Date and time

Tuesday, May 19, 2026  (12-1 p.m. ET)

Session Description: 

Funded by an Innovation Grant from the University of Toronto Department of Medicine, we developed a program designed to create a community of practice of health care providers trained to engage in climate action using QI principles and focusing on health outcomes related to food systems or diet. 

Speaker Biography: 

Dr. Palda is a General Internist at St Michael’s Hospital and Clinical Epidemiologist with an interest in Clinical Practice Guideline Methodology and  planetary health. 

Dr. Palda is a member of the Canadian Association of Physician’s for the Environment’s Ontario Agrifood Working Group which is currently focused on educating health professionals on the benefits of healthy plant-rich diets while helping them to integrate this information into their practices. 

Date and time

Tuesday, Feb 3, 2026  (12-1 p.m. ET)

Session Description: 

This presentation will elucidate how an integrated approach involving the interplay and integration of improvement, implementation, and innovation science is guiding the co-design, implementation, and evaluation of an evidence-informed compassionate care intervention bundle at Sinai Health. 

Speaker Biography: 

Dr. Lianne Jeffs is the Chief Scientific Officer at the Science of Care Institute, Research and Innovation Lead at Sinai Health and Senior Clinician Scientist with the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health. She is Professor (status) with the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and is a Senior Fellow, Massey College.

Dr. Jeffs leads a solution-focused research program that aims to address global challenges around safety and quality gaps in our health-care ecosystems by advancing and accelerating health services and policy research. Her research program focuses on accelerating discoveries & innovation; advancing science, practice, & policy; and transforming healthcare ecosystems in the areas of organizational learning, system performance, and compassionate care.

Date and time

Archived Talk

Session Description: 

For the January speaker series presentation, we will feature live presentations of several of the oral abstracts that were included as part of the CQuIPS Symposium held on November 13, 2025.

Clarissa Skorupski is a PGY5 Adult Hematology resident at the University of Toronto and previous participant of the 2023 – 2024 CQuIPS certificate course. She has strong academic interests in quality improvement and promoting health equity in cancer care access and delivery. Her clinical interests are in the care of patients with myeloid disorders and she will be pursuing advanced clinical training in the Princess Margaret Leukemia/MPN Fellowship Program in 2026. 

Abstract: The care complexity and economic burdens related to cancer treatment in Canada are continuing to increase with the introduction of novel therapeutics. We present the pilot health equity survey results from the Care For All Health Equity Pilot at St. Michael’s Hospital – a mixed methods QI initiative seeking to identify and understand barriers to complete and timely systemic cancer treatment. Amongst our inner city patient population, we observed a high rate of transportation and financial toxicity related to cancer care and identified disability, employment status, and transportation stress as possible predictive factors contributing to missed oncology appointments in an exploratory analysis. 

Ramanja Pakirathan, MBA, PMP, CHE is a Quality Improvement Facilitator at Scarborough Health Network, where she leads initiatives to enhance patient safety, care quality, and system efficiency. She works closely with clinical and operational teams to apply structured improvement methodologies, support change management, and advance organizational performance. Ramanja’s professional interests include human-centered design, implementation science, and health system innovation.  

Abstract: SHN implemented equity-focused, community-engaged quality improvements—including staff education, physician case reviews, and Epic enhancements—to reduce ED Physician Initial Assessment times for high-acuity SCD patients. The initiative achieved a 78% reduction, surpassing the 15-minute target ahead of schedule. 

Dr. Tom Bodley is an intensive care physician and Quality Improvement expert at Scarborough Health Network. He has a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology, and his academic work focuses on implementation of evidence-based practices, reducing low-value care, and improving the sustainability of healthcare delivery. He is also the Co-Director of Choosing Wisely Canada’s “Using Labs Wisely” program.

Abstract: The Scarborough Health Network ICU “Wake Up and Breathe” program increased spontaneous breathing trial best practices across three hospitals, raising rates among eligible patients from 28% to 48% without increasing re-intubations. Early results show equitable increases across patient reported preferred language groups. Ongoing work focuses on sedation weaning, protocol refinement, and bedside family engagement.

Jane Ballantyne, BA, RSSW, MClSc is the Manager of the Patient Relations Department at UHN. Jane provides leadership in the department where questions, concerns, compliments and other feedback are received from patients and families for the purpose of safety and quality improvement at UHN. She is passionate about ensuring that patient voices are amplified through an accessible, equitable, fair, culturally safe and, most of all, compassionate complaint resolution process.

Tahara Bhate, MD MHSc CCFP(EM) is an Emergency Physician with University Health Network, and an Assistant Professor (Quality and Innovation) with the University of Toronto. Her academic interests are in systems improvement and patient safety. She is also involved in efforts nationally to support emergency departments and clinicians in improving the quality and safety of their care. She holds a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of British Columbia, and is a graduate of the Healthcare Improvement Fellowship with the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (C-QuiPS) at the University of Toronto

Abstract: Spotlight on the Patient Experience: Evaluating Processes for Identifying Non-Physical Patient Harm in the Emergency DepartmentThere is emerging recognition that patients experience a wide spectrum of preventable harms beyond what is normally captured in safety events. At our multi-site academic health center, we introduced the concept of ‘Non-Physical Harm’ (NPH) to capture an expanded understanding of preventable harm, including emotional or psychological harms, and operationalized a process to identify, categorize and analyze this type of harm, using the same framework for learning as in ‘traditional’ patient safety events. One year post implementation, we sought to evaluate the efficacy of our process, utilizing the Emergency Department as a pilot evaluation site.

Date and time

Tuesday, June 16, 2026  (12-1 p.m. ET)

Session Description: 

This presentation will highlight the importance of antimicrobial stewardship as it relates to patient quality and safety. This presentation will also describe examples of system-level QI interventions that have been employed at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre to improve the judicious use of antibiotics.

Speaker Biography: 

Dr. Philip Lam is an Infectious Diseases physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the Medical Director for the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. After obtaining his medical degree at Queen’s University, he completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Toronto, followed by a Master’s degree in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto. His research interests are focused on using quality improvement methodology to develop sustainable system-level interventions to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics. Dr. Lam is the project lead for a national multi-faceted initiative aimed at improving the use of highly bioavailable oral antibiotic therapy in the treatment of osteoarticular infections.

Date and time

Tuesday, April 21, 2026  (12-1 p.m. ET)

Session Description: 

This talk will outline practical approaches for embedding equity into quality improvement in kidney disease care, highlighting the importance of data disaggregation and presenting provincial data that demonstrate disparities, alongside efforts such as race-free eGFR implementation and equity-focused care models.

Speaker Biography: 

Dr. Bourne Auguste is a nephrologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He serves as the inaugural Provincial Medical Lead for Health Equity at the Ontario Renal Network and is the Co-Director of the Certificate Course at the Centre for Quality Improvement & Patient Safety (CQuIPS). His work focuses on embedding equity into kidney disease care, including race-free eGFR implementation, equity-focused home dialysis models, and provincial initiatives to identify and reduce disparities through meaningful data disaggregation.

Date and time

Archived Talk

Session Description: 

Join this interactive session designed to help you understand, learn, and practice the principles of effective error disclosure. Through a blend of concise didactics and innovative AI-driven exercises, you’ll build the confidence and skills needed to communicate transparently with patients while leading and supporting your interprofessional team.

Speaker Biography: 

Dr. Smeraglio attended Oregon Health & Science University for medical school then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University. In 2016, she joined the Division of Hospital Medicine at Portland Veterans Hospital and serves as a clinical teacher/attending physician on the Portland VA acute care wards.  She has served as the Director for Health Systems Science for OHSU’s Internal Medicine Residency Program since 2020 and for OHSU’s Department of Medicine (DOM) GME since 2024.  In her Health Systems roles, she oversees all longitudinal health systems science curricula and trainee quality projects in the DOM. She also served as the Director of the Alliance of Academic Internal Medicine and Program Directors for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PDPQ) collaborative from 2020-2025 where she created content and taught for the ACGME’s quality and patient safety training program. Her research focuses on the intersection of health systems and education and how we leverage interactive gamification to improve learning.