Digital Health Canada Volunteer Faculty
Digital Health Canada education and certification programs are the first cross-disciplinary programs to be developed with volunteer health informatics experts and leaders operating in a variety of professional settings: healthcare organizations, provincial/national government agencies, vendors, consultants, and academia. These volunteer experts populate the Digital Health Canada Faculty and are the backbone of the Core HI Education program.
Meet our current volunteer Faculty membersPatrick Lo
CEO, Privacy Horizon
Patrick Lo is the CEO of Privacy Horizon Inc. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of information privacy. He has held a number of executive positions in the public and private sectors focused on the development and implementation of privacy and data protection programs. Prior to joining Privacy Horizon, Patrick was Senior Program Director for the Identity, Access and Privacy Portfolio at eHealth Ontario, where he was responsible for strategy and planning, product management and adoption of provincial identity management technologies designed to control access to personal health information. Prior to that, he led the privacy office at eHealth Ontario, and built the Province’s first “eHealth Privacy Centre of Excellence” – establishing eHealth Ontario as a leader in the development and implementation of privacy best practices. Patrick is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Privacy Professional/Canada (CIPP/C).
READ MOREDennis Chung
University of Toronto
Dennis Cheung is currently the Director, Data Management at Verto Health and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Toronto. With over two decades of experience across Canada's healthcare system including hospitals, provincial, not-for-profit, and private healthcare organizations: this accumulated knowledge and experience have enabled Dennis to holistically impact the way data and information can be optimized across the health ecosystem for better improved patient outcomes. Dennis's expertise lies in collaborating across a diverse range of stakeholders in harnessing the power of technology in order to push the boundaries in how care and healthcare operations are delivered. Dennis also has a passion for teaching and guiding future health informaticians through his engagements across various academic institutions including McMaster University and George Brown College.
READ MOREHélène Clement
TheHCgroup
My pan-Canadian experiences in the healthcare / digital health sector where I held clinical, consulting, VP and leadership/executive positions. This included experiences in healthcare organizations, vendors, government and academia. A Digital Health Leader who was recognized as 2019 Top 10 Women Leader for Digital Health in Canada. Current with healthcare strategies and thinking has resulted in requests to perform peer reviews for Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL), HIMSS national (US), and Digital Health Canada.
READ MORELisa Moore
Island Health
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Patsy Wong
CIHI
Patsy Wong has worked in the healthcare sector for over 10 years. She specializes in health informatics and healthcare information reporting. She is a digital solutions program consultant. She has been involved in multiple corporate projects for enriching online reporting products and information. Also, she led the redevelopment of programs and processes. Prior to joining CIHI, Patsy worked in both the public and private sectors. She has a solid IT consulting, software design and development background in multiple industries. Patsy is a certified professional in health information management system (CPHIMS-CA) since 2013, and she holds a Masters Certificate in Healthcare Management. She has been a member of Digital Health Canada for years.
READ MOREMargie Kennedy
Nova Scotia Health
Dr. Margaret Ann Kennedy is a Director of Transformation & Adoption/Education & Learning for the One Patient One Record (OPOR) project at Nova Scotia Health. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing, recognized for her leadership in digital health and informatics in Canada and internationally. She also represents Canada at the IMIA Nursing Informatics group, and serves as Vice Chair for Administration & Finance on the IMIA NI Board. Leveraging 30+ years experience in leadership roles across the healthcare continuum, Margie enables systems transformation to support optimal health outcomes and quality clinical practice. Margie approaches her work with humor, an unwavering commitment to excellence, and a humanistic approach that aims to empower teams and individuals. An industry leader, Margie contributes to peer reviewed journals, is co-editor of Introduction to Nursing Informatics (4th ed), serves on multiple Canadian and international informatics committees, as well as various editorial boards. She continues to teach at the post graduate level and in a variety of industry certification programs.
READ MOREChristine Couturier
Alberta Health Service
With over twenty years of experience in the health informatics space, Christine has worn many hats, from project manager, organizational change management specialist, process improvement practitioner using a combination of LEAN and Six Sigma methodologies applied in the healthcare context, to designing clinical systems to support practice. She has held a number of leadership roles over her career. She has also been a member of the Digital Health Canada Exam Development Committee and an instructor for the Core HI course. Her more recent focus is on finding ways to embed action on social and preventive factors in clinical information systems, so that addressing the social determinants of health and other risk factors of patients becomes a standard part of clinical practice.
READ MOREAnne Forsyth
CIHI
Anne Forsyth has 15 years of experience in the Digital Health field across government, hospital and community organizations. Her expertise is in the areas of data standards, information privacy, governance, and program development. Anne is currently the Manager of Data Standards at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, where she is responsible for establishing and operationalizing a corporate centre of excellence for data standards development within the organization. Anne is on the Board of Directors for Digital Health Canada. She also volunteers as a faculty member and a mentor for various academic and professional development institutions. Anne holds CPHIMS-CA, HL7 and CIPP/C certifications, in addition to her Bachelor of Health Science degree in Health Studies and Management Studies from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Health Science degree in Health Administration from the University of Toronto.
READ MORENeil Gardner
University of Regina
Prior to his retirement in 2016, Neil served for more than 25 years in senior roles for the Ministry of Health in Saskatchewan, including CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN), Chief Information Officer and Associate Deputy Minister. Neil led the development and implementation of Saskatchewan’s provincial eHealth strategy, as well as playing a prominent role at the national level in Canada as provincial co-chair of the Conference of Deputy Ministers’ Advisory Committee on Health Infostructure (ACHI) and in the founding of Canada’s two major national institutions in this space – the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Canada Health Infoway. Neil continues to be actively involved in development of international standards through ISO TC215 (Health Informatics). He is currently co-leading a foundational standard on the safe, effective and secure design, implementation and use of health IT systems.
READ MOREJulie Richards
CGI
Senior Executive with 30 years of experience in Healthcare, Life Sciences, data analytics, strategic program development and patient care. Currently, as Director of Digital Insights for CGI, Julie is responsible for data and analytics strategies, thought leadership and business development. Julie led the first healthcare prescriptive analytics project in North America to determine the best possible options to improve access, cost and quality of care. She recently, led and advised executives in the development of an enterprise data and analytics program for a large global pharma company. Previous to CGI, Julie held strategic, management and operational positions for Canada Health Infoway, Canadian Institute for Health Information and Mount Sinai Hospital. Julie has a Master’s Health Administration Degree, is a certified CPHIMS-CA and PMP. Julie, her husband Tim, and their three Portuguese Water Dogs live in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina.
READ MOREJanine Kaye
CIHI
Janine Kaye has worked in digital health for almost two decades. She has primarily worked in the areas of business intelligence and data warehousing but in the last few years has shifted focus to data governance and master data management. In all of her work she considers information quality, privacy and risk and patient safety. Before joining CIHI, Janine worked at the University Health Network in Toronto where she helped build and support the organizations data warehouse and hospital indicator development. Janine is a proud holder of the CPHIMS-CA designation. She attended the University of Waterloo where she earned her Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Design Engineering.
READ MOREChantelle Bailey
Ontario College of Pharmacists
Dr. Chantelle Bailey is a scientist with comprehensive expertise in implementation science and practice, Canadian and international health systems, clinical quality audits and applied health services research. Her policy portfolio has included e-Health, regulatory affairs, and medication safety (pharmacovigilance) and she has been involved in national initiatives such as PrescribeIT® (Canada Health Infoway. Her interests include digital transformation in healthcare particularly for virtual pharmacy interventions. She has a PhD in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Manchester and more recently, she was awarded a PGCert in Regulatory Affairs and since 2018, she has been a certified CPHIMS-CA.
READ MOREAaron Blair
Conestoga College
Manish Bhatnagar
SickKids
Manish has been working in healthcare for over 10 years and has 15+ years of combined experience in IT consulting and working with provincial governments in Canada, India and the US. Expertise includes system architecture, project management, application management and support, business intelligence and technical design. His interests are in cybersecurity, digital transformation, AI/ML, and cloud. He is also a member of the HIMSS Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Security Committee. Manish is a certified PMP, PMI-PBA, CPHIMS-CA and CSSGB. Manish works for SickKids in Toronto.
READ MORERod Burns
For the past 25 years, Rodney Burns has held senior leadership positions in Information Management portfolios developing and implementing multiple IS and corporate strategic plans. In early 2005, he led the Toronto East Network’s Diagnostic Imaging/PACS Project which was a voluntary collaboration of 23 hospitals across four LHIN that provide DI services for approximately 30% of the population of Ontario. Rod received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Medical Physiology from the University of Western Ontario in 1988 and a Masters of Health Administration from the University of Ottawa in 1992. Rod is active in the professional community and a strong believer in on-going professional development. Along with memberships with various professional associations, he is Past President of the Ontario Chapter of the Health Information and Management Systems Society and Past President of the Southwestern Chapter of the Canadian College of Health Service Executives. Rod earned his designation as a Certified Health Executive from the Canadian College of Health Leaders in 1993. He was awarded his Fellowship designation in June, 2018 and becomes one of 70 recipients across Canada. Rod holds a Senior designation with the Health Information & Management System Society and was one of the first to earn the CPHIMS-CA credential from Digital Health Canada. Rod’s current professional interests lay in health system leadership, consumer digital healthcare, and institutional knowledge management.
READ MOREMelissa Enmore
TRO
Heather Begley
UHN
Heather Begley has completed a Master of Science and Medical Informatics at Northwestern University. Her specialties are project management, technique development, and software application. University Health Network’s ten program areas are spread across eight sites – Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals, as well as the five sites of Toronto Rehab.
READ MOREFinnie Flores
CGI
Benefits of volunteering as a Digital Health Canada Faculty include:
- Personal and professional development opportunities as a speaker and industry thought leader committed to knowledge transfer and domain expertise
- Facilitating best practices and improving staff knowledge by fostering collaboration
- Fostering a learning environment that promotes mentorship internally and enhances relationships between staff members
- Providing tools that nurture unique viewpoints and promote innovation
- Deploying a common learning and development approach that will contribute to accelerated program launches (internal and external) based on organizational knowledge
- Receive continuing education hours for the maintenance of your CPHIMS-CA credential
Digital Health Canada actively recruits industry leaders from across Canada to contribute both expert content and experienced instruction of Core HI principals.
- Volunteers interested in Education Development focus on creating content for the Canadian Supplemental (CA) Exam, the CA Exam Guide, or for Digital Health Canada’s Core HI courses—HI professional education and certification is vital to the evolution of a dynamic healthcare system, and Digital Health Canada Faculty continuously update course and exam content to reflect changes in the digital health industry.
- Those interested in Education Instruction teach—either in-person or online—the material they know best (topics are listed on our Application Form) a minimum of two times within a six month period.
Apply to become a Digital Health Canada Faculty Member
Start by completing the online application form at the link below. You must be a Digital Health Canada member and CPHIMS-CA credential holder to be considered for a Faculty volunteer role.