Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, and the Founding Director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Aga Khan University, unique joint appointments. He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading universities globally, including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), Tufts University (Boston), University of Alberta, as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was the Founding Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Pakistan from 2003 to 2014. Dr. Bhutta is part of the seven-member Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) appointed by the UN Secretary General for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He represents the global academic and research organizations on the GAVI Alliance Board, and is the co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office as well as the Global Countdown for 2015 Steering Group.

Dr. Bhutta was educated at the University of Peshawar (MBBS) and obtained his PhD from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh and London), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (London), American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He heads a large research team in Pakistan with a special interest in research synthesis. Dr. Bhutta’s research interests include newborn and child survival, maternal and child undernutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies.

As the Co Founder and COO of Bloomlife, a women’s health company that aims to solve the global challenges in maternal and prenatal health, I am passionate about creating technology-enabled solutions that empower moms, increases access to care and improves pregnancy outcomes for moms and babies globally. With over 15 years of experience in R&D and product development in the med tech sector, I have led international teams through the development and commercial launch of wearable and digital health products that cover hardware, software, data analytics, clinical validation and regulatory clearance.

I have a background in biomedical engineering and a track record of innovation and impact in the field of medical wearables for cardiac monitoring, brain monitoring and health & wellness. I have authored 60+ peer-reviewed publications and 14 patents, and I serve as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis is the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He is the author of more than 170 original research articles, a textbook of pediatrics, and co-authored a groundbreaking book, The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, Today, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and was recently featured as a TEDx speaker.

Dr. Christakis is a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle and a professor in the School of Medicine at University of Washington. He has devoted his career to investigating how early experiences impact children and to helping parents improve their children’s early learning environments. He and his colleagues in the Christakis Lab have made a number of landmark findings, including discovering that young children who watch TV are more likely to develop attention problems and other health and behavioral issues.