Objectives

To explore the current state and future of Personalized Cancer Medicine (PCM), including the benefits and challenges, the technology to enable PCM, and the economics of PCM.
To facilitate multidisciplinary discussions and to foster partnerships and collaborations.

Location

MaRS Auditorium
101 College Street . Toronto . Ontario
M5G 1L7

Schedule & Speaker Bios

Below is the event schedule for Techna 2013: Technology for Personalized Cancer Medicine. Here you can view the agenda and speaker bios by clicking the event times below. Video recordings of individual speeches will be available on this page after the event within each segment. The Techna 2013 Symposium will feature a live tweeting system for participants to add comments in parallel to the discussions and presentations.

Videos of the Day

To view the video playlist of the full day at Techna Symposium please click the button below.

Agenda

8:00-8:45 – Breakfast and Registration

8:45-9:00 – Opening Remarks

Bob Bell

CEO and President, UHN

Dr. Robert Bell was appointed as President and CEO of UHN (Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret Hospitals and Toronto Rehab Institute) in June 2005. An internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, health care executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell brings more than 25 years of experience in academic health care to leadership of Canada’s largest research hospital. From 2000 to 2005, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital. Since his appointment UHN has grown substantially in its clinical programs exemplified by integration with Toronto Rehab and also in its teaching and research endeavors.

Dr. Bell earned a Doctor of Medicine from McGill University in 1975 and a Masters of Science from the University of Toronto in 1981. He completed a Fellowship in Orthopedic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985. During his career as a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto, he received more than five million dollars in peer-reviewed funding and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

9:00-9:45 – PCM: The definition, the opportunity, and the therapeutic trajectory

Bob Bell

CEO and President, UHN

Dr. Robert Bell was appointed as President and CEO of UHN (Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret Hospitals and Toronto Rehab Institute) in June 2005. An internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, health care executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell brings more than 25 years of experience in academic health care to leadership of Canada’s largest research hospital. From 2000 to 2005, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital. Since his appointment UHN has grown substantially in its clinical programs exemplified by integration with Toronto Rehab and also in its teaching and research endeavors.

Dr. Bell earned a Doctor of Medicine from McGill University in 1975 and a Masters of Science from the University of Toronto in 1981. He completed a Fellowship in Orthopedic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985. During his career as a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto, he received more than five million dollars in peer-reviewed funding and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Feifei Liu

Director, Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN

Dr. Fei-Fei Liu is the Chief of the Radiation Medicine Program and Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center, and also the Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. She is also a Senior Scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute, and holds the University of Toronto/Princess Margaret Cancer Center Dr. Mariano Elia Endowed Chair in Head & Neck Cancer Oncology. Dr. Liu’s research program is focused on investigating and developing novel molecular therapeutic strategies for human malignancies, delivered in conjunction with radiation therapy, along with investigating molecular aberrancies for several human cancers including breast, cervix, and head/neck cancers. Dr. Liu has 130 peer-reviewed publications on these topics, and his filed three patents. Dr. Liu currently holds peer-reviewed research funding from agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI), and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). She is also the Director of a $1.9M CIHR/Terry Fox Foundation Research Training Initiative, entitled “Excellence in Radiation Research for the 21st Century (EIRR21)”, with the objective to train the next generation of trans-disciplinary scientists in Radiation Medicine.

John Irish

Chief, Surgical Oncology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN; Co-lead, Guided Therapeutics, Techna Institute, UHN

Dr. Irish graduated with his M.D. degree in 1984 from the University of Toronto. He completed residency training at UCLA and at the University of Toronto. He completed his Master’s of Science degree under the supervision of Dr Alan Bernstein where he studied molecular biology of head and neck malignancies. He completed the American Head and Neck Society fellowship in head and neck oncology in 1991 and joined the staff of the University Health Network in 1992. He is currently Chief of the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network and Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and is full Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is Lead, Access to Care and Strategic Funding Initiatives for the Surgical Oncology Program at Cancer Care Ontario and is responsible for the Cancer Surgery Wait Times portfolio. Dr. Irish focuses primarily on head and neck oncology and surgical reconstruction of the head and neck region. His research interests range from basic science studies in head and neck cancer to patient education intervention trials to outcome studies in head and neck cancers. More recently he has headed a multidisciplinary program in Guided Therapeutics at UHN. He has over 160 peer review publications and over 20 book chapters and has over $2M in peer review funding for his research through the NCIC and CIHR.

Lillian Siu

Medical Oncologist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN

Dr. Lillian Siu is a senior staff medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital since 1998, and has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto sinc 2009. Dr. Siu is the Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Robert and Maggie Bras and Family Drug Development Program at Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Siu held a Tier I Cancer Care Ontario Chair in Experimental Therapeutics from 2009-2013.

Dr. Siu’s major research focus is in the area of new anticancer drug development, particularly with respect to phase I trials and head and neck malignancies. She is the Principal Investigator of a phase I cooperative agreement U01 award (2008-2014) sponsored by the United States NCI which aims to expedite the access and evaluation of novel anti-cancer agents for patients. In addition to her active research in early phase clinical trials, Dr. Siu has been leading genomics initiatives in the area of personalized cancer medicine at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Internationally and locally Dr. Siu has been the recipient of many awards, including the Wightman-Berris Award for Individual Teaching Excellence by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2003 and in 2013.

Dr. Siu has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and is currently an editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Cancer Discovery.

9:45-10:05 – The Health Policy Challenges of PCM

Timothy Caulfield

Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, University of Alberta

Timothy Caulfield is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. He was the Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta from 1993 to 2011 and is now leading the Faculty of Law’s Health Law and Science Policy Group (HeaLS). He is a Health Senior Scholar with the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Principal Investigator for a number of large interdisciplinary projects that explore the ethical, legal and health policy issues associated with a range of topics, including stem cell research, genetics, patient safety, the prevention of chronic disease, obesity policy, the commercialization of research, complementary and alternative medicine and access to health care.

Professor Caulfield is and has been involved with a number of national and international policy and research ethics committees, including: Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee; Genome Canada’s Science Advisory Committee; the Ethics and Public Policy Committee for International Society for Stem Cell Research; and the Federal Panel on Research Ethics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

10:05-10:20 – Break

10:20-11:10 – Signal Generation: Advances to interrogate tumor

Christine Allen

Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Christine Allen is an Associate Professor and currently serving as the interim Associate Dean Graduate Education in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Her research is focused on the rational design and development of new materials and technologies for the delivery of drugs and contrast agents (Lab Website: http://phm.utoronto.ca/~allen/). Dr. Allen completed her doctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at McGill University and post-doctoral research in the Department of Advanced Therapeutics at the B.C. Cancer Agency. She joined University of Toronto in 2002, from Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Vancouver, B.C.) where she had worked as a scientist and Assistant Director of materials research. She has over 85 publications, numerous patent applications, and nine book chapters on both lipid and polymer-based delivery systems. She has served on several peer review panels for granting agencies including CIHR (2004, 2005-2009, 2011), NCIC (2005, 2006) and NIH (2006, 2008, 2011 – 2017). She was awarded a CIHR-Rx&D Career Award (2004-2009) for her research on the design and development of technologies for cancer treatment. She has also received the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada/AstraZeneca New Investigator Research Award, the Canadian Society Pharmaceutical Science/GlaxoSmithKline Early Career Award, an Innovation Award from the Ontario Research Commercialization Program and the Jorge Heller Controlled Release Society (CRS) Best Paper Award in 2011. She is an Associate Editor for the ACS journal Molecular Pharmaceutics and involved in numerous scientific societies including as an elected member on the board of directors of CRS.

Jianghong Rao

Associate Professor, Standford University

Dr. Rao studied Chemistry in Peking University, China, and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1999 under the guidance of Professor George M. Whitesides. After completing Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at UCSD with Professor Roger Y. Tsien, he joined the faculty in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. In 2004, he moved to Stanford University, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Radiology and Chemistry (By courtesy). His research interests include molecular probes, cancer imaging, bionanotechnology, biosensing, and chemical biology. Over the past years, his lab has developed many new molecular probes for in vitro diagnostics and in vivo imaging and biosensing applications.

Fiona Ginty

Principal Scientist, GE

Dr. Fiona Ginty is a Principal Scientist in the Life Sciences and Molecular Diagnostics Organization. She joined GE Global Research (GRC) in 2005 and is currently a Platform Leader for High Value Diagnostics. During her time at GRC, she has led the pathology research team responsible for development a novel approach for multiplexed analysis of proteins in combination with DNA FISH in a single FFPE tissue section. This work was recently published in PNAS and also commercially launched as MultiOmyx™ by GEHC Clarient. Fiona has a B.Sc. in Microbiology from National University of Ireland, Galway and Ph.D. in Nutritional Science from National University of Ireland, Cork. Prior to joining GE she was a Senior Research Scientist with the Medical Research Council, Cambridge UK, and prior to that a post-doc at Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Shana Kelley

Professor, University of Toronto

Shana Kelley is a Professor within the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Sciences), and Faculty of Medicine (Biochemistry) at the University of Toronto. She is also a member of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and cross-appointed to the Department of Chemistry. She is an expert in the development of new nanomaterials for biological and cellular sensing, and the development of drug delivery systems. Shana is a highly interdisciplinary scientist who uses her foundation in Chemistry to develop solutions for interesting biological problems, and excels at weaving together the necessary elements from this field and materials science, nanoengineering and molecular biology to produce novel systems with high levels of performance. Dr. Kelley obtained her Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in Chemistry in 1999 and her B.A. summa cum laude from Seton Hall University in 1994. She began her career in 2000 at Boston College, was promoted directly to Full Professor in 2006, and moved that same year to University of Toronto as a Full Professor. Dr. Kelley has been recognized for her contributions with several awards. She was named one of “Canada’s Top 40 under 40” in 2008. In 2009, she received a highly prestigious NSERC E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship. In 2011 she was named a University of Toronto “Inventor of the Year” and also won the Steacie Prize.

11:10-12:15 – Informatics, communications, computation, and clinical tools for PCM

Brenda Gallie

Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute, UHN

Dr. Brenda Gallie is an ophthalmologist who has focused on the rare cancer in children, retinoblastoma. She is Affiliated Faculty in Techna, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Director of the Retinoblastoma Program at SickKids Hospital and Professor of Ophthalmology, Molecular Genetics, and Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto. Dr. Gallie was named Distinguished Scientist of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and received the Order of Ontario for implementing genetic knowledge in care of children with retinoblastoma across Canada.

Dr. Gallie and her research team for over 30 years has contributed to recognition that cancer is a genetic disease. They detailed mechanisms and mutated genes that predispose patients to multiple cancers, when normal cells mutate to premalignant to cancer. In order to deliver this knowledge to cost-effective health care and improve outcomes, Dr. Gallie founded a not-for-profit company, One Retinoblastoma Solutions, that serves as a model of public-private partnership integrating genome knowledge into patient care. To improve quality of complex care, Dr. Gallie and the Techna Health Informatics Research team have built eCare, a disease-specific point-of-care tool extending the health record, and providing highest quality clinical data for research.

Igor Jurisica

Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute; Co-lead, Informatics and Communications Technology, Techna Institute, UHN

Dr. Igor Jurisica is a Senior Scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute, University Health Network, Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Adjunct Professor at the School of Computer Science, Queen’s University, and a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies. He earned his Dipl Ing degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Slovak Technical University in 1991, MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1993 and 1998, respectively. He currently holds a TIER I Canada Research Chair in Integrative Cancer Informatics.

Dr Jurisica’s research focuses on integrative computational biology, and representation, analysis and visualization of high dimensional data generated by high-throughput biology experiments, in the context of Cancer Informatics. Of particular interest is the use of comparative analysis for the mining of integrated different datasets such as protein-protein interaction, gene expression profiling, and high-throughput screens for protein crystallization.

Ted Chang

CTO, Quanta Computer

Dr. Ted Chang is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President of Quanta Computer Inc. He oversees corporate technology strategy, future product development and global research partnership. Along with his role as CTO, he also serves as president of Quanta Research Institute (QRI) for advanced technology and innovation research. Starting in 2004, Dr. Chang has initiated and served as the Quanta program director of the T-Party Project, a 10-year strategic research collaboration project for future computing and communication between Quanta and Computer Science and Artificial Lab (CSAIL) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a Visiting Scientist at MIT CSAIL. Dr. Chang had been the executive assistant to the CEO and Chairman of Quanta on his strategic planning effort for almost ten years. During the same period of time, he also led the planning office, the corporate intellectual property team, as well as incubated several new business units, new spin-offs and research labs in Quanta. Dr. Chang is a board director of Epoch Foundation, Quanta Research Cambridge, Inc. and Digimax, Inc., the best 3D animation film winner of Tokyo Anime 2008 and LA Movie Festival 2010. One of Dr. Chang’s past projects is, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the QRI research model, were published as business cases by Harvard Business School.

Martin Kohn

Chief Medical Scientist, IBM Research

Dr. Kohn is Chief Medical Scientist for Care Delivery Systems in IBM Research. He is a leader in IBM’s effort in collaborative care for addressing the challenges to primary care and access to healthcare. He also supports the transformation of healthcare and development of accountable care organizations. His research work includes healthcare population analytics and the role of expert systems in the clinical decision process, including the use of the Watson supercomputer in healthcare. He speaks frequently on the issues on healthcare transformation, the role of information technology, the Patient Centered Medical Home and clinical decision support.

Dr. Kohn is a co-author of IBM’s white paper “Patient-Centered Medical Home – What, Why and How.” He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Kohn was previously in IBM Healthcare Strategy and Change which helped healthcare systems and clinicians optimize process and make best use of health information technology. He has published multiple articles and book chapters on both clinical and management subjects. Dr. Kohn is an emergency physician with over 30 years of hospital-based practice and management experience. He is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American College of Physician Executives.

Prateek Dwivedi

Cancer Informatics, Techna Institute, UHN

Prateek (Teek) Dwivedi is an entrepreneurial-minded executive with 15 years of experience in technology management. His history in the private sector has proven to be an important asset for his work in healthcare. He incorporates lessons learned from the finance, telecommunications, sports and entertainment, and IT industries.

Teek runs the Cancer Informatics strategy for Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where he is responsible for ushering in a new platform that integrates all clinical and research environments. He was the Chief Information Officer at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, where he was responsible for technology infrastructure, application deployment and management, health records, and admitting and registration.

Teek has a keen interest in simplifying the clinician experience with mobile technology to foster an ever-increasing focus on patients. This pursuit led to the creation of VitalHub, a platform that provides mobile access to the EMR, bringing together over 65 applications. Teek has a MASc in Systems Design Engineering from University of Waterloo.

12:15-1:15 – Lunch and Expo

1:15-2:05 – Acting on Signals: Guided therapeutics and personalized treatment plans; multi-modal therapeutics; targeted drug therapies and standardization

Paul Alofs

President & CEO, Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, UHN

Paul Alofs joined The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation as President and CEO in September 2003 after a family experience with cancer. Since joining The Foundation, Paul has helped raise over $750 million for The Princess Margaret. The PMCC is ranked as one of the top 5 cancer research centers in the world. In April 2012, Paul helped launch a One Billion Dollar Campaign for Personalized Cancer Medicine, the most ambitious in Canadian healthcare history.

After graduating from the University of Windsor, Paul joined Colgate-Palmolive Canada in 1978. He obtained his MBA from Toronto’s York University, then worked with a marketing firm called The Marketing & Promotion Group. In 1989, Paul was named President of HMV Music Stores Canada, and during his tenure with the music retailer, increased the company’s annual revenue from $30 million to over $200 million. Joining BMG Music Canada as president, Alofs was named Music Industry Executive of the Year in 1996.

Through his extraordinary career in both the private sector and the social enterprise sector, Paul has earned a succession of accolades. He was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40TM business leaders in 1995, and in 2005, was voted one of the ‘Best of the Best’ by his fellow Top 40 alumni. He has received the Outstanding Progress and Achievement Award from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

The University of Windsor honoured Paul in 2002 with the Alumni Award of Merit, and in 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Ph.D. from his alma mater. He also received the Bryden Alumni Award from York University in 2007. Paul has been a member of the board of the International Cancer Foundation in Geneva and was previously Board Chair for Covenant House in Toronto.

Gary Palmer

Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs, Foundation Medicine

Dr. Palmer is the Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs, at Foundation Medicine. He is a veteran of the pharma and biotech industry. Before Foundation Medicine, he was Vice President of Medical Affairs at Genomic Health where he directed the medical aspects of the Oncotype DX Breast Cancer Assay. After Genomic Health, he served as Chief Medical Officer of On-Q-ity, a circulating tumor cell company. Prior to Genomic Health, Dr. Palmer had extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including roles as Executive Director at Kosan Biosciences and at Salmedix, Inc. where he spent time in early drug development. Previously, he spent five years at Amgen where he was involved in the development and commercialization strategies of Neulasta and Aranesp. Before his roles in industry, Dr. Palmer served as a medical oncologist in both academia and in the community setting. Dr. Palmer was director of the Medical Breast Service at the University of California, Davis, Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at the Mercy Health System, Sacramento, California. For nine years he was on the adjunct faculty of the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management where he taught “Management of Biotechnology” to MBA students. Dr. Palmer is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University and a graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Gang Zhang

Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute; Co-lead, Nanotechnology & Radiochemistry, Techna Institute, UHN

Dr. Gang Zheng is a Senior Scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute and the co-Lead for Nanotechnology and Radiochemistry at the Techna Institute. He is also a Professor of Medical Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Toronto and holds the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum/Brazilian Ball Chair in Prostate Cancer Research. Dr. Zheng received his PhD in 1998 from SUNY Buffalo in Medicinal Chemistry. Following two year postdoctoral training in photodynamic therapy at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, he joined the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 as an Assistant Professor of Radiology, where he led the molecular imaging chemistry program and introduced the concept of photodynamic molecular beacons. Since moving to Canada in 2006, his research has been focused on biomimetic lipid nanoparticles and porphyrin supramolecular assemblies as platform technologies to combat cancer. His recent porphysome discovery was named one of the “top 10 cancer breakthroughs of 2011” by the Canadian Cancer Society. He currently serves as the PI for 9 research grants including a CFI Nanomedicine Fabrication Center and a CIHR Team Grant on Nanomedicine.

Martin Kohn

Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals

Ulrik Nielsen is a founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where he has been leading research and discovery since 2002. Applying insights from systems biology, Merrimack is committed to developing integrated solutions to cancer treatment that combine precision diagnostics with new treatment regimens to transform care. Prior to joining Merrimack, Dr. Nielsen trained at University of California, San Francisco, and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he researched the interface among biology, engineering and computational biology. Dr. Nielsen holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biochemistry from the University of Copenhagen.

2:05-2:15 – Break

2:15-3:00 – Innovation Debate: Can we execute personalized cancer medicine?

Michael Julius

VP Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Michael received an Honours B.Sc. degree in genetics from McGill University in Montréal, Quebec, and went on to do his doctoral work at Stanford University in California culminating in a Ph.D. in genetics and immunology. He was recruited as a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland, where he spent 12 years of postdoctoral study analysing the molecular and cellular components of the immune system. In 1987 he assumed an Associate Professorship in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University in Montréal. Recruited to the position of Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto in 1993, over the next 7 years he stewarded the Department to its ranking as the pre-eminent academic immunology initiative in Canada. His work towards understanding the biochemistry of lymphocyte activation, and the cellular and molecular interactions culminating in protective immunity have supported his continuing interest in autoimmune diseases, and ailments that involve dysregulated function of the immune system. Having published over 200 research papers and reviews in his area of expertise, he is an internationally recognized immunologist. In October 2000, Michael assumed the position of Vice President, Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where he stewards a $125M annual research enterprise He has Chaired the Canadian Institutes for Health Research review panel for “Immunology and Transplantation”, and serves as a member of Scientific Advisory Boards for a number of for profit enterprises.

Nicole Mittmann

Executive Director, Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomic Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Nicole Mittmann holds a faculty position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Pharmacology. She is also a Scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a member of the Department of Medicine. Nicole is the Executive Director at Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics (HOPE) Research Centre. She is also an Adjunct Professor, Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership, Richard Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario.

In her academic capacity, Nicole has a proven track record of publications. She has conducted and collaborated on notable research in the areas of meta-analysis, economic evaluations, outcomes research and utility assessments. Research methodologies include the examination of large databases, economic methodologies and decision analysis. Clinical areas of interest include oncology, cardiology, trauma, infectious disease, and health policy.

In her capacity at the HOPE Research Centre, Nicole is responsible for designing, managing and executing health economics and clinical outcomes research projects from the government, hospital and pharmaceutical industry perspectives.

Dr. Mittmann is currently the co-chair of the Committee on Economic Analysis (CEA) at the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Responsibilities include embedding economic parameters in clinical trials, economic evaluations and guideline development.

Jeffrey Hoch

Research Scientist, Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St. Michael’s Hospital

Dr. Jeffrey Hoch is a health economist with a special interest in cancer, mental health and other health issues affecting vulnerable groups.

His research focuses on the economic evaluation of novel health treatments, to inform drug policies. Dr. Hoch is the recipient of a Career Scientist Award from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and director of the Pharmacoeconomics Research Unit (Cancer Care Ontario). As director of the Unit, Dr Hoch has pursued research making health economics more useful to decision makers. Dr. Hoch is also the co-director of the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC). ARCC is a national research centre dedicated to cancer research, capacity building and knowledge transfer related to health economics, services, policy and ethics.

An award winning teacher, Dr. Hoch has taught health economics and economic evaluation classes in Canada, the United States and internationally.

3:00-3:15 – Post-Debate Commentary

Tom Ehrlich

President and Managing Partner, Tanurb Developments Inc.

Tom is currently the President and managing partner of Tanurb Developments Inc., a shopping centre development and management company he founded in 1985 and the President of Ehrlich Asset Management, a real estate investment and management company. Tanurb Developments and Ehrlich Asset Management own and manage retail and commercial properties in the United States and Canada. Tom is a 30 year veteran of the real estate industry and has worked with many national and international firms including Summit REIT, Indigo Books, and Music and Blackstone Realty Partners. Tom is currently the Vice Chair of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation and is the Chair of its Granting and Stewardship Committee. Tom is also a member of the University Health Network Research Committee.

William Mantel

Assistant Deputy Minister
Research, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Division
Ministry of Research & Innovation / Ministry of Economic Development, Trade & Employment

Bill Mantel is the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of the Research, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Division serving the Ministry of Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment. In his role as ADM, Bill oversees the delivery of key ministry programs and initiatives focused on supporting Ontario’s research excellence, commercialization networks, and entrepreneurial expertise.

Previously, as Director of the ministry’s Commercialization Branch, Bill was responsible for implementing a wide range of strategies and programs that accelerate growth in Ontario’s knowledge-intensive industries; namely, harnessing and integrating Ontario’s public and private innovation capacity by creating a provincial innovation network that builds on provincial and regional strengths.

From 1999 to 2005, as Director of the Life Sciences and Technology Branch, Bill led the development and implementation of provincial initiatives in the bio-technology and health industries, including medical and assistive technologies. While in this role, he oversaw the establishment of key organizations such as the MaRS Discovery District and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR).

Since joining the Ontario Public Service in 1987, Bill has held a number of progressively responsible positions in Cabinet Office and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, focused on the development and implementation of key provincial policy and program initiatives. Significant accomplishments include supporting the Red Tape Review Commission, creation of an Ontario private-sector led farm finance policy designed to increase access to risk and operating capital, implementation of the province-wide restructuring of farm property taxation, and growth development of the Agricultural Commodity Corporation as a member of the Board.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture and Business.

Bob Bell

CEO and President, UHN

Dr. Robert Bell was appointed as President and CEO of UHN (Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret Hospitals and Toronto Rehab Institute) in June 2005. An internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, health care executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell brings more than 25 years of experience in academic health care to leadership of Canada’s largest research hospital. From 2000 to 2005, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital. Since his appointment UHN has grown substantially in its clinical programs exemplified by integration with Toronto Rehab and also in its teaching and research endeavors.

Dr. Bell earned a Doctor of Medicine from McGill University in 1975 and a Masters of Science from the University of Toronto in 1981. He completed a Fellowship in Orthopedic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985. During his career as a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto, he received more than five million dollars in peer-reviewed funding and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

3:15-3:30 – Closing Remarks

David Jaffray

Director, Techna Institute, UHN

David A. Jaffray completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. In 2002, Dr. Jaffray joined the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Ontario as Head of Radiation Physics and a Senior Scientist within the Ontario Cancer Institute. David holds the Fidani Chair in Radiation Physics, and he is the Director of the Techna Institute, a part of University Health Network. He is appointed as a Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology, Medical Biophysics, and Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.

3:15-6:30 -Networking Session: Reception Hosted and Sponsored by JLabs