Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Paul Santaguida
Paul founded CareChain after watching the orthopaedic referral system sort patients by the date a fax arrived rather than by clinical need. Canada ranks last among 11 peer health systems on specialty wait-times, and the median orthopaedic wait runs 27 weeks, so he set out to move the triage decision upstream. Under his direction, CareChain works with allied health providers to assess patients first, which triages 85% of them off the orthopaedic wait-list and sends the remaining 15% to a surgeon already pre-screened. He leads marketplace strategy, the company's work with provincial health systems, and partnerships with clinics and academic centres, including the anchor relationship with the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).
Paul founded CareChain after years inside the specialty referral system, where he watched patients wait months for consultations most of them never needed. He leads strategy, partnerships, and the company's work with health systems.
Before CareChain
Earlier work spans Healthcare operations, marketplace strategy, and health-system partnerships. Paul Santaguida brings that grounding to the pathway and the standards behind every triage decision.
Selected writing
Recent talks and recordings include Why the wait-list is the wrong problem and building a clinical marketplace, alongside the published spine-pathway results and the research notes behind them.
