The Health Data Coalition (HDC) is a physician-led not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to enable data informed healthcare for physicians and the healthcare system. The HDC is pleased to announce Dr. Omesh Syal as its new Chair of the Board of Directors and Dr. Lawrence Yang as its new Vice-Chair, who will lead the organization to deliver a trusted source of community aggregate measures to improve patient care and population health.
Omesh began his work with the HDC Board in 2020 and has been a consistent leader, taking on officer roles and contributing to quality improvement projects using the HDC Discover application. Omesh grew up in Dawson Creek, BC and completed both medical school and family residency at UBC. He began practice in Prince George allowing him to stay close to the north. Dr. Syal has seen the importance of data collection, and its interpretation to implement change at the physician, community, and provincial levels. Early in his career, he was taught the importance of data collection to help run his practice more efficiently to improve patient care and has seen firsthand how data can affect change. As the Chair of the HDC, he is inspired to empower his physician colleagues with their own data insights, to nurture a physician-led movement to create change within his community and province.
Lawrence’s passion for quality improvement drew him to the HDC board in 2022, where he injected his Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) enthusiasm as the co-Chair of the Clinical Data Stewardship Committee. Lawrence followed his father into practice as a family physician in Surrey, where his panel consisted of many complex cases from the start. Over time he realized that no doctor is an island and that working with his colleagues on various Physician Quality Improvement projects was the route to successfully managing his patients and helping his community. During a PQI project, Lawrence discovered the powerful reflective tool that is HDC Discover. As the Vice-Chair of the HDC, Lawrence is well placed to continue to champion HDC and PQI as tools to better serve one’s patients, communities, and colleagues in an ever-evolving medical landscape.
HDC wishes to thank the outgoing Chair, Dr. Shirley Sze, who has stewarded the organization through a time of system change. We are grateful to Shirley for her service and dedication to this organization. HDC would also like to recognize outgoing Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Brenna Lynn, for her many contributions to the organization over the years. The roots these two outgoing board directors laid will support the organization’s growth in the coming years.