8:00 AM – 8:45 AM
Breakfast & Registration
8:45 AM – 9:00 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Angela Copeland serves as the Chief Information Officer/Assistant Deputy Minister for the Health Services I&IT Cluster (HSC), which supports the Ministries of Health, Long-Term Care, and Seniors and Accessibility. The HSC portfolio features over 230 technology solutions that enhance public sector policy, programs, and services, including the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, Emergency Health Services, and Public Health.
Angela’s journey to the Ontario Public Service (OPS) in 2022 saw her rise through a series of increasingly influential executive roles within the health care and social services sectors. Her trajectory has been marked by a relentless drive for transformative change—from spearheading business modernizations and informing the design of new facility builds to crafting and implementing visionary digital and data strategies. Her leadership acumen also extended to her role as Vice President on the Board of Directors at Digital Health Canada.
Angela is widely recognized as a strategic business partner with a keen ability to envision and implement innovative solutions that push the boundaries of what is possible. Her dynamic leadership style fosters a collaborative environment where teams are inspired to excel and deliver exceptional service outcomes. Committed to inclusivity and bridging the digital divide, she is also an advocate for the advancement of emerging women leaders. Angela’s contributions to the digital health landscape are a testament to her legacy as a trailblazer and respected leader in the field.
Speaker: Abbas Zavar
Dr. Abbas Zavar is a futurist physician-scientist with over two decades of experience in clinical practice, digital health consulting, clinical AI science, and health information technology. He is dedicated to transforming healthcare through responsible innovation. Dr. Zavar holds an MD, MPH, and a Master of Health Informatics (MHI) from the University of Toronto. He has also completed specialized coursework and fellowship training in AI in healthcare at Harvard. Currently, he is completing his AMS AI fellowship at the UofT Bioethics Center.
He is a strong advocate for Personalized Medicine, providing thought leadership through publishing and speaking to translate AI and clinical data science into ethical care models. He leads the design of AI solutions with a focus on governance, patient safety, and workflow integration, while also teaching across Canadian institutions, including the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and George Brown College. His research aims to advance Personalized Prevention (Persoventa) by transforming clinical knowledge and patient data into actionable insights for individualized care.
Current position and organization: Clinical AI Scientist, Digital Health Leader & Academic Educator University of Toronto
9:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Opening Keynote Speaker & Fireside Chat
Dafna Carr recently joined Ontario’s Ministry of Health as the Chief Digital Health Officer, a newly created role focused on advancing the province’s Digital First for Health Strategy. Her mission: to ensure people, health care providers, and care teams have seamless access to the information, tools, and services they need—anytime, anywhere.
This strategy is a major step toward connected, convenient, and person-centred care for Ontarians. It tackles challenges like administrative complexity, privacy and security concerns, and disconnected systems—while driving innovation and improving the health care experience.
Dafna brings extensive experience in digital transformation and leadership. Before joining the Ministry of Health, she served as Associate Deputy Minister of ServiceOntario, where she led efforts to improve the customer experience and make government services simple and accessible for millions of Ontarians. She was also Corporate CIO of Government Technology Ontario and CIO for the Children, Youth and Social Services Cluster.
Dafna’s career includes over 26 years in health care leadership at organizations such as Health Quality Ontario, Cancer Care Ontario, University Health Network, and Gamma-Dynacare Laboratories.
She holds an MBA from York University and has completed advanced leadership programs at the University of Toronto, Ivey at Western University, and the Advanced Health Leadership Program at U of Toronto.
9:45 AM – 10:00 AM
Break & Networking
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Morning Parallel Sessions
Sponsors Recognition
Parallel Track 1: Care Coordination Across Settings
Speaker: Sana Khushk
Sana Khushk is a public health and health informatics professional with experience supporting communicable disease programs in both clinical and public health settings. She currently supports communicable disease programs at Toronto Public Health, where her work includes strengthening documentation and reporting practices, validating and improving surveillance data, and collaborating closely with clinicians and interdisciplinary teams to support timely, patient-centered care. Sana also supports patients through complex care pathways, helping ensure information is accurate, complete, and used effectively to guide decision-making and follow-up. She is completing her Executive Master’s in Health Informatics (EMHI) at the University of Toronto, where her interests include digital health policy, interoperability, and using data to strengthen public health decision-making. Sana is passionate about innovating public health by leveraging policy, digital tools, and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen prevention, advance population health, and improve how systems respond to emerging needs. At the FHLIP conference, she is presenting on an opioid crisis pathway, highlighting opportunities to strengthen early risk identification, coordinated referrals, and post-encounter follow-up across care settings.
Speaker: Michael Bravo
Speaker: Hripsime Danielyan
Hripsime (Ripa) Danielyan is a digital health and health informatics leader with over five years of experience delivering large-scale health system transformation across clinical, administrative, and technology domains. She currently works at the Saskatchewan Health Authority, supporting the implementation of a province-wide Oracle HCM platform serving over 45,000 staff.
Ripa brings a strong systems perspective shaped by earlier work in long-term care and hospice settings, where she supported the adoption of EMR and eMAR solutions to improve care coordination and patient safety. She is also the Co-Founder of Predictty, a digital health startup emerging from the University of Toronto Health Innovation Hub, focused on early risk detection and data-driven support for neurodivergent children.
Ripa is currently completing her Executive Master of Health Informatics at the University of Toronto. She holds an MSc in Business and Economics with a major in Business Administration, has completed advanced training in data science, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She is passionate about building connected, human-centered digital health systems that translate strategy into measurable impact.
Current position and organization: Specialist, Saskatchewan Health Authority.
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM: Facilitated Discussion/Mini-Break
Speaker: Ela Najafi
Ela Najafi is a health informatician, instructor, researcher, and data scientist with a PhD in Architectural Engineering and advanced training in Data Science, Machine Learning, and IoT. She is currently completing a Master of Health Informatics at the University of Toronto.
Her work focuses on applying AI, digital, and data-driven solutions to real-world problems in healthcare and clinical decision support, with a particular emphasis on improving access to health services and optimizing healthcare systems.
Current position and organization: Instructor, Computer Science & Data Analytics, Toronto Metropolitan University
Graduate Student, Master of Health Informatics
University of Toronto
Speaker: Dr. Erin Keely + Geetha Mukerji presenting on Brynn O’Dwyer’s behalf
Dr. Erin Keely is an Endocrinologist at the Ottawa Hospital and Full Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her research has focused on communication between primary care providers and specialists. She is the Co-Founder of the Champlain BASE eConsult Service and is Executive Director of the Ontario eConsult Centre of Excellence. She is a Clinical Lead with the Ontario Health Patients Before Paperwork Program, championing the development, implementation and evaluation of standardized eReferral forms.
Current position and organization: Full Professor Dept of Medicine University of Ottawa, Executive Director, Ontario eConsult Centre of Excellence
Geetha Mukerji, MD, MSc, FRCPC is a Staff Endocrinologist at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) and Mount Sinai Hospital, and a clinician within the Taddle Creek Family Health Team. Her clinical practice focuses on complex diabetes care, endocrine care in pregnancy, and optimizing transitions of care for young people living with diabetes. With advanced training in quality improvement methodology, Dr. Mukerji’s academic work centres on advancing high-value care, developing and evaluating innovative ambulatory and virtual care models, and improving equity and outcomes for vulnerable populations living with diabetes. She is an Associate Professor and Clinician in Quality and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Senior Quality Innovation Fellow at the Women’s College Hospital Institute of Health Systems and Virtual Care (WIHV).
Dr. Mukerji supports patient access, complex navigation, and care coordination across primary care, community, and hospital-based settings through collaborative leadership and partnership. She serves as Corporate Medical Information Officer at Women’s College Hospital, where she leads digitally enabled system transformation grounded in quality improvement. As co-chair of the interdisciplinary Digital Quality Committee, she guides the integration of digital tools and quality metrics into clinical workflows to improve care quality and patient experience, reduce clinician administrative burden, and strengthen interoperability across care settings. Dr. Mukerji co-led the development of a nationally informed, Quintuple Aim–aligned virtual care quality scorecard, co-created with persons with lived experience, that is now informing how organizations evaluate and improve ambulatory virtual care. As Specialist Lead for Quality and Digital Integration with the Ontario eConsult Centre of Excellence, she has co-led the integration, spread, and scale-up of novel digital triage models within hospital information systems to improve access to specialty care and enable learning at scale across Ontario.
Deeply committed to learning, collaboration, and mentorship in quality improvement and health system transformation, she works with patients, trainees, clinicians, and health system partners to advance pragmatic, evidence-informed innovation in care delivery. Her contributions have been recognized through several awards, including the DOM William Goldie Prize for Quality and Innovation (2020), the Excellence in Resource Stewardship Teaching Award (2024), and the Digital Health Canada Clinical Innovator of the Year Award (2024).
Speaker: Yallenni Ilamvaluthy
Yallenni is currently a Transformation Specialist/Project Manager at Unity Health Toronto, leading the primary care and digital health portfolios with the Ontario Health Teams, as well as other internal initiatives. At Unity Health, she has refined her project management and stakeholder engagement skills, utilizing these to forward healthcare initiatives she is passionate about. She is currently doing her executive Master of Health Informatics at the University of Toronto, and previously attended Western University, where she received her Bachelor of Health Sciences. Her background has a variety of healthcare and social service experiences, including at various not-for-profits, RNAO, and West Park Healthcare Centre where she was involved in campus redevelopment, strategy, and innovation efforts.
Current position and organization: Transformation Specialist – Project Manager, Unity Health Toronto (St. Michael’s Hospital)
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM: Facilitated Discussion / Track Wrap-Up
Parallel Track 2: System Harmonization & Collaboration
This presentation reviews ten AI governance frameworks against OECD principles and assesses their fit within the Learning Health System (LHS) Action Framework. It also introduces an enhanced LHS approach that supports safe, equitable, and scalable adoption across care settings.
Speaker: Vanessa Bui
Vanessa Bui is a Registered Nurse and Master of Health Informatics (MHI) candidate at the University of Toronto. She has previously worked at Mount Sinai Hospital and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and most recently with Ontario Health. Her professional interests centre on enabling health systems to adopt digital and AI-enabled technologies that are clinically grounded, operationally practical, and safe for real-world care delivery.
Current position and organization: Registered Nurse and Master of Health Informatics (MHI) candidate at the University of Toronto.
Speaker: Karim Keshavjee
Karim trained as a Family Physician at the University of Toronto and practiced for 20 years. He also obtained his MBA from the Rotman School of Management.
Karim has been a consultant to a variety of health organizations across North America. He has over 30 years of progressive experience in health informatics.
Karim’s current research is focused on using artificial intelligence and machine learning in the service of diabetes prevention through the PREVENT program where he is the Co-Principal Investigator. He is also the Principal Instigator for the Care4Mind research study which is focused on improving the care of patients with mental health disorders. He works on information, interoperability and AI governance and has published several papers in this area.
Karim was the architect and implementer of several community healthcare electronic medical records initiatives, including the COMPETE 1, 2 and 3 studies with McMaster University; the High Blood Pressure Management initiative with the Heart and Stroke Foundation; the eRourke Well-baby project with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services; the Vascular Health and Screening Tool project with the Ontario Stroke Network; and Canada’s primary care chronic disease surveillance network, CPCSSN. CPCSSN is now at 1500 physicians who donate data on over 2 million patients to a de-identified, standardized and cleaned data repository at Queen’s University.
Current position and organization: Dr. Karim Keshavjee is an Assistant Professor and Program Director for the Master of Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Speaker: Elizabeth Borycki
Elizabeth Borycki is a Professor in the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria and Director of the Global Lab for Digital Health and AI Innovation. Her research focuses on improving the safety of digital health technologies and AI used by patients and health professionals.
Current position and organization: Director, Global Lab for Digital Health and AI Innovation
Professor, School of Health Information Science
Clinician Scientist, Michael Smith Health Research BC
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM: Facilitated Discussion/Mini-Break
Speaker: Sahrish Syed
Sahrish Mahmood Syed holds an undergraduate degree in biotechnology and is a recent graduate of the Health Informatics post-graduate certificate program at George Brown College. The widespread use of data and statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly around global mortality, infection rates, and public health policies—inspired her to transition from life sciences to digital health research. Her primary interests include healthcare access equity, community-based research, health systems research, and responsible AI and digital health innovation. She is a researcher with the AppEval team, a collaborative initiative focused on advancing evidence-based evaluation of digital health tools. Her presentation will discuss the need for a standardized evaluation framework for digital health applications, an increasingly critical issue with the growing integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Current position and organization: Researcher at AppEval
Speaker(s): Dr. Tania Tajirian + Co-author Marissa Binstock
Dr. Tania Tajirian is an associate scientist and currently serves in dual leadership roles as the inaugural Chief Health Information Officer (CHIO) and Chief of Hospital Medicine at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is also an associate professor and academic hospitalist in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Tajirian’s contributions to patient care and health innovation have earned her numerous awards, including the 2022 Most Influential Women in Health IT Award from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and recognition from Women Leaders in Digital Health Canada.
Her Co-Author: Marissa Binstock is Senior Manager, CHIEF Program and Strategic Initiatives at Digital Health Canada. She works with senior healthcare leaders across Canada to advance digital health, leading national working groups and creating practical, experience-driven content. Marissa also designs and delivers CHIEF’s bi-annual Symposia, convening public and private sector leaders to share real-world insights, challenges, and lessons learned.
Speaker: Victoria Pelletier
Victoria Pelletier specializes in driving healthcare digital transformation through strategic program leadership and change management. She serves as Director of Digital Adoption and Education at Unity Health Toronto and is currently Interim Head of the Digital Project Management Office. Prior to joining Unity Health, Victoria spent a decade in management consulting with Deloitte in the United Kingdom and Canada, focusing on large-scale transformation initiatives.
At Unity Health, she recently led change management and education efforts for the organization’s enterprise electronic patient record implementation, facilitating successful adoption across the network. She is passionate about building high-performing teams, fostering innovation, and solving complex challenges. Victoria holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.
Current position and organization: Director of Digital Adoption and Education and Director Digital PMO (interim), Unity Health Toronto
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM: Facilitated Discussion / Track Wrap-Up
12:00 PM – 1:20 PM
Lunch/Science Fair Walk-around
Parallel Session: H2i Lab Briefing & Innovation Showcase: Demo Walkthrough Sessions
Speaker: Dr. Joseph Ferenbok
Speaker: Anum Momin
Speaker: Aby Mathews
Aby Mathews Maluvelil is a dentist by training, EMHI graduate and currently works as a patient safety consultant. His work spans healthcare regulation, health system decision-making, and digital health evaluation, with a particular emphasis on reducing risk and improving equity in technology-enabled care. His core interests include evidence-based assessment of digital health tools, patient safety, and the responsible integration of AI in clinical and health system workflows. He is a co-founder and researcher with the AppEval initiative, a collaborative effort dedicated to building standardized, transparent, and quantitative frameworks for evaluating digital health applications.
Current position and organization: Patient Safety Consultant, Fortrea
Speaker: Julia Swedak
Speaker: Nellie Kamau on behalf of Khyati Eda
Nellie is a social science researcher and PhD student at the University of Toronto studying Political Science. She researches state-society relations and the political economy of social policy in Africa. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked in Nairobi as a Social Protection Officer, providing payment solutions to refugees and vulnerable populations in East Africa. She holds an MPP from The University of British Columbia and a BA in Economics and International Development from McGill University.
Current position and organization: 3rd Year Political Science student at the University of Toronto
Speaker: Lydia Sequeira
Speaker: Nadeen Al-Aubadi
Speaker: Rahul Shetty
Rahul Shetty is a data, analytics, and AI professional working at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and public service. He works with the Ontario Public Service on initiatives in data analytics, digital transformation, and evidence-informed decision-making, with a focus on translating complex, heterogeneous data into actionable insights that inform policy and improve operational outcomes.
Rahul played a pivotal role as a member of the winning team at the Ontario Public Service–Microsoft Hackathon, contributing to the design and delivery of an applied AI solution addressing a complex public-sector challenge. His work encompassed dashboard development, automation pipelines, and the implementation of practical AI applications within institutional environments.
Rahul holds a Master’s degree in Health Informatics from the University of Toronto and has completed advanced training in Deploying AI through the University of Toronto’s Data Sciences Institute, developing applied expertise in moving AI models from prototype to real-world deployment. His experience spans health analytics, business intelligence, data architecture, and applied machine learning, with an emphasis on responsible and ethical AI integration.
Current position and organization: Sr. Data Analyst, Cabinet office
Speaker: Samuel Numor
A Mastercard Foundation Scholar holding a BSc. and MSc. in “Logistics and Supply Chain Management” and “Procurement and Supply Chain Management” respectively from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.
Current position and organization: I am a final year Master of Health Informatics (Executive) Candidate at the University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH).
Speaker: Sheila Noriega-Mestanza
Speaker: Shveta Bhasker
Shveta Bhasker is an emerging leader in health informatics. She is currently a Senior Analyst on the Pharmaceuticals team at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Previously, she worked as a Consultant at Deloitte, specializing in healthcare privacy and cybersecurity. Shveta is a published researcher with articles focused on health technology, the application of AI in healthcare, and infectious diseases. She holds a Master of Health Informatics and an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto.
Current position and organization: Senior Analyst at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
Speaker: Somdatta Chakraborty Datta
Speaker: Jasmine Aulakh presenting on behalf of Dr. Tania Tajirian
Jasmine is a clinical project and operations professional who leads and supports complex healthcare projects and clinical studies. Her work focuses on ensuring clinical and digital health initiatives are delivered on time, within regulations, and aligned with organizational goals.
She manages and coordinates clinical trials, digital health projects, and operational improvement initiatives, working closely with clinicians, researchers, executives, and external partners. Her responsibilities include project planning, regulatory compliance, risk management, team supervision, and translating data into practical tools that improve clinical workflows.
A core focus of her work is reducing clinician administrative burden by improving processes, training, and data-driven decision supports—ultimately strengthening patient safety, care quality, and physician–patient relationships.
Current position/Organization: Senior Project Analyst (Clinical & Digital Health Projects), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
(Toronto, Ontario)
Parallel Session: Student Project Rapid-Fire Presentations
Moderator: Dr. Gillian Strudwick
This panel showcases applied digital health system level projects led by interdisciplinary student teams at the University of Toronto through the MHI 2025 course on Strategic Leadership and Digital Health System Transformation. Moderated by Dr. Gillian Strudwick, the session features short, high-impact presentations addressing real-world health system challenges, including outcome-based pharmacy care, primary care attachment, responsible health data access, virtual care prioritization, and the development of an AI sandbox for diagnostic imaging, from Newfoundland, British Columbia and Ontario. The presentations will be followed by a moderated, interactive discussion with students and faculty, inviting audience engagement.
Moderator: Dr. Gillian Strudwick
Speaker: Yifan Cao
Yifan is a healthcare professional and MBA candidate working at the intersection of public policy, digital transformation, and health system strategy. Through her work at the Ontario Ministry of Health, she has developed a practical understanding of how complex institutions make decisions and how collaboration across sectors turns policy into real-world outcomes. Grounded in public service and driven by curiosity, Yifan is passionate about advancing patient outcomes through innovation that brings together analytical insight, regulatory development, and meaningful engagement. She leads with a systems mindset and a long-term vision, rooted in inclusive leadership and shared impact.
Current position and organization: Senior Policy Advisor, Ontario Ministry of Health
Speaker: Yallenni Ilamvaluthy
Yallenni is currently a Transformation Specialist/Project Manager at Unity Health Toronto, leading the primary care and digital health portfolios with the Ontario Health Teams, as well as other internal initiatives. At Unity Health, she has refined her project management and stakeholder engagement skills, utilizing these to forward healthcare initiatives she is passionate about. She is currently doing her executive Master of Health Informatics at the University of Toronto, and previously attended Western University, where she received her Bachelor of Health Sciences. Her background has a variety of healthcare and social service experiences, including at various not-for-profits, RNAO, and West Park Healthcare Centre where she was involved in campus redevelopment, strategy, and innovation efforts.
Current position and organization: Transformation Specialist – Project Manager, Unity Health Toronto (St. Michael’s Hospital)
Speaker: Kathleen Bissonnette
Kathleen (Katie) Bissonnette (she/her) is a Registered Nurse and health informatics professional and currently a Senior Policy Advisor with the Information Management Strategy and Policy Branch at the Ontario Ministry of Health. She brings frontline clinical experience across adult and pediatric critical care, public health, and outpatient care, and has led hospital-wide digital initiatives as a clinical informatics lead and project manager for SickKids’ patient portal, MyChart. A second-year Executive Master of Health Informatics student at the University of Toronto’s IHPME, her work centers on systems-level digital health strategy, data governance, AI-enabled technologies, and advancing equitable patient access to digital health information.
Current position and organization: Senior Policy Advisor with the Information Management Strategy and Policy Branch at the Ontario Ministry of Health
Speaker: Jonathan Wong
Speaker: Anastasia Kalantarova
Speaker: Dr. Gillian Strudwick
1:20 PM – 1:30 PM: Transition Break
1:30 PM – 3:15 PM
Afternoon Parallel Sessions
Sponsors Recognition
Parallel Track 3: Optimizing Clinical Workflows
Speaker: Anne Forsyth
Anne has 15 years of experience in digital health across Canadian government, hospital and community organizations. Her expertise is in the areas of data, digital transformation, and interoperability. Anne is currently the Director of Clinical Applications and Decision Support at Women’s College Hospital, where she focuses on continuous improvement of the digital experience for clinicians and patients, as well as advancing the hospital’s data governance practices and data analytics maturity. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for Digital Health Canada, as well as the co-chair of Ontario’s chapter of Networked Health. She is an adjunct professor in the Master in Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto, where she teaches Leadership in Digital Health Transformation. Anne holds a Master of Health Administration from the University of Toronto, as well as CPHIMS-CA and CIPP/CA designations.
Current position and organization: Director, Clinical Applications & Decision Support at Women’s College Hospital
Speaker: Simon Ling
Simon Ling is a digital health expert with nearly two decades of experience driving innovation at both provincial and pan-Canadian levels. As the Executive Director of Partnerships and Stakeholders at OntarioMD, he leads the advancement of partnerships and strategic alliances with industry and health system to address intricate challenges and deliver innovative solutions. Simon has held several portfolios at OMD including products and services, project management office, and business development. A seasoned leader and consultant, Simon has built a diverse professional portfolio across healthcare, financial services, and high tech industries, specializing in enterprise architecture, strategy and program management.
Current position and organization: Executive Director of Partnerships and Stakeholders, OntarioMD
Speaker: Kirishan Sivaperuman
Kirishan is a Digital Implementation Specialist at Ontario Health, where he supports the province-wide deployment of interoperable digital health solutions, including eReferral and eConsult. His work focuses on clinical workflow enablement, interoperability, and structured change management, helping reduce administrative burden and improve the adoption of digital tools across Ontario’s healthcare system.
Kirishan brings a unique perspective shaped by experience across frontline clinical care and digital health. His background includes clinical training in kinesiology and diagnostic cardiac sonography, alongside hands-on support of multiple EMRs, cardiology applications, and medical device integrations in complex hospital and primary care environments. This experience provides first-hand insight into the operational and cognitive burden clinicians face when navigating fragmented digital systems, directly informing his contributions to the ongoing work of the HALO initiative. In this context, he applies practical implementation knowledge to advocate for standards-based integration, clear governance models, and scalable approaches that align policy, technology, and real-world clinical workflows.
He is currently completing an Executive Master of Health Informatics at the University of Toronto and is a Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner. Kirishan is passionate about improving healthcare experiences using digital solutions (particularly in primary care and acute-care) and enabling them to support providers and patients.
Current position and organization: Digital Implementation Specialist at Ontario Health
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM: Facilitated Discussion/Mini-Break
Speaker: Ted Alexander
Ted Alexander is Vice President of Partnerships and Clinical Innovation at Amplify Care, where he has played a key role in forging strong relationships across sectors, crucial in advancing our mission to improve healthcare delivery. With 25 years of experience in governance, public policy, and healthcare communication, Ted’s work focuses on developing partnerships that best enable transformation of primary and integrated care through change management, data standardization, and knowledge translation.
Current position and organization: Vice President Partnerships and Clinical Innovation, Amplify Care, Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) McMaster University Department of Family Medicine
Speaker: Matvey Kipershtein
Matvey Kipershtein is an Executive Master of Health Informatics student at the University of Toronto, a practising clinician with 20+ years of patient-care experience, and a software engineer with hands-on expertise in digital health systems. He specializes in tackling complex digital health challenges at the intersection of clinical workflows, interoperability, and AI.
Matvey is the project manager and a research contributor to the Preventive Assessment Tool (PAT) initiative, where he led a multi-stakeholder requirements synthesis and translated it into build-ready, standards-aware architecture. His work applies requirements engineering and AI-enabled standards mapping to bridge legacy systems, support portable point-of-care decision support, and enable scalable EMR integration across care settings.
At FHLIP, he will present “Scaling Preventive Assessment Tool – Making Prevention as Easy as Treatment in the EMR” sharing how stakeholder driven architecture can turn interoperability constraints into implementable, patient-centred prevention.
Current position and organization: Project manager and a research contributor to the Preventive Assessment Tool (PAT) initiative.
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM: Facilitated Discussion/Track Wrap-Up
Parallel Track 4: Decision Support for Better Outcomes
Speaker: Angela Coderre-Ball
Angela Coderre-Ball is the Manager for Evidence2Practice Ontario at the Centre for Effective Practice, a trusted source for evidence-based tools, resources, and programs to ensure clinicians have the information needed to deliver high-quality care. Angela holds a PhD in Neuroscience and a Bachelor of Engineering Physics from Queen’s University. She is passionate about health systems research and quality improvement and excited to share how digital tools could enhance clinician experience and support patient care in primary care.
Current position and organization: Manager, Centre for Effective Practice
Speaker: Areez Hirani
Areez Hirani is an undergraduate student at Binghamton University, majoring in Neuroscience. His research applies quantitative methods and digital-health approaches to improve early detection and preventive care pathways. He aims to pursue medicine alongside further graduate training in health informatics.
Current position and organization: Researcher and Student at Binghamton University
Speaker: Mark McPherson
Mark McPherson is the Director of Analytics & Reporting at Unity Health Toronto, where he leads clinical business intelligence and enterprise analytics across three hospital sites, driving data quality, performance measurement, and AI-ready reporting infrastructure. He previously held roles at Ontario Health and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, leading provincial and national health system indicator development, stakeholder engagement, and analytics strategy execution. Mark is passionate about building insight-driven culture in healthcare through self-service analytics, data literacy, and innovation.
Current position and organization: Director, Analytics and Reporting, Unity Health Toronto
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM: Facilitated Discussion/Mini-Break
Speaker: Abbas Zavar
Dr. Abbas Zavar is a futurist physician-scientist with over two decades of experience in clinical practice, digital health consulting, clinical AI science, and health information technology. He is dedicated to transforming healthcare through responsible innovation. Dr. Zavar holds an MD, MPH, and a Master of Health Informatics (MHI) from the University of Toronto. He has also completed specialized coursework and fellowship training in AI in healthcare at Harvard. Currently, he is completing his AMS AI fellowship at the UofT Bioethics Center.
He is a strong advocate for Personalized Medicine, providing thought leadership through publishing and speaking to translate AI and clinical data science into ethical care models. He leads the design of AI solutions with a focus on governance, patient safety, and workflow integration, while also teaching across Canadian institutions, including the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and George Brown College. His research aims to advance Personalized Prevention (Persoventa) by transforming clinical knowledge and patient data into actionable insights for individualized care.
Current position and organization: Clinical AI Scientist, Digital Health Leader & Academic Educator University of Toronto
Speaker: Karim Keshavjee
Dr. Karim Keshavjee is an Assistant Professor and Program Director for the Master of Health Informatics program at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Karim trained as a Family Physician at the University of Toronto and practiced for 20 years. He also obtained his MBA from the Rotman School of Management.
Karim has been a consultant to a variety of health organizations across North America. He has over 30 years of progressive experience in health informatics.
Karim’s current research is focused on using artificial intelligence and machine learning in the service of diabetes prevention through the PREVENT program where he is the Co-Principal Investigator. He is also the Principal Instigator for the Care4Mind research study which is focused on improving the care of patients with mental health disorders. He works on information, interoperability and AI governance and has published several papers in this area.
Karim was the architect and implementer of several community healthcare electronic medical records initiatives, including the COMPETE 1, 2 and 3 studies with McMaster University; the High Blood Pressure Management initiative with the Heart and Stroke Foundation; the eRourke Well-baby project with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services; the Vascular Health and Screening Tool project with the Ontario Stroke Network; and Canada’s primary care chronic disease surveillance network, CPCSSN. CPCSSN is now at 1500 physicians who donate data on over 2 million patients to a de-identified, standardized and cleaned data repository at Queen’s University
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM: Facilitated Discussion/Track Wrap-Up
3:15 PM – 3:45 PM
Afternoon Break & Networking
Sponsors Recognition
3:45 PM – 4:30 PM
Closing Panel: Call to Action
Panelists
Dr. Chuck has more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale initiatives that leverage data to develop actionable strategies and improve health systems. He is currently the President and CEO of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), where he is spearheading a bold transformation to modernize how CIHI delivers on its mandate. Under his leadership, the organization is evolving to better meet the needs of today’s complex and fast-changing health care system –becoming more agile, more accessible, and more impactful in the way it supports decision-makers across the country.
Before joining CIHI, Dr. Chuck 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 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.
Dr. Chuck has a Master of Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy from the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. A champion of evidence-informed decision-making and value-based health care, he has spent his career partnering with stakeholders and building coalitions to create real and measurable benefits in population health, patient outcomes, patient experience, value and system sustainability. He is a firm believer that the future of health care—and the key to a high-performing, sustainable system—is not a race to the bottom in costs but a race to the top in value.
Dr. Angel Arnaout, MD MSc FRCSC MBA Surgical Oncologist and Professor of Surgery Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Provincial Health Services Authority Dr. Angel Arnaout is a Surgical Oncologist, Professor of Surgery, Scientist and Chief Medical Informatics Officer at PHSA. In her multiple roles, she believes in leveraging technology and data to transform care delivery. At PHSA, she is spearheading the use of the EHR to drive quality and safety, as well as using AI to address practical pain points for healthcare providers using a responsible provincial framework for deployment and remuneration.
Alies Maybee collaborates as a patient/caregiver in many aspects of healthcare including research, service delivery and policy with a focus on system change. As a former technologist, she has a strong interest in how technology can be used to improve both health services and healthcare systems. Her work in research includes being a patient partner on many projects since 2014 including in the research management and governance area.
Alies looks for new ways to involve people from all backgrounds and communities which led her to co-initiate EMPaCT, a community table of people with diverse lived experiences focused on health equity. She is a co-founder and current chair of the Patient Advisors Network (PAN), a national community of practice for patient/caregiver partners and healthcare consulting practice.
Some highlights:
- One of the first two patient advisors (2011-onwards) and former member of the Patient Advisors Council, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto and participant on the EHR selection committee for Unity Health Toronto (2023-4).
- Member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy (2020-22).
- Co-chair of the Digital Health working group for the West Toronto OHT (2020-22).
- Awarded the 2024 “Made with Patients” Champion Award at the global Patient Engagement Open Forum at Bavano, Italy in recognition of her leadership of PAN, as an innovation in patient engagement.
- Led the PAN work that resulted in the Reimagining the research landscape report commissioned by CIHR’s SPOR Refresh initiative to gather insights of patient/caregiver partners about their experiences in research.
- Jun 2025 panelist, Plenary Panel; Is data failing tech in Canada? From EMRs to AI at the e-Health annual conference.
Dr. Payal Agarwal is a Family Physician and recognized Canadian leader in digital health, primary care innovation, and pragmatic evaluation, with over 40 peer-reviewed publications on the real-world impact of health technologies. Her research program focuses on how digital tools affect workflows, clinician experience, and patient care — generating actionable evidence that has directly shaped policy and funding decisions for innovations such as virtual care pathways, secure messaging, and AI scribes. As Learning Health System Lead for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, she co-designed and implemented a standardized patient experience measurement program that collects over 20,000 surveys annually to drive continuous quality improvement, and co-developed CareCanvas, a data-driven dashboard combining EMR and administrative data to help primary care teams monitor and improve performance. At the Centre for Effective Practice, she co-led development of the Primary Care Information Exchange (PCIE) strategy, delivering practical implementation guidance and governance models to advance data sharing, and led the Value for Money work to demonstrate and improve the impact of interprofessional primary care teams, including the enabling role of digital tools. As Chief Medical Informatics and Innovation Officer at the Waterloo Regional Health Network, she oversees large-scale digital initiatives such as regional health information exchange, AI-enabled decision support, patient portals, and workflow optimization to reduce administrative burden. With a unique background in Systems Design Engineering and Health Services Research, she brings a systems-thinking approach to building and evaluating digital solutions that make primary care more effective, sustainable, and patient-centred.
4:30 PM – 4:45 PM
Final Remarks & Words of Thanks
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Will Falk has spent over 25 years as an international strategist, advising top academic centres, governments, and innovative companies in healthcare. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Senior Fellow at the CD Howe Institute.
Will is interested in the impacts of technological change on health systems and their governance and payment mechanisms. He works with several innovative enterprises on digital health and software development including as an Innovation Fellow at Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care. He has been a Board Director or Advisor for more than a dozen enterprises including local and national charities, start-ups, health systems, and publicly listed companies.
Will’s strong understanding of digital health and his desire to improve healthcare through policy and digital innovation makes him important to AMS as we focus on a system that is fueled by advancing technology while remaining rooted in compassion