Dr Michael Sharpe MD FACLP is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK and a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist at Oxford University Hospitals.

In his work he aims to improve the lives of the medically ill by integrating psychiatric and psychological interventions into their care.  He has published more than 320 papers on this topic and established the renowned ‘Integrated Psychological Medicine’ service in the Oxford University Hospitals.

Dr Sharpe is President of the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Integrated Care (EAPM) and a past President of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP).

In 2023 he was recipient of both the American Psychiatric Association’s  ‘Adolf Meyer Award’ for achievement in psychiatric research and the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry’s ‘Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award’ for outstanding contributions to the field.

Judith Rosmalen is Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine at the University of Groningen. She studied medical biology (University of Utrecht 1995) and psychology (University of Leiden 1998, cum laude), and obtained her PhD on interactions between immune and endocrine system (Erasmus University Rotterdam 2000). Her multidisciplinary research focusses on the etiology and treatment of persistent physical symptoms. She is the chair of the Dutch national network on medically unexplained symptoms. Details on her publications and activities can be found at www.rug.nl/staff/j.g.m.rosmalen

Adriana Baban is Professor of Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She has extensive experience in applied research in the field of social and behavioural dimensions of health in Central and Eastern Europe. A consistent focus of her work is addressing women’s reproductive health, vaccine hesitancy, adverse childhood experiences and how abuse is related to risk factors for health. Prof. Baban has been an International Consultant for UNICEF, Doctor of the World, WHO, European Centre for Disease Control, and visiting professor at department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA. She has published more than 100 papers, books and chapters. She was awarded with the title of Fellow of European Society of Health Psychology for outstadning contributions to the development of Health Psychology in Europe.

Brief biography, Professor Per Fink, MD, PhD, DMSc – Per Fink graduated in medicine from Aarhus University of Aarhus, Denmark, in 1983. After his basic clinical education in surgery, internal medicine and neurology, he trained in psychiatry and became a specialist in psychiatry, and has worked in different branches of psychiatry. He has an authorization in dynamic psychotherapy and cognitive psychotherapy and basic training in group therapy and ACT therapy. In 1993, he became a PhD based on the dissertation ‘Psychiatric and somatic comorbidity’. In 1996, he became an authorized psychiatrist and in 1997 a Doctor of Medical Science based on a doctoral dissertation entitled ‘Persistent Somatization’. In 2000, he became an Associate Professor and in 2010 an ordinary Professor of Functional disorders. He is an associated editor of the Psychosomatic Medicine and Journal of Psychosomatic Research. In 1999, Per Fink started The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders at Aarhus University Hospital; a clinic with an interdisciplinary approach to functional disorders. The department is first and foremost a research clinic focusing on research in functional disorders as well as on developing new treatment programmes for patients with functional disorders. A primary focus during the years has been primary care. In close cooperation with the Research Unit for General Practice at the Aarhus University, a treatment programme for GPs has been developed. The purpose of the programme is to teach GPs how to handle patients with functional disorders in general practice. This programme is now also a compulsory part of the specialist training for GPs in the Western part of Denmark.
Another area of special focus is classification, and he has developed research criteria for both Bodily Distress Syndrome and Health Anxiety. The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics currently has 40 employees of which about half are working clinically, the other half with research. The clinic treats patients with functional disorders, including functional somatic syndromes and health anxiety and receives patients from all over Denmark. Per Fink has vast experience with teaching at all levels as well as an extensive publication list primarily with focus on somatisation or functional disorders.

Angelika Weigel, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, where she obtained her PhD in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy. Angelika’s research focusses on improving early treatment for eating disorders, and on approaches to improve the understanding, early treatment and management of persistent somatic symptoms, somatic symptom and related disorders.

Meike Shedden Mora is Professor for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Medical School Hamburg and senior researcher at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. Her research focusses on the management of persistent somatic symptoms and somatic symptom disorders, as well as on interventions employing placebo mechanisms to improve medical treatments.

Dr. Cosci got her medical degree at the University of Florence in Italy and her PhD at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. She is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Florence. Her main research interests are in mood and anxiety disorders, tobacco dependence, assessment, and novel psychotherapeutic approaches such as well-being therapy.

Peter Henningsen, M.D.

D.o.B. 1959

Board Certification in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and in Neurology and Psychiatry

Since 2005 Professor and Head, Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital „Rechts der Isar“, Technical University of Munich

2010 – 2019 Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Technical University of Munich

2013 – 2018 Assoc. Editor „Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine“

Since 2018 Spokesperson of German Academic Chairs in Psychosomatic Medicine

Since 2020 Member of Medical Committee of the German Science Council

Jordi Blanch, MD PhD, is Consultant in Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry of the Clinical Institute of Neurosciences in Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Associate Professor of Psychiatry of the University of Barcelona, and Chief Operating Officer of the Program for Mental Health and Addictions of Catalonia.

He has been Chief of the Inpatient Psychiatry Clinic in Hospital Clínic of Barcelona; Medical Coordinator in Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu; Chair for Educational Affairs of the Clinical Institute of Neurosciences in Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and president of the Catalan Society of Psychiatry

For more than twenty years he has conducted clinical, research and educational work in HIV Psychiatry. His areas of expertise in HIV Mental Health include depression, psychopharmacology, drug interactions, and psychotherapy in HIV.

He has also been done clinical work in psychiatric and psychological disorders in severely ill medical patients (oncology, bone marrow transplantation, solid organ transplantation, and others), as well as in personality disorders and anxiety disorders.