PHABC is thrilled to feature the following speakers for our 2023 Conference, “Public Health and Equity in the Digital Age.”
Please see the speakers’ biographies below, which highlight their education, experience, and passions for digital equity within the realm of public health.
Thank you all who attended the 2023 PHABC Conference!
We look forward to welcoming you all to the 2024 PHABC Conference next November!
Alex Choi, MD MHSc CCFP FRCPC
Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health
Clinical Instructor, UBC
Dr. Alex Choi is the Medical Health Officer for Vancouver Coastal Health. She is a dual-certified family physician and public health specialist physician, and a Clinical Instructor at UBC.
She holds a Medical Degree from McMaster University, a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from UBC, and has served populations through public health work at the local, regional, and international levels.
She has a strategic interest in the role of artificial intelligence in shaping population health and public health practice.
Dr. Shannon Freeman, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, UNBC
Academic Director, Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North
Academic Director, UNBC Research Data Centre
Dr. Shannon Freeman is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at that University of Northern British Columbia. Dr. Freeman has expertise in the health and social care needs of older adults in rural and northern communities, both among community-dwelling adults and those in long-term care.
She holds a PhD in Health Studies and Gerontology from the University of Waterloo and an MSc in Internal Medicine and Rehabilitation from Tohoku University School of Medicine in Japan.
Since moving to northern BC in 2014 to pursue research, Dr. Freeman has spearheaded and contributed to a number of cutting-edge projects in the area of aged care, including establishing CTAAN, the Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North in 2019, an AGEWELL national innovation hub and collaborating center dedicated to enhance innovations in technology development and implementation to support older adults in rural and northern communities (www.ctaan.ca).
Dr. Freeman was awarded a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research – AGE-WELL Network of Centers of Excellence (NCE) 2020 Scholar Award. Dr. Freeman’s interest in improving quality of life and care for older adults shows through her engagement in a range of community-partnered research activities, which are having a real-world impact on the rural and northern communities where the research is taking place.
Dr. Simon Carroll, PhD
Adjunct Professor, Department of Sociology and the School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria
Research Associate, KISSS-AT
Dr. Simon Carroll is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology and the School of Public Health and Social Policy, at the University of Victoria. He teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. His research focusses in the areas of sociology of aging, sociological theory, the sociology of health and illness, and in social justice and social inequalities.
His research over the past 20 years focused on sociological approaches to understanding health systems, specifically on reorienting health systems from a health promotion perspective. Methodologically, he was involved in an emerging approach to knowledge synthesis called ‘realist synthesis’.
Over the past decade, Dr. Carroll was engaged in the field of Aging and Technology. He worked with the AGE-WELL network and acted as the Research Associate for the KISSS-AT project, Implementation Science Team focused on assistive technologies to improve the health and well-being of older adults.
Ihoghosa (Muyi) Iyamu
PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia
Graduate Researcher, BC Centre for Disease Control
Ihoghosa (Muyi) Iyamu is a PhD Candidate at the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH), UBC and a Graduate Researcher at the clinical prevention services unit of the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC).
He trained as a physician at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and holds a Master’s in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (MDICHA), from the Humanitarian Aid Studies Centre (HASC) at Proyecto Kalu, in Spain.
His research focuses on fostering digital health equity using implementation science. Over the last 10 years, he has worked in various capacities in public health operations research and evaluation.
He currently holds the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral Award and the Four-Year Fellowships (FYF) For PhD Students award.
He has multiple peer-reviewed publications exploring the role of digital technologies in public health and evaluating their impact on various health services and populations.
Dr. Leanne Currie, RN, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, UBC
Leanne Currie is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, School of Nursing, where she conducts research in the field of nursing, biomedical and health informatics.
Since 2005, she has been the Principal Investigator or Co-investigator on over $17 million in grant funding with over 100 peer reviewed publications and 150 presentations.
She is passionate about applying technology to support clinical work including data collection as a by-product of the care process, making clinical work visible, and support of clinical decision making across contexts.
Her program of research focuses on:
- computerized clinical decision support systems and AI for nurses,
- measurement of informatics competencies,
- user-centered design methods, and
- information architecture.
Kendall Ho, MD FRCPC FACHS
Professor and Lead, UBC Faculty of Medicine Digital Emergency Medicine Unit
Medical Director, BC Ministry of Health HealthlinkBC 8-1-1 Virtual Physician Program
Dr. Kendall Ho is an emergency medicine specialist, a Professor in the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine and lead the Digital Emergency Medicine Unit, and the Medical Director of BC Ministry of Health 811 Virtual Physician Program.
Dr. Ho’s digital health research focuses on increasing access to high quality urgent care services via virtual care, innovative usage of sensors and Artificial intelligence in Emergency Department triaging and patient monitoring, and raising digital health literacy of patients and health professionals.
Dr. Ho collaborates with health policy and organizational partners in BC to establish the Real Time Virtual Support Network for peer-to-peer support, the 811 virtual physician service for direct patient care, and a Virtual Care Learning Health System for continuous quality improvement.
He actively engages in policy dialogues nationally and globally to advance essential digital health for the underserved. His work has received multiple provincial, national and international awards, including the BC Medal of Good Citizenship in 2022.
Dr. Michael Irvine, MSci, MSc, PhD
Senior Scientist, Data and Analytic Services, BCCDC
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Michael Irvine obtained his MSci in Mathematics at University College London. He then obtained his PhD in Complexity Science from the University of Warwick, UK as well as an MSc in Complexity Sciences.
Dr. Irvine’s work lies in the interface between mathematical modelling, biostatistics and machine learning. He incorporates a broad range of techniques into his work, including Bayesian evidence synthesis methods that can utilize disparate data sources to provide insight for disease epidemiology and broader public health applications.
His work has supported the evaluation of a number of interventions, including vector-borne disease, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, respiratory infections and opioid-related overdose.
He has completed a postdoctoral fellowship evaluating elimination campaigns for neglected tropical diseases as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation neglected tropical disease modelling consortium.
He further received a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Health Systems Impact Fellowship award, collaborating with BCCDC and the BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, for evaluating the impact of the province’s overdose response.
Dr. Richard McAloney, PhD
Director, Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North (CTAAN)
Dr. Richard McAloney is the director of the Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North (CTAAN). His passion lies in AgeTech and combined with a strong belief in partnerships, he aims to ensure technologies impact the lives of older adults and caregivers in northern and rural communities.
Richard’s expertise lies in the translation and commercialization of research to create real-world impact. He holds a PhD in Chemistry, co-founded several technology companies, developed entrepreneurship training programs, and managed a start-up incubator.
He is proud to be part of the AGE-WELL community and serves as a member on their Research Management Committee.
Dr. Hind Sbihi, PhD
Director Data Science and Innovation, Data and Analytics Services, BC Centre for Disease Control
Adjunct Professor, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Dr. Hind Sbihi is an environmental health epidemiologist, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. Dr. Sbihi has over 10 years of experience of translational and population health research.
She’s worked as a postdoctoral fellow with the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHRI), with funding at provincial and national levels.
After working with the Ministry of Health’s Office of the Provincial Health Officer, she moved to the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) as a Senior Scientist at the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Sbihi led the epidemiological surveillance of the Public Health Laboratories for the Covid-19 response, through innovative and fast-paced solutions to integrate laboratory diagnostic tests and genomics data with epidemiological information.
She is now the director of Data Science and Innovation within the Data and Analytics Services at the BCCDC, supporting the Centre on various domains from mathematical modelling, genomic epidemiology, to advanced epidemiological methods.
In addition to her service role, Dr. Sbihi leads a research program on clinically severe outcomes associated with VOC infections and the contribution of social of determinants of health on the pandemic morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Sbihi also holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of British Columbia, where she pursues her research focus on the human health effects of the built environment (air pollution, natural spaces, microbiome) with a particular interest in identifying intervention strategies to reduce exposures and improve health.
Dr. Andrea Thomas, DVM, PhD
Head of Epidemiology, BlueDot
Andrea Thomas is a veterinarian with an MSc and PhD in epidemiology from the University of Guelph in Canada. Her interests lie at the intersections of global health, infectious diseases, and surveillance.
She currently directs the epidemiology program at BlueDot, ensuring high-quality data and information are shared in a timely manner with diverse stakeholders. Dr. Thomas was involved in the development of BlueDot’s global infectious diseases event-based surveillance system, which was instrumental in the early detection and monitoring of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She led BlueDot’s surveillance and epidemiology team of expert analysts through the development, maintenance, and dissemination of global COVID-19 data and information throughout the pandemic as they continued to track the spread of many other infectious diseases occurring globally.
Dr. Kristen Thomasen, PhD
Assistant Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC
Dr. Kristen Thomasen is an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. She teaches in the areas of tort law, privacy law, and robotics law and policy.
Kristen’s work explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, robotics, and law, with a particular focus on the regulation of robotic and AI-systems operating in public and shared spaces. She has also focused her research on privacy law, and technology-facilitated violence, through an intersectional feminist lens.
Kristen holds a PhD and a JD from the University of Ottawa. Prior her doctoral studies, she served as law clerk to the Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada and clerked for the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, as well as articling for Alberta Justice.
She is a regular public commentator in mainstream media, and serves on the LEAF Tech-Facilitated Violence Sub-Committee, and the BC Law Institute Tort Law and AI Committee.