Digital Health Communication in a Post-Covid World

Working Group

 Event Description

COVID has introduced many fundamental changes to digital communication in healthcare.  The “working group” featured in this session discussed best practices in digital communication in contacting both physicians and patients.

The working group intends to cultivate their best practices of digital communications between clinicians, industry professionals, and patients.  The working group will act as a scholarly resource for students, academics, and entrepreneurs interested in current thinking on digital health communication.

 Recording

 Access the transcript here

 Meet the Working Group

 Jayson Parker, M.Sc, MBA, PhD. Moderator. Associate Professor (Digital Health Technologies) for the Master of Biotechnology program and cross appointed to Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. One of his main areas of research is medical device regulation.

 Dr. Brendan Byrne is the medical director and co-founder of Wellness Garage, a lifestyle medical practice based in British Columbia. He has been a physician for the past 25 years and currently sits on several boards including the BC Academic Health Sciences Network and the Institute for Precision Therapeutic Nutrition. 

• James Cran is the president and CEO of Pharmaconsultants Inc. He is also the CEO of Patient MediQuest Inc and Digital Health Partners Inc. His place in the Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame demonstrates his recognition in his field. 

 Dr. Sharon Domb is currently the Physician IT Lead in the Family Practice Unit at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and is also a Managing Partner of the Sunnybrook Family Practice Partnership. She has 25 years of experience as a family physician and translates her experience into teaching as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Kendall Ho is a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia, an emergency medical specialist, and a medical director at Healthlink BC 8-1-1. He retains over 20 years of research in digital health, with interest in areas such as health apps, digital health literacy, wearables, and big data in health. 

 Dr. Darren Larsen is currently a senior advisor of Canadian health practice at Accenture. He is the former Chief Medical Officer of OntarioMD and a lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. He combines his expertise in medicine and digital health to educate his patients and students on the future of health care. 

 Todd Staples is the current head of healthcare innovation at ACTO, an app intended to train life sciences industry professionals. He uses his 15+ years of business experience to implement strategies for business growth. 

 Zoila Rossi is an organizer of the Digital Health Communications Working Group. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from McMaster University in Medical & Biological Physics. She graduates from the Master’s degree program, MBiotech (Digital Health Technologies stream) at the University of Toronto Mississauga.