November 26, 2025
November 28, 2025
08:00 - 16:00
Toronto
Marriott Downtown & 686 Bay Street
08:00 - 16:00
Marriott Downtown & 686 Bay Street
CCHF is thrilled to host an upcoming conference at the renowned Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, part of SickKids—a world-leading facility in paediatric research, care, and education. Located in the heart of Toronto, SickKids stands at the forefront of advancing care for children and youth. The Hospital was recently acclaimed by Newsweek as being the best hospital across the globe for specialized paediatrics.
CONFERENCE DAY 1 (November 27, 2025)
The first day of the conference focuses on children and progress in designing health spaces that are genuinely reflective of children’s and youth’s needs, including safe, supportive environments for families and caregivers, and inspiration for clinical teams and researchers to collaborate and share more effectively across the continuum of care in a variety of health settings. The Deputy Minister of Health in Ontario is our special guest, along with opening remarks from the President and CEO of SickKids, Ronald Cohn.
CONFERENCE DAY 2 (November 28, 2025)
The second day features discussions on navigating capital costs and managing the policy direction of austerity. Discussions identify solutions for increasing efficiencies amid rising redevelopment costs of healthcare facilities, such as optimization, design convergence and commercialization opportunities for health builds. Panellists and presenters will discuss the costs and payback. Additionally, we will explore opportunities to foster community integration beyond traditional health facilities through collaborative community health projects. We recognize the impact of facilities as major employers and public spaces that foster care through an integrated network of facilities, from community and primary care to acute care.
Pre-Conference Events will be held at the Courtyard Marriott Toronto Downtown – 475 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4Y 1X7.
The Canadian College of Health Leaders’ (CCHL) customized leadership training for Capital Health Leaders
(3 hours 9 am-12 pm)
Healthcare leaders are often tasked with leading change – whether by striving to advance their own projects, or those bestowed on them – but this endeavour involves a range of distinct challenges. Engaging with and aligning people in different professions and at different levels, ensuring that the required resources and infrastructure are in place, navigating competing organizational priorities, establishing key progress metrics and timelines, handling setbacks and delays, and keeping people motivated throughout are among the pressures leaders must address to be successful.
This session focuses on the intersection of leadership and capital projects advancement. The goal is to equip executives, planners, and project directors with strategies to tackle their most urgent leadership priorities and to communicate effectively across the system to build trust and a shared understanding of issues and objectives.
This highly interactive, customized leadership training session will explore shared obstacles, change leadership best practices, and evidence-informed leadership integration strategies—all through a capital projects lens.
Learning Objectives:
Dr Jaason Geerts, Vice-President, Research and Leadership Development, Canadian College of Health Leaders
Standardization in Health Capital: Ontario’s Direction and UK Lessons
(2.5 hours 1-3:30 pm)
Ontario Ministry of Health issued an rfp for standardized designs for a acute care health facilities. Learn more about the health capital program and what this means for scope, cost, and delivery from the leaders that will be collaborating with the health facility sector to develop an approach. Also, learn from leaders involved in the UK’s New Hospital Program on how standardized design is being applied across multiple hospitals – what’s working, what’s evolving and what to avoid.
A facilitated roundtable of expert across disciplines – owners, operators, architects, engineers and constructors health leaders, modular construction will discuss implications and provide practical next steps in the Canadian context
1:00 PM (45 min) New Hospital Programme, NHS England – Standardization in Healthcare Infrastructure
Alpa Patel, Integration Director, New Hospital Programme, NHS England
2:15 60 min Moderated Round Table Discussion
Designing the Next Generation of Hospitals with a view to a Standardized Approach: Learnings and Perspectives from England and Canada Sharing Perspectives
20 min
Antoine Buisseret, Associate Architect, Lemay
Ian McDermott, Vice-President, Capital and Facilities, Sinai Health
Barbara Miszkiel, Healthcare Leader, Canada, HDR
Joanna Smith, Consulting Advisory Team lead, Mott Macdonald (UK)
Robin Snell, Principal, Parkin Architects Limited
Tenny Vasilyan, Associate Health Principal, HDR
Benedict Zucchi, Principal and Head of Architecture, BDP, UK
Moderator: Kieran McDonald, Partner, Agnew Peckham Health Care and Facility Planners
Audience Q & A and live polling on priorities and risks
Facility Tour Offerings
4:00 – 5:00 PM, November 26: Stella’s Place
Following the November 26th Symposium
Address: 54 Wolseley St, Toronto, ON M5T 1A5
Stella’s Place – an award-winning outpatient mental health facility designed specifically for young adults. The tour will include a presentation and walk-through of the innovative spaces.
Please note: Attendance is limited to 60 people.
Learn more about Stella’s Place and its awards
Stella’s Place
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Anishnawbe Health Centre in the Portlands
Address: 425 Cherry St, Toronto, ON M5A 0X9
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM | Ice Breaker @ Mill Street Brewpub, Distillery District, Toronto
In partnership with Connecting Women Of Healthcare
Address: 21 Tank House Lane, Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
5:00 – 6:00 PM, November 27: Guided Tours of the Simulation Labs at The Hospital for Sick Children
The Simulation Program has many versatile spaces to meet the objectives of various learners. The new 11,500 sq. ft. Simulation Centre is in the Patient Support Centre, 175 Elizabeth Street.
The new Simulation Centre has four simulation suites, four debriefing rooms, six OSCE style suites, two large multipurpose rooms for procedural training and large group sessions, Immersive suite equipped with projection technology and capable of VR training, the SimKids Invention lab housed with 3D printers and a student lounge
The Simulation Program is mobile and the team delivers in-situ simulations in many units, as well as, travelling to hospitals throughout the community to facilitate training and quality improvement work.
4:30-5:30 PM, November 28 : The Hospital for Sick Children’s, Peter Gilgan Centre One of the largest children’s health research centres in the world. Featuring office and work space optimization design, interiors colocation for bedside / bench-side care.
CCHF Connect – Share – Innovate
Conference Location
Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning | The Hospital for Sick Children
Address: 686 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 0A4
*Public parking is available off of Elizabeth Street
Agenda
8:00 AM | Location: Gallery adjacent to the Auditorium
Networking Breakfast
Network with your peers, enjoy a hot breakfast and walk around the table tops in the Gallery.
9:00 AM | Location (All Conference Sessions) : Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning Auditorium
Introduction and Welcome from Ronald Cohn, President & CEO of SickKids Hospital
Welcome from the Co-Chairs
Michael Keen, CCHF Co-founder Board Member (Moderator)
Rita Mezei, CCHF Co-Founder and Executive Director
9:15 AM | Project Horizon’s Evolution
This session will highlight how SickKids reframed redevelopment challenges into strategic opportunities by balancing site constraints, market conditions, and government priorities. Learn how this approach supported a shift toward innovative care models and how SickKids leveraged its broader future vision to enable this transformation behind adopting a two-site strategy. SickKids will share how they plan to manage the unique challenges posed by this opportunity.
Learning Objectives:
– Understand how SickKids’ evaluates site constraints and external factors to identify strategic opportunities for transformation.
– Explore how market conditions, government priorities, and organizational goals can be reframed to support innovative care models. Discover how SickKids leveraged these factors to envision a two-site strategy.
– Gain insight into how Project Horizon is approaching the implementation of project controls in the context of phasing, sequencing and delivery across the program.
Gloria Kain, Vice President Planning, Development and Transformation, The Hospital for Sick Children
Gavin Nicholl, Chief Planning and Development Officer, The Hospital for Sick Children
10:00 AM | North York’s New Patient Tower and New Procurement Model Adoption of The Alliance – Rationale and Opportunities in the Ontario Marketplace
The New Patient Care Tower marks North York General’s (NYG) largest expansion in its 56-year history, adding up to 317 private patient rooms and approximately 100 net-new acute care beds. The new facility will connect seamlessly to the existing hospital, expanding NYG’s capacity to serve a rapidly growing and diverse community.
Delivered in partnership with Infrastructure Ontario, the project is Ontario’s first healthcare Alliance delivery model. This session will explore how the Alliance model differs from traditional approaches such as P3, Design-Bid-Build, and Construction Management – focusing on its collaborative structure, shared risk-and-reward framework, and best-for-project decision-making. The session will conclude with lessons from NYG’s experience and what the healthcare sector should watch for as the Alliance model is implemented across future projects.
The session will begin with a short 10–15-minute presentation, followed by a moderated Q&A with the panel.
Rudy Dahdal, Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs and Chief Planning & Redevelopment Officer, North York General Hospital
Chris Killer, Infrastructure Ontario, Vice-President, Commercial Management
10:45 AM | Location: Gallery BREAK
11:00 AM | Designing the Future of Paediatric Care: Global Lessons from Canada and the UK’s New Hospital Program (NHP)
What does it take to create truly future-ready paediatric hospitals? This session explores two ambitious healthcare initiatives – a Canadian provinces-led international review of paediatric facility standards and the UK’s New Hospital Program (NHP), the UK’s largest hospital-building initiative in a generation.
In Canada, a comprehensive review of international paediatric guidance and benchmarking of world-leading hospitals revealed critical gaps in provincial standards. By analyzing global best practice and engaging with clinicians, operators, and designers, the team identified key strategies to improve consistency, adaptability, and family-centred care. These findings are shaping recommendations to future proof paediatric hospitals across Canada – and potentially beyond.
Meanwhile, the NHP showcases how sustained collaboration accelerates innovation. Through co-design frameworks and global stakeholder engagement, families, clinicians, and architects have worked together to reimagine care environments. A Neonatal Care case study illustrates how this approach improves outcomes, patient experience, and operational efficiency.
Delegates will gain actionable insights on embedding user engagement, translating international best practice to local contexts, and designing adaptable, compassionate, and evidence-based paediatric facilities. At its heart, this session is a call to collaborate, innovate, and design with children and families at the centre.
Virtual: Rahul Chodhari MD, Associate Director of Medical Innovation & Improvement at National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust New Hospital Programme (UK) and Consultant Paediatrician, The Royal Free London Foundation Trust
Sarah Wallwork, Healthcare Planning Lead, Mott MacDonald, UK
12:00 PM | Location: Gallery LUNCH
1:00 PM | AFTERNOON KEYNOTE: The Honourable, Deborah Richardson, Ontario’s Deputy Minister of Health Audience Q & A
Providing patient-centered and culturally appropriate care. The importance of integrating culturally relevant practices into care delivery and fostering trust, improving communication and respecting the diverse cultural values, beliefs, and practice of patients.
1:45 PM | Breaking the Silos: How One Room Sparked System-Level Change
Discover how a unique partnership between Lakeridge Health and Grandview Kids turned a gap in paediatric care into a model for collaboration, innovation and patient-centered design. What began as a single procedure room became a catalyst for rethinking how healthcare organizations can work together across silos, systems and scopes of practice to better serve families.
This conversation will highlight the power of relationships, the importance of engaging partners early, and the real-world impact of doing healthcare differently.
Learning Objectives:
Tab Carroll, Health System Executive, Clinical, Lakeridge Health
Jamie Cook, Principal, Colliers Project Leaders
Tom McHugh, Chief Executive Officer, Grandview Kids
2:30 PM | Location: Gallery BREAK
2:50 PM | Building Safer Futures: Designing for Successful Transitions in Paediatric Care
Transitions in care, whether from the NICU to home, between paediatric and adult services, or across hospital units, are moments of both opportunity and vulnerability. For children with medical complexity, the way these transitions are supported can mean the difference between safety and harm, stability and crisis, resilience, and long-term health risks.
This session will highlight why transitions matter, the system-level risks that emerge when they are poorly supported, and how intentional facility design, care models, and interprofessional collaboration can transform outcomes for children and families.
We invite participants to reimagine healthcare planning and facility design not just as technical or architectural exercises, but as opportunities to engineer safety, continuity, and compassion into every transition children and families experience.
Natasha Bruno, PhD Student at the University of Toronto and Clinical Research Project Manager, The Hospital for Sick Children
Angie Lim, Clinical Nurse Specialist – Interprofessional Practice (CNS-IP) Research Associate; Post-Doctorate Fellow, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children
3:30 PM | Panel: Mental Health Design Across the Continuum of Care and Addressing the Gaps
One of the leading health challenges for children and youth in Canada are mental health disorders. According to the World Health Organization 1 in 7 adolescents will suffer from a mental disorder. In Canada 1 in 5 will suffer a mental disorder before the age of 25 with 70% of a symptom onset before the age of 18. Post-COVID hospitalizations declined but prescriptions of psychotropic medication and physician visits have increased (Source: Child and Youth Mental Health CIHI). Service gaps for care is a universal challenge with only 44% getting care. This panel of community leaders and designers in mental healthcare will discuss the shift towards more community focussed programs and health design to address gaps and help identify how future needs can be met to curtail the increased demands.
Shary Adams, Healthcare Practice Area Leader, Gensler
Leslie Kulperger, Executive Director, Myles Ahead, Advancing Child & Youth Mental Health
Nzinga Walker, Executive Director, Stella’s Place, Toronto
Robyn Whitwham, Associate, Stantec
4:15 PM | Designing Human-Centered Paediatric Environments: From Clinical Spaces to Healing Communities
For many young patients, healthcare environments are more than treatment spaces; they are where they are born, where they return throughout childhood, and where they grow up. Humanising this experience requires a paradigm shift from the hospital conceived as a machine for treatment to a more contextual approach, not just as a place of healing but also work, learning, respite, play and interaction. These spaces must be adaptable and inclusive, able to flex with changing models of care while also responding to the unique needs of each patient population, community, and clinical program.
Through a series of real-world examples, these presentations will show how viewing hospitals through an urban lens makes the process of designing them more accessible and engaging for non-experts and recognises the full range of the hospital’s civic scope whilst integrating thoughtful design strategies can be applied across a range of paediatric care touchpoints, from hospitals to outpatient clinics, to create environments that support healing, continuity, and emotional wellbeing.
Benedict Zucchi, Principal and Head of Architecture, BDP, UK
Elizabeth van den Brink, Principal, ZGF
5:00 PM | Conference Close
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Location: PSC 22nd Floor Rooftop of the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning
Networking Reception
5:00 – 6:00 PM | Simulation Lab Tours (groups of 15)
8:00 AM | Location: Gallery adjacent to the Auditorium Networking Breakfast
Network with your peers, enjoy a hot breakfast and walk around the table tops in the foyer
8:50 AM | Location: Auditorium (All Sessions) Welcome from the Co-Chairs
Mike Hickey, CCHF Board Member (Moderator)
Victoria Head, President and CEO, Archus
9:00 AM | Escalation of Construction Costs for Healthcare Facilities is Unhealthy and Doesn’t Add Up
“Hospitals are bigger, better, and more complex than ever before—yet the path to affordability has never been tougher.”
— Susan Neil, Hanscomb
This session explores the unprecedented rise in healthcare construction costs, the evolving complexity of hospital projects, and strategic budget considerations. Key Discussion points include. Hospital inflated construction costs, supply chain instability, and labour shortages due to expanding facility standards and technological complexity.
Following Susan Neil’s overview, selected key industry representatives will respond by sharing the strategies they are employing to curb the cost trajectory while ensuring that public healthcare system outcomes achieve the best possible results for patients, caregivers, and communities.
Moderator: Cliff Harvey, Vice President, Redevelopment, Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN)
Tim Eastwood, Senior Principal, Stantec
Wayne Ferguson, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Infrastructure Services, EllisDon
David Ho, National Leader, Healthcare & Buildings, Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects
Michael Keen, Vice-President Facilities Planning and Chief Planning Officer, Unity Health Toronto
Susan Neil, President, Hanscomb
10:10 AM | Location: Gallery adjacent to the Auditorium BREAK
10:30 AM | Beyond the Four Walls of Healthcare Delivery – Using Covenant Health’s New Community Based Outpatient Care Facility to Improve Service Delivery and Act as a Catalyst for Revenue Generation and Neighbourhood Renewal in Southeast Edmonton
The innovative partnership between Covenant Health and Rohit Infrastructure utilized the decanting and relocation of 100,000 sf of outpatient clinical program into a new Community Health Centre to increase system capacity and catalyze the redevelopment of an 11-acre site into a $410 million-dollar mixed-use campus of care.
Key Learnings:
Brendan Traynor, PhD. Senior Manager, Rohit Development Group
Allaudin Merali, Senior Vice-President Growth and Development Group, Covenant Care
11:15 AM | Community Well-Being Design & A Dialogue with the audience
Across Ontario and the country, healthcare infrastructure faces mounting pressure. Escalating construction costs, stretched budgets, and an overburdened health system have made it increasingly difficult to build facilities that meet both operational demands and the holistic needs of patients, staff, and communities. In this climate, every design decision must deliver more value—financial, social, and human. The Community Wellbeing Framework (CWF), offers a tool for doing just that: a way to facilitate a conversation on design that responds to today’s constraints with a longer term lens on the wellbeing of the communities they serve.
Grounded in research and measurable outcomes, the framework helps project teams evaluate how design supports five interconnected dimensions of wellbeing: health and resilience, equity and inclusion, social connection, sense of place, and environmental stewardship. Through case studies and a discussion on design strategies, this session will query a conversation on design, and how hospitals can align infrastructure investments with broader community goals, ensuring projects contribute positively to people, place, and the environment.
Diego Morettin, Partner, Architect, DIALOG
Eleanor Mohammed, Partner, Urban Governance and Planning, DIALOG
Dorsa Jalalian, Associate, Senior Urban Designer, DIALOG
12:00 PM | Location: Gallery LUNCH
1:00 PM | Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children – Trillium Health
The future Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children will be the only hospital of its kind in Ontario and one of the largest hospitals in Canada dedicated to Women’s and Children’s health. As the regional provider of maternal and child services, Trillium Health Partners prioritizes giving children the best start in life through an integrated system that addresses both medical and mental health needs of paediatric patients.
The new hospital has been carefully designed to support this vision. Co-located inpatient paediatric and child and adolescent mental health units enable an integrated medical and psychiatric model of care, with flexible layouts and infrastructure to adapt to the community’s growing population.
This thoughtfully designed environment supports a full continuum of care—acute inpatient, day hospital, and outpatient services—providing holistic, patient-centered support for a growing community.
Claire O’Donnell, Principal, Parkin Architects
Cathy Walker, Manager, HealthWorks Clinical Planning; Capital Planning and Redevelopment, Trillium Health Partners
Michelle Draper, Director of the Mental Health and Addictions Program, Trillium Health Partners
Kathy Skelly, Director of the Women’s and Children’s Program, Trillium Health Partners
1:45 PM | Panel: Innovations in Raising Revenues for Health Capital
Ontario’s hospital sector is facing unprecedented financial challenges. The Ontario Hospital Association states that hospitals need an additional $1 billion for 2025-26 to address costs like inflation and population growth. Explore a panel discussion with David Graham, President & CEO of Scarborough Health Network, Greg Chow, Chief Financial Officer at Mackenzie Health, and Gianni Ciufo, Partner, Healthcare Financial Advisory at Deloitte, to understand perspectives on addressing financial challenges, and what this means for the future of capital investment.
Greg Chow, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Mackenzie Health
Gianni Ciufo, Global Leader, Public Private Partnerships, Deloitte
David Graham, President and CEO, Scarborough Health Network (SHN)
Moderator: Navin Malik, Director, Healthcare Solutions, National Leader – Health Activation, Deloitte
2:30 | Location: Gallery BREAK
3:00 PM | Workplace Strategies for Physicians Spaces and Healthcare
Building on JLL Design’s proven transformative campus space planning methodologies, this session focuses specifically on Physician Workspace Strategies and Ecosystems – an approach to creating cost-efficient office environments that provide physicians with the right tools and spaces to complete their non-clinical work effectively.
The Healthcare Challenge
Healthcare organizations face mounting pressure to optimize physician back-of-house spaces as roles expand beyond clinical duties. Modern physicians spend significant time in administrative work, research, education, documentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration – yet most facilities still allocate physician office space based on outdated hierarchical models. This creates inefficient space utilization, reinforces departmental silos, and fails to support the collaborative, multi-functional nature of contemporary physician work.
Three Innovation Areas for Physician Workspace Ecosystems:
When implemented together, these innovations create physician workspace environments that are intellectually vibrant, operationally efficient, and socially harmonious – transforming office workspaces from static assets into dynamic resources that advance clinical excellence and physician satisfaction.
Susan Chang, Senior Vice-President, Workplace Design Advisory, JLL Americas
Ian McDermott, Vice-President, Facilities and Capital Development, Sinai Health
3:45 PM | What Will the Hospital of 2040 Need?
Scenario Planning for Exponential Increases in Healthcare Data, AI, and Energy Demands
Technology is advancing at a pace that promises efficiency and better care, but only if hospitals have the infrastructure and reliable energy to support it. At the same time, healthcare leaders must navigate limited funding while making the right long-term decisions. We’ll explore what hospitals of 2040 will need to thrive amid exponential growth in healthcare data, AI, and digital technologies.
Drawing on lessons from projects like the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and the new Surrey Hospital and BC Cancer Centre, we’ll demonstrate how future-proofing and energy resiliency strategies drive business value—not just solve engineering challenges.
Attendees will learn how to:
Hospitals that succeed will treat technology and energy resiliency as strategic investments. Join us to discover practical strategies to protect patient safety, strengthen operations, and build lasting trust.
King Cheung, Technology Lead, Salas O’Brien
Khaja Syed, Senior Vice President, Electrical at Salas O’Brien
4:30 PM | Conference Close
4:30 PM | Tour at the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning
One of the largest health centres in the world devoted to children’s health research. Within the 21-storey tower, more than 2,000 scientists and staff — previously scattered in six different locations — are conducting state-of-the-art research in genomics, cancer research, stem cell research, brain behaviour research, and organ research. The Tour will include workspaces and research areas of collaboration.
*Agenda subject to change. Stay tuned for more details.
The conference program will include interactive sessions, panels, and a reception. Please join your healthcare facility sector network. Where real issues, innovative thought leadership and ideas are discussed for a better future of healthcare facilities supporting better care – together. Join Us!
More information will be available soon! Register by November 1 and get 10% the regular registration price and an additional 10% off for groups of three or more. This offer cannot be combined with other offers.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
A select number of rooms have been set aside for our out-of-town conference attendees at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown Toronto – 475 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4Y 1X7. To take advantage of our special room rates, reservations must be made by November 5, 2025.
AUDIENCE
Note: Speakers and topics may change based on their availability. CCHF makes every effort to only publish confirmed speakers.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Fees are non-refundable. Registrants may be replaced by a colleague of the same organization, if written notification is given prior to the event. Note that CCHF does not guarantee all speakers. There may be substitutions due to availability or the need to make program changes. In the highly unlikely event of a program cancellation, CCHF will credit your company for the same value of the next event in your area.
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MAINTENANCE OF CERTIFICATION Attendance at this program entitles certified Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) members (CHE / Fellow) to the following credits toward their Maintenance of Certification requirement: Pre-Conference Events – CCHL Leadership Training: 3 Category I credits – Standardization in Health Capital: 1.25 Category II credits – Facility Tours: 1.75 Category II credits Conference: – 5.5 Category II credits |