Dr. Anne Snowdon, BScN, MSc, PhD; Chair, International Centre for Health Innovation,
Richard Ivey School of Business.
An essay by Dr. Anne Snowdon

Dr. Anne Snowdon is Chair of the International Centre for Health Innovation at the Richard
Ivey School of Business. Located within The University of Western Ontario in Canada, the
Centre’s mandate is to build health system leadership capacity to support and drive innovation adoption of technologies, systems and processes that our health systems need in order to be sustainable.

Dr. Snowdon is an Adjunct Faculty member at Ivey and holds an Adjunct appointment in the
School of Nursing at McGill University in Montreal. She is also a Professor at the Odette School of Business and is cross-appointed to the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Windsor.

Dr. Snowdon holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Western Ontario,
a Master of Science from McGill University and a PhD in Nursing from the University of
Michigan. She is a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded the Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council Doctoral Fellowship for her research on parenting during childhood
hospitalization. Dr. Snowdon is also the Theme Coordinator for Automotive Health and Safety for Canada’s automotive research program, AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, and has commercialized innovative new safety seat products for occupants in vehicles as a result of this research program.

In addition to her expertise in health system leadership and innovation, Dr. Snowdon’s research also looks at the role of engaged consumers as agents of change and reform to health systems.

According to Dr. Snowdon, engaged patients who understand their role in the decision-making process and demand innovative treatments will better comply with the treatments prescribed for them. Dr. Snowdon’s first-hand experience as a health practitioner and as a researcher has led her to conclude that bottom-up demand-creation and greater involvement of patients in their treatment will drive change and force reform of the financial and system models of health care delivery around the world.