Keynote speaker ‘Yasin Kartoğlu’ | Başakşehir Mayor, Türkiye
@HWLL, May 13
Is the Mayor of Başakşehir Municipality since 2017 and has been vice mayor of Başakşehir between 2009 and 2017. Başakşehir Municipality is one of the 39 Municipalities of İstanbul Metropolitan City, with a population of over 500.000 people and 105 km2.
Başakşehir hosts the largest hospital in Turkey and the region, namelyvBaşakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital, which has the largest intensive care capacity in Europe. The giant health complex 28 delivery rooms, 90 operating rooms, and a total of 426 intensive care beds, including newborn and adult. The hospital is also the largest single-block structure in the world, where 2,068 earthquake isolators are used. In addition, the hospital, which has 3 heliports and consists of 10 blocks, has 4 separate emergency services, including adult, pediatric, trauma and obstetrics, within a closed area of 30 thousand square meters.

Keynote speaker ‘Bekir Aktura’ | Health Ministry, Türkiye
@HWLL, May 13
Dr. Bekir Aktura graduated from Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in 2012. He is specialized in both Family Medicine and Public Health. Early in his career, he served as a family physician in primary healthcare settings. Between 2023 and 2024, he worked as the District Health Director in Başakşehir, Istanbul. As of August 2024, he has been serving as the Deputy Director of Public Health in Istanbul.

Keynote speaker ‘Ersin Pamuksüzer’ | The LifeCo, Türkiye
@HWLL, May 13
Ersin is the Founder of the Well-Being company “The LifeCo” which was founded in 2004 and is providing services in Well-being therapies and natural healing at its centers in Bodrum, Antalya and Phuket as well as newly establishment in St.Lucia of Carabbeans and Sharm el Sheikh of Egypt. “The LifeCo” company has international reputation with more than 60% of its customers from various parts of the world with a majority from Europe, Middle East and Australia.
Ersin Pamuksüzer is also The Co-Founder of Basaksehir Living-Lab (2014) and Bodrum Living Lab (2021), aiming to support the Innovation and Startup environment in Turkey and the region.

Keynote speaker ‘Uygar Üstün’ | Medipol Health Group, Türkiye
@HWLL, May 13
I have been working in areas such as Healthcare Institution Management, CRM, Brand Management, Marketing and Integrated Marketing, Health Insurance and Health Tourism for over 25 years. In 2010, I completed Bahçeşehir University Social Sciences Institute Business Administration Master’s Program (MBA) with a sub-specialty in Healthcare Management and presented my thesis on “Patient Loyalty and Loyalty Level Measurement”. I continued my education by completing my doctorate in Healthcare Management at Istanbul Medipol University and earned my doctorate. Recently I have become Education Doctor in Medipol University Health Institute. I have held managerial positions in various insurance and healthcare institutions.
Currently, I work as the Deputy Business Director at Medipol Health Group. In addition, as an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Medipol University; I teach “Health Tourism”, “Health Insurance” and “Healthcare Institution Management” at the Department of Healthcare Institutions Management of the Vocational School of Health Services. I have 2 publications on Health Tourism.

Keynote speaker ‘Gilman Yücel’ | Bahçeşehir Ortodonti, Türkiye
@HWLL, May 13
Dr. Gilman Yücel is an orthodontist and the founder of Bahçeşehir Ortodonti, Turkey’s first thematic dental clinic designed to reduce stress in young patients through immersive environments and augmented reality. Her practice has been recognized as an Invisalign Center of Excellence for Transforming the Invisalign Experience for Kids, where she teaches fellow doctors worldwide. She has treated the highest number of kids with Invisalign in the EMEA region for three consecutive years. Her innovative approach to pediatric care has been featured by the UNESCO International Bureau of Education.
With over 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Yücel is a recipient of the 2021 Smart Technology Integration Award from Dentsply Sirona. She leads projects focused on the cost-efficiency of timely orthodontic treatment and empowering individuals with physical disabilities to work as digital dental technicians. As a graduate of Marmara University and an orthodontic specialist trained at Istanbul University, she is a member of the Turkish Dental Association, Turkish Orthodontic Society, American Association of Orthodontists, European Aligner Society, and World Federation of Orthodontists.

Keynote speaker ‘Antonis Billis’ | Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
@HWLL, May 13
Dr. Antonis Billis is an Electrical & Computer Engineer and holds a PhD in the research area of digital biomarkers facilitating the remote monitoring of chronic patients as well as older people. As of today, he is a PostDoc Researcher at the Lab of Medical Physics and Digital Innovation, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His main research interests lie in the areas of: e-health/mhealth, health living labs, digital biomarkers, clinical decision support systems, cancer informatics, smart patient remote monitoring systems, smart hospital applications, as well as assistive technologies for vulnerable populations. He is the author/co-author of more than 90 scientific papers in peer-reviewed conferences and journals. For his research work he has received two scholarships. In addition, he has 15 years of research experience, having participated in many national and EU funded, digital health research projects, focusing on the QoL support of older adults. He has been the scientific coordinator of the LifeChamps H2020 project aiming at improving older cancer survivors’ QoL after treatment using BigData and AI technologies. He is the PI of two EU projects and has received more than 1 million euros of funding. He is also an associate editor at the Healthcare Technologies Letters Journal and member of the editorial board of the SAGE Health Informatics Journal.

Keynote speaker ‘Xangang Xing’ | Nottingham Trent University (UK)
@SHE, May 14
Dr. Yangang Xing is an Associate Professor at Nottingham Trent University and Chair of the CIBSE Intelligent Buildings Group. His research integrates intelligent building technologies, biophilic design, and AI-driven systems to enhance sustainability and occupant wellbeing. With a PhD in dynamic system simulation for sustainability planning, Dr Xing has led interdisciplinary projects on smart energy systems, digital biophilic art, and nature-based solutions. His recent work explores AI-enhanced load monitoring, immersive digital environments, and systemic modelling of post-carbon built environments.

Keynote speaker ‘Duygu Başoğlu’ | Arup, Ístanbul Türkiye
@SHE, May 14
Duygu Başoğlu is a sustainability professional with a double major in architecture and urban planning, currently leading the climate and sustainability services portfolio of Arup in Turkiye. Her professional background involves research and development, consultancy and the design of energy efficient pilot projects. Her experience spans the domains of energy and resource efficiency, climate resilience, nature based solutions, heritage and biodiversity conservation, low carbon development. She has also been involved on the development of IT tools for decision support and analyses in these domains and holds a deep interest in innovation and technology.

Keynote speaker ‘Prof. Eva Kehayia’ | McGill University, Canada
@SHE, May 14
Prof. Eva Kehayia is Associate Professor and Research Director at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, Research co-director at the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital in Laval, affiliated with McGill University and researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of greater Montreal (CRIR).
She is co-leading a pan-Canadian Partnership Initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council entitled: ‘Words in the World’. She has also been co-leading the Strategic Innovation Initiative entitled: The RehabMaLL — A Rehabilitation Living lab: creating enabling environments for social participation and inclusion for individuals with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities. Since 2021, she is leading the Canadian arm (McGill University-University of Montreal-CRIR Living Labs, EnoLL members) of the Horizon 2020 VITALISE project bringing together Health and Well-Being Living Labs across Europe and in Canada. Her projects cover the domains of health, arts and culture and aim at exploring language and communication limitations in those living with acquired and degenerative neurological conditions. Working within the hospital and within the community her projects aim at increasing accessibility, community participation and inclusion of all, especially those living with physical disabilities.
