Author: Alejandro Jadad

Website: http://www.ehealthinnovation.org

Biography:

Alejandro (Alex) Jadad, MD, DPhil FRCPC has several affiliations in Toronto, Canada: Chief Innovator and Founder, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation; Canada Research Chair in eHealth Innovation; Rose Family Chair in Supportive Care; Professor, Departments of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and Anesthesia; and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto. His research and innovation work focuses on virtual tools to support the encounter between the public and the health system (with emphasis on self-management of chronic conditions); interactive tools to promote knowledge translation and mentoring of health professionals and the public; and online resources to support social networks, respond to major public health threats (eg, chronic conditions, pandemics), support international collaboration, and enable the public (particularly young people) to shape the health system and society.

Born and educated in Colombia, Alex obtained his medical degree in 1986, specializing in anesthesiology. By the time he was 20 years of age and still a medical student, he became a leading medical expert on cocaine in Colombia and an internationally sought after speaker. In 1990 he joined the University of Oxford (Balliol College), where he became one of the first physicians in the world with a PhD in health knowledge synthesis. He developed new methods to distill high-quality, health-related information and to build specialized bibliographic databases to support health-related decisions. He led the development of the most widely used tool to assess the quality of clinical trials (the “Jadad scale”), now used throughout the world. His work helped fuel the development of the Cochrane Collaboration, a global network of individuals who are synthesizing over 500,000 clinical trials in all areas of health.

In 1995, Alex moved to Canada and joined McMaster University, where he was chief of the Health Information Research Unit; director of the McMaster Evidence-Based Practice Centre; co-director of the Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre; associate medical director of Cancer Care Ontario’s Program in Evidence-Based Care and professor in their Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics.

In 2000, Alex joined the University of Toronto, where he led the creation of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, a setting designed as a simulator of the future to study and optimize the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) before their widespread introduction into the health system and society at large. He is also spearheading the development of the Global eHealth and eWellness Network Initiative (GENI, pronounced genie), a unique group of individuals, organizations, tools, and facilities working in harmony to promote research, development, education, policy, funding, recognition, and commercialization activities related to the uses of ICTs to promote optimal levels of health and wellness worldwide.

He leads the People, Health Equity and Innovation (PHI) Group, which focuses on innovative efforts to level the playing field for disadvantaged members of society, with emphasis on youth leadership development, supportive care (for people with chronic conditions, terminal illnesses, or advanced age), and multicultural issues.

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