Canadian RAI 2007 Conference

John P. Hirdes

Dr. Hirdes is a Professor in the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada. He also holds a cross-appointment to the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto and to Gerontological Studies at McMaster University. As principle investigator for the ideas for Health, Canadian interRAI Research group and inter RAI fellow, Dr. Hirdes connects the ideas for Health network at the University of Waterloo and inter RAI. He leads this team in the research and development of interRAI instruments, and conducts research using inter RAI instruments in various areas of health care, including but not limited to Home Care, Mental Health, Community Mental Health, Persons with Intellectual Disability, and Palliative Care.

Jean-Marie Berthelot

As Vice President, Programs, for the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Jean-Marie Berthelot plays a key leadership role at CIHI in the development of new data holdings and in key corporate priorities such as data quality. 

Mr. Berthelot came to CIHI from Statistics Canada, where he built an accomplished record over the past 25 years working in the development, management and use of data holdings for health services research and population health monitoring. Prior to joining CIHI, Mr. Berthelot was the Director of the Health Analysis and Measurement Group at Statistics Canada. He received the McMaster University Labelle Lectureship in health services research and was selected as a Harkness Associate in health care policy research.

Brant E. Fries

Dr. Fries is the President of interRAI and an original developer of the RAI MDS 2.0© He is a Professor of Health Management and Policy and Senior Research Scientist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbour, Michigan, USA and Chief of Health Systems Research for the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center at the Ann Arbour VA Medical Center.  

Dr. Fries is a principal author of the Resource Utilization Groups (RUG, RUG-III) systems for classifying nursing home residents, used in a third of the US states and nationally for payment to nursing homes. He helped design the New York and Pennsylvania Medicaid nursing home payment systems, incorporating RUGs. As well, he co-authored the National Nursing Home Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) mandated by Congress. With international interest in assessment systems, he founded and is President of interRAI. He is co-author of several interRAI assessment systems including the RAI-HC, the RAI-MH, and the RAI-PC. Dr. Fries currently leads a project to design a national prospective payment system for inpatient psychiatric patients. He is the author of four books and over ninety articles on long-term care and quantitative modeling of health care systems.

Paula Kokkonen

Mrs. Paula Kokkonen is the Mayor responsible for Social Affairs and Public Health in Helsinki City organisation as of August 16, 2004. Prior to assuming her present duties, Mrs. Kokkonen has occupied leading positions within health care and social services, e.g. as Director-General in the Finnish National Board of Health periodically during 1984-1990, as Director-General in the Finnish National Agency for Welfare and Health during 1991-1992 and as Director-General in the Finnish National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs during 1992-2004 (on leave during 1995-2003).

Mrs. Kokkonen has held several positions of trust in the Council of Europe, the WHO and the OSCE.

Mrs. Kokkonen was a Member of Parliament with the mandate of the National Coalition Party during 1995-2003.

Mrs. Kokkonen is Master of Laws and she has been raised to the Bench.

Harriet Finne-Soveri

Dr. Finne-Soveri is a geriatrician and consultant who graduated from the University of Helsinki, Finland in 1980. She became board-certified in geriatric medicine in 1994. She has been involved in research and publications in the field of geriatrics since 1982 and in 1995 began research with the MDS. At present, Dr. Finne-Soveri is the chief medical officer and managing director in the largest nursing home in Helsinki, Finland. She also is a senior lecturer at the University of Helsinki, and has been on the medical faculty in geriatric medicine since 1993. Her other appointments include researcher at the National Research and Development Centre (STAKES) since 1994, interRAI Fellow (1997) and member of EAMA (1998).

Len Gray

Dr. Gray is a Professor in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia, an appointment that he began in early 2002. Previously, he held a variety of senior management positions within the public health system in Melbourne, Victoria, and an academic appointment at Melbourne University. He started his career as a physician /administrator in acute care and then become involved in a wide range of research and development projects that focused on service delivery models for the elderly in community and hospital settings. He has held the positions of Secretary and President of the Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine, and has directed or participated in several high level reviews of health and aged care policy at national and state levels. He joined interRAI in 2001, following involvement and use of the RAI approach in one of Australia's Coordinated Care Trials. He is currently establishing an interRAI coordinating office for Australia.

Daniela Fialová

Dr Fialová works as the research assistant at the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague and the Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University. She works as a clinical pharmacist at the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, General Teaching Hospital, Prague. Her professional area of interest is pharmacotherapy risk assessment and management in the elderly both in clinical practice and research (drug-related problems, suboptimal prescribing, efficacy and safety of combined drug regimens). Dr. Fialová received education at the University of Iowa, USA (2002) and Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust- Pharmacy Service, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Scotland (2003). She is a lecturer of geriatric pharmacology, pharmacoepidemiology and clinical pharmacy at the Charles University and professional tutor of the European Society of Clinical Pharmacists. She promotes geriatric clinical pharmacy, pharmacology and rational pharmacotherapy at home and abroad as a Board Member of the Czech Society of Clinical Pharmacists and Czech Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology; Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacy; and Member of both the European and American Society of Clinical Pharmacists.

Trevor Frise Smith

Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Studies & Gerontology, University of Waterloo and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. In 2006, he was named an Associate Fellow in interRAI.  A sociologist by training, he received his doctoral degree from the University of Toronto in 1996. His research interests focus upon psychosocial factors in mental health and palliative / end-of-life care.

Dr. Smith is a co-author of the interRAI Palliative Care instrument, and has led pilot studies of that instrument in several jurisdictions across Canada. As a postdoctoral student he assisted with the development (and now ongoing research) of the interRAI-Mental Health. As of October 2005, the interRAI Mental Health was mandated as the common assessment instrument for all designated psychiatric beds in the Province of Ontario (Canada) and constitutes part of the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System (OMHRS), Canadian Institute for Health Information. Dr. Smith also collaborates on the development of the interRAI-Community Mental Health instrument.

Carlos Cruz

Dr. Cruz belongs to the Centro de Estudios de Psicología (CEPSI) at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez in Santiago, Chile and is a consultant in mental health for the development of the community mental health centre of the county. He is also a Professor of Psychopathology in the School of Psychology at the Pontificía Universidad Católica. He was a Professor in the School of Medicine at the same University, teaching liaison psychiatry to Family Physicians and Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health. He recently finished a pilot study using the interRAI instruments with psychiatric in-patients at the Hospital del Salvador in Santiago.

He has developed research in the field of stress and psychopathology, publishing a divulgation book in 1998 ("Estr s, entenderlo es manejarlo") and participating as a co-investigator in the project "Child Trauma and Adult Psychopathology" ("Trauma infanto.juvenil y psicopatología adulta"), publishing a book in 2005.

As a Professor in the School of Medicine at the Universidad de los Andes (1998-2004), he practiced liaison psychiatry with a special interest in studying the process of recognition of mental health problems by patients, the decision to ask for help, and the satisfaction obtained by the professional actions. He edited a book, "Los atributos del psiquiatra moderno", with his findings in 2004.

Edgardo Perez

Dr. Edgardo Pérez is CEO and President of Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario; Director of the Centre for Organizational Health at Homewood, Director General of Homewood Research Institute, past-CEO of Homewood Employee Health and past Medical Chief of Staff for Homewood Health Centre.  He is also Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and McMaster University, and a Professor of Psychiatry and Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.  His academic interests include management and organizational health, health services research and health care quality assessment. 

Dr. Perez is a popular keynote speaker for corporate and organizational training programs, focusing on issues such as employee emotional well-being and its impact on organizational productivity.  He co-authored Mindsets, a book dealing with the inter-relationship of emotional well being and productivity, and has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Perez’s commitment to excellence is reflected in his long-term involvement with the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA), as a director and surveyor.  He was Co-Chairman of the Healthcare Quality Certification Board (HQCB) in the United States, an international body that certifies individuals as health care quality professionals, and is a past member of the Board of National Association for Healthcare Quality.

John McKinley

John McKinley was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Community Health Division of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in October of last year.  In this position, he is responsible for home and community support services, community health centres and other community programs, mental health & addictions and long-term care. 

Prior to assuming the above position, John McKinley was the Executive Director of Business Services, Acute Services and Community Health Divisions.  John had overall responsibility for the Finance and Information Management Branch, French Language Services, Human Resources, Issues and Administration, and Business Technology Transformation for both the Acute Services and Community Health Divisions.  The combined divisions encompass over 1,200 staff and had a combined total budget of over eighteen billion dollars.

John has an extensive background in the public sector including operational, policy and financial positions in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. John studied Business Administration at the University of Ottawa where he graduated in 1985.

Michael Moffatt

Dr. Michael Moffatt is Executive Director of Research and Applied Learning for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA). His portfolio is responsible for Health Information, Research and Evaluation for the WRHA and also includes the Quality and Accreditation Services, Patient Safety and regional Library Services. Prior to becoming Executive Director in 2004, Dr. Moffatt was the Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Manitoba and Medical Director for the Child Health Program of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority from 1998 to 2003.

Upon completion of his medical degree (1970) from the University of Toronto, Dr. Moffatt developed a lifelong passion for northern and aboriginal health issues. He completed his Pediatric Medicine certification in 1977 in Montreal and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at McGill from 1977-79. Dr. Moffatt completed a Masters in Epidemiology and Health in 1981 and was a member of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill until his move to Manitoba in 1983.

While practicing as a pediatrician, Dr. Moffatt also held positions as Director of the JA Hildes Northern Medical Unit, Director of IM-PACT Injury prevention centre (1996-98) and Head of the Department of Community Health Sciences at different times. Clinically, he continues to provide consultation in general pediatrics to 3 northern communities.

His research interests have included pediatric epidemiology, population health and clinical research in the health of First Nation and Inuit children, iron deficiency, enuresis, SIDS, early childhood caries and injury prevention. Dr. Moffatt’s developing research interests include quality improvement in health, patient safety and knowledge translation. His major goal is to assist the Region to become an Evidence-Informed, Learning Organization.

Anne Martin-Matthews

Anne Martin-Matthews was appointed the Scientific Director of the national Institute of Aging of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as of March 2004. She holds a PhD in sociology and is a Professor of Family Studies at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C.

Her publications include a book Widowhood in Later Life, three edited volumes (one on the link between research and policy on aging) and over 125 papers on aging in a family context, social support, caregiving, health, and aging in rural environments. Dr. Martin-Matthews has been active in the field of gerontology, health and aging in Canada, through her professional associations and as an advisor to local, provincial and federal governments. These include on the Board of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, as Social Sciences editor for the Canadian Journal on Aging and as its Editor-in-Chief (1996-2000). She has served on review or advisory committees for Canada’s National Health Research and Development Program; the Health Promotion Directorate of Health and Welfare Canada; the Division of Aging and Seniors; and on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Seniors Independence Research Program of Health Canada. Currently, she is Vice-President of the Research Committee on Aging of the International Sociological Association and an Overseas Advisor to the UK journal, Ageing and Society.  She is currently on the Gerontological Advisory Board for Veteran’s Affairs Canada and the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly.

Anne Martin-Matthews' contributions to research and scholarship in social gerontology have been recognized by a Distinguished Alumni Award from McMaster University;  a Commemorative Medal for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, awarded by the Canadian Association on Gerontology; and a British Academy Visiting Professorship in 2004. She is a Fellow of the (U.S.) Gerontological Society of America and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.