Marieke J. Schuurmans –PhD, RN. Chair Nursing Science University Medical Centre Utrecht and Professor Care for Older People University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands

Marieke is a nurse and researcher, appointed professor and chair in Nursing Science at the UMC Utrecht and professor of Care for older people at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. Working over ten years as a clinical nurse specialist in geriatric medicine she is an expert on complex nursing care of older people. In her PhD study she developed the Delirium Observation Screening (DOS) Scale, which is nowadays part of regular nursing care in Dutch hospitals and which is translated in numerous languages. Her current research focuses on daily functioning of older people with multimorbidity. Some recent grants in which she is involved as project leader: the TASTE programme, development of a line of research on self-management in multmorbid patients, the HELP study, a multicentre study to evaluate cost-effectiveness of a nurse-led inhospital program to prevent delirium and the U PROFIT study, a clinical trial in 90 primary care practices to evaluate comprehensive geriatric care in primary practices. Marieke Schuurmans is responsible for the Nursing Science Master Programme of the University Utrecht (annual graduation forty to fifty students) and supervises twenty PhD students. She is a member of the Dutch Health Council, chair of the research committee of the National Association of Nurses, fellow of the European Association of Nursing Scientists and member of Sigma Teta Tau International.

Dr Pavlos N. Theodorakis – MSc, PhD; Chair Greek MoH PHC Committee, Chair of the National PHC Committee, WHO National Counterpart for Mental Health, Adjunct Professor, Health Policy, Open University of Cyprus, General Practitioner

Pavlos N. Theodorakis, MD, MSc, DipLSHTM, PhD, is a General Practitioner with a PhD in the evaluation of the quality of primary health care services. He studied Health Policy, Planning and Financing at the London School of Economics, where he also worked as a research associate. He also worked as a clinical and research fellow at the Medical School of the University of Linkoping in Sweden in the evaluation of primary health care services in the Balkans. He further worked in primary care projects in Abkhazia-Georgia, and Pogradec-Albania during the Kossovo war. After closing down the first psychiatric asylum in Greece as a CEO in 2006, he is involved in several reform initiatives in primary health care and mental health sectors in Greece. He is currently the WHO National Counterpart for Greece in mental health issues and the President of the National Primary Health Care Committee, working close with EU Task Force for Greece and international experts for the implementation of the primary care sector reforms in Greece. He has more than 50 publications, including book chapters and articles in peer-review journals in the fields of health policy, public health and epidemiology. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Open University of Cyprus in Health Policy and has lectured at graduate and postgraduate level at the Universities of Ioannina, Crete and Athens Greece, as well as Linkoping, Sweden.