Carolyn Canfield

My perspective as a "citizen-patient" developed through my insistence in contributing to healthcare improvement and patient safety when practitioners and administration did not care about learning from the avoidable and unexpected death of my husband in 2008.

My vision is grounded in kind and careful relationship-based care, demonstrated through respect, humility and a restorative commitment to all care partnerships, including professional teams. To anchor accountability and healing, we must learn to front-load trust to anticipate the moral distress and failed expectations experienced every day by healthcare system users, workers, administration and the public.

Much of this future will rely on culture change, so I teach the next generation of health professionals in Canada's largest medical school, at the University of British Columbia. My faculty appointment allows me to help choose successful applicants, write interview applicant questions and develop admissions policy as a member of the Faculty of Medicine's Sub-committee on Admissions.

I serve as a team member in many research and professional training projects in my province, across Canada and internationally. My advocacy as an advisor, presenter and adjudicator promotes collaboration that empowers patients, clients, their informal caregivers and communities in fully inclusive and equal status roles as those of professionals, across every facet of the healthcare system.