CHIEF Executive Forum Fall Symposium

Dr. Danielle Martin is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), University of Toronto. DFCM is the largest academic department of family medicine in the world and home to the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care. Dr. Martin is an active family physician and a respected leader in Canadian medicine. In 2006, her first year in practice, she helped launch Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the voice for Canadian physicians who believe in "a high quality, equitable, sustainable health system built on the best available evidence as the highest expression of Canadians caring for one another". Danielle’s policy, clinical and academic expertise, combined with her commitment to health equity, have made her a highly regarded health system leader. She holds a Masters of Public Policy from the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto and teaches health policy and health system leadership to trainees from undergraduate to PhD level. In 2018 she led a team to produce the paper ‘Canada’s universal health-care system: achieving its potential’, a core paper for a special issue of The Lancet on Canada’s health systems. In March 2014, Dr. Martin’s presentation to a United States Senate Subcommittee about the Canadian health care system brought her international acclaim and has been viewed by over 30 million people across the globe. Her national bestselling book ‘Better Now: 6 Big Ideas to Improve the Health of all Canadians’, was released in 2017 and is used by students and lay people across Canada who want to learn more about Canada’s health system. Dr. Martin spent eight years as a senior hospital executive, most recently as Executive Vice President and Lead Medical Executive at Women’s College Hospital (WCH), where she was also medical lead of the hospital’s COVID-19 pandemic response. At WCH, she also led the establishment of Women’s Virtual, Canada’s first virtual hospital. The recipient of many awards and accolades, in 2019 Dr. Martin became the youngest physician ever to receive the F.N.G. Starr Award, the highest honour available to Canadian Medical Association members.

With over 25 years of executive experience in health, insurance, government, and telecommunications, Barry is the President of PBC Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Blue Cross that delivers health benefits services to governments and other large payer organizations. Barry also serves as a Board Director at the Royal Canadian Mint and the Information Technology Advisory Council at the University of British Columbia.

Barry is a visionary and transformational leader who has created and led two healthcare companies, PBC Solutions and TELUS Health, and designed and executed complex, multi-organizational enterprise-wide transformations. He has a proven track record of delivering innovative solutions, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction. He is passionate about improving the health and well-being of Canadians through digital health and data-driven insights. He is also a recognized and influential business leader, having been named as one of the BIV's (Business in Vancouver) BC 500, the 500 most influential business persons in 2021 and 2023, and the BIV Chief Information Officer of the Year in 2019.

Barry holds a BA (Hons) from York University, an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and an ICD.D Designation from the Rotman School of Business and Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Management.

Dr. Rashaad Bhyat is an award-winning family physician with special expertise in Health Informatics and Digital Health, and an accomplished medical communicator. He is Senior Clinical Leader in the Centre for Clinical Innovation in Digital Health at Canada Health Infoway.
He has recently joined Brampton’s new TMU School of Medicine as Digital Health Lead, and Assistant Clinical Professor.
Over the past decade, he has advised Infoway on numerous strategic initiatives across Canada, including interoperability, virtual care, AI in healthcare, EMR/EHR adoption and optimization, electronic prescribing (PrescribeIT), remote patient monitoring, increasing patient access to health records, clinician-focused digital transformation, and recently led the successful Connected Care Clinician Innovation Grant initiative.
In addition to his medical training, Dr. Bhyat completed a Masters Certificate in Physician Leadership from York University’s Schulich School of Executive Management, a Certificate in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare from McMaster University, and executive education in Leading Digital Transformation at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Bhyat has delivered numerous lectures and moderated panels at conferences with both national and international reach, authored a book chapter, and published papers in peer-reviewed medical journals, all focusing on digital health. He has been quoted and interviewed by media organizations, including the CBC, the Toronto Star, and multiple podcasts. In 2024, he was awarded Digital Health Canada’s Clinician Innovator of the Year award.
Recently, he co-chaired the CanMEDS 2025 Data Informed Medicine Working Group, for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and was a member of the CFPC’s Curriculum Renewal Health Informatics Expert Panel. Currently, he is co-chairing the Digital Health Interoperability Task Force, a joint initiative of the CMA, CFPC, Royal College, and Infoway, that will release its report and recommendations in the fall of 2024.
Currently he practices in an EMR-enabled family medicine clinic in Brampton, Ontario.

In his role, Tim Murphy oversees the Health Innovation and Health Platforms teams at Alberta Innovates. He brings a deep commitment to partner collaboration and community asset development to the intricate work of health care transformation through data and digital technologies.

He is a proven executive with more than 30 years of progressive leadership experience in a variety of roles in health and health research organizations across three provinces in Canada.

Tim is an inspirational leader, known for achieving high performance teamwork that delivers results. A consummate coalition-builder, Tim is skilled in the processes required to motivate and mobilize an organization and community toward collective action. Evidence of his success includes making Alberta one of the first partners in the federal Strategy for Patient Oriented Research program.

Dr. Jennifer Zelmer is the inaugural President and CEO of Healthcare Excellence Canada, the new organization formed in 2020 through the amalgamation of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement and Canadian Patient Safety Institute to achieve safer, higher quality and more coordinated patient-partnered healthcare. Jennifer's long-standing commitment to improving healthcare quality and safety, as well as expertise in spreading and scaling innovations that deliver better outcomes, will help to create this new organization with an expanded capacity to improve healthcare for everyone in Canada. Jennifer previously joined CFHI as its President and CEO in September 2018. She has been a C.D. Howe Research Fellow for several years and is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Victoria, as well as a member of several health-related advisory committees and boards.

Previously, as President of Azimuth Health Group, Dr. Zelmer was a strategic advisor to leaders who sought to advance health and healthcare at local, national, and international levels. Before that, she held senior leadership positions with Canada Health Infoway, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Jennifer served on the first (2004) Safer Healthcare Now! National Steering Committee convened by CPSI when she was at CIHI. She also served on CPSI's former Health System Innovation Advisory Committee, and more recently, Jennifer served on the National Patient Safety Consortium Steering Committee during her time at Infoway.

Dr. Zelmer received her PhD and MA in economics from McMaster University and her B.Sc. in health information science from the University of Victoria.

Dr. Dominik Nowak is a family doctor and health leader. In addition to his clinical practice at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Dr. Nowak’s mission is to build teamwork across the health system. He is a trusted advisor to leading provincial, national, and international organizations toward a health system that is more kind, caring, and careful. Dr. Nowak serves as President at the Ontario Medical Association, the voice of 43,000 doctors across Ontario.

Dr. Nowak trained at McMaster University, where he specialized in family medicine and served as chief resident. He went on to the University of Toronto to finish a Master of Health Administration at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation as well as the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program at the Rotman School of Management. Dr. Nowak is a faculty member in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is a recipient of the College of Family Physicians of Canada Award of Excellence for his leadership in Canadian healthcare.

Elizabeth Toller is seasoned policy and public sector leader within the Government of Canada with a passion for health issues. As the Director General of Health Care Strategies at Health Canada, she facilitates pan-Canadian collaboration on shared health priorities, including the Government’s Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan.

Previously, as Executive Director of Digital Health and Primary Care within the Health Care Strategies Directorate, Elizabeth and her team worked with provinces and territories to improve access to family health services and modernize the health system with health data and digital tools. Her team was key in advancing collaboration on connected care through better health data interoperability.

Elizabeth has also led initiatives at Health Canada’s Health Product and Food Branch, driving regulatory changes for food and drugs to support innovation and safety. She has held policy roles in various federal departments, including Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, and the Privy Council Office. Outside of work, she is a mother of two and enjoys exercise and gardening.

Susan Anderson is an accomplished e-Health strategist with 30+ years’ experience in healthcare informatics in Canada. Susan is the CIO for Nunavut’s Ministry of Health and leads the Health Information Unit within the Department. Moving north to Nunavut, Susan has had opportunity to witness and learn of the culture, values and priorities of Inuit. Susan is an enthusiastic volunteer, including her current role as a Director for CHIMA’s national Board and as the chair of CHIMA’s governance committee.

Robin Laird graduated with a Diploma in Nursing in 1992 from the PEI School of Nursing. She later completed a BN and then in 2012, graduated with a Masters Degree in Health Studies. Robin holds a black belt in Lean methodology and a Financial Management Certificate from UPEI. Robin spent 16 years nursing and then was the Provincial Wait Times Coordinator for Health PEI for several years. In 2015 she became the Director of eHealth, Clinical Operations. Robin is the current Council Chair of the College of Registered Nurses of PEI and is a Board Member with the Canadian Nurses Association. Robin resides in Cardigan, PEI with her husband Kurt. They have 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Michael Hillmer is Assistant Deputy Minister of the Capacity Planning and Analytics Division of the Ministry of Health and has been part of the Ontario Public Service since 2007. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring the data and analytic needs of the health system are met;
ultimately, this part of his portfolio is responsible for delivering insights into the hands of decision makers. Michael is also responsible for the development and implementation of ongoing strategic, coordinated approaches to health workforce planning to ensure the right size, mix and distribution of health care providers – now and in the future. Michael’s academic background includes graduate degrees from the University of Toronto, and a BSc from Carleton University

A public sector executive with the Government of New Brunswick, Lee Burry has over 15 years of high-level experience in areas including human resources, strategy, organizational performance and change management. He has led multidisciplinary teams across a series of government departments and presently holds the role of Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services with New Brunswick's Department of Health. In this role, Lee is responsible for a variety of ministerial functions including Analytics, Innovation and eHealth.