In 1961, Tommy Douglas’ Saskatchewan government innovated a vital Canadian institution when he introduced Canada’s first universal publicly funded medical care. Sixty years later, a group of Canadians are reinventing health care all over again. And they’re doing it using the ascendant tool of the digital age: data.
Deploying data holds risks. But it can also be the most powerful tool in a generation to extend a healthier, more pain-free, less tragic life to millions of Canadians.
Here are 10 Canadians re-shaping Canada’s health future with data:
⭐ Eric Sutherland, Executive Director, pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, for bringing new energy to a national effort to leverage health data, and for, in his words: “aspiring to conduct Canada’s health data orchestra”
⭐ Khalid El Emam, Professor, University of Ottawa & SVP + GM, Replica Analytics, for innovating the concept of synthetic data: a new tool with massive implications in the effort to protect privacy as we unlock health data’s value
⭐ Reg Joseph, CEO, Health Cities, for his entrepreneurial energy in establishing a profoundly innovative effort that marries public and private capacity to develop new models of care. (Do check out Health Cities!)
⭐ Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, Research, University of Waterloo, for the depth of her research across many fields of health data and determinants of health, and for her research leadership in innovative technology in the Waterloo region’s thriving tech sector
⭐ Federica Di Palma, Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President Sectors, Genome British Columbia, for bringing a vital new energy to Canada’s health data dialogue, informed by deep experience among global leaders in the United Kingdom and elsewhere
⭐ Laura Rosella, Associate Professor & CRC in Population Health Analytics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health; Stephen Family Research Chair in Community Health at the Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners, for advocating for AI’s role in Canada’s health data landscape, and for building first of its kind AI that can train our next generation of data scientists
⭐ Marc Fiume, Co-Founder and CEO, DNAstack, for developing technology that can marry the power of the cloud with the incredible promise and potential of genomics
⭐ Sue Paish, CEO, Digital Technology Supercluster, for her leadership across the legal, laboratory and now government and technology sectors, and for committing the power of the Supercluster to the promise of health data across many projects.
⭐ Julio Montaner, Director at British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, for transformative care in Vancouver and Canada, and doing as much as any individual in history to rid us of the scourge of HIV/AIDS
⭐ Helia Mohammadi, Chief Data Scientist & Healthcare Lead for Microsoft Canada, for her distinguished scholarship and for now putting the power of AI and Microsoft’s global reach to work in bringing health data insights to Canadians
