"2nd Meeting of the International Alliance on Brain Health"

Coordinated by Prof. Facundo Manes (INECO Foundation, Argentina) and Prof. Claudio L. Bassetti (Swiss Brain Health Foundation)

Brain health is the foundation of human potential. It shapes how we learn, decide, relate, and adapt across the lifespan. It emerges from the continuous interaction between biology, environment, and social experience, and in turn influences how individuals and societies function and evolve. In a century marked by demographic transition, inequality, and technological transformation, brain health is not limited to the treatment of disorders. It influences how societies educate, work, innovate, and care for aging populations. Protecting it is therefore both a medical and societal responsibility. The 2nd Meeting of the International Alliance on Brain Health brings together leaders in neuroscience, psychiatry, public health, economics, and governance to advance coordinated and implementable strategies for the decade ahead.

From Fragmentation to Alignment

The Alliance was created in response to a structural fragmentation that limits progress. Brain health remains divided across disciplines, sectors, institutions, and stakeholders. Research, clinical care, prevention, financing, and governance often advance separately, while individuals experience heath and disease as interconnected realities. Buenos Aires 2026 is designed to move beyond that fragmentation. The goal is not only exchange, but alignment: clarifying shared priorities, identifying structural gaps, and defining actionable frameworks that translate knowledge into coordinated impact.

Program Focus

Dementia, Cognition and Brain Aging
Population aging is redefining social, economic, and health system dynamics worldwide. Dementia and neurodegenerative conditions are central to this transformation, not only as clinical diagnoses but as drivers of long-term social and economic change.
This axis addresses prevention, vascular and lifespan brain health, early detection, and system-level responses capable of adapting health and social care structures to demographic transition.

One Brain, One Health
Brain disorders do not respect disciplinary boundaries, yet institutions often do. Persistent separation between neurology, psychiatry, and related fields weakens both care and policy. This axis advances a unified framework that connects clinical disciplines, public health strategies, and governance models. The emphasis is on coherence: aligning research, care systems, and policy design to strengthen population-level brain health.

Latin America as a Strategic Actor

Hosting the meeting in Buenos Aires signals more than geographic rotation. It reflects a deliberate commitment from a region that, despite economic and structural constraints, recognizes brain health as a long-term development priority. Latin America faces demographic change, social inequities, and uneven access to care, creating both urgency and opportunities for innovation in prevention and integrated public health. Buenos Aires 2026 positions the region not as a peripheral voice, but as an active contributor to shaping global brain health strategy.

Participating Institutions

This meeting reflects interdisciplinary collaboration across neurology, psychiatry, dementia research, cardiovascular health, and global public health:

• World Psychiatric Association
• World Federation of Neurology
• American Academy of Neurology
• European Academy of Neurology
• European Brain Council
• European Psychiatric Association
• Alzheimer’s Association
• American Heart Association
• Global Brain Health Institute
• Global Council on Brain Health

By invitation only (for more information, write to asistentefundacion@ineco.org.ar)

Speakers

Natalia Rost

President, American Academy of Neurology

Steven Lewis

President, World Federation of Neurology (WFN)

Danuta Wasserman

President, World Psychiatric Association (WPA)

Devora Kestel

Director, Mental Health and Substance Use, World Health Organization (WHO)

Joanne Pike

President & CEO, Alzheimer’s Association; Chair, World Dementia Council

Juan Rodríguez

Global Council on Brain Health, AARP

Victor Valcour

Director, Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), UCSF

Christopher Chen

President, Asian Society Against Dementia

Alfred Njamnshi

Chair, African Academy of Neurology. Founder & Executive Director, Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN); Chief of Neurology, Yaoundé Central Hospital

Mara Dierssen

President, Spanish Brain Council; President, Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science

Suvarna Alladi

Professor of Neurology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore

Claudia Braga

President (2025–2027) of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Brain Health. Board member of the World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Kailash Bhatia

President-Elect European Academy of Neurology (EAN)

Marcelo Cetkovich

Vice president of the Argentine Association of Psychiatrists (AAP), Medical Director and Head of INECO´s Psychiatry Department

Nilton Custodio

Director of the Peruvian Institute of Neurosciences

Pratima Murthy

Director and Senior Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, India

Oscar Franco

Director Department of Global Public Health & Bioethics at University Medical Center Utrecht

Caroline Lustenberger

Head of Sleep Lab, ETH Zurich, Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST)

Andrea Slachevsky

Center for Memory and Neuropsychiatry (CMYN), Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile; Geroscience Center for Brain Health and Metabolism (GERO)

Alexandre N. Datta

Chief and Head of Department of Pediatric Neurology, Developmental Medicine and Neurorehabilitation of Northwestern Switzerland

Roongroj Bhidayasiri

Director of the Chulalongkorn Centre of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease & Related Disorders, Bangkok

Kristina Adorjan

Director and Full Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (UPD), University of Bern

Andrea Fiorillo

President, European Psychiatric Association

Jacobo Mintzer

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).

Indrit Bègue

Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. University of Geneva

Mitchell Elkind

Chief Science Officer, Brain Health and Stroke, American Heart Association

Oscar Gershanik

Scientific Director & Head, Movement Disorder Unit, Institute of Neuroscience, Fundación Favaloro; Director, Laboratory of Experimental Parkinsonism, Institute of Pharmacological Research (CONICET & University of Buenos Aires)

Diego Golombek

Researcher at CONICET; Professor at the University of San Andrés; Director, Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Time (LITERA)

Diego Aguilar

Regional Director for the Americas of Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI)

Nagaendran Kandiah

Director, Dementia Research Centre (Singapore) and Associate Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Konrad Rejdak

President Polish Neurological Society. Head of the Department and Clinic of Neurology, Medical University of Lublin

Hernando Santamaría-García

Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI)

Daniel Zutter

Chief Physician & Medical Director at Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, and Chief Medical Officer at VITREA Switzerland

Paul Boon

European Academy of Neurology (EAN); Senior Full Prof. of Neurology and Director of Neuroscience at Ghent University

Roongroj Bhidayasiri

Director of the Chulalongkorn Centre of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease & Related Disorders, Bangkok

Rajinder K Dhamija

Prof. of Neurlology and Director of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS)

Stéphanie Debette

Head of the Neurocampus Clinical Epidemiology Team, University of Bordeaux and Director of Research, Inserm Unit 1219 – Bordeaux Population Health Research Center

Augustín Ibañez

Director, Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

Soraya Seedat

Prof. of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University

Andrea Winkler

Co-Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the Technical University of Munich

Coordinators

Facundo Manes

MD, PhD. Brain Health Institute, INECO Foundation. Institute of Neurosciences, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Claudio Bassetti

Lancet Commission on Brain Health, Swiss Brain Health Foundation

Program

(In-person accreditation will take place from 1 PM to 2 PM)
Day 1

Cognition, dementia and brain aging

09hs

Opening

Facundo Manes

Devora Kestel Claudio Bassetti

09.30hs

Promoting Brain Health in Ageing Populations: Public Health Approaches

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Christopher Chen, Suvarna Alladi, Joanne Pike.

Strategies for Preventing Cognitive Decline in Ageing

Jacobo Mintzer

Populations-based Strategies for Dementia Prevention

Nagaendran Kandiah

10hs

Preventing Neurodegeneration Through Vascular Brain Health

Natalia Rost

11hs

Special Communication

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Devora Kestel, Steven Lewis Facundo Manes.

• Joanne Pike • Victor Valcour • Juan Rodriguez

Sessions

12hs

Lessons to Take in Brain Health and Neurodegenerative Diseases: National and International Perspectives

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Oscar Gershanik, Oscar Franco, Paul Boon.

Brain Health and Neurodegeneration in Asia: Lessons from Thailand

Roongroj Bhidayasiri

Key Clinical Lessons from Parkinsonism and Neurodegeneration

Kailash Bhatia

Dementia and Brain Health Across Latin America: Regional Lessons

Nilton Custodio

14hs

Neurodegeneration Without Borders: What Local Populations Teach the World

Suvarna Alladi

The Future of Alzheimer’s Disease: Science, Systems Readiness and Social Impact

Christopher Chen

15.30hs

Biological and Psychosocial Factors Shaping Brain Health Across the Lifespan

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Andrea Slachevsky, Alfred Njamnshi, Mara Dierssen.

Social Determinants of Health and Brain Ageing in Latin American Contexts: Implications for Public Policy

Hernando Santamaría-García

Stress, Inequality and the Brain: Cumulative Risk Across the Lifespan

Soraya Seedat

The role of Deistituzionalized Strategies: Lessons from South America

Claudia Braga

Environmental and Genetic Factors: Lessons from Africa

Kristina Adorjan

17hs

A) Neurorehabilitation and Brain Health: Global Perspectives

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Marcelo Cetkovich, Facundo Manes, Oscar Gershanik.

Brain Health and Neurorehabilitation in Switzerland

Daniel Zutter

Brain Health and Neurorehabilitation in Poland

Konrad Rejdak

Neurodegenerative Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Settings: Lessons from India

Rajinder K Dhamija

17hs

B) Sleep, Circadian Rhythms and Brain Health

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Claudio Bassetti, Paul Boon, Kristina Adorjan.

Sleep in the First Years of Life and Brain Health

Alexandre N. Datta

How to Assess Sleep Health

Caroline Lustenberger

Circadian Health and Brain Health

Diego Golombek

Day 2

Brain and mental health

9hs

One Brain, One Health: Integration of Neurological and Psychiatric Approaches in Global and Regional Plans

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Devora Kestel, Steven Lewis, Claudio Bassetti.

The Lancet Commission on Brain Health

Claudio Bassetti

Mental Health Systems within One Brain, One Health, European Psychiatric Association (EPA)

Andrea Fiorillo

European Neurology and Integrated Brain Health Policy, European Academy of Neurology (EAN)

Paul Boon

The Lancet One Health Commission: harnessing our interconnectedness for equitable, sustainable, and healthy socioecological systems

Andrea Winkler

10hs

Overcoming Fragmentation: National and Regional Lessons

Steven Lewis

Psychiatry’s Role in Integrated Brain Health Strategies, World Psychiatric Association (WPA)

Danuta Wasserman

11.30hs

Strategy to Regional Implementation

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Andrea Slachevsky, Christopher Chen, Oscar Franco.

From Global Strategy to Regional Implementation, Regional Director for the Americas of Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI)

Diego Aguilar

The Role of Cardiovascular Leadership in Global Brain Health: The American Heart Association (AHA)

Mitchell Elkind

Vascular Brain Health and Integrated Brain Health Approaches: A European Scientific Perspective

Stéphanie Debette

Populations-based Strategies for Dementia Prevention

Nagaendran Kandiah

12.30hs

Mental Health as a Cornerstone of Brain Health: From Global Policy to Population Impact

Devora Kestel

Marcelo Cetkovich

Mental Health Stigma in the Burnout Society

Marcelo Cetkovich

Parkinson’s Disease a Growing Burden on Public Health: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges

Oscar Gershanik

14.30hs

One Brain, One Health in Practice: Implementation, Impact and Regional Experiences

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Alfred Njamnshi, Suvarna Alladi, Indrit Bègue.

Population Brain Health and Neurodegeneration: Lessons from Colombia and the Netherlands

Oscar Franco

Implementing Integrated Brain and Mental Health Care in African Health Systems

Alfred Njamnshi

Integrating Mental Health into Brain Health Programs: Lessons from India

Pratima Murthy

Translating Brain Science into Integrated Brain Health Action

Mara Dierssen

15.30hs

Special Communication

Sessions

Session co-chairs: Steven Lewis, Devora Kestel, Paul Boon.

Insights from Switzerland on burden and cost of brain disorders: opportunities fro action

Indrit Bègue

One Brain, One Health: Integrating Neurology, Psychiatry and Social Contexts

Augustín Ibañez

Translating Brain Health Research into Policy and Care

Andrea Slachevsky

17hs

Final Roundtable – Strategic Priorities

Sessions

International Alliance on Brain Health: Next Steps and Strategic Priorities. Co-chairs: Facundo Manes, Claudio Bassetti


-Roundtable with: • Kristina Adorjan • Suvarna Alladi • Claudio Bassetti • Indrit Bègue • Paul Boon • Marcelo Cetkovich • Christopher Chen • MaraDierssen • Mitchell Elkid • Devora Kestel • Steven Lewis • Facundo Manes • Alfred Njamnshi

Sponsors

ORGANIZING PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

COLLABORATING PARTNERS

Registration

By INVITATION ONLY (for more information, write to asistentefundacion@ineco.org.ar)