Health IT #2 - Citizen Innovators: Digital Health Volunteers During the Pandemic
Series Host: Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy
Series Sponsor: Rotman Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences
Join us for a panel discussion with four volunteers who provide daily data to the public on the pandemic – daily case reporting, reporting on elders in care homes, cases in schools, and vaccination sites/clinics. Do these small and nimble reporting groups have a permanent role in our healthcare system? Is it possible that there are areas that government and its agencies cannot do well? Where should “OpenData” be used instead of government reporting?
Moderator: Will Falk, Executive-in-Residence, Rotman School of Management
About Our Speakers:
Ryan Doherty, President & Founder, Empower Health
Tai Huynh is the founding editor-in-chief of The Local, an independent magazine exploring urban health and social issues in Toronto. He’s also creative director at OpenLab, a design and innovation centre at the University Health Network, and co-founder of Choosing Wisely Canada.
Dr. Jennifer Kwan, Family Physician
Andrew Young is Founder and Director of Vaccine Hunters Canada, a volunteer community with the mission of connecting eligible Canadians with COVID-19 vaccines. He managed to get his parents vaccinated and started Vaccine Hunters Canada to help others protect their loved ones by posting vaccine availability via social media. Since March 2021, the group has grown to include a network of over 100 volunteers from “coast to coast to coast,” all of whom have worked tirelessly to provide answers, information, and support to millions of Canadians on several online platforms: Twitter, Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. At their peak they had over 427,000 followers in total across all social platforms and estimate they have helped at least 1.2 million Canadians get vaccinated. During the day, Andrew works full-time as a web developer at one of Canada's top Universities and is passionate about vaccine equity.
Watch the video here
