IAB Members - Biographies
(September 2008 - August 2009)
Krista Connell
Chief Executive Officer
Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation
Krista is the Foundation's first Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Her job is extensive. She is responsible for providing the leadership and professional guidance necessary for the NSHRF to attain its strategic goals. Krista also oversees the tactical operation of the Foundation and ensures its effective and efficient operation. As the CEO, Krista reports directly to the Board of Directors and works to develop policies and approaches that foster involvement and support on the part of stakeholders. She is also responsible for outreach to the research community in its broadest sense. In addition to her duties as CEO, Krista regularly serves on external review committees for other health research-related organizations and provides advice and mentorship to community groups. She is a member of various boards such as the Canadian Cochrane Network Centre Advisory Board, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Training Program in Health Law & Policy Advisory Committee and the CIHR Canadian Clinical Research Coalition. After serving for several years as co-chair of NAPHRO (National Alliance of Provincial Health Research Organizations), Krista remains an active member. Krista was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University's School of Physiotherapy. In 1990, Krista received her Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Alberta. She also completed a post-graduate fellowship with the Nova Scotia Department of Health.
Dr. Jean-Louis Denis (Chair)
Full Professor
Department of Health Administration
Université de Montréal
Dr. Jean-Louis Denis is a full professor in the Department of Health Administration, and a researcher with the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé (GRIS) in the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in anthropology (1982) from Concordia University, his Master of Science in Health Administration (1984) and his PhD in community health (1988) at the University of Montreal. Currently, his research focus is on management and organizational issues in the health care system.
Dr. Denis holds a Chair in the transformation and governance of health organizations from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and CIHR. This research has led to training and research programs on managing change in health care organizations, evaluations of strategies for managing transformation and developing new governance structures, and an examination of the role of research in developing organizations.
Dr. Denis is pursuing a variety of research objectives through his Chair program. Current topics include the analysis of health care reforms and restructuring, the innovation process in health care organizations, and the institutionalization of knowledge-based changes.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Denis has taught health administrators and researchers about the transformation of organizations and health systems. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and is the academic coordinator of the EXTRA program, an initiative that trains executives about the use of research-based evidence in health care organizations.
Stefan Greß, PhD
Associate Professor
Health Services Research and Health Economics
Department of Health Sciences
University of Applied Sciences
Fulda, Germany
Stefan Greß, PhD, is an economist by training and currently associate professor for health services research and health economics in the department of health sciences at the University of Applied Sciences Fulda in Germany. He was formerly assistant professor at the Institute for Health Care Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, a researcher at the Center of Social Policy at Bremen University and assistant professor at the University of Greifswald. His main areas of research are health policy and health insurance. He has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals on topics such as competition and consumer mobility in social health insurance, the definition of benefits packages and the relationship between health insurance and professional autonomy of health care providers.
Jeremy Grimshaw, MD, PhD
Director
Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Health Research Institute
Dr. Grimshaw is the Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Health Research Institute and Director of the Centre for Best Practice, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa. His research focuses on methods to promote the uptake of research findings by health care professionals and has three foci: (i) Systematic reviews of professional and organizational interventions to improve health care delivery and systems - he is the Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane effective practice and Organisation of Care review group; (ii) Rigorous evaluations of interventions to improve the uptake of research by professionals - he has been involved in over 20 cluster randomised trials and two interrupted time series in diverse settings; and (iii) Methodological research - this includes research into statistical issues in the design, conduct and analysis of cluster randomised trials and the applicability of behavior theory to professional behavior.
Dr. Grimshaw holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake and is a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He was awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation Award in 2004. Prior to this he held a Personal Chair in Health Services Research at the University of Aberdeen, UK and was the Programme Director of the Effective Professional Programme within the Health Services Research. Dr. Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He was trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen.
Carol Klassen
Vice President of Knowledge Management
and Strategic Development
Regina Qu'Appelle Health Authority
Carol Klassen is the Vice President of Knowledge Management and Strategic Development for the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Authority. In this position, Carol leads a team that supports the Region's strategic and knowledge development plan including information technology, communication, research, academic partnerships, knowledge translation and strategic planning. Other responsibilities include facilities and clinical engineering. Carol joined the Regina Health District in January 2001 as the Chief Operating Officer, Decision and Performance Support, responsible for leadership in financial and corporate services.
Prior to joining the Regina Health District, she held several senior management positions in government, including Assistant Deputy Minister of Saskatchewan Health. Carol has a Master of Business Administration.
Dr. Eric Latimer
Director, Services, Policy and Population
Health Research Theme
Douglas Institute
Eric Latimer, PhD is a health economist, Director of the Services, Policy and Population Health Research Theme at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. His research interests focus on evidence-based practices for people with severe mental illness, and he has been active in a variety of successful knowledge translation activities aimed at increasing dissemination of such practices in the province of Québec. He was chair of the organizing and scientific committees for the Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research inaugural conference, held in Montreal in May 2004. He also currently chairs CIHR’s Health Service Evaluation and Interventions Research peer-review committee.
John Lavis, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
McMaster University
Dr. John N. Lavis is the Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Uptake, as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, a Member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, and Associate Member of the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. He is also Associate Professor (status only) in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Lavis holds an MD from Queen's University (1989), an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics (1992), and a PhD (1997) from Harvard University.
Dr. Lavis’s principal research interests include knowledge transfer and uptake in public policymaking environments as well as the politics of health-care systems. He directs the Program in Policy Decision-Making, a research program affiliated with the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis.
He was the Liberty Health Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1998-2003), inaugural Chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health Policy and Systems Management grants review committee (2000-2003), and Visiting Researcher at the Institut de recherche et de documentation en économie de la santé (IRDES) in Paris, France (2003-4).
Ms. Suzanne Lawson
Suzanne Lawson and Associates
Suzanne Lawson is a well-known leader in the Canadian voluntary sector. She has held senior positions in several voluntary health organizations (National Executive Director of ALS Canada; Executive Director of Arthritis, Ontario Division; Director of Volunteer Resources at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children; and three different senior positions in Ontario’s Heart and Stroke Foundation), and has been the Executive Director of Program in The Anglican Church of Canada. A member of both the Voluntary Sector Roundtable and the Federal Government-funded Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI), she co-chaired the VSI Joint Table on building the awareness of the voluntary sector. She is a founding Board member of the recently formed Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration, an international group committed to excellence in the profession of volunteer administration. Suzanne is the only Canadian to be given the lifetime achievement award from the International Association of Volunteer Administration and has been awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for her lifelong work in the voluntary health sector.
An active volunteer leader in both church and secular organizations, she has recently begun a consulting and facilitation practice as Suzanne Lawson and Associates which focuses on helping leaders lead, helping churches thrive, and helping organizations excel.
Ms Lawson was involved with other voluntary health sector leaders in actively promoting the birth of CIHR, aware that its mission of creating synergy in health research could bring voluntary health sector efforts together with researchers and others in new and exciting ways. She has served on the Institute of Genetics Advisory Board and has just begun a second term as a member of the Institute Advisory Board for Health Services and Policy Research, delighted to have an opportunity to help make that synergy happen.
Pascale Lehoux
Associate Professor
Department of Health Administration
University of Montreal
Pascale Lehoux obtained her PhD in Public Health from University of Montreal (Quebec, Canada) in 1996. She is Associate Professor with the Department of Health Administration, and Researcher with the Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Santé (GRIS) at University of Montreal. She obtained a National Scholar from the NHRDP (1998-2003) and a New Investigator Award from the CIHR-IHSPR (2003-2005). She was a consultant researcher for the Quebec Health Services and Technology Assessment agency (AETMIS) between 1994 and 2004. She currently holds a Canada Research Chair on Innovation in Health (2005-2010).
Her research interests lie with the sociology of innovation, the production and use of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), and knowledge utilization. She published around 50 papers examining the use of computerized medical records, telemedicine, scientific knowledge, home care equipment and mobile and satellite dialysis units. She published papers in Social Science and Medicine, the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Her first book, The problem of health technology, was published in April 2006 by Routledge.
Her current Canada Research Chair program examines "upstream" factors that have an impact on the ultimate use and dissemination of health technologies, e.g. the design process itself, including needs analyses, design strategies, market constraints and opportunities, and group perceptions and practices (engineers, clinical experts, funders) guiding the innovation processes. Underpinning this research program is the recognition that many choices made upstream: 1) largely determine the costs, the types of settings where technologies are used, and the levels of skills required to use them appropriately; and 2) that systematically examining them will open a useful research avenue, since most industrialized countries are facing enormous challenges in terms of priority-setting due to the rising costs of health technologies.
She is the Canadian Director of an International Master's Program in Health Technology Assessment and Management, a project involving several universities (Univ. of Montreal, Univ. of Ottawa, Univ. of Barcelona, Catholic Univ. of Rome, International Univ. of Catalonia, Univ. of Toronto) and HTA agencies in Canada and Europe. She is a Board Member of the Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research. She is editor for Healthcare Policy, a Canadian journal launched in 2005.
Kathyrn McDade
Director General, Health Care Policy Directorate
Health Canada
Kathryn McDade is the Director General of the Health Care Policy Directorate at Health Canada. The Directorate is reponsible for policy development and management of grants and contributions across a range of health care policy issues, including wait times reduction, patient safety, health human resources and chronic and continuing health care.
Prior to joining Health Canada in May 2007, Kathryn was Director of Operations in the Social Development Secretariat of the Privy Council Office. In this capacity, she supported the Cabinet Committee for Social Affairs and provided advice on various social policy issues, including immigration, culture and heritage, veterans affairs, Employment Insurance, labour and social development. Kathryn has experience as a policy analyst or policy manager in a number of federal departments, including Human Resources Development Canada, Citizenship and Immigration and Finance Canada.
Prior to joining the public service in 1991, Kathryn was Assistant Director of Social Policy at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Kathryn has degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from Carleton University. Kathryn lives in Ottawa with her partner and two sons.
Dr. Peter Norton
Head
Department of Family Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
University of Calgary
Dr. Peter Norton is the head of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary and holds the rank of professor at the university. He is a board member of the Health Quality Council of Alberta and of the CQI Network and a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Dr. Norton received a bachelor of science degree and a bachelor of applied science degree, both with a concentration in mathematics and chemistry (1963), from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He completed a master of arts degree, with a concentration in mathematics (1964), at UBC, and received a doctorate in medicine (1978) from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Norton has an active interest in health services research with particular emphasis on patient safety, knowledge transfer, physician decision-making, quality of care, diabetes and patient and family satisfaction with institutional care. He has been involved with the quality activities at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
He presents and teaches on quality improvement, patient safety and medical adverse events across Canada. He is active in the Calgary Health Region quality initiatives and is helping to design a patient safety program there.
Dr. Norton was a principal investigator with Professor Ross Baker in the CIHR-funded Canadian Adverse Event Study, which provided a national estimate of the incidence of adverse events in Canadian hospitals, and was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Mr. André Rémillard
Chief Executive Officer
Parkland Regional Health Authority
André Rémillard is currently Chief Executive Officer of Parkland Regional Health Authority (PRHA) in Dauphin, Manitoba.
Mr. Rémillard graduated from Brandon Mental Health Centre’s Psychiatric Nursing Program in 1974. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Brandon University in 1976, a Certificate in Health Care Administration from the University of Saskatchewan in 1982, and a Master of Science degree in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University in 1994. He became a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives in 1993.
Parkland Health Region covers an area of 40,000 square kilometers and serves a population of approximately 42,000 people. The Region has 256 acute-care beds in seven facilities, 545 long-term care beds in eleven facilities, and provides a full range of pre-hospital, community and mental health services to the communities it serves. As CEO, Mr. Rémillard is responsible for the general management and conduct of the affairs of the PRHA in accordance with the by-laws, policies and directions of the board, which includes carrying out the health authority’s policies and programs.
Prior to joining the PHRA, Mr. Rémillard worked as a psychiatric nurse at Brandon Mental Centre, an addictions counselor with the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, an administrator of De Salaberry District Health Centre and Ambulance Service at St. Pierre Jolys, Chief Executive Officer of William J. Cadzow Hospital at Lac La Biche in Alberta, and Vice President of Programs and Services for Lakeland Regional Health Authority in Smoky Lake, Alberta.
Anne Sales, MSN PhD RN
Associate Professor, Faculty of Nursing
University of Alberta
Dr. Sales is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Healthcare Teams. Previously, she spent ten years as a Research Scientist in the VA Northwest Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence at VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Washington, and as a faculty member in the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington. She has conducted over 15 funded research projects, focusing both on improving the quality of care to veterans with ischemic heart disease and on the organization and practice of nursing within VHA, and has 60 peer-reviewed publications. Her areas of research interest are the implementation of evidence-based best practices into clinical care, the use of social science theory in designing interventions to implement best practices, and the role of professionals, teams and organizations in optimizing patient care. Her training is in sociology, health economics, econometrics, and general health services research.
Dr. Nicola Shaw
Research Chair, Health Informatics
The Integrated Centre for Care Advancement through Research (iCARE)
Capital Health and the University of Alberta
In April 2006, Dr. Nicola (Nikki) Shaw was appointed as the first endowed Research Chair of Health Informatics in Western Canada. As part of the Integrated Centre for Care Advancement through Research (iCARE), Dr. Shaw's appointment was created in partnership between Capital Health and the University of Alberta to facilitate the academic growth of the health informatics discipline with an applied-research focus.
Dr. Shaw joined iCARE after serving as Research Scientist with the Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement (CHIi), Child and Family Research Institute and Assistant Professor with the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Her approach to research is both theoretical and applied with a focus on the therapeutic relationship and patient outcomes. Dr. Shaw's published work includes two books on technology in primary care; the 2004, Canadian edition is entitled, "Computerization and Going Paperless in Canadian Primary Care."
With a research interest in organizational issues and people, Dr. Shaw's is also involved in national project work to develop an understanding around the implementation, use, and sharing of medical records. Dr. Shaw acts as the evaluator for Health Canada's Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Toolkit, and as an expert advisor with Canada Health Infoway. Currently, she is establishing a baseline for research and is interested in forming a group of collaborators interested in managing information.
Dr. Shaw received her PhD at the University of Central Lancashire in collaboration with Oxford University Postgraduate Medical Education & Training Office, (UK).
Dr. Ingrid Sketris
Professor, College of Pharmacy
Dalhousie University
Dr. Sketris is a Professor of the College of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, School of Health Services Administration, Faculty of Computer Science, and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto (BSc(Phm), 1977), University of Minnesota (PharmD, 1979), University of Tennessee, Centre for Health Sciences (Residency in Clinical Toxicology/Pharmacy Practice, 1980) and Dalhousie University (MPA(HSA) 1989). She is a fellow of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Sketris is currently on the Editorial Boards of the Canadian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Therapeutics. Dr. Sketris was a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment from 1996 to1998 and of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board from 1999 to 2004. She is currently a member of the CIHR Institute Advisory Board for Health Services and Policy Research. In June 2000, Dr. Sketris received a Chair in health services research focusing on pharmaceutical policy and utilization management from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) cosponsored by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. She and her colleagues at IMPART (Initiative for Medication Management, Policy Analysis, Research and Training) conduct research related to medication management. Dr. Ingrid Sketris received the Anne and Neil McArthur Award April 25, 2006. This award is presented annually to a researcher who works in the area of study covered by the Father Sean O’Sullivan Research Centre affiliated with McMaster University and is an award to honor the achievements of an outstanding researcher.
Dr. Robyn Tamblyn
Professor
Departments of Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Faculty of Medicine
McGill University
Dr. Robyn Tamblyn is a professor in the Departments of Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. She also holds a position as medical scientist at the McGill University Health Center Research Institute.
Dr. Tamblyn received her bachelor of science degree in nursing (1973) and her master of science degree, with a concentration in epidemiology (1982), both from McMaster University. She completed her PhD in epidemiology at McGill University (1989).
Dr. Tamblyn directs a CIHR-funded team that investigates the use of e-health technologies to support integrated care for chronic disease. She also leads initiatives to optimize drug management and enhance the early uptake of evidence into primary care practice, the Medical Office of the 21st Century (MOXXI). As Scientific Director of IRIS-Quebec, a novel, Canadian Foundation for Innovation-funded provincial infrastructure for health care and research, she will integrate clinical data from four academic university health centers and their extended primary care networks with the provincial administrative data repository.
Dr. Tamblyn is a McGill University William-Dawson scholar.
Jennifer Zelmer, BSc MA PhD
CEO
International Health Terminology Standards Organisation
Jennifer Zelmer is CEO of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation. Prior to joining IHTSDO, Jennifer led programs related to health information standards and analysis at the Canadian Institute for Health Information and worked with a variety of health, academic, and government organizations in Canada, Australia, Denmark, and India. Ms. Zelmer is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Toronto and has been a member of several health-related advisory committees and boards. She has a Bachelor's degree in Health Information Science and a PhD in Economics.