Keynote Speakers

Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef - Director General, Hadassah Medical Organization

Nursing Challenges in a University Medical Center

Professor Mor-Yosef is the Director General of the Hadassah Medical Organization comprising two medical centers in Jerusalem. Previous to his current position, Professor Mor-Yosef was the Director General of the Soroka Medical Center of the Negev. Professor Mor-Yosef graduated from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in 1980, completing his OB/GYN specialization at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in 1987. He further specialized in GYN-Oncology at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Great Britain. Upon returning to Israel he served as a senior physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hadassah Medical Center, working in all related areas, but with special focus on cervical cancer. Having assumed the position of Deputy Director of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem in 1990, Professor Mor-Yosef focused on medical management. In 1994 he completed his studies at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where he received his Master’s degree in Public Administration. Upon returning to Israel in 1994, he assumed the post of Deputy Director General of the Hadassah Medical Organization. From 1996 – 1997 he served as Director of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Prof. Mor-Yosef has directed many medical education programs and was a fellow at the Harvard University Institute of Economics and Social Policy of the Middle East. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications and has served on the faculty of several universities and boards of various organizations and companies. Among his present responsibilities, Prof. Mor-Yosef is Chairman of Hadasit, the Technology Transfer Company of Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) and serves as Chairman of the Board of the Israel National Institute for Health Policy and Health Services Research. Professor Mor-Yosef served in the Israeli Defense Forces as commander of an Armored Advance Patrol Group, and after completing active service, served as a military physician with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Reserves) in the Medical Corps. He is married to Dina Mor-Yosef, and they have four children and three grandchildren.

Dr. Miriam Ines Siebzehner, PhD, MPA, RN - National Supervisor of Standards Implementation, Division of General Medicine, Medical Administration, Ministry of Health

An Intricate labyrinth in selecting health care technologies: dilemmas in decision making

Dr. Miri Siebzehner is a graduate of the Henrietta Szold Nursing School of Hadassah, Jerusalem. She holds an MA in Nursing from Tel Aviv University and an MA in Public Health Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She received her PhD in Health Management from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beer Sheba. She was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel in 1970.
Dr. Siebzehner pioneered work in research and development of medical technologies in Israel since the early 1990s, and has become an expert in health policy and health technology assessment. She has acquired her expertise both in Europe and in the United States. Dr. Siebzehner works in a leading executive position at the Ministry of Health and serves as the Deputy Director of The Israeli Center for Technology Assessment in Health Care at the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research. Dr. Siebzehner is the President of the Israel Nursing Research Association.
In the field of research, she promotes and designs studies in her area of expertise, and is actively involved as a member of professional research teams, applying her knowledge and skills to implement results. She has lectured in professional educational programs in Tel-Aviv University and for 20 years was a Consultant to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Division for International Cooperation on Health Issues for Latin America and selected African countries.
Dr. Siebzehner has received professional awards, such as The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and 3M, Israel award for outstanding professional achievements, the Ministry of Health outstanding employee award in recognition of highest level of individual excellence, and The Prime Minister Office Civil Service Commission outstanding governmental employee award in 2008.
Dr. Siebzehner is the author of professional articles in English, Spanish and Hebrew. She has published more than 30 articles in professional Israeli and international journals. She was also co-editor of the book Government and Health Systems - Implications of differing involvements, and collaborated on the book Community Health and Social Medicine published in Spanish. In addition, she is the Editor in Chief of the journal Israeli Nursing Updates and Reviews. She also is a member of various Israeli and international professional organizations, amongst others the Nursing Network of Latin America-REAL, HTAi-Health Technology Assessment International and was a fellow at the Harvard University Institute for Economics and Social Policy in the Middle East.

Tilda Shalof, Nurse and Author

Opening My Heart - A Journey From Nurse to Patient and Back Again

Since the 2004 publication of the national bestseller, A Nurse's Story (McClelland & Stewart) author Tilda Shalof has become an active and outspoken nurse leader. Through writing and public speaking, and drawing strength directly from her hands-on experience as a critical care nurse, Tilda is dedicated to explaining nursing to the public and to raising awareness of nursing's central role in health care and safety. She is passionate about helping nurses re-connect to the power and ideals of our profession and to inspiring nurses to be all that they can be. Tilda has traveled right across Canada and the United States, speaking to nurses of all specialties and in all practice settings, as well as to physicians, other health-care professionals, and members of the public. In 2007, Tilda released a second book, The Making of a Nurse. It charts the educational, intellectual, emotional and spiritual steps in her journey of becoming a nurse. In it, Tilda shares the professional and personal challenges, struggles and triumphs she has experienced along the way to become the nurse she aspired to be. Both of Tilda's books have become national bestsellers and have received wide critical acclaim right across North America and abroad. There is also a strong international following for her work: A Nurse's Story has been translated into French, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.

Gill Heaton - Director Of Patient Services/Chief Nurse, Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Transforming Healthcare Through Staff Engagement – Making it Happen

Gill Heaton is an Executive Director in one of the largest teaching hospitals in the United Kingdom. Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has an annual turnover of £700 million and a workforce of 8,500 staff. It is situated in Central Manchester, whose local population is complex and diverse in its ethnic make up with significantly high levels of deprivation. The Trust provides the full range of secondary services for its local population; however, its main focus is that of a tertiary teaching centre, which provides the full range of complex tertiary work, some of which is provided on a national basis. The Trust gained Foundation Trust status in January 2009. The Trust completed the relocation of 5 of its 6 hospitals in the summer of 2009 into a new state of the art £500M series of hospitals to create the largest and most comprehensive clinical academic campus in Europe. The Trust is made up of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, St. Mary’s Hospital for Women and Children, the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, University Dental Hospital and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Gill’s responsibilities are both professional and managerial; she has professional responsibility for the 3,000 Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals across the Trust, whilst having managerial responsibility for the delivery of the operational performance of the clinical divisions, which are 8 in total and account for £700M of the annual budget. Gill also has responsibility for the Patient and Public Involvement agenda across the Trust; she is the Executive Director responsible for Service Modernisation and Clinical Redesign and also retains the role of Director of Infection Prevention & Control (DIPC).In February 2007 she was designated as the Deputy Chief Executive. She has a track record of working in a number of large acute teaching and non teaching hospitals at Executive Director level with responsibility for delivering operational performance whilst focussing on the clinical redesign of services.

Gill’s professional background is that of a Nurse and Health Visitor, where she worked in a variety of areas within the acute teaching hospital including Surgery and Intensive Care, prior to moving into a public health role within Primary and Community care. Gill made her transition into management in the early 90s via the National Management Training Scheme. Gill is married with two daughters.Gill was awarded an OBE for Services to Nursing and Healthcare in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2010.

Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), O.ONT.

The Social Construction of Caring: An Inside Look at Nurses' Work

Doris Grinspun is the Chief Executive Officer of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), the professional association representing registered nurses in the province of Ontario. RNAO's mandate is to advocate for healthy public policy and for the role of registered nurses. Grinspun assumed this position in April 1996. From 1990 to 1996, Grinspun served as Director of Nursing at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. She has also worked in practice and administrative capacities in Israel and the United States. A native of Chile, Grinspun has an RN from Hadassah School of Nursing in Jerusalem, Israel; a baccalaureate degree from Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; an MSN in nursing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and completed her PhD at York University in North York, Ontario. Grinspun is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto; an adjunct professor at the School of Nursing, York University; an associate member of the Centre for Health Promotion at the University of Toronto; an affiliate member of the Centre for Health Studies at York University; and an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CERLAC) at York University. From 1996 to 1999, Grinspun was the Chair of the Acquired Brain Injury Network of Metropolitan Toronto, a network representing all publicly funded agencies. For the past two decades Grinspun has worked extensively on many international projects in Latin and Central America, China and most recently India. Grinspun has published and spoken extensively both in Canada and abroad. She is a forceful advocate of the Canadian health-care system and of the contribution of registered nurses to its success. Her expertise is in areas of health, nursing and workplace policies and practices. Grinspun has received numerous professional and scholarly awards. In 2003, Grinspun was invested with the Order of Ontario. The award was created in 1986 by the Government of Ontario to recognize the highest level of individual excellence and achievement in any field.