There were many things to be pleased and proud of at the conclusion of this year’s edition of the Canada West Health Leaders conference. First of all, the Saskatoon hospitality was first rate, and we felt welcome from the moment we arrived. This was the first time this conference has been held outside of British Columbia and it was a rare opportunity for many health leaders from Saskatchewan to join the community and enjoy the conference.
Secondly the delegates, every last one, were engaged and grateful to be hanging out with their colleagues. We only had two no-shows out of the entire registration list and most delegates were able to participate in the entire program. As organizers, we appreciate and are grateful for this kind of participation and engagement.
Finally, all of our presenters did a great job. We heard positive feedback and comments about all the concurrent sessions but what I am particularly pleased about was how well prepared our plenary session speakers were and the efforts that were made to align the presentations and discussion with the theme of the conference, which focused on synergy and collaboration as the path forward to better healthcare.
André Picard opened the presentation in style with a sweeping overview of developments and challenges in Canadian healthcare, before, during, and after the pandemic. He brought his unique journalistic lens to his observations and commentary with several compelling examples on how we could stop examining the past and focus on collaborating for the future. As Andre stated in his title, We can’t do it alone: How collaboration is essential to healthcare reform.
Dr. Jaris Swidrovich delivered a moving and personal reminder of the importance of TRUTH in the Truth & Reconciliation process in their presentation titled Nothing about us without us: ReconciliACTION through collaboration. We were privileged to hear about their family stories and the lessons we need to remember. We were especially thrilled to witness Jaris delivering an action and collaboration plan to delegates that was mapped to the LEADS framework. Wow!
Day 2 kicked off with The misinformation crisis: Collaboration as a cure presented by Dr. Katharine Smart, a leading pediatrician and past president of the Canadian Medical Association. Throughout her sweeping presentation, Dr. Smart shared a wide range of studies and evidence about the prevalence and impact of misinformation in healthcare. She also provided a number of thoughtful collaborative solutions that health care leaders and communications experts can implement immediately. On a personal level, Dr. Smart was thrilled to have her parents in the audience to see her presenting in person for the first time in her career.
We closed the conference with a rousing presentation from our own Dr. Jaason Geerts entitled Leadership, I feel we’re losing touch, but not everywhere: Synergies among us. Jaason’smain message was that after the innovation, transformations, and bold decisions we saw during the urgency of the pandemic, on many fronts healthcare seems to be reverting to the old way of doing things. He stressed the importance of building leadership organizations that are committed to engaging everyone – clinicians, managers, patients, and executives as part of a culture of distributed leadership. In this way, synergies amongst leaders can help preserve the progress of the last few years and innovate going forward.
On a personal note, this was my last conference as CEO of the College and my last opportunity to take the podium as master of ceremonies. I was very pleased to introduce the next CEO of the College, Susan Owen who will take over on January 6th. You’ll hear more from me in December as I share my final thoughts before moving on.
Thanks again to the city of Saskatoon, our CCHL national office staff, all of our delegates, our sponsors and speakers for a first-rate experience. I am sure many of you are looking forward to being together again in Edmonton, Alberta next June for the CCHL National Conference, in Gatineau, Québec for the Colloque francophone des leaders en santé in September, and a return to the Canada West Health Leaders conference in Victoria, BC next October.
