Tina D. Purnat, MS
Technology Director EU CDC, formerly with Emergency Response and Technical Director of the
Infodemic Management program at the World Health Organization in Geneva – WHO)
Tina Purnat is Principal Expert in eHealth and Digital Innovations for Public Health at ECDC.
Tina has worked at the intersection of health research, analysis, and policymaking with an emphasis on digital health and health information systems. Most recently, she worked at WHO on frameworks for assessment and evaluation of AI and other digital health technologies in health, health information exchange and interoperability, and related aspects of health data governance for sharing, research and use in policymaking. As part of the WHO COVID-19 response, she worked in developing and formulating WHO infodemic response and evidence- based approaches to infodemic management interventions, for which she received the WHO Pathfinder and Innovation Award 2021.
She left basic science research in 2007 to join the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the first time, to lead data collection, capacity building, and reporting of notifiable infectious diseases. She later worked at WHO and University of Munich as an analyst in clinical trials and implementation research studies in LMICs.
Between 2015-19, she was Unit Leader for Health Informatics and Information Systems, and 2016-2018 acting Unit Leader and Programme Manager for Health Information, Monitoring and Analysis at WHO Regional Office for Europe. There, she led the development of the European Health Information Gateway; capacity building courses in health information and evidence- informed policymaking; and assessment, integration and strengthening of health information systems in countries. She was managing editor of the European Health Report 2018, which outlined the vision for improved use of evidence, research, and health information to inform policymaking in the WHO European Region.