Digital Health Canada Board of Directors

Chris Carvalho is an experienced entrepreneur and senior leader that combines strategic thinking with an action-oriented approach to drive large change and transformation initiatives. Chris is a certified project management professional (PMP) with a proven track record of successfully delivering projects and has led numerous IT system implementations (50+) in various clinical settings across Western Canada. Chris has spent the majority of his career in the healthcare sector working with both public and private organizations and has built significant expertise on the implementation of Electronic Medical Records, Hospital Information Systems, and other digital health technologies. Chris is an active member in his local health innovation community and has a strong interest in identifying and validating how emerging digital health solutions can be successfully integrated into our current healthcare system. Chris has also worked as a mentor, advisor, and investor within many health start-up, scale-up and established businesses and organizations and is known as a community builder dedicated to advancing the health innovation ecosystem through commercialization efforts.

Anne Forsyth is the Director of Clinical Applications and Decision Support at Women’s College Hospital, bringing over fifteen years of leadership experience in healthcare and health information management. She holds a Master of Health Science in Health Administration from the University of Toronto and has held roles at key organizations, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), eHealth Ontario, and Cancer Care Ontario.

Cassie Frazer is an accomplished healthcare executive and the Past President of Digital Health Canada. With over 25 years of experience, she has held senior leadership roles in hospital care, community health, and national digital health initiatives.. As a certified health informatics professional, Cassie is passionate about innovation, transformation, and bridging healthcare through digital solutions. As Practice Lead for Strategy & Implementation at Stratford Group, Cassie leverages a proven ability to align vision, secure stakeholder buy-in, and manage complex change to solve a universal challenge: getting results, not just plans.

Dr. Samina Raza Abidi is Professor of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, Halifax. She holds a PhD in Health Informatics, Masters in Information Technology, and is a physician holding a MD. S he has been involved with digital health academics, innovation, advocacy and mentorship for over 15 years. She is the co-director of the NICHE (kNowledge Intensive Computing for Healthcare Enterprises) research group, and her research program is titled “Digital Lifetime Healthcare” that involves investigations in health knowledge management using AI methods for clinical decision support, patient empowerment and health information systems. She is the recipient of the Women Leadership award by Digital Health Canada, Best paper awards, Steven Huesing Award by COACH, Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral Award and is the Member of the College of Reviewers (CIHR). She has successfully blended her medical training with digital health to lead the design and development of multiple innovative point-of-care and point-of-need digital health solutions for clinical decision support targeting chronic disease management, virtual care by remote patient monitoring, patient empowerment through digital therapeutics and behaviour modification plans, public health by addressing psychosocial determinants of health and risk factors for chronic diseases. As an researcher and innovator, her digital health works have been presented both within Canada and globally. She is experienced in digital transformation activities in the healthcare space, and is globally involved in digital health adoption activities at the academic, technical, advocacy and policy making levels. She is an experienced digital health academic, innovator and practitioner.

Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia is the founder of and visionary force behind Amplify Care, where his extensive experience in primary care as a practicing family doctor and deep expertise in informatics have shaped the organization’s bold approach to digital health. As a leading force in the field, Dr. Alarakhia is dedicated to transforming the healthcare system by driving ground-breaking, patient-centered solutions that reduce administrative burden for clinicians and improve patient outcomes. His passion for using evidence and championing co-design with clinicians and patients have made him a transformative player, continually pushing boundaries to ensure Amplify remains at the forefront of the digital health innovation.

As Vice President, Professional Practice, Chief Nursing & Allied Health Officer, Chief Clinical Information Officer, Lorraine Blackburn oversees professional practice, clinical education, clinical informatics and virtual health across Vancouver Coastal Health and provides leadership to nurses and allied health professionals to achieve best practice and clinical transformation through digital health initiatives. A Registered Nurse with over 23 years of experience, Lorraine began her career as a frontline nurse on acute surgical and medical units, and then as a transplant coordinator. She was responsible for building the first clinical informatics team within her organization, a group that is now critical to the implementation and sustainment of digital solutions across the organization. Passionate, strategic, and effective, Lorraine is a values-based leader who brings a strong track record of building high-performance teams while promoting integrated systems and processes to foster sustainability and best practices that achieve organizational objectives and improve the quality of patient care. Lorraine holds a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of British Columbia (UBC,) a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Calgary and a Post-Master Certificate in Health Informatics from the University of Colorado, Denver. She is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Nursing at the UBC. When not at work, Lorraine enjoys living with her family on the west coast, camping and enjoying the outdoors.

Sophia Hoosein is an experienced facilitator, a passionate public sector innovator, a highly-skilled qualitative researcher, a community organizer, and a digital health enthusiast. Working on projects and products that leverage technology to improve health outcomes is my jam! I‚Äôve worked in large scale consumer health and clinical information digital product development, roadmapping, service rollout, and operations in the public sector, specifically around personal health records, electronic health records, and integration with tethered patient portals. My experience includes working on implementing Alberta‚Äôs provincial personal health records service, MyHealth Records (MHR), its integration with the MyAHS Connect patient portal, and product enhancements such as record sharing, COVID-19 test results, secure messaging, rapid access registration, the Children’s COVID-19 Test Results Lookup tool, and starting work on a new client framework, the MHR mobile application, public access to all lab test results, and diagnostic imaging reports. I understand the dependencies of successful clinical and consumer health implementations including privacy and security, technical and business readiness, change management, training, operational support, and clinical stakeholder relationship management and outreach.

Duska Kennedy is the Vice President of Strategy, Digital Health and Chief Digital Officer at North York General Hospital. Duska is a national health system leader and is focused on spearheading innovative digital technology solutions that transform the way we work and provide a connected care experience to the communities she serves. She is deeply passionate about exploring innovative ways to transform the patient and provider experience. She has a strong background in healthcare strategy and operations management with over 20 years of health care information management and information technology (IM/IT) experience. Before joining NYGH, Duska held several senior leadership roles at the University Health Network. She has developed significant expertise in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and team building. She also brings detailed experience analyzing strategic options, recommending strategies for implementing change and acting as a catalyst to help put these strategies into action. She has a rich experience of designing and implementing digital health solutions such patient portals, health information systems, digital patient identity, remote patient monitoring and most recently artificial intelligence capabilities across a variety of health sectors. Duska has managed numerous large-scale health care systems implementations, led strategic planning efforts in the acute, community and oncology sectors and held operational leadership roles at several healthcare organizations. Duska holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts, Honors Business Administration from The Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.

Shannon O’Connor has over a decade of experience in digital health, health data analytics and data standards development. An enthusiastic, forward-thinking leader, Shannon is passionate about using data standards to advance interoperability and improve health equity. As the Manager of Data Standards at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), she works collaboratively with federal, provincial and territorial partners to develop and advance digital health standards across Canada. Shannon thrives on making connections and establishing partnerships and has worked closely with Canadian and international health system leaders. Her ability to connect and work with a wide range of stakeholders has allowed her to effectively lead several significant projects and initiatives, including the Canadian Core Data for Interoperability (CACDI) and the development of the first pan-Canadian gender, sex and sexual orientation standards. Shannon is a voting member of the HL7 Canada Council and co-chair of Canada Health Infoway’s Sex and Gender Working Group. She is a seasoned public speaker and has presented at numerous conferences and industry events, including HIMSS, eHealth and Canada Health Infoway’s Partnership conference. Shannon has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Queen’s University and a Master of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of Ottawa and is a certified Prosci Change Practitioner. She is the proud mother of two young children and in her spare time, loves to spend as much time as possible outside, enjoying all that Canada has to offer.

Wendy Tegart  BSc, BA – Director, Provincial Technology Services, Alberta Health Services is a highly skilled health informatics leader; passionate about transforming health care through stakeholder engagement, and experienced in strategic planning, road mapping, portfolio/program management, and systems implementation. Her 25+ year career has been focused on operational management and service excellence in various healthcare organizations including Alberta Health Services, Calgary Health Region, and University Health Services in Toronto. Currently, Wendy leads a team of 225 IT professionals and oversees service desk management, access provisioning, identity management and directory services. She is enthusiastic about creating a safe, diverse, and inclusive working environment at AHS and is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Council, and co-chair on a Joint Workforce Health & Safety Committee. Supporting the next generation of IT professionals is her other passion. She is a member of Southern Alberta’s Institute of Technology (SAIT) IT Advisory Committee and participates in industry panels/ recruitment nights at post-secondary organizations to encourage university students to consider Health IT as career. Her volunteer pursuits include organizing local events within Alberta with “Digital Health Canada” and participating in the “Girls Who Game” program that develops science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills in girls while having fun through gaming.

Julia Zarb PhD, CEO of Blue x Blue, specializes in the ethical integration of generative AI in healthcare. With a 25-year career spanning the private, public, and commercial sectors, she has impacted US and Canadian health/life science ecosystems, collaborating with over 32 organizations and forming 200+ partnerships. Her leadership has led a US EHR brand to achieve a top-three market position and elevated market shares for clients like Allscripts, the American College of Cardiology, and HIMSS. Julia co-founded the Electronic Health Record Vendor Association and played a pivotal role in the HIMSS, HL7 & IHE Interoperability Collaborative. She has also served on the HIMSS Katrina Phoenix Advisory Board and as Academic and Managing Director for CanCOVID under Health Canada and ISED. In academia, Julia has an eight-year tenure as a professor and five years as Director of the Master of Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto, launching 350 graduates’ careers. She’s a member of the Victoria College Board of Regents, UofT, and holds a PhD in Communications from the University of Toronto. Her work has earned her recognition for educational contributions and international expansion. Julia co-founded the Electronic Health Record Vendor Association and played a pivotal role in the HIMSS, HL7 & IHE Interoperability Collaborative. She has also served on the HIMSS Katrina Phoenix Advisory Board and as Academic and Managing Director for CanCOVID under Health Canada and ISED. In academia, Julia has an eight-year tenure as a professor and five years as Director of the Master of Health Informatics (MHI) at University of Toronto.