Healthcare Change Makers HIROC (Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada)

Paris Semansky is Director, Communications and Public Affairs at CAMH. This role urges her to wear a variety of hats, including being a brand protector, advocate, and problem-solver.
Patricia Hoffer also wears a number of hats while being Chief Communications Officer and Vice President, External Relations at St. Joseph’s Health Care London. She takes pride in leading a diverse and dedicated group of communicators and storytellers.
In this episode, Paris and Patricia share key strategies that help them ensure their teams succeed in the healthcare setting, their thoughts on strategic integrated communications, the importance of removing the noise that comes with their jobs, and more!
Quotables:
“We’re known for the what and the how, but when we go back to the why then that’s where the strategy comes in and that’s where the purpose and the matter come in.” – PH
“When you have a team approach, you bring much more diversity and thought, much more creativity, and much more strategy to the table.” - PH
“Make sure that Communications has a seat at the leadership table, because without it we don’t have a line of sight on not just the issues, but opportunities that others won’t think about from a communications perspective, storytelling perspective, or brand perspective.”- PH
“One of the core things we can do to make our team successful is to have our team not all be the same, in experience, socioeconomic background, racial background, religious background, there’s so many different components to that.” - PS
“Our goal is to take your plan and enable success and make it sing no matter what it is, whether it’s an issue we’re trying to manage or a great story that we’re trying to tell.” – PH
“When communicators have the opportunity to be at decision making tables in the middle of a crisis, we show our full scope of practice. We show our ability to be strategic and to think about the broader community.”– PS
“The role and value of communications is all about driving culture, improving and strengthening our brand and reputation, and making that alignment of what are the priorities of the organization, what is the strategy, and how does that all converge with our community we serve.” – PH
“We’re the boundary spanners and environment scanners, we’re looking at what’s going on in the world, we’re that contact with the outside world.” - PS
“Provide time and opportunity and space to be proactive versus reactive because that fuels creativity and allows time for that strategic opportunity.”- PH
“Why am I throwing the covers off in the morning?” - PH
Mentioned in this Episode:
CAMH
St. Joseph’s Health Care London
Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast
Follow us on Twitter, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
Email us at Communications@HIROC.com.
 

Dr. Devin Singh refused to be a bystander when he recognized inefficiencies in health systems, and he jumped into action by co-founding Hero AI – a clinical automation platform which aims to improve patient safety and wait times. Devin fuels Hero AI by tapping into his experiences and expertise as Emergency Physician at The Hospital for Sick Children to recognize the needs of providers and patients.
“It was really important to think through what the real barriers are to improving care in our institution and beyond”, says Dr. Devin Singh when explaining the early stages of creating Hero AI.
In this episode, Devin shares his journey on becoming an entrepreneur including the barriers and lessons learned, advice he would give to other healthcare leaders on driving innovation and change, and how the sports space inspires his career.
Quotables:
“I’m so blessed that SickKids was willing to take this new technology on - there are hard questions to tackle, and as an institution rather than shying away SickKids said this is important let’s figure this out.” -DS
“Although there’s so much cool technology that’s evolving, the technology isn’t the most important part – it’s actually about the humans, and it’s about the workflow that is being adopted and enabled by the technology.” -DS
“Don’t let what feels like brick walls you run into again and again early on in the journey actually feel like these are reasons not to continue. They’re actually exciting opportunities to break ground on something that’s new and novel.” -DS
“Early on in the entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey, you want to find the people who are going to say no quickly. It means they represent a really different opinion or potential landmine or roadblock down the road.” -DS
“I always find in the athletics or sports space it’s surprising to see how much failure someone has to go through to be great. And so that’s something I’ve really taken to heart around this idea of truly promoting a fail fast fail safe culture.” -DS
“No one can ever take education away from you.” -DS
Mentioned in this Episode:
The Hospital for Sick Children
Hero AI
Special Olympics Ontario
University of Edinburgh
Cambridge University
Dr. Jason Fischer
Dr. Sasha Litwin
Dr. Anna Goldenberg
Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast
Follow us on Twitter, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
Email us at Communications@HIROC.com.

When Dominic Giroux transitioned into the role of President and CEO and Hôpital Montfort, he took a unique and personalized approach. This approach included having 1 on 1’s with a variety of people in the organization to get to know their views and what’s important to them.
“You need to get to know your people first and earn their trust, and they will tell you what your priorities should be”, says Dominic when explaining the importance of engaging with staff and providing a listening ear.
In this episode, Dominic opens up about what helped him transition into his CEO role, what patient safety means to him personally, his hopes about healthcare moving in one direction, and more!
Quotables:
“What I love about healthcare is the teamwork, the level of commitment by, quite frankly, the smartest and most dedicated professionals I’ve ever met.” -DG
“Montfort has really become a social symbol for linguistic communities across the country, so it’s definitely a source of pride and privilege to be leading Montfort at this time.” -DG
“I find that the challenge in healthcare is to sustain improvements made around safety. I prefer to pick an area of focus and be relentless about it for years in a row.” -DG
“We need to continuously benchmark ourselves around patient safety. We’re fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of data in healthcare and we need to confront the brutal facts.” -DG
“I find that serving on so many boards instilled in me something that I was lucky to learn early in my career, that governance matters in organizations. I would submit that no where is that more important than in healthcare, given both the challenges and opportunities we have in the system.” -DG
“If I had a magic wand, having a clear long term capacity plan for healthcare in Ontario is paramount. For me, the capacity plan is health human resources and its capital.” -DG
“I find that the internal conversations change when patient family advisors are in the room. The focus shifts from the care providers to the patients.” -DG
“There’s always insightful information we receive from HIROC that we use for our risk management framework, our audit committee, the board, and frontline managers.”-DG
Mentioned in this Episode:
Hôpital Montfort
Ontario Hospital Association
Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast
Follow us on Twitter, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
Email us at Communications@HIROC.com.

In this latest episode of HIROC’s Healthcare Change Makers podcast, Dr. Frank Martino, President and CEO of the William Osler Health System, reflects on his leadership journey while emphasizing the importance of remaining positive and aiming high in your career, especially in the context of leading one of Canada’s largest community hospital systems.
Dr. Martino highlights his organization’s ambitious initiatives, including the adoption of an advanced hospital information system, new redevelopment projects, and a groundbreaking partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) School of Medicine. Our discussion also touches on Osler’s commitment to innovation, such as incorporating technologies like artificial intelligence into future healthcare delivery.
Throughout the interview, Dr. Martino's passion for healthcare and his commitment to building strong partnerships and a resilient, patient-centric culture shines through. He talks about the importance of cultivating a positive workplace, building psychological safety within his organization, and the value of learning from failures.
Dr. Martino also delves into his thoughts on his outstanding healthcare team at Osler and their unwavering commitment during challenges posed by the pandemic, and how his organization has evolved to respond to the complexities of serving a growing and diverse community since he joined in 1991. Our conversation even turned personal for a moment as Dr. Martino shared a few heartwarming memories from his experience, including a critical life-saving moment early in his career, showcasing his dedication to his healthcare team.
Quotables:
“We were very proud of receiving accreditation with exemplary standing. Something that is the highest achievement that you would receive from Accreditation Canada. That allowed my staff to understand that they were exceptional healthcare workers and continue to be. Aim high and always be positive.” – FM
“We as an organization have had to evolve. We’ve had to expand. We’ve had back-to-back redevelopments in our health system expanding the capacity that this community deserves.” – FM
“And that is what we focus on, in addressing those challenges, with innovative projects and initiatives. Assuring that we communicate with our community. We go to them for advice when a new initiative or strategy has been put in place. We want to make sure we get the patient and caregiver perspective on how we should grow programs and what initiatives and innovations we should put in place, and whether they actually work for them.” – FM
“When I go and do rounding, we call it ‘Let’s be Frank,’ or ‘Frank Conversations,’ and during these frank conversations we work around a huddle board and it’s been a huge success!” – FM
“Our job is really to keep an eye on the future. Look at what healthcare will be like in 10, 20, 30 years. One area that we’re going to start to focus on is looking at how artificial intelligence becomes part of the way we deliver care in the future. Harnessing it in an effective way, both in our workflow and in the way we intersect with patients.” – FM
“I think culture is what really defines and organization. We at Osler look at people as one of our foundational enablers to our strategic plan. We are to deliver patient-inspired healthcare without boundaries. To achieve that, you need to have the ‘people’ component of your organization inspired to provide the best care for both patients and families.” – FM
“One mentor once told me, ‘you need to surround your yeses with a lot of no’s,’ so you need to focus on the things you know you can achieve and do them well and prioritize.” – FM
“If I would give anyone advice, it’s get out of your office, out of your chair, and walk. I love walking meetings.” – FM
Mentioned in this Episode:
Toronto Metro Metropolitan University School of Medicine
Brampton Civic Hospital
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With a new year on the horizon, Catherine is looking forward to so many things – the continued efforts in Health Human Resources, advancing the work in the main areas of Risk, the future of Collaborative Benefits, and so much more.
“My optimism is around people that surprise me every day. When I think you can’t help but be defeated, human spirit and strength comes forward every time”, says Catherine when explaining her positive outlook for 2024.
In this episode, Catherine gives us a glimpse into the mind of a CEO, including her zest for learning new things and how she recharges and stays inspired through even the most difficult of times.
Before we let her go, a surprise guest joins us to chat and gives us a sneak peak into what family time looks like for Catherine!
Quotables:
“There are these juxtapositions of so much that is going on, yet there’s reason for hope because the bedrock of what we provide in our healthcare system and the people that provide it is so very strong.” - CG
“I’m continually impressed by the people I work with everyday and the people that we have the true pleasure of serving in the healthcare system who are doing the work that is fundamental to the lives of so many citizens of this country.” - CG
“We have a population of employees who know that when they provide feedback, they will have a response and I think that’s phenomenal.” - CG
“Our strength will always be that we have brilliant and caring people who are willing to spend time with us so we learn what they’re doing, and we can take that knowledge and put it into forms that are used more generally.” - CG
“Lately I’ve been focused on how there are women who are coming into leadership, how they historically have not been facilitated to have a voice, and now are so strong in our system.” - CG
“If you’re feeling like you’re not accomplishing what you need to or want to, or you’re making no progress at all, give yourself the 5 minutes to walk around the block and compare where your life is today with how it was 6 months ago, and you’ll be inevitably inspired by that.” - CG
“Of course there are really hard times, and we’re all at times feeling defeated, but the people I interact with, the people that provide care in our system, the people at HIROC, there’s huge optimism on all those fronts.” - CG
Mentioned in this Episode:
TOH’s Innovation Framework
Ontario Hospital Association
HIROC Safety Grants Program
Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast
Follow us on Twitter, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
Email us at Communications@HIROC.com.

Stress and burnout within IT have been on the rise, which is why it’s transformative to create a sense of work life balance which leaders can help implement. Nimira believes that it’s important to check in with her team’s wellbeing and be there for each other outside of work to establish solidarity and balance.
“You take care of yourself first, then you take care of others,” says Nimira when explaining the importance of prioritizing one’s health and leading by example for her team.
In this episode, Nimira offers her wisdom on preventing burnout, embracing technological change within IT, the importance of sharing learnings, and staying connected with patients and their families.
Quotables:
“Let’s think about how to use these technologies efficiently, how do we develop guiding principles around the ethical use around these technologies, and how do we also make sure that we think about some of our inclusion principles.” -ND
“Try to bring in those people we don’t normally bring to the table just to hear their voices, and sometimes they may even bring in something we never would’ve thought about.” -ND
“My goal at the end of the day is if a hospital or healthcare organization is able to take away one or two steps where they can be better prepared and they’re better supported, I think we’ve done a good job.” -ND
“There were incidents like the cyber incident where you need to be directive, so in that point in time I had to really step up, make some decisions, drive some decisions forward, and bring in the right people. I needed to collaborate with the right people and ask for help when needed.” -ND
“The foundation of being able to support each other is grounded in the ability to understand each other.” -ND
“I strongly believe this partnership and communication between IT and communication teams or public affair teams is foundational.” -ND
“I actually would appreciate when my team members share with me some of the challenges of that they’re going through because that way I can help them, and we have all of our team members that can support them.” -ND
Mentioned in this Episode:
The Hospital for Sick Children
Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast
Follow us on Twitter, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
Email us at Communications@HIROC.com.