About the Authors

Cheryl Levitt MBBCh CCFP FCFP
Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Cheryl Levitt is a family physician and a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. She was born in South Africa, trained at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and interned at Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto. Cheryl practiced rurally in British Columbia for 7 years and has been an academic family physician at McGill and McMaster Universities since 1984. She was Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University from 1996-2006, President of the Ontario College of Family Physicians from 2005-2006 and is presently the Senior Research Advisor for the College of Family Physicians of Canada. She led the Quality in Family Practice project from 2000-2009.  Cheryl has published widely on primary care issues, medical migration of foreign doctors, gender equity and maternal and child health. She has received a number of awards including the Individual National Breastfeeding Seminar Award of Excellence in 1999, the South African Women for Women HEALTH Award in 2004, the Enid Johnson Award from the Federation of Medical Women of Canada in 2008, the Wonca (World Organization of Family Doctors) Fellowship Award in 2010, the Jean Pierre Depins Award of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 2010, and the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Health Wellness for the City of Hamilton in 2011.
Linda Hilts RN BScN MEd
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Associate Member, Department of Family Medicine,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Linda Hilts started her nursing career as an operating room nurse in cardiovascular surgery at Hamilton General Hospital. She worked part-time in rehabilitation medicine with stroke and spinal cord patients at Holbrook, Chedoke Hospital, before joining VON and later CCAC. After completing a BScN from McMaster and then a MEd from Brock University, Linda worked at the Hamilton Civic Hospitals in a newly created position of patient education coordinator. She started working for Stonechurch Family Health Centre in 1998 as a family practice nurse and became involved in resident education, becoming the education coordinator for Stonechurch and then FHT coordinator. Linda has been the nursing consultant for the Quality in Family Practice program since 2002. Linda has won a number of awards for her work in primary care, including the Sibley Award for part-time faculty at McMaster University and the Ted Evans Scholarship Award for exemplary practice in the four principles of family medicine. Since retiring from full-time work in 2009, she has continued to work as a primary care consultant with a focus on OSCAR clinical training and improving quality in primary care settings through the Quality in Family Practice program.