Meet the Team Bringing Cardiovascular Surgery Closer to Home
Launching the Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS) Program is one of the largest clinical transformations our Hospital and region has ever undertaken. In partnership with the University Health Network’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre through our One Program, Two Sites model, we are working to bring specialized cardiovascular care closer to home for patients and families across Northwestern Ontario. It requires deep collaboration among many teams, clinicians, and partners, each contributing their expertise to build a program that meets the highest standards of care.
While construction is creating the physical spaces for cardiovascular surgery, an equally important transformation is happening behind the scenes. A dedicated multidisciplinary project team is leading the clinical planning, operational readiness, education, recruitment, and regional partnerships needed to ensure the program is safe, sustainable, and ready to serve patients from day one.
At the heart of this work is our core clinical CVS project team:
Adam Vinet (Vice President, Patient Experience and Chief Nursing Executive & Regional Vice President, Regional Cancer Care) is championing the project by providing executive guidance, advancing key decisions, and helping ensure the project has the organizational support needed to move forward.
Wayne Taylor (Director, Cardiovascular, Medicine, and Renal Program) serves as the clinical project lead. He provides leadership and direction, supporting the teams doing this important work, guiding key decisions, and helping turn the vision for cardiovascular surgery into an operational program.
Shannan Power (CVS, Clinical Project Manager) leads clinical planning, coordinating multidisciplinary workstreams, facilitating key deliverables, supporting clinical decision-making, and helping translate program vision into safe, effective operational readiness for implementation.
Amanda Kates (CVS, Project Manager) brings the many pieces of the project together by connecting people and plans, coordinating teams, tracking milestones, risks and decisions, and helping the work remain aligned as the program moves toward implementation.
Kaitlyn Veneruz (CVS, Clinical Nurse Specialist) is building education and training plans to prepare nursing teams across the new program with the specialized knowledge and skills needed to deliver safe, high-quality cardiovascular care.
Amanda Walberg (Regional Cardiovascular Development Lead) supports regional planning and partnerships, cardiovascular care pathway development, education, and research and data initiatives that inform program planning across NWO.
Ryan Rossit (Decision Support Analyst) coordinates the project’s financial planning in collaboration with internal stakeholders and external partners including development of the operational budget and Post Construction Operating Plan while ensuring submissions align with Ministry of Health requirements.
Amanda Gerow (Project Manager Training and Orientation, Nursing Stream) supports the rollout of CVS nursing training and orientation, coordinating the people, timelines and activities needed to prepare nursing teams for the new CVS program.
Yvonne Cashman (Administrative Assistant) keeps the project organized behind the scenes by coordinating schedules, meetings, documentation and administrative details that help keep the team connected and the work moving forward.
Our Partners at the University Health Network’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) continue to play a critical role in bringing CVS to Northwestern Ontario as our clinical mentors and implementation partners. Their physicians, clinical leaders, educators and project management team are working alongside our staff to share expertise, support knowledge transfer, and help ensure our program is built on proven best practices and decades of cardiac surgery experience.
Behind this core project team is a much broader network of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, support services, corporate teams, regional health care partners, and patient and family advisors contributing their expertise to the development of the program. This is truly a whole-system effort, with teams across our Hospital and region working together to bring cardiovascular surgery closer to home.
Over the coming months, the project team will continue advancing clinical and operational readiness, workforce recruitment and staff education, pathway development, information technology and information systems planning, and regional partnerships while preparing for key implementation milestones.
Together, we are building far more than a cardiovascular surgery program. We are transforming the experience of cardiovascular care by bringing advanced services closer to home and creating a stronger, more connected system of care for patients and families across Northwestern Ontario.