Practice Lifestyle Medicine

Dr Marly Oosterhof is an ELMO-certified lifestyle medicine physician based in Curaçao, with over 30 years of clinical experience in family medicine, obesity management, preventive healthcare and long-term care. She teaches clinical medicine and supervises medical students in community-based settings. Through CuraTica she develops experiential health programs that combine lifestyle medicine, behavioral science and coaching to support lasting behavior change. Her workshop explores how knowing what supports health does not always make change easier, and how engagement, motivation, self-efficacy and social connection can be strengthened in clinical and community settings.

Sharon Jensen is a licensed clinical social worker and trauma therapist. She co-leads a hands-on workshop on the hidden role of trauma in longevity and lifestyle medicine.

Kristal Lau is a physician and health consultant. She co-leads the workshop on trauma as a hidden driver in longevity and lifestyle medicine.

Rob d'Hondt is a trainer of trainers in motivational interviewing, an author and organizational coach. His workshop 'Beyond Advice' teaches conversations that create real behavior change.

Maria Giulia Marini is an educator, epidemiologist and counsellor with the European Narrative Medicine Society (EUNAMES). She leads a workshop on narrative medicine — cosmologies and storytelling in care.

Dr Elizaveta Kuznetsova is a cardiologist. She runs a clinical cases round, exploring how lifestyle interventions apply to real-world patient cases.

Konstantinos Vagias is a biologist and clinical nutritionist at the University of Crete. He co-leads the culinary-medicine workshop, translating dietary guidelines into real meals.

Apostolos Takoulas is a chef behind COOKEAT. His culinary-medicine workshop turns nutrition science into practical, food-first strategies for the kitchen.

Victoria Pena Acuna is a registered dietitian and health coach. She joins the multidisciplinary team delivering the hands-on workshop on trauma-informed care in lifestyle medicine.

Dr Mariana Rickmann is a medical writer, researcher and educator. She co-delivers the multidisciplinary workshop on trauma as a hidden driver in longevity and lifestyle medicine.

Dr Tatiana Poni is a general practitioner with ELMO. She co-delivers the multidisciplinary workshop on trauma-informed care in lifestyle medicine.

Christina Topping is a Lifestyle Medicine practitioner and coach with over 20 years' experience across education, health, movement and behavior change, specializing in supporting neurodivergent adolescents and young adults. Her workshop 'Coaching Through Chaos' shares practical, person-centered strategies to build self-awareness, agency and sustainable behavior change.

Dra. Mónica Durães is a Portuguese family physician and European Board-Certified Lifestyle Medicine Physician (IBLM), with expertise in smoking cessation, alcohol use disorders and behavior change. She leads a Smoking Cessation Clinic and works in an Alcohol Treatment Unit within the Portuguese National Health Service, and serves on the board of the Portuguese Society of Lifestyle Medicine.

Bart Collet is a healthtech consultant, writer and founder of Hyperadvancer, working at the intersection of healthcare, AI and automation. His hands-on workshop shows clinicians and lifestyle medicine professionals how to use generative AI to build their own tools, companion apps, dashboards and automations, with no programming background required.

Professor Doina-Adina Todea, MD, PhD is Professor of Pneumology and Head of the Department of Pneumology at the "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and Director of Romania's first accredited Master's in Lifestyle Medicine. A leader in sleep medicine, she co-presents a workshop on the impact of sleep on adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Damiana-Maria Vulturar, MD, PhD is a pulmonologist and researcher at the "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, with expertise in sleep medicine, non-invasive ventilation and respiratory care. She co-presents a workshop on the impact of sleep on adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Anca Moldovan-Pop, MD (Romania) leads the GASTROJOY Lifestyle workshop, exploring how to live your best health across ages.

Benno Krachler, MD, PhD (Sweden) leads the workshop 'Beyond Symptoms and Diagnoses: A Practical Framework for Lifestyle Medicine'.

Georgina Simko is an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Recreation and Active Lifestyle and a PhD Candidate at the Department of Health Sciences and Sport Medicine, Hungarian University of Sports Science (HUSS), Budapest, Hungary.

Her research focuses on lifestyle interventions, mHealth applications, body composition, physical activity, nutrition, obesity, and the prevention of type 2 diabetes, with a particular emphasis on digital health interventions for overweight adults. She holds degrees in Recreation (MSc), Dietetics (BSc), Human Resource Management, and Social Pedagogy and is also a certified Personal Trainer and Aerobics Instructor. Since 2020, she has been pursuing her PhD in Sport Sciences while teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in lifestyle counseling, fitness, recreation, sports nutrition, and physical activity.

Alongside her teaching and research, she is actively involved in educational and curriculum development at the Hungarian University of Sports Science. She developed the Lifestyle Counseling course and the Lifestyle Counseling and Fitness Trainer micro-credential programs.

Beyond academia, she develops educational materials for the Hungarian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, including the Three-Level Physical Fitness Assessment Protocol (HFAP). She is also a Board Member of the Hungarian Active Lifestyle Association, where she contributes to national initiatives promoting physical activity, healthy lifestyles, and public health.

General practitioner (Utrecht, the Netherlands) and director of Positive Health International.

In Dr. van den Brekel’s work, health is the starting point, and the person is at the center. Karolien is involved in research, education, and healthcare innovation in the fields of prevention and Positive Health, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. She founded Positive Health International, with the aim of promoting the Positive Health movement beyond the Netherlands.

Positive Health has been a guiding thread throughout her life, providing resilience to deal with life’s challenges across different cultures and countries.

Dr. van den Brekel is co-author of Handbook Positive Health in General Practice: Working Together Towards Meaningful Care.

During the ten years Karolien lived and worked abroad (New York, Munich, Osaka, Dublin), she learned that diseases are the same everywhere, but the way people deal with them differs by culture and country. She completed her PhD at New York University/University Medical Center Utrecht and has about 20 years of experience as a GP in the Netherlands.

Dr Gyöngyvér Lacza is a recreation specialist, university lecturer and academic leader with over 20 years of experience in physical activity, recreational sport and health promotion. She earned her Master’s degree through the World Leisure Organization and Wageningen University and completed her PhD at Semmelweis University. She heads the Department of Recreation and Active Lifestyle and directs its BSc and MSc programs. She has contributed to numerous national and international initiatives, leads the development of Hungary’s Active Lifestyle Strategy, and serves as Co-Chair of the Exercise Therapy Working Group of the Hungarian Lifestyle Medicine Association.

Andrée Rochfort is Assistant Clinical Professor at the School of Medicine, University College Dublin, where she lectures medical students and postgraduate courses on lifestyle medicine, self-care, personal and professional development. She is Director of Quality Improvement, Health & Wellbeing at the Irish College of GPs in Dublin, where she leads the national Doctor Health Program and hosts monthly live webinars on lifestyle medicine and wellbeing. At European level she chairs the WONCA Europe Special Interest Group in Doctor Health & Wellbeing, is an executive member of the WONCA Europe Working Party for Policy and Advocacy for Primary Care, and is the European delegate to the global Working Party for Planetary Health. She is a past President and Chair of EQuiP, the European Society for Quality & Safety in Family Medicine, and a member of the OECD PaRIS Primary Care Professionals Network. A family doctor with 35 years of clinical experience and 25 years in academia, she has contributed to national standards on doctor health and to the national and European postgraduate training curricula for family medicine. She has published journal articles and book chapters on self-management support, digital healthcare and quality improvement, and edited a medical textbook. She is co-chair of the Irish Society of Lifestyle Medicine, completed the ELMO certificate in 2021 and was elected to the ELMO board in 2022.