Right now, our healthcare workers are on the front lines of battling COVID-19. As Canadians do their part by staying home and keeping their hands clean, medical staff are in hospitals, homes and care centres around the clock to fight the virus and provide comfort to those afflicted with the virus and existing illnesses. Join us as we celebrate hospital workers for rising to the occasion and caring for our most vulnerable populations in this most unprecedented time by bringing together senior representatives from some of Toronto’s busiest hospitals to discuss the way forward.
Join Canadian Club Toronto on May 28 for a discussion on how hospitals have endured during this health crisis, how teams are working together to help us stay healthy and safe, and the successes and challenges they are seeing in their institutions as we enter our fourth month of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. This expert panel will be moderated by André Picard, Health Columnist for The Globe & Mail, and will feature:
• Dr. Susan Abbey – Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Centre for Mental Health, University Health Network
• Dr. Andrew Baker – Chief, Department of Critical Care and Director, Trauma & Neurosurgery Program, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto and Incident Commander, Ontario Critical Care COVID Command Centre
• Dr. Howard Ovens – Emergency Physician and Chief Medical Strategy Officer, Sinai Health System
• Ru Taggar – Executive Vice President & Chief Nursing and Health Professions Executive, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
This virtual event is free of charge. All you need to access the event is to register.
Dr. Susan Abbey
Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Centre for Mental Health, University Health Network and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Susan Abbey is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the University Health Network Centre for Mental Health. Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Academically, Dr. Abbey’s research and clinical interests have been related to the psychiatric care of patients in the medical and surgical setting including the role of depression and anxiety in medical outcomes. Her research has focused on the psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of solid organ transplantation, end-organ failure and life-threatening illness, psychiatric sequelae of intensive care unit treatment and physician mental health. She has taught and researched mindfulness-based stress reduction interventions and has more recently trained in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to prevent depressive relapse.
Dr. Abbey has been active at a health systems level in advocating for improved mental health care for the medically ill and improved access to mental health care through her roles as President of the Ontario Psychiatric Association, President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and President of the Canadian Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. She is an award-winning educator.
Dr. Andrew Baker
Chief, Department of Critical Care and Director, Trauma & Neurosurgery Program, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto and Incident Commander, Ontario Critical Care COVID Command Centre
Dr. Andrew Baker is the Chief of the Departments of Critical Care and of Anesthesia, and the Medical Director of the Surgery and Critical Care Program at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto. He is the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the inaugural Cara Phelan Chair of Critical Care Medicine, and a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and Surgery at the University of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics at the Ryerson University. He has been involved in provincial organizations such as Trillium Gift of Life Network as a director for ten years, and as a subject matter expert for Critical Care Services Ontario on ethical issues of access. Andrew directs a brain injury laboratory in the Keenan Research Centre at St. Michael’s, and he publishes and speaks internationally on his clinical and laboratory research. He is currently the Incident Commander of Ontario Critical Care COVID Command Centre.
Dr. Howard Ovens
Emergency Physician & Chief Medical Strategy Officer, Sinai Health System and Medical Advisor, Sinai Health Foundation
Howard Ovens is an emergency physician and Chief Medical Strategy Officer of the Sinai Health System. At the University of Toronto he holds the rank of Full Professor at the Dept. of Family and Community Medicine and is a Senior Fellow in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is the Ontario Expert Lead for Emergency Medicine; in that capacity he chairs the Emergency Services Advisory Committee and as part of the pandemic response sits on the Ontario Health “R5- Response Table” representing Emergency Medicine. He is also a member of the Public Affairs Committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians; he tweets about issues in the administration of and public policy related to emergency services using the handle @HowardOvens and his blog “Waiting to be seen” is hosted on the Emergency Medicine Cases website.
Ru Taggar
Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing and Health Professions Executive, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Ru Taggar is the Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing and Health Professions Executive at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Ru provides professional leadership to nurses and other regulated health professionals across the organization, as well as executive leadership to the Tory Trauma Program, DAN Women and Babies Program, Schulich Heart Program and the Holland Bone and Joint Program.
Ru currently holds an Adjunct Clinical appointment at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto.
André Picard
Health Reporter and Columnist, The Globe & Mail
André Picard is a health reporter and columnist for The Globe and Mail, where he has been a staff writer since 1987. He is also the author of five bestselling books.
André is an eight-time nominee for the National Newspaper Awards, Canada’s top journalism prize, and past winner of prestigious Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service Journalism.
He was named Canada’s first “Public Health Hero” by the Canadian Public Health Association, as a “Champion of Mental Health” by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his dedication to improving healthcare.
André is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and has received honorary doctorates from six universities, including UBC and the University of Toronto.
