Keynote Speakers
University of Cincinnati, USA
University College London, UK
Paiedeia International Hospital, Italy
Flinders University, Australia
North Shore University Hospital, USA
Dr Mario Malzoni
Mario Malzoni, MD, PhD, is a world‑recognised specialist in Advanced Pelvic Surgery with extensive expertise in gynaecologic oncology and endometriosis. Based at Malzoni Research Hospital in Avellino, Italy, he is widely known for developing innovative surgical techniques and protocols that have advanced clinical outcomes in complex pelvic procedures. As Scientific Director of the Advanced Pelvic Surgery Center, Endometriosis National Center, and Cancer Center, he has performed more than 20,000 advanced surgical procedures and has led the training of international surgeons.
Professor Malzoni is highly active in both national and international scientific organisations and has contributed extensively to the global medical literature with numerous high‑impact publications. In addition to serving as a surgical advisor to several leading institutions, he is an Associate Professor with national qualification. His commitment to education and mentorship continues through the Malzoni Training Center, where he supports the development of future specialists worldwide.
Dr Beck O'Hara
Dr Beck O’Hara, PhD is a Research Fellow at the Digital Health Research Lab, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University. Her research focuses on improving endometriosis diagnosis and management through co-designed digital health technologies.
Dr Beck O’Hara is an experienced mixed-methods researcher, having worked in chronic disease, health policy, psychosocial and health promotion research for more than 15 years across government, non-profit organisations, and universities. Her PhD focused on people’s experiences of managing endometriosis and the role of self-management. She was awarded a National Endometriosis Clinical and Scientific Trials Fellowship in 2025, is the Australasian Coordinator of the International Social SciencEs Endometriosis Network (SEEN) and a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador.
Dr Frank Tu
Frank Tu, MD, MPH, is Vice Chair of Quality, and director of the Endeavor Health/NorthShore Division of Gynecological Pain and Minimally Invasive Surgery in Evanston, Illinois. Dr. Tu is also a Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Alabama, and completed an obstetrics and gynecology residency at Northwestern University. Postgraduate work at the University of North Carolina included a fellowship in advanced laparoscopic surgery and pelvic pain management and a simultaneous masters in public health (epidemiology). His clinical research interests include visceral pain, pelvic musculoskeletal pain disorders, diagnostic test evaluation, outcomes assessment and physician surgical education. His group’s work has funded by the NIH (R01s CRAMPP and EMPATHY) and also involves collaborative studies in pelvic pain (MAPP, ICECAN). Dr. Tu is a Past-President of the International Pelvic Pain Society, past IASP SIG chair for the Abdominal and Pelvic Pain SIG, serves on NIH study sections and advisory boards, and speaks on occasion on both pelvic pain and minimally invasive surgery technique.
Prof Davor Jurkovic
Davor Jurkovic is an internationally recognised expert in gynaecological ultrasound and he has published a large number of scientific papers and books in this field. He pioneered the use of colour Doppler and three-dimensional ultrasound in gynaecology. He is particularly well known for his work on the diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex forms of ectopic pregnancy, such as Caesarean scar ectopic pregnancies. He has also published extensively on the use of ultrasound for the diagnosis and management of endometriosis, adenomyosis and uterine fibroids as well as on the diagnosis of ovarian and endometrial cancer.
He has been running the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists training programmes in gynaecological ultrasound for more than two decades and has given many invited lectures on numerous medical conferences and scientific meetings. In 2020, he was awarded the Ian Donald Gold Medal by the International Society for Ultrasound in Gynaecology and Obstetrics for his scientific contribution to the advancement of diagnostic ultrasound and his impact on the way ultrasound is practiced through research or innovation.
Dr Katie Burns
Katherine (Katie) Burns, PhD is an Associate Professor, Kehoe Endowed Chair, and Division Director of Environmental Genetics and Molecular Toxicology in the Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Katie received her PhD from Pennsylvania State University and did her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Currently, her laboratory’s studies on endometriosis focus on the early initiation of endometriotic lesion development using a mouse model of disease. Her research uncovered the early imitation of endometriosis is immune dependent and that the later phases of disease require hormones for proliferation and growth. From this understanding, their ongoing work finds hormones, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and immunotoxicants affect disease at different phases of development. Neutrophils are first responding white blood cells that are important in the attachment of uterine tissue to form lesions in the peritoneal cavity. Current research is focused on targeting neutrophils and their activity to block lesion initiation. Moreover, her group is developing a non-invasive diagnostic for endometriosis using neutrophils from menstrual fluid as a substrate. The non-invasive diagnostic is akin to a pap smear where cytology identifies morphological cellular changes for cervical cancer and to Cologuard™ that can be collected at home and sent to a laboratory for analysis. Dr. Burns’ commitment to endometriosis diagnostic research stems from her own diagnosis that took 11 years and surgery for an answer.
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