Speakers & Faculty

Mr. Dave Shanahan

CEO

Athena Pharmaceuticals

Confirmed

Dave Shanahan is CEO of Athena Pharmaceuticals, an Irish pharmaceutical company supporting healthcare professionals deliver optimal patient care, via established and novel medicines. Athena supports connecting healthcare practice and networks to make healthcare more sustainable and affordable.

Mr. Damien McCallion

HSE Chief Technology and Transformation Officer and Deputy CEO

HSE

Confirmed

Damien McCallion is the HSE's Chief Technology and Transformation Officer with responsibility for technology, information security, data governance and digital development. Damien is the HSE Director for the Sláintecare Programme, overseeing the HSE's medium to long term transformation programmes. Damien is also the lead for the HSE's Organisational Change Unit, overseeing reform and transformation in the HSE, and the HSE's National Productivity Unit. Damien is also Deputy CEO of the HSE. Damien was the HSE's Chief Operations Officer from mid 2022 to June 2024, responsible for oversight of day-to-day health and social care operations in the HSE and over 100,000 staff. He took on a lead role in the COVID-19 pandemic response as the head of the successful Vaccination and Test & Trace programmes, a key part of the nation's public health response to the pandemic. He held a variety of roles prior to this within the HSE, from Screening Services, Head of the National Ambulance Service, Head of ICT, National Director for Emergency Management and Special Delivery Unit, and an Area Manager for Health Services in the North West. He has also had a lead role in cross border health programmes, as Chair and Director General of CAWT, and the organisation Safefood as Deputy Chair, for a number of years. Prior to working in the Health Service he worked for ten years in the airline industry. Damien originally qualified from Letterkenny IT in computing and subsequently completed an MSC in Innovation Management from University of Ulster and Letterkenny IT.

Professor Patricia Maguire

Professor of Biochemistry & Director of the Institute for Discovery

University College Dublin

Confirmed

Professor Patricia Maguire is a Professor of Biochemistry at University College Dublin working at the intersection of biomedical science and artificial intelligence. She is also Director of the UCD Institute for Discovery, where she brings together academics, technologists and industry to tackle major global health challenges. Her basic research has advanced understanding of platelet biology, and she leads programmes that combine advanced biomarker science with AI to improve how diseases are predicted and managed, particularly in pregnancy and inflammatory conditions. Her work focuses on building trusted, real-world AI systems that clinicians can use safely and effectively, like the multi-award winning AIPREMie project, recognised in the UNESCO Global Top 100 AI Projects for its application in preeclampsia risk stratification. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading journals such as Nature Communications, Lancet Digital Health and PNAS. Professor Maguire collaborates internationally across academia, healthcare, and industry, and is a strong advocate for interdisciplinary science, mentorship and women in STEM, where she has won several awards such as the 2021 Research Ireland National Mentorship Award. Trained in classical ballet, she credits dance with shaping how she thinks: disciplined, pattern-driven and systems-oriented; qualities she now applies to building AI-enabled health innovations that can move from discovery to real-world clinical impact.

Dr. Amrita Kumar

Consultant Radiologist

Medica Group, UAE

Confirmed

Dr. Amrita Kumar is a clinician, AI governance architect, and international advisor operationalising responsible AI across healthcare systems in the UK and UAE. As AI Clinical Lead at Healthbay Dubai and Medica UK, she has built end-to-end AI governance infrastructures that transform ethical principles into enforceable clinical standards, with implementation frameworks now adopted across multiple hospitals. She serves as AI advisor to the Royal College of Radiologists and chaired the National AI & Innovation Special Interest Group at the British Institute of Radiology. Awarded the 2024 NHS Parliamentary Award for establishing the UK's first dedicated AI working group, her dual UK-UAE positioning provides unique insights into adapting AI governance frameworks across different regulatory environments, from MHRA and NICE compliance to GCC healthcare ecosystems. A published author and international speaker, Dr. Kumar's portfolio spans AI-driven clinical workflows in high-stakes cancer diagnostic pathways, combining frontline clinical expertise with real-world AI validation and governance at scale.

Professor Nuala Healy

Consultant Radiologist

Beaumont Hospital

Confirmed

Professor Nuala Healy is a consultant radiologist specialising in breast and oncology imaging. She is Chair of Radiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. She completed her undergraduate medical training at the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2006. After two years of basic surgical training, she undertook an MD on microRNA expression as biomarkers for breast cancer, partly at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA. During this time, she also completed a Masters in Clinical Education at NUI Galway. In 2012, she began radiology training at St James' Hospital, Dublin, followed by a Breast Imaging fellowship at the Mater Hospital in 2016. In 2017, she joined the Cambridge Breast Unit, Addenbrooke's Hospital, UK, as a clinical fellow, and was appointed consultant breast and oncology radiologist in 2018. Professor Healy has a strong research profile, with national and international presentations and multiple peer-reviewed publications. She is research lead for the British Society of Breast Radiology (BSBR) and has chaired the Cambridge Conference on Breast Cancer Imaging twice. She is a trustee and organising committee member of Symposium Mammographicum, a member of the European Congress of Radiology breast subcommittee, and serves on the scientific subcommittee of the European Society of Breast Imaging. She is breast section editor for Cancer Imaging and on the editorial board of Insights into Imaging. She has also served on the NICE committee for breast cancer guideline updates (NG101 & NG81). Her interests include artificial intelligence in radiology, particularly for early breast cancer diagnosis, risk prediction, and recurrence detection. She also explores AI for fracture detection in emergency care, and advanced imaging techniques such as contrast-enhanced mammography and abbreviated MRI.

Professor Peter MacMahon

Consultant Radiologist

Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

Confirmed

Professor Peter J. MacMahon is a Consultant Radiologist at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Clinical Professor at UCD School of Medicine, and AI Lead at the Mater Centre for AI and Digital Health. He led Ireland's first deployment of artificial intelligence across an entire radiology department and has extensive practical experience introducing AI into frontline clinical workflows. His research encompasses emergency imaging, real-world evaluation of clinical AI and the development of novel imaging applications, including the award-winning SuperCT Spine project. He writes and speaks on patient safety, governance and human oversight in clinical AI, with a particular interest in judging these technologies by the harm they prevent rather than by technical performance alone.

Dr Antony Rix

CEO and Co-Founder

Lucida Medical

Confirmed

Antony Rix has over 25 years' experience in AI and software. His PhD research on AI in telecommunications won an international standards competition in 2001 and is still in use today. After 12 years developing communications systems and medical devices at technology consultancy TTP, he returned to startups in 2016. Antony has focused on applying his expertise in AI and medical technology to cancer since 2018, and in 2019 co-founded Lucida Medical with Prof Evis Sala. He initially led the development of the company's AI solution, Prostate Intelligence (Pi™), and now works directly with hospitals to support adoption of AI in prostate cancer pathways.

Mr. Thomas Russell

Chief Executive Officer

Verodat

Confirmed

Throughout his career, Thomas has believed that the best technology is technology that is simple to use, saves time, and helps people make better decisions. Having worked with business leaders across insurance, finance, construction, real estate, procurement, and media, he has seen a common challenge emerge. While technology and analytics have become increasingly sophisticated, many organisations have become further removed from understanding what is really happening within their business. Thomas founded Verodat to change that. His vision is to remove the complexity that surrounds data management and create a straightforward path between business data and AI. By making high-quality business data easier to access, govern, and trust, organisations can deploy AI safely, confidently, and at scale. Today, Verodat provides the platform that helps businesses get the right data to the right AI, enabling faster insights, better decisions, and measurable business outcomes. Learn more at www.verodat.com.

Dr Annabel Bentley

Chief Medical Officer

Medica Group

Confirmed

In November 2025 Annabel was appointed as Group Chief Medical Officer, having acted as interim from July 2025. With over 30 years' clinical and commercial experience, she was formerly Executive Medical Director at InHealth (imaging and diagnostic services), Chief Medical Officer at AXA Health, and Medical Director at Bupa UK. She provided evidence to the government's Paterson Inquiry (2020) and was a member of the Department of Health's Expert Working Group for the first Information Standard. She held a 7 year term as Responsible Officer. She is Chair of Brain Injuries Research Trust (BIRT), a trustee of Brainkind and Chair of their Quality and Governance Committee. She's established governance frameworks for multisite healthcare organisations and led initiatives to tackle unwarranted variations in care to improve outcomes for patients, improve cost of care and reduce avoidable harms. She trained at Kings College London, worked as an NHS surgeon completing FRCS and surgical posts in London teaching hospitals including Guy's & St Thomas, Great Ormond Street Hospital and district general hospitals.

Dr. Shah Islam

UKIO President & Consultant Interventional Neuroradiologist

UKIO

Confirmed

Dr. Shah Islam is a Consultant Interventional Neuroradiologist based at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. Shah trained exclusively between London (Queen Square and Great Ormond Street for Children) and Toronto (Toronto Western Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children 'SickKids'). Shah was trained in Toronto by Prof. Pascal Mosimann with a focus on endovascular cerebral AVM treatment including using both trans-arterial and trans-venous approaches. With over 10 years in Digital Health and AI consulting, Shah has worked with a vast number of vendors across several verticals during the entirety of their life cycle including capital fund raising, product market fit and grant support. He specialises in investment due diligence for venture capital and private equity firms, in addition to providing M&A advisory services. As an early advocate for AI in healthcare across different territories Shah has an international network allowing for market access and synthesis of successful go-to market strategies.

Dr. Rizwan Malik

Radiologist and Clinical Strategist

NHS

Confirmed

Dr Rizwan Malik is a radiologist at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust with clinical interests in chest and nuclear medical radiology, and particular interest in healthcare informatics and the potential of AI to support clinicians and patients. Rizwan studied medicine in Cambridge and London before qualifying as a radiologist. He joined what is now Bolton NHS Foundation Trust in 2006 and has held a number of increasingly senior roles at the organisation, where he became divisional medical director in 2020 and was until recently the regional Clinical Lead for PACS for Greater Manchester. Dr Malik also provides consultancy that advises the health service and vendors on transformation and innovation, with a focus on imaging and AI.

Dr. Mark Phillips

Chief Clinical Officer

Harrison.ai

Confirmed

Dr Mark Phillips holds a PhD in Vascular Surgery from the University of Otago and is Chief Clinical Officer at Harrison.ai, the clinician-led healthcare AI company on a mission to unlock infinite medical capacity. He leads the clinical strategy, evidence, and safety work behind Harrison.ai's regulated AI products - from imaging AI software as a medical device to Foundation models - which are already supporting clinicians in emergency departments and radiology services across Australia, Asia, UK&I, Europe, and the US. Mark has spent more than two decades at the intersection of clinical practice, research, and innovation - with senior leadership roles at Teva Pharmaceuticals, ResMed, Cochlear and Medtronic spanning medical affairs, regulatory affairs, clinical evidence, quality, and reimbursement. He is a strong advocate for the responsible scaling of AI in health, working closely with clinicians, regulators, and government on safe, evidence-based adoption.

Dr. Donal Bailey

Chief Medical Officer & Managing Director

Centric Health & Care-Connect

Confirmed

As Chief Medical Officer at Centric Health, Dr Donal Bailey leads clinical strategy, innovation, and system design across a European primary care network. He focuses on embedding outcome-based models, population health intelligence, and aligned governance into scalable care delivery. His work bridges clinical leadership and strategic execution — shaping care models, value-based care frameworks, and hybrid digital health solutions that align incentives, improve outcomes, and prepare health systems for the future.

Mr. Mitchell O'Gorman

CEO

xWave

Confirmed

Mitchell has over 15 years of experience as a business leader across start-ups and multinational companies. As CEO and co-founder of xWave Technologies, he has guided the company from its early stages to securing key contracts with public and private healthcare providers in Ireland and the UK, including partnerships with the HSE and NHS. His work focuses on driving innovation, developing high-performing teams, and ensuring sustainable growth. Before founding xWave, Mitchell was Managing Director of Kantar Ireland and held leadership roles at Independent News and Media and Newmarket Consulting.

Ms. Sarah Newcombe

CNIO

Cloud21

Confirmed

Sarah brings senior clinical leadership into digital programmes to ensure that transformation reflects the realities of your organisation's frontline care. This approach enables organisations to move beyond technology deployment towards measurable operational impact and better clinical outcomes. Sarah is passionate about the future of clinical care in an AI enabled healthcare system and the role of clinical leaders in ensuring technology enhances, rather than replaces the human aspects of care.

Professor David Lowe

Clinical Director Innovation and Deputy Director CERSI-AI

University of Glasgow

Confirmed

David is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Co Director of EmQuire, the QEUH ED Research Group. He leads a portfolio of projects centred on unscheduled care and specifically data, devices and decisions within this space. Collaborations include Glasgow, Strathclyde University, Glasgow School of Art, DHI, private and third sector, seeking to create innovative solutions that can create impactful and sustainable change. His research focuses on decision-making within acute care and the interface between data, the clinician and the patient. As the clinical lead for a SBRI data visualisation, iCAIRD WP6, the traumaApp he is developing novel app based solutions with a number of industry partners to support and enhance clinical decision-making leveraging EHR, machine learning / AI.