SPARK: Conversations by Children's Healthcare Canada

The Pediatric Workforce: Right-sizing the HHR system for kids

Children's Healthcare Canada Season 5 Episode 4
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Changing healthcare needs and increasing care complexity among children and youth together with HHR challenges have raised concerns about the current and future availability of pediatric subspecialty care and research and the potential ramifications for child health and well-being.

In this episode of SPARK: Conversations, join host Dr. Katharine Smart as she engages in a compelling dialogue with Dr. Meredith Irwin and Dr. Steven Miller surrounding the HHR crisis, especially within pediatrics. How can we work together to ensure the future of pediatric care can be sustainable and achievable? This episode offers listeners insights into the HHR crisis and how partnerships can offer an inspiring future in pediatric care.
 
Guests:
Dr. Meredith Irwin
Meredith Irwin, MD is the Chief of Paediatrics at The Hospital for Sick Children, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Paediatrics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is the first woman to hold these two roles, which she assumed in April 2020.

Dr. Irwin received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her Paediatrics and Oncology training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She joined The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) as a Staff Physician (Hematology-Oncology) and Clinician-Scientist in 2002. From 2008-2020 she was the Associate Chair of Paediatrics (Research) and held the position of Solid Tumour Section Head from 2011-2020.

Dr. Irwin’s research focuses on identifying novel genes, treatments, and biomarkers to optimize risk classification and precision medicine approaches for neuroblastoma. She has received funding from the NIH, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute and CIHR. Dr. Irwin is the Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Neuroblastoma Committee.

As Chief of Paediatrics, she is committed to integrating precision child health approaches to research and clinical care and training the next generation of academic pediatricians. She is also the Vice President of the Pediatric Chairs of Canada (PCC) and co-leads the PCC workforce theme team, which is focused on advancing solutions to address the current and future general and subspecialty pediatric workforce.

Dr. Steven Miller
Dr. Steven P. Miller is Head and Professor of the UBC Department of Pediatrics and the Chief of Pediatric Medicine at BC’s Children Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, holds the Hudson Family Hospital Chair in Pediatric Medicine and James & Annabel McCreary Chair in Pediatrics, and was previously a Canada Research Chair in Neonatal Neuroscience. Leading a multidisciplinary team, Dr. Miller’s research program focuses on better understanding of how intensive care impacts brain development and injury in the newborn with a focus on those born preterm or with congenital heart disease. The goal of his team’s work is to promote strategies to prevent brain injury and to promote recovery with the ultimate goal of improving the lifelong health of children and their families. He is passionate about supporting the career trajectories of child-health researchers and served as President of the Society for Pediatric Research.