From health innovation to community leadership: changing the trajectory of a career

When Sally Moy started her career in research at Baycrest, she wasn’t thinking about a master’s degree. She was helping clinicians shape promising ideas into research projects and supporting healthcare startups with their innovation pilots. But something was missing.

“I was working with startups and clinicians, and I realized I didn’t understand enough about the world of healthcare innovation - I didn’t know what I didn’t know. That’s when a colleague told me about TRP.”

That conversation led Moy to the University of Toronto’s Translational Research Program (TRP), a graduate program focused on bridging the gap between ideas and real-world healthcare impact. For Moy, it was a turning point - one that not only broadened her thinking but helped redefine her career.

Moy joined the TRP while still working at Baycrest, balancing her full-time role with the demands of the two-year program. It wasn’t easy, she needed “a marathon mindset,” as she called it, but it was also energizing.

“TRP taught me how to solve problems differently. I learned to always go back to the need before jumping to the solution. That approach, which we were taught through the Toronto Translational Framework (TTF), completely changed how I think and work.”

One of her strongest memories from the program came while working on a scoping review about Artificial Intelligence in healthcare with classmates from varied backgrounds. “One of our teammates was a clinician, and she had insights none of us would’ve thought of. That’s when it clicked that learning in TRP doesn’t just come from the content. It also comes from your classmates. Everyone brings something different to the table.”

One of the most valuable skills Moy took from the program was communication and how to adapt it for different audiences. In her work today, she regularly engages patients, caregivers, clinicians, and senior hospital leadership. “You learn that communicating in healthcare isn’t one-size-fits-all. What I took from TRP is how to listen and to speak clearly and respectfully to people with different priorities and levels of expertise and to recognize that we’re all in this system together.”

That ability to bridge perspectives is especially critical in her current role as a Manager of the Ontario Health Team and Transformation work at North York General Hospital, where she leads community-based projects focused on equity-deserving populations.

Since graduating from TRP, Moy’s career has followed a path shaped by her evolving interests and enabled by the program’s network and mindset. While still in the TRP, she transitioned from Baycrest to a strategy role at Ontario Health. There, she worked on health system integration, a theme that has carried into her work today, but she missed her connections with community health.

Now, she leads initiatives such as Community Health and Information Fairs (CHIFs) - pop-up events that bring healthcare services and education directly into neighbourhoods. They offer services like cancer screening, blood pressure checks and connecting attendees with local resources for primary care, mental health, chronic disease, or newcomer support.

“We work together with the hospital, local organizations, and our community to deliver CHIFs. When we host these events, we’re intentional about co-design. We have patient representatives and community ambassadors on our planning teams to make sure we’re listening to what people actually need.”

Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), the relatively new model for integrated healthcare in the province, are still evolving and that means ambiguity is part of the job. But for Moy, that’s not a problem.

“The TRP helped me become comfortable with ambiguity. That’s one of the key competencies they teach. Whether it’s government or hospital work, I’m no longer afraid of the uncertainty that comes with trying to change systems.”

She’s also putting her TRP learning to use in more creative ways. After finishing her capstone project, which focused on pain points in the healthcare innovation system,  she and her team didn’t want to stop. Together, they founded Innovo Labs Consulting, a side venture focused on healthcare innovation and strategy.

“We kept iterating ideas from our capstone until we landed on something that worked,” Moy said. “Now, we consult on healthcare innovation. We would never have done this without the TRP.”

Beyond the skills and credentials, the TRP helped Moy reimagine what her career could look like. “If I had to point to the biggest impact TRP made on me, it’s that it changed the trajectory of my career.”

Now she’s found her space supporting local communities and bringing system partners together. “In this role, I can see the impact of what we do on people’s faces, in real time. It’s incredibly rewarding.”