Dr. Jacob Ablin is specialist of general Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. He is head of Internal Medicine at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and a senior lecturer at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. From 2002-2016, he served as the Director of the Fibromyalgia Clinic at the Institute of Rheumatology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

Dr. Ablin was first author of the Israeli guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Fibromyalgia, published in 2013. He was Co-Organizer of the First International Symposium on Fibromyalgia held at the Peres Center for Peace, Jaffa, Israel in February 2013.

He is currently an elected member of the Steering Committee of the Israeli Society of Rheumatology. His main clinical and research interests are Pathogenesis, Genetics and Epidemiology of the Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

He has scientific collaborations with several researchers worldwide, e.g. Professor Fred Wolfe, Wichita (USA), Professor Dan Clauw, Michigan (USA), Professor Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, Montreal (Canada) Professor Winfried Häuser, Munich (Germany) and Professor Dan Buskila Beer – Sheva (Israel).

• specialist of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology
• senior physician  at the department of Internal Medicine F at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
• lecturer at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.
• Director of the Fibromyalgia Clinic at the Institute of Rheumatology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.
• Co-author of the first  Israeli guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Fibromyalgia, published in 2013.
• main research interests are clinical  and epidemiologic aspects of the Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

Howard Amital is a professor of Medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of the Tel-Aviv University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, and his fellowship at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. He is the Head of the Department of Medicine ‘B’ at the Sheba Medical Center at the Sheba Medical Center, in Tel-Hashomer. Prof. Amital has over 200 peer reviewed publications mainly focusing in various fields of autoimmunity research primarily in new avenues for the development of therapeutic peptides in RA, roles of vitamin D, use of biological therapy, pain and comorbidities of fibromyalgia and epidemiological studies based on Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) databases.

Rheumatology Unit – Internal Medicine Department

Ospedale di Circolo – Fondazione Macchi.  ASST – Settelaghi

Varese (Italy)

· Graduated in Medicine and Surgery from Pavia University, Italy.1975
· Full board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Pavia University, Italy, 1976
· Specialized in Neurology with a postgraduate course in Clinical Neurophysiology; Pavia University, Italy, 1979
· Specialised in Anaesthesiology & Pain Relief, Pavia University, Italy, 1989
· PhD in Advanced Technologies in Rehabilitation and Sports, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Scientific and Society Positions
Scientific Director at OPUSmedica PC&R, Persons, Care & Research network, Piacenza, Italy
Director of the EFIC (European Pain Federation) Pain School on “Neuropathic Pain”  .
Chairman of the ESPRM (European Society of Physical &Rehabilitation Medicine) SIG on “Pain and Disability”
Co-ordinator of the SiG “Pain and Rehabilitation” of SIMFER (Italian Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation).
He has been Councillor and Secretary of AISD (Italian Association for the Study of Pain) as well as Councillor of EFIC (European Chapters of IASP)

University Positions
He lectured at University Schools of Specialization in Pavia, Padua, Florence and Siena.

Past Professional Positions
From 2015 to 2018 Scientific Director at Habilita Care & Research Rehabilitation Hospitals, Bergamo, Italy.
From 1992 to 2015 he was Director of the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology & Pain Rehabilitation Unit.
Since 2001 to 2015 Director of the Dept. of Neuromotor Rehabilitation. Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, Scientific Institute of Montescano, PV, Italy.  In charge of the Alzheimer Unit from 1999 to 2015

Scientific Interests 
Rehabilitation medicine (chronic pain and associated motor disability, central and peripheral nervous system lesions, Localized muscle fatigue, robot-assisted rehabilitation).
Pain medicine (Physiopathology of pain and pain therapy, myofascial pain with regards to fibromyalgia, Neuropathic pain, CRPS,)

Last 10 Indexed Publications 
Fundarò C, Maestri R, Ferriero G, Chimento P, Taveggia G, Casale R Self-selected speed gait training in Parkinson’s disease: robot-assisted gait training with virtual reality versus gait training on the ground. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2018 Oct 29. doi: 10.23736/S1973-9087.18.05368-6.

Zucchella C, Consilvio M, Iacoviello L, Intiso D, Tamburin S, Casale R, Bartolo M. Rehabilitation in oldest-old stroke patients: a comparison within over 65 population. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2018 Aug 29.

Traversoni S, Jutai J, Fundarò C, Salvini S, Casale R, Giardini A Linking the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. Qual Life Res. 2018 Dec;27(12):3217-3227.

Casale R, Chimento PL, Bartolo M, Taveggia G Exercise and movement in musculoskeletal pain: a double-edged problem. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2018 Sep;12(3):388-392.

Casale R. Myofascial pain: so common, and yet not understood.
Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2018 Sep;12(3):372.

Casale R, Symeonidou Z, Michail X. Bone and joint pain. Is there a neuropathic component? Implications for rehabilitation. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2018 Jun 14.

Fundarò C, Giardini A, Maestri R, Traversoni S, Bartolo M, Casale R.
Motor and psychosocial impact of robot-assisted gait training in a real-world rehabilitation setting: A pilot study. PLoS One. 2018 Feb 14;13(2):e0191894
Pallis, Dimitrios; Georgiou, Dimitrios Florin; Rizou, Stavroula; Symeonidou, Zaira; Puttini, Piercarlo Sarzi; Troupis, Theodoros; Casale, Roberto Bilateral transient osteoporosis of the hip. A case report and review of the literature. Clinical Cases in Mineral & Bone Metabolism . Jan-Apr2018, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p128-131.

Boccardi V, Conestabile Della Staffa M, Baroni M, Ercolani S, Croce MF, Ruggiero C, Mecocci P; ReGAL study group .Prevalence and Correlates of Behavioral Disorders in Old Age Subjects with Cognitive Impairment: Results from the ReGAl Project.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2017;60(4):1275-1283.

Benedetti MG, Boccia G, Cavazzuti L, Magnani E, Mariani E, Rainoldi A, Casale R. Localized muscle vibration reverses quadriceps muscle hypotrophy and improves physical function: a clinical and electrophysiological study. Int J Rehabil Res. 2017 Dec;40(4):339-346.

Talotta R, Bazzichi L, Di Franco M, Casale R, Batticciotto A, Gerardi MC, Sarzi-Puttini P. One year in review 2017: fibromyalgia. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2017 May-Jun;35 Suppl 105(3):6-12.

Daniel Clauw, M.D is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. He attended undergrad and medical school at Michigan, and then did his internal medicine residency and rheumatology fellowships at Georgetown University, where he eventually held roles including Chief of Rheumatology and Vice Chair of Medicine. While at Georgetown he assembled an interdisciplinary team who began to study the central nervous system contributions to a number of chronic pain disorders, including fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis, low back pain, and Gulf War Illnesses. This group of investigators, the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center (CPFRC), moved to the University of Michigan in 2002. In addition to bringing this group to the University of Michigan, Dr. Clauw was also asked to lead the meager existing clinical research infrastructure serving UM at that time. With strong support from UM leadership he helped grow clinical and translational research infrastructure dramatically, becoming the first Assistant and then Associate Dean for Clinical Research, and the first PI of the University of Michigan Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (UM CTSA) and founding director of the unit at Michigan that supports translational research – the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR). Although he stepped down from these institutional leadership roles in 2009, he remains very active in institutional and departmental translational research training programs, and is a very active and recognized mentor of clinical and translational researchers. Many of these mentees, and many other collaborators from Michigan and beyond, have continued to perform both the mechanistic studies and clinical trials of the Center, which are aimed at helping better understand how to best diagnose and treat chronic pain. The group has used nearly identical methods ranging from patient reported outcomes to functional and chemical neuroimaging, to identify the critical phenotypic features of individuals whose central nervous system is amplifying or magnifying their pain, and as such has been critical in helping elucidate the importance of the central nervous system in all chronic pain conditions. The group is increasingly showing the importance of some of these factors when considering responsiveness of chronic pain patients to commonly used therapies such as surgery and opioids.

Born in 1984, specialist in Rheumatology since 2015. Lecturer in Rheumatology since July 2016. Research and assistance activities are carried out at the Rheumatological Clinic, Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences of the Polytechnic University of Marche, “Carlo Urbani” Hospital, Jesi (Ancona), Italy.
The research activity is mainly aimed at patient-reported outcomes in chronic arthritis and fibromyalgia, and at imaging techniques in diseases of rheumatological interest.
Author of more than 40 papers in extenso reviewed in PubMed, of book chapters, and main author of a book dedicated to ultrasound-guided injections.

Professor Ori Elkayam is Head of the department of Rheumatology, at the Tel Aviv Medical Center. Professor Elkayam has completed her studies of Medicine at the Tel Aviv University and her training in rheumatology at the Tel Aviv Medical Center.

She was the President of the Israeli Society of Rheumatology from 2011 to 2017 and has published more than 160 publications in leading journals of rheumatology.

Her main clinical fields of interest are vaccination in rheumatic diseases, spondyloarthritis and interventional rheumatology.

Prof. Elkayam is a leading researcher on the effect of vaccinations in autoimmune diseases, being the chair of the EULAR task aimed at formulating the EULAR recommendations for vaccination in auto-immune inflammatory diseases. She is the main author of the Israeli Guidelines for screening of latent tuberculosis before the use of TNF alpha blockers and is one of the architect of the Israeli Registry of rheumatic patients treated with biologics.

Dr. David Finn is Professor and Head of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Principal Investigator, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the National University of Ireland Galway.  Professor Finn graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology from NUI Galway in 1997 and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Bristol in 2001.  From 2001 to 2004, Professor Finn worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience, University of Nottingham. Professor Finn is currently President-Elect of International Cannabinoid Research Society, Past-President of the Irish Pain Society, and he sits on the sits on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), the European Pain Federation (EFIC) Council, and on the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and EFIC Presidential Task Forces for Cannabis, Cannabinoids and Chronic Pain.  The overall aim of Professor Finn’s research is to increase our understanding of the neurobiology of pain, affective disorders (including anxiety and depression), and their co-morbidity.  His work focuses, in particular, on the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain, stress-pain interactions, and neuroinflammatory processes, with an emphasis on the endogenous cannabinoid, opioid and monoaminergic systems.  Professor Finn is a former recipient of the President of Ireland Young Researcher Award from Science Foundation Ireland, the Wyeth Award for outstanding research in Preclinical Psychopharmacology from the British Association for Psychopharmacology and the Pain Research Medal from the Irish Pain Society.  He is a member of the Editorial Boards of 5 international scientific journals (Pain, Journal of Psychopharmacology,  Scandinavian Journal of Pain, Brain Research and Frontiers in Neuropharmacology).  He has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters and frequently lectures at international conferences. 

Mary-Ann Fitzcharles has worked as a clinician, teacher and clinical researcher at McGill University, Montreal Canada since 1982. She completed her medical training at University of Cape Town, South Africa, and further specialized as a rheumatologist at the London Hospital, Whitechapel, England. Her career interest has been focused towards the clinical context of pain in the rheumatic diseases, beginning with early work in fibromyalgia syndrome. She has served as the Co-Chair of the American College of Rheumatology Pain and Fibromyalgia abstract committee; is a member of American College of Rheumatology committee for updated criteria for fibromyalgia; founder member of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada specialty committee for Pain Medicine; member of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada examination committee for Pain Medicine and chair of the Canadian Rheumatology Association Therapeutics committee. She is the lead for the 2012 Canadian guidelines for the management of fibromyalgia. Recent work has been focused towards pain management in the rheumatic diseases with publications addressing use of opioids and cannabinoids in rheumatology patients.

Full Professor of Medicine, Humanitas University. Director of Internal Medicine and Syncope Unit, Humanitas Research Hospital (Rozzano, Milan). Director of the post-graduate School of Emergency Medicine, Humanitas University. President of the School of Physiotherapy, Humanitas University.

He took part in animal studies aimed at evaluating the cardiovascular sympathetic excitatory reflexes regulating arterial pressure. He was principal investigator of clinical studies aimed at assessing the neural autonomic control in physiological and pathophysiological conditions such as the head-up position, athletic training, shift-work, syncope, ulcerative colitis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease. More recently he focused on syncope short- and long-term prognosis.

He spent 18 months at the Clinical Research Center (Vanderbilt University) studying the pathophysiology of Chronic Orthostatic Intolerance (now named POTS). He is in charge of the Humanitas-IBM join project for building up a Cognitive Tutor for teaching purposes.

He authored about 140 peer reviewed papers and several chapters in books dealing with human cardiovascular neural control and syncope. Total citations: 9462. Total H-index: 42 (Scopus, May 2019)

Presently he acts as reviewer for: Am J Physiol, Circulation, JACC, Hypertension, J Hypertens, Europ Heart J, J Appl. Physiol., Clin Autonom Research.

He is in charge of the courses of Patient Management and Emergency at Humanitas University.

Dr. Valeria Giorgi is a clinical researcher and data manager at Rheumatology Unit, ASST-FBF L. Sacco University Hospital, Milan, Italy. She graduated at Humanitas University (Milan, Italy) Magno cum Laude and with a special academic mention, presenting a thesis investigating the potential therapeutic role of cannabis in fibromyalgia syndrome. She is also a pianist, graduated at the Conservatory of Milan in 2017. She is currently carrying out her research activity at L. Sacco Hospital covering various rheumatological diseases, such as the arthritides, but her main research focus remains fibromyalgia.

Doctoral Thesis in Clinical Psychology, in 2013, at the University of Lisbon, with the theme of Fibromyalgia: Personality and life history.

Assistant Professor since 2013 at the School of Psychology and Life Sciences of University Lusophone of Humanities and Technologies (Lisbon, Portugal)

Responsible and lecturer in curricular units of the Psychology course and the Master in Clinical and Health Psychology

Member of the Research Center of U.L.H.T., with research work and publications in the field of Fibromyalgia and chronic pain personality and psychopathology.

ORCID number: 0000-0001-5142-256X

Saar has been the manager of Gaga in the USA since 2012 and was appointed Artistic Director of Gaga in 2018.
He has been teaching Gaga around the world for many years and has been a part of the development of the use of Gaga as a rehabilitation method.