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Evidence to Improve Care

Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee Members Biographies


Family Physician-in-Chief, Mount Sinai Hospital
Past President, Ontario College of Family Physicians

 

Biography

David Tannenbaum is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and the Family Physician-in-Chief in the Ray D. Wolfe Department of Family Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Tannenbaum received his medical degree from McGill University in 1977, and completed residency training in Family Medicine at McGill and at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has an active clinical practice that includes obstetrical care and he teaches residents and medical students in the Granovsky Gluskin Family Medicine Centre where he also leads the Mount Sinai Academic Family Health Team. His academic interests include curriculum design and implementation and he is the recent chair of the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Working Group on Curriculum Review of postgraduate training in Family Medicine and is a current member of the Triple C Curriculum Task Force. Dr. Tannenbaum served as president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians in 2012.

President and CEO, Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital

Biography

Pat Campbell is a health-care leader with broad leadership experience in government and rural, community and academic hospital environments. She was recently appointed as President and CEO at Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital. She was the President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association until June 2013. Prior to joining the OHA, she served as the first CEO of Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario. Previous leadership roles also include serving as President and CEO of Grey Bruce Health Services, a network of six hospitals in a rural region of Southern Ontario, and as President and CEO of Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. Pat has an undergraduate degree in Nursing from the UWO, an MBA from York University and has earned her Executive Training for Research Application Fellowship from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.

Ex-Officio (MOHLTC Representatives)

Acting Director, Hospitals and Emergency Services Division, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care

Biography

Throughout her career at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Allison has fostered patient engagement throughout Ontario’s health system and facilitated improved patient safety through the development and implementation of policies and programs that support the delivery of efficient, effective, and more patient-centred care. She has also acted as liaison and provided strategic support to Health Quality Ontario, and tested a range of innovative funding programs and health service delivery models that aim to improve patient outcomes and experiences while ensuring health system sustainability.

Allison continues to be involved with several policies and programs across the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, including supporting quality improvement programs and embedding evidence into practice. She is currently leading the Ontario Health Teams initiative, a new model integrating health care and funding to create a more coordinated health system that will benefit patients, families, communities, and health care providers.

Ex-Officio (HQO Representatives)

Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Health Quality Ontario

Biography

As of November 1, 2018 Anna Greenberg is Health Quality Ontario's interim president and CEO. Previously, Anna was the Vice-President, Health System Performance, and responsible for designing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to improve performance monitoring and public reporting in Ontario.

Prior to joining Health Quality Ontario, Anna was Director, Strategic Policy at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care where she led a branch of policy professionals in the development of policy in a wide variety of areas including mental health and addictions, healthcare quality and safety, clinical and social service integration, and reproductive technology. She previously spent over a decade in leadership roles in the cancer system, spearheading initiatives such as Ontario’s first publicly reported cancer system performance measurement tool, and cancer system planning and policy development, and knowledge management at Cancer Care Ontario, Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network, and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.

Anna holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California at Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University. Ms. Greenberg previously served on the Board of Directors at the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre, including serving as its inaugural Chair of the Quality Committee of the Board.

Vice President, Health Quality Ontario

Biography

Prior to joining the Health Quality Ontario team, Irfan Dhalla was the inaugural Medical Director, Quality and Research, at St. Michael’s Hospital. He continues to hold an Associate Scientist appointment at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital and an Adjunct Scientist appointment at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. His research has been recognized with several national awards, including a Rising Star Award and a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Dhalla holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia, a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics, which he completed as a Commonwealth Scholar. Dr. Dhalla practices and teaches general internal medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Director of Health Technology Assessment, Health Quality Ontario

Biography

Nancy Sikich is the director of Health Technology Assessment at Health Quality Ontario, in Toronto. She has been involved in health technology assessment for more than 10 years, with a focus on evaluating clinical effectiveness, the quality of evidence, and the process for making recommendations. Nancy holds a master's degree in health research methodology and a bachelor of science in nursing, both from McMaster University.

Members

Critical Care Specialist

Biography

Kali Barrett earned her medical degree in 2009 from the University of Western Ontario. She subsequently completed a residency program in Internal Medicine and Adult Critical Care at the University of Toronto. Dr. Barrett also holds a Master’s degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from London School of Economics, where her thesis was an economic evaluation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe adult respiratory distress syndrome. She has also completed additional methodological training in advanced methods for cost-effectiveness analysis at the England York University. Dr. Barrett is a Clinical Associate at Toronto Western Hospital with the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine. She has published several peer-reviewed articles and presented at a number national conferences.

Vascular Surgeon, St. Michael’s Hospital

Biography

Charles de Mestral is a vascular surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital and a surgeon-scientist in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in general surgery and vascular surgery. He pursues a research program in health services research and economic evaluation as a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital and as an adjunct scientist at ICES.

President and CEO, Toronto East General Hospital

Biography

Sarah Downey is a senior health care leader with 20 years’ experience in several academic health sciences centers. Prior to becoming President and CEO of Toronto East General Hospital in 2015, she spent three years as Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs at CAMH, and eleven years of progressive leadership at the University Health Network in Toronto. Downey also volunteers her time on the Board of Directors of WoodGreen Community Services, one of Toronto largest multiservice community agencies. She is currently serving a two-year term as Vice-Chair of the Board and Chair of the Governance Committee. Downey holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick, a Masters of Health Administration from the University of Ottawa, and is a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian College of Health Leaders. She has published several articles on hospital practices and has spoken at numerous healthcare conferences.

Director, the Ontario Medical Association
Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa

Biography

Atul Kapur is an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a clinical investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. His research interests include the interface between public health and emergency medicine. Dr. Kapur earned his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario and a specialization in emergency medicine from the University of Manitoba. He also holds a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kapur has served on the boards of the Canadian Medical Association, the Ontario Medical Association, and the Ottawa Board of Health. He was a leading member of the task force that revised the Canadian Medical Association’s Code of Ethics and Professionalism in 2018. Dr. Kapur is also a highly respected advocate for tobacco control and the president of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

Director, Li Ka Shing Centre for Healthcare Analytics Research and Training (CHART)

Biography

Muhammad Mamdani is the Director of the Li Ka Shing Centre for Healthcare Analytics Research and Training (CHART) of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He is also Professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation of the Dalla Lana Faculty of Public Health. He is also adjunct Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Dr. Mamdani also is a member of the Human Drug Advisory Panel of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) and is a co-Principal Investigator of the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network. In 2010, Dr. Mamdani was named among Canada’s Top 40 under 40. Prior to joining the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Mamdani was a Director of Outcomes Research at Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals in New York. Dr. Mamdani’s research interests include pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacoeconomics, and drug policy. He has published approximately 350 research studies in peer-reviewed medical journals, including leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the British Medical Journal, and Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Mamdani obtained a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD) from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1995 and subsequently completed a fellowship in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research at the Detroit Medical Center in 1997. During his fellowship, Dr. Mamdani obtained a Master of Arts degree in Economics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He then completed a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University in 1998 with a concentration in quantitative methods, focusing on biostatistics and epidemiological principles.

President and CEO, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance

Biography

Lori Marshall is the president and chief executive officer of Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. Lori has more than 20 years of leadership experience in Ontario’s acute and community care sectors. She has a reputation as a patient-centred strategist and a track record of addressing complex issues through a shared vision and knowledge of the community and region. Lori was previously the CEO of the Erie St. Clair Community Care Access Centre and Nipigon District Memorial Hospital. She has also served as vice-president at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Oshawa General Hospital. Lori is a registered pharmacist with the Ontario College of Pharmacists and a certified health executive with the Canadian College of Health Leaders. She holds a certificate from the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management’s Advanced Health Leadership program and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Ottawa. Lori has a rich history of community service and has been active on many boards and committees at the provincial and local levels.

Associate Professor at Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto
Chair, Mary Jo Haddad Nursing in Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children

Biography

Jennifer Stinson earned her bachelor’s degree in Nursing in 1988 from the University of Western Ontario, followed by a Master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto. She then completed a post-doctoral training at the University of Toronto IWK Health Science Centre, with a focus on the development, usability and feasibility testing of a Web-based self-management program for adolescents with arthritis. Dr. Stinson has worked as an Advanced Practice Nurse at the Hospital for Sick Children Chronic Pain program since 1998. She is currently an Associate Professor at Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Dr. Stinson is a senior scientist at Child Health Evaluative Sciences Research Institute and the Chair of Mary Jo Haddad Nursing in Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children. She has been the principal investigator on several research projects with a focus on improving health outcomes in children and youth with chronic health conditions, using digital health technologies to promote disease self-management. Dr. Stinson has published many peer-reviewed articles and have received several awards, including the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO), Leadership Award in Nursing Research, and the Early Career Award, IASP Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood.

Senior Scientist, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute
Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Biography

Wendy Ungar is a Senior Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Dr. Ungar has a Masters degree in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from McGill University and a PhD in Health Policy, Management and Evaluation from the University of Toronto. Dr. Ungar leads a program of research in the application of health economic methods to the pediatric population with a current focus on genomics and developmental disorders. In 2007 Dr. Ungar started TASK (Technology Assessment at Sick Kids), a research unit focusing on technology assessment in child health.

Biography

Maureen Smith is an Ontarian living with a very rare endocrine disease since childhood. Her condition requires close monitoring by healthcare professionals and she has been a frequent user of the healthcare services in Ontario. Maureen is a patient member on Ontario's Committee to Evaluate Drugs (CED) since April 2014, where she is involved in reviewing patient submissions and deliberating with other CED members in developing evidence-based recommendations. She is also a member of numerous other provincial, national and international health care advisory groups and organizations where she provides her perspective as a patient in areas such as health technology assessment, rare diseases, and patient engagement in research. Maureen is a firm believer that meaningful patient engagement in all areas of health care and active listening to all stakeholder perspectives will result in a better health care system for all Canadians.

Biography

Brian Huskins is an established community leader in patient engagement in the voluntary health care sector. With over 30 years of experience working with community-based health and social organizations, he has served on many advisory committees as a patient representative at the local, provincial, national and international level. A snapshot of his involvement would include patient representative on the Consumer Advisory Committee with the Canadian Blood Services; civil society representative with the Canadian delegation to the United National General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS; the 3x5 Evaluation Steering Committee with the World Health Organization; and, multiple patient consultations on best practices and access to services with various levels of health administration, government and organizations focused on the social determinants of health.

As an Ontarian living with HIV, asthma and COPD; Brian is familiar with the challenges of the healthcare system; engages with a wide variety of health care professionals on a regular basis in the management of these chronic conditions; and, maintains a broad network of patient organization contacts who function on the patient first principle of “nothing for us without us”.

Brian has written about HIV/AIDS, health and social issues for various publications and has published “Sexual Identity: The Journey Begins” and “Breaking the Skin: Tattooing and Body Piercing-Know the Risks”.

Biography

Gene Szabo is an Ontarian living with bladder and kidney cancer, diabetes and atrial fibrillation. He has also suffered a heart attack and has undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. Gene is co-chair of the Health Quality Ontario Patient, Family and Public Advisors Council and past co-chair of the Queensway Carleton Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council. He has also served as a member of the Human Research Ethics Board at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and as a Director and Vice-Chair of the Queensway Carleton Hospital Board of Directors.

William Wong is an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on infectious diseases modeling and health services and outcomes research, particularly in hepatitis B and C. William’s health services and outcomes research interests include quality of life, costing, and return on investment. His methodology research interests include advanced decision-analytic modeling techniques (such as discrete event simulation models and agent-based models) for health technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, and pharmacoeconomics evaluation studies. William received his Ph.D. in computer science (pharmacoinformatics) from the University of Waterloo and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in medical decision-making and health economics at the University of Toronto.

Sally Bean is an ethicist and policy advisor at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics. Sally earned a B.A. in philosophy and English, an M.A. in bioethics and public policy, and a law degree, juris doctorate (J.D.). After law school, she completed a two-year fellowship in clinical and organizational ethics through the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics. Sally has presented at national and international conferences, serves as a peer reviewer on numerous journals, and has published several peer-reviewed articles. Her academic and research interests include the intersection of health law and bioethics, health policy development, and patient engagement in health technology assessment.

Paul Bradley is a health care industry executive with over 30 years’ experience in the Canadian medical device and pharmaceutical markets. He has held leadership roles in a wide range of functional areas at Johnson & Johnson, including sales, marketing, strategic account management, human resources, and operations. As vice-president of Strategic Affairs, Paul had leadership responsibility for health economics and market access, professional education, clinical and regulatory affairs, quality, and health care compliance and was a member of the management board of the Canadian medical device division. Paul was a board member of MEDEC, Canada's medical technology industry association, from 2009 to 2016, holding various leadership roles over that time, including treasurer, and executive team member, and then board chair for the final two years. Paul is currently a board member and treasurer at ventureLAB, York Region’s Regional Innovation Centre, and is president of MedTech Consulting.

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