Healthcare Change Makers

Welcome to Healthcare Change Makers, a podcast produced by HIROC. I’m Ellen Gardner with Philip de Souza. Today’s guest is Susan Bisaillon, CEO of The Safehaven Project for Community Living. Susan started her career in healthcare as a nurse in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, later moving west to St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto, then to UHN where she worked as a clinical nurse specialist and nurse manager in the CCU. She moved on to direct the Neuroscience Program and oversee Clinical...

Welcome to Healthcare Change Makers, a podcast produced by HIROC. I’m Ellen Gardner with Michelle Holden and Philip de Souza. Today we’re talking with Zayna Khayat and Will Falk. Zayna is Vice President, Client Success and Growth at Teladoc Health. Will is a Senior Fellow at the CD Howe Institute and has an appointment at the University of Toronto as an Executive-in-Residence at Rotman. Zayna and Will have collaborated in many different ways over the years and delight in wading into the...

Today we’re talking with Kathryn Nichol, who is President and CEO of VHA Home HealthCare. She stepped into the role in early 2021 after several years at VHA working as Vice President Quality, Best Practice, Research and Education. Our aging population, movement towards a community-based model of care, and the pandemic have put the spotlight on homecare like never before. For Kathryn, this has reinforced homecare’s crucial role in facilitating the flow of people out of hospital so they can...

Lisa Levin’s passion for seniors’ care started when she was just a child, watching her young and intelligent grandfather battle dementia. Today, as CEO of AdvantAge Ontario, Lisa and her team are the voice of not-for-profit seniors’ care, dedicated to supporting their members in creating the best possible aging experience. Again this year, HIROC and AdvantAge Ontario have come together to produce the Inspiring Impact podcast mini-series. This four-part series highlights several amazing...

Laura Tamblyn Watts believes that the future of seniors’ care is about taking a care-at-home approach, and reserving 24/7 long-term care for those who need it most. As CEO of CanAge, Laura works with long-term care operators, families, and caregivers to educate, inform, and advocate. Again this year, HIROC and AdvantAge Ontario have come together to produce the Inspiring Impact podcast mini-series. This four-part series highlights several amazing presenters at the 2022 AdvantAge Ontario...

When Denise Koster was asked to identify the body of one of her elderly clients 35 years ago, her life and career changed forever. Since then, Denise founded Koster Consulting & Associates in Toronto and has dedicated her life’s work to ensuring elder abuse never happens again with services such as abuse investigations, threat management, and mediation. Again this year, HIROC and AdvantAge Ontario have come together to produce the Inspiring Impact podcast mini-series. This four-part series...

Nadine Persaud and Dr. Amit Arya have a deep passion for seniors’ care that extends beyond healthcare facilities with their community work, advocacy, education, and so much more. You’ll be able to catch them presenting alongside their colleague Dr. Naheed Dosani at the 2022 Advantage Ontario Convention with a session titled “Adopting a Specialist Palliative Care Program in Your Home.” Again this year, HIROC and AdvantAge Ontario have come together to produce the Inspiring Impact podcast...

At HIROC, we recognize the critical importance of good governance in healthcare, and its impact on safe, quality care. What makes for a positive relationship between a senior leadership team and their Board? This year, we are digging deeper on Healthcare Change Makers and talking all about governing with impact. Today HIROC’s CEO, Catherine Gaulton, sits down with Krista Jangaard, President and CEO of IWK Health Centre and Catherine Woodman, IWK Board Chair. Krista and Catherine W. open...

Early in her leadership journey, Janice Kaffer, Former CEO of Hôtel-Dieu in Windsor, realized that you need people around you who think differently than you and have different skillsets. Building that kind of team resulted in better decisions, including those that weren’t always easy for Janice to make. Show Summary: Today we’re talking with Janice Kaffer, who up until early January was President and CEO of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor Ontario. She’s calling this time...

In a special year-end episode, HIROC’s CEO, Catherine Gaulton sits down with Philip De Souza, Director, Marketing and Communications. The two talk about the strong culture at HIROC, a culture of caring – caring about those we serve, and those they serve (patients and families). As a leader, Catherine knows how important it is to build in moments of fun, to ensure staff have an opportunity to breathe. When asked why people stay at HIROC, Catherine called on the notion of service to a greater...

At the 2021 HIROC Conference, we had the honour of hearing from Marni Panas, Program Manager of Diversity and Inclusion with Alberta Health Services (AHS). This episode is a recording of that incredibly information session, edited for length. While walking delegates through the work she and her team have done at AHS, Marni connected diversity and inclusion to patient safety and risk mitigation. Much of that work has meant collaborating with staff – involving them in policy, educational...

For this special edition of Healthcare Change Makers, HIROC is partnering with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) to bring you the voices of health leaders on the cutting edge of advancing emergent technologies in clinical practices. In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia about artificial intelligence (AI), automation in primary care, and what the future of healthcare could look like. Dr. Alarakhia is a family physician at The Centre for Family...

For this special edition of Healthcare Change Makers, HIROC has partnered with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) to bring you the voices of health leaders advancing emergent technologies in clinical practices. In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. Ervin Sejdić, Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Health Outcomes at North York General, and Faculty Member at the University of Toronto. An engineer by training, early on in his career Dr. Sejdić identified a...

Today we’re talking with Bruce Squires, President of McMaster Children’s Hospital and Vice President, Women’s and Children’s Health at Hamilton Health Sciences. In this episode, we talk to Bruce about preventable harm and his approach to turning the corner on patient safety. Bruce says it’s important to be explicit when talking about harm, sharing a realistic picture with clinical leads and teams. Like many leaders, Bruce is focused on health human resources. He speaks to the need to build...

Today we’re talking with Liben Gebremikael, the first Executive Director of TAIBU Community Health Centre in Toronto. He’s held the position since 2008. Liben is a social worker with over 25 years of experience in the primary healthcare sector, social services, and mental health field. TAIBU was created to meet the specific healthcare needs of the Black Community – and as it’s evolved, addresses all the social determinants of health including, education, income, lifestyle, and...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Tim Rutledge, President and CEO of Unity Health Toronto. Tim was previously President and CEO of North York General Hospital. Tim is a physician, trained in Emergency Medicine. He developed a strong interest in medical education early in his career and chaired the committee that developed the University of Toronto’s first undergraduate course in Emergency Medicine. From the earliest days of the pandemic, Unity Health put a strong emphasis on caring for and...

Today we’re talking with Carmine Stumpo, President and CEO of Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. Carmine joined Orillia Soldiers’ in 2018 after spending 21 years at Michael Garron Hospital in East Toronto. Even if one of his first acts as CEO was participating in a polar swim fundraiser, Carmine has warmed up to every element of running a community hospital. This spring he was proud to unveil the hospital’s five-year strategic plan under the banner “We Are One Community”. The pandemic...

For this special series, Voices Lifting the Community, HIROC is partnering with the Alliance for Healthier Communities to highlight the work of several of the presenters at their online primary healthcare conference in June. Today we’re talking with Kate Vsetula, Director of Community and Organizational Development at the Guelph CHC. One of the many programs Kate works on is ACEs which stands for adverse childhood experiences. Research has shown that those experiences are common and...

For this special series, Voices Lifting the Community, HIROC is partnering with the Alliance for Healthier Communities to highlight the work of several of the presenters at their online primary healthcare conference in June. Today we’re talking with Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director at Black Creek Community Health Centre and member of the Alliance Black Health Committee, and Joelleann Forbes, Mental Health Therapist at Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre. Early data of...

For this special series, Inspiring Impact, HIROC is partnering with AdvantAge Ontario to highlight the work of several of the presenters from their 2021 online education and networking event. Today we’re talking with one of the session presenters, Jennifer Cornell, Director of Long Term Care for the County of Grey. She moved into the position in 2019. During the tumultuous time that followed, she’s been fortified by the support of the Long Term Care community where leaders are encouraged to...