SPARK Conversations

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Dr. Leslie Roos (CHF Manitoba) and Adam Starkman (Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations) look ahead to a more connected, prevention-focused mental health system. They discuss closing regional gaps, strengthening collaboration between hospitals and communities, and the role of corporate investment in expanding access to care nationwide. 

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National Patient Youth Ambassador Jenna Kedy shares her personal mental health journey, offering a lived-experience perspective on the emotional and practical barriers young people face navigating care. She reflects on what earlier support could have changed and what lessons families and youth can carry forward from her experience. 

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Renée Hopfner (Empire Company Limited) and Adam Starkman (Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations) unpack what early intervention actually means, why it's becoming an urgent priority across Canada, and what happens when children and families don't get support until they're already in crisis. The episode highlights system gaps and the promise of proactive, prevention-focused care. 

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*Please note that this episode contains glitches that we've (unsuccessfully) attempted to fix.

Families navigate fragmented healthcare and education systems while managing invisible labour that systems and professionals often don't recognize: coordinating care, translating information across sectors, and advocating for their children's needs. In this episode, researchers, a clinician, and parent partners discuss how lived experience must become integrated expertise driving system change, not just testimony, and how meaningful family participation in co-design creates solutions that actually work. The conversation highlights that building continuity across sectors and empowering families is essential to creating systems that serve children and youth with disabilities across their lifetimes. 

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Children with congenital heart disease face developmental challenges similar to those born prematurely, yet follow-up care in Canada depends on where a child is born and lacks the systematic approach that exists for other at-risk populations. In this episode, guest Dr. Keiko Shikako and the speakers discuss the Bright Pathways project, which is adapting evidence-based recommendations to establish consistent developmental monitoring across Canada, and highlight how fragmented care forces families to become system navigators. The conversation reveals the urgent need for healthcare and education systems to collaborate and include patients and families in solutions. 

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 Early identification and intervention can transform outcomes for children with disabilities and their families, yet Canada's fragmented health and education systems create barriers that leave parents navigating alone. In this episode, guest Dr. Keiko Shikako speaks with researchers and parent partners about the impact of early identification, current system gaps, and promising approaches like the Childbright Coaching Research Project. This is the first in our miniseries on childhood disability, health system improvement, and family-centered care. 

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Children's Healthcare Canada is proud to bring you SPARK Conversations in a new mini-series format — going deeper on the issues that matter most to children, youth, and their families. Each mini-series is designed to inform and advance healthcare systems that are innovative, accessible, equitable, integrated, and built with children in mind. This is where the conversation starts.

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In this special capstone episode of SPARK: Conversations, host Dr. Katharine Smart speaks with Emily Gruenwoldt, President and CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada, to reflect on two years of exploring what it means to right-size children’s healthcare systems in Canada. They look back on key themes from the series — from timely access to care, community-based services, equity, partnerships, and family-centred care to workforce and data challenges — and connect these insights to the broader work ahead. Emily shares how these conversations are shaping Children’s Healthcare Canada’s strategic priorities, including advancing a National Children’s Healthcare Strategy and evidence-informed policy solutions that can improve health and wellbeing for children, youth and families across the country. This episode marks both a closing chapter of the right-sizing series and a beginning of new opportunities to inform systems change.

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Children’s healthcare extends far beyond hospital walls. In this episode, host Dr. Katharine Smart speaks with Dr. Vera Etches, President and CEO of CHEO, about how pediatric systems can evolve to better meet children and families where they are.

Drawing on her public health background, Dr. Etches shares how CHEO is redefining its role - not only as a hospital, but as a connected health system anchored in community partnerships. 

Together, they unpack what “right-sizing” children’s healthcare really means: improving access and equity, supporting primary care teams, and reducing the need for families to travel long distances for specialized services. Dr. Etches highlights innovations such as regional virtual mental health supports, expanding pediatric surgery into community hospitals through collaborative models, and using data and patient feedback to tailor care pathways and strengthen capacity close to home.

They also explore emerging opportunities, including precision child and youth mental health, AI-enabled personalization, and how schools, cultural safety, and public health intersect with clinical care.

Through a lens of co-design, continuous learning, and system-wide collaboration, Dr. Etches offers a candid look at how CHEO is leveraging research, data, and community relationships to deliver care in the right place; whether at home, in schools, in primary care, or virtually.

The conversation offers a practical, inspiring look at how “right-sizing” children’s healthcare can create more equitable, integrated, and community-rooted systems.
 
 

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Across Australia, pediatric centres have just come through a challenging respiratory virus season - driven by influenza, RSV, and COVID - with unusually high volumes among infants and young children, shifting viral patterns, and sustained pressure on emergency departments and inpatient units. As Canadian hospitals begin to experience early increases in respiratory illness, pediatric leaders are watching closely for signals of what may lie ahead.

In this “just-in-time” episode, Dr. Lindy Samson, Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Staff at CHEO, speaks with Dr. Sarah McNab, Director of General Medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, to unpack what truly defined Australia’s season. Their conversation explores why influenza surged earlier and harder than expected, how testing strategies and triage pathways evolved, where hospitals struggled to keep pace with demand, and what helped support clinical teams during periods of extreme pressure. Dr. McNab offers practical insights on vaccine uptake, ED flow, inpatient capacity, and communication with families - highlighting which approaches proved valuable and which fell short.

Drawing connections to the early trends Dr. Samson is already seeing in Canada, this episode provides a cross-continental perspective for pediatric leaders preparing for a potentially difficult winter. Whether you are supporting emergency operations, managing inpatient pressures, or monitoring viral activity in your region, this discussion offers actionable, firsthand guidance to help anticipate and respond to the respiratory virus season ahead.

(Recorded December 10, 2025, this conversation reflects the best available insights at a rapidly evolving moment in Canada’s viral season.)

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