Canada not alone in our quest to improve health care

Reflections on Enterprise Ireland’s Global Healthcare Forum 2022

As a member of the Canadian delegation, I was honoured to join clinicians and health system leaders from 22 countries at Enterprise Ireland’s 2022 Global Healthcare Forum in Dublin.?

The conference brought together C-Level executives and industry leaders at the forefront of Healthcare across Ireland, North America, Europe, and Asia to discuss global healthcare challenges and explore possible solutions.?

Reflecting on what I heard through formal presentations and in discussions with some of Ireland’s leading health and medical technology entrepreneurs, I was struck by the realization that many of the system challenges we are currently dealing with in Ontario, and widely across Canada, are neither unique to us nor possible for us to solve on our own.

My key takeaways:

The health human resources crisis is a global phenomenon.

Canada is not alone in dealing with this challenge. Other nations are seeing the number of nurses decrease due to retirement, burnout and career change, and as the healthcare workforce ages at the same rate as their populations, this trend is set to continue. So, just as we are considering bolstering our nursing compliment here in Canada through the recruitment of internationally educated nurses (IENs), other countries are too.?

This begs the question: How will Canada compete on a global stage for nurses? IENs in Canada face significant bureaucratic and financial hurdles to bridge their professional licenses and candidates are often overwhelmed before they even finish the designated education requirements to meet Canadian or provincial professional standards. Other countries, notably the US, are financially incentivizing IENs and actively supporting them to navigate state licensing requirements.

Another key question: How do we encourage more people to pursue nursing as a profession that is highly valued? An innovative solution proposed by one of the US delegates is to segment a traditional nursing position into the critical roles/functions that only a nurse can perform, and to create new, supportive roles to administer lower function tasks and activities. Canada can learn from others in exploring new models and innovative approaches and work together to encourage youth to see health care as an attractive career option.

The ‘Left Shift Policy’ resonates in the Canadian context.

As the populations we are serving are aging, their healthcare needs are increasing, and service delivery costs are mounting. Many healthcare systems and countries are looking for innovative ways to better integrate care in the community and with primary care – a model that Breid O'Brien from the National Health Service (NHS) referred to as the ‘Left Shift policy’.?

Treating more patients in their homes, tightening the communication linkages with primary care providers, and reducing referrals to, and treatments in, acute care hospitals, moves care downstream from hospitals and to the left into the community. This model resonates with me and aligns with the integrated care models we are developing and implementing at Spectrum to provide seniors the choice, and confidence to age safely in their homes.

Don’t waste a good crisis.

This was a recurring theme. While the pandemic has had devastating impacts around the world, it also introduced an environment that enabled the widespread adoption of virtual care (telemedicine). Even more notable, it reduced historical barriers preventing the sharing of local and national healthcare data that was critical to many healthcare surveillance initiatives, the development of national predictive forecasts, and to population health management. Hope is being held-out that these population health data sharing opportunities will continue in a post-Covid era.

Many of the companies we heard from at the conference have figured out how to harness population data and adapt technology to deliver better outcomes for patients. Canada doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. To expedite modernization of our health system in Ontario and broadly across Canada, we need to look outside our borders to leverage innovation that is proving successful elsewhere.

Climate action is a risk amplifier to global health care.

While many Canadian hospitals and healthcare facilities have developed and implemented energy stewardship and embraced Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) engineering in their organizations, we learned from an Irish entrepreneur Climeaction that climate change is a risk amplifier to global health care, and that strategies to reduce emissions must include the complex healthcare supply chain.?

While I wasn’t aware of provincial strategies or initiatives in Ontario to address this, sitting next to me was Darcia Pope, VP Innovation and Planetary Health, and Chief Transformation Officer at Vancouver Costal Health. Darcia’s unique leadership position was established by VCH’s Board and senior leadership team in response to the drastic impact climate change has recently had on residents in British Columbia including raging forest fires, massive flooding, and significant deaths due to extreme heat. I left this session wondering how Ontario’s healthcare system can leverage the lessons learned in reducing carbon/GHG emissions from other countries, and the great work currently underway in British Columbia.

Canada must leverage global networks to support entrepreneurs in health care.

It’s no secret that cracking into Ontario’s healthcare market with a new product or service is tough, even for Ontarians. While there are sources of funding available in Ontario to support entrepreneurs to develop, test and take their innovative solutions to market, Enterprise Ireland should be commended for taking their support beyond funding, to leveraging a global network of key opinion leaders and influencers that are ready to help Irish entrepreneurs break into these complex markets.?

One evening during the Forum, I was privileged to have had the opportunity to join Jennie Lynch and eight healthcare leaders at the ‘Boston Table’ over dinner. What struck me was the caliber and the backgrounds of the delegates around the table, including prominent leaders in global healthcare systems, and in home care, acute care, insurance, and the mental health & addictions sectors – all poised to help Irish companies break into the North American healthcare market.?Building on the global network of advocates and influencers that Enterprise Ireland has developed for Irish entrepreneurs, the same opportunity exists for the Canadian government to support our entrepreneurs seeking to access both the Canadian, and global markets.

I look forward to continuing the conversations with fellow delegates and some of Ireland’s incredible entrepreneurs that were started last week.?In the meantime, I’m grateful to David McCaffrey and Lydia Rogers from Enterprise Ireland Canada, and to Garrett Murray and Jennie Lynch for the opportunity to participate and learn from such a remarkable and collaborative group of global healthcare thought leaders and entrepreneurs.

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Neil MacLean is Vice President, Integrated Care and Strategic Partnerships at Spectrum Health Care, a leading provider of innovative home care, based in Toronto, Canada.