Kate Fagan Taylor brings extensive experience to physician-led organization designed to improve patient and health outcomes
VANCOUVER, November 16, 2016: The Health Data Coalition – a BC physician-led initiative that aggregates patient data from individual physician practices, across disparate Electronic Medical Record systems – is pleased to announce the appointment of Kate Fagan Taylor as its first Executive Director effective immediately.
Fagan Taylor was selected from among 300+ applicants from BC and across North America. In this new role, she will support the HDC Board during its transition from start-up to full-fledged operations, and in establishing the HDC solution throughout the province and beyond.
Canadian provinces and international jurisdictions are initiating a powerful push in the direction of a Health Quality Agenda. Established to enable quality improvement in primary care and support a learning health system, the HDC was formed with the support of BC’s General Practices Services Committee and the Doctors of BC. An independent not-for-profit organization, the HDC is governed by physicians, for physicians and their medical care partners across British Columbia.
“This is a unique opportunity to make a significant impact in the lives of physicians, the BC healthcare system, and ultimately patients,” said HDC Board Chair, Dr. Bruce Hobson. “We’re thrilled to have someone of Kate’s calibre join us to help advance our shared goals of creating a learning culture by providing secure access to comparative data in a cost effective, transparent and inclusive approach that could spread across Canada.”
Added Fagan Taylor: “This position will be a creative opportunity, and I know I will enjoy the entrepreneurial leadership required. I appreciate the grass-roots nature of this enterprise, and the passion and vision of service expressed by the HDC board. A key to success for me will be to help the HDC be recognized as a leading organization which uses data to serve physicians and patients, rather than the other way around.”
Fagan Taylor’s background includes leadership in not-for-profit sector leadership, post-secondary administration, and public service in the BC provincial government. Most recently, she provided leadership for corporate governance and policy across the BC public sector as Executive Director of the Crown Agencies Resource Office at the BC Ministry of Finance. Before that, she led executive talent management and development for the BC Public Service Agency, and led strategic projects at the BC Ministry of Health and the BC Ministry of Advanced Education.
Before joining the BC Government, Kate served as Assistant University Secretary at the University of Victoria, responsible for governance and policy for the university. Previously, Kate spent seven years as University Chaplain, shortly after achieving her Masters of Divinity from the University of Notre Dame. Kate’s experience in not-for-profit organizations include serving the Executive Director of the Queenswood Society, a social venture with a focus on supporting wellness for caregivers.
About the Health Data Coalition
The HDC technology aggregates patient level data from individual physician practices, across disparate EMR systems, to support self-reflective practice and facilitate system change using coaching support and small learning groups. Building on the work of its founding organizations (AMCARE and the Physicians Data Collaborative), the HDC is unifying the technical assets of the two entities to create a robust, reliable, flexible solution to enable clinician data contributors and their clinical support staff to engage in quality improvement, continuous learning and collaborative research.
The technology is open source licensed, reflecting the community-building spirit of the HDC. By building upon the AMCARE and PDC applications, the HDC has already produced a production-ready aggregate data viewer that is set to contain the aggregated data for over 250,000 citizens by early next year.
For more information on Kate Fagan Taylor, please view her bio.