SPARK: Conversations by Children's Healthcare Canada
At the crossroads of children’s healthcare, system improvement, and leadership, this solutions-focused, interview-style podcast brings you engaging stories, reflections, and system improvement ideas from leaders in Canadian children’s healthcare.
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Episodes
33 episodes since 2020
The Pediatric Workforce: Right-sizing the HHR system for kids
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 ramifica...
August 26, 2024
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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52:17
Right-Sizing Health Systems: The systems-focused Children’s Hospital
Through visionary leadership, health systems focus, population-based approaches, trusting relationships, and creative partnerships, systems-focused Children’s Hospitals create integrated delivery networks purposefully designed to meet the uniqu...
July 29, 2024
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Season 5
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Episode 3
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30:54
Beyond Bandaids: Retaining Nurses in Pediatric Healthcare
In this episode of the SPARK: Conversations podcast, host Dr. Katharine Smart engages with Dr. Leigh Chapman and Rebecca Earle in a compelling discussion on nursing retention and the role of the nursing workforce in right-sizing healthcare syst...
June 24, 2024
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36:38
Beyond Bandaids: Collective Action to Right-Size Children's Healthcare Systems
Season 5, Episode 1 | Episode released on May 6, 2024View on YouTubeDescription: Children’s Healthcare Canada, together with our members and strategic part...
May 06, 2024
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Season 5
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Episode 1
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32:56
A Pediatric Student-Led Clinic: One model to help right-size children’s healthcare
Season 4, Episode 5 | Episode released on February 26, 2024Description: Right-sized children’s healthcare systems provide timely access to integrated healthcare services and require a stable supply of sufficient n...
February 26, 2024
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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23:01
SPARK: Conversations LIVE | Creating Equitable and Inclusive Healthcare Systems for Children and Families
Tune in to our first-ever live SPARK: Conversations podcast; recorded live at Children’s Healthcare Canada’s 2023 Annual Conference. In this compelling episode, healthcare leaders, Drs. JC Cowden and Nel Weiman, join host Dr. Kath...
January 29, 2024
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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50:22
Navigating the Child and Youth Mental Health Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities
In this podcast, Dr. Javeed Sukhera discusses child and youth mental health, emphasizing the challenges faced in accessing timely and appropriate mental health services in both Canada and the United States. He highlights the underfunding of men...
November 27, 2023
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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26:48
Integrating Pediatric Social Determinants of Health for Children in Canada
This podcast features an insightful conversation with Dr. Justine Cohen-Silver, a pediatrician who is making a significant impact in children’s health and healthcare through an innovative school-based program that addresses the social determina...
October 30, 2023
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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33:46
Children’s pain management: A new standard to improve care
In this podcast, Dr. Katie Birnie discusses pediatric pain management, focusing on the newly developed National Pediatric Pain Management Standa...
October 02, 2023
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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25:03
Health System Leadership: Leading Beyond Complexities to Effectively Transform Health Systems
Description: Health systems serving children and youth face numerous challenges and complexities. At the intersection of these challenges, health leaders recognize that the answers are not simple and they must be effective i...
May 15, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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37:09
Child Health in the Media: A Snapshot of the Media Representation of Child Health
Description: The news media shapes our collective mindsets about key issues and what needs to be done to address them. The unprecedented viral surge in the demand of young patients seeking emergency medical care faced by hospitals ...
March 27, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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29:32
Child Health Research: Thinking out of the Typical Health Care System Box
In a recent op-ed published in the Ottawa Business Journal, Dr. Jason Berman spoke about the importance of research innovation and cross-industry collaborations in tackling today’s healthcare crisis. “To improve healthcare meaningfully, we need...
February 27, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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23:53
Spirit Bears Guide to Reconciliation: Utilizing Jordan’s Principle and the Spirit Bear Plan to achieve culturally based equity for First Nations Children
Description: January’s SPARK: Conversations monthly podcast is on Indigenous child health with our podcast host, Dr. Katharine Smart in conversation with special guest, Dr. Cindy Blackstock. As an internationally recognized First Nations...
January 30, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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22:52
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...
December 19, 2022
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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40:15
Children's healthcare in the community
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 &am...
October 31, 2022
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24:59
Healing the Healthcare System: staff burnout, honest leadership, and collaboration
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 closure...
September 26, 2022
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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28:14
Getting the Facts Straight: Tackling mis/disinformation through patient-provider relationships
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 hea...
September 12, 2022
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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16:00
Missed Opportunities Can Last a Lifetime: The State of Infant and Early Mental Health in Canada
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...
May 30, 2022
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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23:23
COVID’s Impact on Routine Immunizations
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 ...
April 25, 2022
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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23:44
Child Health and Wellness Research: A Priority to Transform Children’s Healthcare
Guest: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; Husky Energy Chair in Child and Maternal Health; Al...
March 28, 2022
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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21:59
More than just a Tick Box: Building Back Better through Family Engagement
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 hea...
February 28, 2022
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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26:13
Getting the Message Across: Clear Communications during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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, ...
January 31, 2022
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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26:47
Climate Change: A Child Health Issue Now and Into the Future
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 temp...
December 13, 2021
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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29:42
Learning from Lived Experience: Family Partnerships for Pain and Child Health Research
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...
November 29, 2021
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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20:07