Staff Directory

The Institute staff includes a growing team of health economists, health technology assessors, research associates, information specialists, and project and administrative personnel.

Egon Jonsson, PhD

Executive Director & CEO

Egon Jonsson is Executive Director & CEO of the Institute of Health Economics, and Professor of Health Economics; adjunct at the universities of Alberta and Calgary. He trained in his native Sweden at the Stockholm School of Economics before serving as a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences, and former Editor of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Cambridge University Press.

For 15 years Professor Jonsson was Executive Director and CEO of the Swedish Agency on Health Technology Assessment (SBU). He later worked for the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish its Health Evidence Network, which is a service for the health ministries of WHO-member states, with a focus on evidence in the field of health policy and practice. Later he was a Health Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Health in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Professor Jonsson became the CEO of the Institute of Health Economics in 2005. His main fields of research are in health economics and health technology assessment.

Phone: +1-780-448-4881     Ext: 231 

Email:  ejonsson@ihe.ca

Kris Schindel

Executive Assistant to the Executive Director & CEO

Kris Schindel has been the Executive Assistant to IHE's Executive Director & CEO since 1996. She is also the Office Manager and has 20+ years experience in meeting and event planning. From 2000 to 2011, Kris was the Administrative Officer for the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics (CAPT), working directly with the CAPT Board of Directors, Annual Conference Planning Committees, and Members of the Society.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  231

Email:  kschindel@ihe.ca

John Sproule

Senior Policy Director (seconded to the office of the Minister of Health)

John Sproule is IHE's Senior Policy Director. Prior to joining the Institute he served as Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Community Engagement at Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. From 1998 to 2005 he worked with Merck Frosst Canada Ltd in health and industry policy planning (including secondment to Merck Sharpe &Dohme Australia). Prior to that John worked with Alberta Health and Wellness as Director of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Health, working with the Ministry from 1987 to 1998 in managing significant policy and legislative changes in the Alberta health system. He has served on many federal/provincial committees in health and as a Board member with a number of health policy academic associations including Canadian Health Economics Research Association, Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics and the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research. John currently serves as the Chair of the Health Care Working Group for PNWER (the Pacific Northwest Economic Region), a US/Canada statutory body focused on public/private leadership on a wide variety of public policy issues. He has been a National Team Coach with the Canadian Track and Field Team and is an award-winning professional actor and director.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  227

Email:  jsproule@ihe.ca

Allison Hagen, CGA, MBA

Director of Finance, Operations, and Administration

Allison Hagen is the Director of Finance, Operations, and Administration. She has held a number of executive positions including senior management in public practice, providing services for a variety of clients from owner managed businesses, public companies reporting on the TSX and not for profit organizations. Allison has attained the Certified General Accountant designation and is a member in good standing. She sits on the board of several not for profit organizations.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  226

Email:  ahagen@ihe.ca

Christa Harstall, BSc MLS, MHSA

Director of Health Technology Assessment

Christa Harstall has had an interest in the field of health technology assessment (HTA) since 1988, when she led this initiative at the Alberta Ministry of Health. In her current role, she is responsible for the management and administration of the Provincial HTA Program and of the Alberta Ambassador Program, a knowledge translation strategy. Her involvement in health technology assessment includes membership on various national and international committees.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  232

Email:  charstall@ihe.ca

Philip Jacobs, DPhil, CMA

Director of Research Collaborations

Philip Jacobs is a Professor of Health Economics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta and IHE's Director of Research Collaborations. He conducts research into costing health care services, economic evaluation analysis and health care financing issues. Philip is responsible for the production of the IHE IN YOUR POCKET series of health economic statistics booklets, and is currently working on economic studies in vaccinations, colorectal cancer screening, mental health, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  223

Email:  pjacobs@ihe.ca

Anderson (Andy) Chuck, PhD, MPH

Director of Economic Evaluation and Analytics

Andy Chuck is a Health Economist with a doctorate degree from the University of Alberta. His research interests encompass all aspects of economic evaluation of health care technologies including stated preference approaches to valuating health status. He has particular interests in integrating decision modelling with health technology assessment to inform and guide health policy.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  250

Email:  achuck@ihe.ca

Steve Buick, MPhil

Director of Policy and Communications

Steve Buick is IHE's Director of Policy and Communications. Steve has worked in communications, issues management, and policy development in the health system for more than 15 years, including with Alberta Health and Wellness and the former Capital Health region. Most recently he was the Policy Advisor to the Minister of Health and Wellness. Steve has a BA from Queen's University and an MPhil from Oxford University.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  229

Email:  sbuick@ihe.ca

Ken Bond, BAH, BEd, MA

HTA Research Associate

Ken Bond is a research associate with the Health Technology Assessment unit. Prior to joining the IHE, Ken was a researcher and project coordinator at the Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, where he conducted comparative effectiveness research, technology assessments, and methodological research for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Evidence-based Practice Centre program.

Ken's background includes undergraduate degrees in philosophy and education and a graduate degree in philosophy. He has a broad interest in systematic review methodology (including the evaluation of risk of bias and strength of evidence) and in epistemological and ethical issues in health technology assessment.

Phone:   +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  234

Email:  kbond@ihe.ca

Dagmara Chojecki, MLIS

Information Specialist

Dagmara Chojecki is a Health Librarian/Information Specialist who also spends part of her time at the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta. At the IHE she mainly conducts comprehensive literature searches while also providing additional library services. Dagmara's current research interests include knowledge translation and the role of the information professional and improvement of search methodologies.

Phone: +1-780-448-4881   Ext: 239

Email: dchojecki@ihe.ca

Paula Corabian, BSc, MPH

Research Associate

Paula Corabian is a Health Technology Assessor with a Master's in Public Health Sciences from the University of Alberta, specialization in health policy research. She also holds a BSc in Electronics Engineering. She has completed a number of research projects covering a wide range of health related topics. Paula enjoys the challenges of mentoring, methodology development, evaluation of the impact of HTA and development of effective knowledge transfer and research dissemination strategies. She is a member of the Health Research Transfer Network of Alberta.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  244

Email:  pcorabian@ihe.ca

Liz Dennett, BSc, MLIS

Information Specialist

Liz Dennett is a Health Librarian/Information Specialist who splits her time between the Institute of Health Economics and the University of Alberta's John W. Scott Health Sciences Library. Her role at IHE is to carry out comprehensive literature searches to provide the evidence base for the Institute's projects as well as to provide other Library services. Liz is interested in improving searching methodology and is currently engaged in research on methods to teach expert searching skills.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  249

Email:  ldennett@ihe.ca

Bing Guo, MD, MSc

Research Associate

Bing Guo is a Health Technology Assesor with a Master's in Public Health Sciences from the University of Alberta, and a medical doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She graduated from a medical school in China specializing in Gastroenterology. Bing has completed several research projects that covered a wide range of clinical and mental health related topics such as suicide prevention, family violence, advance directive, emergency department overcrowding, and islet cell transplantation. Bing is a member of the Health Research Transfer Network of Alberta.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  246

Email:  bguo@ihe.ca

Debra Haas

Administrative Assistant

Debra Haas provides administrative support for the Institute, particularily assisting the CEO, and Director of Policy and Communications, as well as the researchers on IHE's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder projects. She applies her excellent research skills in various capacities, including retrieving articles in publications of interest to the IHE's technical experts and librarians. Debra also maintains our intranet and website, and designs most of IHE's promotional materials.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  275

Email:  dhaas@ihe.ca

Diane Lorenzetti

Research Librarian

In addition to being an IHE Research Librarian, Diane Lorenzetti is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the University of Calgary's Department of Community Health Sciences. She received her Master's degree from the University of Toronto in 1991 and has over 15 years of experience in the fields of medical and scientific librarianship and information studies. During her career, she has worked in public, academic, and special libraries.

Diane's main area of expertise lies in the practice and teaching of systematic reviews and HTA methodologies. She is Co-Representative of the University of Calgary Canadian Cochrane Centre Regional Site. This role allows her to support and train researchers undertaking systematic reviews for the Cochrane Collaboration.

Phone:  +1-403-210-9319

Email:  dllorenz@ucalgary.ca

Wendy McIndoo

Executive Assistant to the Director of HTA

Wendy McIndoo is an Executive Assistant with over 10 years experience working with Health Technology Assessors. She holds a Business Administration diploma from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and certificates for Basics of Editing, Copy Editing, and Production Editing from Grant MacEwan College. She specializes in formatting publications for print and assisting researchers with presentations, workshops and posters.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  240

Email:  wmcindoo@ihe.ca

Jessica Moffatt, PhD

Research Associate

Jessica Moffatt has a PhD in Medicine at the University of Alberta. Before moving to Alberta she completed her undergraduate degree at McMaster University in Health Studies, with a focus on HIV/AIDS prevention in First Nations urban populations. Jessica's own research interests include Aboriginal health, public health, social determinants of health, and knowledge translation initiatives.

Phone: +1-780-448-4881   Ext: 236

Email:  jmoffatt@ihe.ca

Don Husereau, BScPharm, MSc

Senior Associate

Don Husereau is a liaison between the Institute and national and international organizations representing government, academia, and industry. In his role, he acts as a key IHE strategist and facilitates the development of activities intended to promote the use of health economics and health technology assessment in health policy and clinical practice. He is a a Senior Scientist at the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology in Hall in Tirol, Austria and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at The University of Ottawa. He is a former Director and Senior Advisor for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). He currently leads the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) initiative and is an Editorial Advisor for the journal, Value in Health.

Phone: +1-613-299-4379

Email:  dhusereau@ihe.ca

Carmen Moga, MD, MSc

Research Associate

Carmen Moga is a Health Technology Assessor with an international Master's degree in Health Services Management. Before joining the HTA team Carmen worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Management at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania. Carmen contributed to several HTA research projects, continues to develop her methodological skills, and is a member of the research team for the Alberta Ambassador Program. 

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  265

Email:  cmoga@ihe.ca

Thanh Nguyen, MD, MPH, PhD

Health Economist

Thanh Nguyen is a Health Economist specializing in health economics, evaluation in public health, biostatistics and epidemiology. He received training as a medical doctor at Hanoi Medical University in Vietnam and holds both a Master's and PhD in Public Health from the Umea International School of Public Health in Sweden. Thanh has a wide range of experience working as a consultant for the World Health Organization, World Bank and the Ministry of Health of Vietnam among other organizations. He has published many journal articles, co-authored several books, and singly authored a book on the injury poverty trap in rural Vietnam.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  257

Email:  tnguyen@ihe.ca

Arto Ohinmaa, PhD

Research Associate

Arto Ohinmaa is a Research Associate at IHE and an Associate Professor in the Health Policy and Management program at the University of Alberta. He received his Master's of Science in Economics and his PhD in Economics from the University of Oulu in Finland. His research interests include health economic analysis, health-related quality of life measurement, assessment of telemedicine, health technology assessment, distribution of health and health care costs in the population, and economic models in preventive programs.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  230

Email:  aohinmaa@ihe.ca

Maria Ospina, BSc, MSc, PhD (c)

Research Associate

Maria is a part-time research associate with the Institute of Health Economics, and a PhD candidate in Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta. Her educational background includes degrees in Psychology (Javeriana University, Colombia), graduate studies in Epidemiology and Social Sciences (Escola Paulista de Medicina, Brazil), Clinical Epidemiology (University of Alberta, Canada), and training in systematic review methods (Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre, Spain). Maria started her career as a clinical psychologist and instructor at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health in the Javeriana University (Colombia), where she was also assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatatistics. While at Javeriana, Maria coordinated the activities of the Colombian Branch of the Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre. Prior to her work at IHE, she worked as a project coordinator with the Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence and the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Centre. Her own research interests include equity-focused approaches to HTA and systematic reviews, meta-epidemiological approaches for evaluating bias in systematic reviews, and methods for comparative effectiveness reviews.

Phone:   +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  228

Email:  mospina@ihe.ca

Barbara Sadlier

Senior Accountant

Barbara Sadlier is IHE's Senior Bookkeeper. She has over ten years of experience in accounting, having worked for private/public, and non profit organizations. Barbara holds an Honors Certificate in Accounting from Alberta Vocational College. Other certificates include Payroll Administration/Clerical Assistant from Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  260

Email:  bsadlier@ihe.ca

Angus Thompson, PhD

Research Associate

Angus Thompson completed his Ph.D. at the University of London (UK) in psychology. He has been Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, a member of the World Psychiatric Association Anti Stigma Campaign, and was responsible for Alberta's Provincial Suicidology program. Recently Gus headed up the The Alberta Survey of Addictive Behaviours and Mental Health in the Workforce: 2009 for the IHE, and other current work focuses on the inter-relationships between mental health, addictions, suicidality, and social problem behaviour. In addition to his work with the IHE, Gus has appointments at the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and Flinders University (Australia). Recent papers cover long-term outcomes in schizophrenia, the origins of childhood depression, self-esteem and suicidal behaviour, and the effects of early onset depression on the severity of adult suicidal behaviour. Gus is also co-author of the research on "relative age" effects in hockey & other sports that was recently popularized in Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  264

Email:  gthompson@ihe.ca

Charles Yan, PhD

Health Economist

Charles Yan has a DPhil in economics from the University of York, UK. His research interest is in health economics with focuses on modeling analysis and statistically exploring health policy implications based on data from health care administrative records and clinical studies.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  263

Email:  cyan@ihe.ca

HTAi - Health Technology Assessment International

Chris Sargent, MPH

HTAi Managing Director

Chris Sargent is the Managing Director of HTAi Secretariat. Prior to joining HTAi, he was Alberta Health Service's Director of Community Engagement. Chris worked with Alberta Health Services in various leadership roles within Aboriginal health, quality improvement and patient safety, policy development and community engagement. Chris has a masters degree in public health, with a specialization in health policy and management, from the University of Alberta. Chris has also spent time with Alberta's health and environment ministries and has worked in Canada's high arctic and on various public health projects in Tanzania. In his spare time, Chris volunteers as Chair of the Students International Health Association Board of Governors and is an Associate with Waterlution.

Phone: +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  235

Email:  csargent@htai.org

Tara Schuller, BA, MSc

Manager of Policy Programs

Tara Schuller has 9 years of experience in the health and social services sectors in Canada and internationally. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta in political philosophy and was awarded the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for her double Masters degree in Health, Population and Social Policy at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.

Tara is currently the Manager of Policy Programs at HTAi and provides scientific secretariat support to the Policy Forum and manages other HTAi programs and interest subgroups (ISGs). Prior to joining HTAi in 2011, Tara worked for seven years a private consultancy firm, leading and managing applied research projects for health and social services stakeholders to support evidence-based decision making. Tara has extensive research experience across policy analysis areas including health technology assessment, health systems management, environmental health, and chronic and communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS. Tara is fluent in three languages and values sensitivity to culture in fostering environments of trust and open communication.

Phone: +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  245

Email:  tschuller@htai.org

Christine Batdorf

HTAi Administrative Officer

Christine Batdorf has been the Administrative Officer for Health Technology Assessment International since 2005. She works closely with the organisation's Board of Directors and Members. Her primary responsibilities include maintaining membership processes, and various financial and administrative functions. Christine has a background in accounting and IT and has worked for many years in meeting and event planning and management. Prior to assuming her duties at HTAi, she was the administrative assistant to the IHE's Director of Finance.

Phone:  +1-780-448-4881     Ext:  241

Email:  cbatdorf@htai.org