Dr. Blair O’Neill
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Strategic Clinical Networks, Alberta Health Services
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.
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.
