David Zitner

Expert Overview

Dr. David Zitner has participated at every level of Canadian health care including clinical practice, research, administration, governance and patient and professional education. He cared for patients in an active Nova Scotia family medicine practice that included obstetrics, emergency department care, and caring for hospitalized patients. He was a member of the Federal Provincial Territorial Deputy Ministers task force and co-author of their report titled "When Less is Better: Using Canada's Hospitals Efficiently". The report advised health organizations to use timely data about health outcomes and access to evaluate care and guide changes to clinical and administrative practice.

Subsequently, Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine recruited and appointed him as Professor and Founding Director of the Medical Informatics program. He continued clinical practice and was instrumental in starting the first Canadian graduate program in health informatics, a unique collaboration between the Faculties of Medicine, Management and Computer Science.

He served on the governing bodies of Accreditation Canada, the Canadian College of Family Physicians, and Doctors Nova Scotia. He was President of the Nova Scotia Chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. He served on the Health Economics Committee for the Canadian Medical Association and the Physician Advisory Committee to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. He advised the Federal Auditor General’s office as they attempted to develop a value for money audit of Canadian health information systems.

He was one of the Founding board members and an early investor and developer of Health Connex, a project of the Nova Scotia Cooperative Council. The software was sold to a national pharmacy chain.

Dr. Zitner publishes in the academic press, newspapers and magazines. He was a coauthor of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Fisher prize winning papers “Operating in the Dark” and “Definitely Not the Romanow Report”. His comments on health care including mental health have been published in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Canadian Medical Association Journal and Canadian Family Physician.

He recently completed a 3-volume book project with the late Dominic Covvey on "The Nature of Clinical Care" The first volume outlines the ideas that contribute to success and successful collaboration in clinical medicine. The second volume details important practical ideas in mental health and public health care. The soon to be released 3rd volume is a reflection on personalized health care.

The books describe the fundamental ideas in clinical care that are important for anyone, collaborating with clinicians, including journalists, lawyers, government health departments, and health system administrators, and for people who wish to actively participate in their owning in their own medical care.