Faculty

Heather Begley works at University Health Network and has completed 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 fiv​e sites of Toronto Rehab.

Alma Chandrasekharan has over 10 years of experience in Analysis, Design, Product Development and Implementation of Healthcare IT systems with a strong focus in the Healthcare market in Australia, United Kingdom and Canada. Key strengths include – strong communication skills, team building, stakeholder engagement.Additionally, she is skilled in – business strategy, product management, benefits evaluation, requirements gathering, rapid prototyping, user interface design and usability, data modelling and design, data governance, healthcare and clinical practices, standards, service management, service oriented architecture, and programming in .NET framework.

Dennis Cheung is Program Lead, Architecture and Standards at CIHI and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Toronto. Over a decade of experience working in the healthcare sector. Experiences range from community sized hospitals to teaching hospitals, to government, non-profit and international organizations helping to procure, build, and deploy clinical and IT solutions.

Hélène Clément is accountable for the effective and efficient operations of new service delivery models, including Point of Care (POC) services that are outcome-based and patient-centric. She contributes to the design of new services and products; leads the implementation, testing and evaluation of new service delivery models; and fosters a continuous improvement culture driving towards customer centricity, operational excellence and quality. Hélène Clément acts as the single point of contact for the operations for service innovation and provide leadership to the Clinical Operations Team members.

Dr. Hobson has 16 years experience as a physician working in primary and secondary care (major areas of interest include family practice, after hours services, internal medicine especially cardiology gastroenterology and endocrinology) and 10 years experience in Family Medicine, during which time he used an EMR with full functionality including integration of lab results, radiology and other documents in day-to-day practice. Dr. Hobson has global experience in all areas of Healthcare IT, from business strategy through product design and development; sales and marketing; implementation project management and business analysis. Dr. Hobson has worked on both the client and vendor side as well as with payers and providers in the US. Interests are in strategy and application of technology to integrated care, disease management and primary care. International experience (spanning Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA and Spain) enables Dr. Hobson to bring a great perspective for comparison of different health systems, their strengths and weaknesses. Globally Dr. Hobson has advised on approximately 25 Health Information Exchanges (shared electronic health records) along with their implementation and evaluation and more than ten chronic disease management and care coordination projects. At Orion, Dr. Hobson provides strategic advice to clients on healthcare system evolution, the importance of primary care to the future of a successful health system and the use of Information Technology to support it.

Dr. Margaret Ann Kennedy is Chief Nursing Informatics Officer and Managing Partner leading Gevity’s Clinical Informatics Practice. 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’s deep understanding of interprofessional clinical practice informs her strategic advisory services, assisting clients to achieve organizational transformation, health outcome and adoption targets, and system efficiencies. She is equally comfortable engaging at a tactical project level; with diverse stakeholders; managing change programs; and training users. Margie is recognized for her ability to quickly connect with clients, bringing her expert clinical lens to ensure that implementations align with clinical priorities and administrative needs. Margie is adept in cultivating consensus among interprofessional stakeholders, and local, regional, or complex multi-jurisdictional teams. She understands the importance of fostering strategic alliances to achieve long term success. Margie approaches her group work with humor, an unwavering commitment to excellence, and a humanistic approach that aims to empower. 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. A true East Coaster, Margie is always at home by the sea, and can frequently be found exploring oceanside vistas or seeking local whale watching and boating adventures. Margie is a ballet and musical theatre fan as well as an avid hockey fan. Margie holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of South Australia, a Master of Nursing from Dalhousie University (Canada), a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St. Francis Xavier University (Canada), and a Post Graduate Certificate in Standards for Health Informatics from the University of Sherbrooke (Canada). Additionally, she maintains her CPHIMS-CA, plus multiple change and project management certifications.

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).

With 30 years of experience in information management, analytics and patient care, as Director of Digital Insights for CGI, Julie is responsible for data and analytics strategies, thought leadership and business development across the US. She has led some of the first healthcare prescriptive analytics project to determine the best possible options to improve access, cost and quality of care. Julie is the author of numerous health BI, analytics and informatics papers, speaker at numerous international conferences and has volunteered for over 20 years as member of community, national and international boards and committees. A personal style that engenders collaboration, openness, innovation and achievement.

Patricia is currently a Business Analyst/Project Manager and Clinical Subject Matter Expert for Gevity Consulting Inc., an international informatics and management consulting company.. She is also currently the Clinical Nursing Advisor for the eHealth Saskatchewan Programs Division. She provides strategic input into initiative planning; leads clinical engagement for clinical systems initiatives, content development, systems access and use; facilitates eHealth partnership with the Ministry of Health efforts e.g. patient safety initiatives; supports the SRNA in their members’ access to and use of clinical systems; and supports the development and integration of clinicians into informatics roles with the organization.

Susan Sepa’s (RN, BScN, MSc, CPHIMS-CA, CHE) initial grounding in front line clinical and operational management experience in health care organizations, followed by over 14 yrs in health care consulting is a unique combination resulting in key competencies in: Strategy and business case development for electronic health record (EHR) and clinical information solutions (CIS) roadmaps; Stakeholder engagement and change implementation strategies; Clinical Informatics; IM IT organizational process and redesign and Health system analysis and process redesign. Susan has fulfilled roles such as the executive leader of a health authority clinical application management group; clinical informatics and transformational lead for a CIS program, a Project Director for clinical information system implementations, a facilitator and leader of clinical informatics advisory groups in health care agencies. Throughout, Susan is a tireless advocate for the patient safety and quality benefits of a fully interoperable CIS that enables care providers and supports seamless and timely sharing of clinical information across the patient journey.