Tomislav is a medical doctor (MD) with a PhD from the University of Zagreb, an MPH from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and an MBA from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. He completed two specialty trainings—one in clinical microbiology and another in sexual medicine—as well as an additional one-year training in clinical trials at Harvard Medical School.

His clinical work earned him three Patients’ Choice Best Doctor awards (2019–2021), strengthening his involvement in advocacy initiatives, particularly in his role as Vice-President of an NGO focused on sexual and reproductive health.

Academically, Tomislav is an Associate Professor at University North in Croatia and a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Since 2017, he has served as a Croatian collaborator for the Global Burden of Disease enterprise. During the 2021/2022 academic year, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the Department of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, contributing to research on the global burden of antimicrobial resistance. This work led to an affiliate position at the same department and university.

Tomislav currently serves as Secretary-General of the Croatian Society for Clinical Microbiology and Acting Chair of the CHOMA Committee of the American Society for Microbiology. He is also a member of the External Affairs Committee of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and a Global Coordinator for Country Representatives of the Health Information for All Network.

He holds several professional fellowships: IFCAP (College of American Pathologists, United States), FRSPH (Royal Society for Public Health, United Kingdom), and FECSM (European Committee of Sexual Medicine, European Union).

In addition, Tomislav is Chief Operating Partner in Croatia for the International HPV Awareness Day Alliance, International Ambassador of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), Education Officer of ESCMID’s Study Group for Mycoplasma and Chlamydia Infections, Communication Committee Lead for IUSTI Europe, and a WHO-certified Infodemic Manager. From 2021 to 2022, he participated in the Interstellar Initiative by the New York Academy of Sciences and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.

Global health challenges are central to his research. He has authored or co-authored studies examining geographical inequalities in drinking water access and oral rehydration therapy (The Lancet Global Health), education disparities (Nature), and equitable and ethical access to scientific conferences (Nature Human Behaviour). He is also engaged in evidence-informed policymaking as a member of the WHO Global Learning Laboratory for Quality Universal Health Coverage (WHO/HIFA Working Group on Learning for Quality Health Services).

As a science journalist and communicator, Tomislav actively addresses misinformation and ethical issues in science, advocating for topics relevant to global health. Since 2014, he has written more than 800 articles for News Medical, a leading open-access medical and life sciences platform. Between 2014 and 2015, he worked as a freelance science journalist for SciDev.Net, covering the Ebola outbreak in 2014, among other topics.

Previously, as Chair of the Young Leaders Circle, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the ASM’s Your Leadership Communication newsletter. He currently acts as Editor-in-Chief of the ESGMAC Quarterly Newsletter and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IUSTI Europe Newsletter within the IUSTI Communication Committee.