Hosted By: The Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy
The Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy is a research, education and policy centre aimed at generating insights for governments, organizations and other key stakeholders facing complex healthcare challenges
Topic: Health IT#3: Digital Health Start-Ups, 2024 edition
Synopsis: Join us for a lively discussion with a variety of noteworthy start-ups in digital health. What are the trends? What are the challenges? What is their strategy to succeed?
About our Speakers:
Joella Almeida, CEO, MedEssist
Joella is the CEO of MedEssist, a healthcare delivery platform serving pharmacies, digital health and pharmaceutical companies. Joella honed her skills in cross-functional roles within the e-commerce and payments industries, assuming a pivotal role in running operations for one of North America's largest payment processors. As the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Canada's National Women's Chamber of Commerce, she championed women's economic advocacy and worked as a Shopify Partner, helping small businesses launch, market, and manage their online stores. Driven by her passion for strategic operations and equitable access, Joella co-founded MedEssist alongside pharmacist and programmer Michael Do. Together, they combined their expertise to transform pharmacies into Pharmacy Health Clinics. This innovative concept merges the convenience of a walk-in clinic with the accessibility of a pharmacy, enabling new models of care to reach patients.
Vipan Nikore, Chief Medical Director, TD Bank; Practicing internist, Trillium Health Partners and Cleveland Clinic; CEO and co-founder of Homecare Hub; Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Vipan Nikore is the Chief Medical Director of TD Bank, a practicing internist at Trillium Health Partners and Cleveland Clinic, CEO and co-founder of Homecare Hub, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. He is the former Site Medical Director for the Department of Medicine at Trillium’s Credit Valley Hospital, and was co-course director for MIT’s Global Health Informatics course where he co-edited one of the first comprehensive Global Health Technology books. Prior to medical school he was a former IBM software developer, and as a medical student he founded the youth empowerment non-profit uFLOW, expanding it to 5 cities across the US. He completed his internal medicine residency at Cleveland Clinic, MD at the University of Illinois-Chicago, MBA at Yale, and BSc in computer science at the University of Western Ontario. He is a former winner of Canada’s top 40 under 40 award.
Shelly-Ann Rampersad, Managing Director, Florence in Canada
Shelly-Ann is Managing Director of Florence in Canada, a global tech start-up on a mission to tackle the healthcare staffing gap. She is the former Vice President of Clinical Operations at Maple, where she built and led the company’s health systems partnerships function and ran the company’s clinical operations including clinical strategy and care delivery operations. Prior to Maple, she was a management consultant within KPMG’s healthcare practice and has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management. Shelly-Ann is deeply committed to amplifying the voices of equity-deserving groups and tackling issues around accessible healthcare. She is a CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow, representing rising leaders shaping their communities, recent Arbor Award Recipient for her long-standing volunteer work with the University of Toronto, and was honoured as one of WXN’s Top 100 Canada’s Most Powerful Women in 2022.
Josh Williams, Senior Director, Clinical Solutions and Strategic Partnerships, FIGUR8
Josh is a clinical expert contributing to FIGUR8's success, seamlessly connecting internal and external partners to showcase the platform's benefits within physical therapy practice. With 18+ years of experience as a licensed physical therapist and also adjunct faculty in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto Department of Physical Therapy, he is well positioned to understand and address the current challenges of the profession. In 2018, Josh made a brief transition away from clinical care to a role within the Digital Health Division of the Ontario Ministry of Health. Here, he collaborated across the Ministry and with leadership to evaluate strategic digital health assets and technologies, spearhead the expansion of virtual care in home healthcare, and implement remote patient monitoring programs throughout the province.