International Guest Speakers
Professor Neil Sharma
Neil is a Consultant Head and Neck/Thyroid/Parathyroid Surgeon at University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) and Honorary Clinical Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Birmingham.
Neil has a strong interest in all aspects of head and neck surgery. His main focus is on surgical oncology, and in particular surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. He has a high volume thyroid surgery practice, carrying out over 150 thyroid operations per year. He specialises in complex and revision thyroid surgery for benign and malignant disease, including advanced differentiated thyroid cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, thyrotoxicosis, retrosternal disease and surgery for those with a genetic predisposition to thyroid cancer. He leads the thyroid cancer service at UHB and runs the regional genetic thyroid oncology clinic, receiving referrals from around the country. He also works at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, operating on children affected by thyroid and parathyroid disease, and is then able to continue their care and follow up at UHB once they reach 18 years old. He is an active member of the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons, for which he also sits on the Executive Committee, the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists, ENTUK, British Thyroid Association, Society for Endocrinology, American Thyroid Association, European Thyroid Association, European Society of Endocrine Surgeons and the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons. He is the Chief Investigator for the NIHR funded multi-centre RABBIT trial, investigating the role of radiofrequency ablation for benign thyroid nodules and co-investigator on a number of other trials at various stages of set up.
Neil graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2002, and completed his higher surgical training in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in 2017. He was awarded his PhD in 2014, for work examining the role of a novel proto-oncogene in the aetiology of thyroid cancer, and continued post-doctoral research in Birmingham while completing his clinical training. He served as President for the Association of Otolaryngologists in Training between 2016 and 2017. Neil received further advanced Head and Neck, Endocrine and reconstructive surgery training under the internationally renowned surgeons Nick McIvor and John Chaplin in Auckland, New Zealand, before returning in 2018 to UHB.
Mr Ricard Simo, LMS, FRCS, FRCS (ORL-HNS) PhD
Ricard Simo is a Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist Head, Neck and Thyroid Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. and Honorary Senior Lecturer at KCL Medical School. He graduated from the University of Barcelona in 1988, trained in Nottingham, Manchester and Philadelphia.
He provides a dedicated tertiary head and neck oncological and thyroid surgery service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. He is the Surgical Thyroid Oncology Lead and the Surgical Head, Neck and Thyroid Oncology Research Co-Lead. He has published over 180 original articles, 28 chapters and UK national head, neck and thyroid cancer guidelines. He edited Springer Atlas in Head and Neck Surgery in 2024. He is the Vice-Chair of EBEOR-HNS, Board Member of the CEORL-HNS, Past President of the European Laryngological Society, Past Audit Lead of ENT H&N UK and a faculty member of several national and international courses.
He is married with 2 children and loves nature and triathlon.
Vincent Vander Poorten, MD PhD MSc
Consultant, Full Professor and Clinical Head of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Section head of the section Head and Neck Oncology of the Department of Oncology of the faculty of Medicine at KU Leuven.
Guest Professor in Head and Neck Oncology, University of Pisa, Italy. Adjunct Professor in Head and Neck Oncology and Salivary Gland Surgery, University of Southern Denmark at Odense, Denmark. Areas of clinical and research expertise are head and neck oncology and surgery, with a specific focus on salivary gland and thyroid surgery, endoscopic and external approaches to the anterior skull base, transoral laser microendoscopic surgery and, since 2010, robotic Head and Neck surgery.
President of the Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society (MSGS); Vice Chair, International Advisory Section, American Head and Neck Society (AHNS); Executive Board Member of the Asia-Pacific Society of Thyroid Surgery (APTS) and Member of the Executive Committee International Federation of Head and Neck Oncological Societies (IFHNOS).
Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietz, MD PhD MSc
Since April 2004, Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietz is Chair of the ENT University Clinic Leipzig. He is full-trained ENT and head and neck surgeon and has special qualification in plastic surgery and Oncology. His scientific work is reflected in numerous studies and translational projects on head and neck cancer. He is internationally known as an expert in this field.
He was President of the German Society for ENT - Head and Neck Surgery (DGHNO-KHT) from 2019 to 2020 and is speaker of the interdisciplinary group of Head and Neck Cancer of the German Cancer Society (IAG-KHT). He holds visible positions on numerous international committees like membership of the Board of Directors of the European Head and Neck Society. He is speaker of the board of the Innovation Center for Computer-Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) Leipzig. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Online Fellowship Initiative at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York and conference president of ECHNO 2027 in Berlin.
He is honorary member of the Royal Belgian, the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech ENT Society and the Indian Head and Neck Foundation. Andreas Dietz is author/co-author of more than 400 pub-med listed publications (h-index 58). He coordinates the German S3-Guideline for oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer. Andreas Dietz was honored with the DGHNO-KHC Medal of Merit, the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony in 2022 and with the EHNS Award in 2023.
Prof. Isabel Vilaseca, MD PhD
Prof. Isabel Vilaseca, MD PhD, is a Senior Consultant at the Otorhinolaryngology Department of the Hospital ClÃnic of Barcelona and current Director of the Surgical Area.
She is Professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona, Group leader of the Consolidated Research Group Head and Neck ClÃnic (AGAUR). Her research has focused on the knowledge and treatment of head neck cancer with special emphasis in early diagnosis and minimally invasive surgery.
She has implemented transoral resection techniques for pharyngolaryngeal tumors, including transoral laser microsurgery, ultrasonic and robotic surgery, and also has worked in the evaluation of functional outcomes after surgery.
No of publications: +130. H-Index (WoS): 33. Total citations: +5.000. In 2023 she received the prestigious Oskar-Kleinsasser Award-Storz Prize from the European Laryngological Society in recognition of a career of excellence and in 2024 she was recognised with the CoMB Professional Excellence Award in Hospital Care.
Mark E. Zafereo, Professor MD
Dr. Mark Zafereo is a Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where he is Section Chief of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery and Associate Medical Director of the Head & Neck Center.
Dr. Zafereo serves as Treasurer of the American Thyroid Association, and on the American Head & Neck Society Research and Education Foundation Board of Trustees. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and the International Thyroid Oncology Group.
Dr. Zafereo leads several national multicenter clinical trials on neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery for anaplastic and medullary thyroid cancers. He has published significantly on Thyroid and other Head & Neck cancers, speaking nationally and internationally. His clinical practice focuses on patients afflicted with thyroid cancer and parathyroid neoplasms.
Professor Justin Roe, MBE PhD FRCSLT
Justin is a Consultant and Professional Lead for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RM) in London. He is also a senior member of the Applied Health Research Group and leads the survivorship theme for the International Centre for Recurrent head and Neck Cancer (IReC) at RM. From 2016-2026, he established and led a dedicated SLT service at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust supporting the National Centre for Airway Reconstruction and complex laryngology service and continues to manage a busy laryngology practice in the private sector. He is a Professor of Practice in Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.
Justin has been an investigator on several research studies, including NIHR portfolio studies. He is chief investigator on the NIHR-funded CONSIDER Study. He has published extensively and contributed to key policy and position papers, acting as an expert adviser to several national organisations. He was the Allied Health Professions Council Member for the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists and is currently SLT Council Member for the British Laryngological Association. He is President of the UK Swallowing Research Group. Justin was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2018 and an MBE in the 2022 Queen's New Year's Honours in recognition of his contribution to the SLT profession.
Terry Day MD, FCS
Dr. Day currently serves as the National Director of Head and Neck Oncology for the Sarah Cannon Cancer Network and provides multidisciplinary head and neck cancer care at Head and Neck Specialists of South Carolina. He earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma and completed his residency at Louisiana State University, followed by fellowships in head and neck oncologic surgery at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and in craniomaxillofacial surgery at Inselspital–Bern in Bern, Switzerland. Following his fellowship training, Dr. Day joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Departments of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Neurosurgery. He later joined the Medical University of South Carolina, where he was named Professor, Vice Chair, and Director of the Division of Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery. He also served as Director of the Head and Neck Tumor Center at Hollings Cancer Center and held joint appointments in the Departments of Craniofacial Biology and Stomatology, as well as the College of Graduate Studies.
Dr. Day is deeply committed to patient advocacy and professional leadership. He serves as Chairman of the Board for the international nonprofit Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, Inc., and in 1998 founded the inaugural international Oral and Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, which has now spanned more than 25 years of education and advocacy efforts worldwide. His leadership roles include serving as President of the American Head and Neck Society, as a member of the inaugural Council of the International Academy of Oral Oncology and completed a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. He has also served as a Senior Examiner for the American Board of Otolaryngology and as a member of the National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Steering Committee, the RTOG Head and Neck Subcommittee, and the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Head and Neck Working Group. Additionally, he was the first statewide director of the Council of the South Carolina Cancer Alliance.
An accomplished clinician-scientist, Dr. Day has been active in both clinical and translational research as a principal investigator or co-investigator in more than 25 clinical trials. He has received numerous research grants and public health advocacy awards, edited four textbooks, and authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He remains committed to global health education and clinical outreach, participating in volunteer efforts in Haiti, Africa, and other developing healthcare settings worldwide. Outside of his professional work, Dr. Day enjoys spending time with his family, exploring new cultures around the planet, running on the beach with his dog, and snowboarding in fresh powder.