health Care Institutions, Ethics, Law and Sociology (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Economic Evaluations and Health Policy Analysis (University of Barcelona) and Clinical Decision-making (University of Ottawa). She represented Turkish young family doctors in the European Vasco da Gama Movement in 2006 and was appointed as a Patients for Patient Safety champion by WHO in 2007.
She worked in the Ministry of Health, Directorate of Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacies between 2007 and 2010, as a member of the Medical and Economical Evaluation Committee and the Reimbursement Committee for Drugs, where she promoted HTA for reimbursement decisions. Dr Kahveci has worked as an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital since 2010. She started hospital-based HTA in the same hospital and has been the founding and current Chair of ANHTA, the first hospital-based HTA unit in Turkey.
She was elected as an HTAi Director in 2014. Dr Kahveci is the Chair of the Developing Countries Interest Subgroup, a steering committee member of the HTAi Early Career Network and a member of the Strategic Planning Committee in the same society.
Secretary
Esra Meltem Koç, Assist. Prof. Dr.
Turkish Evidence Based Medicine Association
Esra Meltem Koç graduated from Selçuk University, Meram Medical School in 2008. She completed her specialization in family medicine at Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, an associate’s degree in Management of Health Care Institutions and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Eskişehir Anadolu University. She also began master’s training in Epidemiology and in Health Economics and Pharmacoeconomics at Hacettepe University, and an associate’s degree in Justice at Eskişehir Anadolu University.
Dr Koç, a board member of the Turkish Evidence-Based Medicine Association, has taken part in the work of ANHTA, the first hospital-based HTA unit founded in Turkey. She served as Secretariat of the HTAi Interest Sub-Group on HTA in Developing Countries. She worked in the Ministry of Health, General Directorate of Health Researches, Health Technology Assessment Department between 2015 and 2016, and started work at the Family Medicine Department of İzmir Katip Çelebi University Medical Faculty in 2016.
Director
Mirela Çela, MD
National Center for Quality, Safety & Accreditation of Health Institutions (NCQSA)
Senior specialist, Directory of Health Indicators
Ina Cifliku, MD
Head of Health Policy and Reforms Department
Nabil Seyidov, MD
Public Health and Reforms Center
Dr Nabil Seyidov was born in the Ujar region of Azerbaijan in 1979. He graduated with honours from Azerbaijan State Medical University in 2002 and continued his education in clinical residency in cardiovascular surgery at the Scientific Center for Cardio-vascular Surgery of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he also did his PhD in cardiac surgery and successfully defended his paper in 2008. He authored and co-authored 10 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals published in the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan.
During 2010–2013, Dr Seyidov completed the international certificate programme on general surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, and an internship in general surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center. In 2014 he joined the Public Health and Reforms Center as acting head of the Health Policy and Reforms Department. Since then he has been actively involved in development of evidence-based e-training programmes for healthcare professionals and evidence-based medical information for patients. He also leads the PHRC team on establishment of a National Cancer Registry.
Head of Medical Quality Standards Department
Shahla Ismaylova, MD
Public Health and Reforms Center of the Ministry of Health
Dr Shahla Ismaylova was born in Baku in 1965. She graduated from Azerbaijan State Medical University in 1988 and worked as a paediatrician at Baku City United Children’s Hospital 5 until 2008.
In 2008 she joined the Public Health and Reforms Center of the Ministry of Health as doctor-methodologist of the Medicine Quality Standards Department. In 2012 she was promoted to head of department, where she leads work on development of clinical protocols and practice guidelines. She has taken part in postgraduate programmes including family physician training at Hacettepe University, childhood diseases with WHO, and evidence-based medicine with the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan.
Director
Ahmed Novo, MD
Accreditation and Healthcare Quality Improvement Agency for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AKAZ)
Ahmed Novo, born in 1964, earned his diploma from the Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo. He obtained a Master of Science degree and a PhD in quality improvement at the same faculty, and a diploma as top-manager in health from the Faculty of Economics, the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Institute of FBiH.
Additional education in health-care systems was completed through 15 years of work with UNICEF and WHO, including strategic management (Imperial College London), quality and safety systems (AKAZ), mid-level management training (WHO), and a 2014 course on Health Technology Assessment at the Summer School in Public Health Policy, Economics and Management in Lugano. Areas of expertise include quality improvement, accreditation, clinical guidelines and care pathways, quality and safety indicators, benchmarking and patient satisfaction. He is the author and editor of over 90 papers and publications in health-care quality, and works as director of AKAZ.
Director
Siniša Stević
Accreditation and Healthcare Quality Improvement Agency for Republika Srpska (ASKVA)
Siniša Stević, born in 1967, completed Medical Faculty in Banja Luka. He obtained a Master of Science degree in Health System Management at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and further education in health-reform financing and provider-payment mechanisms at the World Bank Institute in Washington, DC.
He has worked as a consultant for firms including Medicare, BearingPoint, Sofreco and EPOS on national and international projects financed by the World Bank, the EU, CIDA and WHO. Areas of expertise include accreditation, clinical guidelines and care pathways, quality and safety indicators, benchmarking and provider-payment mechanisms. He works as director of ASKVA.
Deputy Head, Center for Healthcare Standardization
Temirkhan Kulkhan
Republican Center for Health Development, Ministry of Health and Social Development
Dr Temirkhan Kulkhan was born on 24 December 1983. He graduated from Kazakh State Medical Academy, Astana, in 2007 and specialized in general surgery at Semipalatinsk State Medical Academy in 2008. He completed a Master of Science on medical and social rehabilitation of children with corrected congenital heart diseases at Medical University Astana in 2008–2010, and an international master’s degree in Health Technology Assessment and Management — with training at the University of Montreal, the University of Toronto, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the University of Barcelona — in 2011–2013.
He has been Head of the Department for Health Technologies Assessment at the Republican Healthcare Development Centre, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, since October 2010. He also served as a public assistant deputy of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2011–2013.
Head of Unit for HTA, Center for Healthcare Standardization
Ainura Sassykova
Republican Center for Health Development, Ministry of Health and Social Development
She was born in 1986 in Kazakhstan. She graduated from the International Relations Faculty of Eurasian National University in 2008 and completed economy training at Astana University between 2011 and 2013.
She was Head of the Division of Global Health at the Republican Center for Health Development between June 2010 and December 2011, and has been Chief Expert of the Division for Health Technology Assessment at the same centre since January 2012.
EBM consultant, Ministry of Health
Bermet Baryktabasova
She graduated from Kyrgyz State Medical Institute, Department of Pediatrics, in 1994 and completed postgraduate study at the Kyrgyz Scientific Research Institute of Obstetrics and Pediatrics in 1994–1997, receiving a PhD as Candidate of Medical Sciences.
She has worked as an EBM methodologist and national consultant on evidence-based medicine and national clinical guidelines and protocols of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic since 2010. She has over 130 published national clinical guidelines, protocols and standards approved by the Ministry of Health. She is a member of GIN and President of ISPOR/HTA in Kyrgyzstan.
Clinical pharmacologist of the National Hospital of the Ministry of Health
Baktygul Kambaralieva
Director
Elizabeta Zisovska, Prof. Dr.
Agency for Quality and Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions, Skopje
She was born in 1959 in Prilep. She graduated in medical sciences, specialized in pediatrics, and has been director of the Agency for Quality and Accreditation of Health Care Institutions since June 2014.
Between 1983 and 2014 she was chief of the neonatal department at the University Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic, and chief of the Institute for Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology in Skopje. She is director of the First School for Evidence-Based Medicine Practice in Štip and a professor at the Faculty for Medical Sciences in Štip and the Faculty for Dentistry in Skopje. Her work includes WHO programmes on rational use of medicines in neonates, essential newborn care, maternal and neonatal health, and good governance of medicines.
Head of Pharmacoinformatics Unit
Merjem Haxhihamza
Agency for Medicines, Ministry of Health
MPharm, pharmacoinformatics specialist (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje). Head of the Pharmacoinformatics Unit, Agency for Medicines, Ministry of Health, Skopje.
From 2004 to 2009 she was coordinator of the pharmaceutical component of the Health Sector Management Project of the World Bank and the Ministry of Health. She took part in preparing the Health Strategy of the Republic of Macedonia and the Law on Medicines and Medical Devices. She was head of the Committee for selection of drugs for the positive list for three years, and has been a member of the Expert Committee for classification of medicines coordinated by EDQM, Council of Europe, since 2008, and of the WHO Good Governance of Medicines programme since 2007.
President
Sanja Simović
Society for Quality and Safety of Health Care in Montenegro
Sanja Simović, MD, specialist in occupational medicine, was born on 13 June 1958 in Bosanski Novi, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2013 she has worked as General Director of the Directorate for Improvement and Quality Control at the Ministry of Health of Montenegro.
She graduated in 1982 and specialized in occupational medicine in 1991 at the Medical Faculty, University of Belgrade. From 2004 to 2013 she worked at the Montenegrin Health Insurance Fund as chief for control. She is president of the National Commission for the Quality and Safety of Health Care and of the National Commission for Intrahospital Infections, and the first president of the Montenegrin Society for Quality and Safety of Healthcare, part of the European Society for Quality in Healthcare.
President of the Commission for the Control of Quality of Work
Alma Bajramspahić
Health Care Center, Bijelo Polje
She is a specialist of occupational medicine and of family medicine at the Health Care Center in Bijelo Polje, and a lecturer at the Medical College in Berane. She graduated from the Medical University of Sarajevo and holds Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Medical University, Belgrade.
She is president of the Commission for the control of quality of work at the Health Care Center in Bijelo Polje, a member of the coordinating body for a project on quality and security through patient and staff satisfaction research, a member of the consulting team for examining implementation of national guidelines, and a member of the Society for Quality and Security of Healthcare Protection of Montenegro, part of ESQH.
CEO, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital
Nurullah Zengin, Prof. Dr.
Prof. Dr Nurullah Zengin was born in Tekirdağ Çerkezköy in 1966. He graduated from Ankara University in 1990, completed internal medicine at Hacettepe University in 1995 and medical oncology there in 1999. He was appointed associate professor in 2000 and set up the Department of Medical Oncology at Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital.
He took various missions in the Ministry of Health, including chairman of the Cancer Advisory Board in 2007. In 2008 he was appointed Chief Medical Officer of Ankara Oncology Hospital, and in June 2009 Chief Medical Officer and later CEO of Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital.
General Manager, General Directorate of Health Research
Mehmet Rıfat Köse, MD
He was born in 1957. In 1983 he graduated from Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine. He worked in various organizations in Zonguldak between 1983 and 1984, then in Istanbul as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Şişli Etfal Hospital and as Deputy Director of Istanbul Provincial Health and Social Welfare. He completed his specialization in public health at Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in 1990.
He was appointed Vice President of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Health Care Services in 1991, General Directorate of Primary Health Care in 1995, and General Manager of Mother, Child Health and Family Planning in 1997. He carried out the task of Deputy Undersecretary in conjunction with that general directorate in 2002. He has been a member of the Board of Health Policy since 2012 and General Manager of the General Directorate of Health Research since May 2014.
Head of the Department of Health Technology Assessment
Bilgehan Karadayı, MD
Ministry of Health
He was born in Yenice, Karabük in 1971. He graduated from Ankara University Medical Faculty in 1996 and completed specialist training in radiation oncology at Gazi University Medical Faculty between 1998 and 2002. From 2002 to 2006 he worked as a specialist and assistant professor in radiation oncology at Dicle University Medical Faculty.
In 2006 he started working in the central organization of the Ministry of Health, as head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering Services and head of the Department of Medical Devices. From 2012, with the restructuring of the Ministry of Health, he has been working as head of the Department of Health Technology Assessment.