Riyad B. Abu-Laban, MD, MHSc, ABEM, FRCPC

Riyad Abu-Laban is the Scientific Director of the BC Emergency Medicine Network, and oversees a program focussed on optimizing the ability of the EMN to evaluate the system and patient care impact of its activities and function as a true Learning Health System. He is a Royal College certified Emergency Physician at Vancouver General Hospital and a Professor in the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine, where he served as Research Director until 2020.

Mary Ackenhusen 

Mary holds the appointment of  Senior Executive in Residence and lead for the Partnerships and Innovation Division at the British Columbia Ministry of Health. This exciting new role  is focused on health innovation and aligns with Mary’s long-standing commitment to system transformation.  Mary has had an impact on the health sector in British Columbia for close to 20 years. Most recently, she was the President and CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) from 2014-2020. 

Doug Brown, MD, FRCPC

Doug Brown is a FRCPC emergency physician at Royal Columbian Hospital. He has been a search & rescue volunteer since 1996, is a BC mountain rescue technician as well as a ski doctor at Whistler Blackcomb and Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing. He is a member of the international commission for mountain emergency medicine and the Canadian society of mountain medicine. He has a particular interest in wilderness and environmental emergencies, and was the lead author on a review of accidental hypothermia published in the November 15, 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. His work was featured on an EMRAP episode in January 2014.

Teresa Chan, MD

Dr. Teresa Chan is an associate professor at McMaster University. Currently, she is the Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster. She is a nationally-recognized educator, receiving the 2017 Young Educator's Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the 2019 Canadian Association of Medical Education Meridith Marks New Educator Award. Additionally, she serves as the Social Media Lead for the McMaster Department of Medicine.

Abigail Holder, RN

Abigail is a Clinical Resource Nurse at Royal Columbian Hospital's Emergency Department. 

Kira Gossack-Keenan, MD

Dr. Kira Gossack-Keenan is a University of British Columbia emergency medicine resident in her third year of training, based out of Vancouver General Hospital. She is interested in Quality Improvement and care of older patients in the Emergency Department.  

Ran Goldman, MD

Dr. Goldman is a Pediatric Emergency Physician at BC Children’s Hospital, and Professor in UBC. He is the Director of the Pediatric Research in Emergency Therapeutics (PRETx) research program and lead the Goldman's Innovative Pain Lab at the BC Children's Research Institute – focusing on studying Virtua Reality and other technologies for the reduction of pain among children in the acute care setting.

Christine Henderson, MD, CCFP, CCFP-EM

Dr. Christine Henderson completed her M.D. and CCFP, CCFP-EM designations from UBC in 2015. Her first year of practice she completed the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship. She currently acts as the Quality Improvement Physician Lead in the St. Paul’s Hospital Emergency Department. 

Kendall Ho, MD, FRCPC (Co-Chair)

Kendall Ho is a practicing emergency medical specialist, Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, and the Lead of the Digital Emergency Medicine Unit. He has gained professional recognition for his ground-breaking digital health research, applying innovative technologies to support patient transition between emergency departments and the community. He is the medical director of the Healthlink BC Virtual Physicians program called HEiDi. He is also the lead of the Real Time Virtual Support pillar of the BC Emergency Medicine Network. Dr. Ho's work has been recognized with provincial and national awards for research and education in digital health and community engagement.

Megan Hunt 

Megan Hunt is the Acting Executive Director of Primary Care & eHealth for the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). Megan resides in northern BC in the Carrier and Sekani territory.  She began her journey with FNHA in 2014  and has held numerous roles at FNHA,  including Project Director and Director of eHealth as well as Regional Director for the Northern Region.  

Chad A. Kim Sing MD, ABEM, FRCPC (Co-Chair)

Chad is an Emergency Physician, practicing for14 years.  He is Associate Vice President of Medicine, Quality, & Safety and Co-Vice President of Pandemic Response for Vancouver Coastal Health.  He is passionate about medical staff leadership and development, and bringing multidisciplinary stakeholders together to meaningfully advance and improve patient and provider care and experiences.

Chris Lee, MD, MSc Disaster Med., FRCPC (Co-Chair)

Dr. Chris Lee is an emergency physician at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Urgent Care Centre, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine. He is currently the Associate Department Head and Medical Director for Emergency Medicine at VGH and UBCH. In addition, Dr. Lee also serves as the Lead Physician for Disaster Management at VGH, and has interests in disaster preparedness, medical technology, and innovation. 

Monique McLaughlin, NP

Monique is a proud1986 Graduate of the VGH School of Nursing (and have the nursing cap to prove it) and subsequently completed her baccalaureate degree from the University of Victoria. Originally worked as an orthopedic nurse before transitioned to Emergency nursing when she was recruited to Norwalk Connecticut in 1989.  Monique returned to Vancouver at the end of 1990 and started working as a staff Emergency nurse at VGH.  She has been working as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner at VGH ever since. Monique, along with one of her nurse colleagues, host a podcast called nursEm.org for the last 5 years (where we have about 20000 listeners).  She has also been involved in developing several National Emergency courses through SOPEC (Society of Professionals of Emergency Care) called EPICC (Emergency Practice, Interventions, Care Course).

Rob Paquin, RN

Rob is a registered nurse, paramedic, and faculty member at BCIT in the emergency nursing specialization program. Presently, he leads the Virtual Simulation Program Team at BCIT, where they are developing screen-based and virtual reality simulations under the Government of Canada Digital Supercluster Grant.

John Pawlovich,MD, CCFP, FCFP

Dr. John Pawlovich is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Practice at University of British Columbia (UBC). He is currently the director of the Rural Education Action Plan in British Columbia, the Medical Director for Carrier Sekani Family Services and the Telehealth Sector Lead for the Rural Coordination Center of BC. Dr Pawlovich is involved in many telehealth initiatives in the province of British Columbia. He is a cofounder and co-lead of the BC Virtual Health Grand Rounds, and the Virtual Health theme lead for the UBC Faculty of Medicine. He speaks both nationally and internationally on virtual healthcare solutions and systems.

Jaclyn Robinson

Jaclyn Robinson is a Patient Experience Leader with Vancouver Coastal Health. She is a recent COVID survivor, and an experienced Public health Nurse and is passionate to help support patients, families, and caregivers during this Pandemic.  After having been admitted to ICU with COVID, she became a patient partner on the Post COVID Interdisciplinary Network. She seeks to bring the patient voice to inform research, care, and education to the broader community around COVID.

Aikta Verma MD, MHSc, FRCPC

Dr. Aikta Verma is an emergency physician and Chief of the Department of Emergency Services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. She is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is interested in Quality Improvement, Patient Flow, and Virtual Care in the ED.