Staff Directory

The Institute has a growing staff that includes health economists, health technology assessors, research associates, information specialists, and project and administrative staff.

Egon Jonsson, PhD

Executive Director & CEO

Egon is the Institute's Executive Director & CEO and Professor of Health Economics at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, Public Health Sciences.

Professor Jonsson was trained at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, and at Harvard School of Public Health in the United States. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and Editor of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Cambridge University Press.

For 15 years Professor Jonsson was Director of the Swedish Agency on Health Technology Assessment (SBU). He later worked for the World Health Organization to establish The 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 Health Policy Unit of the Ministry of Health in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Professor Jonsson's main fields of research are health economics and health technology assessment.

Phone: 780-448-4881

Email:  ejonsson@ihe.ca

Kris Schindel

Executive Assistant to the Executive Director & CEO

Kris is the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director & CEO. She has 20 years experience specializing in meeting/event planning and database management. Kris is also the Administrative Officer for the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics (CAPT) since 2000, working with both the CAPT Board of Directors and Members of the Society.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  231

Email:  kschindel@ihe.ca

John Sproule

Senior Policy Director

John 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 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. John also currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics. He has been a National Team Coach with the Canadian Track and Field Team and is an award-winning professional actor and director.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  227

Email:  jsproule@ihe.ca

Jessica Moffatt

Research Assistant  

Jessica Moffatt is currently a PhD candidate in Public Health and Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Alberta.  Before moving to Alberta she completed her undergraduate degree from McMaster University in Health Studies.  Jessica’s own research interests include Aboriginal health, KT strategies, and qualitative research.

Phone: 780-448-4881   Ext: 236

Email:  jmoffatt@ihe.ca 

 

Allison Hagen, CGA

Director of Finance

Allison is the Director of Finance. 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  226

Email:  ahagen@ihe.ca

Barbra Sadlier

Senior Accountant

Barbara 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  260

Email:  bsadlier@ihe.ca

Debra Haas

Reception / Administrative Assistant

Debra is currently working as the receptionist at the Institute of Health Economics. She also assists all health economists and health technology assessment associates with day to day administrative duties. Debra currently chairs IHE's Social Committee as well as sits on the "Green Keen" team.

Phone:  780-448-4881

Email:  dhaas@ihe.ca

Christa Harstall, BSc MLS, MHSA

Director of HTA

Christa Harstall has had an interest in the field of health technology assessment (HTA) since 1988 when she led this initiative at the Ministry of Health in Alberta. She is currently the Director of Health Technology Assessment at the Institute of Health Economics and is responsible for the management and administration of the Provincial HTA Program and the Alberta Ambassador Program, a knowledge translation strategy. Her engagement in HTA spans nationally and internationally through various committees.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  232

Email:  charstall@ihe.ca

Wendy McIndoo

Executive Assistant to the Director of HTA

Wendy is an Executive Assistant with 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:  780-448-4481     Ext:  240

Email:  wmcindoo@ihe.ca

Paula Corabian, BA, MPH

Research Associate

Paula 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 Dissemination Working Group of the Health Research Transfer Network of Alberta.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  244

Email:  pcorabian@ihe.ca

Bing Guo, MD, MSc

Research Associate

Bing 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  246

Email:  bguo@ihe.ca

Carmen Moga, MD, MSc

Research Associate

Carmen 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  265

Email:  cmoga@ihe.ca

Maria Ospina, BSc, MSc

Research Associate

Maria's educational background includes degrees in Psychology (Javeriana University, Bogota, Colombia), graduate studies in Epidemiology and Social Sciences (Escola Paulista de Medicina, Sao Paulo, Brazil), Clinical Epidemiology (MSc; University of Alberta, Canada), and training in systematic reviews methods (Iberoamerican Cochrane Center, Barcelona, Spain). Maria started her career as a clinical psychologist and instructor at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health in the Javeriana University (Bogota, Colombia). She was also assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatatistics at the Javeriana University (Bogota, Colombia), where she coordinated the activities of the Colombian Branch of the Cochrane Collaboration. From 2005 to 2009, Maria worked as a project coordinator with the Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence and the Evidence-based Practice Centre at the University of Alberta. Maria is a part-time research associate with the Institute of Health Economics, and currently works on her PhD in Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta. Maria's own research interests include metaepidemiological research, methods for comparative effectiveness reviews and publication bias.

Phone:   780-448-4881     Ext:  228

Email:  mospina@ihe.ca

Liz Dennett, BSc, MLIS

Information Specialist

Liz 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  249

Email:  ldennett@ihe.ca

Dagmara Chojecki

Information Specialist

Dagmara 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: 780-448-4881   Ext: 239

Email: dchojecki@ihe.ca

Philip Jacobs, DPhil, CMA

Director of Research Collaborations

Philip 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, mental health, and colorectal cancer screening.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  223

Email:  pjacobs@ihe.ca

Arto Ohinmaa, PhD

IHE Affiliate

Arto 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  230

Email:  aohinmaa@ihe.ca

Angus Thompson, PhD

Research Associate

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  264

Email:  gthompson@ihe.ca

Thanh Nguyen, MD, MPH, PhD

Health Economist

Thanh 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  257

Email:  tnguyen@ihe.ca

JoAnn Kingston-Riechers, PhD

Health Economist

JoAnn is a Health Economist and an Adjunct Professor in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Alberta. She has a PhD from McMaster University. Her primary interest is women's health and, specifically, cost evaluations.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  251

Email:  jkingston@ihe.ca    

Anderson (Andy) Chuck, PhD, MPH

Manager of the Decision Analytic Modelling Unit & Health Economist

Andy 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 technologyies 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  250

Email:  achuck@ihe.ca

Charles Yan, PhD

Health Economist

Charles has 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:  780-448-4881     Ext:  263

Email:  cyan@ihe.ca

HTAi - Health Technology Assessment International  

Logan Mardhani-Bayne

HTAi Managing Director

Logan is the Managing Director of HTAi, and brings diverse experience in collaborative policy work to the role. Prior to joining HTAi in January 2010, Logan worked with the City of Edmonton on the political staff of City Council, leading and supporting multi-stakeholder projects in multiculturalism, community development and crime prevention. He also has experience as a policy researcher in the disability community, where his work included public consultation and program development, and with the Caritas Health Group, where he worked in patient concerns resolution and quality assurance.

Phone: 780-448-4881     Ext:  235

Email:  lmardhani-bayne@htai.org

Christine Batdorf

HTAi Administrative Officer

Christine has been the Administrative Officer for Health Technology Assessment International since 2005. She works closely with the Board of Directors and the Members of the Society. Her primary responsibilities include maintaining membership processes, and other financial and administrative duties.

Phone:  780-448-4881     Ext:  241

Email:  cbatdorf@htai.org