New Waypoint Medical Director, Clinical Informatics and Quality Standards, will support a learning health system approach at Waypoint

Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care continues to focus on growing its medical leadership team and is excited to welcome Dr. Andrea Waddell as the new Medical Director, Clinical Informatics and Quality Standards.

At the January 6, 2022 meeting, the Board of Directors approved Dr. Waddell’s appointment to this newly created position effective April 4, 2022, and on an interim basis starting January 10, 2022. She will focus on advancing the implementation of Ontario Health Quality standards across Waypoint and regionally, continuing to foster physician engagement and leadership in our clinical informatics partnerships, as well as collaboratively developing and executing a digital health strategy for the Central Ontario Health Team for Specialized Populations.

Dr. Waddell is a psychiatrist who earned a Master’s degree in Theory and Policy Studies, with a focus on higher education, from the University of Toronto. She brings certification in Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt Performance Improvement, is a certified professional in the National Association for Healthcare Quality and completed advanced training in Healthcare Leadership from the Rotman School of Management.

She comes to Waypoint from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto where she served as a staff physician as well as one of two physician Quality Improvement and Innovation Leads for the hospital. Her leadership experience also includes seven years as the Medical Director for Inpatient Psychiatry at University Health Network, also in Toronto.

Since 2012, Dr. Waddell has been an Assistant Professor in the Division of Adult Psychiatry and
Health Systems for the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Building on her years of award-winning teaching and education to increase the capacity of psychiatrists and interprofessional health providers in Quality Improvement, she is co-leading a new Quality, Innovation and Safety Hub for the Department. She recently advised Health Quality Ontario in developing a Mental Health Transitions Quality Standard. Among numerous Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives, Dr. Waddell has led improvements to care in a high volume urgent care drop-in service at CAMH, including using co-design to improve the waiting
experience, increasing access to care for inpatients and improving transitions back to primary care. A grant-funded researcher in the area of quality and patient safety, she is undertaking leading edge work in safety and is a senior advisor on a comprehensive study of measurement-based care training in mental health service.

In 2018, she was awarded a Delegate Scholarship for Summit on Improving Patient Care by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in San Diego, California. In 2020, she earned an Academic Scholars Award by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and since then has been leading a highly innovative research program improving the rapid detection and real time debriefing of safety incidents in acute mental health settings, research that she will continue at Waypoint. She has been a principal and co-investigator on multiple research studies with numerous publications as well as national and international presentations.

”Waypoint is committed to achieving clinical excellence, advancing best practices and quality of care, and transforming patient/client experiences under our new strategic plan, and Dr. Waddell’s experience in quality improvement and innovation is an exceptionally strong fit for this new role,” notes Dr. Nadiya Sunderji, Waypoint’s VP of Medical Affairs and Chief of Staff. “She brings unparalleled experience and expertise in mental health quality improvement and patient safety among psychiatrists in Canada and we are thrilled to have her join us.”

Dr. Waddell joins Waypoint one day a week starting in January, 2022, transitioning to her full time role in April, at which time she will join our physician team in providing clinical care as part of Waypoint’s professional staff.