This Institute for Pandemics workshop will provide an opportunity for health system and policy scholars, health professionals, and students to engage in discussion and debate about reforms to health systems to build resilience. Invited guest speakers and panelists will address several policy issues shared by the Canadian and Israeli health systems with a focus on health and healthcare disparities, health human resources, and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic responses in the two countries. Attendees will participate in health policy learning through a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.
Note: This is an in-person event on the University of Toronto campus with lunch provided to attendees. There will not be a virtual attendance option or recording made. Please only register if you are able to attend in person.
Invited guest speakers
Nadav Davidovitch, MD, MPH, PhD, is an epidemiologist and public health physician. He is a Full Professor and Director, School of Public Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Chair, Health Policy Program, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. Among his research interests: health policy, public health, one health/ecohealth, comparative healthcare systems, health inequities and global health.
Prof. Davidovitch serves on several international and national committees, among them: Governing Board, European Public Health Association; Executive Board, Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and Chair of its Public Health Emergencies Task Force. He authored or co-authored over 180 papers and book chapters, coedited six volumes and books and published his work in leading medical and health policy journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vaccine, Social Science and Medicine, and Law & Contemporary Problems.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Israel, he has been involved in research and the formulation of health policy and has advised various agencies in Israel and abroad on the need to make structural changes in the health system, with an emphasis on social issues and addressing health gaps.
Karima Velji, RN, PhD, CHE, FCAN is a health-care leader with a proven track record in fostering the engagement of the patient (service user) and system partners to drive innovative models of care, integrating research and care to drive next practice, and creating cultures to unleash the potential of high performing teams to achieve stellar results. She has implemented innovative health human resource solutions within these models of care to ensure optimal scope of practice of all clinicians.
Dr. Velji is Ontario’s first Chief of Nursing and Professional Practice. She has held senior leadership positions in several Academic Health Science Centres and has operated a successful consulting company. Dr. Velji is a sought-after consultant for system level projects and has led external reviews of several organizations. She is a surveyor with Health Standards Organization/Accreditation Canada.
Panelists
Jennifer Lake, Assistant Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
David Fisman, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Barry Pakes, Associate Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine
Sara Allin, Associate Professor, Institute for Health Policy Management & Evaluation, The North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Isser Dubinksy, Senior Fellow, Institute for Health Policy Management & Evaluation
Baruch Levi, Research Associate, The North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
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