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Dr Mike Tremblay PhD

The ‘skinny’

My background is in healthcare and biomedical sectors, with a focus on better decision making, including on the use of technology in healthcare. Some examples:

  • applying digital technologies to reform and rethink traditional ways of working
  • designing novel organisations, and domain spanning solutions
  • intellectual property and research for commercialisation of IP
  • role of academic health science centres and education of health professionals for the future
  • practical investment and strategies for market access, value-based market positioning of medicines
  • patient experience and clinical workflow to improve standard of care
  • public policy advising in health policy, technology policy, medicines policy, higher education policy, patients’ rights, research policy, commercialisation and financing policy.

My Masters work focused on applications of mathematical logic to reasoning in the absence of discrete choices (boundary logic). My doctoral work examined the role and purpose of universities as knowledge organisations. I added applied psychology to my doctoral work to better understand how we frame our strategic objectives, the models we build to capture our objectives and the measures we use to assess success.

Brief Bio

I have international experience on how healthcare systems work with a bias toward decision making, including foresight work to enable forward projection of decisions.

Today, machine learning and artificial intelligence is a key component of how we deliver healthcare. I have experience in development of solutions that demonstrate how it will transform patient experience of care and clinical workflow.

Clients have included: governments, intergovernmental agencies, European Commission , Council of Europe, pharmaceutical and device companies, information technology companies, academic health science centres and vertical/horizontal integration of service providers.

I have mapped the patient journey (first contact and on) to assess quality drivers, impact of new medicines and technologies and structure of clinical and managerial decisions.

I developed the pharmaceutical safety chain to solve the problem of criminal penetration of the medicine supply chain through counterfeit drugs..

Management

  • Entrepreneurial ventures

I have been a co-founder of a number of startups in healthcare and life sciences. My focus has always been to ensure that these businesses had integrity to address compelling and important challenges. This is in addition to my establishing Cassis Limited, as a specialist health and life sciences consultancy.

  1. Founding director and chief scientific officer at Volv Global SA, Switzerland. This is an artificial intelligence startup with a focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence for healthcare and life sciences applications. I left the company when it was acquired.
  2. Founding director, Eden Communications, UK, and Living Health. With colleagues, I launched the world’s first digital and interactive health TV channel, “Living Health”. The channel received a number of awards for innovation. We also developed the first “health seeking behaviour”, and health consumer patient segmentation framework based on these behaviours.
  3. Director, Sultan Scientific, Malta. This was a life sciences investment advisory focused on research commercialisation and investment development focused on expanding the economic impact of the life sciences sector and create a new pillar of the economy, and to help launch a science park.
  4. Founding Director, Access Excellence, UK. The company explored new approaches to national procurement of generic medicines.

I have advised a number of startups and early stage companies, including HealthXChange, Pulse Signal Technology, ComMedica and others.

I also have experience as a board member of non-profits and charities and leading hospital governance for board member development.

  • Hamilton Health Sciences academic health science centre and McMaster University

Direct hospital experience began as head of a department focused on improving the quality of clinical services at a major academic health sciences centre at McMaster University in Canada. My work supported clinical leaders, hospital management and worked with all hospital departments (clinical and support) to enhance clinical outcomes and optimise resource utilisation. Challenges ranged from acute pain management to reducing clinical accidents.

The work here was important to my understanding of clinical workflow and patient experience, as well as having the opportunity to work with a wide range of high performing health professionals.

I worked at McMaster University in university administration where I had the opportunity to work on challenges of academic management. While there I co-authored a report on access to higher education institutions for people with disabilities. The report was influential, and started efforts at universities across Canada to address administrative barriers, and academic indifference.

Academic and Research 

  • Research Fellow at the University of Kent and Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK

I currently hold a research fellowship at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK with a focus on health services research. I hold a doctorate from the University of Toronto, where I specialised in public policy and applied psychology.

Extensive contract research has been undertaken for a variety of clients to contextualise research with real world problems. As a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, I undertook research on health policy decision making and priority setting, hospital strategy and management and leadership. I was involved in many of the developments as the UK’s NHS implemented the internal market and managed competition. I conducted hospital performance assessments for the NHS and on clinical commissioning. I also advised on European health policy-making for the European Commission on rare diseases policy, pollution-related diseases policy and cross-border healthcare policy. I also developed and ran the first systematic course on EU health policy competencies in Brussels. I also undertook post-graduate study of European law.

At Birmingham, I held leadership roles as Associate Dean of Medicine, Deputy Director Public Service MBA, Director Masters in Health Quality Management (quantitative methods / operational research).

Prior to that, as a director at Hamilton Health Sciences academic health science centre, I tutored in the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University: “health policy”, “epidemiology” and “quality of work life” and worked to apply research findings to solve critical problems in clinical workflow.