Join the first ESPID Educational Sunday
This afternoon session will explore how artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of paediatric infectious disease. Topics include treatment and prevention, vaccine research and development, and the opportunities and ethics of using AI in healthcare, presented through a series of talks followed by a panel discussion.
The session can be added to your ESPID 2026 registration by contacting reg_espid26@kenes.com.
Date
Sunday, 31 May 2026
Time
13:00-16:30
Venue
UNA Hotel Bologna Fiera
Agenda
| Time | Presentation |
|---|---|
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch & Networking Opportunity |
| 13:00-13:15 | Welcome & Purpose Alignment Speakers: Nicole Ritz, MD, PhD & Anne Wyllie, PhD |
| 13:15-14:15 | What AI Can & Can’t Do for Infectious Disease Care: An Examination Across the Past, Present, and Future of Pediatric Infectious Disease Speakers: Jana Shaw, MD, MPH, MSc, Pier Luigi Lopalco, MD & Peiling Yap, PhD, MSc |
| 14:15-15:00 | The Role of AI in Vaccine Research and Development Speaker: Jayant Rajan, MD, PHD |
| 15:00-15:15 | Break |
| 15:15-16:15 | AI in Practice: Driving Engagement & Adherence in Disease Prevention Speakers: Jana Shaw, MD, MPH, MSc, Pier Luigi Lopalco, MD, Doron Netzer, MD & Jorge Salinas, MD |
| 16:15-16:30 | Closing Remarks Speakers: Nicole Ritz, MD, PhD & Anne Wyllie, PhD |
This activity is kindly supported by Pfizer
Speakers
Nicole Ritz, MD, PhD
Professor of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases University Basel Basel, Switzerland Director Center for Child Health Analytics (CCHA) Children’s Hospital of Central Switzerland Lucerne, Switzerland
Nicole Ritz, MD, PhD
Professor of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases University Basel Basel, Switzerland Director Center for Child Health Analytics (CCHA) Children’s Hospital of Central Switzerland Lucerne, Switzerland
Nicole Ritz is Professor of Paediatrics and
Infectious Diseases at the Medical Faculty
of the University of Basel in Switzerland.
She leads the Mycobacterial and Migrant
Health Research Lab at the University
Children’s Hospital in Basel. She is also the
founding director of the Center for Child
Health Analytics (CCHA) at the Children’s
Hospital of Central Switzerland in Lucerne.
The CCHA focusses on leveraging routine
healthcare data to improve paediatric
outcomes.
Trained in Switzerland, South Africa, and
Australia, she received her MD from the
University of Bern and her PhD from the
University of Melbourne. Her research
focuses on childhood tuberculosis, migrant
health, and infectious disease biomarkers,
with over 170 publications.
Since 2025, she has served as Secretary of
the Board of Directors of the European
Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases
(ESPID), where she contributes to shaping
the society’s strategic vision and mission.
She is also deeply committed to mentoring
and supporting the next generation of
clinician-scientists in paediatric infectious
diseases.
Beyond her professional work, she draws
inspiration from art, museums, and time
spent in nature.
Anne Wyllie, PhD
Senior Director Global Medical Affairs Pediatric Pneumococcal Vaccines Lead Pfizer Boston, MA, USA
Anne Wyllie, PhD
Senior Director Global Medical Affairs Pediatric Pneumococcal Vaccines Lead Pfizer Boston, MA, USA
Dr. Anne L. Wyllie serves as the Global Medical Affairs Lead for Pneumococcal Vaccines at Pfizer, Inc., and is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. With a PhD in Infection and Immunity, her research addresses the epidemiology of Streptococcus pneumoniae, examining its carriage, transmission dynamics, and the effects of vaccination strategies across various populations. Dr. Wyllie developed and implemented saliva as a non-invasive sample type for diagnostics
of respiratory pathogens, extending its application to pneumococcal detection and surveillance.
Her work has influenced public health by providing accessible and scalable solutions for infectious disease control. Dr. Wyllie led the SalivaDirect initiative, which received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for SARS-CoV-2 detection, and has since applied these saliva-based methodologies to enhance the surveillance of pneumococcal carriage and other respiratory viruses. Dr. Wyllie is a
recipient of the 2025 ASM Award for Early Career Applied and Biotechnological Research and the 2023 ESCMID Young Investigator Award, reflecting her efforts to translate research findings into practical
applications for healthcare.
Jana Shaw, MD, MPH, MSc
Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health and Preventive Medicine SUNY Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY, USA
Jana Shaw, MD, MPH, MSc
Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health and Preventive Medicine SUNY Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY, USA
Dr. Shaw is a distinguished pediatrician and
research scientist specializing in infectious
diseases, with a focus on vaccinepreventable infections. She serves as a
Professor of Pediatrics in the Departments
of Pediatrics and Public Health and
Preventive Medicine at SUNY Upstate
Medical University in Syracuse, New York.
Dr. Shaw is also the Hospital Epidemiologist
at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital and
the Chief Medical Officer of the North
Country Family Health Center in
Watertown, New York.
A graduate of Masaryk University Medical
School in Brno, Czech Republic, Dr. Shaw completed her pediatric residency at SUNY
Stony Brook, New York, followed by a
fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases
at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She furthered
her academic credentials by earning a
Master’s in Public Health from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
and a Master’s in Science from the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Dr. Shaw’s work centers on vaccine
hesitancy, advocacy, and leadership to
improve vaccination rates among children
and adults. Her efforts have made
significant contributions to advancing
public health and addressing disparities in
vaccine access and confidence.
Pier Luigi Lopalco, MD
Full Professor of Hygiene University of Salento Lecce, Italy
Pier Luigi Lopalco, MD
Full Professor of Hygiene University of Salento Lecce, Italy
Pier Luigi Lopalco, MD, Full Professor of
Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the
University of Salento (Lecce, Italy).
He started his academic career in the public
health field in 1992. Between 2005 and
2015 he joined the ECDC, where has been
Head of the Vaccine Preventable Disease
Programme. During that period, he has
contributed to strengthening European
collaboration in the field of vaccination
programmes and produced several
guidance documents to support the
decision-making process for introduction of
new vaccines at national level. Since
October 2015 he took back his position in
the Italian University, moving to University
of Pisa in April 2016 and to University of
Salento in July 2021. He has been
appointed as coordinator of the response
to COVID19 pandemic in the Puglia Region.
His research activity has been focused on
infectious disease epidemiology and
prevention with a particular focus on
vaccine preventable disease and infection control in healthcare settings. He is coauthor of more than 240 scientific articles
in peer reviewed journals (Scopus h-index
45). He has co-authored a chapter in the
textbook Vaccines 6th Edition by Plotkin S.,
Orenstein W., and Offit P.
Peiling Yap, PhD, MSc
Chief Scientist HealthAI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health Geneva, Switzerland
Peiling Yap, PhD, MSc
Chief Scientist HealthAI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. Peiling Yap is a pharmacist and
infectious-diseases epidemiologist by
training, with 15 years of experience in the
global and public health sectors. As
HealthAI’s Chief Scientist, she is responsible
for synthesizing knowledge and developing
training curricula for regulators and
policymakers to strengthen their capacity
to regulate AI in health, leveraging globally
defined Responsible AI standards,
processes, and tools. She is also leading the
establishment of HealthAI’s Community of
Practice, which aims to facilitate knowledge
sharing and collaboration among diverse
stakeholders on implementing regulatory
mechanisms and global standards for
Responsible AI in health.
In the past years, Dr. Yap has spearheaded
impactful public health research and
initiatives globally. At the Swiss Tropical
and Public Health Institute, she
investigated the impact of intestinal worms
on physical fitness, psychosocial health and
nutrition in children, efficacy of their
treatments, and the effectiveness of health
education targeting children in China and
South Africa. At the National Center for
Infectious Diseases in Singapore, she used
mixed methodology to implement and
evaluate public health interventions, such
as mobile applications for communitybased syndromic surveillance of acute
respiratory infections, and a HIV self-testing
intervention. She also conducted
implementation research training
Jayant Rajan, MD, PhD
Associate Medical Director Pfizer Vaccine Clinical Research and Development Pfizer Vaccines, Pfizer Inc. Collegeville, PA, USA
Jayant Rajan, MD, PhD
Associate Medical Director Pfizer Vaccine Clinical Research and Development Pfizer Vaccines, Pfizer Inc. Collegeville, PA, USA
Dr. Jayant Rajan serves as Associate
Medical Director for Pfizer Vaccine Clinical
Research and Development at Pfizer Inc.
Dr. Rajan is an infectious diseases
physician, internist and scientist with more
than 15 years of experience spanning
academia and industry. His areas of interest
and experience include vaccines, HIV, viral
and bacterial infections, machine learning
and artificial intelligence, sequencing,
immunology and large-scale data analysis.
Dr. Rajan attended University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he
earned his Doctor of Medicine degree. He
subsequently completed an internal
medicine residency and an Infectious
Diseases fellowship at University of
Washington. At University of California,
Berkeley, Dr. Rajan earned a Master of Arts
in Biostatistics, and a Doctor of Philosophy
in Epidemiology.
Doron Netzer, MD
Head of the Community Medical Division Clalit Health Services Tel Aviv, Israel Associate Professor Adelson School of Medicine Ariel University Ariel, Israel
Doron Netzer, MD
Head of the Community Medical Division Clalit Health Services Tel Aviv, Israel Associate Professor Adelson School of Medicine Ariel University Ariel, Israel
Professor Doron Netzer is a specialist in
family medicine. In his current position, he
acts as the head of the community medical services division at Clalit. Trust for crossorganizational medical policy based on
evidence-based medicine. He is also
Chairman of the Medical services basket
Committee at Clalit and the founders of the
hospital at home for general inpatient care.
One of Prof. Netzer’s important missions
since 2020 is confronting the COVID-19
pandemic. The community medical services
division in his leadership at Clalit struggled
the pandemia with great success,
publishing major articles at the most
prestigious medical journal worldwide
(NEJM, Nature Medicine, Lancet ID, Nature
communication & Rheumatology) that
influenced worldwide decision making.
Dr. Netzer’s primary area of interest is
integrating Clalit’s large-scale healthcare
data with evidence-based medicine, clinical
databases, and artificial intelligence. He is
the inventor and chief researcher of the
flagship project of Clalit health services:
CPI- CLALIT PROACTIVE AND
PREVENTETIVE INTERVENTION, a project
that combines personalized medicine,
medical databases, artificial intelligence
and a complex computer algorithm, which
guides the doctor during a visit, to provide
evidence-based appropriate treatment.
Jorge Salinas, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine Stanford Medicine Palo Alto, CA, USA
Jorge Salinas, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine Stanford Medicine Palo Alto, CA, USA
Dr. Jorge Salinas is an Assistant Professor of
Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the
Stanford University School of Medicine and
a healthcare epidemiologist whose work
focuses on understanding and preventing
infectious diseases in healthcare settings
and communities. He also serves as
Medical Director of the Infection
Prevention and Control Program at
Stanford Health Care. Dr. Salinas’ research
centers on how antimicrobial resistance is transmitted within healthcare facilities and
across communities. He is particularly
interested in leveraging innovative
approaches, including artificial intelligence,
to develop advanced surveillance systems
for healthcare-associated infections. His
work aims to improve detection,
prevention, and response strategies to
emerging infectious threats. Trained in
medicine in Peru, Dr. Salinas completed his
residency at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham and a fellowship in infectious
diseases at Emory University, followed by
service in the Epidemic Intelligence Service
at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Through his clinical, research,
and leadership roles, Dr. Salinas contributes
to advancing infection prevention,
strengthening public health systems, and
addressing the global challenge of
antimicrobial resistance.
