Session 1: Introduction to Great Leadership – What does it take to be an effective eHealth leader and what does that mean?
Primary Instructor: Dominic Covvey

How do great leaders lead? What are the characteristics of a great leader? In what areas do eHealth leaders need to be competent, specifically at a strategic level? Do good leaders need to also be good followers? This session will look at the skills, expertise, knowledge and attitudes that leaders need to stimulate others to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives from both an eHealth perspective and an educational perspective.

Session 2: Are Leaders Born or Made? – Teaching and training for Leaders of the Future.
Primary Instructor: Candace Gibson

Great leaders seem to arise with the right innate characteristics in the right place and time to guide nations or organizations in times of crisis and upheaval or great need – Churchill, Washington, Lincoln, Welch. For the rest of us during normal times leadership is less dramatic, and leadership traits can be developed, enhanced, or recognized and encouraged. Even though we may not be in crisis situations we are in a constantly changing environment with the challenges of new and emerging technologies, shrinking budgets and resources, and increasing demands on an already strained health care system. So how can we encourage young eHealth professionals to step up and take on leadership roles? What tools and skills do we need to provide new and rising professionals to be adaptive, creative, and innovative leaders?

Session 3: eHealth Leadership – Skills From Practical Experience.
Primary Instructor: Roger Girard

Mr. Girard will speak to his experiences as a CIO across Canada and outline what makes for a good leader at an individual level as well as part of an organization, whether this is within the private or the public sectors. He will also provide his thoughts on the nature of leadership within an organization and how leadership can be influenced by concepts such as Governance and Collaboration, both concepts that are much in vogue within Canadian eHealth.

Session 4: Women in Leadership – What are the implications for the advancement of eHealth? What are the implications for the HIM, HI and eHealth professions? What do HIM, HI and eHealth professionals need to do?
Primary Instructors: Candace Gibson and Kelly Abrams

Session Partner: CHIMA
Held in Celebration of International Women's Week

Women have made great strides in the past few decades in business, academia, politics, and government. We can point to sterling examples of powerful, intelligent women at the head of companies – Meg Whitman (HP), Melissa Mayer (Yahoo), Bonnie Brooks (The Bay), Heather Reisman (Indigo); politics – Hillary Clinton; associations – Stacey Allaster (WTA); governments – Hillary Clinton (US), Angela Merkel (Germany); and universities - Drew Faust (Harvard). Although there are a few high profile women who’ve made it to the top, in general women are still underrepresented in executive positions. The health information management (HIM) field is predominantly female, while leadership in eHealth (which includes Health Informatics and HIM) is predominantly male. Sheryl Sandberg’s recent book – Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead – suggests that women fail to “lean in” or step forward for management and leadership positions. We’ll look at some of the leadership and career opportunities in eHealth for HIM and HI professionals and suggest a path for career advancement and leadership...and ask that you “lean in” and “step up”!