CSA Group Policy Pathways Conference
Advancing Canadian Health Care

How would you describe this conference to a colleague who could not attend?

I’m at the CSA Policy Pathways conference and a couple of takeaways for me.
One is there’s 350 people here, all who are trying to make health care better. And boy, are they enthusiastic about it. So I think that really bodes well for ongoing positive change in the healthcare system.

The other observation I would make is it’s great value in having an organization that may be a little bit atypical as a host of a health conference, actually being the convener and bringing people together in a policy neutral kind of a way. It has allowed for space for conversations that probably wouldn’t happen in other places and I’m so glad to be here.

I happen to wear many hats, including physician, innovator, policymaker, and I usually meet with the people in each one of those sectors separately. What was nice about this event is to actually have conversations across. We are facing complex situations, and the solutions need to involve many different perspectives coming together. And it was refreshing to see them all in one place.

The CSA Policy Pathways conference is an excellent opportunity to learn about how we can improve the Canadian healthcare system. Why? Because they’re bringing together academia. They’re bringing together doctors, practitioners, and they’re bringing together industry and government officials. So we’re putting in one room all these people that can have the discussion about how can we make the Canadian healthcare system work for all Canadians. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn from the best.

I think these convenings are absolutely essential. This conference, in particular, is exactly what the healthcare community needed. It was a convening of diverse voices. It was a convening of thoughtful voices. It was a convening of folks who are both on the front lines of care but also have a responsibility to look at things from a 50,000 ft level. So we need more and more of these convenings. They’re an opportunity to learn. They’re an opportunity to be challenged in some of our assumptions and some of our ideas, and they’re an opportunity to create solutions that none of us had before we walked in the room, but because of the combinations of our perspectives, we’re able to generate something completely unique and completely different. And I think this conference has helped to achieve that.