Profile Overview
Senior Advisor to the President on Healthcare Service


Hiroki Nakatani
Senior Advisor to the President on Healthcare Service

Dr Hiroki Nakatani has held academic positions in Japan as Visiting Professor at the School of Medicine, Keio University, and an Invited Professor at Osaka University Post Graduate School of Medicine since 2015. He also serves in various national and international organizations as Member, Executive Board, WHO; Advisor on International Affairs to the Minister, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Chair, Board of Directors, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund); Member, Board of Directors, National Center for Global Health and Medicine; and, Director, Human Resource Strategy Center for Global Health.

Dr Nakatani is a veteran public health specialist for over 40 years, who started his career at the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan. He worked extensively in health policy, public health, international health, and health science and technology. His national career includes serving as Director-General of Health and Welfare Services in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was in charge of integrating health and welfare services in preparation for the arrival of a rapidly aging society. With regards to his international career, he served the WHO Headquarters twice. From April 1988 to March 1993, he was a Policy Analyst in the Department of Human Resource for Health. From March 2007 to May 2015, he served as Assistant Director-General of WHO, leading the largest technical cluster of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his tenure, the morbidity and mortality of these three significant infections showed decline trends, and a few tropical diseases were on track towards elimination and even eradication (dracunculiasis or guinea worm disease). After he retired from WHO, Dr. Nakatani has continued to serve the Organization as the Chair of the WHO Executive Board (2019-2020) and various oversight and advisory committee member.

Expertise

Dr Hiroki Nakatani has held academic positions in Japan as Visiting Professor at the School of Medicine, Keio University, and an Invited Professor at Osaka University Post Graduate School of Medicine since 2015. He also serves in various national and international organizations as Member, Executive Board, WHO; Advisor on International Affairs to the Minister, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Chair, Board of Directors, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund); Member, Board of Directors, National Center for Global Health and Medicine; and, Director, Human Resource Strategy Center for Global Health.

Dr Nakatani is a veteran public health specialist for over 40 years, who started his career at the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan. He worked extensively in health policy, public health, international health, and health science and technology. His national career includes serving as Director-General of Health and Welfare Services in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was in charge of integrating health and welfare services in preparation for the arrival of a rapidly aging society. With regards to his international career, he served the WHO Headquarters twice. From April 1988 to March 1993, he was a Policy Analyst in the Department of Human Resource for Health. From March 2007 to May 2015, he served as Assistant Director-General of WHO, leading the largest technical cluster of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his tenure, the morbidity and mortality of these three significant infections showed decline trends, and a few tropical diseases were on track towards elimination and even eradication (dracunculiasis or guinea worm disease). After he retired from WHO, Dr. Nakatani has continued to serve the Organization as the Chair of the WHO Executive Board (2019-2020) and various oversight and advisory committee member.

Expertise

  • Proven track record of effective management of the international organization
  • Link Research and Policy
  • Unbeatable Experience of Multinational Policy Formulation Process
  • In-depth understanding and experience in infectious diseases related partnerships

Education

2000

Public Health, Keio University, Tokyo (PhD)

1981

Master of Health Personnel Education 

University of New South Wales, Sydney

1977

Bachelor of Medicine

Keio University, Tokyo


Experience

2020 - Present Senior Advisor to the President on Healthcare Services, ERIA
2018 - PresentChair, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund)
2015 - Present 

Visiting Professor of Keio University and Invited Professor of Osaka  University

2007 - 2015

Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization

2005 - 2007

Director-General, Department of Health & Welfare Services for Disabled Persons, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

2003 - 2005

Director, Division of Health Science, Minister’s Secretariats, Planning Coordinator of National Institute of Health Science and Director of Development of new Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

1999 - 2002

Director, Division of TB and Communicable Disease, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

1997 - 1999

Director, Division of AIDS and Specific Diseases, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

1979 - 1997

Various Public Health Positions at Home and Abroad

Publications

  • Hiroki Nakatani: Population aging in Japan: policy transformation, sustainable development goals, universal health coverage, and social determinates of health, Global Health & Medicine, 1(1), pp3-10, 2019
  • Hiroki Nakatani: Global Strategies for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and Non-Communicable Diseases, J Epidemiol. 26(4), pp171–178, 2016
  • Mukund Uplekar, Hiroki Nakatani, Mario Raviglione, et al: WHO's new End TB Strategy, Lancet,Vol 385, pp1799–1801, 2015
  • Christopher Dye, Thierry Mertens, Gottfried Hirnschall, Winnie Mapanju-Shumbusho, Robert Newman, Mario Raviglione, Lorenzo Savioli, Hiroki Nakatani: WHO and the Future of Disease Control Programmes, Lancet, Vol 381, pp413-418, 2013
  • Emily Leung, Daiana E Weil, Mario Raviglione, Hiroki Nakatani: The WHO Policy Package to combat antimicrobial resistance, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Vol 89, pp390-392,2011
  • Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Michel Kazatchkine, Michel Sidebe, Hiroki Nakatani: Tuberculosis and HIV: time for an intensified response, Lancet, Vol 375, pp 1757-1758,2010