Dominic Covvey, healthcare IT educator, passes away

WATERLOO, Ont. – It is with great sadness that we announce that Dominic Covvey (pictured) died on September 16, 2024, following a brief illness. Dominic was the president and director of the National Institutes of Health Informatics (NIHI) and a retired professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo (UW).

He began his research career at Toronto General Hospital, where he was a senior research fellow for 15 years. Dominic then worked for 15 years in the consulting industry, serving hundreds of clients in the U.S. and Canadian public and private sectors. He later became a full professor, and chair in Health Informatics Research, and led the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research (WIHIR) for seven years at UW (2003-2010).

While at UW, he began many Health Informatics (HI) research and education initiatives. A notable one was the HI Bootcamp, an intensive multi-day course covering the essential knowledge of HI. The Bootcamp was held in many locations across Canada with hundreds of participants.

In 2008, he co-founded the National Institutes of Health Informatics, a federal not-for-profit, community of practice, which continues advancing the theory and practice of HI.

A prolific writer, he published hundreds of articles, presented at many conferences and produced six books and several book chapters. Just recently, with Dr. David Zitner, he co-authored a compendium of three volumes on “The Nature of Clinical Care.”

His research focused on the representation and analysis of healthcare workflow and the definition of competencies and curricula in Health Informatics.

Dominic, David Zitner and Robert Bernstein authored “Pointing the Way: Competencies and Curricula in Health Informatics” in 2001. It defined the basic competencies of applied health informatics, research and development informatics and clinical informatics.

He received research grants from CIHR, NSERC, the Ontario Heart Foundation, industry and other sources. He was a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, a senior life member of the IEEE, a life member of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, an Information Technology Certified Professional (retired), and a life member of the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS).

In 2011, Dominic was awarded the COACH “Leadership in the Field of Health Informatics Award.” This award recognizes an individual’s outstanding ongoing contributions as a thought leader, both nationally and internationally, to advance Canadian health informatics or Canadian telehealth.

He coined the term “Bootcamp” and the expression “Information is the life blood of the Health System.”

Dominic sought to develop Health Informatics as a discipline in Canada and to support anyone who wanted to pursue a career in the field. He was a major force in Health Informatics in Canada and beyond. Without him, HI would not be where it is today.

He was a visionary, a passionate teacher and a mentor. He was an inspiration to many. He will be sorely missed. Thank you, Dominic, for all you did to advance HI in Canada.

• Shirley Fenton