7th INTERNATIONAL
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE SYMPOSIUM

Rubik Cube of Workplace Health Promotion.
How to assemble it?

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about our journey towards healthier and happier tomorrow at workplace. Domestic and foreign key speakers presented their latest innovative approaches for workplace health promotion suitable for bigger, middle and smaller size organizations. Once again, we hosted TOP International experts.

Key Speakers this year were:

International HLS is the greatest and brings together the best experts from all over the world, sharing their latest experience and knowledge about healthy lifestyle. HLS is powered by 24alife, world leading health and well-being providers for preventive health, developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic. We talked about the latest trends how to keep a balanced health on emotional, physical and psychosocial level. We focused on the importance of the corporate health & well-being in terms of increased productivity and how to keep your employees happy and healthy. We also showed delegates how to tailor a good workplace health promotion based on their needs.

Donald Hensrud

Mayo Clinic, USA

Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is director of Mayo Clinic Office of Wellness and chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine.
He is also a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. He serves as associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks; Mayo Clinic Diet

The Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program and Individualizing Wellness

Mayo Clinic has introduced a Preventive Healthy Living program for their patients and employees which will be shown in the presentation. Dr. Hensrud as a program leader is going to introduce the concept, challenges and evaluation of the programs and introduce their approach to individualized programs. Healthy Living programs and preventive programs can reach higher efficiency if programs are being individualized.

prof. dr. Kerry Olsen

Mayo Clinic, USA

Kerry D. Olsen MD is currently a Head and Neck surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota and an Emeritus member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees and Board of Governors and also Chairman of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery.

He served as Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center. He is former President of the staff of the Mayo Clinic and recipient of the Distinguished Clinician award and member of the Teaching Hall of Fame. His surgical innovations, research, and publications led to his selection as the Joseph I. and Barbara J. Ashkins Professorship of surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He was chosen as a top American doctor for serval years.

The Many Faces of Well-being. Solving the Rubik Cube of Health.

Dr. Olsen as a key speaker on symposium this year, is going to show the researches and latest trends from preventive medicine field and everything behind well-being. He will introduce what is healthy in where all can we find correlation between health, illness and individual’s behavior. Well-being determinants are going to be defined and how much control every individual has over their own well-being. It will be exposed, who can and must influence on the overall populations’ health.

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Eva Kovač

24alife, Slovenia

Eva Kovac is a performance psychologist working in the field of talent management, organizational psychology and sport psychology.

She serves as a vice president of 24alife and leads global expert teams in 24alife global offices. She is responsible for implementations different well-being programs into organizations and is closely working with management, human resources department and employees. Eva Kovač is also educated as a cognitive behavioral psychotherapist, hypnotherapists and is a PhD candidate at Department of Psychology at Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

Eva has rich experiences working with organizations on workplace health promotion including companies like Tata Group, Mayo Clinic, Sanpower, NIS Gazprom, Dubai Silicon Oasis… She is working with top European professional athletes and sports teams helping them in mental preparation for World Cups and Olympic Games. She was employed at Faculty of sports, University of Ljubljana where she helped athletes in the process of mental rehabilitation after injuries. She is also a reviewer of scientific Journal of Human Kinetics and lecturer at Olympic Committee of Slovenia.

More than workplace health promotion. Building a culture of health and happiness in organizations

Workplace health promotion is employer`s responsibility and by Slovenian legislations is also a must act every employer needs to have. But is it enough just to have it on the paper? What is the reality, how much effort are organizations putting to employee health and well-being? Understating motivation and how hard is to make a behavioral change it is not enough just to provide well-being intervention. It is crucial to create a strategy of workplace health promotion, which is in a line with legislation. If it is done in a proper way it can help to build a culture of health and happiness in organizations. Understanding the principles of workplace health promotion and different interventions will be presented in the presentation. Steps how to build a sustainable program and build a culture and values of health and happiness will be discussed.

Dr. Regis Fernandes

Mayo Clinic, USA

Dr. Regis Fernandes is a Cardiovascular Disease (cardiology) Specialist in n Scottsdale, Arizona and is affiliated with Mayo Clinic Phoenix.

He graduated with honors in 1989. Having more than 29 years of diverse experiences, especially in cardiovascular disease, Dr. Regis Fernandes affiliates with many hospitals including Mayo Clinic Hospital, Mayo Clinic Health System Eau Claire Hospital, Mayo Clinic Health System Northland, Flagstaff Medical Center, Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center, and cooperates with other doctors and specialists in medical group Mayo Clinic Arizona.

Physical Exercise in Cardiovascular Health

Dr. Fernandes is going to show us in his presentation his latest research about a positive connection between cardiovascular diseases and individual’s physical activity. You will be able to see cases at the Mayo Clinic and their approach with specific patients.

Dr. Robert Scales

Mayo Clinic, USA

Robert Scales, Ph.D., is the Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Wellness in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

He joined Mayo Clinic in 2008 as an exercise physiologist and in his administrative role he has provided leadership in the development of cardiology-based interventions to prevent heart disease and related conditions. He has a doctorate degree in education and he is an Associate Clinical Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. His primary research interest is the application of motivational interviewing (MI) and effective provider-patient communication in the healthcare setting.

He was the Principal Investigator in the Cardiovascular Health Initiative and Lifestyle Education (CHILE) Study, the first study to investigate the impact of MI on the behaviors of patients attending cardiac rehabilitation. More recently, he was the Lead Consultant on a National Institutes for Health (NIH) funded study to investigate methods of teaching MI in a health science academic program. He is an experienced trainer in MI and he has trained both students and clinicians from a variety of healthcare disciplines to use the approach within their own clinical settings. Dr. Scales is a Fellow of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (FAACVPR). He is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).

Balancing technology with the human touch to promote Exercise is Medicine: Lessons learned from Mayo Clinic

Physicians are partnering with exercise professionals (EPs) to practice team-based medicine and deliver the American College of Sports Medicine’s Exercise is Medicine (EIM) global initiative. This includes the option of clinic-based exercise consultations to promote self-regulated physical activity. ACSM also endorses the International Confederation of Registers for Exercise Professionals (ICREPS) to encourage community-based EPs to acquire the skills needed to counsel and prescribe individualized exercise to clinical populations after they leave the clinic. In this presentation, examples from clinical practice will show how Mayo Clinic (MC) is combining a patient-centered method of communication called motivational interviewing (MI) with emerging technologies to enhance the patient experience and provide clinical services remotely with a model of healthcare delivery called Connected Health (CH). Participants will hear how MC is preparing for the future with CH communication platforms such as the Internet (eHealth), telephone and interactive voice response systems (telehealth) and mobile and smartphone-based applications (m-Health) to stay connected with the patients and keep them healthy between the medical visits. This presentation underlines the importance of effective interpersonal communication to promote EIM during in-person consultations and/or through a technology supported platform.

Karmen Resnik Robida

URI Soča, Slovenia

Asist. Karmen Resnik Robida is a neuropsychologist, working on damaged brain rehabilitation and stress-related neurophysiology.

She is doing her research within a Lab for clinical neuroscience. She is employed at the University rehabilitation Institute of Republic of the Republic of Slovenia-Soča, where she is working with people with obtained brain damage and is implementing individualized cognitive rehabilitation programs. After completing her studies in the Great Britain, she is continuing her academic career as a Ph.D. candidate at the Medical University of Ljubljana, where she is working within a Lab for clinical neuroscience. She has a completed degree in behavior cognitive psychotherapy at the cognitive behavior psychotherapy society of Slovenia, where she obtained International certificate in biofeedback therapy area for improving resilience resistance (HRV training) and neurofeedback therapy. She was also employed at the UKC, Ljubljana, where she worked with patients by controlling disease states with changing their lifestyle, addressing stress and burnout. She also worked at one of the 24alife projects as a Researcher by preparing the programs for improved quality of life, coping with stress and controlling diabetes. Karmen Resnik Robida is a reviewer in the science magazine Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychiatry and active in scientific research field.

Fighting stress and anxiety. Neuropsychological aspect of resilience

Concept of stress is popular and commonly used in everyday conversations. Whenever we talk about “being under stress”, we refer to negative states. However, the word stress is not always single-sided when mentioned in science world. Is stress everyday reaction to irritations, which can be positive or negative? Do we have to be in a negative situation to feel under stress? When is stress bad for our health? These questions are important when trying to analyze stress consequences. Research fields are usually focused on health statuses that are cause-effect related with stress. The most important foundations show that only stress is a long-term and causes physiological changes within a body, impacting changed health status. Neuropsychological stress background will be shown in the article. We will talk about when stress can be harmful and the consequences it has on our bodies, brains and cognizance. The main message from the article is going to be how to cope with stress to become more resilient individuals. Resilience concept will be introduced, how to help individuals to develop psychological resistance to stress.

prof. dr. Alojz Ihan

Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Alojz Ihan is a doctor, a specialist in clinical microbiology and a professor of Microbiology and immunology at the Medical Faculty at the University in Ljubljana.

In 1994, he hosted as a researcher at Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, USA. Since 1997, he is a specialist in clinical microbiology. He was elected for the title of a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical Faculty in 2006. He works as a professor of Medical microbiology and Immunology at the Medical Faculty and is the Head of the Department of Immunology at the Institute of Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana. Bibliography of prof. Ihan includes above 650 units (Cobiss), of which over 60 articles in international scientific journals, cited by Science Citation Index (SCI).

Alojz Ihan is the primary mentor for specialization in Clinical microbiology and Immunology (Medical Chamber of Slovenia), a member of the expert supervision in the field of Clinical microbiology and Immunology (Medical Chamber of Slovenia), President of the extended professional college of Microbiology and Immunology (RSK) Ministry of Health of Republic of Slovenia, which is the main professional organ in the Republic of Slovenia in the field of Microbiology and Immunology. Alojz Ihan is also a member and vice-chairman of the Commission for vaccines at the Institute of Public Health, Director of the ISDR (Institute of professional activity and development) in the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana. He is also the chief editor of a medical journal named Isis.

Role of miRNAs and nutrition in the pathogenesis and susceptibility of diabetes mellitus

Micro RNA’s (miRNA) are endogenous, non-coding RNA, which are known as very important for gene expression regulation. Today, there are known more than a thousand regulated miRNA, which regulate many gene expressions, related with disease formation, including diabetes. miRNA analysis, related with disease formation, can predict disease susceptibility and factors such as nutrition which affect disease formation in people. On the other side, synthetic miRNA can be used to intervene in gene regulation and prevent disease development.

Dr. Željko Bošnjak

Medical College of Wisconsin, USA

Dr. Željko Bošnjak is a professor at the Departments of Anaesthesiology and Physiology and Vice Chairman for Research at Medical College of Wisconsin, USA.

Dr. Željko Bošnjak is a professor at the Departments of Anaesthesiology and Physiology and Vice Chairman for Research at Medical College of Wisconsin, USA. Dr. Bošnjak has authored more than 300 publications, book chapters, and reviews. The NIH has continually funded him since 1981. Currently, he is the Program Director on a Program Project Grant; functions as a Co-Investigator on several other R01 grants in the Department of Anaesthesiology; and serves as advisor on several NIH training grants. His research has been deemed meritorious by the International Anaesthesia Research Society; he received the B.B. Sankey Anaesthesia Advancement Award in 1986, NIH Research Career Development Award in 1987 and the American Society of Anaesthesiologists Award for Excellence in Research in 2008. His involvement in a variety of study sections and NIH committees, including Clinical Science Study Sections, Pharmacology Study Sections, and Surgery, Anaesthesiology, and Trauma, attest to his scientific reputation. He has served as Chairman of the Surgery-Anaesthesia-Trauma Study Section. Dr. Bošnjak has also participated on a National Institute on Drug Abuse Special Review Committees, a National Institute on Drug Abuse Contract Review Committees, National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council, President and Councillor of Foundation for Anaesthesia Education and Research Academy of Research Mentors in Anaesthesiology, and is frequent Chairman/Member of site visit teams for the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Exosomes: New Biomarkers in Stem Cell Biology and Disease

Željko Bošnjak is going to introduce trends in Stem cells in medicine and their usage in different diseases. He is going to expose what to expect from Stem cells in the future and introduce new biomarkers when working with Stem cells. His latest researches and knowledge from Lab at Medical College of Wisconsin are going to be introduced as well.

Dr. Juraj Sprung

Mayo Clinic, USA

The career research interests of Juraj Sprung, M.D., Ph.D., have focused on three primary research areas: pulmonary mechanics, effects of intravenous anaesthetics on myocardial contractility, and perioperative and long-term outcomes related to anaesthetic management.

Dr. Sprung started his research career by studying the mechanics of breathing and patterns of diaphragm contractility. He conducted research to investigate contractility of the heart in the presence of hypothermia and the effects of various intravenous anaesthetics, which were tested on human myocardium explanted from patients with end-stage heart failure undergoing heart transplant. Dr. Sprung’s current interests include studying the short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with rare medical conditions undergoing anaesthesia. Due to the large surgical volume at Mayo Clinic, and the availability of detailed medical records, it is possible to evaluate anaesthetic and surgical outcomes of a relatively large number of patients with extremely rare diseases such as myotonia congenita, cor triatriatum, DiGeorge syndrome, LEOPARD syndrome, Swyer-James syndrome and the like. The information gathered through these comprehensive reviews of medical records provides insight into the perianesthetic courses of such conditions, which due to their rarity cannot be evaluated in a prospective fashion.

Dr. Sprung’s research team studies outcomes of exposure to anaesthesia and neurocognitive function. They are currently focusing on the effects of exposure to anaesthesia throughout the life span, and are exploring the possibility of an association between single or multiple anaesthetic exposures and permanent cognitive deficits — specifically, development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Association between exposure to surgery and development of permanent cognitive impairment

Latest studies showing associations between surgery and anesthesiology as well as cognitive damage risks are going to be introduced. Dr. Sprung is going to introduce researches in which he participated and explain what the results are, what can be anticipated and expected in the future in terms of cognitive capabilities during surgery exposure. Due to a large database and clinical and medical information which are available through Mayo Clinic, the results are reliable and objective.

Joyce A. Even

Mayo Clinic GBS, USA

Joyce A. Even holds a MBA degree from Metropolitan State University.

She serves as a Vice Chair – Global Business Solutions – Content Management & Delivery at Mayo Clinic. Her responsibilities include leading the operations of three service lines – healthy living, care management and health plan management. These service lines include the management of www.mayoclinic.org, a nurse symptom triage service, healthy living coaching and tobacco cessation service as well as third party administration (TPA) services that include claims processing, pharmacy benefit plan administration, utilization management and case management. Sr. Directors, Directors and Operations Managers report to this position and manage over 300 people day-to-day.

Health & Well-Being: Mikropis and Mayo Clinic Team Up for a Successful Model

Why did Mayo Clinic decide to take a partnership with a Slovenian company Mikropis and started collaborating with 24alife product development, the solutions on preventive health, will be discussed in the presentation. The main topic of the presentation is going to be about what is the scientific model backing up the interventions and how to design different efficient interventions, which are based on different scientific studies. We are going to talk about the challenges of modern lifestyle and how to handle them with the help of different interventions.

Borut Brezovar

former Republic Inspector for Work, Slovenia

Borut Brezovar is a Master of Legal Science and a long-term Inspector for work at the Inspectorate for work of Republic of Slovenia.

He has many experiences on leading job positions in economic and administrative positions in the Republic of Slovenia. As an experienced lead Inspector for work of the Republic of Slovenia, he indirectly and directly cooperated with multiple law preparations and enforcement regulations from the field of workplace conditions and health and safety at work.

The legal basis of WHP. How to be in line with legislations and benefits out of it.

The law about health and safety at work has been put in action in 2011 which dictates that Health promotion at workplace is a mandatory activity for every employer. It is conceived as an employer’s planning and implementation of different activities and actions to improve relationships between employees and improve employees’ health and well-being. Such employer’s action fits Directive EGS 89/391, which states the most important European document aimed to health and safety at work. Effects of such activities mostly lead to improvement of decent work, which has been seen 20 years ago as a vision of future work environment. Therefore, International Work Organization has designed such activity to improve company’s social and ethic status. How to design a good workplace health promotion plan, which is in accordance with the legislation is going to be presented in the next presentation.

Tautala Schultz

Safety in a Box, Australia

Tautala “Safe T” Fa’anana Schultz. T is a Health and Safety Specialist based in Australia and New Zealand for over 20 years.

A ‘mover and shaker’ in the Workplace has won her the nickname of “Safe T” in her chosen role.

Having recently completed work with the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Work, Health and Safety Safe T was able to witness great benchmark practices that she will take with her in to future roles.

T brings a wealth of experience in the field of government, sport, and corporate business in high demanding roles such as Corrective Services, Police, Youth Justice and Forensic Services relating to Work Health Safety and Well Being.

T is one of 7 children of a large Polynesian family. She is a self-confessed “middle child” syndrome sufferer. And uses her acquired sibling abilities together with her formal education to aid her in healthier life & work situations.

An avid follower of sport, currently studying the area of high performance elite sports and mental resilience. She has used the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team as a benchmark of great teamwork & leadership of their success on and off the field.

Safe T, has what she calls a “Cheat Sheet” of Best practice Leadership and Teamwork in a highly demanding role.

Best practice in Leadership and Teamwork within a highly demanding role

The main topic of this conversation is going to be how to enable safety and health on some of the biggest sport events in the world. What was the strategy and how to enable safety, health and satisfaction of employees at work is a huge challenge. An example of good practice will be presented, how the team, responsible for health and safety at work, the part of which was also the author of the paper, approached the strategy. What are the legislations in Australia and what is their view on preventive health and health promotion at work are going to be presented in the next presentation.

Prof. dr. Matej Tušak

Faculty of Sports, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Matej Tušak, PhD, is a sports psychologist and a professor of Psychology and Sports psychology, at the Faculty of Sports as well as the Faculty of Arts.

In recent years, he lectures at postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Sports, at the undergraduate and postgraduate studies of the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana.

In addition to teaching, he is active at the Institute for Sports in the process of psychological preparation of top Slovenian athletes. In the last 15 years, he was a psychologist of bowling, kayaking, jumping, sailing, skiing, tennis, judo, dance, etc. representative teams and psychologist of many other famous Slovenian athletes with medals from World Championships and Olympic Games. He was actively involved, as a sport psychologist, in a number of European Championships and World Championships and the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Nagano, Athens, Vancouver and London. He combines his theoretical knowledge with practical experience and expands it in over 250 scientific articles, books and other publications.

Prof. Tušak was also President of the Section of Sport Psychology at the Association of Psychologists of Slovenia and a member of the Expert Council for Sports in the Government of Republic of Slovenia. He is a member of Sport Psychology Council, a member for top sports in the Olympic Committee of Slovenia, President of the Expert Council at SUSA (University Sports Association), Chairman of the Expert Council for JUDO, member of expert panels in different sports, head of the Psycho-diagnostic laboratory at the Institute of Sports and head of the Department for Sport Psychology. Recently, he does a lot of research in Slovenian Armed Forces and advises companies in the field of stress and motivation.

Human potential management: time to move beyond the concept of human resource management

Why is human resource management no longer enough today, and why employers and staff members should realize the importance of investment in their own asset-employees, to develop their potential? Human capital is all competencies and commitments within people of certain organizations. This is presented by employees within organizations with their capabilities, skills, knowledge and experiences. Companies are going to be as competitive as their employees. The topic is going to be how to keep your employees engaged and motivated. Can a good health promotion plan which contains psychosocial risks, relationships and leadership in companies contribute to maximization of the human potential in organizations?

Ghanim Al Falasi

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, Dubai

Ghanim Al Falasi is a Senior Vice President of People Happiness, Innovation & Supply Management – Corporate Services and a Vice Chairman of Smart City Project Committee in Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority.

Ghanim has extensive knowledge and know-how in the ICT sector through his previous role as Vice-President of the ICT Unit at Dubai Airports where he provided executive, technological and enterprise administrative leadership employment. Heading three departments including: People Happiness, Innovation & Supply Management; Al Falasi was also mandated to drive innovation strategic planning across the organization.

In his earlier association with the department of Dubai Airports, Ghanim successfully established an ICT directorate for DCA based on a study conducted to identify the infrastructure and services required for the delivery of outstanding performance. Al Falasi also worked for several governmental organizations including the UAE Ministry of Defense, UAE Armed Forces, and the Central Military Command. Ghanim holds a BS degree in Computer Science from California State University of Hayward, USA. Moreover, Ghanim is also holding a Chief Innovation Officer “CCInO” Certification from LEAD, Organization & Relation Systems Coaching Certification from ORSC, and most recently a certification from Neurolink-USA for being a Brain & Emotional Intelligence Practitioner.

Happiness at work 2.0

Happiness and satisfaction are more and more popular topics which are in scientific language referred to individual’s psychological well-being/mindfulness. Strong actions are going to be presented in the presentation and how those actions are being implemented in the well-being programs by Dubai Silicon Oasis and how such actions influence the satisfaction within organizations and coincide with the initiative of happiness in the city of Dubai. Dubai and United Arab Emirates are trying to find a model and approach in recent years to reach the first place for being the happiest city in the world. Examples of good practices are going to be presented in terms of preventive health, with a focus on mental health and what has been learned in the process.

Kush Kapoor

Roseate Hotels and Resorts, India

Kush Kapoor is currently an Area General Manager managing Roseate hotels & resorts in India.

He is complimented with many years of experience working at Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi (one of the leading hotels in the world) as Front Office Manager before becoming a Resident Manager and Rooms Division Manager at The Leela Kempinski Hotel & Residences in Gurgaon which was awarded 5-star Diamond Award by American Academy Of Hospitality Sciences for 2009 -2010. He also has many noticeable achievements. He successfully managed to earn the Total revenue and expense targets for the Rooms Division team for the last 2 consecutive years, successfully completed a day certificate program on “Situational Leadership” from “Ken Blanchard Company,” USA. Successfully launched the new Training program for the entire hotel for 2012-13, Awarded as the “innovative hotelier of the year India, 2010” by Hotelier India. Some of his previous major responsibilities were recruiting staff members, managing revenues, training members with new SOP’s, setting new standards for a pre-opening hotel. Today, he is responsible for three hotels in India, including more than 500 employees. His outstanding leadership skills can be seen in his relationship with employees. Kush Kapoor is the biggest promotor of health and talent development in his hotels. He is aware of importance of health in organization and his approach to build a corporate culture of health and happiness is very efficient.

Conquer Yourself

The main question of this presentation is going to be, how to take care of all the employees in hotel sector, where many different workplaces are being covered with different levels of education. A successful planning and setting up strategy for health, well-being and human potential development will be presented next. What results are they proud of and what is the key to success? How much does the support within organization which is given from the top leadership implement workplace health promotion is going to be presented from the highest leading human resource department in hotel. Health promotion program is going to be presented by Indian Roseate Hotels and Resorts.

Prof. dr. Muhamed Turkanović

FERI, University of Maribor

Muhamed Turkanović received the B.Sc. degree and the Ph.D. degree in computer science and informatics from the University of Maribor in 2011 and 2016, respectively.

His Ph.D. thesis covered the area of cryptography in IOT, which is tightly connected to the area of blockchain. He has authored several highly cited scientific articles, published in renowned journals with an impact factor in the field of computer science. He was a Managing Director and a CTO of an IT company from 2013 to 2016. In 2017, he joined the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, as an Assistant Professor of information technology, where he lectures courses like Advanced Database Technologies, Business intelligence etc. His current research interests include advanced database technologies, blockchain technology, big data, Internet of Things, cryptography etc. He is also the leader of the Blockchain research and development team at the Institute of Informatics and thus part of projects for research and implementation of blockchain technologies in the Slovenian economy. He was also an invited speaker at several domestic and international events and conferences on the topic of blockchain technology.

Incorporating Blockchain technology into healthcare solutions

According to Gartner – the world’s leading IT research and advisory company, blockchain will be one of the main disruptive technologies of the future, next to artificial intelligence and Internet of Things. The focus of the presentation will be the fundamentals and principles of the Blockchain technology alongside smart contracts, their impact on the industry and society, as well as the presentation of several use cases, where special attention will be devoted towards the possible incorporation of the technology into the healthcare domain and its IT based ecosystems. The presentation’s aim is to shed light on the distributed ledger technology (DLT), thus avoiding the misconception about cryptocurrencies being the only use case of DLT. We will conclude with the roadmap of introducing the blockchain technology into the 24alife solutions.

Prof. dr. Vojko Strojnik

Faculty of Sports, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Vojko Strojnik is a professor of physical education and Head of the Department of Kinesiology at the Faculty of Sport on University of Ljubljana and is also the leader of the Laboratory for Kinesiology on Ljubljana’s Institute of Sport.

In 1983, he successfully completed his studies of physical education, did his master’s degree two years later with the theme Commissioning of taxonomic groups with top decathletes. In 1989 he became a Doctor of Science, on the Faculty of Sport. Title of his doctoral thesis was: The taxonomic structure of entities in space of take-off power.

His main fields are physical preparation of athletes and recreation enthusiasts, working with neuro-mechanical basics of movement and different contexts of kinesiology. He shares his rich practical experiences with many popular Slovenian athletes and coaches. He was working with some Slovenian Olympians on their physical preparation. Prof. Strojnik has participated in seven different, strong research projects. His biography is full of scientific articles, because he is an author or co-author of over 200 scientific articles and monographs. His research work includes researches on fatigue in various intensive sports, health and rehabilitation and the impact of sport on health and neuro-muscular system.

Sitting workplace: ergonomics, relieving, training.

Seating as a way of life is becoming a big problem and the leading cause for many modern illnesses such as back pain. Why is it so, is going to be introduced next. Besides understanding the cause, concrete examples are going to be addressed, backed by many researches how to eliminate seating at work and problems that come along. The messages are going to be concrete suggestions how to handle and master the risks and consequently the seating way of life.

dr. Nenad Koropanovski

Kriminalističko - policijska akademija Srbia

Nenad Koropanovski, PhD, is currently an Associated Professor, Academy of Criminalistics and Police Studies, Belgrade, Serbia, Department of Specialized Physical Education.

Nenad Koropanovski was national karate team member, and national coach. He finished Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade (2001), where he completed his MSc (2006) and PhD (2012) in the Department of Combat sports. He was working in the College of Sports and Health from in Belgrade 2002, and at the Academy of Criminalistics and Police Studies in Belgrade from 2005 in the Department of Specialized Physical Education. He was a national karate team coach from 2000 to 2004, the Sport Director of Belgrade karate association from 2005 to 2009. He was a Coach of competitor who won World karate championship in 2010. From 2012 to 2016 he was the President of Belgrade Karate Association and the Vice-President of Serbia Karate Federation. For the past ten years his research interests have combined technology in science of sports training, competitive karate, applied combat abilities, metrology in sports and physical fitness testing. He has papers published at following international journals: J Str Cond Res, Policing, J Hum Kin and Int J Morph.

Physical abilities among police officers

In the presentation it will be discussed why physical activity is necessary for police employees and what are the main reasons for not being physically active. It is interesting to understand how some of the issues can be solved with the use of smart technology and what would be benefits of it.

Filip Kukić

Abu Dhabi Police

Dissertation focusing on prognostic values of body composition in predicting the physical fitness of police officers. Currently employed in Abu Dhabi Police, Police sports education center. Focus on planning, developing and delivering exercise programs aimed to improve physical fitness, physical performance and health status. Development and implementation of weight loss and general fitness exercise courses among police employees and oversing various other fitness programs (functional training, cross-fit, firefighters training, general conditioning). Last 3 years spent doing research on associations between body composition and physical performance of Police Officers, as well as on the effects of physical training on body composition and physical abilities.

Furthermore, lead researcher at Kubo training center from Belgrade (http://kubotreningcentar.rs/), whose team is specialized in personal training with a regular population (considerable results in training, nutrition induced body fat reduction) and young athletes and physiotherapy. Previously, professional athlete in Flatwater Kayak and Rowing.

Physical fitness in police workforce: issues and solutions.

In the presentation it will be discussed why physical activity is necessary for police employees and what are the main reasons for not being physically active. It is interesting to understand how some of the issues can be solved with the use of smart technology and what would be benefits of it.

Sarah Logan

Medical College of Wisconsin, USA

Sarah Logan is a Ph.D. candidate at Medical College of Wisconsin.

She holds BS in biology. Her field of expertise are neurodegeneration, neuroplasticity, trauma, early brain development, human stem cell model to study developmental neurotoxicity.

Human stem cell model to study developmental neurotoxicity.

In the presentation the author will address a new line of research based on human stem cells which is providing important insights into how chemicals may affect development neurotoxicity. Stem cells are the master cells capable of producing some or all of the 200-plus different types of cells in the human body. How can we use stem cells to study developmental neurotoxicity will be discussed?

Katja Rihar Bajuk

Ministry for work, family, social affairs, and equal opportunities RS, Slovenia

Katja Rihar Bajuk, msc. is a Director-General of the Directorate of Labor Relations and Labor Rights at the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

She is an expert in European social policies. She joined the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in 2001. She was part of the Service for International Cooperation in European Affairs department. Later she served as a head of the Sector for Analysis and Development, and from 2013 – 2015 as Head of Sector for employment relationships and other forms of work at the Directorate for Labor Relations and Labor Rights. Katja Rihar Bajuk has wide knowledge in the field of labor market and social security systems, she is familiar with the functioning of international organizations and has many experience in participating in various international projects, organizing international events and extensive experience in managing and coordinating groups within various projects.

Ageing workforce and challenges for safety and health at work.

Well-being is a key factor of a society development and strongly influences on each individual’s position within societies. Increasing healthy years of living can influence on healthcare expenditure decrease and increase of mindfulness of all generations. Experiences acquired in other countries show actions which are oriented in encouraging of a healthy way of living and preventive healthcare programs are important as they influence on the quality of life and improvement of a long-term sustainability of social protection systems. In the presentation the impact of demographic change on the labor market and the adopted Health and Safety at Work Strategy for 2018-2027 will be discussed.