Tuesday Opening Ceremonies + Opening Plenary Panel
- When: 8:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, June 3
- Where: Harbour Castle Westin Frontenac Ballroom + Metropolitan Ballroom
Tuesday Opening Ceremonies
Kick-start your day here with a warm welcome from our Opening Ceremonies Emcees.
Tuesday Opening Plenary Panel: Health Data Approach for Enabling Integrated Care
This plenary panel features three Canadian healthtech leaders with deep experience in deploying technology innovation to improve patient and provider outcomes at hospitals across Canada.
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Tuesday Opening Ceremonies
Tuesday Opening Ceremonies sponsored by Deloitte
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Emcee
Nasir Kenea, Vice President and CIO, Canadian Institute of Health Information
Nasir has worked for over 25 years in information technology field primarily in the public/non-for-profit sector with over 18 years in a VP/CIO role. He has a wide range of experience in spearheading complex digital transformation programs and innovations through partnerships and collaboration. In his current capacity as the VP and CIO at Canadian Institute for Health Information, he provides strategic leadership and direction to all aspects of information technology capabilities including cyber security program. He is also leading the AI strategy and Roadmap for the organization.
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Emcee
Pam Dawson, Patient Partner, Patient Voices Network
Pam is retired and lives in Kelowna, in the beautiful Okanagan, on the traditional, unceded territory of the Syilx First Nation. She shares her home with her husband and their new dog, Jackie. Living in such a picturesque area naturally inspires an appreciation for golfing, cycling, walking, and exploring the nearby wineries.
However, Pam believes that retirement needs a purpose. Eight years ago, she joined the Patient Voices Network to become involved in healthcare improvement. Currently, Pam serves as the Public Co-Chair of the Person- and Family-Centred Care Steering Committee at Interior Health. She also holds positions on the Physician Quality Improvement Steering Committee, as well as the Quality Management and AI Management Committees. As a patient partner, her goal has been to seek opportunities where the patient voice can play an integral role in shaping policies, programs, and care practices.
With a background in technology as a project manager and business analyst, Pam brings a dual lens to her work, always looking for innovative ways to guide healthcare professionals toward recognizing the value of the patient voice. She advocates for collaboration between patients and providers to address the challenges facing healthcare today. Pam envisions evolving technology as a mutual benefit to both patients and providers, emphasizing that development should be inclusive to ensure no one is left behind.
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Panel
Tuesday Opening Plenary Panel sponsored by Deloitte
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Moderator
Ryan MacNeil, Project Executive & Director, Digital Health, Government of Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness
Ryan MacNeil is a health leader based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a background in engineering and health system transformation. He serves as a Project Executive and Director of Digital Strategy & Governance at the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, and was previously with the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub. In addition to his role in the Department of Health and Wellness, Ryan contributes to digital health in Canada through roles with Health Canada (National Chair, Artificial Intelligence) and Canada Health Infoway (Chair, Atlantic Digital Health Collaborative). Ryan’s always up for a chat!
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Panellist
Noralyn (Lyn) Baluyot, President and Chief Executive Officer, TransForm Shared Service Organization
Noralyn Baluyot (Lyn) is the President and CEO of TransForm Shared Service Organization, bringing over 25 years of healthcare experience. A nurse and healthcare administrator, Lyn is known for driving transformative change in the industry through her leadership and expertise.
Before her current role, Lyn was a partner at Deloitte, where she led complex clinical transformations across Canada and the U.S., delivering sustainable improvements for healthcare organizations. At TransForm, she works closely with five hospitals and three Ontario Health Teams to deliver digital services. She is also co-chair of the Ontario Oracle Health Collaborative, which involves 11 Oracle Health instances across 63 hospitals, and the Ontario eHUB collaborative, enhancing health information exchange among hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Lyn led the successful e-VOLVE program, a clinical transformation initiative implementing the Oracle Health hospital information system across four hospital organizations, creating a contiguous patient record for Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent. This work extends beyond hospitals, with implementations in local hospices and ambulatory care.
In recognition of her leadership, Lyn was named one of the “Women Leaders in Digital Health” of 2023 by Digital Health Canada. She successfully led her team through recovery after a 2023 cyber-attack, implemented a new Regional Data Governance Framework, and advanced other digital health projects, including the addition of a fifth hospital on Oracle Health.
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Tuesday Opening Plenary Panellist
Dr. Jeremy Theal, Chief Medical Information Officer, Alberta Health Services
Dr. Jeremy Theal is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) at Alberta Health Services in Alberta, Canada.
In this role, he is the lead physician for implementation and continuous improvement of a province-wide clinical information system serving 4.5 million citizens across over 800 facilities and over 8,900 acute care beds, the largest project of its kind in North America. He also practices Gastroenterology at the University of Alberta Hospital, where he is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine.
Prior to his work in Alberta, he was the CMIO at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada. During his 15 years in Ontario, he led many digital health initiatives at local, regional, provincial, and national scale, several of which were award-winning. As a recognized expert in improving patient and provider outcomes through the use of clinical information systems, Dr. Theal has engaged with clinicians, administrators and policy makers in 12 different countries and has served as an advisor to over 100 hospitals, both in Canada and internationally.
