Medical Director, Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program
Department of Pediatrics
BC Children’s Hospital & University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
BC Children’s Hospital & the University of British Columbia, Department of Pediatrics are seeking a Clinician Specialist to provide leadership services to the Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program.
The multidisciplinary Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program is housed in the Ambulatory Care Building at the Oak Street Campus of the BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital. The program sees over 180 new patients annually, with a patient population of 2,500 seen from pre-birth to transition to adult care at age 19 years and delivers over 1,000 consultations per year. The program is internationally recognized through the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association (ACPA) annual approval process to provide interdisciplinary team care.
What you’ll do
The Medical Director will lead the multidisciplinary Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Program. Working with the Program Director, the Medical Director is accountable for leading the team to provide exceptional, coordinated, and compassionate care for every child with complex congenital craniofacial differences and care needs. The Medical Director will champion a patient- and family-centered approach, fostering an environment where families feel supported, informed, and empowered within the complex medical systems and relevant community resources. This integrates with care at the family planning level, fetal assessment stage, and across the pediatric lifespan. This includes robust transition to adult care planning, empathetic to the range of care available across the province.
The Medical Director will promote a culture of innovation and discovery, integrating emerging congenital/genetic insights, novel care models, and translational research to advance the understanding and management of craniofacial conditions. Through collaborative research and quality improvement initiatives, the Medical Director will help shape new standards of excellence in multidisciplinary care. Guided by this vision, the Medical Director will support the team in continuously advancing the clinic’s mission to deliver equitable, evidence-based, and transformative care that enhances the health and well-being of children and families affected by congenital anomalies.
The term will be two years initially, with possibility to extend.
Key Responsibilities
Clinical Care and Leadership
- Provides leadership to the BCCH Provincial Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program including weekly Cleft Craniofacial Clinic.
- Facilitates care coordination across multiple services as a bridged program of PHSA with BC Women’s Hospital including Provincial Medical Genetics Program (PMGP), Fetal Diagnostic Service (FDS), and Sunny Hill outpatient developmental programs.
- Defines and advances pathways and clinical standards for best practice including genetic screening and diagnostic assessment, counseling, and management of patients with syndromic and non-syndromic craniofacial differences.
Administrative, & Program Oversight
- Oversees the shared responsibility for multidisciplinary care with nursing, allied health care, specialists and subspecialists, including plastic surgery, otolaryngology (ENT), general and developmental paediatrics, family practice nurse practitioners, speech and language pathology (SLP), social work, audiology, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery, and prosthodontics.
- Shares strategic responsibility with the Program Director, Surgical Lead and other delegated team lead (s) (i.e. as designated by the Cleft Palate Craniofacial team):
o Provides leadership at the regional and provincial levels, and beyond in relation to the best practices for care of children and youth in our program.
o Monitors performance goals and targets within the Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program and conduct an annual evaluation of these goals; including Accreditation by the ACPA.
o Identifies strategic priorities as it relates to the Tier 4 mandate of the hospital and the needs of the target population.
- With the Program Director, provides administrative leadership for adherence to accreditation and performance guidelines including:
o Oversees patient bookings and management to ensure patients meet the Tier 4 service mandate e.g. equitable one-of-a-kind personalized care for complexity, vulnerability and/or barriers to access.
o Facilitates closer to home continuing care in the patient’s community i.e. identification of a “pediatric medical home” with a primary health provider with regional pediatric access.
o Provides recommendations, referrals, and team reports, with timely distribution to families/legal guardians, their medical home, other specialists, and appropriate community service providers.
o Liaises between administration and medical/surgical staff with guidance from respective department/division heads.
o Manages inter-professional and interdisciplinary relationships and performance.
o Facilitates bi-monthly team business meetings for review of team function, donations and special projects with the Foundation, interim process improvements (QI), etc.
o Ensures maintenance of team records by secretarial staff (wait times, call backs, patient family concerns, and team business meeting notes).
o Prepares an annual report (e.g. ACPA standards, program targets, accomplishments, publications).
o Supports the Team Coordinator in recruitment, selection, and retention of staff.
o Represents team recommendations for recruitment, selection, and retention of contracted PHSA staff specialists/subspecialists required for children with complex oral facial and craniofacial differences (e.g. plastic surgery, ENT, and paediatrics).
Quality Improvement & Research
- Provides leadership and support to quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
- Encourages and contributes to clinical research, registries.
Education & Mentorship
- With the Program Director, provides educational leadership for adherence to accreditation and performance guidelines, including facilitating semi-annual half-day continuing professional development (CPD) meetings.
- Provides education and training to medical students, residents, fellows, genetic counsellors, and allied health professionals.
- Fosters a culture of teaching, professional development, and interprofessional collaboration.
Family & Community Engagement
- Promotes culturally sensitive and compassionate communication and care with patients and families.
- Supports family engagement, education, advocacy, and outreach efforts in collaboration with institutional and community partners.
What you bring
Qualifications
- The successful candidate must be eligible for appointment to the PHSA Medical Staff
- The successful candidate must hold, or obtain before commencing the role, a clinical appointment within the BCCH Provincial Cleft Palate Craniofacial Program
- Royal College certification in a relevant medical or surgical specialty
- Excellence in patient care, leadership, communication, and team collaboration.
- Experience in pediatric congenital disorders, craniofacial disorders, dysmorphology, fetal assessment and counselling.
- Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical care, education, advocacy and research.
- Track record of academic contributions, teaching, and clinical research.
Preferred Attributes
- Experience in program leadership, development and multidisciplinary team environments.
- Commitment to relevant professional organizations (e.g., American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association).
The successful candidate will also demonstrate a commitment to beginning and continuing their personal learning journey related to Indigenous-specific racism and dismantling systems of oppression, as well as addressing racism more broadly. They will demonstrate a willingness to articulate and share their learning experiences to contribute to a culture of motivation and inspiration among peers.
As a strong asset for consideration, we are looking for our successful candidate to have: Foundational knowledge of the social, economic, and political realities of settler-colonialism and its impacts on Indigenous peoples and equity-deserving groups within social and health contexts. Demonstrated understanding the impact of social determinants of health on health outcomes and a commitment to learning about and upholding legislative obligations and provincial commitments outlined in foundational documents such as the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015), In Plain Sight (2020), BC's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (2019), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Reclaiming Power and Place: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls Calls for Justice (2019), the Declaration Act Action Plan, Remembering Keegan: A First Nations Case Study, the BC Human Rights Code, Anti-Racism Data Act, and the Distinctions Based Approach.
Applications will be accepted until the position(s) are filled. Interested individuals should submit their most current CV, cover letter and names of three references to:
Dr. Sharon Smile
Head, Division of Developmental Pediatrics
Clinical Associate Professor
BC Children’s Hospital
e-mail: [email protected]
BCCH and the UBC Department of Pediatrics hire based on merit and encourage all qualified persons to apply. Canadian law requires that qualified Canadians and permanent residents will be given preference.
What we do
BC Children's Hospital (BCCH) is an academic health science center dedicated to the care of children, youth and their families and is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at The University of British Columbia (UBC). In 2023, it was ranked fifth in the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals. UBC is Canada’s third largest university and consistently ranks among the 40 best universities in the world. Primarily situated in Vancouver, UBC is a research-intensive university and has an economic impact of $4 billion to the provincial economy.
BCCH is a program of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) which plans, manages and evaluates specialized health services with the BC health authorities to provide equitable and cost-effective health care for people throughout the province. Our values reflect our commitment to excellence and include Respect people – Be compassionate – Dare to innovate – Create equity – Be courageous.
The BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) is a partnership of UBC and PHSA whose programs include BC Children’s Hospital, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children and the BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. The BCCHR is dedicated to high quality research spanning a wide range of concerns relevant to children’s and family health.
Learn more about PHSA and our programs: jobs.phsa.ca/programs-and-services
PHSA, BCCH, BCCHR and UBC are committed to anti-racism and equity in our hiring and employment practices. With learning and compassion, we are addressing existing inequities and barriers throughout our systems. PHSA is seeking to create a diverse workforce and to establish an inclusive and culturally safe environment. We invite applications and enquiries from all people, particularly those belonging to the historically, systemically, and/or persistently excluded groups identified under the B.C. Human Rights Code.
One of PHSA’s North Star priorities is to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism, which includes ongoing commitments to Indigenous recruitment and employee experience as well as dismantling barriers to health care employment at every level. We welcome Indigenous individuals to apply and/or contact the Sanya’k̓ula Team (Indigenous Recruitment & Employee Experience) for support at [email protected].
Indigenous-specific anti-racism initiatives are rooted in addressing the unique forms of discrimination, historical and ongoing injustices, and exclusion faced by Indigenous peoples. These initiatives align with an Indigenous rights-based approach, recognizing the inherent rights and title of BC First Nations and self-determination of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. PHSA is mandated to uphold legislative obligations and provincial commitments found in the foundational documents including the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015), In Plain Sight (2020), BC's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (2019), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Reclaiming Power and Place Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls Calls for Justice (2019), the Declaration Act Action Plan and Remembering Keegan: A First Nations Case Study.
