Joan is the director of health and disability policy for CLHIA (Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association), a voluntary trade association with member companies that account for 99 percent of Canada's life and health insurance business. In her role, Joan is responsible for analysis on industry issues, policy strategy development and to build consensus on concerns important to member companies. An important part of the health portfolio is working within industry, including with national healthcare associations as well as with provincial/federal payers on benefit programs, specifically on best practices, strategy, advocacy and sustainability.
Joan brings 20+ years of benefits management expertise to her position at CLHIA, having worked for insurers and administrators on both private and public sector programs, notably with First Canadian Health and Health Canada on the NIHB program and most recently with Medavie Blue Cross.
Helen Trifonopoulos is the Head of Health Policy and Patient Access at Novartis Oncology. She leads a team of professionals responsible for health economics and outcomes research, value and access strategy, government and stakeholder relations, and health systems partnerships.
Helen has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry working for Merck and Novartis. She has held roles in commercial, medical education, policy and reimbursement across multiple therapeutic areas and various phases of the product life cycle. Most recently, Helen has had the privilege of working in novel areas like immuno-oncology and cell and gene therapies
Helen’s professional interests lie in exploring ways members of the healthcare ecosystem can work towards enhancing the life sciences in Canada and enabling patient access to innovative therapies while partnering for health system sustainability.
Helen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University and an MBA from the John Molson School of Business.
DON HUSEREAU an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at The University of Ottawa. He has expertise in health economics, innovation and health care policy. An independent consultant, Don has worked for both private and public sector life sciences organization. Don received both his BSc and MSc from the University of Alberta's faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He was a former Director and Senior Advisor for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health and Senior Economic Advisor to the Canadian Pharmacists Association. Most recently, he was a sitting member of Ontario’s Formulary Committee for Public Insurance programs (Committee to Evaluate Drugs, 2016-2019), an invited expert member on the Patented Medicines Price Review Board Technical Working Group to inform changes to Canada’s price regulation regime, and former member of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) Expert Review Committee (pERC, 2015-2017). In recent years, he has also served as an invited Expert Witness for Federal Patent and Intellectual property cases. He is currently a Senior Associate at the Institute of Health Economics. He is also a member in good standing of the Canadian Association of Magicians. Don’s current research focuses on appropriate and innovative approaches to the use of evidence and economics to inform health policy.
Prof. Michael Barry is a Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist and Head of the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. He is the clinical director of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) which conducts pharmacoeconomic evaluations on medicines prior to reimbursement under the Community Drugs schemes in Ireland. He is Past-President (2010-2011) of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). He was a board member of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and is a member of a number of National Committees on pricing and reimbursement of medicines. Prof. Barry chairs the New Drugs Committee and the Medication Safety Committee at St. James's Hospital, Dublin. In 2013 he was appointed as Clinical Lead for the new HSE Medicines Management Programme. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and is a specialty trainer for Pharmacology & Therapeutics. His research areas include the cost-effectiveness of high cost drugs including chemotherapeutic agents and biologic drugs, pricing and reimbursement and performance based risk sharing schemes. He has published widely on the cost-effectiveness of medicines in the Irish healthcare setting.
