Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we sit down with Angela Sereda, a senior leader in Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) with Medavie West, to discuss the shift happening in paramedicine. Angela shares her 33-year journey from a high school athletic trainer to a leader in community-based paramedicine. We explore how paramedics are expanding their role from being a purely reactive 911 service to becoming a proactive, integrated part of the healthcare system—meeting people where they’re at with the services they need.  

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe, share with friends and/or leave a review.  You can also follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn by searching @shiftpodcastcanada for more stories about transforming healthcare in Canada

 Resources & Links

Medavie Video

Promising Practice: Medavie Community Paramedicine (Report from Health Excellence Canada)

Medavie Integrated health

Medavie Integrated Care Facility Programs

Withdrawal Management

Hospital at Home (Vancouver)

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we explore an unlikely but powerful partnership between Terry Kostyna, a "get-shit-done" (GSD) entrepreneur and small-town mayor, and  Dr. Jacob Al Hassan, an academic researcher focused on health equity. Together, they discuss their work with the Health Quality Council’s "Thrive at Home" initiative, specifically focusing on how rural communities can innovate to provide sustainable transportation for seniors. From volunteer-run shuttles to specialized software, Terry and Jacob share how they are working to bridge the gap between research and action to ensure older adults can age in place with dignity.

Resources 

• Health Quality Council's Thrive at Home Initiative
• A Call for a Transportation Strategy
• Prince George's Social Prescribing Initiative
• Drive Happiness (Alberta)
• Gravelbourg Cares Shuttle

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, I sit down with John Mortimer, a specialist in systemic service design and founder of Impro, to tackle a concept that is silently draining the resources and morale of our health care system: Failure Demand. John explains that much of the "spinning" felt by practitioners today—the feeling of running faster while staying in the same place—is the result of a system designed to manage the consequences of its own failures rather than meeting the actual needs of the person.

If you have ever felt that you or your organization is only as helpful as the rules allow, this conversation offers ideas for finding traction in the spin and eliminating the invisible drain of failure demand.

Resources

John’s Videos on YouTube 

 Buurtzorg Model 

Human Learning Systems

Send us Fan Mail

Recorded just twenty-four hours before Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR)—formerly known as AIDS Saskatoon—officially closed its doors on April 9, 2026, this episode features a deep dive conversation with social worker and advocate Erin Beckwell.  Erin shares her decade-long history with AIDS Saskatoon, starting from its roots as a community-led response to the HIV crisis to its evolution into a vital institution that provided life-saving services in the community.  As you will hear, Erin and her co-workers were doing Relational Service long before it even had a name.  

In this timely conversation, we explore what it means to lead with a health equity lens, the frustrations of working in a huge bureaucracy, and the opportunity to do change approaches when we think outside the health care box. 

Resources 

Prairie Harm Reduction (formerly AIDS Saskatoon)

Wellness Wheel Clinic (Regina)

University Health Network Housing Model

Video: How Public Policy Creates Poverty with Colleen Christopherson-Cote

This Week's Shift Shout Out: 

Trillium Heath Partners AI Challenge

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, I sit down with two of Saskatchewan’s most experienced health care leaders, Dan Florizone and Marlene Smadu, to explore a fundamental crisis in leadership: why we continue to treat an infinite system like a “finite game."

 Drawing on their decades of experience—from pioneering "Magnet" hospital environments in the late 90s to their current work teaching excellence in health leadership—Dan and Marlene discuss the urgent need to shift away from "command and control" culture brought in by the militaristic and religious structures of the 20th century. They reflect on how the modern health care system is often trapped by finite thinking, where leaders are pressured by four-year election cycles to "win" short-term battles like surgical wait-time targets, often at the expense of the long-term sustainability of the workforce and the system itself.

We also discuss the power of the public and the direct care workforce as the greatest untapped resources for change. Marlene emphasizes that we have a well-educated public and 44,000 staff members who are "bursting to participate" if only they are given an invitation and a "North Star" to follow. While the administrative and logistical challenges are significant, both guests leave us with a message of deep hope, noting that the clinical breakthroughs and the "Patient First" shift in the last decade have been significant. 

This episode is a call to action for leaders at every level to embrace humility, curiosity, and transparency to build a health care system that is not just fit for the next election, but fit for the next century.

Resources:

The Infinite Game – Simon Sinek

Excellence in Healthcare Leadership Program

Kouzes & Posner Leadership Model

Berkana Two Loops Model

Raise Her Community

Industrial Disease

Send us Fan Mail

In this special episode, Kyla pauses her interviews to reflect on the key themes and insights from the first three months of the podcast.  Kyla shares what she's gleaned from conversations with Dennis, Andy, Teri, Kath and Steven - distilling the learnings from each of them into practical ideas to shift the system.  

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, I sit down with Steven Lewis, a veteran health policy consultant and former CEO of Saskatchewan’s Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC). With decades of experience at the intersection of policy, research, and system reform, Steven offers a "voice of truth" that cuts through the bureaucratic clutter.  

We dive deep into a critique of the broader Canadian "sick care" strategy. Steven explains why doubling down on hospital beds and a "scarcity narrative" is a failure of imagination, and he points us toward international models—like Scotland and Denmark—that prioritize health creation over sick care delivery. 

It's a timely conversation as Saskatchewan announced an $8.5 Billion investment in healthcare just following our discussion.  Will that finally solve our problems? 

Steven doesn't think so.  

Resource Links: 

Saskatchewan 2026-27 Health Budget

UHN Dunn's House

The Regina Hospital Physician Culture Report

Scotland’s Population Health Framework

Choosing Wisely 

In this episode, I sit down with Steven Lewis, a veteran health policy consultant and former CEO of Saskatchewan’s Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC). With decades of experience at the intersection of policy, research, and system reform, Steven offers a "voice of truth" that cuts through the bureaucratic clutter.  

We dive deep into a critique of the broader Canadian "sick care" strategy. Steven explains why doubling down on hospital beds and a "scarcity narrative" is a failure of imagination, and he points us toward international models—like Scotland and Denmark—that prioritize health creation over sick care delivery. 

It's a timely conversation as Saskatchewan announced an $8.5 Billion investment in healthcare just following our discussion.  Will that finally solve our problems? 

Steven doesn't think so.  

Resource Links: 

Saskatchewan 2026-27 Health Budget

UHN Dunn's House

The Regina Hospital Physician Culture Report

Scotland’s Population Health Framework

Choosing Wisely 

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Kyla sits down with Teri Price, the Executive Director of Greg’s Wings Projects, to discuss her journey from disaster management to becoming a leading change agent in the Canadian healthcare system. Teri shares the powerful and heartbreaking story of her brother, Greg Price, whose death in 2012 exposed massive gaps in continuity of care and information sharing—failures that led the family to create the impactful film Falling Through the Cracks: Greg’s Story.

Teri discusses the vital work of Networked Health and the Renew 72 initiative, pushing for the Connected Care for Canadians Act to ensure health information follows the patient through the system. Together, they delve into the importance of "grit" commitment to long-term change, and why building a connected national health database should be considered a vital nation-building project.

Additional Resources: 

CIHI Podcast about the Potential of Health Data in Canada

Greg’s Wings Viewing Events

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, Kyla offers a critique of Saskatchewan's newly released "Patient's First Healthcare Plan" and questions why health care systems insist on repeating the same failed approached decade after decade.  Drawing on comparisons to Denmark and Nova Scotia, she challenges the incremental approach to health care reform and calls for genuine system transformation.  Kyla challenges listeners to demand more from health care leaders - not just incremental improvements but bold system redesigns that measures outcomes, prioritizes prevention and ensures everyone has access to a Medical Home.

For Patient's Sake (2009)

Patient's First Health Care Plan (2026)