Markham Fertility Centre has been serving patients in the Greater Toronto Area for over 30 years. When new physician-owners took over the clinic, they set out to modernize its operations and lay a stronger foundation for the future of reproductive care.
As the clinic evolved, one need became clear: better information management. Mark Evans, CEO of Markham Fertility, led the search for a system that could unify patient data, reduce complexity, and unlock new opportunities for care. That search led them to wawa fertility OS.
Building on a strong foundation
For Mark Evans, fertility care has been his life’s work. With nearly two decades in the field — including leading multiple clinics and serving as Executive Director of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society — he’s seen firsthand how clinics succeed and where they struggle.
When three physician colleagues acquired Markham Fertility four years ago, Mark joined them to transform the clinic. The first step wasn’t growth, but strengthening the basics.
“If you're going to build for the future, you have to make sure your foundation is solid. The first two years were about protecting the lab, putting systems in place, and shaping the culture of the clinic. The physicians set the tone: ethical care, patient first, not money first. That’s the culture we live every day.”
With that foundation in place, the team turned to what would enable the next stage of growth.
Why Markham Fertility turned to wawa
Despite the clinic’s strong infrastructure, Mark saw a critical gap: information flow.
“The one barrier that keeps us from being better is how we communicate, share information, and use data. It hasn’t evolved much over the last 10 years.”
At ESHRE, Mark first encountered wawa fertility OS and was struck by its patient-first approach.
“What inspired me was that you started from the patient experience. Most systems have been inverted. What I felt was missing in existing EMRs was a unified program — not just add-ons, extra costs, and more complexity. That, to me, is the holy grail of an EMR.”
Markham Fertility wants patients to have more access to their own information — from consent forms to embryo updates and general fertility knowledge:
“I would like to see the patient receive a lot more information and participate in their care. Looking at their embryos and having information on their cryo storage accessible, their consent packages, education right at their fingertips. I think it's going to really enable us to customize that experience for the patient so they feel like they're the only one. And that's very difficult to do in our current system.”
But the impact goes beyond patient experience into operational excellence. The aim is for wawa fertility OS to help staff reduce routine administrative work and focus on higher-level care:
“We can use the information to help us make better decisions, help us manage our volume and our variability in our procedures, help us integrate some of the AI tools that are out there and emerging now. Ultimately, I think it's going to reduce the amount of effort that goes into the lab on the routine side of things and enable the embryologists to work at a higher level.”
Ultimately, Mark believes the advances in productivity will enable them to improve care while lowering the cost to patients:
“I think it's going to reduce the cost overall over time for the patient. And I think we have to do that. We have no choice but to, we can't continue increasing the cost for patients. So I actually see wawa as a catalyst for us to be able to do that.”
Flexible adoption, immediate impact
One of the biggest hurdles in adopting a new EMR is the all-or-nothing switch. For Markham Fertility, wawa’s flexibility removed that risk.
“With wawa, we didn’t need a single-day turnover. We could start with the patient portal, improve communication, and evolve into the full EMR over time. That was a massive reason we adopted it so quickly.”
The phased rollout allowed Markham Fertility to see benefits immediately, without disrupting existing operations.
A responsive partner
When evaluating wawa fertility OS, Mark brought a healthy dose of skepticism.
“Well, you know when you're buying something so important and fundamental to your operation, you always come in with a high degree of skepticism, which is appropriate… there's always a lot of promise. We can do this. We will do that. And so we always walk away from those meetings thinking, is it really going to happen? And what I would say with wawa is you made us all feel very comfortable because of your responsiveness. And there was no question that we couldn't ask that you would come back with a solution. That was a big deal.”
To test wawa fertility OS, Markham Fertility brought a list of real problems.
“We took 10 incidents that occurred that we attributed specifically to the EMR problem. And we said, wawa, these are ten problems that have occurred. How would you solve these problems? And in most cases, it already did. We wouldn't have had that incident or near miss with that system. But in those that were a little bit more complex, you went back, you thought about it and said we could do it this way. And you actually put it together. So that to me was huge.
Looking ahead
For Markham Fertility, adopting wawa fertility OS isn’t just a technology upgrade — it’s a foundation for setting new standards of fertility care.
By unifying data, empowering patients, and giving staff more time to focus on what matters most, the clinic sees wawa fertility OS as central to its mission of ethical, modern, patient-first care.
Ultimately, it’s about reducing costs and improving care. wawa fertility OS is the foundation that will help Markham Fertility do both.
