Meet the Guests

 Christine Elliott

Christine Elliott, former Ontario Minister of Health and Deputy Premier, is Counsel with the Fasken Health Law group in our Toronto office. With over 15 years of experience in public service, she is ideally positioned to assist clients with navigating existing and emerging complexities in the healthcare space.

During her tenure as Ontario’s Minister of Health from 2018 to 2022, Christine played an integral part in overseeing the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this role, she also sponsored The People’s Health Care Act and enacted the Connecting Care Act. The Connecting Care Act gave rise to Ontario Health, a Crown agency that merged the 14 Local Health Integration Network and other agencies including Cancer Care Ontario, Gift of Life Network, eHealth Ontario and HealthForce Ontario in order to facilitate integrated care delivery systems also known as local Ontario Health teams. Christine also served as Ontario’s Deputy Premier (2018 to 2022) and as Ontario’s first Patient Ombudsman (2016 to 2018).

Christine, along with her husband James Flaherty (Jim) was a founding partner of Flaherty, Dow, Elliott & McCarthy. Later, Christine and Jim co-founded Abilities Centre in Whitby, Ontario, which supports and celebrates the abilities of all people and is a place where everyone belongs, regardless of their challenges. In addition, she has held positions on a range of boards in the health care sector since becoming involved as a volunteer with several charities including the Lakeridge Health Whitby Foundation, Durham Mental Health Services, and Grandview Children’s Centre.

Christine graduated from the University of Western Ontario law school and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1980.

Ivy Parks

Corporate Photography by Mark Skalny 1-888-658-3686 www.markskalnyphotography.com

Ivy Parks serves as the President of BD-Canada (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company with the Canadian office in Mississauga, Ontario. 

Ivy brings extensive market experience to this position, having been with BD in Canada since 2000. Throughout her career, Ivy has taken on new challenges and roles that have provided her with a deep understanding of the Canadian landscape, specifically within acute care, alternate care, pharmacy and the laboratory, while working in collaboration with medical associations and partners.

Prior to her current role, Ivy served as the Vice President for the Integrated Diagnostic Solutions (IDS) business, Ivy collaborated with the federal and provincial governments and led the team responsible for successfully delivering millions of PCR tests, and rapid, point-of-care tests using the BD Veritor™ Plus System to Canadians, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ivy is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Medtech Canada and is an active member of the Corporate Advisory Council with the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL).

Ivy holds an honour Bachelor of Science degree from Western University in London, Ontario.

About This Episode

In this Episode we’re going to talk about current and emerging diagnostics technoglies, how they’re viewed by government leaders, and how we can encourage their optimal use.