Why Health Workforce Data Matters – and Why It Matters Now
No matter the economic climate, the need for health care is constant – and the pressures on the system continue to grow. We’ve seen significant changes in where and how people work across Canada’s healthcare system over the past few decades. At the same time, the realities facing the health workforce — now and in […]
Coming Together for Canada’s Health Workforce
When people ask me why I came to Health Workforce Canada, I tell them I love to take on sizable, meaningful challenges with a strong team behind me. I joined the team as CEO in December, and at every turn, I am inspired and impressed by the smarts, the hard work and the determination of […]
Part 4: Embracing Digital: How AI Innovation Can Transform the Health Workforce
On the final day of the World Health Organization (WHO) conference, a “Sandpit” workshop brought together global leaders to explore how digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) can help solve one of the most pressing challenges of our time: health workforce shortages. Featuring insights from Scotland and Sweden, the session offered a glimpse into what’s […]
Part 3: Looking Beyond Our Usual Horizons: Listening to All Voices and to Industries Beyond Healthcare
At the WHO meeting Looking to the Future: Modelling and Optimizing the Health and Care Workforce (April 27–30), 250 eager faces filled the room. After several days of working together, we were beginning to coalesce around fresh ways of planning for the health workforce. Then, a young woman raised her hand and introduced herself as […]
Part 2: Health Workforce Planning Through Complexity: Tackling Multiple Problems in Tandem Within Complex Adaptive Systems
Health workforce planning is riddled with challenges. When we gather in large-scale meetings, it’s common to spend hours unpacking the many issues we face. But that wasn’t the approach taken at the WHO’s Looking to the Future: Modelling and Optimizing the Health and Care Workforce (April 27–30) in Copenhagen. Instead, we were invited to begin […]
Part 1: Health Workforce Canada Participates in the WHO’s Looking to the Future: Modelling and Optimizing the Health and Care Workforce
Health Workforce Canada was honoured to join in the World Health Organization (WHO) – European Region three-day event (April 28-30, 2025) focused on health workforce planning and policy. Countries from around the world participated in interactive workshops designed to identify common challenges and innovative solutions with respect to data, modelling and planning with an eye […]
CEO Deb Gordon looks at the year ahead for Health Workforce Canada
Deb Gordon, Interim CEO Happy New Year! As I reflect on 2024, I think about the challenges confronting our health care system, the opportunities that lie ahead, and our role in finding meaningful solutions. A significant number of people without access to primary care in their communities, lengthy wait times for services, competing financial pressures, […]
People at the centre of our first symposium, and at the centre of health care
On October 30 and 31, 2024 in Montreal, health system leaders, employers, policymakers, health professionals, researchers, caregivers and patients shared ideas for how to support Canada’s health workforce, the people we rely on to deliver health care when we need it. Health Workforce Canada Connects was Health Workforce Canada’s first symposium, and as a new […]
Health workforce at the centre of AI’s transformation of our health systems: e-Health conference
June 5, 2024 Modernizing our health data systems so information can flow smoothly is where Canada’s health systems are heading, participants at this year’s e-Health conference were told, and we also heard about the many exciting advances in AI and how the health workforce must play a central role. New advances in natural language processing, […]
Health research conference sounds optimistic note for health workforce planning
The Health Workforce Canada team and I attended our first pan-Canadian health research and policy conference last week. We were warmly welcomed at CASPHR (Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research), and came away with a strong sense of hope and optimism for the future of our health workforce. It’s clear that everyone is […]