Scientific Advisory Board
Thomas T. Noguchi, MD | FORENSIC MEDICINE
President, World Association for Medical Law
Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi is the former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, and served in that position from 1967 to 1982. He is known as the "coroner to the stars", since he determined the cause of death in many high-profile cases during the 1960s and 1970s. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, Gia Scala, William Holden, Natalie Wood, and John Belushi.
Dr. Noguchi was born in Japan and graduated from Tokyo's Nippon Medical School in 1951 before interning at The University of Tokyo School of Medicine Hospital. Shortly thereafter he immigrated to the United States. He then served a second internship at Orange County General Hospital. He was appointed a deputy coroner for Los Angeles County in 1961 and in 1967, he became Chief Medical Examiner (CME) for the county. He was later appointed Chief of Pathology at the University of Southern California and then as Administrative Pathologist for Anatomic Pathology services at the USC Medical Center.
As of 2017, Noguchi is the president of World Association for Medical Law (WAML).
Vardit Ravitsky, PhD | BIOETHICS
Associate Professor, Director, Ethics and Health Branch, Center for Research in Ethics, School of Public Health, University of Montreal
Vardit Ravitsky is an Associate Professor at the Bioethics Programs within the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal. She is also Director of the Ethics and Health Branch of the CRE, an interuniversity research center in ethics. Ravitsky is member of the University of Montreal's Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM), of the Quebec Reproduction Network (RQR), and of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS).
Prof. Ravitsky's research focuses on reproductive ethics and the ethics of genetic and genomics research. Her research interests in bioethics also include research ethics, health policy and cultural perspectives. She is particularly interested in the various ways in which cultural frameworks shape public debate and public policy in the area of bioethics. She published over 100 articles, book chapters and commentaries on bioethical issues, and is lead-editor of "The Penn Center Guide to Bioethics".
Sivia Bar-Noy, PhD | NURSING
Deparment of Nursing, School of Health Professions, Tel Aviv University
Professor Sivia Bar-Noy is a senior researcher and lecturer in the School of Health Professions in the Department of Nursing.
She earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then worked for 7 years as a nurse in pediatric intensive care. At the same time, she completed her master's degree in human genetics with honors from Tel Aviv University. She completed her doctoral studies in human genetics at Tel Aviv University.
Believing that the contribution to man and society is very important, she has become part of the Nursing Department, which is the founding circle of academic nursing in Israel and the leader in its field.
Cécile Bensimon, PhD | Medical Ethics
Director, Ethics and Professional Affairs at Canadian Medical Association
Director, Ethics and Professional Affairs at Canadian Medical Association; Adjunct Professor at University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences
Nili Tabak, PhD, RN, LL.B. | NURSING
Professor, Nursing Department, Tel Aviv University
Nili is the former head of the Ethics Unit and former head of the School of Health Professions, Tel Aviv University.
Roy Beran, MD | HEALTH LAW & ETHICS
School of Medicine, Griffith University, Australia
A consultant neurologist and sleep physician focusing on epilepsy related research and active in various professional bodies in this field. Dr. Beran is the President of the Australian College of Legal Medicine, on the Board of the Australian Institute of Health Law and Ethics, and editor in chief of the International Journal of Medicine and Law.
He has in his medical career contributed to 280 papers, letters, and book chapters. Written and edited 15 books. He serves on editorial boards of various local and international journals.
Avivit Neuman, MD | ONCOLOGY
Attending Physician, Oncology Section, Rambam Health Care Campus
Dr. Avivit Neumann is an Attending Physician and specialist in medical and radiation oncology in the Genito-Urinary Clinic of the Oncology Section at Rambam Health Care Campus. Her sub-specialty is in cancers of the testis, prostate, kidney, and bladder. Dr. Neumann graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 1980, and completed a residency in oncology at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer. Before coming to Rambam, Dr. Neumann worked in Yerucham as a family practitioner.
Dr. Neumann’s chief research interests include novel treatments for prostate and bladder cancers. She is a staunch patient advocate and is active in the patient’s forum for both breast and prostate cancers. Dr. Neumann received an award for outstanding achievement in medicine in 1988.
Regis Anthony de Silva, MD, MPA
Attending Physician, BIDMC; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. de Silva specializes in emergency cardiac care training, emergency cardiac care systems development, and hospital governance. He is a trained cardiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School and served as attending physician on the staffs at BWH and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
From 2007 to 2011, Dr. de Silva worked as Director of Global Programs for HMI (later known as Partners Harvard Medical International) for programs in India, Dubai and the Caribbean implementing medical school curricular reform and managing graduate medical education and hospital accreditation programs.
Dr. de Silva is currently a senior consultant at the Department of Emergency Medicine’s International Projects Division, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an attending physician at BIDMC.
Svetlana Pospelova, PhD
Associate professor, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
Dr. Svetlana I. Pospelova has a PhD in Law. She is the Associate Professor of Law at the Medical Law Department of Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University). She also functions as the Research Director of the National Institute of Medical Law. She is presently the WAML Governor in the Russian Federation.
Jonathan Davies, LL.B., LL.M.
Davies & Co. Law Offices, former Chief Editor of the Israeli Journal of Medicine and Law (Refu'ah Umishpat), and former head of the Council of Presidents of the WAML.
Radmyla Hrevtsova, PhD
Associate Professor and Head of the Medical Law Center at the Taras Shevtchenko National University of Kyiv
Radmyla is the Head of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Law Committee at the Association of Advocates of Ukraine. She also functions as a Governor of the World Association for Medical Law in Ukraine.
Andre Dias Pereira, PhD
Head of the Center for Biomedical Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Andre Dias Pereira is a Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, and Director of the Center for Biomedical Law, Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra. He has been a member of the National Council of Ethics for Life Sciences since 2015. Since 2017 he functions as the chairman of the AIBILI Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Bioethics Commission of the Portuguese Society of Human Genetics, and of the Animal Ethics Committee of IMBC - Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology Porto. He functions as the Governor of the World Medical Law Association.
His main areas of interest are: Medical Law, Pharmaceutical Law, Civil responsibility, Right of Contracts, Bioethics.