Featured Speakers

Dr. Jan Walker is Vice President, Strategy, Innovation and Chief Information Officer at West Park Healthcare Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In that role, she provides leadership and direction for information management and technology at the Centre.  She also leads the organization’s strategic planning, innovation, and evaluation functions. As West Park is currently in a redevelopment phase, Jan is responsible for the vision and development of the Information, Communication, Automation and Technology (ICAT) strategy for the new hospital building. This strategy is taking advantage of current and future opportunities in the areas of mobile health, cloud computing, big data and the internet of healthcare things. Jan holds a PhD in epidemiology from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

Over her career, she has worked extensively with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, LHINs and hospitals using “big data” to develop and implement funding systems, capacity and strategic plans, and case costing and data quality initiatives across many sectors of the health care continuum.Jan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Haliburton Highlands Health Services, a rural health system that provides integrated health care to residents and visitors to Haliburton County and surrounding areas. She is a member of HIMSS, CHIME and COACH.

Alfred Ng is the Director of Innovation, Performance Improvement and Clinical Operations Support at The Scarborough Hospital. In this dual role, he supports the development of a culture of transformation through Lean Management methodologies and holds operational responsibility over infection control, central registrationand access to care (wait times). Alfred has a Masters in Health Administration from the University of Toronto, aBSc in Physical Therapy from McGill University and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, PMP and Canadian Health Executive. He was a team member in two of the last 4 Ontario Hospitals to have won the 3M National Healthcare Quality Award.

Glenn has over 25 years of experience leading change, transformation and growth in both the private and public health care sector with a focus on business outcomes, strategy, open communication, clarity of vision, transparency of action and by leading with integrity. Glenn delivers executive level information technology, health informatics and ehealth leadership to growth and change driven organizations. He has extensive experience partnering with CEOs and Boards to develop and implement strategy. His core areas of expertise include technology advisory services and business management, corporate development and building high performing teams. He is recognized as a strong relationship builder, effective in driving change, customer and employee engagement and loyalty and excellent when dealing with external stakeholders.

Glenn is currently CEO of Tectonic Advisory Services.  He is a Director of the Board for COACH: Canada’s Health Informatics Association and has held senior positions in the Private & Public Sectors and has served 10 years as a tank commander in the Canadian Forces.Glenn holds an Honours Economics & Politics Degree from the Royal Military College of Canada and an MBA from the University in Ottawa.

Susan Sepa is the Group Director Clinical Systems Interoperability at Canada Health Infoway, responsible to execute a strategy focused on accelerating interoperability among clinical systems and leveraging investments in EHR solutions to improve patient care.

Susan brings a unique set of experiences and background to this role including clinical and operational health care leadership, management and strategy consulting, and operational IT leadership. Susan has worked across Canada with multiple stakeholders including front line clinicians and health care, IT, and government leaders.  Throughout she is a tireless advocate for the patient safety and quality benefits of a fully interoperable CIS that enables care providers and patients and families with seamless and timely sharing of clinical information across the health care journey.

Ravi is a Staff  Diagnostic Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine Physician at the Joint Department of Medical Imaging which provide radiology services to the Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital in  downtown Toronto. He holds an Assistant Professor appointment in the Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto .

Ravi completed  Undergraduate Studies (Human Biology, University of Toronto)  in 1996  and Masters of Science  (Respiratory Physiology, University of Toronto ) in 1997. He then completed his Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Studies in Cardiovascular Physiology and  University of Oxford  in 2001. Following this,  he completed his MD  (University of Toronto, 2006),  Radiology FRCPC (University of Ottawa,  2011) and  Nuclear Medicine FRCPC (University of Toronto, 2013).

He  has a strong background in social media technologies with multiple projects ongoing including app development, learning management systems and quality initiatives.

Richard Tam is the Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer at Mackenzie Health and Chief Financial Officer of Mackenzie Innovation Institute. He has been in the healthcare industry for more than 18 years and has played a pivotal role in implementing financial best practices and developing new business models with a focus on innovation and technology enabled healthcare delivery. He has extensive experience in numerous fields including Healthcare Funding Reform, Information Technology, Capital Projects, Information Management Decision Support, Clinical Support Services amongst many.

Richard is a strategic leader in the development of Information Communication & Automation Technology (ICAT) Healthcare framework and the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHTs) in Mackenzie Health.In 2016, Richard was the recipient of the Innovation Award for Health Care Leadership from the Canadian College of Health Leaders. Richard holds an MBA from York University, a BSc from the University of Manchester and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Ontario.

Dennis Sehgal, MD, MBA, DO, became a doctor of medicine in 2012 upon finalizing his studies at Windsor University School of Medicine. Dr. Sehgal is certified by the American Medical Residency Certification Board, and currently serves as a board member.

Dr. Sehgal’s passion, skills and experiences allow him to also assist the AMRCB by coaching International Medical Graduates on becoming complete, competent and professional physicians in the United States and globally. Dr. Sehgal volunteers in order to increase access to healthcare for the residents of rural communities in Ontario, Canada via telemedicine and other healthcare services. Dr. Sehgal has obtained a MBA in healthcare administration and a Doctor of Osteopathy degree as well. He has been providing business strategy and project management services for healthcare companies throughout North America. This includes companies at multiple levels in the industry. He is involved with education for Doctor’s in training, professional Physician growth and management of Physician practices; solo and within corporations.

Cynthia Morton is the Chief Executive Officer of eHealth Ontario. Hired in September, 2014, Cynthia is responsible for implementing an electronic health record system for the province of Ontario. Cynthia has an extensive background in the Ontario public service, most recently as the Deputy Minister of Labour. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health Promotion. Cynthia also served as Deputy Minister of the ministries of Attorney General, Education and Labour in British Columbia.

Dr. Velji holds the position of Vice President Patient Care and Quality at St. Joseph’s Health Care in London Ontario.  Most recently, Dr. Velji was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Executive at Baycrest, a global leader in innovations in aging and brain health and Vice President of Patient Care and Chief Nursing Executive at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, which is now a program of University Health Network.

Dr. Velji’s responsibilities extend to provincial and national leadership. She is the past President and Chair of the Board of Directors of Canadian Nurses Association and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Accreditation Canada. At the system/global level, Dr. Velji is a consultant to global sites, including East Africa, the Middle East and Asia, for development of quality of care and academic plans.

Dr. Karim Keshavjee is a Family Physician with over 20 years of experience in designing, developing, researching and implementing electronic medical records.  He has presented on EMRs at national and international conferences as well as working on key ehealth projects at Canada Health Infoway, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, McMaster University and several other organizations.Dr. Karim architected Canada’s Primary Care Chronic Disease Surveillance network that now collects data from over 500 physicians and over 850,000 patients in addition to being an Associate Member of the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines at McMaster University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria.

Dr. Waël Hassan is one of North Americas leading advisors on privacy and cyber security innovation. He serves as an advisor for both the political and industry organizations to help them better understand privacy and cyber security technology & adoption. He has in-depth knowledge of privacy laws across Canada and the US, along with, holds the first Canadian PhD in Validation of Legal Compliance.

Waël brought his research to practice by building KI DESIGN, a company dedicated to data protection. In his role Waël advances his clients’ interests on a range of issues, including internet freedom, cyber security, surveillance, disaster response, product certification, and risk metrics. Dr. Hasan founded KI DESIGN Magazine, http://magazine.kidesign.net, where he writes a regular column. Waël’s highly anticipated book, Privacy in Design: A practical guide for corporate compliance will be released in Fall 2016.

Dr. Puneet Seth is Chief Medical Officer at InputHealth Systems Inc, a Canadian health informatics company, and practices clinical as a hospitalist in Ontario. His professional interests include research in health information technology and medical education, and he is presently Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at Western University. He frequently writes, blogs and tweets on the topics of digital health.

Rheta Fanizza is the Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President of Innovation at Saint Elizabeth, a national health care provider and Canada’s largest social enterprise. Harnessing the organization’s core strengths of innovation and high performance, Rheta is responsible for accelerating Saint Elizabeth’s growth strategy within new and emerging business lines including integrated care solutions, partnerships and virtual technologies.

Rheta has more than 20 years of senior executive experience within the acute care and community health sectors. She was previously the executive lead for Saint Elizabeth’s national operations team, bringing core expertise in service delivery, staffing, contract management, labour relations, quality and ethics, and IT/IM. Rheta has consulted for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and continues to lead consulting projects in the area of care transitions as part of her current role

Joanne Maxwell is Project Manager, Clinical Adoption and Transitions Strategy Lead at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. Joanne has held a number of operations and project management leadership positions in healthcare. In her current role, Joanne leads the activities related to improvement and enhancement of the Electronic Health Record with a focus on change management and interprofessional collaboration, as well as a number of other organizational change initiatives. Joanne has a clinical background in Occupational Therapy and is a certified Project Management Professional.

With over 20 years of experience, Cliff’s professional focus has been on health and wellness in the built environment and how these ideas translate into an environment of care. Previously he held the position of Senior Architect for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, as well as other senior positions in the industry.He has extensive knowledge and expertise in operational planning, design, and construction of health facilities as well as health systems planning.

Cliff is an advocate for the practice of design thinking and human-centered design to support the search for innovation in delivering quality health care services through smart capital investments. Cliff is also an advisor on health care design at the University of Toronto, Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U), and Ryerson University. With a focus on continuous learning and improvement, Cliff is concluding a Master of Science, Healthcare Quality at Queen’s University. He is an active participant in a number of professional associations, committees and international networks and has contributed to research on collaborative design leading to quality and innovation in health care.

In November 2015, Heather Shantora was appointed CEO of pt Health, the largest publicly traded Canadian allied healthcare company operating in 7 provinces with over 800 employees. She also now serves as CEO of InnoCare, a Canadian healthcare technology and business product outsourcing company that launched as a spin-off from the technology arm of pt Health.

InnoCare provides propriety cloud-based practice management software and back office administrative support services (including a state of the art call centre, centralized billing, marketing, HR, and payroll services) to independent rehab clinic owners across Canada. Under Heather’s leadership, InnoCare is a Canadian healthcare market leader with a specific focus on the development of innovative healthcare technology designed to evolve with and anticipate the growing needs of Canadian patients.

Bobby is a Manager in the Evaluation Services department with Canada Health Infoway where he works with diverse stakeholders in government, academia, private and public sectors to demonstrate the tangible benefits of investments in digital health.

Bobby’s professional experience spans project management, policy development, and consulting at various levels within the Canadian health care system. This includes the University Health Network in Toronto as a Clinical Systems Educator; Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care as Issues Manager for the Minister as well as Program Consultant for Ontario’s Wait Time Strategy; and Toronto East General Hospital as a Project Manager, Benefits and Evaluation. Bobby has Bachelor in Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business, York University and a Master’s Degree in Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation from the University of Toronto.

Gina Johar is  currently serving as a coach and expert combining equipment, methodology and associated technologies with project management principles to develop, implement and/or facilitate adoption of e-Health solutions across the South East LHIN. Also, she plays a key role on the regional and cluster PMO as well as on regional committees on the adoption and/development of new technologies at the regional or provincial levels and provides expertise on methodology and current technologies including architecture, information systems, system interoperability, healthcare standards, application life cycles and ITIL methodologies. She graduated from University of Western Ontario with Master of Information Science –– specialty in competitive intelligence, computing and knowledge management.

Brent McGaw (M.A.Sc., PEng. CPHIMS-CA) is an Industrial Engineer with more than 25 years of healthcare leadership, management and consulting experience. He has a passion for the effective use of technology to transform and improve healthcare processes to achieve quality, safety, productivity and sustainability, with a particular interest in person centred health. Brent has held a number of management positions in Canada and the United States with responsibilities for marketing, professional services, customer service & retention, and business development. Brent has been with Canada Health Infoway for ten years and currently is a Project Director in Ontario focused on areas of governance, portfolio management, stakeholder relations, and project management.