UOHS 2024 is going to be an amazing conference! Learn about our keynote speakers below
Previous Speakers
Check out some of UOHS' previous speakers below!
Ph.D.
DR. NOZHAT CHOUDRY
MEDICAL DIRECTOR,
BIOGEN CANADA
Dr. Choudry is a senior executive with over fifteen years of extensive pharmaceutical company and medical device experience in all aspects of device and clinical drug development. She initiated the foundation and establishment for the corporate infrastructure for the Medical and Scientific Affairs department which supported Drug Safety, Medical Information, Continuing Health Education, phase IIIb/IV trials, market development through key opinion leader at Boehringer Ingelheim. She has also established and developed the Clinical and Regulatory department for a start up medical device company Occulogix in the field of ophthalmology. She was also one of the founding members of Takeda Canada. Prior to her current position she was the medical head of Intermune, a biotech company that was the first company to launch a global product for Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She currently works as the Medical Director at Biogen Canada, a leader in multiple sclerosis pharmaceuticals.
DR. MELISSA YUAN-INNES
EMERGENCY DOCTOR & AUTHOR
M.D., CCFP-EM
Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes balances emergency medicine, award winning fiction and popular non-fiction, and a young family. Doctor-wise, Melissa runs codes in Cornwall and Alexandria, Ontario, and now also works at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. She’s cheerfully married to her highschool sweetheart, with two loud and loveable children and a Rottweiler shepherd. They live on a hobby farm with two bulls. She likes yoga, blading, fashion, laughter, intelligence, and random craziness.
ANDRÉ PICARD
AWARD WINNING AUTHOR & JOURNALIST
André Picard is the health columnist at The Globe and Mail and the author of four books, most recently The Path to Health Care Reform: Policies and Politics. He has received much acclaim for his writing, including the Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service Journalism and the Centennial Prize of the Pan-American Health Association, awarded to the top
health journalist in the Americas. He is also an eight time finalist for the National Newspaper Awards –Canada’s version of the Pulitzer Prize. André is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Manitoba and the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology.
DR. JOSÉ PEREIRA
PALLIATIVE CARE PHYSICIAN, BRUYÈRE CONTINUING CARE
MBChB, DA, CCFP, MSc(MEd)
Dr. José Pereira is a professor at the University of Ottawa and Palliative Care physician at Bruyère Continuing Care and The Ottawa Hospital. His career has been focused in Palliative Medicine for the last 21 years where he has worked as a clinician, educator, researcher and administrator. Dr. Pereira has been published internationally with over 70 publications and three books. His current research has been focused on education, particularly the use of simulated patients, evaluation and instructional technologies, and more recently on the diffusion of innovation. In 2001 he established the Pallium Project of Canada to build primary care capacity by educating healthcare professionals in palliative care. This program is now pan-Canadian and international.
DR. JACK KITTS
CEO & PRESIDENT,
THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL
M.D., FRCPS, MBA
Dr. Kitts currently serves as the President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital, which he has held for over a decade. He worked as a medical officer in the Canadian Forces, later completing his specialty in anesthesia, where he joined the medical staff at the Ottawa Civic Hospital as an anesthesiologist. He led the development of the hospital’s Preoperative Assessment Clinic, which became a model for subsequent clinics, both nationally and internationally. He also became its first Medical Director. He was appointed Chief of Anesthesia at the Ottawa Civic Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kitts was appointed Vice-President of Medical Affairs and led the medical staff during a complex restructuring in which three hospitals and five large programs were merged into The Ottawa Hospital. He completed his master’s degree in business administration, which has led to his current position where he manages a staff of 12,000.
DR. BARRY DWORKIN
PHYSICIAN & HOST OF 580CFRA'S SUNDAY HOUSE CALL
M.D.
Dr. Dworkin is an Assistant professor of Family Medicine at uOttawa and has an active family/obstetric teaching practice. His focus is to promote evidence-based medicine to students and patients alike and provide jargon-free medical information that is credible, and unbiased, not anecdote, through his evidenced based radio talk show called "Sunday House Call." He also wrote a weekly column in the Ottawa Citizen’s Health Section from 2000 to 2005, and a column in the “Treating Teens” section of The Medical Post. He has a love for science and passionately debunks pseudoscience by pointing out common logical fallacies that can suck in the best of us. In his spare time he tends his aquarium, builds robots, adorns his office with Lego, practices karate, builds models, plays the guitar poorly but with gusto, cooks up a mean Sichuan dinner and geeks out with his computer. He loves to argue for cathartic health reasons.
DARRYL WILTON
ADVANCED CARE PARAMEDIC
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M.Ed., PCP, ACP
Darryl Wilton is the Superintendent of Operations for Ottawa Paramedic Service. Having worked with 7 different regional paramedic services, he has over 19 years of experience as an Advanced Care Paramedic.
He has been selected as president of the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa for the last 10 years consecutively. This is an organization that represents almost 500 paramedics, with goals of leading the advancements of Paramedicine through public awareness, research, and education. He has been a clinical instructor for ACP and PCP programs at Algonquin College, as well as at the Regional Paramedic Program of Eastern Ontario. Darryl serves on the Board of Directors for the Ontario Paramedic Association, as well as for the Civic Institute of Professional Personnel. He is an advisor to a number of Local, Provincial, and National committees and initiatives, and his role as a paramedic was even featured in Esquire Magazine.
DR. MARY ANN FITZCHARLES
RHEUMATOLOGY PROFESSOR, MCGILL UNIVERSITY
M.D.
Dr. Fitzcharles is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at McGill University. She received her medical education at University of Cape Town, South Africa, and completed specialist training in rheumatology at The London Hospital in England. She has been on faculty at McGill University since 1984, and has been a consultant rheumatologist to the McGill Pain Centre, at the Montreal General Hospital for the past five years. Her publications have been in the area of chronic pain in fibromyalgia, alternative treatments use in rheumatic diseases, and more recently, evaluation of the pain experience in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Other research activities include evaluation of new compounds in the management of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia syndrome.
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