Our Teams

Meeting the different needs of our customers is the main concern of our highly qualified people.

CanAssistance has four doctors providing us with their medical expertise and experience in clinical research, health management and the insurance and assistance fields.

Dr. François Sestier, MD, Ph.D., cardiologist, Medical Director 

Dr. Sestier, affiliated with the Cardiology Department at the Notre-Dame campus of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), is an Associate Clinical Professor in the University’s Faculty of Medicine. He is extremely active in the insurance medicine field, and heads the postgraduate microprogram (expert and insurance medicine) for health professionals. A member of the Canadian Life Insurance Medical Officers Association (CLIMOA), he is also Medical Director in Canada for Air France and KLM airlines.

Dr. Daniel Savard, MD, Cardiologist, Medical Advisor

Affiliated with the cardiology department at the Notre-Dame campus of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Dr. Savard is also an assistant clinical professor with the faculty of medicine and clinical researcher at the CHUM Centre de recherche clinique de cardiologie. He serves regularly as a medical expert for various investigations.

Dr. James Brophy, MD, MSc, Cardiologist, Medical Advisor

Engineer, cardiologist and epidemiologist, James Brophy is Director of the joint McGill University Health Centre / Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal Technology Assessment Unit (MUHC/CHUM TAU). He continues to be involved in cardiology and is an Associate Professor in McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor in Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Maciej (Mathias) Kalina, MD, Family Physician, Medical Advisor

Dr. Kalina is Associate Director, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Professional Services. He has wide-ranging experience in the area of hospital and pre-hospital emergency medicine, as well as in international medical assistance, in Europe as well as in Canada. He regularly carries out emergency medical missions for CanAssistance.

These are the people you talk to when you first call CanAssistance. They are resourceful, efficient and able to deal with the most complex situations. Among their duties, they:

• Evaluate the needs of each policyholder
• Provides assistance according the traveller’s specific needs
  

For example :

• Pre-departure information: vaccine, visa,
• Provide information on coverage contained of the various travel insurance policies
• Provide a reference to a clinic or hospital if necessary to ensure that the traveller will receive quality healthcare in a reasonable delay
• Systematic follow-up with the affected traveller
• Deliver urgent messages
• Organize direct payment of the hospital and medical fees 

Doctors and nurses who are trained in emergency medicine, they take over when a medical consultation is required. Among other things, they:

• Do a medical follow-up with the physician consulted abroad;
• Communicate with the family doctor;
• Analyze medical files in case of hospitalization;
• Communicate with a parent or spouse;
• Co-ordinate the medical details of the return home.

When misfortune occurs while travelling, unforeseen expenses often arise. Our management team has long experience with the most varied claims. Their roles include:

• Evaluating current medical practices;
• Negotiating with service providers;
• Processing refund claims;
• Directly paying the costs of treatment at network member clinics and hospitals;
• Co-ordinating claims settlements with government plans and other insurers;
• Managing fraud cases.

CanAssistance does its utmost to make things easy for you.