Mental wellness support is difficult to find, and even when available, youth mental health services are often fragmented, requiring young people to navigate a complex and disconnected system. Seeking the right support requires youth to navigate between complex systems, with nearly 30% of youth not accessing support they need because they are unsure about how to navigate the system. This presentation will take you through Kids Help Phone’s journey on co-designing Resources Around Me, a digital service navigation tool for young people across Canada. We’ll take you behind the scenes of how we designed, built, implemented, and are continuously improving the tool, in collaboration with young people.

Presented by:

Alisa Simon, Executive Vice President, E-Mental Health Transformation & Chief Youth Officer

Alisa Simon brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in healthcare access and non-profit management to her role as Group Head and Executive Vice President, e-Mental Health Transformation and Clinical Services at Kids Help Phone. In this role, Alisa oversees Kids Help Phone’s national clinical service programs, providing strategy, leadership and guidance to more than 150 clinical staff and thousands of volunteer crisis responders across Canada. Through her focus on building innovative digital systems that break down barriers to care by changing the way care is delivered, measured and received, Alisa is driving the transformation of Canada’s youth mental health landscape and creating equitable access to support for youth across the country. Under Alisa’s leadership, Kids Help Phone has evolved from a phone-based helpline to a comprehensive solution that fully integrates a growing number of access points, programs and resources, achieving over 13 million interactions since 2020. Alisa also oversees knowledge translation, quality assurance and equity programs, ensuring the organization is delivering the best possible services to young people, particularly youth from equity-seeking communities. 

Alisa holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina. She has won two Digital Health Canada awards, including Digital Health Executive of the Year in 2022 and Women Leader in Digital Health in 2024.

Pronouns: She/Her, LinkedIn, Twitter: @alisa_simon350

Lydia Sequeira, PhD, Kids Help Phone

Dr. Lydia Sequeira is the Executive Director, Applied Research at Kids Help Phone. She’s an experienced researcher and academic who’s passionate about sharing her digital health expertise to advance access to mental health supports for young people across Canada. Lydia holds a PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Toronto and has contributed to academic literature on topics such as digital phenotyping, implementation science, predictive analytics for suicide risk and social determinants of health. In 2024, Lydia was honoured to be recognized for her work with a Women Leaders in Digital Health Award from Digital Health Canada.

Pronouns: she/her, LinkedIn

Earn One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for attending this webinar. Content from the webinar aligns with Core Health Informatics Topics.

Webinar Wednesday attendance is one of the benefits of Digital Health Canada Membership. Not a member yet? Join Digital Health Canada to enjoy Webinar Wednesdays and other benefits of membership. 

All Digital Health Canada Members are encouraged to register and attend the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, June 18 from 12 - 1 PM ET. 

The following matters will constitute the Agenda of the Digital Health Canada Annual General Meeting 2025 (Virtual):

1. Call to Order
2. Approval of the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held June 19, 2024
3. President's Report
4. CEO Report
5. Treasurer's Report and Audited Financial Statements for Fiscal Period ending March 31, 2025
6. Appointment of the Auditor for 2025-2026
7. Board Development Committee Report on Nominations and Elections
8. Introduction of Incoming Board of Directors
9. Other Business
10. Adjournment

Unable to attend? Assign your vote to another member by downloading and completing the Proxy Form.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the future of community-based primary care practices and revolutionize patient care. How do we align the potential of AI to the clinical and business needs of physicians and clinical teams? Panelists will explore AI’s growing potential in primary care, discuss the process to best understand clinician needs and the alignment to emerging technologies, the need for privacy and regulatory evaluation, and then how to scale solutions that are ready for broad adoption.  

Learning Objectives:

1)     Participants will gain insights into the potential applications of AI in primary care settings, from data-driven decision-making to predictive analytics. 

2)     Participants will learn about an evaluation framework that can be applied to capture alignment between technology and clinical needs. 

Presented by:

Onil Bhattacharyya, MD, PhD

Onil Bhattacharyya is the Frigon Blau Chair in Family Medicine Research at the University of Toronto, the Director of the Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health Systems Solutions and Virtual Care, and national co-chair of the Canadian Primary Care Research Network.

Dr. Payal Agarwal, MD

Dr. Agarwal is a Family Physician and researcher at the Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health Systems Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV). She completed her masters in Health Services Research from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and have an undergraduate degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. She is currently the Integrated Chief Medical Information Officer at the Waterloo Regional Health Network and the Medial Director Digital for the Centre for Effective Practice.

Christopher Sulway, Chief of Strategy, OntarioMD

Christopher joined OntarioMD (OMD) in October 2022. Chris is recognized as a strong leader, strategist, and communicator. He was most recently a Special Advisor to the Office of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and served the Honourable Sylvia Jones and the Honourable Christine Elliott. Christopher was responsible for the provincial Digital First for Health Strategy. Chris has over 20 years of clinical and management experience. Before working with the Ontario Ministry of Health, Chris spent eight years with the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) where he was the Vice President, Quality, Performance & Accountability. Chris is a licensed physiotherapist in Ontario and has worked in management and as a clinician in Ontario hospitals and in a rehabilitation institute in Kuwait. He is a Certified Health Executive and member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders. Chris is also a lecturer for the Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Earn One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for attending this webinar. Content from the webinar aligns with Core Health Informatics Topics.

Webinar Wednesday attendance is one of the benefits of Digital Health Canada Membership. Not a member yet? Join Digital Health Canada to enjoy Webinar Wednesdays and other benefits of membership. 

Register for Core Health Informatics (Core HI) Learning Series to gain insights from experts at the forefront of Canadian digital health and health informatics.

Each session will be presented virtually in real time by an established Canadian digital health professional with real-world experience, diverse regional perspectives, and proven expertise in their area of study.

This comprehensive eight-session virtual series will take learners on a journey through the core concepts of health informatics, equipping them with the essential knowledge and skills required to succeed in the Canadian digital health landscape. Materials presented will be based on the existing Digital Health Canada Core Health Informatics courses, with refreshed and updated content.

Spaces are limited to encourage participant engagement and networking, and to allow time for questions and answers.

• Total online class time: 27 hours
• Start Date: September 8, 2025
• End Date: October 8, 2025
• Session content: The Canadian Healthcare System; Clinical and Health Services; Technology Ecosystem; Information Management; Project Management; Healthcare Transformation; Analysis & Evaluation; Bonus Session: CPHIMS-CA
• Earn 1 CEU for each hour of class time (please refer to the HIMSS renewal requirements guidelines for more information)