Digital Health Canada award winners are announced

VANCOUVER – Digital Health Canada Award winners were announced at the e-Health 2024 Conference and Tradeshow, held this year in Vancouver from May 26 -28. Digital Health Canada annually offers awards in six categories – Digital Health Executive of the Year; Digital Health Leader of the Year; Clinical Innovator of the Year; Community Care Leader of the Year; Emerging Leader of the Year; and StartUp Innovator of the Year – as well as the Steven Huesing Scholarship.

And the winners are …

Digital Health Executive of the Year recognizes up to three individual executives (representing director level and up) whose outstanding contributions as a leader have helped advance digital health or virtual health in Canada.

The 2024 Digital Health Executives of the Year are:

• Ted Alexander (pictured on left), vice president, Partnerships and Clinical Innovation, eHealth Centre of Excellence
• Deepak Kaura (pictured in centre), founder and chief product Officer, Synthesis
• Jimmy Yang (pictured on right), Accenture’s Canadian Health Industry Leader, Accenture

Digital Health Leader of the Year recognizes up to three individual leaders (non-executive leaders within their department or organization) whose outstanding ongoing contributions have helped advance digital health or virtual health in Canada. 2024 Digital Health Leaders of the Year are:

• Ashley Dinn, program manager Virtual Care, NLHS – Digital Health Services
• Bobby Gheorghiu, director, Analytics, Canada Health Infoway
• Ryan MacNeil, director, Digital Strategy and Governance, Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness

Clinical Innovator of the Year recognizes up to three individual clinical innovators who have shown outstanding leadership in Canada in advancing the use of digital health or virtual health in clinical practice, resulting in improved provider and patient experiences and outcomes. 2024 Clinical Innovators of the Year are:

• Dr. Rashaad Bhyat, senior clinical leader, Canada Health Infoway
• Dr. Michael Do, pharmacist, Pharmacy Manager, CTO, co-founder MedEssist
• Dr. Geetha Mukerji, CMIO, Women’s College Hospital

Community Care Leader of the Year recognizes up to three individual community care leaders who have shown outstanding leadership in Canada in advancing the use of digital health or virtual health, resulting in improved provider and patient experiences and outcomes. 2024 Community Care Leaders of the Year are:

• Morenike Akinyemi, senior manager, Stakeholder Engagement, Canada Health Infoway
• Laura Salisbury, chief executive officer, Nucleus Independent Living
• Dr. Norm Silver, CEO and co-founder QDoc Inc.

Emerging Leader of the Year recognizes up to three individual emerging leaders who are in the first seven years of their digital health or virtual health career and have demonstrated leadership and achieved early success. 2024 Emerging Leaders of the Year are:

• Ashleigh Golden, vice president of Psychology, Wayhaven
• Dr. Daniel Rosenfield, emergency physician, SickKids Hospital
• Ahmad Haroon Syed, surgical clinical analyst, William Osler Health System

Start-up Innovator of the Year recognizes up to three start-up innovators who have demonstrated leadership and innovation and whose outstanding contribution has advanced digital health or virtual health in Canada. 2024 Start-up Innovators of the Year are:

• Dr. William Cherniak, founder and CEO, Rocket Doctor
• Chenny Xia, co-founder and CEO, GotCare
• Mahshid Yassaei, CEO, Tali AI

The Steven Huesing Scholarship honours the contributions our founding president made to the industry. The scholarship was established in 1999 to reflect the spirit, dedication and innovation that our founding president brought to the field of health informatics. 2024 Steven Huesing Scholarship recipients are:

• Bushra Kundi, McMaster University
• Danielle Shin, University of Toronto

Please join us in congratulating the 2024 Digital Health Canada Award Winners!

Digital Health Canada Award nominations are reviewed by a volunteer team of adjudicators. Nominations are first assessed for eligibility and then ranked using an objective scoring system based on established nomination criteria. Thank you to the 2024 volunteer adjudicators: Sayeh Radpay, HumanisRx; Sunil Rajput, Alberta Innovates; Francesca D’Angelo, Hamilton Health Sciences; Cindy Clarke, NLCHI; Darren Hay, Medioh; Saara Rajan, PHSA; Erica Pederson, Saskatchewan Health Authority; Roy Hanna, Universite de Montreal; Naima Salemohamed, Accenture; Wendy Tegart, AHS; Dr. Jonathan Choy, AHS; Emily Hogan, Accenture; Dr. Ashley Miller, Nova Scotia Health Authority; Sonia Pagliaroli, Oracle.

Digital Health Canada Award winners were announced at the e-Health 2024 Conference and Tradeshow evening social event on May 27, 2024. e-Health is co-hosted by Canada Health Infoway, Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Digital Health Canada.