Alberta's Symposium on Health 2005

Symposium speaker biographies

Speaker biographies (at time of conference) are available by clicking on the speakers name below.
  1. Orvill Adams, Former Director, WHO Department of Health Services Provision (The Netherlands)
  2. Richard Alvarez, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway (CA)
  3. Ian Anderson, Director, Cooperative Research Centre in Aboriginal Health (AU)
  4. Ben Chan, CEO, Saskatchewan Health Quality Council (CA)
  5. John Cowell, CEO, Health Quality Council of Alberta (CA)
  6. Peter Davis, Professor of Sociology, University of Auckland (NZ)
  7. Gérard de Pouvourville, Collège des Economistes de la Santé (FR)
  8. Mason Durie, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori) and Professor of Maori Research and Development, Massey University (NZ)
  9. Archie Galbraith, Partner, Health and Life Sciences Practice, Accenture Inc. (UK)
  10. Egon Jonsson, Professor, Karolinska Institut (Sweden)
  11. Senator Michael J. Kirby, Chair, Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (CA)
  12. Ken Kizer, The National Quality Forum (US)
  13. Rudolf Klein, Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath (UK)
  14. Janice MacKinnon, Professor of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan (CA)
  15. Ted Marmor, Professor of Public Policy, Yale University (US)
  16. Alan Maynard, Professor, Department of Health Sciences, University of York (UK)
  17. Wayne McNee, Chief Executive, PHARMAC, Pharmaceuticals Management Agency Ltd. (NZ)
  18. Steven Morgan, Professor in Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia (CA)
  19. Cecilia Mulvey, President, American Nurses Credentialing Centre (US)
  20. J. Fraser Mustard, President, The Founders Network (CA)
  21. John Perry, Senior Vice-President, National Quality Institute (CA)
  22. Martin Pfaff, Chair in Economics, University of Augsburg (Germany)
  23. Michael Rawlins, National Institute for Clinical Excellence (UK)
  24. Ricky Richardson, Chair, UK Telemedicine Association (UK)
  25. Glen Roberts, The Conference Board of Canada (CA)
  26. Richard Saltman, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Emory University (US)
  27. Richard Wootton, Professor, Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland (AU)
  28. Jennifer Zelmer, Vice President, Research and Analysis, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CA)

Orvill Adams

Director, Orvill Adams & Associates (The Netherlands)

Orvill Adams is the Director of Orvill Adams & Associates, a Consultancy located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He brings over 20 years of experience in senior positions in the health sector and spent 10 years with the Canadian Medical Association as Director of the Department of Medical Economics. Adams was with the World Health Organization for ten years as Director of the Department of Health Services Provision. He has managed and developed health systems, workforce policies and tools, and has interacted with Development Partners, bilateral and multilateral, at global levels and within countries. Orvill Adams is widely published in the area of health workforce development, management, policy and planning and holds an adjunct teaching position at the University of Helsinki, Department of General Practice. He holds post graduate degrees in Economics and International Affairs.

Richard Alvarez

President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway (CA)

As President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard C. Alvarez is responsible for providing overall direction and leadership for Canada Health Infoway activities. Mr. Alvarez possesses a deep understanding of the Canadian health care industry, a strong information technology background and a clear vision of the role and potential benefits of e-health for Canadians. He has articulated a broad national vision for health information in Canada. Prior to his role at Infoway, Mr. Alvarez was President and Chief Executive Officer and ex-officio Board Member of Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) where he led the evolution of CIHI to be widely recognized and respected as an organization, with strong ties to the research community, that disseminates relevant health care policy material across Canada and internationally. Mr. Alvarez held senior provincial government positions including Assistant Deputy Minister, Information Technology Division in Alberta and Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Alberta Health Care Insurance Division. He began his career in technology, research and project management at the Prudential Assurance Co. in London, England.

Ian Anderson

Professor, Chair in Indigenous Health, University of Melbourne (AU)

Professor Ian Anderson is Palawa Trouwernner (PlairMairReRenNer/TrawlWoolWay) and currently holds the Chair in Indigenous Health at the University of Melbourne. Ian has worked in Aboriginal health for about 19 years. In 1998 he established the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit with external funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. He is also currently the Research Director for the CRC in Aboriginal Health. While Administrator of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, he played a key role in establishing a community based research program, focusing on youth health and issues for injecting drug users. During his time as Medical Adviser to the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, he led the development of the first National Indigenous Sexual Health Strategy and has played a key role in developing the Indigenous research reform agenda for the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Ben Chan

Chief Executive Officer, Health Quality Council (HQC) of Saskatchewan (CA)

Dr. Chan is the founding CEO, Health Quality Council (HQC) of Saskatchewan. Since starting in October 2003, Dr. Chan has led HQC in a rapid expansion to a team of 40 with skills in epidemiology, statistics, operations research, program evaluation, knowledge exchange, communications, change management and conflict resolution. Previously, Dr. Chan was a Senior Scientist with Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Dr. Chan also has extensive experience as a part-time locum family physician and was a health care management consultant for six years with Price Waterhouse. Dr. Chan received his BSc from the University of Toronto. He subsequently obtained his MD from the University of Toronto, Master of Public Health from Harvard and Master of Public Affairs from Princeton. He has authored 45 academic publications on topics including health human resources, quality of care and primary care.

John Cowell

CEO, Health Quality Council of Alberta (CA)

Dr. Cowell graduated from the University of Toronto with a MSc. in 1967 and with a Doctor of Medicine in 1970. He is Royal College certified in Occupational Medicine and has certifications by the College of Family Medicine and the Canadian Board of Occupational Medicine. He started practice in Toronto as a family physician with a part-time involvement in Occupational Medicine.

Dr. Cowell became the chief executive officer of the Health Quality Council of Alberta in January 2003. In addition to his professional responsibilities, he is active in teaching undergraduate medicine at the University of Calgary. He has also been president of his own consulting firm that focused on health care policy and services and occupational health and safety. From 1992 to 1997 he served as president and chief executive officer of the Workers' Compensation Board - Alberta.

In October 1981, he was appointed vice-president, Occupational Health and Safety for NOVA Corporation of Alberta, and in March 1987 became the president of Novalta Property Services Ltd. and the vice-president of Health, Safety and Environment and Security. In December of 1977, Dr. Cowell joined the Canadian General Electric Company as medical director. During his time at GE he received extensive business management training through joint GE/Harvard University business management and development programs.

Peter Davis

Professor of Sociology, University of Auckland (NZ)

Peter Davis is Professor of Sociology, specializing in health and well-being, at the University of Auckland, where he also holds professorial cross-appointments both in the School of Population Health and in the Department of Statistics. Previously he was Professor of Public Health at the Christchurch School, University of Otago. He originally trained in sociology and in statistics at the London School of Economics and took his doctorate in medical sociology at Auckland. Health services and health policy research have been a consistent theme of his work, most recently in patient safety and the quality of care. He has published about a dozen books and over a hundred articles. He is Senior Editor (Health Policy) with the international journal Social Science and Medicine.

Gérard de Pouvourville

Collège des Economistes de la Santé (FR)

Gérard de Pouvourville is Senior Research Director and head of the Centre for Health Economics and Administration Research, INSERM/CNRS in Paris. He also holds a half-time position as the Director for Medico-Economic Studies, at Institut Gustave Roussy, a cancer treatment centre located in the Paris region. He chairs the French Health Economists Association is Vice-Chairman of the National Observatory for Drug Prescription and Use. He sits on the board of INSERM, the French National Health Research Institute, and the editorial board of the European Journal of Health Economics, the Health Care Management Review and Sciences Sociales et Santé. He has been a scientific advisor to the French Ministry of Health for the development and the implementation of the French Casemix Program and for the design of the Prospective per Case Payment Scheme for public and private hospitals. His main fields of research are health technology assessment, hospital and physician payment systems, health system international comparisons, and public health policy.

Mason Durie

Professor of Maori Research and Development and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori), Massey University (NZ)

Mason Durie is from New Zealand and is a member of the Rangitane, Ngati Kauwhata, and Ngati Raukawa tribes. He graduated in medicine from the University of Otago in 1963 and completed the Diploma in Psychiatry at McGill University in 1970. On returning to New Zealand he was appointed Director of Psychiatry at the Palmerston North Hospital and took a major role in applying the community psychiatric model to the New Zealand health system. From 1986-1988 he was a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on Social Policy. He was offered the chair in Mäori Studies at Massey University in 1988 and appointed Professor of Maori Research and Development and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori) in 2002. Current research includes a national child nutrition study, an international mental health prevalence study, a mental health outcomes study, and a national Maori mental health workforce development programme. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1995. In the 2001 he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2002 awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature (by examination) from Massey University.

Archie Galbraith

Partner, Health & Life Sciences Practice, Accenture

Archie Galbraith is a partner in Accenture’s Health & Life Sciences practice. He leads work across all healthcare sectors and specializes in developing digital strategies for hosting and managing healthcare applications, enterprise-wide services for hospital management, clinical systems, electronic medical records, and patient and clinical workflow design. He also leads Accenture’s Global Electronic Health Records team, as well as the Accenture Health Innovation Centre , based in Leeds University Faculty of Medicine, which brings together academic, operational and professional services expertise to apply information technology and management to health care. Mr. Galbraith joined Accenture from the National Health Service in Scotland, where he was Deputy Director of the Development Group. Prior to this, he was a lecturer in the Department of Economics and Management at Aberdeen University.

Egon Jonsson

Professor of Health Economics, Karolinska Institute (Sweden)

Egon Jonsson is Professor of Health Economics at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and Editor of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. He was trained at the Stockholm School of Economics, and at Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. For 15 years he was Director of a Swedish Agency on Assessment of Health Practices and Evidence Based Health Care (SBU). He later worked for the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish The Health Evidence Network, which is a WHO service to health ministries on evidence in the field of public health policy and practice. During the last year he was employed by SIDA in Sweden, as Health Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Health in Hanoi, Vietnam. His main field of research has been in health economics: cost-effectiveness analysis, and health technology assessment. His current activities include health policy development, health care financing, health insurance, and issues in prevention and public health.

Senator Michael J. Kirby

Chair, Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (CA)

Senator Kirby has had a distinguished career spanning academia, business, provincial, federal public service and as a member of the Canadian Senate. Under his chairmanship, the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology has focused its work on developing federal government health policy designed to make medicare financially sustainable for the long term. The Committee published six reports on health care cumulating with its report "Recommendations for Reform", was released in October 2002. He was a full professor in the School of Business Administration and the School of Public Administration at the University of Dalhousie and served as President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Senator Kirby has been a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Luxemburg, Austria, and the Club of Rome. His experience in the federal government includes Secretary to the Cabinet for Federal-Provincial Relations and Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council.

Kenneth (Ken) W. Kizer

President and Chief Executive Officer, National Quality Forum (US)

Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Quality Forum (NQF), a Washington, DC-based private, non-profit voluntary consensus standards setting organization. Dr. Kizer also currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Medsphere Systems Corporation, a healthcare information technology company; as a Director of Trinity Health of Novi, Michigan; as a member of the National Advisory Board of Heritage Medical Systems in Marina del Rey, California; and as a consultant or advisor to various other entities. He previously served for five years under the Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and is widely credited as being the chief architect and driving force behind the greatest transformation of VA healthcare since the system was created in 1946. He has held senior academic positions at the University of California, Davis; the University of Southern California; and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He was in both private and academic practice of emergency medicine for over fifteen years, and was a private consultant in medical toxicology for much of that time. Dr. Kizer is an honors graduate of Stanford University and UCLA. He is board certified in six medical specialties and/or subspecialties, and has authored over 400 original articles, book chapters and other reports in the medical literature.

Rudolf Klein

Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath (UK)

Rudolf Klein was born in Prague and educated in the UK, receiving his MA in History (Oxford). He spent the first half of career as a journalist and the second as an academic. Klein was Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath, 1978-1998, now Professor Emeritus. Klein is the Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and at the London School of Hygiene. In 1998, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts (Oxford Brookes University). In 1999, Klein received the Margaret E. Mahoney Award for Advancing International Exchange on Health Policy and in 2001 was awarded C.B.E. At present, he is researching the latest wave of institutional innovation in Britain’s National Health System. His books include : Complaints against doctors ; The New Politics of the NHS ; Accountabilities ( with Patricia Day ); The Politics of Consumer Representation (with Janet Lewis ); and Managing Scarcity (with Patricia Day and Sharon Redmayne). A collection of his papers and articles have been published.

Janice MacKinnon

Professor of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan (CA)

Janice MacKinnon is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan and a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP). She also sits on various private and public-private boards and holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) fellowship. Her latest book, Minding the Public Purse: The Fiscal Crisis, Political Trade-offs and Canada’s Future, is about the fiscal crisis and includes a discussion of health care and other critical issues facing Canada. “The Arithmetic of Health Care,” published in 2004 discusses the trade-offs involved in the current level of funding for health care and proposes changes to the current financing of the system. From 1991 to 2001, Ms. MacKinnon was a cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan Government. She served in various portfolios, including Finance, Social Services, Economic and Co-operative Development, and Trade, Research and Investment.

Theodore (Ted) R. Marmor

Professor, Yale (US)

Theodore R. Marmor is Professor at the Yale School of Management, Professor of Political Science, and an adjunct Professor of the Yale Law School and former Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s post-doctoral program in Health Policy & Social Science from 1993-2003. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Wadham College, Oxford and has been on the faculty at Yale since 1979. Professor Marmor is a scholar of the politics of the contemporary welfare state in the United States, and also comparatively with other OECD nations. He has authored and co-authored eleven books, and has published over a hundred articles in a wide range of scholarly journals. His books include the 2nd edition of The Politics of Medicare (Aldine de Gruyter, 2000), Understanding Health Care Reform (Yale Press, 1994), Why Some People are Healthy and Others Are Not (Aldine de Gruyter, 1994), and America’s Misunderstood Welfare State (Basic Books, 1992) co-authored with Yale colleagues Jerry Mashaw and Philip Harvey. Marmor is also an emeritus fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Alan Maynard

Professor, Department of Health Sciences, University of York (UK)

Alan Maynard is Professor of Health Economics and Director of the York Health Policy Group in the Department of Health Sciences, University of York, England. He is also an Honorary Professor of Health Economics at the University of Aberdeen, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Adjunct Professor, Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He was Founding Director of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York (1983 – 95) and is Founding Editor of Health Economics, a specialist journal (1991 -).

He has worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the UK Government’s Department for International Development in countries such as China, Cyprus, Chile, Brazil and South Africa. Maynard also has published widely in books, specialist journals and the media. His most recent publication is “The Public-Private Mix for Health: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” published by Radcliffe Press for the Nuffield Trust. He is Chair of the York NHS Health Services Trust and has been involved in NHS management since 1983. The York Trust is an acute hospital with a budget of £140M serving a population of 300,000.

Wayne McNee

Chief Executive, PHARMAC, Pharmaceuticals Management Agency Ltd. (NZ)

Wayne McNee received his Bachelor of Pharmacy from Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand in 1985 and also has completed a Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy with Distinction from Otago University. McNee went on to obtain a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy, and has studied Management (Mt. Eliza, Melbourne and Templeton College, Oxford) and Health Economics. He has worked for the Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand (PHARMAC) since 1995, initially as a Therapeutic Group Manager. In 1998, he also fulfilled the role of Clinical Director and was appointed General Manager in 1998. In 2001, he was appointed the Chief Executive. Prior to this, McNee was principal pharmacist (Clinical services, drug usage review and purchasing) at Mid-Essex Hospitals in Chelmsford, Essex, England from 1989 to 1995.

Steven Morgan

Assistant Professor, Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia (CA)

Dr. Steven Morgan is a health economist from the University of British Columbia. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, Faculty at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR), and Research Lead for the Program in Pharmaceutical Policy. The overall focus of Dr. Morgan’s work is how to design public policies to balance equitable access to medically necessary technologies with the need for cost control, including the determinants of pharmaceutical expenditure growth, the design of pharmaceutical insurance programs, and the financing of new health care technologies. Dr. Morgan holds over $1 million in research grants from research foundations in Canada and the United States. Dr. Morgan obtained a BA (Hons) in economics at the University of Western Ontario, an MA in economics at Queen's University at Kingston, and a PhD in economics at the University of British Columbia. He conducted post-doctoral training at CHSPR and at the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) at McMaster University.

Cecilia F. Mulvey

Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University (US)

Dr. Mulvey, PhD, RN is Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. She has served as President of The American Nurses Credentialing Center since August 2000. During her tenure The Magnet Recognition Program has grown to include one hundred forty acute care institutions in the United States, an International Advisory Council and a Research Council. Dr. Mulvey is committed to the provision of Evidenced Based Credentialing to nurses and nursing. Dr. Mulvey has devoted much of her professional work to advancing nurses and nursing through credentialing and evidence based practice. She strongly believe that nursing is the core of health care and that as nurses we have the privilege to touch lives when people are most vulnerable. She served as President of her district Nurses Association and the New York State Nurses’ Association. She served on the board of directors of the American Nurses Association (ANA) and as a trustee and President of the American Nurses Foundation. She received Honorary Recognition from NYSNA and the ANA Distinguished Membership Award.

J. Fraser Mustard

President, The Founders Network (CA)

J. Fraser Mustard, Founding President and Fellow of The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, has had a diverse career in the health sciences, research, and the private sector. After earning his MD from the University of Toronto, and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Mustard moved from the medical faculty of the University of Toronto to help establish the new school of Medicine and Health Sciences at McMaster University. In 1982, he established The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Dr. Mustard has been a leader in Canada on the socioeconomic determinants of human development and health. He co-chaired a report for the Government of Ontario on early learning with specific community recommendations (The Early Years Study). Recognition of this has led Dr. Mustard and his colleagues to emphasize to all sectors of society the crucial nature of the early years to provide a healthy and competent population. Dr. Mustard is involved with governments in Canada, Australia, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNICEF and the Aga Khan University in Pakistan in emphasizing the enormous importance to society of early childhood development. Dr. Mustard has received numerous awards for his work including the Companion of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize in Medicine, the Gairdner Foundation International Award for Medical Research, the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostatis Robert P. Grant Medal, and honorary degrees from a number of Canadian and international institutions. He received the most prestigious Starr Award from the Canadian Medical Association and most recently was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

John Perry

Senior Vice-President, National Quality Institute (CA)

John Perry is Senior Quality Advisor and Senior VP for the National Quality Institute of Canada. He chaired the design committee for the Canadian Quality Criteria for the private sector, and in association with the Canadian Government, he has led the development of the Canadian Quality Criteria for Public Sector Excellence. In partnership with Health Canada, he has led the development of the Canadian Healthy Workplace Criteria. In partnership with the Toronto District School Board, he led the development of the Canadian Excellence in Education Program, a four-step implementation and certification process on quality principles/practices for schools. He has also worked in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism & Recreation, where he assisted in the development of the Ontario Tourism Excellence Program, a certification program for the hospitality sector.

He is a Member of the Criteria and Assessment Development Committee for the Progressive Aboriginal Relations Program (PAR), in partnership with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. He wrote the NQI-PEP (Progressive Excellence program), a four-step implementation and certification process for NQI Quality and Healthy Workplace Criteria. He is a former member of the Canadian National Committee on ISO Standards and Former Chair of Adjudication for the Canada Awards for Excellence. His business career involved senior line management positions in England, Holland, Germany and Canada.

Martin Pfaff

Chair in Economics, University of Augsburg (Germany)

Professor Pfaff studied in India and the US, completing a Ph.D. (Economics) (1965) at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Pfaff held the Chair in Economics at the University of Augsburg and became Professor Emeritus in 2004. Professor Pfaff is also the Director, International Institute for Empirical Social Economics (INIFES). Among other appointments, Pfaff has served as Assistant and Associate Professor, American University in Washington, D.C.; a Full Professor at Wayne State University since 1970 and a Research Fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. Professor Pfaff was a member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) 1990-2002, serving on Committees on Health Policy and Labor and Social Policy, as Deputy Member of the Finance Committee; and as National Chairman of the Working Group of Social Democrats in the Field of Health. He has acted as a consultant to German and US Government Departments and Agencies, International Organizations (WHO, OECD, EEC, UNO, Council of Europe), and foundations such as the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Hans-Böckler-Foundation, and the Volkswagen Foundation.

Sir Michael Rawlins

Chairman, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (UK)

Professor Sir Michael is a practicing physician and clinical pharmacologist and has been the professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle. He also is the Consultant Physician and Clinical Pharmacologist at the Freeman Hospital and at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. Sir Michael was Chair of the Committee on Safety of Medicines from 1993 to 1998 and was previously a Committee Member for 14 years. He is Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Policy and Drug Safety Research. He was appointed Chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in November 1998.

Ricky J Richardson

Chair, UK Telemedicine Association (UK)

Professor Richardson took his first Degree with Honours in Cell Biology and Immunology at the University of London and studied clinical medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1973. Most of his paediatric career has been based at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, but a considerable period of time (8 years) has been spent overseas on specific assignments. During 1979, he worked for Save the Children Fund (a UK based global charity) in Burkina Fasso, West Africa and Nicaragua, Central America. In 1980, he devised and wrote a master plan to establish a comprehensive integrated paediatric service in Brunei, SE Asia and stayed for five years to implement and further develop the plan. Professor Richardson is an acknowledged authority on the emerging fields of e-health and Telemedicine. Professor Richardson is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine. He was appointed as Visiting Professor in e-health to Imperial College, London in February 2004. In 1983, he was conferred the title of Dato (The Most Honourable Order of the Crown of Brunei) for his services to the children of Negara Brunei Darussalam.

Glen Roberts

The Conference Board of Canada (CA)

Dr. Glen Roberts is the Conference Board of Canada’s (CBoC) Director of Health Programs. He has ongoing responsibility for all CBoC research, networks and representation on health-related issues. Dr. Roberts is also the Executive Director for the Enhancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Primary Health Care (EICP) Initiative. The Initiative is a national project funded by Health Canada and led by 10 national organizations of health care professionals, plus a coalition devoted to preventative practices. Glen manages the EICP Secretariat, which is housed at The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC), and guides the planning and implementation of this two-year Initiative. In this capacity, Glen has been charged with management of an extensive consultation exercise that has engaged the opinions and expertise of Canada’s health care leaders, educators, governments and the public. He also directs a comprehensive research program focused on gathering international and domestic knowledge about interdisciplinary practice, its benefits and its challenges.

Glen has worked in hospitals in Canada and abroad. Prior to joining the CBoC, he held the position of Director of Professional Practice/Quality Assurance at the College of Chiropractors of Ontario. He also has had training in Quality Assurance (QA) and measurement and was part of the five-year Review of the Regulated Health Professions Act. Glen has formal training in Continuous Quality Improvement and Six Sigma. Glen is a chiropractor by training; a policy wonk by profession. He obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) from the University of Western Ontario, with a major in chemistry.

Richard B. Saltman

Professor of Health Policy and Management, Emory University School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia (US)

Richard B. Saltman is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Emory University School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a research director of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems, an international partnership based in Brussels, and Head of its Madrid research hub. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Emory University, a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Visiting Professor at the Braun School of Public Health at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He holds a doctorate in political science from Stanford University and has published 13 books and over 100 articles on a wide variety of health policy topics, particularly on the structure and behavior of European health care systems. In 1987 and again in 1999, he won the European Health Management Association's annual prize for the best publication in health policy and management in Europe.

Richard Wootton

Professor, Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland (AU)

Richard Wootton is the Head of Research at the Centre for Online Health, The University of Queensland. The Centre is exploring the role of new technologies in medicine, with a view to obtaining quantitative evidence of cost-effectiveness in health care delivery, training and education. Current work involves a major trial of a novel telepaediatric service in Queensland, and a global support network for doctors working in hospitals in developing countries.

Richard Wootton was previously the Director of the Institute of Telemedicine and Telecare at Queen's University, Belfast. The Institute ran a number of telemedicine research trials, including a multi-centre international RCT of primary-care teledermatology, and pioneered the use of telemedicine for minor injuries units, currently one of the most successful forms of real-time telemedicine in the National Health Service.

Professor Wootton is the Editor of the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, an international peer-reviewed journal.

Jennifer Zelmer

Vice President, Research and Analysis, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CA)

Jennifer Zelmer is Vice-President, Research and Analysis for the Canadian Institute for Health Information. In this role, she leads an integrated program of health services and population health-related analytical and research initiatives. Prior to joining CIHI in 1995, she worked with a variety of health, academic, and government organizations in Canada, Australia, Denmark, and India, among other countries. Ms. Zelmer is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto, a research associate at McMaster University, and a member of a number of health related advisory committees and boards, including the Canadian Centre for the Analysis of Regionalization and Health. In 2002, she was one of two Canadians selected to receive a Harkness Associate award. Ms. Zelmer has a Bachelor's degree in Health Information Science and has recently completed a PhD in Economics.