Almir Badnjevic | Director
Agency for Identification documents, Registers and Data exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Almir Badnjević was born in 1986 in Bosanska Krupa, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Zagreb (FER), University of Zagreb in 2015. Since 2008, he has been working in two spheres, business and academia. In the period from 2010 to 2014, he worked in the industry of medical devices, metrology, standards, and big data processing.   He is one of the founders of the idea of ​​including medical devices with measuring functions in the legal metrology framework and the establishment of measurement traceability in medical measurements globally. On that idea, in 2014, he established one of the most equipped laboratories for testing and verification of medical devices in Europe, the Verlab laboratory. The main task of Verlab is to perform annual verification of the safety and performance of medical devices in all healthcare institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the ISO 17020 standard. Based on the experience gained in this field, as one of the editors he wrote a book “Inspection of Medical Devices – for regulatory purposes” which was published by Springer Nature. In the past, he was an advisor in more than 20 Ministries of Health worldwide in the field of medical devices. In 2022, Verlab company established the first private Research Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina, named Verlab Research Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Medical Devices and Artificial Intelligence. In less than one year, this Institute established collaborations with institutions such as CERN, Fraunhofer, and Helmholtz and participated in a few international projects in the field of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and medical devices. Verlab Institute is a candidate to become a global Collaborative Center of WHO. In 2023, by the Council of Ministers’ decision, he was appointed as director of the Agency for identification documents, registers, and data exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mandate 2023 – 2028. In his academic career, since 2015, he has been working as head of the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, International Burch University. He established the first Master’s and PhD programs in Bioengineering in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the International Burch University, today he holds a Full Professor position in the field of Bioengineering, while at the University of Sarajevo, he holds an Associate Professor position in the field of Healthcare Informatics. Since 2015 he has been working as an expert in practice at the University of Warwick (UK) too. He is the author or co-author of over 150 chapters of books, books, journal articles, and international conference articles. He is included in the Top 2% of world scientists by Elsevier and Stanford University list. In 2022, he became a regular member of the International Academy of Sciences and Arts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (IANUBIH) and an Ordinary member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, while in 2023 he became a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. In 2022, he was named as Editor in Chief of the Technology and Health Care Journal published by IOS Press and Associate Editor of Springer’s Health and Technology Journal and Springer Nature BioMedical Engineering OnLine Journal. Besides the academic and business sectors, he gained professional experience through nongovernment organizations. In 2014, as one of the founders and elected president, he established the Bosnia and Herzegovina Medical and Biological Engineering Society, which is the country representative in IFMBE and EAMBES. In 2021, this Society established LabHub which became the EU DIH (European Digital Innovation Hub). Since 2015, this Society, for the first time in the history of the country began organizing the International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering (CMBEBIH), which brings together an average of over 700 participants from about 40 countries every two years. In 2016 he was appointed as a Board member of the IEEE Technical Committee for Cardiopulmonary Systems, and in 2020 he was appointed as a Steering committee member of IEEE Standards. He has a mandate (2018 – 2024) to serve as Board Member of the Clinical Engineering Division of the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) and a mandate (2018 – 2022) to serve as Advisor for Regulatory Affairs and Treasurer of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES). He served as IEEE standard coordinator for Region 8 (Europe, Middle East, Africa) in the period from 2019 – 2020. Additionally, he was appointed as a Supervisory Board member at Privredna Banka Sarajevo dd Sarajevo in the mandate 2019 – 2027. In 2021, he was appointed as IEEE EMBS Distinguished lecturer. He holds senior status at the IEEE organization. In 2016 his CV was recognized and included in the Marquis Who’s Who in the World. In 2018 his team was awarded IFMBE the best paper award in the field of clinical engineering, while in 2021 Verlab received the IFMBE team award at the global level in the field of clinical engineering. In 2018 he was named “Person of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina” by SNL magazine, in 2020 he was named “IN Men of 2020” by Ladies In magazine, while he was named “CD Person of 2020” by National Face TV. He is married and father of two children.