Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care Webinar Series


The Special Interest Group (SIG) on Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care aims to develop a clear understanding of the role digital solutions play in the delivery of integrated care while creating a platform for an engaged group to share knowledge around available technologies and development, implementation, and evaluation methods as a means to further the field and enable the spread of effective digital health solutions across organizational and geographic boundaries.
Although there are an expanding number of digital solutions now available, it is not always clear how these technologies enable integrated care activities. Furthermore, new solutions pose new challenges in developing and evaluating these technologies. The Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care SIG will seek to address these challenges by hosting a series of webinars. The webinar series will take a solution-based approach, presenting key challenges faced when developing, implementing and/or evaluating digital health technologies to support integrated care, and presenting solutions from real-world examples pulled from our membership and networks.
This series has been designed to meet the aims of the SIG, co-designed with members. Please share this webinar information with your networks, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us should you have questions, ideas, wish to participate in our webinars, newsletter, or other SIG activities.
Speakers:

Mylaine Breton, MBA, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Clinical Governance on Primary Health Care
Université de Sherbrooke
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Mylaine Breton, MBA, Ph.D. is a 2019-2020 Canadian Harkness/CFHI Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science and Medicine at the University of Sherbrooke’s Longueil campus, and holds a Canadian Research Chair in clinical governance on primary healthcare. Breton’s research program is comprised of applied research projects undertaken in partnership with clinicians and managers to improve the organization of health care. Her current research focuses on primary health care with a focus on better understanding of promising organizational innovations to improve accessibility and continuity.

Michelle Kearns
Chief Information Officer
CAREDOC
Michelle is the CIO of Caredoc, a not-for-profit organisation delivering healthcare services throughout Ireland. In 2020, Michelle was named among the ‘CIO 100’ most transformational and disruptive CIOs, and awarded a fellowship with the Irish Computer Society. Michelle is an active member the UK Digital Health Network, CHIME, and the Health Informatics Society of Ireland. Michelle’s voluntary positions include Director of One Healthtech Ireland, Board member of IFIC Ireland, Adviser to the World Health Organisation.

Christine Quinn
Director, Strategic Initiatives & Engagement
Healthcare Excellence Canada
Christine holds a degree in nursing and a Master of Public Administration, and has over 25 years of experience working in healthcare. As Director of Programs at the former Canadian Foundation of Healthcare Improvement (CFHI), Christine oversaw the development, delivery and evaluation of quality improvement collaboratives, and in her role as Director of Strategic Initiatives, she led the development and monitoring of CFHI’s annual workplan. She also played a key role in evolving CFHI’s understanding and approaches to supporting the spread and scale of innovation.
Speakers:
Dr. Ted Palen
Senior Clinical Investigator
Institute for Health Research
Denver, Colorado
Ted E. Palen, PhD, MD, MSPH, FACP is a Senior Clinical Investigator in the Institute for Health Research in Denver Colorado. His research interests are in clinical informatics with a focus on understanding the flow of data from the point-of-care to its collection and use in research, decision support, chronic disease management, and quality of care. He also has a focus on virtual care options for care delivery, such as patient-physician communication and telehealth.
He is also a Medical Director in the department of Utilization Management in Kaiser Permanente Colorado. He is active in several professional associations, including serving as the Treasurer for the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Physicians and a Diplomate in the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Clinical Informatics Diplomate in the American Board of Preventive Medicine.
Alies Maybee
Patient Partner
Patient Advisors Network, Co-founder
Toronto
Alies Maybee brings her patient, caregiver and technology background to her commitment as a patient partner. She has been active since 2011 as an advisor at her local hospital, with Health Quality Ontario and the local health authority. She has collaborated on a number of digital health projects as co-chair of the Digital Health Working Group, Citizens Panel, TC LHIN and through the Patient Advisors Network. In the research area, Alies has been a patient partner on more than six research teams, led peer research into being a patient partner in research and delivered workshops on partnering with patients. She has evaluated hundreds of grant applications for various funding organizations. Alies is a member of the Ontario BeACCoN Network, the Pan-Canadian Patient Council and National Leadership Council for the Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovation Network (PIHCIN). Alies is one of 12 co-founders of the Patient Advisors Network (PAN), a national community of practice for patient and family advisors. PAN is a fully independent association of patient partners in Canada and as such, is unique.
Dr. Sarah Sharpe
Co-Founder & Healthcare Innovation Lead
QoC Health Inc.
Toronto
Dr. Sarah Sharpe is currently a Co-Founder & Healthcare Innovation Lead at QoC Health Inc. a healthcare technology company specializing in patient-centered web and mobile solutions. Sarah’s interests are in healthcare performance measurement, patient engagement in innovation and quality improvement. With a background in mixed methods research and evaluation, Sarah’s focus is on the development and implementation of improvements in healthcare. She has extensive leadership experience in quality improvement, patient engagement and co-design of new healthcare technology solutions. She holds a PhD with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. patient and provider experiences in cardiac rehabilitation with mobile technology and health apps.
Speakers:
Dr. Tara Sampali
Assistant Director for Research
Nova Scotia Health Authority
Nova Scotia
Dr. Tara Sampali is Assistant Director for Research in Primary Healthcare at the Nova Scotia Health Authority and Assistant Professor of Medical Informatics at Dalhousie University. Holding a Ph.D. degree in Health Informatics, Tara effectively blends research with practice bringing the novel concept of “embedded research” into healthcare. Tara’s research interests include care models for chronic disease management, patient-centered care and multimorbidities, integrated models of care, knowledge management, and application of innovative IT solutions in healthcare.
Dr. Nick Guldemond
Associate Professor Integrated Care and Technology
Erasmus of Health Policy & Management
Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Nick is currently Associate Professor Integrated Care and Technology at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management. He is advisor for the Dutch House of Representatives and board member of the Innovative Medical Device Initiative IMDI.nl and member of the commission on the national eHealth implementation agenda.He is coordinator of EIP-AHA A2 Action Group Falls Prevention and associated with thematic networks ProFouND, E-NO-FALLS.
Dr. Jennifer Jones
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dalhousie University
Nova Scotia
Dr. Jennifer Jones, MD is an Associate Professor of medicine at Dalhousie University and Team Lead of the Nova Scotia Collaborative Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (NSCIBD) program at the QE II Health Sciences Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her clinical and research passions relate to quality improvements through collaborative care initiatives and patient centered program development, care access, nutritional intervention, and use of population-based data to evaluate IBD outcomes.
Speakers:
Edward Fraser
VP Partnerships and Business Development
St. Joseph’s Health System
Board of Directors
Guelph General Hospital
Edward is a seasoned healthcare technology executive who works with public and private sector healthcare stakeholders, guiding them in adopting new and innovative care delivery models. With 20+ years of experience in the Mobility & Digital Health, he is passionate about the important impact that Mobile, Social, Artificial Intelligence and Information Communication Technologies can have on transforming healthcare for all Canadians.
Edward currently serves as SVP, Partnerships and Business Development for the St. Joseph’s Health System. Previously he has held Marketing and Business Development leadership roles at Research In Motion (BlackBerry), TELUS Health, Hewlett Packard and various start-up / growth stage Healthcare technology providers.
Shiran Isaackz
Senior Director of UHN Connected Care
University Health Network
President Board Chair
Digital Health Canada
Canada
Shiran is the Senior Director of the Regional and Provincial Portfolio at University Health Network – one of the largest public sector health information management technology service delivery organizations in Canada. With more than 19 years of healthcare experience, Shiran’s expertise lies in leading complex and large-scale transformational projects and overseeing established regional programs. Through these experiences Shiran possesses a comprehensive view of the complex health care system with a focus on improving patient care and patient outcomes throughout the continuum of care.
Shiran finds great satisfaction in tackling challenging and previously unsolvable industry issues. His collaborative approach also extends to development of unique industry partnerships, beyond the typical client-vendor role. In doing so, he assembles strong, inter-disciplinary teams with a broad range of skills, and applies a holistic approach to problem solving that results in new products and programs to support care delivery and patient experience.
Shiran chose a career in healthcare as he felt an innate drive for working in a sector that aligns with his values and enables him to give back to the community at large. “All of the great work we do at UHN is patient-centric. With every decision made, we ask how we are improving the patient experience, and improving care outcomes”.
Shiran believes that the patient voice must guide all healthcare activities, whether it be at the policy level in his role as President and Board Member with Digital Health Canada (Canada’s Health Informatics Association) or when planning and implementing programs at the regional and provincial level in Ontario. Shiran also enjoys supporting the digital health community through his role as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Webinar Speakers:
Dr. Carolyn Steele Gray
Dr. Carolyn Steele Gray is a Scientist at the Bridgepoint
Collaboratory in Research and Innovation at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, as well as an Investigator with the Health System Performance Research Network at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Steele Gray’s program of work focuses on the role of health
information technology in supporting patient-centred care delivery for patients with complex care needs. Among the areas of focus are to explore how technology can be leveraged to enable implementation and sustainability of innovative models of care as a means to support health system transformation. As part of this work she has been developing and evaluating new technologies, most notably the electronic Patient Reported Outcome (ePRO) mobile application and portal, and is developing change management and implementation frameworks to support implementation of new and existing technologies.
Leo Lewis
Leo Joined the International Foundation for Integrated Care in early 2013 as a Senior Fellow leading IFIC’s work in the EU-funded SmartCare integrated care project, has continued to lead and oversee IFIC’s involvement in many R&D projects
having become Director of R&D in 2019. Leo is now a Senior
Associate continuing to support IFIC’s activities.
Through the building of strong relationships with stakeholders, Leo works with and alongside others to bring her knowledge, skills and experience together to co-create new transformational change approaches for delivering digitally enabled integrated care solutions to meet the needs of different populations. Leo has a keen interest in rural health and wellbeing, vulnerable populations, innovation and transformation and supports the Bevan Commission, Wales’s
independent think tank, and its Exemplars and Fellows to promote and share their initiatives internationally and learn from others across the world for the benefit of people living and working in Wales.
Henk Niles
Prof. dr. Henk Nies graduated at a psycho-gerontologist and
obtained his Ph.D. on elderly care policies. He was involved in various national and international programs on long-term care, integrated care and quality in long-term care. He was CEO of Vilans from its very beginning in 2007 and a member of the Executive Board until 2019. At present, he is Director of Strategy & Development. Since 2011 he is also a professor of Organisation and Policy Development in Long-term Care at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Further, he is a member of the Quality Council at the National Health Care Institute of the Netherlands. Earlier this year he co-edited the book ‘How to deliver Integrated Care: A Guidebook for Managers (Emerald
Publishers) with Dr. Axel Kaehne.
Ingo Meyer
Ingo Meyer is head of PMV forschungsgruppe at the University Hospital Cologne. He holds a degree in Sociology, Political Science, and Theology from Bonn University.
He is one of the originators of ASSIST – Assessment and
evaluation tools for e-service deployment in health, care and ageing. Key activities in his career were four European projects on integrated care carried out from 2008 to 2017, his work as Head of Unit Prevention and Healthcare Management at the German integrated care scheme Gesundes Kinzigtal and, most recently, an SRSS-funded project on the development of integrated support services for the Estonian government, where Ingo acts as an expert on data integration.
Mark Fam
Mark Fam, MHA, is the Vice President of Clinical Programs at Michael Garron Hospital, a part of the Toronto East Health Network. Mark is responsible for the majority of clinical services at the hospital, inter-professional care, academic partnerships and clinical learning. Mark also leads a number of efforts with
the East Toronto Health Partners, the Ontario Health Team serving the many communities in East Toronto.
A Certified Health Executive, Mark has a broad base of industry knowledge based on his over 20 years working across the health care system. In support of his provincial agency, hospital and consulting work, Mark demonstrates an ongoing commitment to health care as a Certified Health Executive through his active participation in the Canadian College of
Health Leaders. Mark also contributes to new learners in the health system through his work as an Adjunct Faculty in both the Rotman School of Management, and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, at the University of Toronto.
Mark Fam
Karl has served in the NZDF as a medical officer for 15 years, involved in Deployments to UN mission in many locations. He has the NZ Army award for serve and TTCP program award for human factors research. Karl has been a NZSAS serving medical officer for 5 years, and was clinical director for the NZDF fully integrated EHR. He gained fellowship with the Royal NZ College GPs in 2004. He is married and has three children.
Facilitated by:
Carolyn Steele Gray
Carolyn Steele Gray is the Facilitator for the Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care Special Interest Group and a Scientist at the Bridgepoint Collaboratory in Research and Innovation at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum research Institute, Canada
Leo Lewis
Leo is the co-founded the Digital Health Enabling Integrated Care Special Interest Group and is a Senior fellow at IFIC. She leads the organisation’s research and development team and is the lead on a number of EU funded projects. Recently she has been seconded to the Bevan Commission, Swansea University to lead, support and strengthen Wales’ international collaborations.