Awards + Host Plenary Session
- When: 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Monday, June 2
- Where: Harbour Castle Westin Frontenac Ballroom + Metropolitan Ballroom
Digital Health Canada Awards
Join us as we celebrate Canadian digital health leaders, innovators, and emerging professionals with the annual Digital Health Canada Awards: Digital Health Executive of the Year, Digital Health Leader of the Year, Clinical Innovator of the Year, Community Care Leader of the Year, Emerging Leader of the Year, StartUp Innovator of the Yea, and the Steven Huesing Scholarship recipients.
Host Plenary Session: Health Equity—The Role of Digital and Data
Digital health has the power to transform healthcare, but how can we ensure these innovations advance equity rather than widen disparities? This panel brings together experts working at the forefront of health equity and digital innovation with representatives from the three e-Health host organizations (Canada Health Infoway, Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Digital Health Canada) to discuss how health data and digital solutions can drive equitable outcomes so we can create a more inclusive and accessible healthcare system for all Canadians.
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Digital Health Canada Awards
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Presenter, Digital Health Canada Awards
Chris Carvalho, President and Chair of Board, Digital Health Canada
Chris is the President and Chair of the Digital Health Canada Board. He is an experienced entrepreneur and senior leader that combines strategic thinking with an action-oriented approach to drive large change and transformation initiatives. Chris is a certified project management professional (PMP) with a proven track record of successfully delivering projects and has led numerous IT system implementations (50+) in various clinical settings across Western Canada.
Chris has spent the majority of his career in the healthcare sector working with both public and private organizations and has built significant expertise on the implementation of Electronic Medical Records, Hospital Information Systems, and other digital health technologies.
Chris is an active member in his local health innovation community and has a strong interest in identifying and validating how emerging digital health solutions can be successfully integrated into our current healthcare system. Chris has also worked as a mentor, advisor, and investor within many health start-up, scale-up and established businesses and organizations and is known as a community builder dedicated to advancing the health innovation ecosystem through commercialization efforts.
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Host Plenary Session
e-Health is hosted by Canada Health Infoway, Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Digital Health Canada
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Host Plenary Session Emcee
Krista Balenko, Vice President, Enablement & Operations, Canada Health Infoway
Krista Balenko is the Vice President of Enablement & Operations at Canada Health Infoway, where she plays a pivotal role in the strategic delivery of the Connected Care business plan.
Central to her work, is ensuring that Infoway is recognized as a national leader in advancing interoperability by driving collaboration and engagement across clinical, industry, and jurisdictional stakeholders. Krista works closely with provincial and territorial partners to accelerate health system investment and transformation, and her team has been instrumental in the development of several initiatives and investment strategies to drive clinician engagement, including the launch of the Centre for Clinical Innovation in Digital Health and Infoway’s AI Scribe Investment Program. She also leads Infoway’s Canadian Standards Release Centre (CSRC), providing services, tooling and products to the Canadian Standards Community, including access to licensed International and pan-Canadian terminology and exchange standards.
Over her 20 years at Infoway, Krista has held various roles focused on advancing Connected Care across Canada, including supporting the adoption of the Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap to improve health information access, care collaboration, and health system efficiency. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and certifications in Project Management (PMP), Prosci Change Management, and Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS-CA).
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Host Plenary Session Emcee
Cyndi Peal, Indigenous Health | Vancouver Coastal Health
Cyndi Peal, traditional Nisga’a name: Lo’obim Xsgaak: Stone Eagle is originally Nisga’a/Kwakiutl and a registered member of the Heiltsuk Nation. A long time Patient Partner with Patient Voices Network, a rural and remote Indigenous Patient Navigator working with Indigenous Health|Vancouver Coastal Health at the ƛúxválásu’ailas Heiltsuk Hospital. Coming from community to support community while honoring indigenous beings, Cyndi believes the best medicine starts with being present, listening and willing to learn. Their common bowl and motto is Sayt K’ilim goot : One heart, one path, one nation
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Host Plenary Session Moderator + Panellist
Shelagh Maloney, CEO, Digital Health Canada
Shelagh Maloney’s career has been defined by a passion for digital health and its transformative ability to improve the patient and provider experience. Prior to assuming the role of CEO, Digital Health Canada, Shelagh held national executive leadership roles in both the public and private sectors where she earned widespread recognition for her business development, relationship management, consensus-building, and communication skills.
A dedicated advocate for innovation and equity through digital health, Shelagh has shaped policy and practice through influential volunteer roles. She is currently Vice -Chair, Vision Loss Rehab Canada and has served as Vice Chair of SNOMED International, Board Chair of Digital Health Canada, and Board Director, Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). Shelagh holds a B.Sc . in Applied Health Sciences from the University of Waterloo and is a Certified Professional in Health Information & Management Systems (CPHIMS-CA).
In recognition of her contributions to the industry, Shelagh was an inaugural recipient of the Women Leaders in Digital Health in 2017 and was named a Digital Health Canada Fellow in 2023.
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Host Plenary Session Panellist
Dr. Michael Anderson, MSc, FRCSC, Strategic Lead for Indigenous Health, University Health Network
Dr. Michael Anderson is part of the urban Indigenous community in Tkaronto/Toronto. He is Mohawk (Bear Clan) and mixed European ancestry with family roots in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. He practices surgical oncology and palliative care medicine. He serves as the Strategic Lead for the Indigenous Health Program at the University Health Network and is the Medical Director at Inner City Health Associates (Toronto), an agency providing healthcare to vulnerable and unhoused people in Toronto.
Additionally, he is Chief Medical Officer for Verto Inc., a digital health company. He is a senior researcher at the Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (U of T) and a UHN Wilson Centre Scholar. He previously served as an Indigenous Cancer Lead and a Surgical Oncology Lead at Cancer Care Ontario.
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Host Plenary Session Panellist
Rachel Bartholomew, CEO, Founder, Hyivy Health Inc, Femtech Canada
Rachel Bartholomew is a two-time entrepreneur who is now working on her second company, Hyivy Health, created after her recent fight with cervical cancer. Hyivy Health is creating a pelvic rehabilitation device for the 1 in 3 women worldwide who will experience a pelvic health complication in their lifetime. Rachel is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and has been working in various roles in the entrepreneurship ecosystem for over 15 years, including the Founder of Femtech Canada and Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University in Biotech Innovation.
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Host Plenary Session Panellist
Dr. Anderson Chuck, CEO, Canadian Institute of Health Information
Dr. Chuck has over 20 years of experience leading large-scale initiatives that leverage data to develop actionable strategies and improve health systems. Most recently, he served as Chief Health Economist at Alberta Health Services (AHS) where he worked closely with the Ministry of Health, health delivery leaders, clinicians and other system stakeholders in shaping the strategy for health system transformation, sustainability, financial performance and value. He also led the introduction of value-based decision making to guide AHS’s resource allocation priorities—a big job in a health authority with a budget of about $18 billion.
Dr. Chuck has a Master of Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy from the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and has expertise in areas of health economic evaluation, decision analytic modelling, clinical epidemiology, health technology assessment, knowledge translation, health financing, health funding, patient reported outcome measures, health system benchmarking and value-based decision frameworks.
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Host Plenary Session Panellist
Michael Green, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
Michael Green has dedicated his professional life to innovation in advancing the digital health agenda, creating jobs, and stimulating economic growth—all while ensuring higher-performing health systems and improving patient outcomes.
Serving as President and CEO of Canada Health Infoway since 2014, he has overseen the organization’s leadership in driving better access to health data and services to enable faster, more effective, and more efficient delivery of care. With a strong background in health leadership, Green has a proven track record of using innovative technologies to transform the health sector.
Green led the organization through the successful development and rollout of PrescribeIT®, Canada’s e-prescribing service. First introduced in 2017, PrescribeIT® now enables millions of Canadians to have their prescriptions sent electronically—and securely—to their pharmacy of choice.
Currently, Green is leading Infoway’s development of the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, which articulates strategies toward a modernized connected care system by improving access to data at the point of care, ensuring patient access to their own health information, and improving coordination and collaboration across care settings.
Green’s expertise and leadership have earned him recognition both nationally and internationally. He is a sought-after speaker on the topics of digital health and interoperability, and he has received honours for his contributions to health care.
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Host Plenary Session Panellist
Dr. Fahad Razak, Clinician Scientist | Co-founder, Unity Health Toronto | GEMINI
Fahad Razak is an internist at St Michael’s Hospital (Unity Health Toronto), Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Data-Informed Health Care Improvement at the University of Toronto, Provincial Lead for Quality Improvement in General Medicine at Ontario Health, and Vice President Research at the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine. He co-founded GEMINI, the largest hospital research and quality improvement network in Canada, and has received over $110 million in grant funding as Principal Investigator. GEMINI is used by an active community of more than 1000 scientists, health system leaders.
Dr. Razak completed a degree in Engineering Science and Medical Doctorate at the University of Toronto, and was the first physician appointed as the David E. Bell Fellow at Harvard University. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and on the advisory board of the BMJ. Notable recognitions include the inaugural Canadian Society for Internal Medicine National Award for Mentorship, Dean’s Emerging Leader Award and the President’s Impact Award at the University of Toronto; the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine’s New Investigator Award; and the Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship from the PSI Foundation.
Dr. Razak served as Scientific Director for the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and contributed to over 50 science and policy briefs that shaped Ontario’s response to the pandemic. He was a member of the Federal Expert Panel on Science Advisory and Research convened by the Minister of Health, and the on the Transformation Sub-Committee convened by the Board of the Canadian Institute for Health Information to help guide their future directions.
