About Maiwald Consulting  

Your health is more important than anything else  

As one of Canada's  academic health leaders and entrepreneur in the health field, providing optimal health services to all patients is critical. I work closely with The University of British Columbia and Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity, Northern Ontario School of Medicine to advance social accountability and medical education. I collaborate closely with patient partners, academics, faculty, health care leaders, research institutes, and students to ensure patient-centred approaches in all our work. My expertise includes public health policy development, implementation and evaluation, where I leverage my analytical thinking and quality improvement and evaluator skills necessary to support strategic decisions.

My name is Karin Maiwald. I hold a PhD from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, with a strong academic background in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health. Based in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. I own Maiwald Consulting, providing independent consulting services and facilitating the integration of research into practice, as part of circle learning. With 18 years of clinical experience in both private and public sectors, I bring ample practical knowledge to collaborative workspaces.

As an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, I contribute to the academic community through research and education. I collaborate with various universities, BC's public regional health authorities, non-profit research institutes, and local community groups. My work is deeply rooted in the values and identities of the communities I serve in the context of learning health systems.

I am passionate about rural health, ethics ('aesthetics') and community equity.

Feel free to reach out to learn more about my work or to discuss potential affiliations and collaboration. 

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Current Roles and Affiliations: 

• Adjunct Professor at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Research Affiliate at the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity, Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), Sudbury, Ontario
• Social Accountability Fellow at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) (application in progress)
• Patient Advisory Committee & Community member, as a part of Quality Improvement Interior Health Kootenay Boundary Divisions (KBPACC)

Professional Journey

• Physiotherapist: Over 18 years of experience, including roles in Northern and Rural BC
• Research Fellow: Occupational Health & Safety Agency for Healthcare (OHSAH), Vancouver
• Advisor: Workplace Health & Safety at Interior Health and Northern Health Authorities
• Research Regional Leader: Brought people together to advance health research, capacity building, and patient engagement within Interior Health systems from 2015 to 2020
• Postdoctoral Researcher: Completed a two-year embedded postdoctoral study on patient engagement in quality improvement initiatives and academic health research within Interior Health systems
• Research Associate: Facilitated WorkSafeBC-funded workplace violence prevention nurse research - Faculty of Applied Science, School of Nursing at The University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver

Contributions and Leadership

• BC Academic Health Science Research Ethics Advisory Council: Member from 2019 to June 2022 
• Patient & Stakeholder Engagement (PE) Lead: at Interior Health (IH), as part of the BC SUPPORT Unit Interior Centre, Kelowna
• Patient-Oriented Research: Established and worked closely with the Interior Health Patient Engagement in Research (PEiR) Committee within Interior Health systems, as part of Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) 

Expertise and Interests

• Public Health Policy: Skilled in teaching and applying general principles to local contexts. Strong academic foundation in Occupational Health
• Qualitative Research Methods: Expertise in interviews, responsive evaluation and institutional ethnographic approaches  
• Scholarly Research Projects: Co-Led various applied scholarly projects and delivered presentations, reports, briefs and publications at the intersection of medical education and Learning Health Systems (LHS)
• Social Accountability and Medical Education

Educational Endeavors 

• Teaching Development Program for New Faculty: Completed a 10-month program with UBC's Centre for Teaching and Learning & Technology in May 2022
• Course Design Incentive (CDI) Program: Successfully completed, demonstrating a commitment to lifelong learning
• planned expansion of medicine programs and interprofessional opportunities (in progress)

Personal Background

• Born in the Netherlands: Moved to Northern British Columbia in 1988
• Initially planned a temporary stay; but fell in love with the great outdoors in BC and made Nelson, Canada her home.

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With humility and in the spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledge that my place of work is within the unceded territory of the Musqueam xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueum Territory) | Vancouver, British Columbia; and Sinixt (Lakes),  Syilx (Okanagan), Ktunaxa, and Secwepemc (Shuswap) | Nelson