CMA President Dr. Kathryn Ross to deliver Opening Keynote at e-Health 2024
Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Kathleen Ross will open the e-Health 2024 Conference with a keynote presentation titled ‘Healthcare Human Resources: What Physicians, Nurses, and Healthcare Providers Need to Make Their Jobs Easier and Manage Burnout, Technology, the Administrative Burden of Health, and the Impact on Human Resources‘.
Dr. Ross is a family physician in Coquitlam and New Westminster, British Columbia; she does clinical work in community primary care and obstetrics and surgical assist work in cardiovascular surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH). She is a wife and mother of two. She holds a MSc in pathology and a MD from the University of British Columbia and teaches in the UBC Department of Medicine undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
Numerous leadership roles have provided Dr. Ross the opportunity to establish health care policy and lead grassroots improvement in both community and acute care services, including: past president of Doctors of BC; founding member and chair of the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice (FNDFP), RCH’s Collaborative Services Council and FNWDFP’s Shared Care Committee; and president of the RCH medical staff.
Dr. Ross is recognized for her interest in advancing technology in front-line clinical care. She has served as a physician lead and chair of the Pathways Patient Referral Association from inception to its current state as an indispensable online clinical and referral tool for physicians in BC and the Yukon.
As a founding member of Doctors of BC’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group in 2018 and physician lead for RCH’s Antiracism and Unconscious Bias Working Group in 2021, Dr. Ross remains committed to fostering learning, awareness, education and ongoing implementation of inclusive, diverse and antiracist practices in health care.
Dr. Ross is a member of the Physician Quality Improvement faculty with the Fraser Health Authority and the Physician Quality Improvement and Spreading Quality Improvement Steering Committee with the Specialist Services Committee and Fraser Health.
She also currently chairs the CMA’s Administrative Burden Working Group and is participating in the McMaster National Health Fellows Program.
Volunteerism is important to Dr. Ross. She has twice been recognized by Rotary International District 5050 for her health care educational training project work in remote Andean regions of Peru. She is a board member of Rotary World Help and the chair of the International Affairs Committee Chair for Rotary Club of Coquitlam. Dr. Ross works to awaken young women and girls to their possibilities and empower them via Girl Guides of Canada. In recognition of her long-standing community and international service work, Dr. Ross was inducted into the Terry Fox Wall of Fame in Port Coquitlam in 2019.
The session will be moderated by Deborah Cohen, Chief Operating Officer, Health Workforce Canada.
Dr. Deborah Cohen is the Chief Operating Officer of Health Workforce Canada, a newly formed organization mandated to work with health system stakeholders to plan, build and support a strong health workforce for the future – one that will enhance quality of care and health outcomes for all. Most recently she was the Director of Health Human Resources Information Systems at CIHI, where she focused on building the pan Canadian HHR data foundation, as well as health workforce analytics and forecasting models to meet critical healthcare planning needs across the country. Throughout her 20-year career, she has worked in a variety of health data sectors including health human resources, pharmaceuticals, mental health, population health, Indigenous health, and equity. Deborah holds a PhD in epidemiology and is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Ottawa, School of Epidemiology and Public Health.
The e-Health 2024 Opening Keynote presentation is sponsored by Oracle Health.
