Prof. Dr. Rifat Latifi

Rifat Latifi, MD, FACS (Fellow of American College of Surgeons)

Rifat Latifi, MD, is a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (www.surgery.arizona.edu), and Director of Southern Arizona Telemedicine and Telepresence Program (SATT) at the University Medical Center, Tucson Arizona. He is also the Associate Director of Arizona Telemedicine Program where he leads Telesurgery and International Affairs for this program (www.telemedicine.arizona.edu).

Dr. Latifi is a graduate of Medical Faculty in Prishtina, Kosova. He completed an Internship in General Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio in 1994 and the Residency in General Surgery at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut in 1999. From 1999 until December 2002, he was Director of Education and Distance Learning at Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium (MITAC), a NASA commercial space center in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

He is the author and/or editor of 8 books and more than 100 articles, reviews, and chapters on surgical nutrition and metabolism, laparoscopic surgery, and telemedicine and Telesurgery and serves on many editorial boards. His latest book, “Telemedicine and Telehealth in Developing Countries: From Inception to Implementation,” was published by IOS, Amsterdam, in July of 2004. Currently, he is working on a new book entitled “Principles and Practices of Telemedicine and e-Health,” to be published by IOS Press in Amsterdam.

Dr. Latifi’s principal interests in telemedicine are international collaborations and the development of telemedicine and educational programs, including electronic libraries in underdeveloped countries and rural America.

He has been invited as a key note speaker and has presented at more than 100 national and international scientific meetings around the world and has been featured in the media around the world. In addition, Dr. Latifi is project leader for ER Link Tucson, the first operational EMS telemedicine system in the country.

He spends his time between Tucson, Arizona, Anchorage, Alaska and Prishtina, Kosova where he manages the Telemedicine Program of Kosova (www.telemedks.org).