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Dr. Bob Bell
Dr. Bell was appointed Deputy Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, effective June 2, 2014. Prior to this role, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of University Health Network for nine years. Dr. Bell received his Doctor of Medicine from McGill University and a Master of Science from the University of Toronto. He also completed a Fellowship in Orthopaedic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. Dr. Bell brings more than 40 years of health care experience to his current role.
Dr. Patchen Dellinger, M.D.
Dr. Dellinger graduated from Swarthmore College and Harvard Medical School. During surgical training at the Beth Israel, Boston, he completed an ID Fellowship at Tufts. He is past president of the Surgical Infection Society, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, of IDSA and of SHEA. He was on HICPAC from 2004-07. He served on the Working Group on preventing surgical site infection in the second Global Patient Safety Challenge "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" of WHO which resulted in the Surgical Safety Checklist. He has been performing general surgery at the University of Washington since 1977. He is on the management committee of the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP). He has authored and/or coauthored more than 190 papers and chapters and he serves on the editorial boards of Surgical Infections and Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
He is a co-author of the joint guidelines for prevention of Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI) jointly sponsored by HICPAC, Society for Critical Care Medicine, SIS, and IDSA, the Guideline for treatment of intra-abdominal infections, a joint guideline from SIS and IDSA, and the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Surgery, a joint guideline sponsored by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, IDSA, SHEA, and SIS and of the WHO Recommendations on Intraoperative and Postoperative Measures for Surgical Site Infection Prevention. He is a member of the writing group for the new HICPAC guidelines for prevention of surgical site infections which is actively working on the next guideline. He is an original member of the Technical Expert Panel that advised CMS for the SCIP infection prevention guidelines and continues to work on that panel. He is on the board of the International Surgical Infections Study Group (OASIS GLOBAL).
Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, Hon BA, MA, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Fitzgerald began this new leadership position as President, McMaster Children's Hospital in early 2009. His other Hamilton Health Sciences leadership roles include the Executive Lead of the Women's Health and Newborn Care Program and the Executive Lead of McMaster University Medical Centre site. Dr. Fitzgerald is a distinguished surgeon with a national and international reputation for his innovative work and leadership in minimal access (keyhole) surgery and reconstructive chest wall surgery. He has been integral in establishing the minimal access pediatric surgery program at MCH. He has been an active pediatric general surgeon at MCH for the last 20 years and continues his important clinical work in conjunction with his leadership roles.
Dr. Fitzgerald is also a professor of surgery at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and has made significant contributions to undergraduate surgical education, particularly in the development of evaluation standards. After graduating from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Baccalaureate of Arts in Psychology (Gold Medalist) and a Master of Arts in Experimental-Theoretical Psychology (Neurosciences), Dr. Fitzgerald attended McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. He completed his postgraduate training in General Surgery in Hamilton and in 1990 moved to Halifax to continue subspecialty training in Pediatric General Surgery. Since returning to Hamilton in 1992, Dr. Fitzgerald has held positions as the Head of Pediatric General Surgery, Head of Pediatric Surgery and the role of Medical Director for McMaster Children's Hospital.
Linda Jussaume, RN, BScN, MBA
Ms. Jussuame is the Program Director, Surgery, Endoscopy and Central Processing at North York General Hospital and the Adjunct Lecturer at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Her illustrious career spans 25 years in management with experience in hospital mergers, program expansion and team building. She has also spent time in private consultation at the Provincial, National and International levels.
Dr. Claude LaFlamme, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Laflamme, anesthesiologist, completed his medical training in Canada and a cardiac anesthesia fellowship in the United States. In 2011, he completed a Master’s Degree in Health Administration at the university of Toronto. Since 2006 he has been heavily involved in improving quality of care and patient safety. On a national and international level, he was invited on countless occasions to lead knowledge translation sessions to anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses, anesthesia assistants and operating room managers. In collaboration with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, he led the creation of the board of governance of Enhanced Recovery Canada (ERC) where national coordinated team-based care approach is the foundation of quality improvement.
In addition, his current focus lies on providing cognitive aid for anesthesiologists to improve the quality of care, enhance the quality of mortality and morbidity rounds, and making available a patient safety adverse event or near miss timely reporting system.
Mary Ann Neary, M.Sc., M.HS.
Ms. Neary is the Senior Clinical Director of the Surgical Program at TGH, a position she has held for the past 4 and a half years. Prior to that, Mary Ann was the Clinical Director of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and Critical Care at the Toronto Western site of UHN for several years.
Mary Ann is also the co-lead of the Surgical Site Infection Hospital Acquired Conditions Working Group at UHN along with Dr. Tim Jackson. Mary Ann’s clinical background is as a speech-language pathologist.
Dr. Andy Smith, MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS
Dr. Andy J. Smith is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In addition, he is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He completed medical school, including a Masters of Science, and General Surgery residency at the University of Toronto. He also completed a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-‐Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Upon returning to Canada, he established himself as a leader in the management of colorectal cancer. He has served as Head of the Division of General Surgery at Sunnybrook, Chair of the Division of General Surgery at the University of Toronto and Chief of the Odette Cancer Program and Regional Vice President for Cancer Care Ontario. Most recently, Dr. Smith has served Sunnybrook as its Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Executive.
Dr. Joshua Tepper, MD, MPH, MBA
Before coming to Health Quality Ontario as President and Chief Executive Officer, Joshua was the Vice President of Education at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in charge of educational strategy and programming for learners, physicians and staff, patients and their families, and the community. Prior to Sunnybrook, he served as the Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, where he led the HealthForceOntario health human resources strategy to ensure Ontarians had access to the right number and mix of qualified health care providers. Joshua has also been active on a national scale as the Senior Medical Officer for Health Canada, an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and a Research Consultant for the Canadian Institute of Health Information. He has received several provincial and national awards for his leadership in these positions, including the Ontario College of Family Physicians, Jan Kasperski Leadership Award (2011-12) and Canada’s Outstanding Young Leadership Award from the Canadian College of Health Services Executives (2009).
Joshua received his Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University. He has a Masters of Public Health in Quantitative Methods from Harvard University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Duke University.
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