OpenHouse

What if the people best equipped to help solve your hardest, most stuck problems aren’t consultants or researchers, but theatre artists? This September, we welcome Brian Loevner, founder of BLVE and an arts leader, producer, and consultant with more than 30 years of experience, including leadership roles with The Second City and work with organizations across Canada and the United States. Drawing on the creative problem-solving strengths of the Siminovitch Prize honouree community, Brian explores how theatre artists’ ability to work with uncertainty, competing perspectives, and resistance can create the conditions for trust, insight, and new ways forward.

Join us in June when we’ll take a deeper dive into our internal projects and the ideas shaping our work. This session offers a closer look at ongoing initiatives, the challenges we’re tackling, and opportunities for meaningful collaboration.

Part show-and-tell, part group therapy. A meetup dedicated to our biggest project flops. Listen to brave innovators share those times where failure was the only option. Because progress depends on taking risks and sharing them out loud.

Dr. Lora Appel is an associate professor at York University and affiliate scientist at KITE-UHN. She also leads the Prescribing Virtual Reality (VRx) lab which explores how virtual reality can be used as a therapeutic tool in healthcare, with a focus on improving care for aging populations, including people living with dementia.

Melissa Frew, Associate Director of Design at Healthcare Human Factors (HHF), explores what it truly means to design for the realities of clinical practice. HHF is a design and human factors consultancy embedded within UHN that combines human‑centred design with human factors engineering to deeply understand the experiences, constraints, and needs of the people who deliver and receive care.

Dr. Zayna Khayat is an applied health futurist and strategic leader who helps organizations navigate the forces shaping the future of health and care, serving as Chief Program Officer & Managing Director at AMS Healthcare and as Health Futurist in Residence with Deloitte Canada’s healthcare practice. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with Zayna Khayat. Moderated by UHN OpenLab’s Creative Director, Tai Huynh. Read more about Zayna here.

Dr. Howie Abrams is a physician, scientist, and innovator in healthcare delivery, serving as Director and co-founder of UHN OpenLab, Medical Lead of UHN’s NORC Innovation Centre, and a Scientist with TRI KITE. With over 30 years of frontline clinical experience, Dr. Abrams combines deep expertise in patient care with a proven ability to integrate innovative solutions into complex clinical environments. Dr. Abrams will provide an overview of OpenLab’s projects and areas of focus, and invite participants to share their own interests and initiatives, with the goal of identifying opportunities for learning, collaboration, and co-creation across teams and organizations.