International experts, scientists and innovators in the field of health informatics and eHealth will meet at York University this week to discuss how the latest technologies, processes and guidelines can enable more efficient and effective health-care delivery. Speakers will address how diagnostic imaging and medical pathology results can be brought together to the point of care and how integrated teams can use these results for better care.
The Advances in Health Informatics Conference 2012 will be held Thursday, April 26 to Friday, April 27 in the Executive Learning Centre, Seymour Schulich Building, Keele campus. Co-hosted by the National Institutes of Health Informatics and York University, the conference will also be available remotely via interactive webcast.
As it becomes increasingly possible to use advanced technologies to capture and share medical images, for example, there is increased potential to improve productivity in our health-care system. Conference speakers, however, will 
address not only the technical possibilities, but the practical realities of tapping into their potential.
Dr. Dave Williams (left), Canadian astronaut, physician and president and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Toronto, will look at “Transforming the Future of Health Care with Informatics”, Thursday at 8:30am.
Five keynote presentations by international experts in integrated diagnostics and integrated care delivery will follow Williams' talk.
Dr. Bruce Friedman (right), professor emeritus at the University of Michigan Medical School and president of the Pathology Education Consortium, who is credited with naming the field of pathology informatics, will speak aboutdigital pathology and the future with integrated diagnostics on Thursday at 9:15am.
Dr. Ulysses Balis (left), associate professor and director of clinical informatics, University of Michigan Health System, will discuss digital pathology technology and the rush to develop algorithms that allow for direct interrogation of digital imagery for diagnostic information. Balis will look closely at the technical and operational aspects of 
emerging technologies that enable image-based decision support solutions on Thursday at 1pm.
Dr. Sylvia Asa (right), medical director, Toronto Medical Laboratories, and pathologist-in-chief, University Health Network, will talk about the use of digital pathology to provide on-site intra-operative consultations on Friday at 9am. Applying this technology in a public health-care system is a way to rationalize diagnostic medicine but provide the highest 
level of care, whatever the patient’s location.
Dan Gordon (left), executive consultant, IBM Global Healthcare Centre of Competence, and Aditya Pai (right), senior managing consultant, IBM Global Business Services, will look at how large 
health-care databases and the tools of Business Intelligence can assist in the analysis and management of health care on Friday at 1pm.
In addition, the workshop Transforming Health Care: Evidence, Pragmatism and Politics, will explore the potential of eHealth to significantly increase the productivity of the health system at a time when funding has become highly restrained.
Other speakers include: Dr. R. Brian Haynes of McMaster University, on the evidence about what is working in health care; William Falk of the University of Toronto, discussing what is happening in eHealth in Canada; and William J. Pascal, of the Canadian Medical Association, on the policy shifts that must occur to enable the potential of eHealth systems during a time of government spending restraint.
For more information, visit the Advances in Health Informatics Conference 2012 website. For program information, click here.