Our Team

Role at Santis

Izabella provides research, policy analysis, communications, project management and stakeholder engagement support to the Santis team and its clients.

Experience

Izabella has extensive skills and experience in leading multi-stakeholder projects that seek to establish evidence and influence health policies to act on necessary pathways to support healthcare improvement and innovation. Prior to joining the Santis team, Izabella worked as a Research and Partnerships Manager at a women’s health medical technology start-up, Eve Medical. During her time at Eve Medical, Izabella managed governmental contracts focused on technology innovation and also supported the research development, clinical validation, quality assurance, and sale of innovative self-sampling technologies to improve access to diagnostic tests for women in Canada. Izabella also worked at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre at the Practice-Based Research and Innovation (PBRI) Group where she operationalized PBRI’s 5-year strategic plan to ensure goals and objectives were being met. Along with developing new initiatives in engaging patients as co-learners in a didactic quality improvement curriculum to develop skills and collaboration between patients and clinicians to improve gaps in care.

Volunteerism and Education

Izabella completed her Master in Public Health degree at University of Waterloo in June 2020. Her final seminar presentation showcased a policy analysis on appropriate tax reform measures for vaping products in Ontario. She also holds a B.A. (Honours) is Anthropology and a professional diploma in Not-For-Profit Management from Western University

Role at Santis

Ben leads Santis’s digital health practice, helping clients understand and leverage information technology to re-shape Canada’s health care system. Ben is a well-known expert in his field, with more than 15 years of experience in the sector. He has worked extensively in both the public and private sectors and has a deep understanding of the ways in which public policy can both drive and hinder innovation. He provides clients with an encyclopedic knowledge of the past and present of digital health in Canada, along with actionable insights regarding the likely evolution of the sector moving forward.

In addition to his role at Santis, Ben also teaches digital health policy at the University of Toronto where he enjoys educating the next generation of policy leaders in the field.

Experience

Ben has more than 15 years of experience in Canada’s digital health system. Prior to joining Santis, Ben was the Manager of Strategy + Innovation at the Ministry of Health’s Digital Health Secretariat, where he was responsible for the development of the province’s overarching digital health strategy. Ben helped to spearhead digital components of the Ontario Health Team initiative, the establishment of a provincial eConsult service, and the creation of innovative virtual care pilots. He also negotiated provincial funding agreements and addressed policy barriers that were limiting the spread and impact of technology across the health system.

Ben has also worked as an analyst and system designer for public sector IT development projects.

Volunteerism and Education

Ben has a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University as well as a Master of Public Administration from Queen’s University.

Ben has also co-written and produced a pair of award-winning musicals that were staged at independent theatre festivals in Toronto.

EXPERIENCE

Before joining Santis, Helen gained a broad range of experience in the health care and life sciences sector, including academic research, market research, and relevant consulting projects.

Most recently, Helen worked at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for
Governance, Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector, where she managed the planning and execution of a 2-day workshop on Corruption During COVID-19: Looking Backward and Forward, where international leaders in the field, health system workers, and students participated and learned from each other about this timely topic.

Additionally, she worked in Ipsos as a health care research analyst, where she supported market research projects that aimed to help innovators identify opportunities to address patient and physician pain-points during diagnosis, prescription, and treatment processes.

VOLUNTEERISM AND EDUCATION

Helen holds a MPhil in Management from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Additionally, Helen recently completed a non-degree year at the University of Toronto, where she focused on courses in health policy and public health. Notably, she published a first-author literature review on Molecular Pathology and Therapeutic Strategies of Type 2 Diabetes during her time at HKUST.

Helen’s background gives her a solid interdisciplinary foundation in life sciences and health care, which informs her work across the wide variety of projects she contributes to at Santis.

ROLE AT SANTIS

Mariana offers her expertise in health policy to Santis, collaborating with the Life Sciences team as well as other teams, including Digital Health and Government Relations. She leads client work, manages projects, and provides research support to ensure that client projects are successful. With her experience, Mariana develops data collection tools, analyzes qualitative data, and transforms it into valuable insights and meaningful deliverables. Additionally, she assists in the creation of client business proposals.

EXPERIENCE

Mariana has extensive expertise in comparative global health policy research. Before joining Santis, she collaborated with the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policy at the University of Toronto, supporting research that delivered evidence-based insights on public health issues across Canada. She also worked as a consultant at the World Bank, focusing mainly on public health emergency preparedness and response in Central America and gained experience in behavioral economics and costing research related to HIV at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico.

VOLUNTEERISM AND EDUCATION

Mariana holds a PhD in Health Services Research with an emphasis in Health Policy, from the University of Toronto. In her doctoral research, she analyzed and compared reimbursement decisions for oral PrEP for HIV in Ontario and Mexico. Additionally, Mariana has a Masters of Science in Health Economics from the School of Public Health of Mexico and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Health.

ROLE AT SANTIS

Urvi is a valuable asset to the Santis team and its clients, offering a diverse skill set that includes research, policy analysis, project management, and stakeholder engagement support. Her expertise extends to managing client relationships on a daily basis, where she leverages her clinical background and education in digital health and health informatics to deliver insightful recommendations and valuable perspectives. Urvi’s unique combination of clinical knowledge and technological understanding allows her to bridge the gap between health care practice and digital innovation, providing clients with well-rounded and informed guidance.

EXPERIENCE

Previous to Santis, Urvi has extensive experience as a clinician and educator. She spent six years as a frontline paramedic and has an on-the-ground understanding of health care systems. She provides a nuanced and unique perspective on health care processes and digital health issues. Urvi has specifically leveraged her clinical experience to effectively define, investigate, and propose solutions for data problems in paramedicine. Urvi is also an active professor at Humber Polytechnic for their paramedicine program – focusing on applied clinical skills and pharmacology. She is passionate about and involved in policy and educational advancement for paramedicine.

VOLUNTEERISM AND EDUCATION

Urvi completed her Master’s in Health Informatics at the University of Toronto in 2023. Her Master’s project led to the definition of a novel governance model for paramedicine. She also has a Paramedic Diploma from Humber Polytechnic and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from McMaster University.

Role at Santis

Rosa is a Senior Consultant providing strategic problem solving, stakeholder engagement, and public policy analysis to health care and Life Science clients. Particularly, Rosa consults for leading industry, and health system clients navigating challenging political and economic environments, producing strategic advice and counsel backed by evidence-based insights. She primarily works with clients looking to improve market access, market competitiveness, business structures, organizational funding, and product sales.

Given that her clients come with a variety of needs, she often works closely with cross-functional teams, including with Santis’ Ontario and Federal Government Relations, and Communications teams to provide her clients with a suite of services. She’s built pan-Canadian coalitions, developed strategic plans, gathered and collaborated with stakeholders, managed Advisory Boards, led the development of a digital tool, conducted qualitative and quantitative research, and crafted briefing notes and letters to governments.

Experience

Prior to joining Santis, Rosa worked as Manager of Knowledge Translation at CanCOVID, a network of researchers, academics, decision makers, and industry partners at the University of Toronto dedicated to an evidence-informed pandemic response. During her time at the University of Toronto, she led a number of briefs and expert roundtables for federal agency clients on a breadth of topics including vaccines, long-term care, COVID-19 mitigation strategies, indoor ventilation, and mental health. She also collaborated with members of the Ontario Science Table, conducting research and analysis for their Post COVID-19 Condition brief.

Rosa also has on-the-ground health care experience at St. Michaels Hospital’s Emergency Department, providing provider and patient support and coordination across the hospital, which streamlined patient care for Toronto’s most vulnerable populations.

Volunteerism & Education

Rosa holds a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from McMaster University’s Department of Research Methods, Evidence and Impact. At McMaster, she developed a framework to improve the development of clinical practice recommendations for antibiotics to reduce the impact of AMR. During her time at McMaster, she collaborated on several health research projects, first authoring two published peer-reviewed papers in the BMJ-Open and the CJIDMM. Rosa also co-authored seven papers in journals including The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, and BMJ Global Health. In 2019, she travelled with her thesis supervisor to the World Health Organization Headquarters, supporting an international expert panel updating a tuberculosis guideline.

She also completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Life Sciences at the University of Toronto, specializing in Human Biology, Immunology, and the Italian Language.

Role at Santis

As the leader of Santis’ Life Sciences team, Ross helps innovative medtech and biopharma companies, research and commercialization organizations and government agencies develop impactful solutions to complex strategy and policy challenges.

Experience

Before joining Santis in 2014, Ross was the Director of Government Affairs and Corporate Responsibility at AstraZeneca Canada (AZC). With overall responsibility for the company’s public policy and advocacy efforts, Ross led a national team of colleagues and directly supported three CEOs in their policymaker and stakeholder engagement efforts.

Ross joined AZC, after nearly four years as the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the MaRS Discovery District, an innovation incubator and urban science park in downtown Toronto. One of the organization’s first full-time employees, Ross built strong ties with all three orders of government, developed a global network of commercialization collaborators and launched the organization’s social innovation initiative. Ross also spent five years working in Washington, DC – first at the Embassy of Canada and then at the G7 Group, a political and economic forecasting firm.

Beyond his work at Santis, Ross spent 8 years as an Innovation Fellow at Women’s College Hospital, where he advised the Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (known as “WIHV”) on public policy, strategy and stakeholder relations.

Volunteerism and Education

Ross has an MPA from Queen’s University and an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, where he guest lectures in the School’s Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences.

ROLE AT SANTIS

Jim brings over 20 years of experience in the life sciences sector to his role with Santis Health. His deep understanding of market access, policy development and expertise in government and stakeholder relations ensures success in effectively managing client relationships and driving results. Jim works with the Santis Life Sciences team to deliver strategic counsel and client leadership to biopharma and MedTech clients.

EXPERIENCE

Before joining Santis, Jim held several key government relations and policy roles with two leading biopharmaceutical companies. He honed his skills working with a wide range of government, industry, and not-for-profit organizations that enriched his understanding of healthcare policy and advocacy. Prior to entering the pharma industry, Jim worked at the Ontario Legislature in a senior role with a Member of Provincial Parliament.

Jim spent the first part of his career working for the Regional Municipality of Niagara and Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services in progressively senior roles, including managing a regional MCSS office.

VOLUNTEERISM AND EDUCATION

Jim completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Brock University.