Speakers

Zubin Austin, BScPhm MBA MIScPhD, Associate Professor and OCP Professor in Pharmacy, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto
Zubin Austin’s research interests include teaching, learning and assessment in the health professions. He is principal investigator in the International Pharmacy Graduate program, and a co-investigator in the IMPACT (Integrating family medicine and pharmacy to advance primary care therapeutics) project. He has pioneered development of the Family Health Simulator, an interdisciplinary training program for family health teams to facilitate collaborative practice.

Ian Blumer, MD FRCPC, Lecturer, University of Toronto, Medical Director to the Adult Program, Charles H Best Diabetes Centre, Toronto
 Ian Blumer is a diabetes specialist in the greater Toronto region. Dr. Blumer is a member of the executive of the Clinical and Scientific section of the Canadian Diabetes Association where he serves as Chair of the 2008 Clinical Practice Guidelines Dissemination & Implementation Committee. He is the medical advisor to the Charles H Best Diabetes Centre and has a teaching appointment with the University of Toronto. He has written several books including "What Your Doctor Really Thinks," "Understanding Prescription Drugs for Canadians for Dummies" and "Diabetes for Canadians for Dummies."

Judith Belle Brown, BSW, MSW, PhD, Professor, Chair, Master of Clinical Science and PhD Programs in Family Medicine, Department of Family Medicine Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, King's University College, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Brown is the Chair of the MClSc and PhD in Family Medicine at Western. An internationally recognized qualitative researcher, she has expertise in patient-centred care, interprofessional teamwork, family physician practice behaviour, and women abuse. She has given presentations both nationally and internationally on the patient-centered clinical method. She is a co-author of the book Patient-Centered Medicine: Transforming the Clinical Method and co-editor of companion case book. Dr. Brown was made an Honorary Member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 1996.

Ken Burns, R. Ph. B. Sc. Phm. CDE CRE, Errington Pharmacy, Chelmsford, Ontario
The Past Chair of the Ontario Pharmacists' Association, Ken Burns is a community pharmacist. He is a Certified Respiratory Educator (asthma and COPD) and Certified Diabetes Educator. He has designed patient care programs in collaboration with other healthcare providers and continues to work in integrating pharmacists more fully and effectively into the healthcare team through involvement with the profession, our LHIN, the Ministry of Health and others.

W. Scott Dudgeon, MBA, Chair, The Change Foundation, Toronto, Ontario
Scott Dudgeon is the past CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Canada and an experienced health-care executive. His previous positions include: executive director of the Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative; executive director of the Toronto District Health Council; vice president, Planning and Support Services at the Humber River Regional Hospital; and acting president and CEO of the Humber Memorial Hospital. Scott is a member of the Canadian College of Health Services Executives, and a lecturer on health administration at the University of Toronto and York University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Bloorview Kids Rehab and Chair of their Building Development Committee.

Shannon Selkirk-Ferrier, RN(EC), BSc, BSCN, Greater Peterborough FHT, Buckhorn, ON
Shannon Selkirk-Ferrier has almost 20 years experience in nursing, having received her nursing diploma from Sir Sanford Fleming College in 1990 and her BScN, Nurse Practitioner Certificate, from the University of Windsor in 1997. She has extensive hospital nursing experience in Emergency Room, Outpatient Services, Level II Nursery and as an Educator. For more than 10 years, she has worked as a Nurse Practitioner in Primary Health Care. She now works with the well-established Peterborough Networked Family Health Team, which has been a leader in the province for family health teams and the implementation of collaborative teams. In addition, she is the former chair of the Nurse Practitioner Network of Peterborough and is a board member for Primary Health Care Services of Peterborough.

Carolyn Glover, R.Ph. B.Sc. Phm, Barrie & Community Family Health Team, Barrie, Ontario
Carolyn Glover has worked as a clinical pharmacist with the Barrie & Community Family Health team for more than two years. She collaborates with 30 MDs out of the 65 enrolled FHT physicians. Her pharmacy career includes primary care, hospital and a community position as a Shoppers Drug Mart associate. She obtained her bachelors of pharmacy at the University of Toronto and has taken various certification programs, including obesity and anticoagulation. She has collaborated with CCAC and Royal Victoria Hospital and is a member of a team working with the QIIP initiatives.

Brian Goldman, MD, FACEP, FCFP, Staff Emergency Physician, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto; Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
A well-recognized expert in pain management and prescription drug abuse and diversion, Brian Goldman has served on the Canadian Pain Society Task Force responsible for developing guidelines on opioid therapy for patients with chronic non-cancer pain. In the late 1980s, he embarked on a second career as a broadcaster, and had stints as a health reporter on CBC Television’s The National and The Health Show. He later served as senior production executive during the launch of Discovery Health Channel, Canada’s first 24-hour channel devoted to health and medicine. For the past 10 years he has been “house doctor” at CBC Radio One, where his credits include creating and hosting his own radio series, White Coat, Black Art. This weekly half-hour series explores the world of medicine and the healthcare system from the perspective of people who work “on his side of the gurney.” In 2008, it was named Best Network Program and Best Weekly Program on CBC Radio One.

Simon Hally, BSc, Editor/Publisher, Canadian Healthcare Manager, Rogers Publishing
Simon Hally is Editor/Publisher of Canadian Healthcare Manager, the management magazine for Canada's healthcare decision-makers. He has previously edited and published magazines in the medical, financial services and general business fields. 

Irene Heinz, RN(EC), NP-Adult, BScN, MN, CNN(C), Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie, Ontario
Irene Heinz is a Nurse Practitioner at Royal Victoria Hospital in the Stroke Program. She completed a BScN at Ryerson University and a Master of Nursing/ Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Certificate at the University of Toronto. She holds CNA certification in Neuroscience. She has a vast amount of experience in critical care, vascular surgery and interventional radiology. More recently, Irene has worked in the area of secondary prevention of vascular events, first at Lakeridge Health and most recently at Royal Victoria Hospital. 

Andrew Hussain, Regional Chief Information Office and eHealth Lead, Mississauga Halton and Central West Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN)
Andrew Hussain has an extensive background in information management services both Canada and the US, and has consulted both the private and public healthcare sectors in the US. He spent five years transforming and future proofing the Information Management and Information Services infrastructure at the Work Place Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) and served as the Director Information Management and Information Services for Trillium Health Centre. He received the 2006 Canadian Information Productivity Awards, and the 2005 Telus Award for Innovation.

Donna Kearney, BScN, BA Gerontology, RN(EC), MHST, Nurse Practitioner/Manager, Rosseau Nursing Station, West Parry Sound Health Centre, Parry Sound, Ontario
An RN since 1988, Donna Kearney has worked in hospital settings across three provinces. In 2003 she became a primary healthcare nurse practitioner. Since then she has worked in a rural nursing station in Rosseau, Ontario. She completed a BA in Gerontology in 2003 and a Masters of Health Studies in 2008. She is on staff at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, where she mentors third-year medical students in the clinical area. She also provides clinical placements and mentoring for NP students from across Canada.

Heather Kertland, St. Michael’s Heart and Vascular Program, Toronto, Ontario

Tom Kontio, R.Ph, Clinical Pharmacist, Thames Valley Family Health Team – Strathroy Medical Clinic, Strathroy Ontario
Tom Kontio received his Bachelors of Pharmacy from the University of Toronto in 1993 and became a certified Diabetes Educator five years later. Throughout his career in hospital, community and now in the primary care pharmacy, he has focused on diabetes care. He is currently a clinical pharmacist with Strathroy Medical Clinic (SMC) and is team lead on the Ministry of Health’s Partnerships for Health`` project at the SMC. This project brings together family physicians, allied health and community partners and has led to positive outcomes in diabetes indices as well as working relationships between many different health care professionals.

Mary Lewis, B.A. MSW, Director Government Relations and Health Partnerships, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario
Mary Lewis graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA and Master of Social Work. She has 40 years of experience in health, social services and community development. Her mandate at the Heart and Stroke Foundation is to provide leadership to enable HSFO to advocate, engage communities and partner with healthcare providers and government to advance the health of Ontarians. Mary provided staff leadership advocating for the highly successful Ontario Stroke System.

Peter J. Lin, MD CCFP, Director of Primary Care Initiatives, Canadian Heart Research Centre, Medical Director - LinCorp Medical Inc
Dr. Peter Lin has served as the medical director at the University of Toronto’s Health and Wellness Centre at Scarborough for seven years. Currently, he is the Director of Primary Care Initiatives at the Canadian Heart Research Centre. He continues to be a lecturer and speaker with two busy family practices in Toronto. He is a consultant for Perspectives in Cardiology, and is on of the editorial board for The Canadian Alzheimer Disease Review. Dr. Lin has been the chairman of the Dementia Congress in the United States for the last four years. He is also on the editorial board of Pri-Med Institute USA, which provides education for physicians.

Chris O’Connor, MD FRCPC, Director of Medical Informatics Trillium Health Centre, CEO Open Source Order Sets
Dr. Chris O’Connor lead the development of Trillium Health Centre's order set project which received the first Ministry of Health and Long Term Care award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality. In 2006 Dr. O'Connor helped establish Open Source Order Sets (OSOS), a collaborative Canadian order set network that has grown to more than 90 hospitals in four provinces. Other informatics projects include the first ever use of wireless email by a large interdisciplinary healthcare team and the use of semi-structured documentation for progress notes. In 2007, Dr. O’Connor received the COACH (Canada’s Health Informatics Association), Emerging Leader in Health Informatics Award.

Shawn Shepheard, BA
Shawn Shepheard was the 2008 Volunteer of the Year for the Canadian Diabetes Association and lead the 2008 International Summit on the Serious Complications of Diabetes. He is the author of Running Down a Dream” Leading your Perfect Life, and also a professional speaker who runs his own business. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1997, Shawn has taken the challenges associated with the disease and channelled them into life lessons. By using personal examples and experiences, Shawn has inspired many people to push the boundaries of what is possible in their own lives. He has as appeared on CBC, CTV, CITY TV, TV Ontario and Diabetes Dialogue and CBC Radio

Dana Strength, RN(EC) BScN, Nurse Practitioner, Barrie & Community Family Health Team
Dana Strength earned a three-year RN diploma at Georgian College in Orillia in 1994, followed by a BScN at Laurentian University in 2002. She then completed the COUPN Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program in 2008. She has 15 years’ experience as a registered nurse in Geriatrics, Home Care, Family Practice and Public Health in the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program. For the past year, she has worked as a nurse practitioner with four physicians in the Barrie & Community Family Health Team. This is a rich environment that facilitates collaboration with physicians, pharmacists, dieticians, mental health and diabetic educators. She is currently participating in the QIIP initiative.

Andrew Szende, BA, M.Soc.Sci, Chief Executive Officer, electronic Child Health Network, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
As the CEO of the electronic Child Health Network (eCHN) for the past 10 years, Andrew Szende has led the development of the network from a mere idea to its current status as Canada's largest functioning integrated electronic health record. It currently helps thousands of healthcare providers in hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities to serve Ontario’s three million paediatric patients. Prior, Andrew served the Ontario government as Associate Secretary of the Cabinet and as Assistant Deputy Minister of Health. Earlier in his career, he was a journalist. He was educated at the University of Toronto, the National University of Singapore, and Queen’s University in Kingston.

Doug Tessier, Acting Senior Vice President of Strategy, Development, and Delivery, eHealth Ontario
Doug Tessier joined eHealth Ontario in April 2009, after 26 years of service with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.Most recently at the Ministry, he led the eHealth Program driving the strategy and governance Cabinet submissions that created eHealth Ontario. His leadership in ehealth has included roles as the first chair of Canada’s Electronic Health Record Working Group; co-chair of the Interoperability Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Health Informatics; chair of several national workshops on ehealth topics including client and provider registration, personal health information and drug information systems.

Cynthia Whitehead, MD, CCFP, FCFP, MScCH, PhD(c), Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto; Women’s College Hospital, Toronto Rehab Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Dr Cynthia Whitehead is an academic family physician at the University of Toronto. She has spent several years working in interprofessional settings, both in family medicine and rehabilitation. She is also involved in interprofessional education and research, with a particular interest in issues of power, language and hierarchy within interprofessional teams.

Andrew Wozniak, M.D., CCFP, Barrie Community & Family Health Team
Dr. Andrew Wozniak has 22 years of experience in Family Practice/General Practice. He completed medical school in Poland and his internship at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He has extensive experience in Emergency Room and Family Practice services, both in urban and rural settings. Outside Clinical Sciences, his main interest is office efficiency, quality indicators in the Primary Care Practice, computer applications and electronic medical records in Primary Practice. He is currently a member of the Barrie Community and Family Health Team and is a board member of the Family Health Organization in Barrie, Ontario.

Questions?

Contact Joanne Merrick
416 764-3874
Joanne.merrick@rci.rogers.com