Agenda

Healthcare leaders are operating in an era of unprecedented complexity. Escalating demand, workforce shortages, fiscal constraints, rapid technological advancement, and shifting patient expectations are fundamentally reshaping how care is delivered. At the same time, CEOs are expected to lead beyond their organizations—building partnerships, driving innovation, strengthening resilience, and improving outcomes across increasingly interconnected health systems.

We will explore the evolving role of healthcare CEOs in navigating uncertainty while creating sustainable, high-performing organizations prepared for the future. Drawing on his experience leading one of Canada’s largest academic health networks, he will share leadership lessons on fostering organizational agility, empowering people, embracing digital transformation, and building collaborative models of care that improve quality, access, and patient experience. Attendees will gain practical insights into how visionary leadership can transform today’s challenges into opportunities for lasting system-wide impact.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Explore how healthcare CEOs can successfully lead organizations through increasing complexity while maintaining a clear strategic vision and organizational resilience
• Learn leadership approaches for balancing financial sustainability, workforce well-being, innovation, and operational excellence in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape
• Discover how collaboration, digital transformation, and integrated partnerships can strengthen healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes across the continuum of care
• Gain insights into the leadership capabilities and organizational strategies that will define successful healthcare CEOs over the next decade

Canadian healthcare leaders know the drill: expectations keep rising, resources stay finite, and every dollar has to work harder than ever.

However, new investments on their own—in technology, workforce, infrastructure, or service transformation—do not magically create value. The organizations that get the strongest, most durable results are not always the ones with the biggest budgets. They are often the ones whose leadership teams know how to work together to turn investment into action.

Leaders need to intentionally create the conditions that allow teams to perform at their best, treating teaming not as a “nice to have,” but as an ongoing business discipline. The most effective healthcare organizations know that investment outcomes are shaped by the conditions leaders create for their teams to execute, adapt, and succeed together. In an era where every healthcare dollar matters, team effectiveness may be one of the smartest investments a leader can make.

In this talk, Karen and Shannon will review six conditions for success in executive leadership and boards of director environments. These conditions can form a basis for determining future success in transformation.

As Canada’s population ages and more care shifts beyond hospital walls, healthcare organizations must rethink how they partner with caregivers, seniors’ services, and community providers to deliver coordinated, person-centred care. Family caregivers provide the majority of care in Canada, while long-term care, retirement living, and community organizations are playing an increasingly critical role in improving health outcomes and reducing pressure on hospitals.

In this executive conversation, leaders from the caregiver, seniors’ living, and community care sectors will discuss how stronger partnerships can improve care transitions, support healthy aging, reduce avoidable hospital utilization, and create a more sustainable healthcare system. Through practical examples and strategic insights, panellists will explore what CEOs can do to better integrate these sectors into the broader continuum of care.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Recognize the strategic role caregivers, seniors’ services, and community organizations play in improving health outcomes and reducing system pressures
• Explore innovative partnership models that strengthen care transitions and support aging closer to home
• Identify opportunities to build a more sustainable, person-centred healthcare system through cross-sector collaboration and shared accountability

Canada’s healthcare system is undergoing unprecedented transformation as leaders respond to workforce shortages, financial pressures, an aging population, and growing demand for more integrated, accessible care. The decisions healthcare CEOs make today will shape how care is delivered over the next two decades.

This executive panel brings together health system leaders from provincial, regional, and community healthcare organizations to explore the future of Canada’s health system. Panelists will discuss the leadership strategies, partnerships, governance models, and innovations needed to build a more connected, resilient, and sustainable healthcare system that delivers better outcomes for patients and communities.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Explore the leadership priorities that will define Canada’s healthcare system over the next 15 years

• Learn how CEOs are driving health system integration, innovation, and organizational transformation across diverse healthcare settings

• Discover strategies for balancing financial sustainability, workforce resilience, and improved patient outcomes in an increasingly complex environment

• Gain insights into how collaboration across governments, hospitals, community organizations, and private partners can strengthen Canada’s healthcare system

Healthcare leaders are under increasing pressure to improve access, optimize operations, and deliver better patient outcomes while managing growing financial and workforce challenges. Artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and integrated data platforms are providing new opportunities to strengthen decision-making, improve organizational agility, and enable more proactive, connected health systems. For healthcare CEOs, the challenge is no longer whether to embrace digital transformation, but how to do so strategically, responsibly, and at scale.

In this executive session, Oracle will explore how leading healthcare organizations are leveraging AI-powered technologies, enterprise data, and digital infrastructure to support operational excellence, workforce planning, financial sustainability, and patient-centred care. Through practical examples and emerging trends, attendees will gain insights into how digital innovation can help leaders make faster, more informed decisions while building resilient organizations prepared for the future of healthcare.

Key Takeaways:

• Explore how artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and enterprise data are transforming executive decision-making and health system performance

• Learn how digital platforms can improve operational efficiency, workforce planning, financial sustainability, and patient care across complex healthcare organizations

• Understand the leadership considerations for implementing AI responsibly, including governance, cybersecurity, interoperability, and organizational change management

• Discover practical strategies for building a digitally enabled healthcare organization that is agile, resilient, and prepared for future challenge

Health systems across Canada face persistent challenges in access, workforce capacity, and care fragmentation—particularly in regions with rural realities and complex cross-border dynamics. Santé Québec Outaouais has implemented a proximity-based leadership model that shifts decision-making and accountability closer to communities, aligning partners around population needs and strengthening local governance.

This session explores how proximity-based leadership transforms care delivery through Local Health Networks, integrated coordination structures, and data-driven decision-making. By leveraging localized population health profiles and multi-sector partnerships, this model enables more responsive, coordinated, and person-centred care.

Participants will gain insight into how subsidiarity, territorial governance, and clinical-administrative alignment contribute to improved access, patient experience, and system performance. The session will also examine the evolution toward Proximity 2.0, including agile governance and indicator-based management.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Apply proximity-based leadership principles to strengthen local decision-making and system responsiveness

• Design or adapt integrated local governance structures (e.g., coordination committees, territorial tables) to align stakeholders and services

• Identify key success factors and challenges in scaling proximity-based models to larger or urban systems

Healthcare organizations are facing unprecedented expectations to deliver better outcomes while accelerating innovation, embracing new technologies, and ensuring financial sustainability. Academic health centres play a critical role in shaping the future of healthcare by advancing research, driving clinical excellence, educating the next generation of healthcare professionals, and translating innovation into improved patient care. For today’s healthcare CEOs, the challenge is creating organizations that can innovate continuously while remaining focused on quality, equity, and the needs of patients and communities.

In this keynote, Dr. Ronald Cohn will share his perspective on leading one of the world’s premier pediatric academic health science centres through a period of rapid transformation. Drawing on SickKids’ experience in research, precision medicine, artificial intelligence, digital innovation, and global collaboration, he will explore how healthcare leaders can build organizations that foster innovation, accelerate discovery, strengthen partnerships, and create lasting impact across the health system. Attendees will gain insights into how visionary leadership and a culture of continuous innovation can help prepare healthcare organizations for the future.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Explore how healthcare CEOs can foster a culture of innovation while maintaining excellence in quality, patient care, education, and research
• Learn how emerging technologies, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence are transforming healthcare delivery and creating new opportunities for system-wide improvement
• Discover leadership strategies for building high-performing organizations that embrace collaboration, continuous learning, and responsible innovation
• Gain insights into how academic health science centres can partner with healthcare organizations to accelerate discovery, improve patient outcomes, and shape the future of Canadian healthcare

Health systems are under increasing pressure to deliver better outcomes, equity, and sustainability. In response, during 2026 HSO and Accreditation Canada engaged extensively with clients, clinicians, and partners to understand how accreditation can better support real-world improvement.

This engagement revealed a clear and consistent message: while accreditation remains valued, the current model is often seen as too complex, inflexible, and overly focused on process rather than outcomes. These insights have informed a new vision, shifting from compliance-based assessment toward enabling continuous performance improvement toward patient outcomes and population health, grounded in Value-Based Health Care.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Listen deeply to drive transformation: System-wide change must be grounded in the lived experience of clients, clinicians, and patients, not assumptions or legacy models

• Shift from compliance to value: Focus leadership attention on outcomes, experience, equity, and sustainability ensuring that effort translates into measurable impact for patients and populations

• Build for continuous improvement: Move beyond episodic cycles toward real-time performance management, supported by data, clarity, and consistent evaluation

As health systems face rising demand, capacity pressures, workforce challenges, and increasingly complex patient needs, community-based organizations are playing a larger role in shaping the future of care. This panel will explore how community health, mental health, Francophone services, and social support organizations are helping break down silos between acute care and community care, strengthen integrated care models, and improve outcomes beyond hospital walls. Panellists will discuss how community agencies can be better recognized as strategic health system partners, and how CEOs can build stronger alignment across sectors.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Discover why community organizations are becoming essential partners in building Canada’s future integrated health system

• Learn how CEOs can move beyond traditional organizational boundaries to create stronger partnerships that improve population health, patient experience, and system performance

• Explore innovative models of collaboration that align acute care, primary care, community services, and social supports around the needs of patients and communities

Healthcare organizations are being challenged to simultaneously improve access, enhance quality, strengthen workforce engagement, embrace digital innovation, and remain financially sustainable—all while responding to growing patient demand and increasing system complexity. Successfully leading this transformation requires more than operational excellence; it demands bold leadership, strong partnerships, and a relentless focus on delivering value for patients and communities.

The speaker will share insights from leading one of Canada’s most innovative community academic hospitals through large-scale organizational and system transformation. She will explore how healthcare CEOs can foster cultures of innovation, build resilient organizations, strengthen partnerships across the continuum of care, and lead meaningful change while maintaining a focus on quality, equity, and patient-centred care. Attendees will gain practical leadership strategies for driving sustainable transformation in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.

Key takeaways:

• Explore leadership strategies for driving large-scale organizational transformation while maintaining operational excellence and high-quality patient care
• Learn how healthcare CEOs can build resilient, innovative organizations by strengthening culture, workforce engagement, and cross-sector collaboration
• Discover practical approaches to balancing financial sustainability, digital innovation, infrastructure renewal, and evolving community healthcare needs
• Gain insights into how bold leadership and strategic partnerships can accelerate health system transformation and improve outcomes for patients and communities

Canada’s healthcare workforce challenge can no longer be addressed through recruitment alone. Persistent shortages, burnout, demographic change, increasing demand for care, and evolving expectations of work are forcing healthcare CEOs to reconsider how their organizations attract, retain, deploy, and support their people. The next phase of workforce transformation will require leaders to move beyond vacancy management toward fundamentally redesigning how work gets done.
This executive panel will explore how healthcare organizations can build a more sustainable workforce through new models of care, role redesign, flexible workforce strategies, leadership development, technology and AI augmentation, and stronger approaches to employee health and well-being. Panelists will examine what CEOs can do to maximize the capabilities of their existing workforce while simultaneously building the talent pipeline for the future. The discussion will focus on practical organizational and system-level changes that can improve productivity, reduce burnout, strengthen retention, and ensure healthcare organizations have the people and capabilities needed to meet future demand.

Key Session Takeaways

• Explore how healthcare organizations can move beyond traditional recruitment strategies toward fundamentally redesigning workforce models and how care is delivered
• Identify opportunities to use AI, automation, new roles, scopes of practice, and team-based care to augment
• Examine CEO-level strategies for improving retention, employee well-being, leadership development, and organizational culture while addressing burnout and changing workforce expectations