Hospitals as Hubs in the Complex Healthcare System
Biomedical Engineers are one of many types of professionals that work in a complex healthcare system. Hospitals play a pivotal and dynamic role in this system. Please join the BME community as we host three different professionals with diverse hospital experience in Canada (a physician, a research manager, and a board member) to discuss the key role of hospitals. The panel will open with a brief statement by each guest and transition to a moderated conversation centered on Q&A from the audience.
About the panelists
Karen Webb
Karen Webb currently serves on several boards, including as Vice-Chair of Scarborough Health Network, past-Chair of Up With Women, and board member of Cobourg Utilities. She has stayed active with the engineering community through past volunteer roles with Camp1(Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer), PEO and OSPE. Her corporate experience includes executive experience from the oil, tech and financial services sectors, specializing in Operations, Business Transformation and Project Management. She earned her ICD.D from the Rotman School of Business, her M.B.A. from York University, and a BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. As a dedicated life-long learner, she is currently focusing on digital health and cybersecurity.
Dr. Elise Laende
Elise Laende served as the Research Manager for the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, in Halifax from 2009-2019, managing a clinical research program, focused primarily on hip and knee replacements. She concurrently completed a PhD Biomedical Engineering at Dalhousie University, using high-resolution imaging techniques to quantify implant fixation in patients. Her current post-doctoral work at Queen’s University and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre is focused on the application of markerless motion capture technology to measure biomechanics in orthopaedic patients. Having originally completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Waterloo, she will be returning in July as an Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering.
Dr. Doug Dittmer
Dr. Dittmer is a graduate of Queen’s University and McMaster University and has over 35 years of experience as a medical doctor with a specialty in Physiatry and Sports Medicine. Currently, he is the medical leader in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Grand River Hospital at Freeport. In addition to his practice, Dr Dittmer is a highly active innovator. He co-organized a series of MedTech conferences and has contributed to the development of novel wrist-hand orthoses and lower-limb prostheses with Western University and University of Waterloo.
Dr. Dittmer co-founded the Canadian Strategic Clinical Innovation Network (CSCIN), aiming to develop innovation pathways by partnering with academic institutions (Guelph, Waterloo, Conestoga College) and community hospitals. He has also acted as a Team Canada Physician for 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, three Paralympic Games, and the 2016 Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games in Toronto. Dr. Dittmer is an ongoing collaborator in Systems Design Engineering on biomedical device research and development projects.
