John Wright
President and CEO, CIHI

John brings perspectives from both within and beyond the health sector. He has more than 30 years of public-sector experience, including as deputy minister of Health and deputy minister of Finance for the Government of Saskatchewan. He also served as president and CEO of several crown agencies in that province, including SaskPower, Crown Investments Corporation and Saskatchewan Government Insurance. Before joining CIHI, he was a lecturer in economics at the University of Regina.

John has served on the boards of governors for the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Alberta and an honours bachelor of economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Nick Black, PhD
Professor of Health Services Research, Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Dr. Nick Black’s research interests include the use of clinical databases for evaluation and audit of health services (particularly in the fields of surgery and intensive care), patient-reported outcomes, non-randomized methods of evaluation, the relationship between research and policy, and the history of health services.

In 1996, together with Nick Mays, he founded the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, and he was the founding chair of the U.K. Health Services Research Network (2005 to 2008). In 2008, he was appointed chair of the National Clinical Audit Advisory Group, responsible for advising the Department of Health and leading the reinvigoration of clinical audit in England.

He has recently published Walking London’s Medical History, an attempt to raise public understanding of health services and health care policy.

David Feeny, PhD
Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, Oregon

David Feeny, currently a Senior Investigator at the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, in Portland, Oregon, was one of the founding members of CHEPA at McMaster University in 1988.

He has expertise in many research areas related to the evaluation and assessment of health care technologies and services, and health-related quality of life. Specific projects have included the evaluations of treatment for childhood cancer, prenatal diagnosis, pediatric asthma, hip replacement, rehabilitation following heart attacks, long-term outcomes of neonatal intensive care and health-related quality of life effects on being on waiting lists for elective surgery.

He was one of the developers of the Health Utilities Index (HUI), a multi-attribute health status classification system, and continues to participate in research on the determinants of health at the population level.

His ongoing research includes evaluating the effects of the routine use of measures of health-related quality of life in the areas of patient management, quality assurance, quality of life in substance abuse, and population health.

Dr. Cordell Neudorf
Chief Medical Health Officer, Saskatoon Health Region

Dr. Cordell Neudorf is the Chief Medical Health Officer for the Saskatoon Health Region. He received his medical degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a master’s of health science in community health and epidemiology from the University of Toronto, and he is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada with certification in the specialty of community medicine. He is the past president of the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine, chair of the Canadian Public Health Association and chair of the Canadian Population Health Initiative Council.

Dr. Neudorf is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Medicine.

His research interests include health inequalities, health status indicators and surveys, health status monitoring and reporting, and integrating population health data and geographic information systems into public health and health planning.

Jillian Oderkirk
Director of Health Analysis Division (HAD), Statistics Canada

Jillian Oderkirk is the director of Health Analysis Division (HAD) at Statistics Canada. HAD’s research program is based on Statistics Canada’s comprehensive suite of data on the health of Canadians. Specific areas of research include longitudinal linkage of survey and administrative records and the development of computer simulation models to understand the relationships among risk factors, disease onset, health care interventions and health outcomes. A substantial component of this research program is undertaken in collaboration with partners in health ministries, health organizations and universities. HAD publishes Health Reports, a peer-reviewed and indexed journal of population health and health services research. Jillian has over 20 years of experience in the collection and analysis of social data, with expertise in education, justice and health. Jillian holds a Master of Arts in Economics from McMaster University.

M. Mahmud Khan, PhD
Tsai and Kung Professor of Health Systems Management,
Tulane University

M. Mahmud Khan is a professor in the departments of Health Systems Management and International Health and Development, Tulane University, New Orleans, U.S.A. He received an MSS in economics from Dhaka University, Bangladesh, prior to attending Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, where he earned an MA and a PhD.

Dr. Khan has been involved with many research studies, including analysis of burden of disease and cost-effectiveness, economics of childhood immunization, health care financing, economic evaluation of alternative interventions for chronic care and care of the elderly, and the World Health Organization’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses.

At Tulane University, he teaches courses on health and economic development, comparative health systems, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis and econometrics for health services research. He was named Outstanding Faculty of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine for excellence in teaching and received the teaching scholar award of the school in 2003. He has taught in universities and institutes around the world, including in China, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Africa and Bangladesh.

Kimberlyn McGrail, PhD
University of British Columbia

Kimberlyn McGrail is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, associate director of the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and a senior researcher with Statistics Canada. Dr. McGrail’s current research interests include variations in health care services use and outcomes, understanding health care as a determinant of health, comparative health policy and the development of health information and technology to improve evidence and practice. She has collaborated with provincial and federal policy- and decision-makers, including the B.C. Ministry of Health Services, the Health Council of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Dr. McGrail is a 2009–2010 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Associate in Health Care Policy and Practice. She holds a PhD in health care and epidemiology from the University of British Columbia and a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan.

Jeremy Veillard
CIHI - Vice President of Research and Analysis

Jeremy Veillard is CIHI’s new Vice President of Research and Analysis. He has substantial  expertise in health policy development and health system reforms, as well as evaluation and health system performance measurement and management. 

Jeremy has extensive professional experience in the health sector in Europe and in Canada. He was most recently the Regional Adviser for Health Policy and Equity at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/EURO), and the lead for health system performance assessment. 

Jeremy’s previous experience includes leading work on the Health Results Team at the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and as a policy advisor at the WHO/EURO in charge of hospital reforms. He also has experience in hospital management in France. 

Currently a candidate for a PhD in public health, Jeremy has two master’s degrees: one in hospital management and another in arts (history). 

Gary Catlin
Director General of the Health, Justice and Special Surveys Branch at Statistics Canada

Gary Catlin is the Director General of the Health, Justice and Special Surveys Branch at Statistics Canada. The Branch has an extensive household survey program including the Canadian Community Health Survey, the Canadian Health Measures Survey and the longitudinal National Population Health Survey. There is also a broad program of special projects covering diverse subject matters from education to financial issues and the environment. The program also includes extensive administrative data such as the Canadian Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics and extensive crime and justice statistics collected through cooperative arrangements with federal, provincial, territorial and local jurisdictions. There are regular publications through Health Reports and Juristat.