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The UNICEF 2020 Report Card revealed that while Canada ranks among the countries with the strongest economic, environmental, and social conditions for growing up, it ranks 30th of 38 countries in measures of children’s mental and physical health, education, and social wellbeing. As well, existing inequities have worsened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The time to make children a priority is NOW!

Working in collaboration and partnership with passionate stakeholders, we are co-designing a bold cross-sector framework to improve the health and wellbeing of children, youth, and families. This ambitious but achievable framework will be used as a roadmap to organizational, community, and governmental action to improve our global standing and create a Canada fit for children.

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Children’s Healthcare Canada and our members have called for a national, evidence-informed formulary of medications for children and funding for related pediatric drug research and development. In the most recent Speech from the Throne, the federal government reiterated its commitment to a national, universal pharmacare program to ensure that all Canadians can access the medications they need.

Children and youth have unique drug needs, which have long been neglected. Approximately half of Canadian children and youth require at least one prescription in any given year. Children and youth rely heavily on compounded and off-label prescription drugs, which impacts safety, efficacy, palatability, and cost. Reimbursement decision-making bodies do not appropriately value the unique benefits of pediatric drugs, including child-friendly formulations, improved quality of life for children and families, and cost-savings outside the healthcare system.

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If you ever needed healthcare (or if you work in healthcare) for kids you probably know how fragmented the system is, how long some waitlists are, and how the quality of care often depends on where you live and even who you are. In this episode we discuss how creating a Learning System in Child Health can help begin to address some of these issues at a regional, provincial, and national level.

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During this episode we learn of a decades-long journey to bring a children’s hospital to a province that had none - but the story is about so much more than building a hospital. It is about Canadian health system improvement for children and families. It involves:

• Developing and maintaining partnerships with like-minded organizations locally and across the country
• Engagement with government and health system leaders
• Open, transparent, tailored communications
• Listening deeply to and serving your constituents, whoever they may be
• The use of technology for, for example, knowledge sharing and donor management
• The role of philanthropy as catalysts to child health system change

Success enables broader health system improvement, lessons learned for other health system leaders, attracting varied and specialists locally provinces to ensure that children and their families receive quality, specialized pediatric care (as children are not just little adults).

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When children, youth, and their families visit a children's hospital of the future, what will have changed in their experiences of care, their health outcomes, and community health? What will it be like to work there? How will the hospital serve its community? How will it adapt to changing demographics, emerging technology, a focus on care delivered closer to (or even in) home, public demands, or new pandemics? How will the training of health professionals have changed?

The purposeful design of children’s hospitals of and for the future focuses on the physical environment and so much more. It involves the meaningful engagement of children, youth, families from diverse backgrounds, and community services; the use smart technology and design thinking; public and private partnerships; and evidence-based decision making.

Join Children’s Healthcare Canada and special guest, Dr. Ronni Cohn, in a discussion about the future of children’s hospitals and healthcare and how SickKids is forging new paths to provide quality care in the ever-changing world of children's health and healthcare.

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COVID vaccines have been approved in Canada for youth and adults 12 and older. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI, 2021) recommends that (with very few exceptions) that a complete series with a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to individuals 12 to 18 years of age. While Pfizer recently announced a COVID vaccine trial involving children aged 6 months to 11 years, most children younger than 12 are not likely to be vaccinated in Canada until late winter or early spring 2022 (Dailey, 2021; Global News, 2021). Studies are underway to develop and test vaccines for those younger children.

We will hear from our guest, Dr. Jim Kellner, about the status of, prioritization of, and plan for the delivery of safe and effective COVID vaccines to children of all ages.

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Due to its federated nature, Canada does not have a national structure for the governance of child health or health care. Joined up governance (or a ‘whole of government’ approach) has been touted as an important tool in tackling “wicked” problems in children’s health and healthcare, which involves multiple ministries responsible for health, social services, and the social determinants of health.

Integrating child health systems and services is such a wicked problem because, many services, for children with medical complexity, for example, are delivered through various healthcare “systems” (hospital, home care, respite, other community-based care) and other systems (e.g., social services, education, justice, finance, Indigenous affairs).

Join Children’s Healthcare Canada and special guest, Dr. Eyal Cohen, in a discussion about Joined up governance. He explains how it works, why it is important, and how its structure could positively impact the lives of all children, including those with medical complexities.