Frontiers of Care: Inside Sinai Health

Since her early teens, strange feelings of dizziness and nausea would occasionally overcome Kim Taylor. Otherwise healthy and active, she thought it was nothing serious. A chance phone call to discuss a sports-related injury led her to a diagnosis, but that was just the beginning of her medical troubles. Just as she was getting ready to graduate university and start her professional career, she found herself unexpectedly receiving care at Bridgepoint Active Healthcare and relearning basics like how to walk and talk. Guests: Kimberley Taylor is a 25-year old former varsity basketball athlete who recently graduated with an M.Sc from St. Francis Xavier University. She works for Natural Resources Canada. Dr. Kim Coros is a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Bridgepoint Active Healthcare. She works with Olympic, Paralympic and other high-performance athletes through the Canadian Sport Institute.

When Alana Robertson became pregnant, she hadn't heard of in-utero surgeries, or imagined she might one day need one. But when she learned her unborn baby was showing signs of spina bifida, she was open to anything that might help him. She learned that the surgeons at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital are global leaders in maternal fetal medicine, and found herself becoming one of the first people in Canada to undergo an in-utero surgery designed to treat spina bifida. Guests: Alana Robertson is a mental health worker for CMHA. She lives in a small town east of Peterborough with her husband, son and dog. She is a founding board member of SBCAN, advocate and one of the first women in Canada to undergo fetal surgery. Dr. Tim Van Mieghem is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital and associate professor at the University of Toronto.

In the 1920s, a determined group of Jewish women dreamed of opening a hospital to serve their community. They knocked on doors, collecting nickels and dimes, until – against all odds - they were able to purchase a small building on Yorkville Avenue that would become Mount Sinai Hospital. Over the years, staff and volunteers at Mount Sinai overcame discrimination, funding challenges and even forces of nature, to build a world-class hospital. Today, that spirit of perseverance lives on as the hospital prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary.   Guests: Lesley Barsky is the author of From Generation to Generation: A History of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. Maxine Granovsky Gluskin is the co-chair of Sinai Health Foundation's Board of Directors. She is the President of Maxine Gran Investments. She has served on many not-for-profit boards, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and The Bentway. The voices of Lillian Gollom and Dr. Minnie Cohen are used with permission from the Ontario Jewish Archives.

For women who've struggled with mental health issues like anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders planning a pregnancy can be challenging enough - let alone during a pandemic. Dr. Dalfen talks to Dr. Ovens about caring and supporting mothers - and fathers - through her Perinatal Mental Health and Telemedicine Program, and the promise and peril of providing virtual care.

Dr. Christine Brezden-Masley talks to Dr. Howard Ovens about the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted oncology and cancer patient care. As Ontario's lockdown is being lifted, and as other provinces and countries reopen non-essential services, Dr. Masley reflects on how she's working with infectious disease specialists to adopt new ways of treating and responding to both urgent and non-urgent oncology treatments, and surgeries.  

Dr. Maureen Shandling talks to Dr. Howard Ovens about the realities of working in a COVID-19 world and how they're impacting care, staff, and families. She also reflects on the protests against police brutality in the U.S, and explores their resonance and relevance to public health issues here in Canada.

Birth is usually a time of celebration, but during a pandemic, it requires some extra care and caution. Drs. Prakesh Shah and Wendy Whittle join Dr. Howard Ovens to talk about how urgency, compassion, and collaboration are guiding them through providing maternal and neo-natal care during this time. They share stories of mothers who have delivered babies while having COVID-19, newborns who arrive in the world with the virus, and how it impacts everyone - from the parents, the newborn, and medical staff - who are sometimes doubling as the support person for mothers delivering without their usual support network to lean on in the operating room. But despite the challenges, hear how Sinai Health staff lean on non-verbal communication, smiles, and touch to guide new mothers through the birth of their newborns even from behind a hat, masks, shield and gloves.

Dr. Mark Lachmann talks to Dr. Howard Ovens about the tragedy that is unfolding in long-term care homes during this pandemic, the structural problems that explain why they have been the hardest hit, and the lack of oversight and accountability in long term care overall. Dr. Lachmann explains why the deaths unfolding in long-term care are not inevitable, and outlines his hope that this pandemic will transform the level of care that is given to elders in our communities.

In our kick-off episode, Dr. Ovens takes us through why this podcast matters. With so much information out there about the pandemic, it's never been more important to separate fact from disinformation. And that's what every episode will do — together with another Sinai Health leader, Dr. Ovens will bring the latest information on the pandemic: where we are today and what may lay ahead. In conversation with this week's guest, infectious disease specialist Dr. Andrew Morris, Dr. Ovens discusses the origin of the outbreak, how it's transmitted, the best ways to protect against it, and the challenges of re-opening after lockdown.