ITAC Health Advocacy Committee

Co-Chairs: David Thomas (TELUS Health) and Robert Lazar (B Sharp)

Scheduled meeting dates for September 20, 2017; October 18, 2017; November 15, 2017, December 20, 2017; January 17, 2018; February 21, 2018; March 21, 2018; April 18, 2018 & May 16, 2018 – for more information about participation in any of the ITAC Health Committees please contact Elaine Huesing, Executive Director, ITAC Health, ehuesing@itac.ca

Mandate
To promote investment in health ICT and represent the interests of the Canadian health ICT industry to government, key decision makers and opinion leaders.

  • Execute on specific advocacy activities to promote the interest of the broader membership aligned to the priorities identified in the strategic plan.
  • Meet one-on-one with Ministers of Health (Federal and Provincial) to promote investment in health ICT.
  • Support the provincial Ministers of Health through collaboration and information sharing with other Ministers, government officials, decision-makers and opinion leaders to promote the ITAC Health’s priorities.
  • Open up channels for dialogue between senior public servants, decision-makers in the broader health sector (e.g. regional CEO’s and CIO’s), opinion leaders (e.g. medical and hospital associations), and the Health ICT industry
  • Organize opportunities for the membership to engage directly with key decision makers and politicians (e.g. Queen’s Park Days, Provincial eHealth Briefings etc.)

2017-2018 Objectives

    • Effectively influence public policy:
      • Deliver ‘Queen’s Park Day’ style events in BC, AB and ON – others
      • Target advocacy work on advancing the adoption of ITAC Health’s priority innovative technologies:
        1. Virtual Care
        2. Cloud Computing
        3. Advanced Analytics/AI/ML
        4. Consumer Health
        5. IOT/Mobility
      • Create ITAC Health positions on each of the five areas. Positions could over areas such as: patient/provider/system benefits, ROI, facts/myths, practical steps, blockers, recommendations etc.
      • Identify policy blockers and barriers and address at political and senior decision-making levels.
    • Improve public & private sector procurement:
      • Continued work of the Procurement Taskforce to collaborate with the Public Sector to seek methods of procurement innovation.
      • Develop ITAC Health positions on large-scale EMR refresh strategies and procurement – having a large scale view point
      • Collaboration with Advocacy committee to elevate the procurement conversation to political layers.

Measurement:

  • Identify influence plan (metric: documented strategy)
  • Execute on stated influence activity (metrics: # of sr.-level meetings, completion of “Queen’s Park Days”)
  • Creation of position papers (metrics: # of papers)
  • Influence outcomes – when possible to report on the how the activities of the committee actually moved the needle on policy decisions

ITAC Health Advocacy Themes