Prof. Emer. Dr. Erik Holst

IFMSA President 1952-53

Prof. Dr. Raphael Walden

IFMSA President 1963-65

Prof. Emer. Dr. med. Robert Steffen

IFMSA President 1967-68

Prof. Erik Holst is emeritus professor of social medicine at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and now an international consultant with the ICAR Foundation, Romania, which gives free medical, psychological, social and legal assistance to victims of torture and other abuses. He graduated from Medical School in 1956 from the University of Copenhagen and received in 1962 his Public Health Diploma again from the University of Copenhagen. During the next years after his graduation, he served in many positions, including president of the Danish Junior Hospital Doctors Association (FAYL) 1960-63, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Ugeskrift for Læger (Journal of the Danish Medical Association) 1967-80, president of the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) 1972-75, president of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) 1977-79, president of the Danish Medical Association (DADL) 1980-86 and visiting professor, International Comparative Health Policy, Division of Health Services, School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 1986-89. Since 1990, he has focussed on rehabilitation of torture victims, and has served as president of the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims in Copenhagen, and as executive vice president of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, Denmark.

Prof. Walden is a vascular surgeon who for years was chief of surgery at Sheba. He is a professor at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine, and has been a visiting professor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. He joined Physicians for Human Rights in 1992 and been one of its leaders ever since. Prof. Walden is personal physician to Mr. Simon Peres, former President of the State of Israel, while Peres is Walden’s father-in-law. At the Sheba Medical Center he was Chairman of the Surgical Division (including 18 various surgical departments) where he pioneered non-invasive vascular studies. He has also served as a medical consultant to the government of Singapore. Professor Walden has published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers and has authored book chapters on clinical and experimental topics relating to vascular surgery.  In addition to his clinical work Professor Walden is involved in projects of quality control and patient safety.

Robert Steffen, emeritus professor, is now concentrating on research projects at the University of Zurich Centre for Travel Medicine. There, until 2008, he was head of the division of epidemiology and prevention of communicable diseases in the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, and director of a World Health Organization collaborating centre for traveller’s health. Further, he is an adjunct professor in the epidemiology and disease prevention division of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas, and an honorary fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine. He started to systematically investigate illness and accidents in travellers in 1975, organised the First International Conference on Travel Medicine in Zurich in 1988, and became a cofounder and President of the International Society of Travel Medicine. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine and has published more than 350 papers, book chapters, and monographs–mainly in the field of travel health. For 12 years each, he presided on the Swiss Influenza Pandemic Planning Committee and the Expert Committee for Travel Medicine; he was the vice-president of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee.

Dr. Richard Hamilton

IFMSA President 1968-69

Dr. Alex Ooi

IFMSA President 1973-75

Dr. Bjorg Thorsteinsdottir

IFMSA President 1997-98

Richard Hamilton, M.B., B.S., F.R.A.C.S. has more than 20 years experience as a plastic surgeon. Dr. Hamilton graduated from Adelaide Medical School and trained in some of the best facilities in the world (Adelaid-South Australia, New Zealand, Melbourne-Victoria, Gothenburg and Stockholm-Sweden). After returning to Adelaide, he became Chief of the Plastic Surgery Unit at Flinders Medical Centre from 1980-1995. In addition, he was the Senior Visiting Plastic Surgeon at the Repatriation General Hospital from 1981-1998. Dr. Hamilton is a member of several professional associations, including The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), The Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), The Australasian Society of Aesthetic Surgeons (ASAPS), The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS). He established Hamilton House Day Surgery in 1988 with a mission to provide individualized treatment to every patient.

Dr Alex Ooi is a senior Obstetrician & Gynaecologist with over 30 years of specialty medical experience, currently practising at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre in Singapore. Dr Ooi obtained his medical education at the University of Singapore and graduated in 1975. He trained in Singapore and London and became a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He practiced at the Kandang Kerbau Hospital until commencing his own private practice at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre in 1982. Prior to introduction of his liposuction service, he trained in several places including with Dr Jeffrey Klein, inventor of the tumescent technique for liposuction. Since early 2005, he established Tumescent Liposuction and Autologous Fat Transfer services as a natural extension of his expertise in keyhole surgery. After a national review of regulations in this field, he was appointed liposuction preceptor by the Ministry of Health of Sigapore.

Bjorg Thorsteinsdottir is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Primary Care Internal Medicine Department of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. She graduated from Medical School, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. She attended an internship at the Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland and then was trained at the department of Internal Medicine, Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Thorsteinsdottir has also been a fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA. She is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Her interests include the fields of Ethics, End of life care, Transitions of care, Resource allocation and Health policy.

Dr. Sanjeeb Sapkota

Dr. Emily Spry

Dr. Chijioke Kaduru

Dr. Sapkota is a medical epidemiologist and has been working in the area of public health for close to 10 years. He has experience in chronic disease prevention, injuries prevention, environment health, and emegency public health management. Currently he is working in Countermeasure Response and Administration (CRA) team within Division of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contracted to Constella Group – An International SRA Company. Dr. Sanjeeb Sapkota graduated from Tribhuwan University, Nepal and worked for World Health Organization as a technical officer. He earned his Masters of Public Health (MPH) from University of Kuopio, Finland. Dr. Sapkota has also been an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. EIS is the world renowed program on applied epidemiology.

Emily is a UK doctor who spent one year in 2009-2010 volunteering as the Welbodi Partnership Medical Coordinator in Sierra Leone. She is training to be a family doctor and has long had an interest in international health. She trained at St. George’s Hospital Medical School and has a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from St. Anne’s College, Oxford. The Welbodi Partnership is working to improve child health in Sierra Leone, where 1 in 7 children dies before their 5th birthday. Since 2007 we have worked with the government and hospital staff at the Ola During Children’s Hospital in Freetown with the aim to transform it into a centre of excellence.

Dr. Chijioke Kaduru, is a Doctor, with a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) degree (Medical Sciences) from the University of Ghana and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree from the University of Ghana Medical School. He is a certified Human Resource Trainer. He currently works as a Marketing Coordinator, for Corona Management Services and as a Project and Human Resource Coordinator, for Young People for Global Health (YPGH). Dr. Kaduru is an Associate member of the World Medical Association (WMA). He likes to write about health policy, health systems, politics, youth development and many more lifestyle issues. He currently lives in Abuja, Nigeria.