Keynote Speaker
William Charnetski
EVP of Health System Solutions and Government Affairs, PointClickCare
Bill drives the health‐tech ecosystem’s expansion while improving patient outcomes and system productivity. Bill believes in the power of integrated care coordination and digitized ecosystems of care to enhance the patient journey and improve transitions along the continuum. Prior to joining PointClickCare, Bill served as Chief Health Innovation Strategist for the Government of Ontario, Canada. He drove behavioral change in the provincial health system to improve its innovation receptor capabilities and used the government’s massive health investment as an economic driver to scale Ontario-based health tech companies. Bill also worked with AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest innovative biopharmaceutical companies. At AstraZeneca, most recently, he led global government affairs and public policy out of London, UK. In Canada for AZ, he led integrated health solutions, pricing, market access, reimbursement, communications, strategic stakeholder engagement, and legal affairs. He was also a corporate and privacy law partner at one of Canada’s leading law firms.
Panel 1: Medical Innovation
Christopher Ing
Co-founder and CSO of ProteinQure
Chris is the co-founder and CSO of ProteinQure, a biotechnology company focussed on the development of next-generation protein-based therapeutics. He received a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto focusing on structural biology and biophysics of ion channels, enzymes, and membrane receptors. Previously, he studied Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Physics at the University of Waterloo. He currently leads computational biology methods development and applications to internal drug discovery at ProteinQure, based in Toronto, Canada. He is passionate about cross-disciplinary collaboration to design novel synthetic protein libraries, new protein modalities, and better data-driven strategies for rational drug design.
Christopher Helsen
Executive Director of Research and Development at Triumvira Chris
Christopher Helsen holds a Master’s degree in biochemistry from the Technical University Munich, Germany and a doctorate from the University of Toronto in biochemistry. He is the primary inventor of the T-cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) technology and one of the founding scientists of Triumvira. Chris has in-depth experience in biochemistry, cell biology and protein science. He has worked so far on a variety of research topics such as spider silks, chaperones and yeast prions.As Executive Director of Research and Development at Triumvira Chris is now managing the development of new TAC products and ancillary technologies.
Aye Nyein San
Head of Technology and Operations
Cosm Medical Corp.
Aye received her B.A.Sc from University of Waterloo and M.A.Sc. from University of Toronto. She is driven to innovate in the healthcare ecosystem by applying systems engineering principles. Aye is currently the Head of Technology and Operations at a Toronto FemTech startup, Cosm Medical Corp., where she strives to change the way women affected by pelvic organ prolapse are treated, bringing personalized 3D printed treatment options to clinicians around the world. Previously, she was the VP Engineering at SQI Diagnostics, a publicly traded company, building complex biotech analysis platforms. Aye played a key role with the launch of imaware™, an simple at-home health testing platform using CLIA-certified laboratories. Early in her career, Aye introduced in-house additive manufacturing processes to the R&D team at Baylis Medical.
Panel 2: Aging
Jennifer Boger
Adjunct Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and School of Health and Exercise Sciences, UBC-Okanagan
Dr. Jennifer Boger is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and School of Health and Exercise Sciences, UBC-Okanagan. Dr. Boger’s research focuses on creating technologies that enable more inclusive, equitable, and personal support for health, wellbeing, and quality of life for older adults. She specialises in transdisciplinary collaboration and user-driven design practices that blend state-of-the art knowledge from computer science, engineering, and health sciences to create internationally renowned intelligent assistive technologies for supporting graceful aging. She is also spearheading the concept of ‘Ethical by Design’, which involves the systematic development of a methodology to enable disparate stakeholders to collaboratively build aspects such ethics, culture, and citizenship into products and systems throughout their lifecycle. Dr. Boger’s degrees are in Biological Engineering (BSC, University of Guelph), Biomedical Engineering (MASc, University of Toronto), and Life and Health Sciences (PhD, Ulster University). Over the past 25 years she has been a researcher on 42 projects, author of over 150 peer-reviewed publications, holds two patients and served on several international boards.
Eliav Shaked
CEO & Co-founder, RetiSpec
Eliav Shaked, MSC. CEO & Co-founder, RetiSpec, a Toronto-based startup at the intersection of neurotech and artificial intelligence, solving early detection of neurodegenerative diseases through a simple eye exam. Eliav is a biomedical engineer with 7+ years of experience managing R&D projects and having led several medical products from ideation to launch. He holds a BSc and MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University. Eliav is an early-stage MedTech executive with a strong track record of building and managing early-stage initiatives and generating significant value. He is experienced in bringing novel diagnostics to the clinic, including clinical validation, regulatory strategy, reimbursement strategy, and fostering strong relationships with key opinion leaders in the neurology, AI and ophthalmology fields.
Drew Taylor
Co-founder and Acorn Biolabs
As a pioneer and entrepreneur in the field of regenerative medicine, Dr. Drew Taylor is on a mission to make the promise of regenerative medicine accessible and personalized for everyone. Drew received his undergraduate and Master’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan and went on to complete a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Drew also spent several years as Chief Science Officer at Epic Capital Management working across the flourishing biotech start-up community. In 2017, he co-founded Acorn Biolabs, a biotech startup focused on preparing people for the benefits of personalized regenerative medicine. Acorn provides services that help people preserve, access, and use their own cells to treat their bodies.
Closing Speaker
Nicole DeKort
Vice-President of Ontario & Marketing
for Medtech Canada
Nicole DeKort is the Vice-President of Ontario & Marketing for Medtech Canada – the industry association representing Canada’s Medical TechnologyCompanies – pursuing opportunities to demonstrate the value of innovative medical technology to government, stakeholders, and key partners in the health care system. In her current role, Nicole oversees Ontario government relations and national marketing programs for the medical technology industry in Canada. Prior to joining Medtech Canada, Nicole has a 15-year background in politics and government in a diverse portfolio of roles. Nicole is proud to be serving on the Board of Directors for Yellow Brick House and is passionate about having an opportunity to make a positive difference in her community. Nicole and her husband have a blended family of five teenagers and their dog Marner – and is a life-long hockey player herself, minor hockey coach over the past few years for the Markham Waxers, and an avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
