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As a child, Mari remembers weekend afternoons sitting in the x-ray department while her mom was on-call as a CHEO radiologist. But it wasn’t until an accident involving losing the ends of two of her fingers on an exercise bike that Mari experienced what it was like to be a CHEO patient. To this day, Mari still remembers the kindness of Dr. Wiley who provided the follow-up care. "The stitches healed with time and now I have two mostly functioning fingers,” shares Mari with a laugh.
38 years later, almost to the day, Mari helped save a young boy’s fingers during her first on-call shift as CHEO’s Chief Information Officer and Vice-President Technology. She received a phone call asking for approval for $5,000 of medical-grade leeches to support blood flow and try to save this young patient’s fingers. It wasn’t until the third call that she realized it wasn’t a prank and that in a strange full circle moment, she had gone from patient to fixer.
While she had been a patient at CHEO during her childhood, it was 15 years into her electrical engineering career that Mari returned to CHEO. She saw her mom, a CHEO radiologist, frustrated by the implementation of digital PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) versus reading images on film. Believing that there had to be a better way for clinicians to adopt new technology, Mari shifted gears from high tech to health care. She completed a Master’s in Health Administration at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management and in 2010, joined her mom at CHEO.
Mari started as BORN’s (Better Outcomes Registry & Network) Project Coordinator and quickly moved up to Manager and Director within five years. Always putting learning at the forefront of her career, Mari recently went on a 4-month sabbatical to a UK hospital and realized how exceptional CHEO was.
“I thought I would find the special sauce there,” says Mari, “I was wrong. It was here all along. They had the same hurdles as CHEO; however, where they start from a place of No, we start from a place of Yes and work hard to innovate.”
With CHEO’s 50th birthday coming up on May 17, it’s heartwarming to reflect on Mari’s longstanding connection to CHEO. From accompanying her mom when she was on-call, to being a patient here, to joining the team at CHEO, it’s clear that CHEO holds a special place in the hearts of these women.
CHEO is filled with innovative and passionate people like Mari. Join us!
Before Mari’s mother retired, Mari’s daughter worked at CHEO as a screener. That’s three generations at CHEO!