Dr. Sc. Osman Kučuk

Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently in the position of Director of the Centre for Dementia in Sarajevo and President of the Alzheimer Association AiR-Alzheimer BiH.

He holds a PhD and is a dementia expert from the aspect of psychology and care, with 14 years of experience. The creator and leader of the team that founded the Centre for Dementia as a unique institution in SE Europe. An expert from practice whose “Dementia Rehabilitation Program,” based on a non-pharmacological and multiprofessional approach, is implemented in the Centre with outstanding results in terms of improving the condition of persons affected by dementia.

He wrote several scientific works, publications, and two textbooks: “Dementia – How to Proceed” and “Dementia from the Point of View of Primary Health Care.” At the beginning of April 2020, he wrote “Dementia in the Pandemic of COVID-19,” which was accepted as official guidelines in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Alzheimer Disease International published this work on their website as the third global work. Author of the scientific-research work “Dementia as an Epidemic of BH Society,” which defines the number of people affected by dementia.

He is a co-author of the transnational guidelines “Interprofessional Management of Dementia,” which are used in the implementation of the Dementia Master Classes held in the Western Balkan region, funded by DAAD. He was also a co-author in the development of materials for an online multidisciplinary learning platform within the INDEED project, providing education in six languages (German, English, Slovenian, Slovak, Romanian, and Bulgarian). Team leader of several scientific research projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was an advisor in the development of the “Towards a Dementia-Inclusive Society” WHO toolkit for dementia-friendly initiatives.

Educator and trainer on the topic of non-pharmacological approaches in dementia therapy, which he implements through the programs of the Centre for Dementia, the Dementia Master Class within iCoDem (International Congress on Dementia), and internal education in nursing homes.

He was President of the Working Group for the development of the Strategy for improving conditions in the field of dementia in Canton Sarajevo for the period 2024–2030, adopted on 30 December 2024 by the Cantonal Government. It is the first strategy in SE Europe.

He conducted over 12,000 examinations of people with symptoms of dementia or diagnosed dementia.

He is the designer of the BH dementia-friendly society, which gathers important public and private health and social care institutions, as well as other legal entities. The network also has more than 3,000 dementia friends.

Participant in many global, regional, and domestic conferences on the topic of dementia, and in several of them he was part of the organizational or scientific committees. He leads the organization of iCoDem, an international congress on dementia, which takes place every two years in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the leading event on dementia in this part of Europe.