Management Team

Sam Ozersky, A.B., MD, FRCP(C), CEO and President
Sam is Mensante’s founder and CEO. In 2008, the Canadian Association of Heath Informatics selected Dr. Sam Ozersky as recipient of the 2008 Community Based Physician Innovation Award for developing FeelingBetterNow®. The award was presented by the Canadian Medical Association. He is the Senior Consultant at the Toronto Hospital Mood Disorders Clinic. He is an expert in occupational psychiatry and has designed a mental health disability management system for a Fortune "Top Ten" company. He speaks and writes extensively about the critical relationship between mental health and the workplace. The focus of his concern is in developing information distribution systems that enable patients and physicians to benefit from state of the art psychiatric expertise usually found in university psychiatry clinics.

Patricia Carlson LLB, Executive Vice President and COO
Patty has served in a variety of executive capacities in the public sector as a government policy consultant, as a university professor and in the private sector as a practitioner of business and corporate law in both the U.S. and Canada. She has served on several charitable boards including California's Sonoma County AIDs Network, which selected Patty for its prestigious Exemplary Service Award. She was a founding member of both the Canadian Organization of Women and the Canadian Legal Education Action Fund. Patty is the author of several policy papers and has spoken at several lecture series, including the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice. Patty joined Mensante as COO in 2006 and was recently named Executive Vice President. 

John McLaughlin, BBA,  Vice President Corporate Development
Through Treasury Technologies International Inc, John provides strategic and financial counsel to boards of directors and senior executives.  He is a director of several public and private corporations, including the SIR Royalty Income Fund, a public fund listed on the TSX.  John is co-founder and Director of CEM Benchmarking Inc. a performance measurement company serving 250 global pension funds. He has published several articles, taught finance at York University's Schulich School of Business and has lectured on Treasury Management at the American Graduate School of International Management. John is a graduate of Ryerson University in Industrial Engineering Technology and of the Schulich School of Business Administration. He received the ICD.D designation from the Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto and the Institute of Corporate Directors - Corporate Governance College.

Sagar Parikh, MD, FRCP(C),  Medical Director      
Sagar is Deputy Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the University Health Network Toronto, and director of Continuing Mental Health Education at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as Professor of Psychiatry. He was formerly Deputy Clinical Director of Mood and Anxiety Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Clarke Institute), where he headed the Bipolar Clinic and where he continues as Director of CME. He is the author or editor of two books and over ninety peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. His research includes clinical studies in mood disorders, genetics, biochemical psychiatry, education research, and health services research.   A prolific speaker, he has presented at over 400 CME events and been the course director for over 100 programs. His teaching has won him local and international awards for excellence, particularly in mental health for primary caregivers.

Marion Lyver, MD, FRCP(C), FCFP(C), Dip. ABEM, CPHIMS, Vice President Health Informatics
Marion is a physician who has been involved in eHealth and HI projects since the 1990`s in Ontario and through CIHI and Canada Health Infoway, as well as private sector consulting projects addressing emergency, acute and primary care service issues and reform.  She holds elected or appointed leadership and/or governance roles nationally (Infoway Standards Collaborative) and internationally (ISO Technical Committee (TC) 215 Health Informatics) and current certifications as an emergency medicine specialist in both Canada and the US. Marion is an Associate Clinical Professor, McMaster University Faculty of Medicine and has been the recipient of awards recognizing her varied and valued contributions to healthcare and HI.

Don Thomson, B. Comm (Hons.), RHU. Vice President Marketing and Sales
Don draws on nearly two decades of progressive experience in business development, operations, product development, marketing and distribution in medical and financial services. Prior to joining Mensante in 2006, Don worked in a number of capacities which included  Executive Vice-President, Global Business Development,  President for Canada of a medical second opinion company,  Vice-President for one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies where he was responsible for the Individual Disability, Critical Illness, Major Medical and Long Term Care lines of business in Canada. He is the former head of the Reinsurer’s Global Knowledge Management Initiative for Individual Health Products, known as Living Benefits. Don has spoken at over 200 Canadian, American and Caribbean industry conferences and participated in roundtable discussions regarding the Romanow and Kirby Reports on the future of health care in Canada.