A big welcome to Dr. Jeremy Theal who assumes leadership of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) portfolio next month!
From Dr. Francois Belanger, AHS Chief Medical Officer & Vice President Quality:I am very pleased to announce Dr. Jeremy Theal will assume the role of Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for AHS, effective August 30, 2021.
I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Stuart Rosser for providing interim coverage for the Chief Medical Information Officer role over the last year. His familiarity with the Connect Care design, build, and implementation provided the context and continuity, which were imperative to this transition period, and I am grateful for his leadership and support during this time. Dr. Rosser will continue to benefit the Connect Care Project and will return to his role of Physician Design Lead.
The CMIO plays a key part in the AHS senior leadership team. Reporting directly to the Vice President Quality & Chief Medical Officer of AHS and forming a triad with the Chief Information Officer (CIO), and the Senior Program Officer – Connect Care, the CMIO co-leads the development of a steady-state clinical IT and informatics strategy, as well as represent and communicate project and operational issues to clinical business leaders and clinicians within AHS, all while promoting clinical improvement and innovation. The CMIO directs and oversees engagement of physician communities in the five AHS zones, building awareness and opportunities for meaningful physician CIS adoption.
Dr. Theal graduated from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine in 1999 in addition to completing an internship in Clinical Informatics at the Harvard Medical School during the summer of 1998. In 2003, Dr. Theal completed his Fellowship in Internal Medicine followed by a Fujisawa Fellowship in Hepatobiliary Disease and ERCP in 2005, an AstraZeneca Fellowship in Endoscopic Ultrasound in 2005 and a Fellowship in Gastroenterology in 2006. Dr. Theal is currently Staff Gastroenterologist at the North York General Hospital in Toronto, Ontario since 2006.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Theal has held several key health informatics leadership roles at the hospital, provincial and national level. As the Chief Medical Information Officer at North York General Hospital, he was the physician lead of a multi-award winning clinical information system implementation that built evidence into daily care workflows and significantly reduced inpatient mortality. He founded and led the innovative Clinical Systems Benefits and Adoption Team, which was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and provided peer-to-peer coaching in clinical systems implementation to over 80 hospitals across Ontario, resulting in reduced project costs and improved system outcomes. At Canada Health Infoway, he led several projects including the Canadian CPOE Toolkit, a digital network that freely shared a library of over 1,500 evidence-based electronic order sets among publicly-funded hospitals and long-term care facilities nationwide. For his efforts in improving patient care with clinical systems, Dr. Theal received the Ontario Minister's Medal Honouring Excellence in Health Quality and Safety. In 2020, he completed a one year program in Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership at Harvard.
Dr. Theal is an experienced physician leader with proven results in transforming care at an organizational, provincial and national level through design, implementation and data-driven improvement of clinical information systems. This previous experience combined with his passion for improving quality and safety of care will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to Alberta Health Services in his role as Chief Medical Information Officer.
Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Dr. Theal in his new role.