A-MEDICO Webinar Series: Who Does What Now? Understanding Alberta’s Restructured Health System

​Alberta’s health system has been significantly restructured, changing how the system is organized and how people engage with it. This session provides a high‑level overview to help orient participants to the current state, situate Alberta’s model relative to other jurisdictions, and highlight practical ways to navigate the system. The focus is on understanding the changes, building shared context, and orienting to who does what now.

​Speaker:
Dr. Tara Klassen, Innovation Lead, Surgical Care Alberta

​Speaker’s Bio:
Dr. Tara Klassen holds a Bachelor of Science from Brandon University and a PhD in Physiology, Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Alberta. She is an accomplished self-motivated translational scientist with >25 years of experience in developing and conducting health focused scientific research projects. With first author publications in Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Epilepsia and Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, she currently holds ~$12.5 million in grant funding at translating innovations across the research: operations interface.

​Tara has won multiple awards for her innovation, teaching, and research, including the Brandon University Inaugural Outstanding Young Alumni Award, the University of Alberta Excellence in Teaching Award, and the American Epilepsy Society Young Investigator Award, twice. In 2023, she was recognized by the Cumming School of Medicine with their Service to People and Partners award for her contributions as a health systems scientist.

​With the formation of Acute Care Alberta, Tara was appointed Innovation Lead for Surgical Care Alberta, where she leads the Evidence Decision Support Program (EDSP) and the Provincial Advisory Council on Device Innovation (PACODI). As your Innovation Lead for Alberta, she helps guide evidence-based decisions in the perioperative space across the province.