Qualitycast North

Behind nearly every patient in the health care system is an often-unseen family caregiver providing essential support. Their contribution is immense, yet remains largely invisible. When that support breaks down it affects health outcomes, care quality, and the system as a whole.

In this episode, we speak with Wendy Johnstone, Director of Programs and Innovation at Family Caregivers BC, about the vital but under-recognized role of family caregivers. We discuss the scale of their contribution, why their work and personal needs are so often overlooked, how support can make a difference, and what health care providers can do to recognize and support caregivers alongside their patients. If you have ever supported a family member through illness, this episode is for you.

Links:

Family Caregivers BC - Resources for Health-Care Providers

Hub: https://www.familycaregiversbc.ca/resources-for-health-care-providers/resources

Refer a family caregiver

Climate change was front and centre this past summer, from another severe wildfire season to record-breaking heat domes around the world. If these environmental threats leave you feeling helpless or anxious about the future, you’re not alone. 

In a Qualitycast North first, we explore planetary health and sustainable health care with Dr. Maura Brown, a radiologist at BC Cancer in Vancouver and a strong advocate for sustainability in medical imaging. D

Dr. Brown discusses the scale of health care’s carbon footprint, how quality improvement science can help teams and facilities bring a sustainability lens to their work, and practical ways to address climate anxiety. She also shares steps we can take today, this week, and this month to reduce our own carbon footprint. For anyone ready to take planetary health seriously, Dr. Brown offers the motivation to take that important first step.

Links:

Cascades Canada: 

Environment Sustainability in Radiology

Sustainable QI

Climate Communications: 

Katherine Hayhoe

Potential Energy Coalition: 

Nonprofit marketing and research group that focuses on planet-wide climate communication. They conduct advanced message testing and human-centered research to uncover the most effective ways to talk about climate change and drive public demand for solutions Potential Energy

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: 

TED Talk: How to Find Joy in Climate Action

EAT Lancet Commission: 

The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems

Shift – Action for pension wealth and planet health: 

Shift - Protect Your Pension and the Planet

As temporary rural emergency room closures become more common and the rural physician shortage continues, virtual physician support is increasingly important for keeping hospital doors open. The Rural Coordination Centre of BC has long been a leader in this area, offering a lifeline to rural emergency departments through its Virtual Emergency Room Rural Assistance program, or VERRa. 

In this interview, rural emergency physician Dr. Brydon Blacklaws shares the origins and evolution of VERRa, how the service works, where virtual support is most effective, and where its limits lie. We also explore the broader value of virtual support—from helping local physicians get much-needed rest, to providing an extra “virtual” pair of hands, to being present in the trauma room alongside rural doctors and nurses. Enjoy this heartfelt conversation as Brydon explains why providing virtual support can be just as rewarding as receiving it.

This week, we focus on a topic everyone can relate to: bad meetings. According to today’s guest, Jennifer Aitken, unproductive meetings can often be avoided with more forethought, clearer structure, and better preparation. 

Jennie is Director of Medical Staff Quality and Improvement for Island Health and a professional facilitator with the Sofia Group. In this interview, we explore why meetings often fall short, how anyone can strengthen their facilitation skills, the organizational value of better facilitation, and the rewards of helping groups reach those meaningful “aha” moments.

Links and resources:

The Sofia Group

Steven G. Rogelberg, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How you can lead your team to peak performance (2019)

Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters (2018)

A familiar voice returns to the podcast this week. Dr. Eiko Waida, who recently joined us as co-host for the special series on the Romanow Report, takes the guest’s seat today talking about her own quality improvement work in the pediatric diabetes clinic at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. 

We hear how her improvement work, although initially aimed at improving clinic staff morale, turned into a ground-breaking pilot project improving timely, patient-centered care using a texting platform. 

This successful project subsequently introduced a new model of care, improved the patient and provider experience, and offers further applications in the management of other chronic diseases. 

Evaluating the utility of texting in the ambulatory care of pediatric patients with type 1 diabetes. Eiko Waida et al. BMJ Open Quality. 2025 Mar 31;14(1)

Qualitycast North

Life can be a cruel sport, often serving both joy and heartbreak in equal measure. But sometimes what matters is how we stand up again after getting knocked down. 

Join us for an emotional episode this week as we interview local Prince George boxing hero and club owner Kenny Lally about his successful amateur boxing career, his descent into depression and addiction and subsequent recovery. 

Listen to Kenny’s amazing story and how it enables him to give back by helping local children manage their own mental health challenges through life lessons from the boxing ring. 

Links:
Inner City Boxing Prince George
Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community
Prince George Sports Hall of Fame – Kenny Lally

Medical schools major on training student physicians on the pathological basis of disease and the evidence-based therapies we prescribe to heal disease. But important and often overlooked contributors to health are the social determinants: poverty, nutrition, housing and related socio-economic factors. 

How health care is delivered on a system basis must consider these socioeconomic factors to ensure quality and effectiveness, particularly in rural communities such as those in Northern BC. That’s the interest of today’s guest, a family and emergency room physician, Dr. Navpreet Sidhu. 

In this fascinating episode she takes us through the importance of recognizing the socio-economic context of rural communities as a foundation for providing equitable health care and ways in which health care organizations can tailor their systems, metrics and standards to optimize patient-centered care for rural patients.

Links:
Harvard Global Health Delivery
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl (AMZ)
SSC Spreading Quality Improvement
Northern Health PQI

Qualitycast North is excited to bring you a special 4-episode series celebrating the 25-year anniversary of The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada and the subsequent, ground-breaking, Romanow Report.

About the Royal Commission and Romanow Report
In 2001, the Federal government launched the landmark Romanow Commission, to examine the future of Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system. Led by Roy Romanow, the Commission combined extensive research, expert analysis, and one of the largest public consultations in Canadian healthcare history. Through engagement with healthcare professionals, governments, Indigenous organizations, and tens of thousands of Canadians, the Commission developed evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening the sustainability and accessibility of Medicare for future generations.

In the fourth and final part of this special series we interview Dr. Gordon Hoag, a retired clinical pathologist, senior Physician Quality Improvement Co-Lead and one of the founders of British Columbia’s Physician Quality Improvement Program.

We talk about how the now 25-year-old Romanow Report remains relevant to issues facing healthcare today, how having conversations around improving health system quality remain paramount and how physician-led improvement continues to offer hope for health care’s future in British Columbia.

We hope you enjoyed this 4-part special series on the Romanow report. Please check out the links below for some useful resources and our website for more great Qualitycast North episodes.

Links:

Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada: The Romanow Commission (Government of Canada)

The Romanow Report (download)

The Specialist Services Committee

Qualitycast North

Special Series Credits:

Hosts: Dr. Shyr Chui, Dr. Eiko Waida

Executive Producer: Aman Hundal

Producer: Lee Cameron

Technical Support: Mat Walker (Expression North), Stefanie Garraway

Part 1. The Rt. Honorable Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada (Listen now)

Part 2.  Greg Marchildon, former Chief of Staff to Roy Romanow (Listen now)

Part 3. Dr. Verna Yiu, former CEO of Alberta Health Services (Listen now)

Qualitycast North is excited to bring you a special 4-episode series celebrating the 25-year anniversary of The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada and the subsequent, ground-breaking, Romanow Report.

About the Royal Commission and Romanow Report
In 2001, the Federal government launched the landmark Romanow Commission, to examine the future of Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system. Led by Roy Romanow, the Commission combined extensive research, expert analysis, and one of the largest public consultations in Canadian healthcare history. Through engagement with healthcare professionals, governments, Indigenous organizations, and tens of thousands of Canadians, the Commission developed evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening the sustainability and accessibility of Medicare for future generations.

We’re continuing our special series with this our third interview. Giving us insights into the relevance of the Report at the Provincial level and a masterclass in delivering high-impact health care system improvement on a Provincial scale is today’s guest, Dr. Verna Yiu. Dr. Yiu, a pediatric nephrologist by training, is the current Board Chair of CIHI, the Academic Dean and Provost of The University of Alberta and the former CEO of Alberta Health Services from 2016 to 2022. 

In this episode, Dr. Yiu explains what she found inspiring about the Report before sharing her experience of successfully implementing large-scale improvements in healthcare delivery and how these can be applied in other jurisdictions. We also hear about the foundational importance of primary care, patient centered care and data system integration to delivering high quality and cost effective health care.

Join us for the fourth and final part of this special series in which we talk to Dr. Gordon Hoag, Senior Provincial Quality Improvement Co-Lead about the spirit of the Romanow report and its ephemeral relevance for Canadian healthcare today. Listen now: The spirit of the Romanow Report lives on - improving health care in British Columbia today” featuring Dr. Gordon Hoag, Senior Physician Quality Improvement Co-Lead

Links:

Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada: The Romanow Commission (Government of Canada)

The Romanow Report (download)

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

University of Alberta

Alberta Health Services

The Specialist Services Committee

Qualitycast North

Special Series Credits:

Hosts: Dr. Shyr Chui, Dr. Eiko Waida

Executive Producer: Aman Hundal

Producer: Lee Cameron

Technical Support: Mat Walker (Expression North), Stefanie Garraway

Part 1. The Rt. Honorable Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada (Listen now)

Part 2.  Greg Marchildon, former Chief of Staff to Roy Romanow (Listen now)