Scientific Committee

Dr. Saleh Fares-Al-Ali

Executive Director , Emergency Preparedness & Response Center at Department of Health Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates

Dr. Saleh Fares Al-Ali is the Executive Director, Emergency Preparedness & Response Center at Department of Health, Abu Dhabi where he has also served as an advisor at the Undersecretary office and a deputy commander of Zayed Military Hospital. He has more than 21 years of experience in the healthcare sector including Zayed Military Hospital, McGill University teaching hospitals, University of Toronto and Harvard teaching hospitals. He is a Canadian and American Board certified in Emergency Medicine since 2007 and holds a prehospital care fellowship from the University of Toronto and Disaster Medicine fellowship. He holds a master and doctorate degree in public health / Healthcare management and policy from Johns Hopkins University / School of Public Health. In addition, Dr. Saleh Al-Ali has organized several local and international conferences in Emergency Medicine, prehospital care and Disaster Medicine. He is an active member of several committees in WHO,IFEM and many others.

Prof. Gregory Ciottone

President , World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine | USA

Dr. Ciottone is President of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an Instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and the Founding Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Fellowship in Disaster Medicine. He serves as the Director of Medical Preparedness for the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University, a joint program of the HSPH and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and also serves on the Faculty Committee for the Harvard University Scholars at Risk program. Dr. Ciottone has been a consultant to the White House Medical Unit for the past three administrations. Dr Ciottone has practiced clinical Emergency Medicine for over 25 years and has completed more than 500 missions as a flight physician on an aeromedical helicopter service. He has served as a Disaster Medicine fellowship director for the International Atomic Energy Agency and conducted educational programs in more than 30 countries around the world. He has written over 150 scholarly works, including the first and second editions of the leading textbook “Ciottone’s Disaster Medicine”. The third edition will be released Spring, 2023. He is the 2018 recipient of the American College of Emergency Physicians Disaster Medical Sciences Award, and the 2020 recipient of the American Academy of Disaster Medicine Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Duane Caneva 

Advisor CEPAR/ Adj Faculty Disaster Medicine Fellowship BIDMC Harvard , AD DOH CEPAR | United Arab Emirates

Duane Caneva is an Emergency Medicine Physician currently serving as an advisor to the Abu Dhabi Department of Health Center of Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPAR). He served in the US Navy for 23 years with operational tours of duty as the physician on a nuclear missile submarine, with the Navy SEALs, with the US Marines Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, and with the Shock Trauma Platoon in Fallujah, Iraq. He has served on two details to the White House National Security Council staff and recently retired as the Chief Medical Officer for the US Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Yasser Sharif

Section Head Hospital Preparedness , Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH) | United Arab Emirates

" Dr. Yasser Sharif is a qualified physician and the head of Department of Health Abu Dhabi hospital preparedness section, his responsibility includes strategic planning, developing, implementing and evaluating solutions to improve emergency response outcomes in medical related emergencies and disasters for the health care sector in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. He helped to develop and establish the CBRNE capabilities for the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi particularly for Barakah Nuclear Power plants, assist in building and sustaining Abu Dhabi strategic medical stockpile which was fundamental in the successful response efforts to COVID19 and improved Abu Dhabi blood bank capabilities to include new services and developed a strategic stockpile of frozen blood units, he also developed the business requirements for DOH WebEoc (Estijabah System) and helped evolve the system to become a key component in tracking critical healthcare resources and responding to emergencies and disasters especially during COVID 19 Pandemic. "