Annual General Meeting

Ontario Shores Centre Mental Health Sciences - ONIG AGM

Thank you to all who attended the AGM on December 11th in person or through videoconference.  Another successful Education Day and Business Meeting was held.

Presentations

Thank you to our presenters:

E-Vitalizing Clinical Practice at Ontario Shores

Debra Churchill is the Director of Professional Practice, and Clinical Informatics Ontario Shores.  In this role, she has enabled the implementation and maintenance of collaborative practice by providing leadership and clinical expertise for the advancement of education and reasearch, quality, safety and the development and implementation of the clinical information system.  Debra has worked in progressive leadership positions as a manager, a clinical educator, and as a consultant assisting with the re-design of patient care delivery systems.  Debra is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Unitversity of Ontario Institute of Technology.

Alison MacDonald is the Clinical Education Leader in the Clinical Informatics Department at the Ontario Shores Centre for the Mental Health Sciences in Whitby, Ontario.  Prior to coming to Ontario Shores she worked as a visiting nurse, Clinical Resource Nurse and Advanced Practice Consultante in the community care.  Alison developed an interest in Informatics while studying her master's degree at the University of Toronto and at the same time worked on the development of an electronic documentation system for home care nurses.  Currently her focus is on the design and implementation of Meditech 6.0 at Ontario Shores.

Deploying Pandemic Surveys Using a Learning Management System

Alison Hamilton is a Systems Analyst at William Osler Health Systems, one of Canada's largest community hospital corporations serving the growing and diverse cities of Brampton and Etobicoke and the surrounding communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  Osler's hospitals provide a comprehensive range of acute care, ambulatory, and ancillary health services.  Osler's emergency departments are among the busiest in the province and its labour and delivery program is one of the largest  in the GTA.  Alison, a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, has over 20 years experience in the IT sector, including network administration, application support, computer education, programming, and analysis.  Her current role includes supporting Osler's Learning Management System, developing and facilitating end-user application training, and implementing SharePoint projects.  Alison also designs Web-based marketing and promotional materials.

Presentations are attached on this site.

Executive Elections

Elections were held for the Education Officer position.  Congratulations Deb Haggman.  Thank you to Reza Lotfi for participating as a nominee.

Achievement Award

This year's Achievement Award recipient is Heidi Chevrier.   Heidi has been involved in informatics for many years.  She has undergraduate degrees in Nursing, Psychology and Health Administration and a Masters in Health Studies.

Heidi Chevrier has been a dedicated ONIG member, serving on the ONIG executive as President for 2 terms, first when SONIG, NCAN and ONIG consolidated, and more recently in 2007.  Her contributions include helping SONIG stay solvent when it was struggling to survive, participating in the 2005 RNAO Nursing and ehealth Think Tank which brought together experts in eHealth and Informatics to help shape the eHealth project direction, and more recently, serving on the CNIA Board of Directors as Past President.

Heidi has held management roles in large acute care and mental health facilities and offered her expertise as a consultant for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and currently, eHealth Ontario.  Heidi has worked on various clinical system applications leading to the implementation of an Electronic Health Record.

Here are some comments from her colleagues:

"Heidi is a talented informatics professional passionate in the pursuit of advancing the EHR to enhance clinician worklife, patient experience and ultimately clinical outcomes.  Heidi is very aware of the impact of automation on both providers and consumers and as such has implemented creative strategies to assist with the transformation.  A delightful, committed leader and wonderful team player." - Judy Middleton

"Heidi brings a wealth of experience and a positive attitude to every task or challenge that she tackles.  Heidi is an experienced, outstanding, hardworking and innovated individual. On many occasions I looked to Heidi for guidance, and used her expert knowledge in the health care field."  - Brian Ashby

"Heidi displayed all the traits and qualities of an extraordinary leader:  Passion, Dedication, Team Builder and Motivator.  Heidi's dedication was exemplified during the Brampton Civic Hospital Project, where she worked tirelessly to ensure that things were not only completed but completed properly.  Heidi managed a large team and large portfolio of responsbilities and did so with 100% effort on a daily basis." - Ricky Zomparelli

The ONIG Achievement Award was instituted in 1991 to recognize a member who demonstrates leadership and commitment to the work in ONIG and participates in the advancement of nursing informatics.

Past Recipients: 

2007 Fern Watson - past Education Officer

2008 Joyce Bechtel - past Treasurer