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.

Dr. Lisa Latts is the Deputy Chief Health Officer for IBM Watson Health. She is working on solutions within Watson Health that move healthcare from volume to value using cognitive technology. She also has a focus on quality measurement and quality improvement, and using cognitive to help Watson Health clients achieve the quadruple aim of better care, lower cost, improved patient experience, and improve clinician experience. Prior to this, she was the Principle of LML Health Solutions, and the Chief Medical Officer for self-insured health plans at the University of California. Dr. Latts also served as an executive with Anthem, Inc. (WellPoint,) where she was instrumental in developing many of their value based payment and delivery system reform initiatives.

Dr. Latts is a national leader in health quality and health policy and is currently chair of the NCQA Standards Committee and former co-chair of the Cost and Resource Use committee for the National Quality Forum. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. She received her MD from the University of Minnesota, an executive MBA from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business and a MSPH from the University of Colorado.

Dan Florizone became President and Chief Executive Officer of Saskatoon Health Region on January 5, 2015. Dan has amassed 30 years of senior healthcare experience and served as Saskatchewan Deputy Health Minister (2008-2013), CEO of the Five Hills Health Region (2003 to 2008), CEO for Moose Jaw-Thunder Creek Health District, the South-East Health District (Estevan and area), CEO Canora-Invermay-Norquay, and CEO of Wilkie Union Hospital. He has also been Chair of Saskatchewan’s Health Quality Council and served on the board of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Mental Health Commission of Canada.

During his career, he led the amalgamation of multiple organizations into a single health district and the reformulation of districts into regions. His work surrounding patient and family centred care established the blueprint for provincial healthcare transformation, including the introduction of the Lean-based Saskatchewan Health Care Management System and the launch of the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative, an aggressive waitlist reduction initiative focusing on quality care and patient safety.

More recently, Dan was Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister of Education, where he also introduced Lean management across education and government, and Deputy Minister Responsible for Lean. He is currently a faculty member with the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

In 2008, Dan received the Institute of Public Administration of Canada-Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Gold Medal Award, and in 2011, the Excellence through Evidence Award from the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI).

Gary is responsible for the strategic planning, ongoing development and growth of Orion Health in North America. He draws from more than 30 years of experience pioneering healthcare technology in Canada.

Prior to joining Orion Health in 2011, Gary was Managing Director for Healthcare with xwave (a Bell Company). While there, he built and managed partnerships. He also drove 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 high-volume scanning of patient records into Canada 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 head of the ITAC Health Board, he is a CPHIMS-CA certified professional and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Acadia University.

Dr. Verna Yiu joined Alberta Health Services (AHS) in August 2012 as Vice President, Quality and Chief Medical Officer. In this role, she oversaw the integration and co-ordination of a health delivery model for the province and was accountable for Quality & Healthcare Improvement, Strategic Clinical Networks, Clinical Informatics and Clinical Information Systems, Medical Affairs, and partnerships with academic institutions and other physician-led organizations.

The principal focus of her initial role within AHS was quality and patient safety, engagement, leadership development and fostering relationships between medical staff and the health care system.

Prior to joining AHS, Dr. Yiu served as interim Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta preceded by senior positions in the dean’s office from 2000.

She is a graduate of the University of Alberta (U of A) and Harvard University, and is currently a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta. She has also led various areas of health administration for more than 18 years, both within the health care delivery system and in academic settings.

Since returning to the U of A in 1994 as a pediatric nephrologist, a clinical role she continues to have today, her leadership roles have spanned heading clinical operations, leading medical education reforms and developing strong partnerships with academic institutions, government bodies and other clinician-led organizations.

Dr. Yiu was appointed interim President and CEO of Alberta Health Services by the AHS Board effective January 11, 2016 and became the permanent President/CEO June 3rd, 2016. Since being appointed in this role, Dr. Yiu has led the organization in the development of a new vision, refreshed values, and a health and business plan focused on the quadruple aim based on 4 foundational strategies (patient first, people, research/innovation/analytics, and IMIT strategies).

Dr. Charlotte Hovet is Medical Director of Healthcare Solutions & Consulting of NTT DATA Services. In this role, she uses her extensive experience in healthcare to help clients be future ready and powerfully contribute to healthcare transformation. Dr. Hovet is a strategic, contemporary physician leader with a passion for medicine delivering precisely what the patient/family needs to achieve well-being and health. She is a board-certified family physician and clinical informatics specialist, with expertise in mentoring and motivating colleagues to embrace innovative and effective solutions to support excellence in patient care. She excels in a complex, fast-paced environment where hands-on leadership, a need for cultural change, and commitment to information-driven patient care are driving forces.

Prior to transitioning into full-time healthcare consulting services in 2006, Dr. Hovet served as the Chief Quality Officer for a mid-west integrated delivery system, successfully integrating the departments of quality management, utilization management, case management and social work into a care management division. She also served as the Medical Director of the network health plan, being directly involved in all corporate strategic affairs and providing oversight for medical management and physician credentialing. Dr. Hovet has a strong record of clinical credibility, having practiced as a family physician for twenty years.

Dr. Hovet received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and completed her Family Practice residency at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. She earned a Masters in Medical Management degree from Tulane University. She is board certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Clinical Informatics.

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.

Dr. Turner Billingsley brings a unique combination of medical and technology expertise as well as thought leadership to the position of Chief Medical officer (CMO). In this role, he will be working with healthcare customers, assisting with ongoing development of healthcare technology offerings, and representing InterSystems in the healthcare IT sector. Before joining InterSystems in 2011, Billingsley led the Physician Executives Group at McKesson Provider Technologies, a division of McKesson Corporation.

Billingsley practiced clinically for nearly 30 years including work as a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force and as an emergency Department (ED) physician at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL., where he held leadership positions in quality assurance and risk management. He also is the co-founder of Xpress Technologies, where he served as CMO and participated in development of an ED documentation system.

He received his MD from University of Mississippi School of Medicine and performed his residency in emergency medicine at University Hospital in Jacksonville, FL.

Dr Kingsford is Chief Medical Information Officer and Executive Medical Director at Interior Health. He is a primary care physician with an Electronic Engineering PhD in artificial intelligence and extensive experience with software engineering, primarily in clinical informatics. His primary interests are in artificial intelligence, machine learning, interoperability, integrated care and workflow coordination.

Provincially, Dr Kingsford sits on the IMIT Standing Committee, Health Informatics Standards Standing Committee, Health Authority Integration Steering Committee, Clinical Oversight Committee, EMR Working Group and the Joint Collaborative Committee IM/IT Clinical Advisory Working Group, and is co-chair of the Information Privacy and Security Standing Committee. He is also a member of Canada Health Infoway’s Digital Health Alliance Steering Committee.

Dr. Lee currently serves as Chief Medical Health Officer and Vice-President, Population Health in the Fraser Health Region of British Columbia. As the Chief Medical Health Officer, her primary mandate is to prevent disease, protect health and promote wellness in populations and communities in the Fraser region. She also provides executive leadership and strategic oversight in the areas of population health, prevention of non-communicable diseases, communicable disease prevention and control, environmental health, licensing of community care facilities, Aboriginal Health, South Asian Health Institute, Mental Health and Substance Use and population health surveillance.

Dr. Lee joined Fraser Health in 2010 as a Medical Health Officer and has served as the Executive Medical Director for Population and Public Health since 2012. Prior to joining Fraser Health, she worked in collaboration with national and international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank in the areas of comparative health systems, health policy, health financing and ecohealth. Dr. Lee also worked as a travel physician in rural communities in Chile and Brazil. Her research activities include health equity, community-based primary health system, public health performance and clinical prevention.

Dr. Lee obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario, her royal college fellowship in Community Medicine from the University of Toronto and postgraduate degrees in Public Health, Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins University.

In her role as Business Development Director with TELUS Health, Kathryn works closely with the healthcare community to transform healthcare delivery leveraging technologies, people and processes. Kathryn has focused on aligning TELUS’ managed service capabilities to support increased patient engagement, primary and community care advancements and greater collaboration across the care continuum.

Peter Smith has over 20 years of Information Technology experience spanning a broad spectrum of industries, technologies, and roles. He is a visionary leader who believes we can radically improve our world using technology, and he inspires those around help him to make that vision a reality.

Currently Peter is the Executive Vice President of Strata Health where he leads a team of talented staff to develop and deliver software that match and connect patients to appropriate health and social services. These software services are in use on three continents and have helped over 1.5 million patients worldwide get the care they need faster, improving the experience for the patients, the clinicians, and health jurisdictions around the world.

Peter is also the President of the Alberta Network for Health Information Exchange (ANHIX) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Turner Billingsley brings a unique combination of medical and technology expertise as well as thought leadership to the position of Chief Medical officer (CMO). In this role, he will be working with healthcare customers, assisting with ongoing development of healthcare technology offerings, and representing InterSystems in the healthcare IT sector. Before joining InterSystems in 2011, Billingsley led the Physician Executives Group at McKesson Provider Technologies, a division of McKesson Corporation.

Billingsley practiced clinically for nearly 30 years including work as a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force and as an emergency Department (ED) physician at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL., where he held leadership positions in quality assurance and risk management. He also is the co-founder of Xpress Technologies, where he served as CMO and participated in development of an ED documentation system.

He received his MD from University of Mississippi School of Medicine and performed his residency in emergency medicine at University Hospital in Jacksonville, FL.

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.

Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D. FRSC, Director, Life Sciences Institute, University of British Columbia; Director, NanoMedicines Research Group; Chair, Personalized Medicine Initiative; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the design and application of “smart” nanomedicines for personalized therapies, including gene therapies.  This work has contributed to three drugs that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of cancer and its complications. Dr. Cullis has co-founded ten biotechnology companies, has published over 300 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He also co-founded the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) in 2004 and the Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2012. The PMI has 10 projects underway to implement molecularly-based personalized medicine into clinical practice in BC. Dr. Cullis has received many awards and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004. He was also awarded the Prix Galien, Canada’s premier prize for achievements in pharmaceutical R&D, in 2011. In 2015 Dr. Cullis published “The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease are About to Change Forever”, see http://www.amazon.com/The-Personalized-Medicine-Revolution-Diagnosing/dp/1771640383.

Dr. Robert Fraser is the President and CEO of Molecular You, a digital health company delivering molecular-level personalized health insights and action plans. Dr. Fraser has been at the forefront of developing the framework and technologies to bring personalized medicine into healthcare practice. He is the co-founder of The Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI), GenXys Health Care Systems, Personalized Biomarkers Incorporated, Mesentech Corporation and Novobind. Dr. Fraser has led drug discovery and development projects at Sanofi, Xenon, Neuromed and CDRD and has been involved in raising of more than $37M in funding. He completed his Ph.D. in the molecular mechanisms of endocrinology at the University of Alberta and Harvard Medical School and Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and IGBMC, Strasbourg France.

In January 2016, Dr. Catalina Lopez-Correa joined Genome BC as Vice President, Sector Development and CSO. With over 18 years of international experience in both the academic and private sectors, Dr. Lopez-Correa brings her deep understanding of genomics to the Genome BC leadership team.

Dr. Lopez-Correa holds an MD from UPB University in Colombia, a Masters in Genetics from Paris VII/Pasteur Institute and a PhD in Medical Biosciences-Genetics from KULeuven in Belgium. Most recently she was the Vice-President and CSO, Scientific Affairs, at Genome Quebec where she was instrumental in developing competitive teams for national and provincial research projects, and raising the profile of Genome Quebec on the global stage.

Previous experience also includes a role as Senior Scientist with Eli Lilly and Company. During Dr. Lopez-Correa’s time at Eli Lilly, she was part of the Pharmacogenomics and Translational Medicine Group in charge of discovering and validating genetic/genomic biomarkers in different therapeutic areas (oncology, cardio-metabolic and neurosciences). She also helped develop the company’s tailored therapeutics and personalized medicine strategy.  Dr. Lopez-Correa also held the position of Head of Cytogenomics laboratory at deCODE genetics where she developed screening strategies to detect genomic rearrangements. She has also worked for two different American biotech companies in the UK (Genomica and Informax).

Since 2002, Dr. Lopez-Correa has served as evaluator for large multinational projects funded by the European Commission, the IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiatives) and the NIH and has been recognized by several awards nationally and internationally. As part of her commitment to international development, Dr. Lopez-Correa funded the not for profit organization ODNS (Organisation pour le Développement avec des Nouvelles Solidarités) in 2012 and has been involved in several initiatives aimed at demonstrating the impact of genomics in developing countries.

Mr. Green has an international reputation and proven track record of transforming healthcare through the use of digital health.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Health Infoway, he works with Infoway’s jurisdictional partners and other key stakeholders to accelerate the development and adoption of digital health in Canada, which will provide clinicians and patients with information they need to support safer care decisions and a more modern and sustainable health care system for all Canadians.

Prior to his role at Infoway, Mr. Green was President and CEO, Americas Region with Agfa Healthcare Inc. In this capacity, he led the transformation of radiology from film to digital in many jurisdictions across Canada and globally, making him an early visionary in the way digital health solutions can help make public health systems more sustainable and improve the patient experience.

Mr. Green has strong leadership and communications skills; he is a strategic thinker with a proven track record of bringing the best international research and innovation to Canada to advance the digital health agenda, create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

Mr. Green has a diploma in Medical Laboratory Sciences from the London Metropolitan University and spent his early career working at King’s College Hospital in the UK. In 2012 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contribution to the Canadian Health IT industry. He is a member of the ITAC (Information Technology of Canada) Health Board of Directors and served as Board Chair from 2009 – 2012.

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.

As the senior vice president of Population Health, John Glaser is focused on driving Cerner’s population health technology and product strategies, interoperability and government policy development.

He impacts clients by devoting his career to advancing health care through innovation and commits to helping clients maximize their investment in health care information technology.

John joined Cerner in 2015 as a part of the Siemens Heath Services acquisition, where he was CEO. Prior to Siemens, John was vice president and CIO at Partners HealthCare; he also previously served as vice president of information systems at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

John was the founding chair of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the past-president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). He has served on numerous boards including; eHealth Initiative, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). He is a fellow of CHIME, HIMSS and the American College of Medical Informatics. He is a former senior advisor to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

John received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He has written over 200 articles and three books on the strategic application of IT in health care, including the most widely used textbook on the topic, “Healthcare Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care.” John is on the faculty of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Medical University of South Carolina, the School of Biomedical Informatics at the Texas Health Science Center and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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.

Jenny Basran, MD FRCPC is an associate professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. She is Royal College certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine and has practiced for over 10 years in both acute care and community care.

Dr. Basran’s research interests include incorporating geriatric principles into care across the continuum, computer modeling of the health care system and the use of technology to help older adults age successfully. She has participated in quality improvement training from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Intermountain. She is the recipient of numerous grants with over a hundred abstracts, publications and presentations to date.

Dr. Basran has been involved in initiatives for seniors at the local, national and international level – including establishing geriatric core competencies for medical schools, developing national guidelines for falls prevention, and determining quality indicators of care for older adults in acute care and transitions of care. She is a core member of the Canadian Agency for Drug and Technologies in Health (CADTH) technology review panel. Dr. Basran serves on the executive of the Canadian Geriatric Society and is currently one of the physician co-leads for Saskatchewan’s initiative to reduce wait times in ER and improve patient flow.

She has received several awards for teaching as well as her work with dementia patients, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. She is the 2015 Saskatchewan Medical Association’s Physician of the Year. Her most unique award however was winning first prize at McGill University’s hackathon – Hacking Health – for developing a caregiver app. Since then, she has participated / facilitated several health related hackathons to accelerate technology innovation in health care.

Mr. Mike Conroy is the President and CEO of the Brenda Strafford Foundation based in Calgary, Alberta. The Brenda Strafford Foundation is a Registered Canadian Charitable Organization that operates four progressive continuing care facilities, supports a variety of research chairs and The Brenda Strafford Centre on Aging at the University of Calgary, the Brenda Strafford Society for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and a wide scope of health service in Dominica, Haiti and Jamaica. As President/CEO, Mr. Conroy is responsible to the Foundation’s Board for strategy development and implementation and the effective and efficient management of all aspects of the Foundation’s operations

Prior to his current position, Mr. Conroy was the Senior Vice President for the Edmonton Zone of Alberta Health Services responsible for the full continuum of health services serving 1.2 million people with a staff of over 20,000 and an operating budget of $2.6 billion. Prior to this appointment, he was the Executive Vice-President for Corporate Services for Alberta Health Services, with responsibility for Cancer Care in the province, the North Zone health service area, Human Resources, Information Technology, Communications, Legal and Privacy, Internal Audit and Enterprise Risk Management, and the Ethics and Compliance Office.

Before joining Alberta Health Services, Mr. Conroy was the Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority for over four years, with joint responsibility for the full continuum of health-care and support services. He has also served as a Vice-President with the former Calgary Health Region and as President of Carewest.

Mr. Conroy has an undergraduate degree in Commerce from the Royal Military College of Canada and a graduate degree in Health Administration from Central Michigan University. He has also completed the Queen’s University Executive Program, and Harvard’s Health Service Excellence Program.

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.

Jo-Ann is the Program Director for the Elder Care and Palliative Services at Providence Health Care. She has held extensive leadership positions working in seniors care across continuums from point of care nurse, nurse clinician, clinical nurse specialist to site operations leader supporting complex residential care and tertiary mental health. She currently supports a diverse population of people requiring services in acute care, palliative care, rehab, ambulatory clinics, geriatric acute care, residential care, assisted living, hospice and tertiary mental health.

Jo-Ann is an adjunct professor at UBC in the School of Nursing and is a Board Member for the Catholic Health Association of BC. She is a strong visionary in leading systems changes in healthcare and passionate about leading organizational change through people engagement to create a better health care system supporting vulnerable populations.

She is the co-creator of an exciting movement called “Residential Care for Me” using a human-centred design thinking process to revolutionize supporting seniors requiring care and support in our communities. She has travelled through many parts of the world exploring models of care for seniors which has informed the transformational work Providence is leading.

Dr. Robert Leviton is Allscripts Vice President for Quality and Outcomes, Chief Medical Information Officer. In this role, he uses his extensive expertise in health IT innovations to help clients advance quality of care, and improve patient and provider experience.

Prior to joining Allscripts, Dr. Leviton has 30 years of progressive healthcare clinical and administrative leadership experience, most recently as the Chief Medical Information Officer and Physician Advisor at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center (New York City, New York, U.S.A.), which provides healthcare services to an ethnically diverse population, with more than one million patient visits annually. In that role he collaborated with all members of the healthcare community to create and implement hundreds of workflow solutions in acute, ambulatory and emergency care. Nationally recognized for his work in emergency’s preparedness, Dr. Leviton was the physician advisor to the National Emergency Training Center, Department of Defense, The Joint Commission, and the New York State Emergency Management Office. Working with Universal Health Services, his team led the strategic direction for the organization’s adoption and implementation of electronic health record systems in emergency departments across the United States.

Dr. Leviton is board certified in Emergency Medicine and a Fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians. He earned his Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration and Policy at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and is board certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Clinical Informatics.

Dr. Leviton is the National Lead Trainer and National Classifier with the US Sailing Association Disabled Sailing Committee. An avid cook, he also enjoys restoring and sailing on the Long Island Sound and exploring the waters of the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Adriatic Seas.

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.

Susan Brown has been with Interior Health in an executive position since 2011, currently holding the role of Vice President and Chief Operation Officer, Hospitals and Communities. Susan brings leadership to the acute sector, home and community health, allied health, patient transport and the professional practice office.

Susan’s career has spanned more than 30 years, starting in the UK as a Registered Nurse. She moved to Canada in 1991 to take a role as an RN in the emergency department of Vancouver General Hospital. Since that time, Susan has held various roles moving from front line to more formal leadership roles in Fraser Health and ultimately to her current role with Interior Health in 2011.

Susan is an accomplished speaker, presenting at numerous conferences on varying topics and to diverse audiences. She holds a Master of Health Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is a Certified Health Executive. Susan has also recently completed a Fellowship in Health System Improvement through the University of Alberta and is an Adjunct Professor with the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Peter Payne is the President and CEO of Innovation Boulevard, with experience spanning government organizations, private and public companies, venture capital corporations, and not-for-profit groups. An experienced CEO in the private sector, Dr. Payne has built and scaled companies from electronic publishing, to medical devices successfully marketed in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia. In the public sector, Dr. Payne served as Director of Programs at the BC Technology Industry and Executive-in-Residence for health technologies leading the innovation, technology and small business (SME) portfolios. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the SFU Beedie School of Business and is also the Co-Associate Director of SFU Venture Connection, SFU’s technology incubator.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Payne is an active Angel Investor and an influential leader in public policy to support health innovation. An advocate for the industry, mentor and teacher, Dr. Payne is a highly-regarded member of the entrepreneurial community and has received several awards for his work. Dr. Payne holds a Ph.D. (Pathology) from the University of British Columbia, where he was also a Clinical Instructor and Honorary Lecturer at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine.

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.