Advancing surgical services: Innovation, quality, and better patient outcomes

Mrs Warda Al Habsi

Ms. Warda Al-Habsi is an Infection Prevention and Control Specialist at the Infection Prevention and Control Department, The Royal Hospital, Sultanate of Oman. She has extensive expertise in infection prevention and control (IPC), patient safety, healthcare quality, and risk management, with a strong track record of leading quality improvement initiatives that enhance patient outcomes and healthcare safety.

She serves as the department’s Risk Management Focal Point and is a certified assessor for the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework (PSFHF). She is also a certified Training of Trainers (TOT) facilitator and National Trainer in Infection Prevention and Hand Hygiene, delivering educational programs that strengthen healthcare professionals’ competencies and promote evidence-based practice.

Ms. Al-Habsi has successfully led and coordinated numerous institutional and national initiatives in infection prevention, patient safety, and healthcare quality. She is an active presenter and moderator at scientific conferences, workshops, and Ministry of Health events. Her quality improvement and infection prevention projects have been widely recognized, with several abstracts accepted for presentation at the 49th International Hospital Federation (IHF) World Hospital Congress in South Korea, demonstrating her commitment to advancing healthcare excellence, innovation, and patient safety at both national and international levels.

Ms Diana-Fernanda Bejarano-Ramírez

A nursing professional with postgraduate training in epidemiology, clinical research, and healthcare management, she brings over 15 years of experience integrating clinical practice, academia, and research, with leadership roles in high-complexity centers. Her career encompasses the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical studies and real-world evidence, including observational studies, randomized controlled trials, health economic evaluations, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, often in multicenter settings and in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry. This background has enabled her to develop a comprehensive understanding of the evidence generation lifecycle and its application to decision-making and access to healthcare technologies. She also demonstrates strong expertise in the rigorous application of Colombian and international regulations governing research involving human subjects.

Dr Gretchen Jackson

Gretchen Purcell Jackson is vice president and scientific medical officer at Intuitive and an associate professor of surgery, pediatrics, and biomedical informatics at the Vanderbilt Health. Dr. Jackson is an internationally recognized biomedical informatician and accomplished clinical surgeon with over 30 years of contributions to informatics research and surgical science. She earned her BS in electrical engineering and biological sciences, MD, and PhD in medical information sciences from Stanford University. Before joining Intuitive in 2022, Dr. Jackson spent 12 years as an academic surgeon scientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center then served as the chief health and science officer for IBM Watson Health from 2018 to 2021. Dr. Jackson has previously served as president and chair of the board of directors for the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), and she is an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI) and AMIA (FAMIA). She is also an elected member of the Society for University Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, and the American Surgical Association.

Mr George Popescu

George Popescu is Head of IT for the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, the Neurocenter, and the AI HUB at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG).

He leads the digital strategy, IT projects roadmaps and operations across all Neurosciences specialties, ensuring that the technology landscape evolves with clinical and research needs, overseeing the full lifecycle of solutions, data management and analytics capabilities, and the integration of emerging technologies such as AI, VR, AR. He manages end‑to‑end delivery of IT initiatives from strategic planning to execution while driving continuous improvement. Passionate about collaborating with a wide range of IT experts, George leads the IT Neuro community broadening his impact and facilitating knowledge management.

Holding a PhD in Enterprise Architecture from EPFL and an Executive MBA from IMD, George has built his career around managing complex IT ecosystems and translating evolving user requirements into robust, scalable solutions.

Beyond his role, George advises organizations on digital transformation, product strategy, and health‑tech innovation, leveraging his international experience across enterprise IT.

Dr Jayashri Shobna Venketasubramanian

Dr Jayashri Shobna Venketasubramanian is a Senior Assistant Manager in the Value Office at Woodlands Hospital, NHG Health cluster, Singapore. With a clinical background (MBBS, National University of Singapore), she now works at the intersection of health systems improvement and value-based care, and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Healthcare Quality and Safety with a specialisation in Informatics at Harvard Medical School.

Her focus is on driving clinically meaningful change through data, quality improvement, implementation science and principles from economic evaluation. She balances both patient and provider perspectives through initiatives such as Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Choosing Wisely. She also has a keen interest in integrating value based care into medical education.

Her contributions to Woodlands Hospital’s fragility fracture programme earned Best Oral Presentation at Singapore’s MOH Appropriate and Value Based Care Conference 2025. At this World Hospital Congress, she presents a transformative model for fragility fracture management that addresses the full spectrum of care from emergency presentation to secondary fracture prevention.