Shared Ambitions, Different Roads: Nova Scotia’s Integrated Approach to Modernizing Healthcare

Episode Overview

In this inspiring episode, Dr. Krista Jangaard takes us inside Nova Scotia’s health transformation journey—one driven by purpose, collaboration, and digital progress. As President and CEO of IWK Health Centre, Dr. Jangaard offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the province is aligning digital tools, infrastructure investments, and patient needs to improve healthcare access and outcomes across the region.

Drawing on her 35+ years in healthcare, she shares how Nova Scotia’s Action for Health plan was built from the ground up—through 2,400 citizen and clinician inputs and more than 250 site visits—and how it’s now helping leaders tackle both long-standing systemic issues and new challenges with clarity and shared purpose.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Nova Scotia’s small size is its strength when it comes to system-wide integration
• How political leadership, community voices, and health professionals co-designed the Action for Health strategy
• The creation of YourHealthNS, a digital tool that helps patients access care pathways and book services online
• How the upcoming One Person One Record system aims to unify clinical information across hospitals
• The importance of inclusive governance—ensuring all voices, especially less-heard ones, shape strategic decisions
• How to avoid “shiny object syndrome” in digital health by starting with the problem, not the tool
• Why thoughtful pauses, not just speed, are essential in sustainable transformation

Strategy in Action: People, Platform & Process

Dr. Jangaard discusses how the province’s transformation plan goes beyond technology by integrating infrastructure and workforce planning with digital health goals. She shares how Nova Scotia’s government mandated collaboration across its two health authorities for the first time—using a unified planning and budgeting approach to address critical issues like surgical wait times. This has helped shift the focus from siloed improvements to coordinated provincial outcomes.

She also describes how the province is aligning facility upgrades with digital expansion, ensuring that physical infrastructure supports new tools and data flows. At the centre of this work? A commitment to good governance, real-time analytics, and the power of listening—especially to those on the frontlines and in marginalised communities.

Quotable Moment

“More, faster is a great rallying cry—but transformation requires balance. Sometimes we need a thoughtful pause, so we can listen, iterate, and get it right.”

Why You Should Listen

Whether you’re a healthcare executive, digital strategist, policy advisor, or public servant, this episode offers grounded insight into how to lead systemic change in the real world. Learn how Nova Scotia is proving that scale isn’t the only path to innovation—and that with shared vision and the right foundation, even small systems can deliver big impact.

🎧 Tune in now to discover how Nova Scotia is building a digitally connected, community-powered health system that puts people first.