Mr. Christensen joined Intersystems in early 2014 to provide executive-level assistance to State-based customers in their efforts both to implement HIE and to develop products and services to drive better care, lower costs, and healthier populations.

Previously, Mr. Christensen spent five years as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer for the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI), where he led the implementation of Intersystems’ HealthShare platform as the statewide HIE for Rhode Island and the creation of the technical, transactional, and corporate operations surrounding it. RIQI is a center of collaborative innovation that advances health and healthcare transformation.
Before becoming involved in healthcare, Mr. Christensen spent eighteen years in Financial Services. He served on senior leadership teams as divisional CIO for businesses at Capital One Financial, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust Company.

Mr. Christensen has both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from Stanford University.

Ian is an experienced strategist and change agent with over 30 years of experience working with Canadian healthcare organizations in a range of fields including health strategy and policy, information management and technology, complex program delivery, and analytics. A number of governments and health agencies have also relied on his skills as a strategy and policy consultant, leveraging his strengths in bridging the gap between business and technology to create new integrated care delivery and chronic disease management models. A strong leader and communicator who understands how to inspire and focus a diverse team of people towards a common set of objectives through perseverance and strong governance, while also encouraging innovation and creativity.

Ian holds a Master’s Degree in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology). Prior to joining TELUS, he served five years in the academic environment doing community health research, followed by 10 years in senior administration in one of Canada’s largest acute care facilities, and five years as the CIO for one of Canada’s largest health regions. Ian also has12 years of experience working in the private sector as a senior healthcare consultant and a National Industry Director for a multinational software firm, gives Ian a unique perspective on how the public and private sectors can better work together to improve value to the Canadian health system.

Judy Murphy is Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Director-Global Business Services at IBM Healthcare. Prior to this she was CNO/Director-Office of Clinical Quality & Safety, and Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington D.C. In both roles she served to advance the vision of using health IT to improve health care, lower costs, and promote consumers’ use of health IT for their own health. She has published and lectured nationally and internationally on these topics. Before working at the ONC, she had more than 25 years of health informatics experience at Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. As VP-EHR Applications, she led their EHR program since 1995 and managed the organization’s achievement of EHR Meaningful Use. She received the 2006 HIMSS Nursing Informatics Leadership Award.

Hitesh Seth, Sector Vice President, CGI Global Health industry. Hitesh holds a leadership position in CGI’s global industry sector council for Healthcare and has sponsored transformative initiatives for multi-stakeholder health provider organizations. Hitesh has also led the transformation of business functions and creation of new industry platforms, including Shared Services, Supply Chain and Diagnostic Imaging. Hitesh has lead the creation of CGI’s Intelligent Health System framework for provider organizations.

Prior to joining CGI, Hitesh was the CIO of Hydro One, where he negotiated one of the largest and most comprehensive outsourcing contracts in Canada. In addition, Hitesh led the implementation of now a leading practice of IT Infrastructure investment leveraging an enterprise risk management framework.

Background

Hitesh Seth has spent half his career with client organizations managing various aspects of a technology organization. As CIO, he was accountable for the enterprise management of Information Technology and Communications for Hydro One’s multiple business units.

Prior to Hydro One, Hitesh was a Senior Manager with Ernst & Young Consulting, focusing on IT Strategy & Outsourcing. He assisted several clients with the development of their IT Strategies and the execution of implementation projects. Hitesh assisted clients with Outsourcing negotiations and was on the Outsourcing transition team for New Horizons Systems Solutions from Ontario Power Generation. Prior to E&Y, Hitesh held various IT leadership positions at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre and EDS.

Hitesh Seth holds an Honours BA degree in Computer Science from York University and a Masters in Business Administration from Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Ontario.

Dr. Anne Snowdon has dedicated much of her career to producing research and advancing innovation that will improve the health and well being of Canadians. As Professor and Academic Chair of the International Centre for Health Innovation at Western University’s Ivey Business School, Dr. Snowdon leads the Centre’s work to drive health system sustainability, economic value and productivity. She is a professor at Western University’s Ivey Business School and Faculty of Health Sciences, and is cross-appointed to the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and the Faculty of Engineering.

Currently, Dr. Snowdon is leading over 15 innovation research initiatives across six Canadian provinces that collaborates with government, health professionals, Canadian families, and private industry. She is the Advisory Board Chair of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Institute for Human Development and Child and Youth Health, and a member of the Ontario Health Innovation Council.

She is currently the Chair of the Institute Advisory Board for the Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health, of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Snowdon has published more than 70 research articles and received over $7 million in research grants. She holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan. She is a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship for her research.

Dr. Ausford practices Family Medicine at the Meadowlark Family Practice Clinic in Edmonton, Alberta and is a Clinical Professor with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta.

He has played an active role in development, design, and roll out of a number of medical informatics initiatives including medical health portals and electronic medical record systems. His involvement has been at regional, provincial, national and international levels in medical applications design, selection, adaptation, integration and interoperability, clinical transformation, change management, physician engagement, clinical decision support and chronic disease management.

Mark Chase has been the Executive Director of Decision Support for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) since July 2008. Mark has been with VCH and its predecessor organizations since 1997, initially as the senior planning leader, then Project Director of Patient Flow Improvement before moving to his current role. His department is responsible for the VCH data warehouse and its associated analytic and reporting user interfaces, which are being significantly expanded and enhanced as a result of major information system projects in both acute and community sectors. Mark has been involved in supporting decision-makers in strategic management, performance measurement, performance improvement and resource allocation in Canadian health care for over 35 years.

Before joining the health region, Mark was Director of Corporate Planning for St. Paul’s Hospital, which followed five years as Executive Director of the BC Council of University Teaching Hospitals and 10 years working across Canada as a health care management consultant with Medicus Canada. Mark received his Bachelor of Science with Honours in Mathematics from Mount Allison University and his Masters of Science in Operations Research from UBC.

Carol is a director in our health information technology practice.  He advises health care CIOs on IT strategy and optimization challenges in the context of broad transformation and during merger and acquisition integration.  He coordinates the monitoring and assessment of health care IT innovations and helps health care providers introduce new technologies to their solution portfolio.  He led large and complex technology implementation and adoption.  His functional knowledge includes:  clinical transformation and integration, practice management, patient administration and accounting, benefits administration, membership and claims management.  Carol has a rich international experience and is a member of Deloitte’s global healthcare program.

Mr. Christensen joined Intersystems in early 2014 to provide executive-level assistance to State-based customers in their efforts both to implement HIE and to develop products and services to drive better care, lower costs, and healthier populations.

Previously, Mr. Christensen spent five years as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer for the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI), where he led the implementation of Intersystems’ HealthShare platform as the statewide HIE for Rhode Island and the creation of the technical, transactional, and corporate operations surrounding it. RIQI is a center of collaborative innovation that advances health and healthcare transformation.
Before becoming involved in healthcare, Mr. Christensen spent eighteen years in Financial Services. He served on senior leadership teams as divisional CIO for businesses at Capital One Financial, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust Company.

Mr. Christensen has both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from Stanford University.

As Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Catherine is responsible for the strategic and operational management of Island Health’s Information Management and Information Technology portfolio.

Catherine has extensive experience in strategic planning, senior IM/IT management, and clinical change management. Catherine is known in the health informatics industry for her passion, drive, knowledge of Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions, and her commitment to capacity building through leadership development.

Since joining Island Health, Catherine and her team have established the foundation for Island Health’s One Patient, One Record EHR solution, with a single, integrated information system implemented across all acute and residential care facilities. With this foundation in place, Island Health is now pursuing the next generation EHR that will be used to realize safety and quality improvements across the continuum of care.

Catherine holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Science from the University of Victoria, and is actively involved in a number of national Health Informatics committees and organizations.

Dr. Eagle served most recently as President and CEO of Alberta Health Services. Prior to formation of AHS, he was President and COO of the Calgary Health Region. He has had a longstanding interest in health informatics, serving as the CIO of Calgary Health Region in the early 2000’s. Dr. Eagle trained as a cardiac anesthesiologist and had a substantial academic career in anesthesiology, serving as Professor and Head at the University of Calgary and Chief Examiner and Chair of the Specialty Committee in Anesthesia at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He retired from the University of Calgary in 2011 but continues to hold adjunct professorships at the Universities of Calgary, Alberta, and Royal Roads. He serves as executive in residence to the Royal Roads Health Leadership Program. His academic interests have been focused on quality and safety and more recently healthcare leadership. He maintains a busy speaking schedule to a variety of professional and public groups

Dr. Diane T. Finegood is an experienced research leader and strategic visionary with an exceptional track record of heading provincial and national leading-edge health research organizations. She served as President & CEO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2012-2016) and inaugural scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (2000-2008). As a bridge-builder and systems thinker, she has successfully facilitated the needs of disparate stakeholders to carve out common ground for effective collaboration and impact. Diane is also an internationally recognized researcher whose work and expertise range from cell biology, physiology, and mathematical modeling to population and public health, health policy and knowledge translation.

Ian is an experienced strategist and change agent with over 30 years of experience working with Canadian healthcare organizations in a range of fields including health strategy and policy, information management and technology, complex program delivery, and analytics. A number of governments and health agencies have also relied on his skills as a strategy and policy consultant, leveraging his strengths in bridging the gap between business and technology to create new integrated care delivery and chronic disease management models. A strong leader and communicator who understands how to inspire and focus a diverse team of people towards a common set of objectives through perseverance and strong governance, while also encouraging innovation and creativity.

Ian holds a Master’s Degree in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology). Prior to joining TELUS, he served five years in the academic environment doing community health research, followed by 10 years in senior administration in one of Canada’s largest acute care facilities, and five years as the CIO for one of Canada’s largest health regions. Ian also has12 years of experience working in the private sector as a senior healthcare consultant and a National Industry Director for a multinational software firm, gives Ian a unique perspective on how the public and private sectors can better work together to improve value to the Canadian health system.

Stefan is a physiotherapist trained in New Zealand and has lived in Canada for over 25 years. He has worked in hospitals in New Zealand and Canada but his work has been primarily in private practice. He owned a physiotherapy practice in Victoria sold it and then worked as a provincial director for a national provider.

Stefan is currently CEO and a founding member of Rebalancemd. Rebalancemd is an integrated musculoskeletal centre of excellence in Victoria. It opened in 2013 and consists orthopaedic surgeons , physiatrists, sports med – internal medicine, and anaesthesia physicians along with physiotherapists , Nursing,and Occupational therapy navigators, splinting and bracing experts. They all work together under one roof in a collaborative seamless model.

Amongst the innovative approaches used within rebalancemd is the FAAST model (First Available most Appropriate Specialist Triage ) model that has helped reduce consultation wait times from 9-24 months down to 4-6 weeks.

Stefan has always had a passion for patient experience and clinical excellence. He passed his post graduate exams in manipulative physiotherapy and taught for many years as an instructor in the Canadian Orthopaedic Division as well as being the VP of the Orthopaedic Division. He has also taught physiotherapists throughout Canada and the USA and New Zealand on clinical integration and the art of a meaningful patient encounter.He was head physiotherapist for Rugby Canada and attended the 2003 Rugby World Cup as head therapist. He has also been a passionate soccer coach.

Stefan lives in Victoria with his wife Peggy and their children Emma Harrison and Sam and their dog Griffen.

Gary Folker is responsible for the strategic planning, ongoing development and growth of Orion Health in Canada. He draws from more than 30 years of experience pioneering healthcare technology in Canada and is ideally positioned to guide business development for the leading eHealth provider. Prior to joining Orion Health in May 2011, Gary was Managing Director for Healthcare with xwave (a Bell Company). In that role, he built and managed partnerships and propelled development of integrated healthcare solutions such as xwaveEMR, a hosted Application Service Provider (ASP) electronic medical record for primary-care physicians in Ontario. Gary has exemplary credentials that include spearheading the implementation of Canada’s first fully-integrated electronic patient chart; introducing into the country high-volume scanning of patient records; and creating the largest healthcare document-capture facility in North America. Gary has held various senior-management and executive positions, including Chief Operating Officer of a major Canadian health-informatics firm. He has directed development of technology solutions and expanded services that resulted in the introduction into Canada of many leading medical technologies. Gary is a CPHIMS-CA certified professional and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Acadia University.

Shanti Gidwani is the National Senior Director of Healthcare at Cisco Canada, responsible for the transformation of how healthcare is delivered across Canada and improving patient outcomes and experiences through technology.

Gidwani joined Cisco in 2012 and has extensive experience in healthcare. Prior to Cisco, she was a healthcare consultant for the World Health Organization (European Region and International) before beginning her own healthcare consulting company in Canada. Throughout her career, Gidwani has worked with a variety of organizations including First Nations communities, post-secondary institutions, regional health authorities, and the provincial government of British Columbia in Canada.

Gidwani began her career as a nurse and has worked in diverse clinical areas including maternal/child, reproductive health, STI management, medical/surgical, and HIV/AIDS. She has also taught new nurses at the University of British Columbia and performed duties as director of clinical services for a British Columbia-wide nonprofit healthcare organization, setting clinical and operational policy for more than 50 clinics.

Gidwani holds honours bachelor of science degrees in human biology and zoology from the University of Toronto, a bachelor of science in nursing from Thompson Rivers University, and master of health administration and master of science in nursing degrees from the University of British Columbia. She also has Certified Health Executive status with the Canadian College of Health Leaders and holds a nursing license with the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia.

Malcolm (Mal) Griffin was appointed to the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Corporate Director, Service Innovation at the Interior Health Authority in December 2012. Previously, Mal was the Regional Director Laboratory Services and CIO (April 2010) and Acting Vice President, Clinical Services and CIO (April 2011 through March 2012). Mal was first appointed CIO at Interior Health in September 2005 and has held management roles in the areas of diagnostic imaging, laboratory, pharmacy, biomedical engineering, information technology, information management, systems development, and application implementation and support.

Mal completed his MBA studies at the University of Fredericton in August 2014, holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University and has more than 24 years’ experience in the health care industry. In 2009, Mal was named one of Computer World’s Premier 100 IT Leaders.

Dr. Halpenny received his B.Sc.(PE) from the University of Guelph and then played hockey in Vienna, Austria and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Halpenny then received his MD from the University of Saskatchewan and completed his Family Practice Residency in 1982 at the University of British Columbia.

After spending numerous clinical rotations in Kelowna, he purchased a practice in Vancouver and had privileges at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital, and Shaughnessy Hospital. As the Vice President of Medicine at St. Vincent’s, Dr. Halpenny participated in the merger of St. Vincent’s and Mount St. Joseph Hospital. He then completed his Master’s Degree in Health Administration at the University of Colorado in Denver and spent six years in Grand Junction, Colorado as the Vice President of Medicine at St. Mary’s Hospital. He returned to BC in 2002 as the Vice President of Medicine for Fraser Health and then accepted the position of Provincial Executive Director Cardiac Services at the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA).

Dr. Halpenny joined Interior Health in January 2007 as the Senior Medical Director and was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer in January, 2010. Interior Health encompasses 215,000 sq km, 749,000 residents, 19,203 employees, 1504 physicians, 22 Hospitals, 6,568 residential care beds and 54 First Nation Communities, with a budget of $1.9 Billion.

Dr. Halpenny presently sits on the BC Medical Services Commission, the Board of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, the Management Board of Health Shared Services of BC and the Board of Health Employers Association of B.C.

Dr. Halpenny remains active playing hockey, golf and skiing.

Dr. Kendall Ho, Director of Digital Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine, practices clinically at the Vancouver General Hospital.

Dr. Ho’s research area is in eHealth – the innovative application and evaluation of modern information and communication technologies in health research, education, and health practice. Examples of his research initiatives include the use of biosensors, social media and text messaging and the development of the next generation of wearable sensors.

He conducts benefits evaluation of various aspects of eHealth in partnership with health policy makers, and engages the general public and health professionals in eHealth uptake and adoption. He chairs the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada CanMEDS 2015 Expert Working Group, is a member of the College’s ePortfolio Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada eHealth Education Committee. He is a past Board member of COACH – Canada’s Health Informatics Association. He leads the development and implementation of the eHealth-informatics curriculum in UBC Medical School. He chairs the annual eHealth Innovations and Technology Showcase (eHITS) conference in B.C. to engage health professionals in eHealth adoption. He is a collaborator with the World Health Organization Global eHealth Observatory and the Pan American Health Organization Department of Knowledge Management.

Reg has 15 years’ experience in the biotechnology and high technology sectors and has worked with large publically traded firms, start-ups, and the investment banking industry. His prior experience includes serving as an equity research analyst with Boston-based Leerink Swann & Co., where he covered the life science tools sector. He also spent four years at US-based Invitrogen Corp (now Thermo Fisher) in a variety of roles including licensing, product development, acquisitions and integration. Reg has also served in a variety of C-level and board positions with local medical technology-based start-ups.

Reg currently serves on the Board of BioTalent Canada and is a mentor for the AllerGen NCE commercialization program. He also sits on BioAlberta’s policy committee and serves on the board of the Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton (SAGE).

As Vice President – Business Development, Americas, Daniela brings over 15 years experience working in senior leadership roles in the clinical, operational and business development fields of the health care system. Since joining Strata Health in 2007, Daniela has leveraged her extensive sales experience and knowledge of the health care system to drive business development activities and forging strong relationships across North America. Daniela is known for her finesse at understanding customer’s clinical and business needs and managing complex business opportunities.

Prior to joining Strata Health, Daniela held senior management roles with health care organizations including the Victorian Order of Nurses, the College of Dietitians of Ontario and has also worked for the York Region CCAC.Daniela holds a Bachelor of Science (BioPsychology) from McMaster University and a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition) from Western University. She is in the process of completing Advanced Leadership certification from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Low is a Manager, Reimbursement and Medical Affairs with Servier Canada, Clinical Associate Professor with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).
In his role with Servier, he participates in the development of new drug submissions to Canadian and Provincial Authorities for the approval and coverage of medications for people in Canada and BC. Fostering support of government and other stakeholders is important to ensure good access to appropriate evidence-based medicines and care delivery that improve health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic as well as helped to develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is also the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Management course for 4th year Student Pharmacists. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist and Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Senior Health Sciences Advisor and Medical Science Liaison in the research-based pharmaceutical companies (P&G Pharmaceuticals and Servier) and Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), the coauthor of the recently released “The Osteoporosis Book, 3rd Edition: Bone Health” and has authored numerous publications and articles in scientific and health journals and newsletters. Alan led the design, development, implementation and management of the Pharmacy Practice Model’s Initiative (PPMI) in Alberta as well as the design and implementation of the BC Medication Management Project (BCMMP), which are province-wide pharmacy demonstration projects funded by Provincial Ministries of Health.

Alan has been an active member and sat on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. He has been an invited speaker at local, national and international conferences presenting on a variety of healthcare and practice-based topics as well as research posters at conferences in North America.

Tara is Avaya’s Practice Leader and Sr. Director for Healthcare. Tara has experience consulting with health systems globally, developing best practices and use cases leveraging communications technologies such as mobile care team coordination tools, video consultation, multimedia contact centre solutions to improve healthcare workflow, patient outcome and provider communications. She gets her energy from working closely with the Healthcare Administrators, Frontline Practitioners and IT Leadership defining requirements, delivering design and working closely with users through to implementation. Ultimately she believes that communications is at the heart of any productive organization, and delivering meaningful communications tools are the key to business and organizational success.

Prior to healthcare consulting, Tara has held a wide variety of leadership roles in communications organizations including Avaya, Nortel and start-up organizations, prior roles include General Manager of Avaya Mobile and Desktop solutions and Product Management Leader for Contact Centre and Business Applications. Tara lives in Ottawa with her family, who continue to be her largest source of inspiration.

Andrew Montgomerie is the director of Financial Services and Health Care Programs at WorkSafeBC.  He has been with WorkSafeBC since 2004, working primarily in Health Care Services where he is responsible for managing the delivery of high-quality health care to injured workers across the province. Before that, Andrew worked in Vancouver as a kinesiologist and focused primarily on occupational rehabilitation and functional assessment. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys playing and watching baseball with his four children, and is working on achieving his CMA designation.

Judy Murphy is Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Director-Global Business Services at IBM Healthcare. Prior to this she was CNO/Director-Office of Clinical Quality & Safety, and Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington D.C. In both roles she served to advance the vision of using health IT to improve health care, lower costs, and promote consumers’ use of health IT for their own health. She has published and lectured nationally and internationally on these topics. Before working at the ONC, she had more than 25 years of health informatics experience at Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. As VP-EHR Applications, she led their EHR program since 1995 and managed the organization’s achievement of EHR Meaningful Use. She received the 2006 HIMSS Nursing Informatics Leadership Award.

Dr. Blair O’Neill is the former Senior Medical Director for the Cardiovascular Health and Stroke Strategic Clinical Network for Alberta Health Services. He recently assumed the position as the Associate Chief Medical Officer Strategic Clinical Networks for Alberta Health Services. He served as President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society from 2010-2012 and is currently its Immediate Past President (2012-2014).

The Strategic Clinical Networks are new AHS entities intended to help ensure a sustainable publicly funded health care system by using evidence to improve value for money. Other functions of the SCN’s are to support population and public health initiatives, to develop best practices and clinical to support clinical pathways for dissemination and implementation, to develop and publish measures and performance across quality dimensions, to assess and reassess technologies and enable evidence development, to prioritize outcomes and interventions for improvement by AHS Zones and across the continuum of care, as well as to work with zones and communities in order to undertake a medium and long term view of needs and service development to drive quality and sustainability.

Dr O’Neill’s role is to engage clinical experts, users, patients and members of the public to design service models and implementation strategies to achieve goals as well as to work with the 5 AHS Zones to implement, evaluate and optimize innovative service delivery models. The SCN proactively develops and uses research to generate new knowledge and apply the knowledge translation skills within the Academic Health Network (AHN) to solve important clinical problems. Innovation is key to improving the health care system and hence is a critical success factor for the networks.

Dr. O’Neill remains actively involved in clinical research in the area of cardiovascular health and prevention, health systems, health services and outcomes research and has been a principle investigator of many trials concerning the management of acute coronary syndromes, hyperlipidemia, endothelial dysfunction, and the use of new devices in interventional cardiology. He is a member of the Executive Steering Committee of “A Novel Approach to Cardiovascular Health by Optimizing Risk Management” (ANCHOR), an innovative approach to screening for patients at moderate to high risk of CV disease and reducing risk scores in primary care settings.

A member of several professional committees, Dr. O’Neill is active in his professional community. He has served as member of the Council of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society from 1996-2001 and President of Canadian Cardiovascular Society (2010-2012), as well as past chairman of its Access to Care Committee. For his work in setting targets and benchmarks for Access to Cardiac Care, Dr O’Neill was awarded the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s 2006 Public Policy Award. He also chairs the Common CV Data Definitions and Quality Indicator Strategic Oversight Committee.

Over the last two years, Penny Rae has been leading the Information Technology department at Alberta Health Services (AHS), as the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Prior to that role, she was the Senior Vice President Capital Management, responsible for the physical infrastructure that supports Alberta’s health care system.

Also a professional engineer, Penny has held senior leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. Penny has extensive experience in strategic planning, operations, auditing, negotiations, consulting, and staff management. Prior to joining AHS, Penny worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 10 years, jointly leading their Operations and Projects – Performance Improvement Group for Alberta. She helped her clients deliver more than $30 billion in projects and improved service delivery and efficiency in their operations and supply-chain functions.

As CIO, Penny oversees the AHS IT department, sets direction and coordinates IT service delivery across the province. She is building a team that will deliver results by aligning IT and business goals with a focus on three strategic themes: strengthening the foundation, optimizing operations and transforming care.

Bob has 30 years of health care experience that spans across a number of program and policy areas in both the public and private health sectors.

Within the public sector, his career started as a paramedic before moving to Manitoba Health where he took on a number of roles with escalating responsibilities to include management of the provincial emergency services, participating in the development of the regional health authorities, facilitating the transition of the Department of Health to the Ministry of Health, working to create the first Manitoba Health “business plan”, concluding as the Senior Policy Advisor to a Manitoba Minister of Health where he managed issues that transcended across all aspects of health care.

Leaving the public sector, Bob moved into the private health sector with an innovative pharmaceutical company and took on a number of portfolios including government affairs & policy, organizational development, performance management and special projects. The last three years within this sector was spent developing and implementing private-public partnerships launching primary care projects with regional health authorities in British Columbia that proved highly successful.

In 2008, Bob launched his own consulting company, Acceleras Consulting Inc and Adroitness Consulting Group in 2015, through which he has been supporting the medical technology industry as MEDEC’s vice-president in Western Canada over the last 6 years. Bob leads MEDEC’s national project looking to define the value of medical technologies within the Canadian health system.

• Chief Technologist for the Canadian Healthcare Industry providing thought leadership and technology guidance to the Canadian Digital Health team. His expertise spans e-Health architecture, analytics, technology strategy, identity and access management, biometrics, immigration and border management.
• Over 25 years of operational and consulting experience in large scale IT systems strategy, design and deployment.
• Previously managed early investments of a national public sector healthcare organization and contributed to the development of knowledge management tools and processes supporting the implementation of a pan-Canadian electronic health record strategy.
• Global lead and advisor of large scale transformational programs with a diverse range of healthcare clients in both the public and private sector
• Responsible for developing the technology division of a major international security company and building markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
• Lead manager for a large scale program to introduce a new currency and identity system to the newly formed country of Ukraine.
• He has patented technology used for secure mobile network access including biometrics and cryptography, uniquely suited to healthcare environments.

Bill Reid, MBA, CMC, CE, is a Senior Director of Public Sector Consulting with MNP. Bill has over 20 years of experience with specialties in results-oriented governance and management, which includes:
• Facilitating planning and engagement processes (e.g., a Strategic Plan for the Canadian Organization of Paramedic Regulators; and, a Health Sector Knowledge of Business Study for the Alberta Office of the Auditor General).
• Identifying and refining performance measures for decision-making as well as accountability purposes (e.g., a Monitoring Framework for the Health Authorities Division of the BC Ministry of Health; Semi-Annual Performance Measure Reports for the BC Community Action Initiative; and an Accountability and Monitoring Framework for the Department of Health and Social Services, Government of the Northwest Territories).
• Preparing program and service evaluation frameworks (e.g., for the BC Internationally Educated Health Professionals Initiative; and, with BC Pharmanet Modernization).
• Leading evaluations that enable an understanding of the rationale, alignment of intentions, design, delivery and administration, and outcomes of programs and services (e.g., Telehomecare for Chronic Heart Failure Patients; Community Access to Medical Imaging; Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction Services; BC Community Action Initiative; and, the Woodstone Eating Disorders Program).
To further demonstrate the depth that Bill brings, he is currently pre-qualified in process review and quality assessment along with strategic planning with the Doctors of BC; strategic planning, organizational development, and evaluation with the BC First Nations Health Authority; and, performance management and evaluation with the BC Ministry of Health. He is the Past President of the BC and Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society and a Credentialed Evaluator (one of 31 such professionals listed in BC and the Yukon, Jan. 2015).

Sheri is a clinician who has worked in the area of clinical informatics for more than 25 years. She started her career as a bedside nurse in post-surgical care and has since continued to advocate for and on behalf of patients through a variety of clinical informatics roles. She was a leader in the planning, implementation and support of the clinical information system project in the four acute care hospitals in Calgary and for the past 6 years has focused her attention in primary care settings and use of technologies in the community. Sheri has been involved in the personal health portal and personal health record project in Alberta, initially with Alberta Health Services and more recently with Alberta Health. Currently Sheri provides clinical leadership to TELUS Health Provider Solutions development and implementation teams and is involved in a variety of initiatives at the strategic level.

Hitesh Seth, Sector Vice President, CGI Global Health industry. Hitesh holds a leadership position in CGI’s global industry sector council for Healthcare and has sponsored transformative initiatives for multi-stakeholder health provider organizations. Hitesh has also led the transformation of business functions and creation of new industry platforms, including Shared Services, Supply Chain and Diagnostic Imaging. Hitesh has lead the creation of CGI’s Intelligent Health System framework for provider organizations.

Prior to joining CGI, Hitesh was the CIO of Hydro One, where he negotiated one of the largest and most comprehensive outsourcing contracts in Canada. In addition, Hitesh led the implementation of now a leading practice of IT Infrastructure investment leveraging an enterprise risk management framework.

Background

Hitesh Seth has spent half his career with client organizations managing various aspects of a technology organization. As CIO, he was accountable for the enterprise management of Information Technology and Communications for Hydro One’s multiple business units.

Prior to Hydro One, Hitesh was a Senior Manager with Ernst & Young Consulting, focusing on IT Strategy & Outsourcing. He assisted several clients with the development of their IT Strategies and the execution of implementation projects. Hitesh assisted clients with Outsourcing negotiations and was on the Outsourcing transition team for New Horizons Systems Solutions from Ontario Power Generation. Prior to E&Y, Hitesh held various IT leadership positions at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre and EDS.

Hitesh Seth holds an Honours BA degree in Computer Science from York University and a Masters in Business Administration from Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Ontario.

Jeremy Smith is a strategist and executive project leader for large change programs in the health care and health information technology sectors. He is currently wrapping up an extremely successful nine year program to enable BC physicians to move from paper to electronic medical records (EMR), as well as achievement of widespread effective use of the EMR to support proactive primary care, quality improvement, and health system interoperability. Prior to returning to BC, Jeremy developed and led the regional Electronic Health Record (EHR) strategy for Calgary Health Region (2001-2005), while concurrently participating in Alberta’s senior eHealth/IM-IT governance body and leading provincial projects on its behalf. Prior to Alberta, he worked across the US and Canada in consulting roles with clients ranging from world-renowned academic teaching hospitals to health insurers and primary care networks.

Jeremy is a regular speaker on topics related to health informatics, and has taught courses in Toronto, Calgary and Victoria on behalf of the University of Victoria. In his spare time he is a competitive sailboat racer leading his team to numerous first place finishes at regional and national championships, and is Past Commodore of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club

Dr. Anne Snowdon has dedicated much of her career to producing research and advancing innovation that will improve the health and well being of Canadians. As Professor and Academic Chair of the International Centre for Health Innovation at Western University’s Ivey Business School, Dr. Snowdon leads the Centre’s work to drive health system sustainability, economic value and productivity. She is a professor at Western University’s Ivey Business School and Faculty of Health Sciences, and is cross-appointed to the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and the Faculty of Engineering.

Currently, Dr. Snowdon is leading over 15 innovation research initiatives across six Canadian provinces that collaborates with government, health professionals, Canadian families, and private industry. She is the Advisory Board Chair of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Institute for Human Development and Child and Youth Health, and a member of the Ontario Health Innovation Council.

She is currently the Chair of the Institute Advisory Board for the Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health, of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Snowdon has published more than 70 research articles and received over $7 million in research grants. She holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan. She is a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship for her research.

Lynn Stevenson was appointed Associate Deputy Minister, Ministry of Health on January 20, 2014. In this role she provides leadership to the Health Services portfolio including Medical Beneficiary and Pharmaceuticals, Health Service Policy, Quality Assurance, Health Sector Planning & Innovation and Population and Public Health divisions.

Prior to this appointment Lynn was the Executive Vice-President, People, Organizational Development and Chief Nurse for Island Health where she provided strategic leadership to a diverse portfolio including human resources, quality, research and patient safety, professional practice, organizational development and occupational health and safety. As the Chief Nurse, she was responsible for providing leadership and professional oversight for over 8,000 nursing and allied health professionals. She has also held senior leadership positions at Fraser Health and BC Cancer Agency.

Lynn has extensive health care experience in operations, quality and safety, human resources and research. She currently is a board member of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI), former co-chair of the British Columbia Academic Health Council, a member of the Royals Roads University Leadership Advisory Board and the University of Victoria Human and Social Development Advisory Committee.

Lynn is a registered nurse by profession, has a PhD with a research focus on organizational change, practice and leadership. She is a Fellow of the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL), a CFHI EXTRA Fellow, Certified corporate director (ICD-D) and holds Adjunct Professor positions in the Schools of Nursing at the Universities of British Columbia and Victoria.

Howard Waldner is the past President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Island Health Authority, serving in this role from 2004 until 2013. He is curently CEO of Caledonia Solutions, a strategic consulting company he founded in 2013.

He is a visionary and innovative leader with over 30 years of experience of managing health sysytems in both Canada and the U.K. He has a keen interest in system innovation, transformation and performance improvement. He is also passionate in the area of health facility planning, design and procurement and has led the development of number of large and successful hospital projects using both traditional and alternate funding approaches. He received the Canadian College of Health Leaders National Award for Innovation in Health in 2013.

He is a certified member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and currently serves as an Independent Board Director of Strata-Health Solutions, a successful Calgary based Health IT company, and is a partner with Prioritize Software, a Vancouver based strategic solutions company. He also serves as a volunteer member of the Telus (Victoria) Community Board and has served on a number of “non-profit” Boards, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the BC Academic Health Council, (which he chaired for 5 years), the United Way Campaign Cabinet, Carewest, VRRI, and the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness.

Prior to joining VIHA in 2004, he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the former Calgary Health Region from 1999 until 2004. Before moving to Calgary in 1999, he held a number of senior leadership roles within the Scottish National Health Service, most recently as the Chief Executive of Dundee University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

He received his Executive MBA from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is a Certified member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and a Fellow of the United Kingdom Institute of Health Care Managers.

He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, and teaches on a number of executive leadership and masters programs in the School of Public and Population Health.

Jim M Wilson, President and Founder of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation ( CanLyme – 2003). He has been involved with Lyme Disease including patient advocacy, public awareness, support, research, education (both public and medical), as well as government consultation since 1995. In 2006, he participated in the organization of the Public Health Agency of Canada funded National Lyme Disease Meeting for provincial and federal medical professionals. CanLyme was given ten percent of the seats and provided expert presenters. Since then, he has been invited to meet with provincial Minister’s of Health, engaged in ongoing senior executive level meetings with the Health Canada officials, testified before federal house and senate committees on Lyme Disease and has testified before provincial health committees.

He continues to give many public presentations to various groups relative to Lyme Disease, including employers with large contingents of outdoor workers who are at increasing risk. Mr. Wilson also sits on the Board of the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector Borne Diseases in Ontario and has been working with scientists on four continents developing a human tissue research program, that will involve using today’s most sophisticated DNA extraction technology and bioinformatics, to study the prevalence of Lyme bacteria in many diseases that share symptomatology with Lyme Disease. This research may also yield better human tests for Lyme and other tick borne diseases. His foundation, CanLyme, has established a Venture Grants research program that is funding Canadian researchers to study various aspects of Lyme Disease.

Dr. Wolff has over 20 years of experience in the health and life science industries as a scientist and analyst working in the U.S. and Europe. Mark joined SAS in 2005 and is a Principal Industry Consultant within in the Health and Life Sciences Global Practice. Mark’s areas of expertise at SAS include the development and application of advanced and predictive analytics in the life sciences and healthcare with a particular interest in patient safety. Current work focuses on methods and application of unstructured data and text analytics in support of safety/outcomes research, development of intelligent, decision support systems for healthcare and data visualization. Prior to joining SAS Mark held a variety of research and leadership positions in academia, government and industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Loyola College in Maryland, a Master of Science degree in Entomology with a minor in Toxicology and a Doctorate in Toxicology from North Carolina State University.