HealthManagement, Volume 14 - Issue 4, 2014
Prof. David Koff – Editorial
Board Member Imaging
David Koff, MD, FRPC, is Radiologist-in- Chief, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hamilton Health Sciences, Ontario, Canada; Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Radiology, McMaster University; Founder and Director, Medical Imaging Informatics Research Centre, McMaster University; Co-founder of RealTime Medical. We put our seven questions to him recently:
1. What are your key areas of interest and research?
I strongly believe in a world where health data will be communicated seamlessly and securely between multiple platforms, environments and countries, where medical images will be readily available to health professionals and patients on a variety of supports; evidence-based knowledge will be made available to support clinical decisions and treatments. To make the dream come true, we need to promote the use of standards and train a new generation of health informatics professionals, as well as engaging actively in research to invent the tools of tomorrow.
2. What are the major challenges in your field?
Lack of resources, lack of support and interest for research, but also lack of accountability and complacency.
3. What is your top management tip?
Express your vision clearly and don't try to do too much at a time, you'll face major push back. Progress step by step and stay the course.
4. What would you single out as a career highlight?
Reaching a leadership position that has allowed me to craft and implement a vision and strategy for my department. It is so rewarding when you see it working.
5. If you had not chosen this career path you would have become a...?
Diplomat.
6. What are your personal interests outside of work?
Visual arts - mainly painting, travelling, hiking.
7. Your favourite quote?
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination (Albert Einstein).
A dual citizen of Canada and France, Professor Koff attained his medical degree and diagnostic radiology qualification at Rene-Descartes University Paris V, France. He began his radiology career in 1982 as Radiologist at the Partner Centre d'Imagerie Medical de Creil, Oise, France, where he expanded the service, and developed innovative delivery and partnership models.
Having worked in France on image exchange over the Internet and wavelet compression solutions, he wanted to bring these products to market. As Europe was not ready at this time for this type of solution, he moved to North America. Following his move to Canada in 1998, he founded Easy Pax, Inc.
Dr. Áine Carroll - National Director, HSE
Dr. Aine Carroll, MB, BCh, MD, FRCP, FRCPI is the National Director, Clinical Strategy and Programmes Division of the Health Service Executive Directorate in the Republic of Ireland. We recently posed our 7 Questions to Dr. Carroll.
1. What are your key areas of interest and research?
Clinicians in leadership and management, implementation science, computer-brain interfaces and disability; the opportunities for technology in facilitating participation and cost effectiveness of rehabilitation
2. What are the major challenges in your field?
Apart from obvious financial challenges, the biggest challenge is the increasing life expectancy and the increased incidence of non-communicable diseases and the need to reverse flow out of hospital and into the community. We also need to be braver and support older people at home as independently as possible and think more about quality of life rather than quantity of life.
3. What is your top management tip?
Be kind and be an active listener.
4. What would you single out as a career highlight?
Seeing patients exceed their personal rehabilitation goals.
5. If you had not chosen this career path you would have become a…?
I have never wanted to be anything else but a doctor, apart from a brief notion of being an astronaut when I was around 7 years old.
6. What are your personal interests outside of work?
Spending time with my family, my children, gardening, reading and currently, researching my grandfather’s army career in the First World War.
7. Your favourite quote?
“Be the change you want to see” - Ghandi
Originally from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Dr. Áine Carroll studied medicine at Queens University in Belfast and did a postgraduate MD at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne. She completed her higher specialist training in Rehabilitation Medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne and came to work in Dublin in 2005.
Dr. Carroll is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, and was formerly Chair of the Medical Board of the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Republic of Ireland. She is also a former President of the Irish Association of Rehabilitation Medicine and Senior Clinical Lecturer, University College Dublin.
In her current role as the National Director, Clinical Strategy and Programmes Division of the Health Service Executive Directorate in the Republic of Ireland, Dr. Carroll’s focus is on the consolidation of the achievements of the programmes to date by supporting regional and local teams with implementation to ensure effective changes. programmes is to improve individual specialty delivery and to promote integrated care and team work across services and specialties.
