Imagine having to rely on Facebook groups every time you needed to take time off work.
That was the reality Angélique Bernabé came face-to-face with while discussing maternity leave options with her wife, a physician.
It’s also the reality for nearly 100,000 physicians across Canada. Any time a doctor needs to step away from their practice, whether for maternity leave, medical leave, vacation, or the transition between roles, they’re responsible for finding their own temporary replacement, known as a locum.
Today, the most common way to find a locum is through Facebook groups: one doctor posts an opening, another offers to fill in. The process is largely informal and self-managed.
“That was really the wow moment for me,” remembers Bernabé, the Co-Founder and CEO of LOCVM. “We have Uber Eats, Ubers, and Airbnb, but doctors in Canada don’t have anything like that. A lot of people think the government will send doctors when people need time off, but it’s on the doctors themselves to find coverage.”
The realization led Bernabé to start LOCVM, a platform that connects doctors and clinics seeking locums with physicians looking for work opportunities.
Launched two years ago, the platform operates as a two-sided marketplace for physicians, while also helping to manage administrative duties such as workflows and hiring support.
“I was really trying to make this tool a place where it’s not just a one-time thing. My hope is that it supports the career of our physicians in Canada, always with the goal to provide continuity of care,” said Bernabé.
To make sure the platform reflects the needs of physicians, Bernabé regularly consults with doctors throughout the product development process, including her wife, Dr. Joyce Cheung, who serves as LOCVM’s Chief Medical Officer and Medical Advisor.
For the technical side of the platform, Ève Seni leads development as the company’s Co-Founder and Tech Lead. While Seni oversees the product build, Bernabé, whose background is in economics and research, focuses on business development and growth.
As an early stage company, LOCVM is currently focused on growing its user base. To help accelerate that growth and fill gaps in experience and expertise, Bernabé joined the EmpowHER Tech Launchpad program in fall 2025.
Supported by IDEA Mississauga and YSpace, the 12-week accelerator is designed to help women-led companies scale. The program pairs founders with mentors, provides investor readiness training, and supports growth strategy development. Participants also gain access to in-person workshops at IDEA Square One and up to $200,000 in resources for areas like marketing and sales support.
While Bernabé said the program itself was valuable because it delivered practical support without feeling overwhelming, her biggest takeaway was the tight-knit community it fostered.
“When I joined EmpowHER, I got to talk to other women who were also starting businesses and feeling the same insecurities I was feeling, wondering, ‘Is this idea even good enough?’” she said. “Overall, the community was a huge benefit. I would look forward to going to in-person workshops to spend time with the other entrepreneurs.”
Having a dedicated mentor was also incredibly valuable, giving her a consistent point of guidance to work through specific challenges and pain points as they came up.
Since graduating from EmpowHER Tech Launchpad in December 2025, Bernabé says LOCVM has grown from 150 users to more than 500. The company has also secured its first paid pilot, along with partnerships with the Ontario Medical Association and several universities, including the Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Medicine and the University of Toronto’s Health Innovation Hub, both as research partners.
“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is not talking to people, and spending too much time getting in your own head,” said Bernabé. “Having pockets of time to share pain points and challenges really helps you keep going.”
Today, LOCVM is free to use for both physicians seeking locum coverage and those looking for work opportunities. As of this spring, the platform is available to residents in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and British Columbia.
The team has been intentional about prioritizing what to build next, ensuring each new feature directly supports the careers of physicians in Canada.
Right now, they are working on a new dashboard to simplify application review, improved AI matching, in-platform contract execution, and a community hub that will include research articles and a recently launched podcast, Hidden Shift, a series about the people quietly transforming healthcare.
“When we started, we had no idea where this was going to take us,” said Bernabé. “Now, we get regular emails from users saying they love the platform. When you see different specialties using it and telling others to join, it tells us this is what they needed, and it makes us feel like, ‘okay, we’ve got to keep building.’”
To learn more about the EmpowHER Tech Launchpad program and enter the waitlist for the next cohort, visit the program page.
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