The Team
The Health Quality Academy was founded by a group of healthcare experts sharing a common passion for improvement.
We were inspired by best practices at the national and international level and wanted to make them accessible for the public, patients, students, healthcare workers and all other stakeholders.
We believe that Quality Improvement tools can be integrated easily in every day routine of any healthcare team to create value to the patients, healthcare workers and the population in general.
Directors and Co-founders
Isabelle Gaboury, PhD
Isabelle Gaboury joined the Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, where she is full professor and director of research. Her research program focuses on the improvement of quality improvement processes in heatlhcare as well as interprofessional collaboration.
She has been trained as an Improvement Coach and Improvement Advisor through the Institute for Health Improvement.In the past 10 years, she has been closely involved with more than 45 primary care family medicine groups in the improvement and implementation of Advanced Access in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.
She has also served as a coach in the program Strengthening Primary Care offered by Health Excellence Canada and a methodology expert for the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux as part of the Compas+ program. She is the author of more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and 225 scientific presentations.
Scientific Director, Co-founder
Dr Neb Kovacina, MDCM CCFP MHSc
Neb Kovacina is a family physician at St Mary's Hospital Academic Family Medicine Group, in Montreal, and the Quality Improvement program director at the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University. He is a member of the Quality Improvement Advisory Table of Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services. Dr Kovacina contributed to capacity building in practice improvement in primary care, through different national and provincial initiatives, such as Practice Improvement Initiative of College of Family Physicians of Canada and Person Health Care Home of Correctional Services Canada. He is leading and is involved in different initiatives, research projects and expert tables on health system improvement, public engagement and access to primary care.
Clinical Director, Co-founder
Dr Élise Boulanger, MDCM CCFP MSc
Dr Elise Boulanger is a committed family physician who provides patient care in the community and care in CHSLDs. She co-founded the GMF Clinique Indigo in which she also works on various projects to improve the experience of patients and professionals in a medical clinic, particularly through interprofessional collaboration. Her involvement in her profession translates into a diversity of roles: company administrator for the Collège québécois des médecins de famille, clinical manager at McGill University, co-founder and co-president of the Community of Practice of Physicians in CHSLDs (CPMC). In the past, she also worked as a management consultant and continuous quality improvement advisor.
Director, Co-founder
Dr Louis-Xavier D’Aoust, MD CCFP
Louis-Xavier D'Aoust is a family physician at the Faubourgs University Family Medicine Group (U-FMG) as well as at Rond-Point, a center of perinatal and family expertise in drug addiction. He holds the position of managing physician at the CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l'île-de-Montréal as head of the department of general medicine after having been medical director of the Faubourgs U-FMG. He is also an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal. Having an interest in QI in primary care, he is a co-founder of the Health Quality Academy and responsible for QI for the GMF-U network of the Université de Montréal.
Director, Co-founder
HQA Teachers and Mentors
François Bordeleau
François Bordeleau has a Master's degree in Organizational Sociology from the Université de Montréal and is a certified Coach from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Francois has been coaching primary care teams for over five years with a focus on Advanced Access and interprofessional collaboration. He has been teaching and mentoring at the HQA since 2022.
Senior Coach, Teacher and Mentor
Mireille Plouffe-Malette
Mireille Plouffe-Malette holds a Master's degree in Health Experimental Sciences from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Institut Armand-Frappier and she has her Lean-Six Sigma green belt. She also has experience in research, teaching, coordinating education, and project management within the Quebec public service and the health and social services network. Mireille worked as a QI agent in a Family Medicine Group between 2018 and 2022 until she became the Provincial Coordinator for QI.
Teacher and Mentor
