Dr. Alejandro Jadad
Chief Innovator and Founder, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and Professor, Departments of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Public Health Sciences and Anesthesia, University of Toronto
Dr. Jadad’s mission is to help improve health and wellness for all, through information and communication technologies (ICTs).
His research and innovation work focuses on interactive tools to promote knowledge translation and mentorship of health professionals and the public (with emphasis on self-management of chronic conditions) as well as online resources to support social networks, and enabling the public (particularly young people) to shape the health system and society.
Born in Colombia, he obtained his medical degree in 1986, specialising in anesthesiology. In 1990 he joined the University of Oxford, becoming one of the first physicians in the world with a doctorate in health knowledge synthesis. He also led the development of the most widely used tool to assess the quality of clinical trials (‘the Jadad scale’). His work helped fuel the development of the Cochrane Collaboration.
In 2000, Alex joined the University of Toronto, where he led the creation of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation. He is also spearheading the development of the Global eHealth and eWellness Network Initiative (GENI).
Dr. Jadad was the founding President of the Spanish eHealth Foundation enabling the creation of the Spanish eHealth Network and Revista eSalud - the leading journal and portal in the Hispanic world focused on eHealth. In 2005, he was invited by the World Health Organization to act as the representative for the American continent, sitting as a member of its Global Observatory for eHealth’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE).
Dr. Jadad has received numerous awards: In 2001 and 2002, Time Magazine featured him as one of the new Canadians who will shape the country in the 21st century, and as one of the leading medical researchers in the country. In 2004 he won the Canadian Latin Achievement Award and in 2005 he was selected by the Top 40 Under 40 alumni as one of “The Best of the Best” for achievements in Health and Science.
In 2007, he was invited by the British Medical Journal to author the article on the impact of computers on human health, which was published in a commemorative issue that featured the top 15 medical breakthroughs since 1840, when the journal was published for the first time.
In 2008, he published his first non-medical book (fifth in total), entitled Unlearning*, a guided tour through the evolution of the human mind, which ends with a view of the greatest challenges humans face at the dawn of the 21st century, and his own obituary.
