Facilitator: Shazma Mithani, MD, FRCPC

In an era where misinformation spreads rapidly, healthcare leaders have a powerful opportunity and responsibility to become trusted voices online. This interactive workshop provides practical guidance for building a credible, compelling social media presence, creating engaging evidence-based content and navigating online spaces with confidence and professionalism. Participants will explore how healthcare messaging shapes public trust and learn strategies to amplify their voice while maintaining resilience in the face of misinformation.

Designed for physicians with limited public-facing experience, this session empowers leaders to use social media intentionally and authentically to rebuild trust, foster community connection and promote safe, informed healthcare dialogue.

Learning objectives:

• Recognize the role of healthcare professionals in addressing misinformation and the impact of their online presence on public trust.
• Explore characteristics of compelling, credible content tailored for social media platforms that promote evidence-based healthcare information.
• Apply strategies to amplify their message and engage effectively with online communities while maintaining professionalism and resilience in the face of misinformation.

Facilitators: Heather Murray, MD, MSc, FRCPC; Cheryl Hunchak, MD, FRCPC

Recent estimates indicate that 1 in 17 patient admissions in Canadian hospitals involved at least one adverse event. These patient safety incidents have tremendous negative impact on patients and their families, as well as the physicians and team members providing this care. When a patient safety incident occurs, physicians are required to disclose what happened and offer an apology – conversations that can be emotionally complex and challenging for everyone involved. Many physicians feel unprepared for these moments, despite strong evidence that effective disclosure supports healing for patients, families and clinicians.

This interactive workshop provides practical, medico-legal guidance grounded in Canadian apology legislation, common physician questions and real case examples. Participants will gain concrete tools, a clear framework and hands-on practice to navigate disclosure conversations with confidence, compassion and professionalism.

Learning objectives:

• Explain the protections offered to physicians through apology legislation in Canada.
• Apply a framework for a disclosure conversation to case scenarios involving patient safety incidents and medical error.
• Practice skills for conducting effective disclosure conversations with patients and families.

Facilitators: Curtis Johnston, MD, FRCPC, CCPE; Nadia Salvaterra, MD, CCFP, CCPE

In the pursuit of compassionate leadership, physician leaders may find themselves “helping” in ways that unintentionally hinder growth, autonomy and resilience within their teams. This workshop explores the paradox of well-intentioned leadership behaviours, such as rescuing others from difficult situations, avoiding tough conversations or over-functioning that can erode trust, limit learning and stifle development. It addresses a critical blind spot in high-stakes healthcare environments, where excessive helping can inadvertently disempower teams and undermine accountability and psychological safety.

This workshop invites participants to examine their leadership habits through the LEADS in a Caring Environment framework. Through facilitated discussion, targeted coaching techniques and practical tools, participants will learn to recognize disempowering support, apply effective delegation and coaching strategies, set clear boundaries and communicate with clarity and kindness. By reframing supportive leadership to emphasize empowerment and accountability, the workshop strengthens self-awareness, relational intelligence and influence, while promoting more effective leadership across physician-led teams and organizations.

Learning objectives:

• Identify leadership behaviours that unintentionally undermine team development and autonomy.
• Apply coaching and delegation strategies that promote empowerment and accountability in physician-led teams.
• Communicate boundaries and expectations with clarity, kindness and courage in the face of complexity.
• Reflect on and challenge personal leadership assumptions to enhance authenticity and influence.
• Integrate inclusive leadership practices that support equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility (EDIA) and psychological safety across diverse healthcare teams.

Facilitators: Chandi Chandrasena, MD, CCFP, FCFP; Emily Wu, Bsc 2026

We talk a lot about digital transformation but not nearly enough about how it feels to work in a digital system that often feels more demanding than supportive. Digital overload is a growing driver of clinician burnout and compassion fatigue. This workshop introduces the 5Bs (Bucket Filling, Building Capacity, Breaks, Boundaries and Balance) of Digital Wellness, a practical framework to help leaders understand digital pain points, reduce administrative burden and cultivate healthier digital environments. Through reflective dialogue and co-design activities, participants will identify challenges in their own settings and develop actionable strategies that promote efficiency, well-being and bring humanity back into our digital spaces.

As digital demands escalate across the healthcare system, leaders play a pivotal role in ensuring technology supports, rather than strains, the workforce. This workshop equips participants with compassionate, practical tools to sustain a thriving, digitally-balanced team.

Learning objectives:

• Describe how digital environments contribute to clinician burnout and well-being.
• Apply a “Digital Wellness Framework” to identify pain points and opportunities within their organizations.
• Propose practical, compassionate leadership strategies to foster healthier digital practices and more connected teams.
• Develop at least one actionable idea to implement in their own setting that promotes both digital efficiency and human connection.

Facilitators: Warren Ma, MD, MBA, FRCPC; Kirstie McLelland, MD, FRCPC

This interactive workshop explores how the Edmonton Zone Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) translated Michael Porter’s Value-Based Healthcare framework into measurable system improvements. Through a clinician-led command structure integrating Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Departments, and inpatient capacity management, the IOC achieved a 12-minute reduction in EMS offload times, a 42% decline in Red Alert events, and $6.3 million in avoided EMS expansion costs, yielding a 106% annual ROI, without compromising patient safety or increasing inter-facility transfers.

Participants will examine how courageous leadership drove process redesign while kindness fostered trust, collaboration and psychological safety across teams. The workshop highlights practical tools, including the STEP (Short-Term Escalation Plans) framework, service-level occupancy metrics and shared-visibility dashboards, equipping participants to implement similar strategies in their own health systems. Beyond operational outcomes, the IOC strengthened leadership capacity, aligned teams around shared definitions of value and promoted a culture of transparency, accountability, and innovation. Participants will leave with actionable approaches to embed courageous and kind leadership in system operations, enhancing efficiency, resilience and team cohesion.

Learning objectives:

• Analyze how principles from the Edmonton Zone Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) model can be applied within each participant’s own health system to operationalize Porter’s Value-Based Healthcare framework and enhance outcomes, efficiency and value.
• Apply courageous and compassionate leadership principles to real-time operational decisions by fostering trust, transparency and balance between data-driven efficiency and kindness-centred care.
• Design adaptable escalation and coordination structures, such as the Edmonton Zone STEP framework, that embed predictable and psychologically safe leadership behaviours to strengthen coordination, resilience and equitable risk distribution across the system.
• Evaluate clinical, operational and financial outcomes to identify how measurable improvements in flow, quality and cost reflect leadership practices that drive value creation, continuous learning and system-wide improvement.
• Integrate transparent data systems, standardized definitions and trust-based leadership practices to enable real-time visibility, informed decision-making and shared accountability across interdisciplinary teams and organizations.

Facilitators: Henry Annan, MD, MPP, FRCPC; Victor Do, MD, FRCPC, MSc

Redefining leadership through courage and kindness begins with how we show up for one another, and mentorship is one of the most powerful expressions of physician leadership. However, few physicians receive formal guidance on how to be effective mentors or mentees. This workshop explores mentorship as a core practice of courageous and kind physician leadership. Participants will learn how to cultivate mentoring relationships that empower, challenge and sustain individuals across all career stages. It will address mentorship readiness for learners and early-career physicians, while also offering intentional, equity-informed mentoring strategies for established leaders.

Through reflective exercises and evidence-based tools, participants will examine effective communication, navigate challenges such as power imbalances and emotional labour. They will leave with concrete mentorship plans and a renewed sense of leadership responsibility for cultivating environments where others can thrive.

Learning objectives:

• Analyze the attributes of courageous and kind mentorship and how they align with effective leadership in healthcare.
• Develop individualized strategies for identifying mentors or mentees that align with personal and professional growth goals.
• Apply practical tools to initiate, sustain and evaluate mentorship relationships that promote psychological safety, belonging and reciprocal learning.
• Demonstrate leadership behaviours that foster inclusive, compassionate and values-driven mentorship cultures within their teams or institutions.