Our Mission

The Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses (CAHN) is a national professional organization that supports and promotes hepatology nurses and health care professionals with an interest in the care of people who are at risk for or living with liver-related conditions.  Our mission is to advance the science and practice of hepatology nursing in Canada through the promotion of clinical excellence and leadership, facilitation of knowledge sharing and networking opportunities, and through advocacy for equitable policies and practices that address the social and structural determinants of health.

Our Values

Caring Environments

We take a person-centred approach, recognizing that health is a human right and that people flourish under safe, inclusive, and caring conditions.

Clinical Excellence

We believe everyone at risk for or living with liver-related conditions should have access to quality clinical care from a specially trained hepatology nurse.

Collaboration

We are committed to sharing knowledge and working together to improve health outcomes at the individual, community, and population level.

Meet the 2025 CAHNference Planning Committee

Michelle Pittman

Board Member, CAHNference Co-Chair

2025-2027

Michelle became a Registered Nurse in 2016 after graduating from the University of New Brunswick and began her career at the Fredericton Downtown Community Health Centre. She quickly developed a passion for addiction medicine, mental health, and sexual health, particularly within community healthcare for marginalized populations.

In 2020, an addiction medicine clinic focused on patients with refractory injection drug use opened with funding from Health Canada’s Substance Use & Addictions Program (SUAP). Michelle became both the nurse and clinic manager at River Stone Recovery Centre, which was one of five sites across Canada funded to establish an injectable opioid agonist therapy (iOAT) program—the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

Driven by her commitment to improving healthcare for vulnerable populations, Michelle returned to school in 2019 to pursue a Master of Nursing with the goal of becoming a Nurse Practitioner. She graduated from Athabasca University in August 2023 and transitioned into her NP role with Horizon Health Network, becoming the first NP prescriber at the recovery centre, now known as RECAP Health Services.

Beyond her clinical work, Michelle launched a nurse-led Hepatitis C treatment program, successfully reaching the WHO’s viral hepatitis eradication goals within the iOAT program. She has also co-chaired two CAHNferences (2024-2025), serves on the steering committee of Action Hepatitis Canada, and recently joined the nurses committee for the International Network of Health & Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU).

Outside of her professional roles, Michelle is a wife and the proud mother of an energetic four-year-old boy.

Elizabeth (Liz) Lee

CAHNference Co-Chair

2024-2026

Liz Lee is a nurse practitioner at the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. She has worked for over 15 years in various clinical settings in the community and within the University Health Network, spanning the continuum of chronic liver disease from diagnosis to transplantation.
 
She obtained a Master of Nursing- Nurse Practitioner (Adult Emphasis) from the University of Toronto. She has a Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Certification in Gastroenterology and has completed an NP Fellowship to support her clinical training in hepatology through the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
 
Her main clinical focus is on the management of patients with cirrhosis and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). She works on developing quality improvement initiatives and research projects aimed at optimizing clinical management in these patient populations. She maintains a separate practice in managing patients in general hepatology. She is an AASLD Special Interest Group (SIG) Steering Committee member for ALD and is a founding member of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL SIG) on ALD.
 
She has a keen interest in clinical education and fostering the growth of hepatology nurses. She is a Hub Member for ECHO Ontario Liver, a provincially funded initiative supporting a virtual learning community for primary care providers (PCPs) to support their management of patients with liver disease. She also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer for the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto.
 
On a personal note, she is an outdoors enthusiast, with her most recent trips (prior to pandemic) through the Yukon River, Patagonia and West Coast Trail. She aspires to paddle the Nahanni River in Northwest Territories in the future.

Tamara Barnett

CAHNference Co-Chair

2024-2026

Tamara Barnett is a registered nurse with certified practice working in Victoria, British Columbia as a primary care nurse and the hepatitis C program coordinator of the nurse-led hepatitis C treatment program at Cool Aid Community Health Centre. The Cool Aid clinic provides low threshold primary care to vulnerable populations including people with polysubstance dependence and complex mental health challenges. The Cool Aid nurses have developed many nurse-led programs including their nurse-led PrEP program, nurse-led Doxy-PEP program and the internationally award winning, nurse-led Hepatitis C program that utilizes numerous innovative models of care including ‘seek and treat’, PEER led and pharmacy led initiatives. Tamara is also currently working with the local jail developing a model of care for hepatitis C elimination with a link to primary care upon release from prison.