Yuka Sumi

Yuka Sumi holds an MD from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, a PhD from Osaka University, Japan, and MPH from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She is a certified specialist of Acute and Critical Care Medicine. She has worked as an associate professor in the Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine and in the Faculty of Gerontology in Juntendo University. In 2016, she joined the Healthcare New Frontier Promotion Headquarters Office in Kanagawa Prefectural Government in Japan as a Global Health Senior Project Leader. 

Since December 2016, she is responsible for WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) approach and involved in the publication of ICOPE guidelines in 2017, and led the development of ICOPE package of tools such as ICOPE handbook and digital app: guidance for person-centred assessment and pathways in primary care in 2019. She is a secretariat of WHO Clinical Consortium on Healthy ageing (CCHA) to contribute to the development of standards and guidelines on the clinical aspects of Healthy Ageing. Under CCHA, she coordinates activities such as ICOPE implementation pilot programme, and published ‘ICOPE implementation pilot programme ready-phase report’ in 2022 to support country implementation. She is responsible for clinical guideline development on chronic low back pain for adults. For COVID-19 response, she has been a focal person on care for older people, contributing to several COVID technical guidance.