AMS CEO Helen Angus speaks with system leaders to learn from their origins, their journeys, and the role of leadership in today's world. She will explore their thinking on how to deliver compassionate care in a technologically advancing health system and look at the challenges facing healthcare in the future.
Listen to episodes
23 recent
May 20, 202636 min
Episode #22 - Dr. Nicola Mercer
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Nicola Mercer. Dr. Nicola Mercer (MD MBA MPH FRCPC C. Dir) is the Medical Officer of Health and CEO of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. Before joining Public Health in 2007, she spent 15 years as an anesthesiologist and critical care physician. She is currently a Board member at Public Health Ontario sitting on the Audit Finance and Risk Standing Committee. She is also a past member of the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons nominating committee, and the University of Guelph Board of Trustees. In 2017, Dr. Mercer was appointed to the Minister of Health's Expert Panel on Public Health. For her work during the pandemic, she was recognized with a Municipal World Women of Influence in Local Government Award in 2021, and a King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2024.
April 15, 202638 min
Episode #21 - Altaf Stationwala
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Altaf Stationwala. Altaf Stationwala is President and CEO of Unity Health Toronto, one of Ontario's largest and most comprehensive health care networks. The network includes St. Joseph's Health Centre, St. Michael's Hospital and Providence Healthcare, and a constellation of clinics across Toronto's core. Unity Health delivers the full spectrum of care offered across Ontario's health system— from primary care, seniors care, rehabilitation, and acute services to specialized regional programs and long-term care— and is a globally recognized, university-affiliated teaching and research institution. It is a learning destination of choice for health professionals, known for its leadership in integrated, compassionate, high quality, and collaborative care. Prior to joining Unity Health Toronto in 2025, Altaf was President and CEO of Mackenzie Health for more than 14 years. Under his leadership, Mackenzie Health received Accreditation with Exemplary Standing consecutively in 2013, 2017 and 2022 – the highest rating a Canadian healthcare provider can achieve – and numerous awards for its commitment to safety and quality patient care, as well as approval to build the organization's second hospital – Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital which opened in early 2021. Before joining Mackenzie Health, Altaf held the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at Mount Sinai Hospital, and previous to that he was Site Executive - Brampton Civic Hospital and Vice President, Patient Services at the William Osler Health Centre. Altaf was presented with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives Canada's Outstanding Young Health Executive of the Year Award in 2007 for his demonstrated leadership in improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the country's health system. He has a diverse educational background with undergraduate degrees in Economics, Geography and Business Administration, as well as a Master's in Health Administration. Altaf is adjunct faculty at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and a surveyor with Accreditation Canada. Altaf serves as a member of several Boards of Governors including: GS1 Canada, Mohawk Medbuy Corporation, and The United Way of Greater Toronto. Altaf is the past Chair of the Ontario Hospital Association. Altaf has a particular applied research interest in organizational resilience and transformational change. http://amshealthcare.ca/
March 18, 202640 min
Episode #20 - Will Falk and Dr. Zayna Khayat
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Will Falk and Dr. Zayna Khayat. Will Falk has spent over 25 years as an international strategist, advising top academic centres, governments, and innovative companies in healthcare. He is currently the Board Chair of AMS Healthcare's Board of Directors, an Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute. Will is interested in the impacts of technological change on health systems and their governance and payment mechanisms. He works with several innovative enterprises in digital health and software development, including as an Innovation Fellow at Women's College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care. He has also served as a Board Director or Advisor for more than a dozen enterprises, including local and national charities, start-ups, health systems, and publicly listed companies. Will's strong understanding of digital health, along with his commitment to improving healthcare through policy and innovation, makes him an important part of AMS as we focus on a system shaped by advancing technology while remaining rooted in compassion. Zayna Khayat, PhD, is the Chief Program Officer at AMS Healthcare, where she leads the strategic design and delivery of the organization's flagship programs in Artificial Intelligence & Compassion. She is adjunct faculty in the Health Sector Strategy stream at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Zayna previously held senior roles as Future Strategist at SE Health, Lead of Health System Innovation at MaRS Discovery District, and was seconded to the REshape Innovation Centre at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Earlier in her career, she was a Principal in the healthcare practice of The Boston Consulting Group. Zayna earned her PhD in diabetes research from the University of Toronto. A recognized voice on health system transformation, she advises health technology companies across Canada and internationally. https://amshealthcare.ca/
February 18, 202636 min
Episode #19 - Dr. Cynthia Whitehead
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Cynthia Whitehead. Cynthia Whitehead is an education scientist, educator, and family physician. Her research examines the effects of power relations on various structures, systems, processes, and practices in health professions education, paying attention to who and what is advantaged or disadvantaged as a result. She aims to use her research findings to promote health and education practices that are compassionate, equitable, and effective. Working at the intersection of health and higher education, she sees exciting opportunities to harness the transformative potential of education in service of a healthier world. Cynthia's program of research is anchored in critical historical analyses of health professions education. Knowing our history is vital for understanding our current contexts, avoiding past mistakes, preserving what works well, and appropriately adapting that which needs change. Aware of the need to deliberately collect multiple perspectives and voices in the history of health professions education—and at times dismayed by the absence and loss of documents—Cynthia is engaged in efforts to preserve relevant archival materials. She is also committed to helping to grow the community of scholars interested in studying the history of the field. Theoretically, Cynthia engages with the work of Michel Foucault, as well as post-colonialism, anticolonialism, and decoloniality. Some of her specific content areas of interest are globalized medical education, primary care education, accreditation, outcomes-based education, and education for collaboration. Underpinning Cynthia's historical research is the knowledge that the creation of Euro-American models of higher education, health professions education, and healthcare institutions globally were intrinsically intertwined with European colonization of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. She understands that colonization has shaped and continues to perpetuate inequities in health professions education and research practices locally, nationally, and globally. Cynthia's involvement in the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration (TAAAC) is one key partnership within which she collaboratively interrogates these processes. As a high income country researcher and white settler Canadian, she strives to listen, learn, and collaborate with humility, taking care that her work not inadvertently reproduce colonial academic practices. Cynthia has provided education consultations and worked with educators, scholars, and learners in many countries, as well as with the World Health Organization. She has held many education leadership positions, and is involved in teaching, curricular design, program evaluation, and education administration locally, nationally, and internationally. Cynthia is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine; Director and Scientist at the Wilson Centre, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and University Health Network; and an academic family doctor based clinically at Women's College Hospital. She holds the BMO Financial Group Chair in Health Professions Education Research at University Health Network. https://amshealthcare.ca/
January 21, 202635 min
Episode #18 - Dr. Andy Smith
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Andy Smith. Since 2017, Dr. Andy Smith has been the President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he leads over 12,000 staff, physicians, researchers and learners and an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion. Prior to his current role, Dr. Smith served as Sunnybrook's Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Executive. With a long-established career as a surgeon and a recognized leader in the management of colorectal cancer, Dr. Smith is intensely passionate about improving healthcare. He has been involved for many years in quality improvement initiatives in Ontario and is passionately interested in healthcare leadership, innovation and the evolution of the healthcare system in Canada. Dr. Smith is on the Board of Directors for ORNGE, Public Health Ontario (PHO), HealthCareCAN, Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) and is an active member of Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN). https://amshealthcare.ca/
November 19, 202535 min
Episode #17 - Dr. Tara Kiran
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Tara Kiran. Dr. Tara Kiran is a family physician and a health systems researcher with nationally and internationally recognized expertise in primary care policy, quality improvement, and health system evaluation. She holds the Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation at the University of Toronto where she also serves as Vice Chair, Quality and Innovation for the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Kiran's research focuses on understanding and addressing gaps in access, equity, and quality in primary care, with recent work examining shifts in the physician workforce, the impact of team-based care, and public priorities for reform. Dr. Kiran is the founder and national lead of OurCare, Canada's largest public engagement initiative on the future of primary care, which has shaped policy direction in multiple provinces and informed Ontario's Primary Care Act. She also hosts Primary Focus, a podcast that explores innovative primary systems and clinics—in Canada and around the world. She practices family medicine at St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto where she is also a Scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions. Throughout her work, she is motivated by a deep commitment to improving access to high-quality, equitable, and patient-centred care. http://amshealthcare.ca/
October 22, 202539 min
Episode 16 - Dr. Laura Desveaux
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Laura Desveaux, PhD, CPCC, ACC , a scientist and Director of the Learning Health System Leadership Center at the Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners. She is a Senior Fellow with AMS Healthcare, an Assistant Professor with IHPME at the University of Toronto, and a 2023-24 Leadership Fellow with the International Women's Forum. Dr. Desveaux's program of work focuses on learning health systems, the future of leadership, and how and why things work in healthcare with a focus on identifying how context influences success (and failure). She is also the founder and Executive Director of Women Who Lead, a not-for-profit dedicated to supporting leadership development for women in the health sector. http://amshealthcare.ca/
September 24, 202536 min
Episode #15 - Dr. Gillian Strudwick
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Gillian Strudwick, a Registered Nurse and an internationally recognized leader in digital health and mental health innovation. She currently serves as the Interim Scientific Director of the Digital Innovation Hub, Chief Clinical Informatics Officer, and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. In these roles, she leads research an implementation initiatives aimed at transforming mental health care through the responsible an equitable use of digital technologies. Dr. Strudwick is also an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, where she teaches and mentors the next generation of health system leaders and digital health scientists. Her program of research sits at the intersection of digital health, implementation science, and mental health services, with a focus on designing, evaluating, and scaling innovations that improve care experiences and outcomes for both patient and providers. Nationally and internationally, Dr. Strudwick is a sought-after expert and advisor. She serves on the boards of AMS Healthcare, the Village Family Health Team, and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute. She is the youngest nurse to be named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing and the first woman in Canada to be named a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association. Her contributions have been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Sigma Emerging Nurse Researcher Award, the CIHR Rising Star Award in Health Services and Policy Research, and the Top 20 Under 40 in Canadian Life Sciences. Dedicated to collaboration and impact, Dr. Strudwick has worked with health system partnersacross Canada and internationally, including Oxford University, Harvard University and the Mental Health Commission of Canada, to ensure digital solutions in health are usable, effective, and equitable. She has provided scientific guidance to policymakers, including as a member of Ontario's COVID-19 advisory table, and regularly contributes to thought leadership in the areas of AI, usability, and human factors in health care. http://amshealthcare.ca/
June 18, 202531 min
Episode #14 - Dr. Robert Reid
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Dr. Robert Reid. Dr. Robert Reid is the Chief Scientist Emeritus at Trillium Health Partners, where he previously served as the Hazel McCallion Research Chair in Learning Health Systems at the Institute for Better Health (IBH) and Senior Vice President. He is a global expert and thought leader in population health, learning health systems and primary care. He is best known for his work in developing and evaluating a patient-centred medical home at Group Health Cooperative, now Kaiser Permanente. With IBH colleagues, Dr. Reid is also well known for leading the development of the Learning Health System (LHS) Action Framework that is now being used across Canada to guide system-based learning approaches. Dr. Reid is currently providing expertise in the re-design of Ontario's health care system through the Ontario Health Teams initiative. Dr. Reid co-leads of the Rapid Improvementand Support Exchange (RISE) which provides technical support for rapid learning and improvement for Ontario Health Teams. At the University of Toronto, Dr. Reid holds an academic appointment as Professor(status) with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), and the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is also a Professor with McMaster University's Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact. Board certified in preventive medicine, Dr. Reid received his medical degree from the University of Alberta and completed a Master's Degree in Epidemiology and a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University amshealthcare.ca
May 21, 202534 min
Episode #13 - Kimberly Moran
In this episode, host Helen Angus, CEO of AMS Healthcare, speaks with Kimberly Moran. Kimberly Moran has served as OMA's CEO since December 2023. She is a highly respected health-care leader and accomplished executive with more than 30 years of senior leadership experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Kimberly comes to the OMA from her most recent role as the president and CEO of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, where she was able to unite stakeholders around a common purpose and vision of attracting new and sustainable funding in the health-care system. She has held roles as special adviser to the dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto, where her work included attracting new funding for research and innovative health-care models, CEO of Children's Mental Health Ontario, and CEO of UNICEF Canada. She has advised health-system stakeholders at all levels of government in Canada and internationally. Kimberly is a recognized health-system transformation contributor and collaborator, with previous roles in the Ontario Children's Health Coalition, which represents children's hospitals and children's community health-care providers, and as co-chair of the Children's COVID-19 Vaccine Table. She was previously on the Premier's Council on Improving Health Care and Ending Hallway Medicine, a voluntary expert advisory council reporting to the premier and the minister of health. Kimberly is a chartered professional accountant and chairs the finance committee for the Seneca College Board of Director. AMShealthcare.ca
Is this your show?
Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.
