DR. KAVEH SHOJANIA, MD

SENIOR SCHOLAR

Dr. Shojania is Vice Chair (Quality & Innovation) in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, where he also sees patients as a general internist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Shojania was also the inaugural Director of CQuIPS (from 2009-2019).

Dr. Shojania’s research focuses on identifying and further developing effective strategies for achieving improved quality of care. He has more than 160 publications indexed in Medline, including papers in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Google Scholar lists over 20,000 citations to his work for an h-index of 66. Dr. Shojania held a Canada Research Chair in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement from 2004-2013, and he has twice delivered invited presentations on patient safety and healthcare quality to the US Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine).

After medical school at the University of Manitoba and internship at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Shojania completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the world leaders in patient safety research. Under the supervision of Dr David Bates (now an internationally recognized researcher in medication safety and clinical informatics) he conducted an early randomized controlled trial of computerized decision support as an antibiotic stewardship strategy. (He recently supervised a meta-analysis of over 100 RCTs of computerized decision support published in the British Medical Journal.)

Dr. Shojania then undertook the first fellowship in Hospital Medicine in the US—at the University of California San Francisco with Dr Robert Wachter, who coined the term ‘hospitalist’ and helped establish what has since grown into second largest subspeciality of internal medicine in the US (after Cardiology). Dr Shojania stayed on faculty at UCSF for four years before returning to Canada. The work he conducted with Dr Wachter, including an influential report synthesizing the evidence for 80 specific patient safety interventions, as well as numerous case-based articles and websites introducing clinicians to patient safety concepts, and a book on medical error written for a general audience on, resulted in their sharing one of the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Awards (2004) from the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission for Innovation in Patient Safety at a National Level.

In 2011, Dr Shojania became Editor-in Chief of BMJ Quality & Safety Quality –later co-Editor-in-Chief with Prof Mary Dixon-Woods of Cambridge University until they both stepped down in September 2020. Under their stewardship, the journal rose to having the highest impact factor in the field of healthcare quality, and the second highest impact factor of any journal in the broader fields of health policy, health services research, clinical informatics, and medical education.

Dr. Shojania currently mentors many junior colleagues working in quality improvement, as well as teaching in the Masters program in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, and is exploring opportunities to galvanize more concrete efforts in healthcare to address the impacts of the climate crisis and social determinants of health.

Notable publications

Who We Are

Dr. Brian Wong, MD, FRCPC

DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & PATIENT SAFETY

Dr. Wong is a staff general internist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and served as C-QuIPS Associate Director, Sunnybrook Site, from 2013 to 2019. Dr. Wong received his MD and subsequent specialty training in General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. After completing his residency training in 2007, he undertook a research fellowship in patient safety funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. In his role as C-QuIPS Associate Director, he co-led both the Certificate Course and EQUIP and worked with academic departments at the University of Toronto to establish criteria to recognize QI and PS activities for the purposes of academic promotion. Outside of Toronto, he has worked with several national and international organizations, including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Choosing Wisely Canada, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, to establish training programs and standards to build QI and patient safety capacity across the learning continuum.

Who We Are

Dr. Kaveh Shojania, MD

SENIOR SCHOLAR

Dr. Shojania is Vice Chair (Quality & Innovation) in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, where he also sees patients as a general internist (at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) and directs the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (C-QuIPS).

Dr Shojania’s research focuses on identifying evidence-based patient safety interventions and effective strategies for translating evidence into practice. Dr Shojania has more than 150 publications indexed in Medline, including in leading journals such as JAMA, the New England Journal, and the Lancet. Google Scholar lists over 19,000 citations to his work with an h-index of 64. And, from 2011-2020, Dr. Shojania was Editor-in-Chief (and then Co-Editor-in-Chief) of BMJ Quality and Safety, which now has the 2nd highest impact factor not just journals covering health care quality and safety, but also all of health services research, clinical informatics, medical education, and health policy.

Who We Are

Dr. Edward Etchells, MD, MSc, FRCPC

SENIOR FACULTY QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ADVISOR

Dr. Etchells serves as a project mentor supporting Faculty members throughout the University who are involved in Quality Improvement work. He received his MD and subsequent specialty training in General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. He joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine after completing an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology. Dr. Etchell’s initial academic interest lay in clinical bioethics, with a focus on informed consent and decision making capacity.

Who We Are

Dr. Olivia Ostrow, MD, FAAP

Dr. Olivia Ostrow is an academic clinician and the patient safety lead for the Division of Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children, and an assistant professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She received her MD at West Virginia University School of Medicine and completed a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics training at the University of California San Diego and the University of Rochester. She is board certified in both specialties and holds a certificate in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety from the University of Toronto. She is an experienced quality improvement champion who is committed to frontline improvement and safety work. Locally, she plays a key leadership role in the Hospital for Sick Children’s Choosing Wisely campaign and is also one of the medical safety leaders for the hospital. At the provincial level, she is actively involved in the P4R Emergency Department Return Visit Quality Initiative with Health Quality Ontario. Dr. Ostrow is the associate course director for the certificate course at the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (C-QuIPS).

Who We Are

Dr. Amanda Mayo, MD, MHSc

C-QuIPS Associate Director, Sunnybrook Hospital

Dr. Amanda Mayo MD MHSc FRCPC is a full-time Clinician in Quality Improvement Physiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She subspecializes in Amputee Rehabilitation. Amanda has a MHSc in Clinical Engineering with a focus on Human Factors Engineering and Usability of Health Technology. Her current QI focus is on improving the continuum of care for individuals with limb loss and preventing dysvascular amputations. Recent projects include reducing wait-times for outpatient rehabilitation, Implementing Prehab for vascular patients, 3D printing of prosthetics, and innovating care pathways for amputees.

Who We Are

Marie Pinard

C-QuIPS Associate Director, Women’s College Hospital

Marie Pinard is the Director of Quality, Safety and Patient Experience at Women's College Hospital. Previously she was the manager of the Quality Management Department at The Hospital for Sick Children, where she had also worked for over 25 years in a variety of clinical roles including as a front-line nurse in Haematology/Oncology, a specialist in Infection Prevention & Control and Manager of Emergency Preparedness. She received her BScN at the University of Toronto and completed a MSc in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is passionate about quality improvement (QI), QI methodology, and QI ethics – she spearheaded the development of a robust process for ethical oversight of QI projects at SickKids and has reviewed over 1000 proposals. Her other professional interests include quality monitoring processes, indicator development, patient safety and the science of improvement. She has experience leading hospital accreditation processes through Accreditation Canada, leading strategic projects, investigating adverse events and steering the development of the hospital's annual Quality Improvement Plan (QIP). Marie also holds an appointment at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto where she is a course instructor in their Masters in Health Administration program.

Who We Are

Dr. Ross Baker, PhD

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Dr. Baker is a Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Together with Dr. Peter Norton, at the University of Calgary, he led the landmark Canadian Adverse Events study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2004. Dr. Baker was a member of the National Patient Safety Steering Committee that recommended the creation of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, and he has helped lead the Safer Healthcare Now! Campaign, the Canadian adaptation of the well known 100,000 lives campaign in the United States (and the subsequent five million lives initiative) focused on implementing widespread implementation of concrete improvements in patient safety.

Who We Are

Dr. Joanne Goldman, PhD

SCIENTIST

Dr. Joanne Goldman is a C-QuIPS Scientist, Cross-Appointed Researcher at The Wilson Centre, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. Her primary research interest is using sociologically informed theoretical and methodological perspectives to study quality improvement and patient safety education and practice. In 2015, Joanne obtained her PhD from the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto. She received a CIHR Doctoral Research Award for her study titled “An ethnography of interprofessional interactions in discharge in a Canadian acute care setting”. Upon graduation, Joanne undertook a postdoctoral position with scientists from C-QuIPS, The Wilson Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital. This postdoctoral study, titled “A case study of advanced post-licensure quality improvement and patient safety education” was funded by The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Who We Are

Leahora Rotteau

PROGRAM MANAGER

Ms. Rotteau oversees the general operations of the Centre, coordinates initiatives and provides project support for Centre-based research programs. She brings expertise in project management and qualitative healthcare research to the team. Ms. Rotteau received her MA from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and worked in the Veteran’s Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre before joining Dr. Shojania’s research team as project manager for a national study of implementation issues for patient safety practices in paediatric and adult hospitals. She joined the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety in December 2009. She is currently working to complete her PhD in Health Services Research at the Institute for Healthcare Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto with an interest in using qualitative methods to understand the context of quality improvement implementation.

Who We Are

Lisha Lo

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Ms. Lo joined the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety in April 2010. She administers the Certificate Course program as well as provides administrative and research support for Centre-based research projects and educational programs. Ms. Lo received her MPH from the University of Hong Kong and worked at the University’s School of Public Health as a research assistant before returning to Toronto, where she conducted a literature review on trigger tools under the guidance of Dr. Ross Baker at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She brings experience in conducting systematic literature reviews, program coordination and event management to the team. She has a keen interest in statistical process control and is currently working on several reviews related to computerised reminders, standardised communcation, and assessment tools in QI.

Who We Are

Sherri Mizrachi

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

With over 22 years of experience in professional office Executive Assistant positions and a track record of strong performance in high-volume, high-pressure environments, Sherri skillfully manages administrative duties for the C-QuIPS department. As Executive Assistant she ensures the smooth operation of the department with her robust knowledge of office management, with efficient handling of internal and external stakeholder inquiries, and timely access to Associate Directors and Directors as required. Sherri is actively involved in the revamping of our C-QuIPS website and is responsible for the project management of our 2020 Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Symposium. Sherri tries to live a healthy lifestyle and stays active by attending cross-fit classes 3-4 times a week.

Core Members

C-QUIPS core members are University of Toronto faculty members, with research or educational activities that align with the mission of the Centre. Core members are participate in Centre educational and research activities in a consistent and robust manner. They frequently lead and/or teach for CQuIPS education programs, present at symposia and/or collaborate on research projects with other members of the Centre. They may also supervise C-QUIPS education program participants.

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Affiliated Members

C-QUIPS affiliate members are University of Toronto faculty members, with research or educational activities that align with the mission of the Centre. They help advance the mission of the Centre through research or education when opportunities arise, but their collaboration in research or educational activities with the Centre is more ad hoc. Affiliate members often attend C-QUIPS events and may occasionally be asked to collaborate on a research project, provide a lecture in one of the Centre’s education programs or present at rounds or symposia.

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Membership

General membership is offered to anyone who has demonstrated interest in quality improvement or patient safety. General members are included on the CQuIPS mailing list and invited to CQuIPS events.

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