Qualitycast North

Qualitycast North

The Qualitycast North podcast showcases Northern British Columbian physicians and healthcare workers and their work in improving the quality of healthcare where they live. In an interview format, our host Dr. Shyr Chui invites guests to talk about their careers in rural medicine, and how they are improving healthcare through innovative quality improvement projects. Episodes are released every 3 weeks. Qualitycast North is a production of the Northern Health Physician Quality Improvement initiative, and is co-produced by Dr. Shyr Chui, and PQI Coach Lee Cameron. This Initiative is a flagship program of the Specialist Services Committee which represents a collaborative partnership between our provincial government and Doctors of BC, and includes regular representation from the local health authorities.

Episodes

S4 Ep17: Care in the Cells – Improving medical care for those in short term police custody featuring Dr. Michelle Brousson

August 22, 2025 • 32 mins
When those in short term police custody need acute medical care, getting them that care presents logistic problems often resulting in time consuming and labor-intensive visits to the local hospital emergency department with police escorts. This week’s guest is Dr. Michelle Brousson, a family physician in North Vancouver, who talks to us about her innovative solution for this complex problem providing the care these patients ne...
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S4 Ep16: Busting Myths around Physician Leadership featuring Dr. Gurpreet Narang

August 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Taking on your first leadership role as a physician can be a daunting prospect. New physician leaders can feel ill-prepared and ill-equipped when thrust into these positions. But it turns out training and experience in Quality Improvement can help prepare new physician leaders as many of QI skills translate directly into leadership. Our guest today is Dr. Gurpreet Narang, a radiologist based at the University Hospital of North...
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S4 Ep15: The Power of Superconnection featuring Dr. Lawrence Yang

July 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Returning to the podcast is everyone’s favourite physician QI coach and social media maven Dr. Lawrence Yang. He’s a family doc, physician wellness advocate and QI coach but is probably most well well-known for his social media presence and legions of posted selfies with fellow Quality Improvers. In this interview we go deep as Lawrence explains the importance of connection and mutual support within the QI community as well as...
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S4 Ep14: Violence and Mental Health. Advocating for Mental Health in the North featuring Dr. Barb Kane

June 20, 2025 • 32 mins
It’s a problem which we read and hear about in the media on an all too regular basis. But violence and mental health is not only a problem on our city streets, it’s also an issue in our hospitals. This week’s guest is Northern psychiatrist Dr. Barb Kane. In this episode we talk about why violence and mental health is such a big problem, how it came about and her proposed Northern solution.

Links: Read about and sign t...
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S4 Ep13: Wraparound care for Alcohol Use Disorder in the Emergency Department featuring Dr. Aron Zuidhof and Dorrie Fasick

May 30, 2025 • 33 mins
Patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) are some of the heaviest users of western healthcare resources and particularly emergency departments. Effective treatments for alcohol use disorder have recently become available but only a very small proportion of eligible AUD receive treatment. To talk about their excellent quality improvement work in identifying eligible AUD patients and directing them towards appropriate care from ...
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S4 Ep12: From Tiny Acorns - The Amazing Origin Story of BC’s Physician Quality Improvement Program featuring Dr. Curt Smecher

May 9, 2025 • 32 mins
British Columbia’s Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) program celebrates its 8th birthday this year. Since inception, this program has produced amazing improvement work some of which we’ve showcased on this podcast. PQI has also generated a culture shift towards quality amongst the physician community throughout the province. Our special guest today is Dr. Curt Smecher, aka “Papa QI”, the person responsible for PQIs original ...
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S4 Ep11: The Good and Wise Lead QI Lives. Special "Mic-Swap" Episode with Guest Host Dr. Gurpreet Narang and featuring Dr. Shyr Chui

April 25, 2025 • 36 mins
In this special “mic swap” episode, Lee Cameron and guest co-host Dr. Gurpreet Narang turn the tables on our regular co-host Shyr Chui to ask him about his journey into QI, some of his current projects and memorable highlights from over 20 years of QI work. Amongst other things, we touch on Whole System Quality, building strong QI teams, artificial intelligence and what gets him out of bed every morning.

Links:
IH...
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S4 Ep10: Improving Access to Emergency Care for West Coast Indigenous Communities featuring Dr. Jim Christenson

March 31, 2025 • 56 mins
Today’s guest is a giant and well-respected figure in British Columbian Emergency Medicine. In addition to his many research and quality improvement projects, Dr. Jim Christenson helped create the British Columbia Emergency Medicine Network improving the quality of emergency care across the province. But far from slowing down in retirement, he’s continued pioneering work, turning his attention to the rural, indigenous communit...
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S4 Ep9: Continuing Medicine at the Edge featuring Dr. Ray Markham

March 7, 2025 • 22 mins
In the second part of our interview with Northern Rural Family Physician, Dr. Ray Markham, we discuss some of his leadership work supporting rural communities across the province through the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. We discuss how to build a provincial support network and how the constraints of geography and remoteness can be turned to advantage by fueling innovation to improve care “at the edge”.

Links:
P...
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S4 Ep8: Northern BC Canucks visit the IHI Forum featuring Dr. Kalah Blackstock, Dr. Darren Jakubec, Dr. Christin Fabriel-Leclerc, Dr. Ian Schokking and Dr. Omesh Syal

February 14, 2025 • 34 mins
Each year, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement holds its annual forum in December. Over 4 days, between 3 to 4 thousand healthcare quality improvers from across the world join together for a packed program of workshops, QI project reports, improvement science education and keynote lectures from renown speakers. This year, a large contingent of Canadians made the trip including some from Northern British Columbia so we deci...
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S4 Ep7: Medicine at the edge featuring Dr. Ray Markham

January 24, 2025 • 29 mins
If you’re ever tempted to think medicine is practised the same everywhere in British Columbia, think again. Small rural communities present specific challenges to healthcare delivery due to their size and location, no more so than in the North where we also have long, snowy winters to contend with. That’s not to say that rural care can’t be high quality care. Providing valuable insights into rural family practice is today’s gu...
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S4 Ep6: A beer a day doesn't keep the doctor away featuring Dr. Damian Fay

January 3, 2025 • 21 mins
We’re returning to Northeast BC today and the subject might make some listeners squirm a little in their seats. We talk to Dr. Damian Fay, a rural GP and sexual health practitioner based in Hudson’s Hope about his QI work improving his vasectomy service. We talk about the challenges patients experience in accessing care in the North before the conversation takes a lighthearted turn towards the pros and cons of living and worki...
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S4 Ep5: Finding purpose in Quality Improvement featuring Dr. Daisy Dulay.

December 13, 2024 • 22 mins
We’ve showcased a lot of excellent physician-led quality improvement work on this podcast with its corresponding positive impact on patient care. But what is the effect of doing this work on the physicians themselves? Talking about the benefits of doing QI on her day-to-day work, life and career is today’s guest Dr. Daisy Dulay, a cardiologist based in Victoria, BC. In this episode we discuss career paths, purpose, rediscoveri...
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S4 Ep4: What Matters to You? Maternity Nurses in Smithers BC featuring Dr. Kate Niethammer.

November 22, 2024 • 29 mins
Recruitment and retention of front-line staff is a major challenge across healthcare systems globally right now, and no more so than in small, rural communities across Northern British Columbia. Today’s guest Dr. Kate Niethammer, a rural GP and obstetrician based in Smithers, BC, explains how she, using a QI approach and asking what mattered to them, was able to reverse nurse shortages and help re-establish full staffing level...
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S4 Ep3: The Great X-Ray Bake Off – Improving Joy at Work one cookie at a time - featuring James Cheesman

November 1, 2024 • 18 mins
With the current challenges faced by healthcare organizations around the world, maintaining staff morale and Joy in Work is a daunting task. The response of one medical imaging department in Northern British Columbia? Competitive baking! This week we interview James Cheesman, a Medical Radiation Technologist at The University Hospital of Northern British Columbia about “The Great X-Ray Bake Off”. With staff bakers competing fo...
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S4 Ep2: Putting Patients at the Centre featuring Kim Eggers

October 11, 2024 • 31 mins
When improving or making changes to the way organizations provide health care, it often seems the last person consulted is the patient themselves. This seemingly perverse order of priority is a lingering throwback to a more historical and paternalistic model of care. One person looking to change this is today’s guest Kim Eggers, the Patient Partner Advisor for Northern Health’s Physician Quality Improvement program. In this ep...
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S4 Ep1: Special Episode: Northern Health’s new CEO - the first 9 months featuring Ciro Panessa

September 20, 2024 • 36 mins
We’re back for our fourth season with our new co-host, Lee Cameron. Our season opener is a cracker featuring special guest Ciro Panessa, the new CEO of Northern Health. In this episode we talk about Ciro’s journey to CEO, his first 9 months, and Northern Health’s priorities over the next 5 years. We also touch on life on the road and why ultimately, he’s grateful. 

Resource links: 

Northern Health 

N...
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S3 Ep9: Deanna reflects on her favorite 3 episodes from the last 3 seasons of Qualitycast North

July 12, 2024 • 47 mins
It’s our Season 3 finale and a special episode tinged with a little sadness as it’s our Producer and Co-host Deanna’s last episode with QCN. This week I turn the tables on Deanna and ask about her experiences on the show and to take us through her favourite interviews from our first three seasons. Which guests did she choose? You’ll have to listen to find out!


Qualitycast North will return in the Aut...
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S3 Ep8: Mind Space. Building successful skills for wellbeing across British Columbia with Dr. Fiona Petigara

June 21, 2024 • 23 mins
According to Statistics Canada, Canada is currently experiencing a huge increase in unmet mental health needs. The prevalence of anxiety, depression and social phobia have jumped since the Covid pandemic. How can our health systems cope with this surge in demand for mental health services when the medical community itself is in crisis with physician shortages and burnout commonplace?

Well, there’s good news in British...
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S3 Ep7: Introducing Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Refractory Depression featuring Dr. Darren Jakubec

June 3, 2024 • 27 mins
Depression is a common and debilitating mental health condition affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite the availability of various treatment options, a significant proportion of individuals
with depression do not achieve adequate symptom relief. One promising newer treatment is ketamine infusion therapy, but its current availability is relatively limited.
Dr. Darren Jakubec is a GP anesthetist practicing in Sm...
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