IAB Members - Biographies
(September 2009 - August 2010)
Ivy Bourgeault, PhD
Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa
Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, PhD, is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She is also the Associate Director of the Community Health Research Unit, one of eight system linked research units funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. She was recently awarded the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Health Human Resource Policy which is jointly funded by the federal ministry of Health Canada. Dr. Bourgeault has garnered an international reputation for her research on health professions, health policy and women's health. She has published widely in national and international journals and edited volumes on midwifery and maternity care, primary care delivery, advanced practice nursing, qualitative health research methods, and on complementary and alternative medicine. She has been a consultant to various provincial Ministries of Health in Canada, to Health Canada and to the World Health Organization. Her recent research focuses on the migration of health professionals with a particular focus on Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia for which she was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Comparative Health Labour Policy which she held in her previous position at McMaster University. Dr. Bourgeault sits on the international editorial board of Sociology of Health and Illness as well as the Journal of Marketing and Management in Healthcare.
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 Institute de recherche en sante publique de l’Université de Montréal (IRSPUM).
He received his Bachelor's degree in anthropology (1982) from Concordia University, his Master 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.
Lee Fairclough
Vice-President Knowledge Management
Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
A radiation therapist, Lee has enjoyed a successful career leading innovative informatics and knowledge management initiatives in the cancer control field. Before joining the Partnership she served as Director, Toronto Regional Cancer Programme, as well as Informatics and Administration Director, Clinical Research Unit, at Princess Margaret Hospital. She also brings to her new role experience working at the Joint Policy and Planning Committee of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Ontario Hospital Association.
Lee has an undergraduate biology and mathematics degree from McMaster University and a master’s of Health Science, Health Administration, from the University of Toronto. She was the recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Award for her graduate studies.
Pierre Gerlier Forest, Ph.D., FCAHS
President
Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Prior to joining the Trudeau Foundation, Pierre-Gerlier Forest was an Assistant Deputy Minister with Health Canada, the Canadian federal Ministry of Health, where he was first appointed to the G.D.W. Cameron Chair (2003) before becoming Chief Scientist (2004-2006). Principal scientific advisor to the Minister of Health and to the Deputy Minister of Health Canada, Professor Forest worked to bridge the world of policy and the world of research by encouraging the creation of multiple forums for dialogue and knowledge transfer.
Well known for his work in the areas of health policy and the governance of health care organizations, P.G. Forest also held the position of Director of Research, Commission of the Future of Health Care in Canada (Romanow Commission). He spent most of his academic career at Universite Laval, in Quebec City, where he was Professor of policy analysis and public management with the Department of Political Science (1990–2007). He is the author of more than a hundred scientific papers and books, of which, notably, Changing Health Care in Canada (Ottawa, 2004) and Le Système de santé québécois ― un modèle en transformation (Montréal, 1999).
P.G. Forest obtained a Master’s degree in Political Science at Universite Laval (1984) and a PhD. in History and Socio-Politics of Science at Universite de Montreal (1989). In the years following his post-doctoral studies (Manchester Business School), several governments and numerous organizations have called on his expertise, particularly in the areas of health system reform and knowledge management. PG Forest also holds adjunct professorships with the Faculty of Medicine, Universite de Montréal and the National School for Public Administration (Quebec). In 2008 he was elected as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
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.
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
Health Economist
Health Research Theme
Douglas Institute
Eric Latimer, PhD is a health economist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, in Montreal and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. He is also Associate member of the Departments of Economics and Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health of that University. His research interests have focussed on the cost-effectiveness of evidence-based practices for people with severe mental illness, notably Assertive Community Treatment and supported employment. His knowledge translation work concerning these services, particularly Assertive Community Treatment, have been extensive and influential in Québec. He is a collaborator on projects related to the economics of supported employment in the United States and the U.K. as well as Canada. As of 2009, he is lead investigator for the Montreal site of the $110 million, 5-city research and demonstration project on mental illness and homelessness, funded by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. He has been active in national organizations, serving on the Board of the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (since 2004) as well as CIHR’s Institute Advisory Board (since 2007). He is also a past Chair of CIHR’s Health Services and Interventions (HSI) committee (2004 – 2007).
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 Institute de recherche en sante publique de l’Université de Montréal (IRSPUM). 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.
David Moher
Senior Scientist
Clinical Epidemiology Methods Centre
Ottawa Health Research Institute
Dr. David Moher is a Senior Scientist with the Clinical Epidemiology Methods Centre, Ottawa Health Research Institute. Dr. Moher is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa and the Director of the University’s Evidence-based Practice Centre, one of 14 such centres in North America, funded by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He is a world leader in the area of systematic reviews. Dr. Moher is also known around the world for his leadership in developing guidelines for reporting health research, including the internationally-adopted CONSORT guidance for randomized trials, and the QUOROM/PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews. He is also the lead convenor of the Bias Methods Group of the Cochrane Collaboration. He has a Masters degree in epidemiology and a PhD in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics.
Steve Morgan
Associate Professor and Associate Director
UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Dr. Steve Morgan is Associate Professor and Associate Director at the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research. He also leads the Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration, a pan-Canadian research network to coordinate pharmaceutical policy research and knowledge translation activities.
Dr. Morgan has published over 100 reports, articles, and book chapters on pharmaceutical policy and has provided advice to governments across Canada and abroad. His work seeks to identify policies that achieve balance between three sometimes-competing goals: providing equitable access to necessary care, managing health expenditures, and promoting valued innovation.
Dr. Morgan earned degrees in economics from the University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University, and the University of British Columbia. He also received post-doctoral training in health economics and policy analysis at McMaster University. He is recipient of career awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and is Canadian Alumni of the Commonwealth Fund’s Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy. In 2007, McMaster University awarded Dr. Morgan the Labelle Lectureship for excellence in Health Services Research.
Dr. Peter Norton
Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine
Department of Family Medicine
University of Calgary
Dr. Peter Norton is Professor Emeritus. He was formely the head of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary and held 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.
Anne Sales, MSN, PhD, RN (Vice-Chair)
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
Alberta Health Services and the University of Alberta
Associate Professor & Health Services Researcher
Department of Family Medicine, 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 Alberta Health Services (formerly Capital Health) and the University of Alberta to facilitate the academic growth of the health informatics discipline with an applied-research focus. Further to this, in 2009 Dr. Shaw was appointed as Health Services Researcher with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta where she continues to develop the health informatics discipline with a greater focus on primary care.
Dr. Shaw joinedthe University of Alberta 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 continues to act 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. 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.