Current Drug Safety

Dr. Citrome is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, and has a private practice in Pomona, NY. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology. He graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and completed a Residency and Chief Residency in Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, and went on to complete a Masters in Public Health at Columbia University. He is editor in chief of the International Journal of Clinical Practice and the author/co-author of over 400 published research reports, reviews, and book chapters in the biomedical literature. He is the author of the book, Handbook of Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia, published in 2013 by Springer Healthcare.

Peter Vestergaard is MD, PhD and holds a Nordic Grand doctorate (DrMedSc) in medicine and endocrinology. He is professor and chair of endocrinology at the department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University Hospital and consultant in Endocrinology and Internal Medicine at the Department of Endocrinology at Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark. He has published over 300 peer reviewed papers and has an H index on google scholar of 58. He has mentored several PhD’s and has served on the editorial board of Osteoporosis International and Current Drug Safety as well as in national and international medical societies.

Dr Lana Williams is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellow and clinically trained Psychologist with significant experience in psychiatric epidemiology and a special interest in the co-occurrence of physical and mental disorders. She currently leads the Division of Psychiatric Epidemiology within the IMPACT Strategic Research Centre, Deakin University. Dr Williams has authored over 100 peer reviewed scientific publications, is a regular presenter and chair at both domestic and international scientific meetings and is a supervisor to a number of RHD students in her research field.

Consultant internist in India & Malaysia since 2001 and Consultant in Endocrinology & Metabolism in the UK since February 2015. Associate Professor in Medicine at Indian & Malaysian Universities in 2007 - 2009. Currently a teaching faculty member to Manchester University Medical School and Research faculty to Manchester Universities, University of Central Lancashire and Medical Research Unit of Calicut Medical College (India). Published 70 academic publications since 2004. Edited special issue on Endocrine complications of inhaled steroids in Open Journal of Respiratory Medicine in 2014 and editorial board member to World Journal of Diabetes since 2010. Scientific peer reviewer to many academic medical journal including Lancet & BMJ. External research grant assessor to Qatar University. Research interests: Neuroendocrinology, parathyroid disorders, metabolic bone disease, obesity & diabesity.

He is a clinical investigator whose research activities have focused on the pathophysiology, epidemiology and treatment of osteoporosis. He was trained in osteoporosis epidemiology by Prof LJ Melton III at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation, and was one of two full-time clinical academics appointed to the University of Melbourne’s Department of Medicine at The Geelong and St Vincent’s Hospitals in 1991. He has been an investigator on numerous clinical trials in osteoporosis and has over 100 publications in peer reviewed literature. In 2011, he joined the Deakin University School of Medicine where he is Deputy Director of the Department of Medicine at Barwon Health.

Dr F. Javier Alvarez, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine of Valladolid University, and CEIC/CEIm, Valladolid University Hospital, Spain. He has published more than 170 scientific publications. He has participated in several EU projects (Euro-TREND, IMMORTAL, Alcolock, and DRUID). Member of different working groups for international agencies such us WHO-Europe, EMCDDA, DG-TREND/DG-MOVE and the Pompidou Group at the Council of Europe.

Dr Bessone is a Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Rosario Medical School (Argentina), and the Chief of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology department at the Hospital Provincial del Centenario from University of Rosario Medical School. He has participated as a principal investigator or co-investigator in more than 50 clinical trials. He has been invited as a guest professor in several foreign Universities, and has received 6 academic awards (to the best research work) from different societies. His main research areas include hepatotoxicity and viral hepatitis. He is a coordinator of the Spanish - Latin American registry of hepatotoxicity (SLATIN DILI) in Argentina and he is also a member of the International group for the study of herbal hepatotoxicity. He is an author of more than 60 published papers, 25 chapters in books, and more than 120 papers presented at meetings.

Professor Ugo Boggi is full professor of Surgery at the University of Pisa, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). Professor Boggi is general surgeon with particular expertise in hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery and transplant surgery. Professor Boggi is also a world renowned laparoscopic and robotic surgery. He performed the first robotic pancreas transplant. Professor Boggi published more than 260 articles with peer review, edited 2 books, and wrote more than 50 book chapters. He serves in the Editorial Board of 6 International Medical Journals and acts as a reviewer for 30 International Medical Journals.

Guido Cavaletti graduated in Medicine at the University of Milan in 1984 and obtained his Board in Neurology in 1989. In 1990 he obtained a clinical position at the Department of Neurology of the S. Gerardo Hospital in Monza. Since 2001 he is Professor of Human Anatomy at the School of Medicine of the University of Milan-Bicocca, where he is the coordinator of the PhD program in Neuroscience and head of the Experimental Neurology Unit. He is member of the Italian Society of Neurology, of the Peripheral Nerve Society, of the Italian Society for neuro-Immunology and past-president of the Italian Peripheral Nerve Association. He coordinates the activity of the European/US/Australia CI-PeriNomS group on the standardization of outcome measures in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neurotoxicity. He authored more than 230 papers on international peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Alessandro Dario graduated in 1985 at Pavia University and had speciality in Neurosurgery in 1990; he currently serves at the Neurosurgical Clinic of Insubria and Varese Hospital. He participated as speaker in 22 national and international Congress and Courses and as a participant in about a hundred congress. He has 160 scientific work in abstract or extended including more than 30 publications indexed in Medline. Its clinical activity is in the field of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, mainly on chronic intrathecal infusion.

Dr. Davidson is Professor of Medicine and Director of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Chicago. He earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and then completed his residency and fellowship in cardiology at Rush University Medical Center. His extensive research on statins, novel lipid-lowering drugs, and nonpharmacologic risk factor reduction has established him as a key opinion leader in this area. He has has coordinated more than 1,000 clinical trials in areas of preventive cardiology and published more than 250 articles for leading medical journals and has written 3 books on Lipidology.

Carlos de las Cuevas, MD, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine in the University of La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain. Dr. De las Cuevas' research interests focus on issues involving pharmacoepidemiology of psychiatric drugs and telepsychiatry, and have been supported by grants from Spain and Canary Islands government agencies and foundations. He has authored and co-authored 40 papers in different journals.

Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira completed a PhD degree in Toxicology in the University of Porto. By Rector Dispatch awarded the European PhD. He holds 2 Post-Doc in Toxicology and Pharmacology, and Habilitation (Aggregation) in Forensic Sciences by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto. He published more than 145 papers, 35 book chapters, edited 4 books and 4 patents. He is Director of the Course in Forensic Laboratorial Sciences, Course in Biomedical Sciences and of the Master in Forensic Sciences and Laboratory Techniques of University Institute of Health Sciences. He is the president elect of the Portuguese Association of Forensic Sciences. His current h-index is 26 according to SCOPUS.

Dr. Pere Domingo is currently Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Hospitals Universitaris Arnau de Vilanova & Santa María at Lleida, Spain. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Lleida. He graduated with honours in the University of Barcelona in 1980 and achieved his PhD degree in the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1993 (Magna cum laude). He has been devoted to infectious diseases and HIV infection since 1989. His previous position was Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medicine School (Autonomous University of Barcelona) from 1994 to 2016. He has authored or co-authored more than 500 scientific papers and more than 100 book chapters.

Professor Elisaf is a Professor of Internal Medicine in the University of Ioannina. He is also Head of the Lipids, Atherosclerosis, Obesity and Diabetes Department of the University Hospital of Ioannina. He is an active member of about 27 medical societies, including the European Hypertension Society, European Atherosclerosis Society and the International Society of Hypertension. Additionally, he is the President of the Greek section of the American Society of Angiology. He is member of the Council of the Hellenic Atherosclerosis Society. He is Vice President of the Institute of Study, Research and Training for Diabetes Mellitus and Metabolic Diseases. Professor Elisaf is editor in chief and member of the editorial board of 40 recognized medical journals. Furthermore, he is a referee of about 118 international medical journals.

Dr. Antonio Facciorusso graduated from the University San Raffaele in Milan and completed his residency program at the University of Bari and the National Cancer Institute in Milan directed by Prof. Vincenzo Mazzaferro. He reached a PhD degree at the University of Foggia. Dr. Facciorusso’s research activity is mainly focused on diagnostic/interventional endoscopy of the gastrointestinal tract and hepato-oncology. In collaboration with Dr Muscatiello, he has developed a novel technique for the endoscopic resection of large colon polyps consisting in the submucosal injection of polidocanol (a sclerosing agent) aimed at decreasing post-polypectomy bleeding. Again, in collaboration with Dr. Muscatiello he developed several Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS)-guided novel procedures for palliative treatment of locally-advanced pancreatic cancer, in particular ethanol ablation of the pancreatic mass combined to celiac plexus neurolysis.

Albert Farrugia has worked in the field of biotherapeutics for thirty five years and has held senior positions in blood centres, plasma fractionation manufacturers and government regulatory and policy agencies. He serves currently as the Senior Scientific and Regulatory Advisor to Kedrion S.p.A. He has served on international bodies including the WHO, the Council of Europe, the World Federation of Hemophilia and the US and European Pharmacopeia Commissions. He is an adjunct Professor in the School of Surgery in the University of Western Australia and has published over 170 contributions to the international literature. He is a recipient of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Blood Transfusion’s Ruth Sanger Medal.

Anna Ferarri is a medical doctor specialist in clinical pharmacology and medical toxicology in the division of Toxicology and Clinical pharmacology Department at the University Hospital of Modena, Italy. Dr Ferrari authored or co-authored more than 45 peer-reviewed publications on clinical pharmacology, toxicology and medical diagnosis and treatment of headaches. She teaches pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in the Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery.

He graduated from the School of Medicine of the University of Ioannina, Greece and acquired his doctoral degree (PhD) which focused on the treatment of overweight/obese subjects with metabolic syndrome by the same school. He has specialized in lipid and metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease prevention in the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK (2008). His main scientific interests lie in the field of obesity, atherosclerosis, lipid metabolism, metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus type 2. He has published over 80 papers related with these fields in peer-reviewed journals and has given many regional congress presentations, in addition to numerous national and international congress abstracts.

Dr Guillermo Di Girolamo obtained a Medical degree in the School of Medicine from Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1980. PhD in Pharmacology in 1984 and MD in Clinical Pharmacology in 2000 from Universidad de Buenos Aires. Dr Di Girolamo is Adjunct Professor in Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at School of Medicine from Universidad de Buenos Aires and Full Professor of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine from Universidad Favaloro. His research interest includes clinical pharmacokinetic, pharmacovigilance, and cardiovascular clinical pharmacology. He has published more than 70 scientific refereed publications.

Dr. Daniel Kurnick is the Director of Clinical Pharmacology in the Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology Section at Rambam Health Care Campus. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He serves as a consultant regarding questions concerning adverse drug reactions, individualization of drug therapy, and drug approval, both for Rambam’s patient population and the hospital administration. His research interests include personalized medicine, pharmacogenetics, drug safety, and pharmacoepidemiology. Dr. Kurnik has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, and has won grant support and awards for his research both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Michele M. Luchetti is an Assistant Professor at Institute of Internal Medicine, Dept. of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Clinic Regional Hospital “Umberto I - Torrette”, Ancona, Italy. He is also the Head of the out-patients’ examination clinic of Gastro-Rheumatologic, IBD UNIT, “Umberto I–G. Lancisi-G.M.Salesi”, University Clinic Regional Hospital, Ancona, Italy and the head of the out-patients’ examination clinic of Dermo-Rheumatologic, “Umberto I–G. Lancisi-G.M.Salesi”, University Clinic Regional Hospital, Ancona, Italy. His research interest are in Spondyloarthritis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Psoriatic Arthritis, Scleroderma and Cell signaling in scleroderma. He is also serving as a Lecturer in different medical institutions.

Martin C. Michel is a physician trained in experimental and clinical pharmacology in Essen (Germany) and San Diego (California). He headed the Nephrology and Hypertension Research Laboratory in Essen (1993-2002), the Department of Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapy at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands, 2003-2011) and was Global Head of Product and Pipeline Scientific Support at Boehringer Ingelheim (2011-2016). Since 2012 he is Professor of Pharmacology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (Germany). He has published more than 500 scientific articles, has been Editor-in-Chief of Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology and also serves on the board of many pharmacological, physiological and urological journals. He is serving as chair of IUPHAR committees on β3-adrenoceptors and on data reproducibility. His research focusses on urogenital and cardiovascular pharmacology.

Dr Nelson is a consultant physician at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. He trained at Jesus College, Cambridge and Westminster Hospital medical school from where he qualified in 1986. He was appointed Consultant Physician at this hospital in 1991 and is the professor of HIV medicine at Imperial College Medical School where he is also the deputy senior tutor. He has built a large HIV practice with a special interest in HIV in patient care, co-infection with hepatitis B and C and the clinical utility of new antiretroviral agents. He is the vice chair of IAPAC which represents over 25,000 providers of HIC care globally and is the London representative for fast track cities to achieve 90;90;90. He has published over 600 peer reviewed papers on HIV and hepatitis.

Graziano Onder has M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. He is a Geriatrician working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geriatrics of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy. The main focuses of his research are pharmacoepidemiology in the elderly, including assessment of prevalence and risk factors for adverse drug reactions and inappropriate prescribing in the elderly, sarcopenia and its impact on clinical outcomes, and organizational characteristics of health care systems. Dr. Onder′s activities are documented by more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, several book chapters, and numerous other publications.

Georgios Papazisis is an Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Neuropsychopharmacology, pharmacovigilance (especially psychotropic drug safety and patients safety) and medication errors are his fields of interest. He has published 41 Pub-Med papers, 2 book chapters and his work has over 940 citations with an h-index of 20. He is responsible for the causality assessment of the case safety reports at the Pharmacovigilance Department of the Greek Organization for Medicines. In June 2018 he became regular member of the National Health Technology Assessment Committee.

Dr. Carlo Piccinni is a Pharmacologist and a Real-World Evidence (RWE) Researcher at Research and Health Foundation (Fondazione ReS) partner of CINECA Interuniversity Consortium. He obtained a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Bologna and he was a Post-Doc Research Fellow in Pharmacoepidemiology at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences University of Bologna. He has expertise in projecting and conducting RWE researches by using different data sources: health administrative databases, electronic health records, patient registries, adverse drug reaction spontaneous reports. He develops studies of health economy to investigate the integrated care costs of diseases, the impact of new therapeutic strategies and of clinical pathways. He provides consultancies to public and private institutions in performing observational researches in various clinical areas with a particular interest in neurological field. He is a member of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE), the EuroDURG (European Drug Utilization Research Group) and the Italian Society of Pharmacology (SIF). Dr. Piccinni has authored more than 50 indexed papers, 2 book chapters, several publications on mass- media and several oral and poster communications in the field of pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance, drug-utilisation and pharmacoeconomy.

Prof. Pittrow, MD, is CEO of 3P Consulting, Seefeld, Germany. He has more 20 years of experience in the research, discovery and business development of various medications. Dr. Pittrow has a specialisation in Pharmaceutical Medicine (FMH Switzerland) and holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology from the Technical University, Dresden, Germany. Notably, Dr. Pittrow has (co-)authored more than 200 manuscripts and several books (according to Google Scholar h-index 38, i10 index 97). Since 2004, he is an adjunct faculty member at the Medical Faculty of the Technical University in Dresden (one of the 11 Universities of Excellence in Germany), where he teaches Clinical Pharmacology.

Dr Elham Rahme is Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine of McGill University. She is co-Director of the Metabolism and Experimental Therapeutic Program- Health Services component at the McGill University Health Centre and co-Director of the ‘Methods’ component - Unité de soutien-SRAP du Quebec (CIHR-SPOR). She has extensive expertise in pharmacoepidemiology and health services research. She has conducted population-based studies on the utilization, adverse events, and cost of NSAIDs; risks and benefits of extended outpatient anticoagulant use following hip and knee arthroplasty; use of serotonin re-uptake inhibitors in risk of suicide; utilisation, safety and cost of anti-TNF-alpha, among others.

Dr. Robert Rodnitzky is a graduate of the University of Chicago School Of Medicine. His postgraduate training was in internal medicine and neurology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and included a sabbatical leave at Stanford University where he studied motor physiology. He is the author or co-author of over 115 peer-viewed journal articles and 25 books or chapters. He is currently Professor and Chair Emeritus in the Department of Neurology at the University College of Medicine and also serves as Associate Editor for the Americas for Parkinsonism and Related Disorders.

Dr. Chaker Ben Salem obtained his National Diploma of Doctor in Medicine (in 2001) from University of Sousse, Tunisia. Dr. Ben Salem is presently performing his services as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine at University of Sousse. Additionally, he has been a Pharmacovigilance Consultant at Farhat Hached Hospital and Sahloul Hospital of Sousse. His medical expertise involves the problems related to Pharmacovigilance, and application of the drug allergy tests.

Dr. Verinder Sharma is a Professor of Psychiatry and has a cross appointment to the department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Sharma graduated from Government Medical College, Patiala, India, and completed his postgraduate training in psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. Dr. Sharma’s research focusses on the diagnosis and treatment of refractory mood disorders and peripartum psychiatric illnesses. Lately he has devoted his research efforts to exploring the relationship between postpartum psychiatric disorders and bipolar disorder. He is widely published and well-funded by peer reviewed granting agencies.

He is Responsible Cerebrovascular disease and Neurosonology in the Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Division and Stroke Unit “Annunziata” Hospital – Cosenza, Italy. He is adjunct professor at the Department of Pharmacology Department of Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Catanzaro "Magna Graecia". He is editorial board in various international medical and scientific journals and reviewer in neurological journals (i.e. Neurology, stroke , European journal of Neurology). He is author and co-author of scientific publications in neurology and neuropharmacology. His recent interests are: neuropharmacology, antiepileptic drugs, epilepsy and stroke.

Robert Tan M.D., M.B.A. is Clinical Professor in Family & Community Medicine (Geriatrics) at the University of Texas, Houston. He has published more than 100 scientific publications and is on the editorial board of several international medical journals. His interest is in Aging & Reproductive hormones and is author of 3 books. He was trained in Singapore, London, Ohio and is in practice in Texas, USA.

Professor Paul M. Tulkens (ORCID 0000-0002-7121-3623) is MD (1969) and PhD (1979 of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). After fellowships and nominations from the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, he was Professor of Pharmacology at the same university and also of Human Biochemistry and Biochemical Pathology at the Université de Mons-Hainaut. Emeritus since 2010, he maintains active research activities and is currently Section Editor of the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, and Biomed Research International, and a frequent reviewer for many biomedical journals.

Dr. Pollen Yeung obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. He is currently Professor in Pharmacy and Medicine at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. He has published more than 80 scientific manuscripts and 150 abstracts. Dr. Yeung is currently Editor-in Chief for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Open Access, and a member on the Editorial Board for Natural Product Chemistry and Research (both published by Omnics Publishing Group), Metabolites (published by MPGI AG), Cardiovascular & Hematological Disorders Drug Targets (published by Bentham Science Publishers), and Medical Sciences Monitor (published by International Scientific Information, Inc).