Dr. Abdulla Ahmad Yousuf Executive Director of Itqan Clinical Simulation and Innovation Center, Itqan, HMC

Dr. Abdulla Yousuf serves as the Executive Director of Itqan Clinical Simulation & Innovation Center, leading efforts to enhance simulation-based education and innovation in healthcare training. His role involves overseeing the center’s educational programs, research initiatives, and operational development to ensure that Itqan remains an integral part of the healthcare learning ecosystem.

With a background in medical education, psychiatry, and healthcare management, Dr. Abdulla’s focus is on strengthening interprofessional education, integrating new technologies such as AI and gamification in training, and expanding Itqan’s role as a regional hub for simulation-based learning. He is committed to aligning the center’s programs with international standards, supporting accreditation efforts, and fostering collaborations with national and global institutions.

Dr. Abdulla envisions Itqan as more than just a training facility, a center where simulation, research, and innovation converge to improve patient safety, clinical skills, and healthcare delivery. His strategic priorities include creating stronger partnerships with healthcare institutions and academic entities and ensuring that Itqan contributes meaningfully to the broader medical education landscape.

His professional journey includes experience in medical education, communication skills training, and leadership development. Prior to his role at Itqan, he served as Assistant Executive Director at Hamad Medical Corporation’s Medical Education Department, where he led initiatives in professionalism, curriculum development, and faculty training.

Dr. Abdulla holds an MD and a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences from Sultan Qaboos University, an MBA in International Healthcare Management from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, and an MSc in Health Professions Education from Qatar University. His clinical experience includes training in psychiatry and psychotherapy at HMC's Psychiatry Hospital in Qatar and Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany. He is also a graduate of Qatar Leadership Center's Executive Leadership Program.

His ongoing efforts are centered on positioning Itqan as a regional hub for clinical innovation and a key player in advancing medical education through simulation, ensuring that healthcare professionals are equipped with the necessary skills to provide safe and effective patient care.

Prof. Mustafa Serkan Kiranyaz Professor of Electrical Engineering, QU

Serkan Kiranyaz was born in Turkey, 1972. He received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical and Electronics Department at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1994 and 1996, respectively. He received his PhD degree in 2005 and his Docency at 2007 from Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Signal Processing respectively. He was working as a Professor in Signal Processing Department in the same university during 2009 to 2015. He currently works as a Professor in Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.

Prof. Kiranyaz has noteworthy expertise and background in various signal processing domains. He published three books, 13 book chapters, 10 patents/applications, more than 150 journal articles in several IEEE Transactions and other high impact journals, and more than 120 papers in international conferences. He served as PI and LPI in several national and international projects. His principal research field is machine learning and signal processing. He is rigorously aiming for reinventing the ways in novel signal processing paradigms, enriching it with new approaches especially in machine intelligence, and revolutionizing the means of “learn-to-process” signals. He made significant contributions on bio-signal analysis, particularly EEG and ECG analysis and processing, classification and segmentation, computer vision with applications to recognition, classification, multimedia retrieval, evolving systems and evolutionary machine learning, swarm intelligence and evolutionary optimization. His contributions in AI and Computer Vision resulted in the state-of-the-art algorithms in various domains, especially in Biomedical Signal Analysis and Generation. In 2019, he won the Research Excellence Award and Merit Award of Qatar University. Dr. Kiranyaz with his two teams won the 2nd and 3rd places in the Qatar National AI competition in 2021. He won the “1st Place Prize in the 2019 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Prize Paper Award”. For 5 consecutive years Dr. Kiranyaz was ranked among the 100,000 top-scientists Worldwide and recently he received the Web of Science “Highly Cited Research Award”.

Prof. Guillaume Alinier Director of Research, Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service, HMC

Professor Guillaume Alinier (MPhys, PhD) has an academic career spanning over 25 years, with a special interest in technology and healthcare simulation-based education for which he received a UK National Teaching Fellowship award from the Higher Education Academy in 2006. He has been involved in numerous projects including designing and running simulation facilities, technology, and programmes, organizing major incident drills, and running simulation facilitator short courses. He is now Director of Research at Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service, Doha, Qatar but also holds visiting professorships with the Universities of Hertfordshire and Northumbria in the UK, as well as being Adjunct Professor of Education in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. He has contributed to important publications and initiatives led by key international healthcare simulation societies in relation to standards setting, accreditation, and certification. He has also published two books on debriefing and numerous journal articles.

He serves on several paramedic, emergency medicine, nursing, and simulation education journal editorial boards and currently is guest editor for special collections on “Simulation for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response” for the journal BMC Advances in Simulation, ”Simulation at the service of improving Emergency Medicine” for the journal Panorama of Emergency Medicine, and for the upcoming Qatar Health Congress 2026 proceedings to be published in the Qatar Medical Journal.

Prof. Alaaldin Mohammad Alkilany Professor of Pharmaceutics and Nanotechnology at Qatar University

Prof. Alaaldin Alkilany is a Professor of Pharmaceutics and Nanotechnology at Qatar University and a leading researcher in nanomaterials for drug delivery and biomedical applications. With over 70 peer-reviewed publications and more than 20,000 citations, he has made significant contributions to the field of nanomedicine.

He spearheaded the development of Q-Silvano, Qatar’s first nanotechnology-based medical device hydrogel, marking a major milestone in the nation’s biomedical innovation ecosystem. Dr. Alkilany has received numerous national and international accolades, including the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, and has been recognized among Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists worldwide.

His current research focuses on translational nanomedicine and novel drug development, emphasizing strategic collaborations with the local pharmaceutical industry to strengthen academia–industry partnerships and advance innovative healthcare solutions in Qatar.