Charlene McBrien-Morrison MBA

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Charlene is Acting Chief Executive Officer of the HQCA. Charlene has been with the HQCA since 2004, and oversees daily operations, while providing expertise and guidance to ensure the organization meets its legislated mandate and strategic and business plan objectives. She has more than 30 years’ experience in healthcare and has held a variety of leadership roles. Prior to joining the HQCA, Charlene worked within the former Calgary District Hospital Group and Calgary Health Region, Calgary Laboratory Services, and Carewest.

In addition to her formal training as a medical laboratory technologist where she started her career in healthcare, Charlene holds a Master of Business Administration in Executive Management from Royal Roads University.

Tim Cooke

SENIOR LEAD, HEALTH SYSTEM ANALYTICS

Tim is the HQCA’s Senior Lead, Health System Analytics. Tim’s focus includes leading and mentoring staff on the development of surveys, survey methods, and quality measures as well as conducting data analysis and writing summary reports. He has had a critical role developing partnerships and fostering collaborations for HQCAinitiatives, working with organizations including Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US), the Healthcare Commission (UK), the EuroQol Group (NL), the Commonwealth fund, and the Institute of Health Economics in Alberta. Tim has also been a member of a number of measurement- related working groups both provincially and nationally.

Prior to joining the HQCA in 2005, Tim spent nine years with the former Calgary Health Region, and he also worked with Calgary Health Services and the Alberta Cancer Board.

Dr. Rod Elford

MEDICAL DIRECTOR

Dr. Elford has a broad and deep understanding of Alberta’s healthcare system, with more than 20 years of experience as a clinician, and having held a number of medical leadership roles in Alberta. Most recently he was Provincial Medical Director – Clinical Care Knowledge and Integration for Alberta Health Services, where he worked with key health stakeholders (e.g., Strategic Clinical Networks, Alberta Health, and the Alberta Medical Association) to promote a vision of a patient-centred, integrated provincial health system. He will continue to support this vision in his work at the HQCA. Previous to that role, Dr. Elford was Medical Director for Health Link Alberta.

Dr. Elford has lived, trained and worked in most Canadian provinces and a number of other countries. He brings this variety of experiences and lessons learned from around the world (and even outer space!) to his work. He completed his medical degree at the University of Alberta and did his training in Family Medicine at the University of Calgary. During this time, he did additional training in space medicine at the International Space University (Toulouse, France; Barcelona, Spain) which led to his interest in telemedicine. The Alberta Heritage Foundation then sponsored him to complete the world’s first two-year international clinical telemedicine fellowship (Newfoundland, Norway and USA), which he did simultaneously with a Master of Science degree in Community Medicine. He then became the Associate Medical Director of the Telemedicine Research Unit at Memorial University and led a number of telehealth research projects. At that time, he did family medicine locums in many rural and remote communities, often setting up telehealth links in locations where he worked. Later, he co-founded Digital Telehealth Incorporated, a telehealth consulting company that helped set up a number of telehealth networks in Canada and internationally. He returned to Calgary and worked as a family physician at 8th & 8th, Alberta’s first urgent care centre for a number of years. After spending time with the Calgary Health Region’s Wellness and Citizen Engagement Team, he moved to a private clinic in downtown Calgary with a focus on preventive health and chronic disease management. An overseas sabbatical a few years ago in New Zealand and Australia gave him first-hand knowledge and experience regarding how to promote and support integrated health systems. It was this experience that led to his most recent Alberta Health Services position as Provincial Medical Director.

Dr. Elford has authored a number of academic papers, numerous reports, books, and has delivered presentations to local, provincial, national, and international audiences. No matter where he has worked, he has always tried to bring innovation and improvement into the health system.

Markus Lahtinen PhD

DIRECTOR, HEALTH SYSTEM ANALYTICS

As Director, Health System Analytics, Markus oversees the HQCA’s measurement and analytical functions, as well as many of the monitoring and reporting functions such as population-level surveys and health system performance reporting. This involves survey and administrative data analytics, and survey development, methodology, and reporting. Markus plays a key role in the HQCA’s use of objective information to drive actionable improvement that enhances quality healthcare.

Markus joined the HQCA in 2009 following a career with Statistics Canada’s Research Data Centre at the University of Calgary where he was responsible for managing and coordinating daily operations, and conducting population research. He collaborated with other multidisciplinary teams from across Canada to identify and implement strategic and systematic changes to the program.

Markus holds a PhD in sociology with a specialization in health research from the University of Calgary and a Master of Arts from Lakehead University. He has training in both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Dr. Eric Wasylenko MD CCFP BSc MHSc (Bioethics)

MEDICAL DIRECTOR, HEALTH SYSTEM ETHICS & POLICY

Dr. Wasylenko is Medical Director, Health System Ethics & Policy for the HQCA, where he provides a medical perspective for a number of quality improvement projects, frequently applying a unique ethical lens into the development of HQCA initiatives.

He has held a number of senior leadership positions in healthcare organizations, and in addition to his current role at the HQCA, he is a Clinical Ethicist with advisory roles for various government and healthcare organizations. He currently chairs the Public Health Ethics Consultative Group for the Public Health Agency of Canada. He advises on the Advance Care Planning/Goals of Care Designation initiative with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and sits on the Seniors Health Strategic Clinical Network of AHS. He is a member of the Committee on Ethics for the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) as well the CMA’s Task Force on the revision of its Code of Ethics. He presents numerous talks to a diverse range of audiences locally, nationally and internationally. Dr. Wasylenko is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Palliative Medicine, Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary, and is a Clinical Lecturer at the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta.

He began his career as a rural family physician more than 30 years ago and after 10 years trained as a palliative care specialist, which has been the focus of his clinical work for the past 20 years. Dr. Wasylenko assisted in the development of Calgary’s regional integrated palliative care service, initially serving as a Palliative Home Care Consultant. In a community volunteer role, he co-led the creation of the ground-breaking Foothills Country Hospice near Okotoks.