In the current complex health care landscape, health care leaders are frequently challenged to make management decisions that are effective but also equitable. Numerous leadership transitions are occurring in Canada’s health care systems because of leadership failures. In British Columbia, multiple health care leaders were replaced in the first half of 2025. David Eby, British Columbia’s Premier, declared, “The anxiety that I have is that the people who see the day-to-day of our health care system, they have suggestions about how to make it better, but they haven’t been able to bring that forward.”
Evidence-based management can empower health care leaders by promoting contextual understanding and the lived experiences of patients and health care professionals. Rising expenditure, workforce shortages, evolving patient expectations, societal inequities, and technological advancements challenge health care leadership.Evidence-based management, an emerging model that ensures the best evidence guides leadership decisions, is one promising approach that bridges health care efficiency and equity.
An official publication by Canada’s Chief Medical Workforce Advisor in 2025 highlights Canada’s inadequate health workforce leadership. The publication indicates a deficit of 22,823 between demand and supply for family doctors in Canada, while only 1,300 doctors graduate annually. Canadian Medical Association’s president, Joss Reimer, declared, “This report should be the last of its kind. From now on, let’s move from studies to action to see real change take place. Leaders can no longer look away.”
Evidence-based management utilizes research data, organizational metrics, and stakeholder input to inform leadership decisions. Unlike ad hoc or intuition-driven approaches, evidence-based management applies rigor to management similar to what evidence-based medicine brings to clinical care. By relying on validated data and reliable frameworks, health care leaders can transition from reactive problem-solving to proactive planning. Evidence-based management promotes accountability and mitigates costly errors. Leaders who embrace it usually foster cultures of transparency and continuous improvement, thereby retaining talent and improving service delivery.
When leadership decisions are based on data and disaggregated metrics, inequities become visible and actionable. This enables leaders to design targeted interventions that promote efficiency and mitigate disparities. When health care leadership is informed by evidence and guided by equity, better outcomes aren’t just possible, they’re inevitable.
Olumuyiwa Bamgbade is an accomplished health care leader with a strong focus on value-based health care delivery. A specialist physician with extensive training across Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Korea, Dr. Bamgbade brings a global perspective to clinical practice and health systems innovation.
He serves as an adjunct professor at academic institutions across Africa, Europe, and North America and has published 45 peer-reviewed scientific papers in PubMed-indexed journals. His global research collaborations span more than 20 countries, including Nigeria, Australia, Iran, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Armenia, South Africa, the U.K., China, Ethiopia, and the U.S.
Dr. Bamgbade is the director of Salem Pain Clinic in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada—a specialist and research-focused clinic. His work at the clinic centers on pain management, health equity, injury rehabilitation, neuropathy, insomnia, societal safety, substance misuse, medical sociology, public health, medicolegal science, and perioperative care.
