Healthcare Change Makers

As Vice President, Medical Affairs & System Transformation and Lead Medical Executive at Women's College Hospital (WCH), Dr. Cindy Maxwell leads with optimism and intention.

Her throughline remains steady in all her work – promoting women's health, ensuring care is advanced equitably, and considering communities that experience disparities.

"Black communities, Indigenous communities, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities are groups that experience healthcare differently than other members of our overall population. There are so many things that we can do to enhance and improve that care if we do it together," Dr. Maxwell shares.

On the note of doing things together, she offers great insight into what we can do today to address longstanding health disparities in Black communities.

Dr. Maxwell also lets us in on a project she's co-leading – WCH's landmark Black Health Plan, the first of its kind for an Ontario hospital.

Quotables:

"The Black Health Plan is really a demonstration of our commitment to the health of Black communities and to foster and sustain meaningful partnerships with Black communities." – C.M

"At Women's (WCH) we're really committed to health equity, and in particular to uplifting and supporting the care of several communities who experience disparities and inequities in their healthcare." – C.M

"It's very important that with the creation of such programing and implementation of plans that Black communities be part of that process and that determination." – C.M

"There's a great need for more health data as it relates to Black Canadians… how that data is collected, how it's organized, stored, and reported upon." – C.M"I always feel that staying optimistic is not really an option, it's something that's deeply entrenched in my soul. I think it's partly because of the positive energy I feel around me." – C.M

"I recognize there are a lot of very challenging things in our society right now, in our health system, and in particular in women's health… so maintaining that optimism and forward future thinking I think is especially important right now." – C.M

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Mount Sinai Hospital
• Toronto Academic Health Science Network
• Women's College Hospital (WCH)
• WCH Black Health Plan
• Ontario Health Black Health Plan
• Black Women's Healthcare Summit
• WCH Community Voices
• HIROC's Strategic Plan

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

When the pandemic hit, Dr. Shazma Mithani and Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe came together as creators to launch The Doc Talk Podcast. A guiding principle through the podcast and their work in emergency and family medicine, has always been addressing misinformation and supporting Canadians in navigating the healthcare system.

Through our conversation, you'll hear how they hold space for their patients, whether that's in emergency medicine or family practice. We talk about what it means to be racialized women in healthcare. Finally, we ask them about managing work, life and family pressures… and when they sleep.

And, if you know the HIROC Comms Team, you know we're big fans of the HBO series The Pitt. It turns out Shazma and Sheila are equally big fans, so we pick their brains about how the show pulls back the curtain on healthcare workers and the realities they face.

Quotables:

"So being a woman in healthcare is challenging to begin with, but then being a racialized woman in medicine adds that extra layer. And I think that seeing the injustices that my patients faced, and then being able to relate to them at different intersections is really what made me feel compelled to continue to advocate for good healthcare and for equity in medicine." – S.M.

"Even though I couldn't necessarily put it into words, I understood very early that how people are treated by the healthcare system matters as much as the medicine itself." – S.W.

"You can have a platform, and it doesn't mean very much unless you're willing to use it for those who may not have that same access or power to use it." – S.W.

"I think that's what people will remember. They'll remember when Shaz comes down to their level and holds their hand through a diagnosis; they'll remember the extra minute that was spent. It's hugely impactful and therapeutic." – S.W.

"I love The Pitt… as an ER doctor, it is such an accurate portrayal of how challenging, chaotic, but still beautiful the work is." – S.M.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Dr. Shazma Mithani
• Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe
• The Doc Talk Podcast
• St. Michael's Hospital: Family Health Team
• Royal Alexandra Hospital: Alberta
• Stollery Children's Hospital: Alberta
• Women's College Hospital
• HIROC
• HIROC's Strategic Plan – The Art of Safety
• The Doc Talk Podcast: Dr. Jacob Lentz (Medical Advisor on The Pitt)
• The Doc Talk Podcast: Fiona Dourif (Dr. McKay, The Pitt)
• HBO's The Pitt
• Noah Wyle

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

As CEO of Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, Glen Chow's core focus is providing care that's deeply rooted in cultural understanding. He and his team believe seniors should be seen for who they are, what matters to them, and what gives them comfort.

At Yee Hong, care is adapted to cultural identity instead of expecting seniors to adapt to the organization.

Glen's leadership style while guiding this level of care is built on two major pillars: embracing change and constant improvement.

He believes that improvement isn't a project, it's a way of thinking – which means staying curious and looking for opportunities within change.

On this episode, we hear about how Glen's leadership style has evolved where he empowers others to have a hand in strategy, Yee Hong's expansion in the community, and even how his love for Formula 1 inspires his leadership.

Quotables:

• "I've always believed in leading in a really open, collaborative, people focused way. I'm very comfortable on occasion saying I don't have all the answers, I can't do this alone." – G.C
• "The best decisions come from bringing the right people together, hearing different perspectives, and taking shared ownership of the direction that's agreed on." – G.C
• "Empowerment has to come with accountability. People have to own both the action and the outcome." – G.C
• "Good strategy only matters if people can execute it. Strategy can't just sit in some document and belong only to senior people, it has to be pervasive."
• "People need to understand where we're going, how their work contributes and why it matters. I find when people have that context along with the support…they can act and the results follow." – G.C
• "Constantly looking for ways to improve or enhance something should be part of your normal mindset." – G.C
• "Improvement isn't a project, it's a way of thinking." – G.C
• "Culturally appropriate care isn't an added feature, it's a really core focus and central to how we build out trust." – G.C

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care
• Formula 1
• Toto Wolff
• Zak Brown

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Nova Scotia Health's Dr. Nicole Boutilier brings great optimism to the system. In all that she shares about their work, Dr. Boutilier reminds us why it's important to understand our true north.

Dr. Nicole Boutilier is known at Nova Scotia Health as Executive Vice President, Medicine and Clinical Operations, but she is so much more to the system at large. In her work, Dr. Boutilier dedicates herself to coaching, and developing strong partnerships across the sector.

On this episode of Healthcare Change Makers, Dr. Boutilier shares her excitement around how research and AI will shape the future for the province, and the work they've been doing to open Nova Scotia up to innovation.

Dr. Boutilier also shares many nuggets of wisdom around coaching and bringing people along, so they are as connected to the work as you are.

What keeps Dr. Boutilier and her team focused is remembering how what they do ultimately impacts their community, friends, and family. Looking back on her 30-year career, Dr. Boutilier says what makes it worthwhile is seeing how all the little pieces come together over time.

Listen to this episode if you need a dose of optimism for what you have today, and what's to come.

Quotables:

"You cannot make changes in healthcare without engagement and collaboration amongst many people." – NB

"You really have to think about why you're saying no, and how to get to yes." – NB

"Partnerships are the only way you get there, there is no other way." – NB

"With coaching you learn as much as you actually assist." – NB

"As a coach you say you want to hold people capable, and people are capable… you just need to give them the opportunity." – NB

"There are not always immediate payoffs for things that you do, it's not like other industries… I can look back now over a 30-year career and see all the little pieces. And it makes it worthwhile every day." – NB

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Dr. Nicole Boutilier
• Nova Scotia Health
• Royal Roads University
• 2026 Chris Carruthers Excellence in Medical Leadership Award Winner
• Whistler: Ann Patchett

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Dr. Vera Etches asks herself, "How do we make sure we're supporting children to have a good start in life and the best lives they can live?", to help guide her work as President and CEO of Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

This question is Vera's north star when leading initiatives such as CHEO's Integrated Treatment Centre. Set to open in 2028, this new building will join different teams and programs to support children and families in meeting their goals.

With this guiding principle, Vera and her team have also successfully reduced Emergency Department (ED) wait times at CHEO over the past year.

On this episode, we hear about what Vera has learned so far in her role, the value of fostering partnerships, and details around CHEO's Integrated Treatment Centre and ED flow.

Quotables:

• "Coming into a new sector, the hospital sector, it definitely felt like I needed to do a lot of listening to really build my own understanding and hear directly from people… what is their experience like, what are they seeing?" – V.E
• "We are here for the children, the youth, and their families, and people are so motivated." – V.E
• "Because it's about children, it's extremely special work that can make a difference for the population's health long-term for the future generations. I'm happy to be able to focus on this." – V.E
• "There's a whole journey before the ED so it's about trying to make sure parents can find information, videos, accessible tools and tips about when to come into the ER." – V.E
• "The people we need to hear from are those who have the greatest barriers to access, who are going to show up later, presenting with more worrisome situations." – V.E
• "If the system is working better for people who are living in poverty, it will be working better for everyone." - V.E
• "Be patient, give yourself grace, lay those foundations of relationships." – V.E

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
• Dr. Penny Sutcliff
• Dr. Isra Levy
• Children's Healthcare Canada
• Hindia Mohamoud
• Tommy Douglas

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Peterborough Regional Health Centre's Dr. Lynn Mikula, President and CEO, and Evan Lyons, EVP, Digital Services, Strategy & Transformation and CIO, help us understand how to initiate and sustain delivery around Artificial Intelligence (AI).

They value building a solid foundation around data first and then using AI as a lever to build on what's created.

When it comes down to it, partnerships are key. Lynn and Evan feel strongly that no healthcare organization should figure out AI alone. Healthcare organizations are facing many of the same problems within the same system, so we should leverage the opportunity to go further together.

On this episode, we embrace this idea of doing it together, discussing how organizations can navigate, adopt, and adapt to this technology.

Quotables:

• "We need to be helping each other because it [AI] is a vast and a little bit of an alarming topic, it is constantly changing, none of us can see that far ahead of where it's going next." - L.M
• "I believe this technology has the potential to be deeply transformative in healthcare, deeply disruptive. Some of it will be good, some of it will be bad, a lot of it we don't understand yet. So, let's work together." – L.M
• "If you try to do something yourself without understanding the data first, it would be an inappropriate or incomplete use case." – L.M
• "The efficiencies to be gained exist in the lessons learned from other organizations who are trying to solve similar problems." – E.L
• "The early innovations are great, it's good for exploration, but really what we want to see is sustained delivery of these solutions at scale and that's where that 'together' mandate is really important." – E.L
• "The real value isn't in the technology as a standalone item. It's in the shared learning of how to apply that technology for a specific desired outcome." – E.L

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Peterborough Regional Health Centre
• HIROC's Strategic Plan – The Art of Safety
• Patagonia
• Pixar

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Francis opens up about how his experiences as a newcomer to Canada and a trained mediator shaped his leadership philosophy, emphasizing that listening is a foundational skill all leaders must intentionally practice.

Creating a culture of trust means creating a space for staff, partners, and community members to share their perspectives, and through this, his organization has been able to design services that truly reflect the needs of the community they serve.

From launching programs that address inequities to building a vibrant Learning Hub that fosters intergenerational knowledge exchange and ideation, Francis illustrates how empowering communities can unlock innovation and lasting change that include perspectives from all walks of life.

He also offers several great lessons for leaders:

• How the community can be considered a library of assets, and organizations should open their doors to invite those assets in
• Resist the temptation to do everything alone, as many successful programs can originate from community ideas and collaborations with partners
• How trust, integrity, and respect are non-negotiable values

Our conversation also explores how Durham Community Health Centre approaches care through a person-centered lens, addressing not only clinical needs but also social determinants of health such as food security, connection, and access to services.

Francis also highlights the importance of partnerships and a shared purpose, including collaborations with organizations like Lakeridge Health and Queen's University, to strengthen community-based healthcare.

Quotables:

"Listening is a muscle that you have to exercise. The power of listening is more effective than the ability to open my mouth and speak." – FG

"Everything anchors on trust. Whether it's integrity or respect, one has to trust you. To me, my word is my contract." – FG

"The saying 'culture eats strategy for breakfast' is the ability to be able to say I might need to unlearn and relearn, so that I'm able to appreciate where these services we are developing or going to land, and which voices are missing in that." – FG

"The community is a library of assets. Learn to open your doors for those community members to come and pour into that cup. Once you do that, you continuously become a hub of innovation. To leaders who might be listening: Resist the temptation to do it all." – FG

"It is a moment of pride when you see the power of engaging and the power of partnership, as well as the power of listening. And again, I will say intentional listening, not listening because we had a solution, but wanting to know that which we didn't know, so that we can know what we don't know." – FG

"That means engaging our teams, that are working day-to-day on the front lines, to make sure the culture of listening and design, or co-designing with those who receive your services, is crucial. By doing that, we are perpetuating a culture that allows the community to buy in, but also owning the design and implementation." – FG

"When you walk around our organization, you hear my team talk about 'How do we empower the community? How do we build capacity in the community?' When we do it right, that individual becomes a magnet of support to the next person, and continuously in that way." – FG

"What does the real person want from here day-to-day to be able to sustain themselves? And how do we make sure that those needs are not one size fits all? That element of understanding that the community comes in different shapes. But when we look at the person, we need to look from top to bottom, and totally appreciate of them as a human being with different needs is crucial to this part." – FG

"Our Learning Hub has seniors that come in to knit and crochet, and also a group of youths from high schools that will share their digital and technical know-how. So, there's an intergenerational information exchange, skills that are being exchanges across these two different segments of the population, which actually happens to really bring the old traditional ways that knowledge used to be passed." – FG

Mentioned this Episode:

• Durham Community Health Centre
• Peter Drucker
• Obliquity by John Kay
• Lakeridge Health
• Queen's University
• Durham College
• Durham District School Board
• Hon. Sylvia Jones
• Walk with a Doc, Dr. David Sabgir
• Telus Health

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Sue Graham-Nutter, CEO of The Rekai Centres, and her entire team are hard at work developing a new long-term care home in downtown Toronto, the Cherry Place Campus of Care. The heart of this new Campus is innovation, and the collective input from the community and their partners.

While leading this major construction project, Sue reaffirmed the value of relationships with organizations such as HIROC, the Ministry of Long-Term Care, the City of Toronto, and many others.

We hear about The Rekai Centres' Rainbow Wing and how it's addressing the need for community for 2SLGBTQI+ seniors.

Sue also weaves in stories of her family and friends and reminds us to listen to our inner Little Engine That Could – to believe in ourselves when things get tough.

Quotables:

"Just because there isn't an existing program, doesn't mean you can't put together a proper business plan and achieve your goal. But there has to be a business plan with everyone's goals realized."– S.G.N

"I think it's also important that people keep on top of the news, not just one news source but multiple news sources, so one has a full perspective on what's going on in the world around them and the opportunities to make a difference in society." – S.G.N

"Input can come from anywhere when you're building something and trying to be innovative." – S.G.N

"We didn't know HIROC pre-COVID, but HIROC was there for us when we were moving our insurance operationally and we wanted to make sure we had an insurance company that could protect the corporation if there was another pandemic… So, I think it's really the relationships that are so key." – S.G.N

"It's good to see everyone pulling together to support our seniors who built this country for us." – S.G.N

"… Insurance is very important operationally, but also during construction because construction is not for the faint of heart. So, it's good to have a partner in insurance who is there when you have a question, when you wonder – what do I do here?" – S.G.N

"I was fortunate to have a family that provided me with that confidence, so now in the workforce I try to provide the confidence and support to people that I think can do more than they think they might be able to." – S.G.N

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Barbara Michalik
• Brian Pollard
• Building Ontario Fund
• Catherine Gaulton
• City of Toronto
• Dr. Paul Rekai
• Harvard University
• HIROC
• HIROC's Strategic Plan – The Art of Safety
• Humber Polytechnic
• Hon. Natalia Kusendova-Bashta
• Infrastructure Ontario Real Estate
• Lester Braithwait
• Ministry of Long-Term Care
• Peter Bethlenfalv
• Peter Rekai
• The Rekai Centres
• Taylor Swift
• Toronto Metropolitan University
• University of Toronto

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Research analyst, communications expert, event planner, and video editor – these are just some of the many hats worn as a knowledge broker. Renira Narrandes, Knowledge Translation (KT) Program Manager at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and her entire team carry a diverse skillset to share and implement evidence that's beneficial, easy to access and understand.

On this episode, Renira helps us understand KT better by breaking down what it is, what makes it unique, and how storytelling fits into it. Renira also shares the difference between KT and communications, a question she's often asked.

We at HIROC loved learning how integral partnering, as well as sharing and scaling knowledge are to KT. These are, of course, essential to HIROC's work in partnering to create the safest healthcare system.

In HIROC's Community Corner article series, we take this conversation to the next level. Our latest article features the entire KT team at SickKids to learn about their program's success and how they're advancing healthcare safety. Read the full article: https://www.hiroc.com/news/community-corner-filling-gap-knowledge-translation

Sustainability and shelter, with a good dose of innovation. These are the words that come to mind when Catherine thinks about HIROC and the past year. It is her hope that for Subscribers, when things feel in flux, HIROC is viewed as that calm place in the storm.

Catherine and Philip tease HIROC's new strategic plan "The Art of Safety", which is launching in January 2026. Spoiler alert: topics like cyber, perinatal, education, and accessible data are featured heavily in the new plan.

We talk about Catherine's roots and the lessons she carries with her from her father, especially around there being no limitations to what his kids could do. For Catherine, it's about asking, "What's stopping you?" when things get tough.

In the spirit of the holidays, it's a true family episode as Catherine's son Thomas also stops in at the studio for a chat. We learn a lot about Catherine from talking with him – including some of what makes her a classic Newfoundlander.

Thomas uses the word "perseverance" to describe his mom. From all of us at HIROC, we concur.

So, we'll leave this as our challenge to all of you as we head into 2026… what's stopping you?

Quotables:

"I think when things are really so volatile, [when] they're so hectic, that you look for a calm place in the storm. And I would hope that while we [HIROC] are always changing in order to meet Subscribers' needs, that we're also viewed as that place in the storm." – CG

"I am always surprised by just the unequivocal devotion that we have here [at HIROC] to Subscribers." – CG

"This past year in our annual Subscriber Engagement Survey, we asked Subscribers to rank HIROC's Value Drivers. And the top five chosen by them, by our Subscribers, were expertise, responsiveness, risk reduction, price, and quality." – PD

"These values and these drivers for Subscribers are the cornerstone of where we start from as we develop strategic plans, as we do operational planning for the organization." – CG

"I have conversations every year with a whole cross-section of leaders across the country and they are driven entirely by: what's your context now that we should know, and what can we be doing more of, better in." – CG

Mentioned in this Episode:

- Catherine Gaulton

- HIROC's Risk Management Residency Program

- HIROC

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].