Canadians have a lot to be nervous about in 2025 – the high cost of living, a housing crisis, significant taxation, unpredictable weather and an economy closely tied to the U.S., as their President has frequently reminded us. But despite a growing sentiment of uncertainty and vulnerability, health care in Canada remains a silver lining amongst the clouds.
Don’t get us wrong, the health-care system in Canada is facing its share of challenges, such as long wait times and a shortage of primary care physicians. However, as a publicly funded, privately delivered health-care system, it ensures that all Canadians can have access to care based on need, rather than ability to pay.
No one in Canada goes bankrupt because of medical bills. Canadian health-care quality outcomes are ranked among the highest in the world, with a strong public health infrastructure , effective management of preventable diseases, and some of the best hospitals in the world.
Canadian health sciences research is at the forefront of medical innovation; its roots travel far back. William Osler, known as the Father of Modern Medicine, helped establish the John Hopkins Hospital and revolutionized the way medicine is taught. Frederick Banting was a Canadian surgeon who, along with his student Charles Best, is known for the discovery of insulin, transforming millions of lives and leaving an indelible mark on the treatment of diabetes.
This is not just a relic of the past. In fact, many of the contemporary Canadian clinicians and researchers are world renowned experts in their fields, often taking on leading roles as editors of major research journals or chairs of medical societies. For example, many are aware of the GLP-1 molecules popularized by medications like Ozempic. What isn’t as well-known is that it was Dan Drucker from the University of Toronto who led the research on GLP-1 and its effects on diabetes as early as 1996. There are similar leaders, scholars and change makers across the spectrum of health care and medicine who are actively engaged in treating Canadian patients, and in fact, involved in the training and education of trainees from around the globe.
The question then becomes, where do we go from here to enhance health care and maintain our competitive advantage? Canadians are increasingly finding it difficult to access a primary care physician – in 2024, only 86 per cent percent of adults reported having a family physician, compared to 93 per cent just eight years ago in 2016.
While Ontario has invested in two new medical schools and committed $1.8 billion to 305 new primary care teams, these types of investments are iterations of the same promises we’ve heard about since the COVID-19 pandemic.
We need to think differently about how we can get more out of our health-care system and as our history has shown, one way of doing this is to invest in health-care innovation. That is, we need not only to be clinicians and practitioners, but also innovators and entrepreneurs like Osler and Banting, willing to challenge the status quo. We need to get ahead on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our healthcare delivery. For example, more family doctors are turning to AI medical scribes to support documentation, allowing them to spend more time caring for the patients who need them most.
These efforts have been supported by Canadian clinician entrepreneurs like Brett Belchetz, a practicing physician who founded Maple, a company that delivers virtual care; Eunice Wu, a pharmacist who co-founded Asepha, a company that uses AI to automate work in pharmacies; and Joshua Liu, a physician who built SeamlessMD, which provides digital tools for hospitals across Canada and in the United States.
Innovation and the commercialization of Canadian health-care products and services will be necessary to sustain economic growth and global competitiveness. But this requires significant investments in health-care innovation and entrepreneurship.
As our nation navigates economic and social uncertainties, safeguarding and enhancing our health-care system will be crucial to ensuring a healthier future for all Canadians. Investing in our strengths should be step one.
