Healthcare Innovation Showcase

Healthcare is moving beyond “virtual-only” models to hybrid care, where patients move seamlessly between digital and in-person touchpoints. This session explores how blended models improve access, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.

• How hybrid models overcome gaps left by virtual-only approaches.
• Scaling hybrid care across Ontario Health Teams and communities.
• The impact of hybrid delivery on staffing, infrastructure, and resource allocation.
• Global lessons on integrating digital and physical care environments.

Digital portals, secure messaging, and self-management tools are shifting the balance of power toward patients. This keynote explores how empowering patients improves outcomes, engagement, and continuity of care.

• Expanding patient access to health records, labs, and appointments.
• Secure messaging and remote engagement for stronger patient-provider relationships.
• Encouraging active participation in chronic condition management.
• How patient-centered design leads to better trust and adoption.

As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, protecting sensitive data and critical systems is a life-or-death responsibility. This session dives into how Zero Trust frameworks and cyber resilience strategies are reshaping healthcare security.

• Why Zero Trust is essential for protecting patient data and digital platforms.
• Securing mission-critical hospital and primary care systems.
• Embedding cybersecurity in every layer of digital health adoption.
• Preparing for tomorrow’s threats in an era of hyper-connectivity.

Predictive analytics is reshaping chronic disease care by enabling earlier intervention and proactive management. This partner-led panel highlights solutions that help healthcare teams anticipate patient needs and prevent unnecessary hospital visits.

• Using data analytics to predict high-risk patients and intervene early.
• Case studies of analytics improving outcomes in diabetes, COPD, and heart failure.
• Integrating predictive models into primary care and hospital workflows.
• Opportunities for scaling analytics across Ontario’s health system.

Digital twin and AI technologies are bringing new levels of personalization to healthcare by simulating patient journeys and predicting outcomes. This session explores how vendors and providers are partnering to make tailored, patient-centered care a reality.

• How digital twins can simulate patient journeys for proactive care planning.
• AI-driven personalization for chronic disease management and wellness.
• Practical examples of tailoring care plans to individual patient needs.
• The vendor–provider partnership model that makes innovation scalable.

Healthcare has become one of the top targets for cybercrime, and protecting patient trust requires joint action across providers, vendors, and government. This panel brings together cybersecurity leaders to discuss practical strategies for resilience.

• Aligning vendor and provider strategies to protect patient data.
• Managing risks in central wait lists, integrated platforms, and IoT-enabled systems.
• Responding to ransomware, phishing, and emerging AI-driven attacks.
• Building a culture of cyber resilience across healthcare organizations

Ontario’s front-door push hinges on high-functioning, digitally enabled primary care teams. This session zeroes in on clinic-level playbooks—workflow, staffing, and tech—that expand same/next-day access without leaning on centralized queues.

• Clinic operating models that add capacity (advanced access, pooled triage, panel management).
• The enabling stack: asynchronous messaging, eConsult/eReferral (non-waitlist use), RPM, and care navigation.
• Staffing & scope: maximizing RNs, NPs, pharmacists, and allied roles with decision support.
• Measuring what matters: time-to-appointment, continuity, equity, and clinician well-being.

Technology must close, not widen, the healthcare equity gap. This panel examines how Ontario and global leaders are using digital tools to expand access and ensure culturally safe care.

• Designing digital health platforms with equity and inclusivity in mind.
• Expanding services to rural, Indigenous, and underserved populations.
• Addressing affordability, accessibility, and digital literacy.
• Measuring outcomes: when technology reduces inequities in patient experience.

Cybersecurity has become a frontline priority as Ontario’s healthcare system becomes more interconnected. This panel will discuss how CIOs, CISOs, and government leaders are fortifying defenses across hospitals, public health, and digital platforms.

• Implementing provincial strategies to strengthen healthcare cyber resilience.
• Protecting central wait list systems, EHRs, and integrated care platforms.
• Collaboration between hospitals, public health, and government to address threats.
• Balancing the pace of innovation with security, compliance, and patient trust.

Ontario’s pursuit of a unified patient record is one of the most ambitious projects in healthcare. This session explores why achieving full interoperability is both elusive and essential.

• Overcoming silos between hospitals, primary care, and community providers.
• Ontario’s roadmap for building a connected patient record.
• Benefits for clinicians: efficiency, safety, and reduced duplication.
• Benefits for patients: seamless experiences and greater empowerment.

Hospitals are standing up “mission control” to orchestrate beds, diagnostics, transfers, and discharge in real time. This keynote translates command-centre theory into day-to-day practice and shows how it complements analytics, digital twins, and patient-experience work elsewhere in the program.

• From dashboards to decisions: alerting, escalation pathways, and standard work at the elbow.
• Flow science: predicted admits/discharges, boarding risk, and coordinated surge playbooks.
• Integrations that matter: EHR events, RTLS, staffing, transport, imaging, and facilities data.
• Outcomes to track: length of stay, time-to-inpatient bed, cancelled procedures, and patient/staff experience.

Healthcare organizations can’t afford to wait for the next breach — proactive threat-hunting is now essential. This session explores how hospitals and health systems are using AI-driven analytics and behavioral monitoring to detect and neutralize attacks before they cause harm.

• Leveraging AI and behavioral analytics to spot unusual patterns before damage occurs.
• How threat-hunting teams proactively uncover hidden risks in hospital networks.
• Moving from reactive incident response to predictive cyber defense.
• Case studies of healthcare organizations that stopped breaches before patient safety was at risk.

Sustainability and digital transformation are converging in surprising ways. This panel explores whether algorithms can deliver both efficiency and a smaller carbon footprint.

• How AI reduces waste and energy use in healthcare operations.
• Analytics for smarter supply chain and resource management.
• Embedding climate resilience into digital health systems.
• Measuring environmental and financial ROI from AI adoption.

Burnout threatens the healthcare workforce, but emerging tech can offer relief. This session examines how automation, AI, and AR/VR training are reprogramming workforce sustainability.

• Automation that strips away repetitive, draining tasks.
• Using AR/VR for immersive training and workforce development.
• AI-powered tools that extend care team capacity.
• Designing digital solutions that support staff well-being.

Cybersecurity talent is in short supply — and healthcare is on the frontlines. This panel discusses how Ontario can build the workforce it needs to defend its health system.

• Addressing the cybersecurity skills gap in healthcare.
• Partnering with universities, vendors, and training hubs.
• Embedding cyber literacy into clinical and admin teams.
• Creating a long-term talent pipeline for healthcare security.

Ontario’s health system is rapidly scaling digital and AI-driven innovation — but the true measure of progress is value. This keynote explores how standardized digital- and data-maturity frameworks can help hospitals assess readiness, maximize impact, and align investments with provincial priorities. With deep CIO experience and a system-wide data mandate at Infrastructure Ontario, the speaker highlights how digital tools, AI, and data governance translate into better decisions, stronger infrastructure planning, and improved patient outcomes.

• Measuring Digital & AI Value: Establishing clear, system-wide metrics that link digital investments to improved outcomes, access, and operational efficiency.
• Strengthening Digital & Data Maturity: Using provincial maturity frameworks to assess readiness, identify gaps, and guide smarter, aligned investments.
• Data Governance as the Backbone: Building strong data quality, integration, and stewardship to enable trustworthy analytics, AI adoption, and infrastructure planning.
• From Technology to Impact: Ensuring deployments translate into measurable improvements in patient experience, staff workflow, and overall system performance.

Ontario’s healthcare system is shifting toward a seamlessly connected ecosystem where digital intelligence links hospitals, community care, and public health. This keynote explores how data integration and real-time insights can empower providers, optimize operations, and strengthen the province’s capacity to deliver coordinated, patient-centered care.

• Bridging the Digital Divide in Care Delivery: How to integrate hospital, primary, and community data into a single, trusted information ecosystem.
• Operational Intelligence in Real Time: Using digital platforms to align staffing, capacity, and clinical resources with emerging population needs.
• Empowering Frontline Providers: Tools and interoperability frameworks that translate data into actionable insights at the point of care.
• From Reactive to Predictive: Leveraging analytics and AI to anticipate surges, manage chronic conditions, and guide policy.

As artificial intelligence reshapes how hospitals diagnose, triage, and manage operations, it also expands the cyber and ethical attack surface. This keynote explores how Ontario’s healthcare leaders are developing governance frameworks to ensure AI adoption remains secure, compliant, and trustworthy — from algorithm transparency to third-party oversight and data integrity.

• AI’s Double-Edged Sword: Understanding how AI can both enhance and endanger cybersecurity in healthcare environments.
• Governance by Design: Building PHIPA-compliant and risk-aware frameworks for AI deployment across hospitals and vendors.
• Third-Party Trust: Managing cybersecurity risks in AI supply chains, data partnerships, and cloud ecosystems.
• Future-Proofing Compliance: Aligning AI governance with Ontario Health’s cybersecurity directives and emerging national standards.

Predictive analytics is reshaping chronic disease care by enabling earlier intervention and proactive management. This partner-led panel highlights solutions that help healthcare teams anticipate patient needs and prevent unnecessary hospital visits.

• Using data analytics to predict high-risk patients and intervene early.
• Case studies of analytics improving outcomes in diabetes, COPD, and heart failure.
• Integrating predictive models into primary care and hospital workflows.
• Opportunities for scaling analytics across Ontario’s health system.

Digital twin and AI technologies are bringing new levels of personalization to healthcare by simulating patient journeys and predicting outcomes. This session explores how vendors and providers are partnering to make tailored, patient-centered care a reality.

• How digital twins can simulate patient journeys for proactive care planning.
• AI-driven personalization for chronic disease management and wellness.
• Practical examples of tailoring care plans to individual patient needs.
• The vendor–provider partnership model that makes innovation scalable.

Healthcare has become one of the top targets for cybercrime, and protecting patient trust requires joint action across providers, vendors, and government. This panel brings together cybersecurity leaders to discuss practical strategies for resilience.

• Aligning vendor and provider strategies to protect patient data.
• Managing risks in central wait lists, integrated platforms, and IoT-enabled systems.
• Responding to ransomware, phishing, and emerging AI-driven attacks.
• Building a culture of cyber resilience across healthcare organizations.

At University Health Network, innovation is more than research — it’s about translating breakthroughs into solutions that reach patients worldwide. Drawing from his experience advancing commercialization of UHN’s digital, data, and AI-driven discoveries, and his own journey as a patient who has benefitted from these technologies, Steve Schudlo offers a unique perspective. This session explores how the intersection of commercialization, patient experience, and technological advancement can transform healthcare delivery locally and globally.

• The Innovation Pipeline: How UHN moves discoveries from lab to market, ensuring ideas become tangible solutions that improve patient care.
• A Patient’s Perspective: Personal reflections on how UHN’s technological advancements directly impacted his health journey — and what that means for scaling innovation with empathy.
• Commercialization with Purpose: Strategies for building partnerships, licensing models, and platforms that expand UHN’s innovations to global healthcare systems.
• Global Transformation, Local Impact: Ensuring innovations remain equitable and accessible while contributing to a worldwide shift in how healthcare is delivered.

Behind every data point is a patient story. This keynote explores how analytics can move beyond dashboards to transform the lived experience of patients and families. By blending predictive insights with compassionate care, Ontario is redefining what it means to deliver truly patient-centered healthcare.

• Seeing the unseen: Using real-time analytics to spot bottlenecks in patient flow and reduce stress in waiting rooms and wards.
• Personalized journeys: How predictive models tailor treatments, anticipate risks, and improve outcomes for diverse patient populations.
• Voices in the data: Capturing patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction to guide care design and quality improvements.
• Closing the loop: Turning analytics into bedside action so patients and families feel the benefit immediately, not months later.

Every cyber breach leaves lessons behind. This case study walks through a real-world healthcare breach and how it reshaped organizational resilience.

• Anatomy of a healthcare cyberattack and immediate response.
• Containment and recovery strategies that worked.
• Lessons learned for stronger system-wide defenses.
• Turning crises into opportunities for greater resilience.

Ontario is standing up a single, regional “Access OS” that routes patients to the right care through one queue with many front doors. This session gets into the build/run/secure realities: the tech stack, risk controls, hospital readiness, and what this shift means day-to-day for clinicians and patients.

• Tech & Data Layer: Central intake & eReferral, scheduling orchestration, FHIR APIs across multiple EHRs, AI-assisted triage, consent & identity (OIDC/OAuth), patient status via portals/Health811.
• Risk & Trust Controls: PHIPA by design, queue integrity (anti-gaming), bias testing in prioritization models, cyber/downtime playbooks, audit trails and transparency dashboards.
• Hospital Readiness: Standardized referral pathways, SLOs/SLAs for access times, capacity & surge triggers, clinic change management and command-centre operations, shared metrics (time-to-appointment, equity, outcomes).
• Impact on People: For doctors—single entry point, fewer faxes/callbacks, triage clarity, real-time queue visibility; for patients—plain-language status and timelines, fair access across regions, navigation supports and accessibility options.

Alexis Villa

Senior Director, Digital Health and Program Delivery, Altum Health

Noelle Coombe

Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Digital Health, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Brendan Kwolek

Chief Information and Digital Officer, Halton Healthcare

How architecture, layout, and operational design shape outcomes and experience and how IO’s delivery models turn evidence-based concepts into large-scale reality.

• Flow & wayfinding: Layouts that reduce stress and wait—clear sightlines, intuitive routes, decentralized check-in, family zones, and real-time wayfinding.
• Sensory & safety: Light, acoustics, privacy, infection-control adjacencies; designing rooms and common spaces that calm, protect, and include families.
• Smart-enabled spaces: RTLS/occupancy analytics, digital signage, nurse call, and “building OS” layers that adapt staffing and cleaning, and surface delays before patients feel them.
• From vision to delivery: How Infrastructure Ontario’s standards, P3 models, and lifecycle planning embed evidence-based design, flexibility, and digital

When a cyberattack cripples a hospital, accountability becomes as critical as recovery. This panel dives into the blurred lines of responsibility across CIOs, CISOs, clinicians, vendors, and boards — and how clear ownership of risk can strengthen resilience.

• Clarifying the roles of CIOs, CISOs, clinicians, and vendors in cyber defense.
• Lessons learned from real breaches where accountability failed.
• Building governance frameworks that define risk ownership.
• Creating a culture of shared accountability to strengthen cyber resilience.