Podcast
SPARK: Conversations
Podcasts and interviews with leaders in child and youth health on issues that matter
At the crossroads of children's healthcare, system improvement, and leadership, SPARK: Conversations is a solutions-focused podcast that connects the child and youth health community with system leaders who tackle wicked problems and discuss ideas to inform the development of innovative and integrated systems serving children and youth.
Watch for new episodes on the final Monday of every month. Don't miss an episode - Subscribe to our series on all major podcast platforms! Apple Podcasts - Spotify - Google Podcasts
Upcoming Podcast
Launching Monday, December 19
Season 3, Episode 4 | Health Systems Transformation: Learning from Experts on Ways to Inform System Change
December’s SPARK: Conversations monthly podcast is on health systems transformation with our podcast host, Dr. Katharine Smart in conversation with special guest, Helen Bevan. Helen is a Strategic Advisor and leader of large scale change within the National Health Service (NHS) in England, the largest public healthcare system in the world. Helen will be discussing her experiences and expertise in large scale change and providing guidance to system leaders in health care on addressing complex issues in child health and how to redesign and strengthen our child health systems in Canada to better serve children and youth.
Season 3
| Season 3, Episode 3 | Community hospitals: Key to an integrated healthcare system for children and youth |
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October’s SPARK: Conversations monthly podcast is on child health in the community with our new podcast host, Dr. Katharine Smart in conversation with special guest, Alison Quigley. Alison is the Senior Vice-President, Patient Care Services & Master Plan Clinical Lead at Trillium Health Partners. Alison will be discussing her experiences at Trillium Health Partners, systems consideration for community-based hospital services, leveraging virtual care supports, and how her front-line experiences have shaped her current leadership role.
Speaker bio: Alison Quigley After graduating with her BScN from Queen’s University, Alison began her nursing career in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital for Sick Children and went on to become Clinical Educator for four years in the Perinatal Program at Toronto General Hospital. She returned to SickKids to work as a clinician on the Neonatal Transport Team and then accepted a position on an organization-wide strategic redesign team, leading programmatic changes to improve care delivery to children and their families. After completing her MHSc (Health Administration) from the University of Toronto, Alison was appointed Director, Acute Care Transport Services at SickKids, a clinical team specializing in the safe transport of sick and critically-ill neonates and children. In 2005, Alison became the Executive Director for the Child Health Network for the Greater Toronto Area. The Network was a partnership of hospitals and home care providers who provided birthing, newborn, and paediatric care and who were dedicated to the creation and sustainability of high quality and integrated services. Committed to that vision, Alison was also a founding member on the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH) Maternal Newborn Advisory Committee and also co-chaired the PCMCH Transport Advisory Committee for four years. In 2011, Alison joined the legacy Credit Valley Hospital as the Director for the Emergency Department and the Mental Health Program. Since that time, Alison has had a series of progressive operational leadership positions at Trillium Health Partners (THP) including Associate Vice-President (2013), leading Women’s & Children’s Health, Mental Health, Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Pharmacy, and Diagnostic Imaging; Vice-President (2016), overseeing Emergency Department & Urgent Care and (in 2018) also leading the Medicine Program, ICU, and Patient Flow & Operations. Alison served as a Director and then Chair on the Board of the Credit Valley Family Health Team from 2014-2019. In keeping with her passion for women’s and children’s health, Alison joined the Board of Children’s Healthcare Canada (CHC) a national organization dedicated to improving the health of children and families. Alison has been serving on the CHC Board since 2018. Since February 2020, Alison has been serving Senior Vice-President in Patient Care Services and was appointed Clinical Lead for the substantive Master Plan project. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Alison had the privilege of leading the Pandemic Clinical Operations Centre response for THP, one of the hospitals hardest hit during the pandemic. Alison and her partner live in Mississauga and are proud to be part of Trillium Health Partners’ mission to create a new kind of healthcare for a healthier community. |
| Season 3, Episode 2 | Healing the Healthcare System: staff burnout, honest leadership, and collaboration |
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Description: The Canadian healthcare system is currently unable to meet the demands of the people who need it. Children and adults alike are seeing extended wait times for emergency rooms, ambulances and surgeries as well as closures of essential rural emergency centers due to staffing shortages. Dr. Katharine Smart, the current president of the Canadian Medical Association, has previously warned that Canadian healthcare is on the brink of collapse. She joins us as she nears the end of her presidential term to discuss the current state of Canadian healthcare, speaking to the importance of provider well-being and the nuances of collaborating and advocating both as individuals and organizations to bring about systemic change. This is Part 2 in a two-part series. To hear Dr. Smart speak on the impact mis and dis information has on our population and how we rebuild trust in healthcare, listen to Part 1 of this series “Getting the Facts Straight: Tackling mis/disinformation through patient-provider relationships”. Note: This interview was recorded in July, 2022, prior to Dr. Smart’s transition to CMA Past-President.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Katharine Smart is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon and Past President of the Canadian Medical Association. Her work is centered on developing collaborative partnerships with community and government services to serve marginalized children using a model of social pediatrics. She works primarily with children who have experienced trauma and adverse childhood events, and she witnesses the broad and lasting impact these events have on children and their development daily. She is passionate about improving services for marginalized children in an effort to change their life trajectory. In addition to her community-based work, Dr. Smart enjoys acute care and provides on-call services to the hospital. Before moving to the Yukon, she was a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Dr. Smart is the past president of the Yukon Medical Association |
| Season 3, Episode 1 | Getting the Facts Straight: Tackling mis/disinformation through patient-provider relationships |
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Description: COVID served as a catalyst for the spread and uptake of mis- and disinformation, threatening the trust Canadian citizens have in vaccines and, frankly, putting lives at risk. Further, the extra disease burden on the healthcare system exacerbated pre-existing problems, including in the area of health human resources (e.g., staff burnout and shortages). Some may ask, So what? Why are these problems so concerning? How do we go about rebuilding trust in healthcare and science? Dr. Katharine Smart has been tackling these problems as President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). As she transitions to the role of Past-President, Dr. Smart joins us to reflect on these issues, speaking to the importance of the longitudinal patient-provider relationship and innovative ways that clinicians can meet people where they’re at. This is Part 1 in a two-part series. To hear Dr. Smart discuss staff burnout and bringing our healthcare system back from the brink of collapse, listen to Part 2 of this series, “Healing the Healthcare System: Staff burnout, honest leadership and collaboration”. Note: This interview was recorded in July, 2022, prior to Dr. Smart’s transition to CMA Past-President.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Katharine Smart is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon and Past President of the Canadian Medical Association. Her work is centered on developing collaborative partnerships with community and government services to serve marginalized children using a model of social pediatrics. She works primarily with children who have experienced trauma and adverse childhood events, and she witnesses the broad and lasting impact these events have on children and their development daily. She is passionate about improving services for marginalized children in an effort to change their life trajectory. In addition to her community-based work, Dr. Smart enjoys acute care and provides on-call services to the hospital. Before moving to the Yukon, she was a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Dr. Smart is the past president of the Yukon Medical Association |
Season 2
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Season 2, Episode 09 | Missed Opportunities Can Last a Lifetime: The State of Infant and Early Mental Health in Canada |
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Episode Description: Infancy is a developmental period when children are most vulnerable and when they present with the greatest potential. Infant and early mental health (IEMH) involves the social, emotional, cognitive wellbeing of infants and young children. IEMH care aims to ensure every child has the best possible start in life. Research tells us that:
We know what to do. We have the evidence and practice and policy requirements are clear. Changes are required to training and education of healthcare practitioners. Early intervention services must be accessible in a timely manner and responsive to the needs of the child and family. Policy change is required to support at-risk families and involves partnership between families, healthcare, community services, and child welfare.Listen while Dr. Chaya Kulkarni discusses leadership, evidence-informed practice and policy, resources, and educational opportunities to increase Canadian capacity to ensure all babies get off to a great start. This session will be of interest to:
Speaker Bio Dr. Chaya Kulkarni is the Director of Infant and Early Mental Health Promotion (IEMHP). This national organization, at The Hospital for Sick Children, also known as SickKids, aims to improve outcomes across the lifespan through translating and promoting the science of early mental health into practice with families during pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood. Chaya is also an advisor to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a member of the Strategic Advisory Committee at the Ontario Centre of Excellence on Child & Youth Mental Health, and a member of the Board at Family Day Care Services. Prior to joining IEMHP, Chaya was VP, Parent and Professional Education at Invest in Kids, and has also served as Senior Policy Analyst and Researcher for the Office of the Official Opposition, Queen’s Park. |
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Season 2, Episode 08 | COVID's Impact on Routine Immunizations |
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Episode Description: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons, including best practices for immunizing populations efficiently. To retain what we have learned, and continue to improve vaccine confidence and uptake, the Canadian population will rely on experts like Dr. Manish Sadarangani to lead robust infectious disease and prevention research. On this episode of SPARK: Conversations, we sat down with Dr. Sadarangani to discuss natural and vaccine immunity to COVID-19, approaches to combatting new variants, and how we can improve vaccine and science communication. We explore the possibility of the COVID-19 vaccine becoming a routine vaccination, and how to best promote the importance of keeping up with those routine childhood immunizations.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Sadarangani has been Director of the Vaccine Evaluation Centre since 2016. He is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. Manish has unique expertise in translational vaccinology. He completed his undergraduate medical training and pediatric residency in Cambridge, Oxford, and London in the UK. He then completed his DPhil with the Oxford Vaccine Group in the UK, developing novel meningococcal vaccines, and completed a Fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases in Vancouver in 2013 before returning to Oxford to work as a Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician. He has worked in pediatrics throughout the world, including in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. His research links clinical trials with basic microbiology, immunology and epidemiology to address clinically relevant problems related to immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases. Specific research interests include bacterial vaccines, understanding vaccine-induced immunity, maternal immunization, antibiotic resistance, and CNS infections. Dr. Sadarangani was the recipient of the Pediatric Chairs of Canada 2021 Emerging Academic Leader Award. |
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Season 2, Episode 07 | Child Health and Wellness Research: A Priority to Transform Children’s Healthcare |
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Episode Description: Children are the foundation of Canada’s future, and as such, research in child health is research on the future of our nation. Conducting health research with children is an ethical imperative to understanding treatment and prevention effectiveness, relative costs of child healthcare, and tactics to advance equitable healthcare. We had the opportunity to sit down with groundbreaking child health researcher, Dr. Susa Benseler, to understand the current landscape and trajectory of child health research. Dr. Benseler explains the need for an ongoing, national conversation, outlines why a cross-sectoral approach is impactful, and gives advice to others hoping to ‘scale up’ their child health research plans. She sheds light on her interdisciplinary vision to advance children’s healthcare in a positive direction.
Speaker Bio: Susa Benseler, MD, PhD; Director, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine; Strategy Lead, Child Health and Wellness Research Strategy; Cenovus Energy Chair in Child and Maternal Health; Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation Chair in Paediatric Research; University of Calgary
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Season 2, Episode 06 | More than just a Tick Box: Building Back Better through Family Engagement |
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Episode Description: Children and their family members have unmatched, dyadic impacts on each other’s health. This is especially prominent in children and families that, due to unfortunate circumstances, are frequently connected with hospitals, researchers, and health systems. As such, it is imperative that we engage families in healthcare processes, and recognize their stories, experiences, and input as the valuable forms of knowledge that they are. We recently had the opportunity to sit down and discuss family partnership with Rachel Martens. Rachel provides a unique perspective on this topic as she has seen child healthcare from the lenses of both a parent and a professional. On this episode of SPARK: Conversations, Rachel helps us dig into best practices in family engagement and the importance of the human aspect in child healthcare. She also offers advice to practitioners on the balancing act between involving family partners, while avoiding causation of potential burnout and discomfort.
Speaker Bio: Rachel Martens came to CanChild a parent of a young man born with a rare chromosome diagnosis, CP and autism. He has since passed away, but her partnership with researchers continues on in his memory. She works as a Research Engagement Strategist with the Family Engagement in Research Course, supporting family members and researchers as they learn to partner in projects. She also facilitates engagement and promotes knowledge mobilization through a variety of other initiatives. Initiatives such as the online group Parents Partnering in Research, and Luke’s Legacy Family Research Rounds ensure more opportunities for connection and community participation. Rachel has an interest in federal and provincial disability policy and uses writing as a tool for advocacy. She is currently studying part-time in university studying population health. Due to her ongoing dedication and leadership, Rachel was also the winner of the prestigious 2021 Children’s Healthcare Canada Patient & Family Leadership Award. |
| Season 2, Episode 05 | Getting the Message Across: Clear Communications during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
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Episode Description Misinformation and even disinformation are not new concepts in science. This has been evident during the COVID-19 pandemic while the world has monitored, shared, and re-shared information on the spread of the virus, public health restrictions, and immunization. Recently, the COVID-19 discussion has become even more emotionally charged with a vaccine available for some children in Canada. Unfortunately, we can see that the skills required for critical consumption of evidence appear lacking in many areas. We live in a world driven by metrics, and unfortunately, headlines are often misleading, and people share information without reading the full text or confirming the accuracy of the information. Uncertainty, discomfort, and mistrust are lingering as Canadians are having difficult, divided conversations with their loved ones around the dinner table, on the phone, and on Zoom. To combat this, Dr. Krishana Sankar and the team at ScienceUpFirst focus on the clear and accurate distribution of scientific evidence. On this episode of SPARK: Conversations, we sit down with Dr. Sankar to discuss the importance of simple, clear, and up-to-date evidence distribution, and how to do so effectively.
About Dr. Krishana Sankar Dr. Sankar is a Science Advisor & Community Partnerships Lead at ScienceUpFirst. She is currently the #Scicomm Lead & Program Manager @covid_19_canada. Krishana is also a molecular and cellular biologist who earned her PhD from the University of Toronto. Originally from Guyana, Dr. Sankar is a researcher, science communicator, founder, speaker, & advocate. Beyond research, Krishana loves to communicate her research and science to the general public and kids in STEM. She promotes science literacy and advocates for girls and women in STEM. She is also active on social media, where she promotes her love of science and advocacy work. |
| Season 2, Episode 04 | Climate Change: A Child Health Issue Now and Into the Future |
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Episode Description: While COVID-19 has resulted in a global health crisis with considerable negative health impacts affecting children and youth, climate change has been an evolving and escalating global threat to child health for even longer. The global mean temperature warming is escalating and will have lasting momentum for centuries to millennia. However, immediate action can mitigate future warming in the next two decades and will immediately improve air quality. Unfortunately, the impact of climate change on child health and the healthcare system is multifaceted and today’s children are expected to bare disproportionate burden in their lifetime. The health impacts span the full pediatric age-range and can affect almost any organ system through acute illness and injury or chronic, complex stressors, including both mental and physical aspects. In sum, climate change can have negative effects on long-term neurodevelopment, alters the social and environmental determinants of health, and can potentially amplify burdens for children with pre-existing medical conditions. Join us for an evidence-informed discussion with pediatric intensive care doctor, Dr. Anna Gunz, in which we explore the impact of climate change on child health, healthcare systems, and beyond.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Anna Gunz is a paediatric intensive care doctor at Children's Hospital, London Health Sciences Center and Assistant Professor at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. She completed her medical degree and paediatric residency at McMaster University, before engaging in additional training in critical care medicine at the University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto. Prior to medicine, she earned a degree in geography at the University of Toronto, which focused on the ecological, social, economic and political aspects of climate change. Currently, she is working on various advocacy and research endeavors in the field of Planetary Health, including health monitoring of climate change, increase awareness that climate change is a health crisis, meaningful supports for youth with eco-distress and increasing community and healthcare facilities' understanding of necessary mitigation and adaptation measures. |
| Season 2, Episode 03 | Learning from Lived Experience: Family Partnerships for Pain and Child Health Research |
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Episode Description: This podcast focuses on patient partnership for child health research, practice, and systems. Listen in as Dr. Katie Birnie shares her perspective on patient partnership and Partnering for Pain, an award-winning research program which she leads and which integrates patient and family partnership and multi-stakeholder engagement to improve the prevention, assessment, and management of pain experienced by children and their families. At the time of the rollout of a COVID vaccine for children, this initiative has many resources available to ensure #ItDoesntHaveToHurt. We discuss terminology (engagement, partnership, family- and child-centred care), the value of patient partnership to child health research, clinical care, and system planning. Dr. Birnie also shares practical advice to help embed patient partnership into the routines of children's healthcare.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Katie Birnie is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at the University of Calgary where she leads the Partnering for Pain patient-oriented research program. She is Associate Scientific Director of Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network working to improve children’s pain through coordination and collaboration. Dr. Birnie also provides clinical care to youth living with pain and their families at Alberta Children’s Hospital. |
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Season 2, Episode 02 | COVID, Equity, and Child Health: Vaccines, Passports, and Impacts |
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Episode Description: Health inequities are “unfair, avoidable, and remediable differences in health status between countries and between different groups of people within the same country” (WHO, 2013, p 3). COVID has revealed inequities that many in healthcare, some more than others, already knew existed. We’ve noted differences in who is exposed to and infected by COVID, who ends up in hospital or ICU, and who is able to or choses to follow public health guidance (masks, social distancing, vaccines). For example, Ontario data show a higher risk for COVID exposure and infection among racialized and low-income communities. As well, vaccine uptake is lower, and hesitancy higher among these same groups for whom there has been a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 outcomes, and in whom vaccination will prevent more infections and severe outcomes. Vaccine passports have been implemented to incentivize vaccination and reduce COVID risk in our communities. But does this public health intervention have the potential to further disparities? How do we reap the benefits while reducing the inequities?
Speaker Bio: Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng is the department head of critical care at The Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Kyeremanteng cares for the sickest of the sick patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). As a researcher, he is interested in using ICU resources more efficiently and improving access to palliative care in the ICU. To help do this, he founded the Resource Optimization Network, a multidisciplinary research group working to reduce health spending in this area without compromising care. In September 2019 Dr. Kyeremanteng launched his ever-growing podcast “Solving Healthcare with Kwadwo Kyeremanteng” these podcasts feature interviews and discussions on the topic of improving healthcare delivery in Canada. Underpinned by the values of cost-effectiveness, dignity, and justice, these podcasts will challenge the status quo, leaving no stone unturned as we explore gaps, assumptions, and different perspectives in the pursuit of finding solutions to problems in Canada’s healthcare system. During the COVID 19 Pandemic Dr. Kyeremanteng created ‘Solving Wellness’ a virtual health & wellness platform for health care professionals. ‘Solving Wellness’ has been helping address health care burnout and providing health, fitness and self care for its members. |
| Season 2, Episode 01 | Integration of and Innovation in Child Health Systems: The promise and perils of Joined-Up Governance |
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Episode Description Join Children’s Healthcare Canada and special guest, Dr. Eyal Cohen, in a discussion about joined up governance. He explains how it works, why it is important, and how its structure could positively impact the lives of all children, including those with medical complexities. Due to its federated nature, Canada does not have a national structure for the governance of child health or health care. Joined up governance (or a ‘whole of government’ approach) has been touted as an important tool in tackling “wicked” problems in children’s health and healthcare, which involves multiple ministries responsible for health, social services, and the social determinants of health.
Speaker Bio: Eyal Cohen co-founded the Complex Care Program in the Division of Pediatric Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children, where he is Program Head of Child Health Evaluative Sciences in the Research Institute. He is a Professor of Pediatrics and co-Director of the Leong Centre for Healthy Children at the University of Toronto with cross-appointments in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. |
Season 1
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Season 1, Episode 07 | The COVID-19 Vaccine and Canada's Children and Youth |
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Episode Description If you ever needed healthcare (or if you work in healthcare) for kids you probably know how fragmented the system is, how long some waitlists are, and how the quality of care often depends on where you live and even who you are. In this episode we discuss how creating a Learning System in Child Health can help begin to address some of these issues at a regional, provincial, and national level.
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Season 1, Episode 06 | Children's Hospitals of the Future: Creating Conditions for Healthy Kids |
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Episode Description When children, youth, and their families visit a children's hospital of the future, what will have changed in their experiences of care, their health outcomes, and community health? What will it be like to work there? How will the hospital serve its community? How will it adapt to changing demographics, emerging technology, a focus on care delivered closer to (or even in) home, public demands, or new pandemics? How will the training of health professionals have changed?
The purposeful design of children’s hospitals of and for the future focuses on the physical environment and so much more. It involves the meaningful engagement of children, youth, families from diverse backgrounds, and community services; the use smart technology and design thinking; public and private partnerships; and evidence-based decision making. Join Children’s Healthcare Canada and special guest, Dr. Ronni Cohn, in a discussion about the future of children’s hospitals and healthcare and how SickKids is forging new paths to provide quality care in the ever-changing world of children's health and healthcare. |
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Season 1, Episode 05 | Raising Hope from the Ground Up: Building children's healthcare in Canada |
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Episode Description During this episode we learn of a decades-long journey to bring a children’s hospital to a province that had none - but the story is about so much more than building a hospital. It is about Canadian health system improvement for children and families. It involves:
Success enables broader health system improvement, lessons learned for other health system leaders, attracting varied and specialists locally provinces to ensure that children and their families receive quality, specialized pediatric care (as children are not just little adults). |
| Season 1, Episode 04 | Learning Systems in Child Health: Connecting 'What We Do' with 'What We Know' |
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Episode Description If you ever needed healthcare (or if you work in healthcare) for kids you probably know how fragmented the system is, how long some waitlists are, and how the quality of care often depends on where you live and even who you are. In this episode we discuss how creating a Learning System in Child Health can help begin to address some of these issues at a regional, provincial, and national level.
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