Sholom Glouberman's Biography

Sholom is President of the Patients’ Association of Canada. He is also Philosopher in Residence at the Kunin Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit of Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. His background in the health field began first by caring for his dying father, and then as a manager in the trenches at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. Later, Sholom added to his knowledge as a Fellow in the Management College at the King’s Fund in London, England. As well, he worked as director of Health Policy for the Canadian Policy Research Networks.

Sholom has advised senior management, policy makers, and clinicians for Canadian and British health systems. This includes strategic regional health authorities to individual primary care practices including such major institutions as the Audit Commission and the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust in the United Kingdom, the Romanow Commission, and the McGill University Health Centre in Canada. He also designed and directed innovative management programs at the King’s Fund in England and at McGill University in Montreal.

In 2005, Sholom underwent a major surgical procedure and became a patient. This experience and his subsequent book My Operation - a graphic example of the disparity between the patient experience and institutional concerns, led him to found The Patients’ Association of Canada in 2007, which is now an incorporated charity as of 2010.

For more than 25 years, Sholom has applied philosophical methods and conceptual analysis to organizations and systems. He has focused on the area of health as the single most challenging and little-charted frontier. His research, consulting, and more than 500 speaking engagements have taken him worldwide.

Sholom has a BA from McGill and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cornell University. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards and honours in the humanities and health. He is a member of the American Philosophical Association and the New York Academy of Medicine amongst others. He sits on patient advisory councils for Cancer Care Ontario, Infoway, and The Ontario Multicultural Health Research Network to name a few.

Sholom’s major publications include My Operation: A Health Care Insider Becomes a Patient (2011), Complicated and Complex Systems: What Would Successful Reform of Medicare Look Like? for The Romanow Papers (2004); Towards A New Perspective on Health Policy for the Canadian Policy Research Networks (2001), Beyond Restructuring: Papers from A King’s Fund International Seminar (1996) and Keepers: Tales From Total Institutions (1991).

Sholom's recent projects all revolve around creating a clearer understanding of the patient experience in health care, and promoting and enhancing the patient perspective at all levels of health care. His blog posts, presentations and theoretical papers can be found here.