Like most doctors, I can remember the first time one of my patients walked into my office with a stack of printed papers in her hands and a long list of questions—all derived from the newly emerging world of the Internet. Managing these types of interactions could feel daunting and even a little threatening but …
Recently, Access Alliance, a community health centre in Toronto, posed an interesting challenge to fellow health care, education, child care and social service organizations: get rid of precarious jobs in the public sector. It makes sense. An important part of the public sector’s role is to build a healthy society. Precarious jobs – temporary, part-time, …
Among Ontario adults, 14.1 percent used cannabis during 2013, according to a recent report from Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). In 1997, the equivalent figure was only 9.1 percent. Researchers at CAMH say that the steady increase in cannabis use underscores the need for a public health—rather than a criminal justice—approach to …
This year’s flu season has been particularly nasty. In primary care, this has meant months of waiting rooms teeming with influenza and an array of different viruses. However, relatively few of these patients actually benefit from further assessment and treatment. In many cases, it’s not patients’ health concerns driving them in, but an archaic approach …
Imagine doing your job in fear. For many healthcare professionals, this is the reality they face every day. It is no secret; workplace violence is a leading form of occupational injury and results in reduced job satisfaction and fear to perform necessary duties within healthcare. For far too long, violence against healthcare workers has occurred …
In an earlier article, we discussed the importance of post-patent competition in generating social value from the pharmaceutical market. Generic competition gives people access to less expensive drugs and allows society to recapture value from patent holders. This topic is currently relevant because numerous major biopharmaceutical patents, including Remicade, Humira, and Lucentis, are set to …
In 2003, the sequence of the human genome – our genetic code – was revealed. For the first time, we now had a complete list of human genes (about 20,000), and could realistically start to address what these genes did, how they make us human, how the body works and what happens when things go …
Forty is the new thirty. Orange is the new black. And failure is the new success. It seems these days that no success story is complete without a failure (or two) along the way: the bankruptcy that gave birth to a successful company; the entrepreneur who lost it all just before hitting the Fortune 500. …
Unemployed youth is a worldwide problem. This problem is creeping into medicine and affecting our new doctors too. In recent years, there have been discussions about the lack of physicians in Canada. Much of this has been based on anecdotal and reported evidence of unmet health care needs of Canadians including long waiting lists and …
Five years ago, President Obama began the largest regulatory overhaul of US healthcare since Nixon, expanding coverage and radically redefining how coverage is purchased. In his 2015 State of the Union, Obama delivered a different kind of disruption, announcing the creation of a Precision Medicine Initiative, a $215 million genetic database that will make it …
Pharmaceutical innovations are the ultimate public good. They are ideas that make it possible for society to address otherwise unmet health care needs. As ideas, however, they are also hard to find and easy to copy. As such, fostering valued, pharmaceutical innovation is a policy paradox. In a truly “free market,” no firm would have …
“We have created an [engagement] industry that is self-serving, one that produces minimal or unsurprising output, by co-opting people into, and taming data to fit, institutional structures. We can shift the structures as much as we like, but it won’t change anything unless we find a new way of doing things…” So wrote David Gilbert …
Staff satisfaction surveys are a vital tool when trying to improve employee engagement. The connection between workplace health and quality patient outcomes is well documented. Yet, according to National Research Corporation Canada (NRCC), only two Ontario hospitals using their tool survey more frequently than once every year or two. Can an organization effectively focus on …
What do you first think of when you learn that a loved one has been hospitalized? Most of us worry about our loved one getting the best treatment, having appropriate follow-up care and being sent home when they are well. As the person’s family doctor, I may connect with the team in the hospital to …
In his State of the Union address, Barack Obama announced the intent to invest in personalized or “precision” medicine – the tailoring of treatments to an individual’s genetic code. Canadian funding agencies have also enthusiastically supported this idea, and all University of Toronto-affiliated hospitals promote their institutions’ forays into personalized or precision medicine. Collectively, these …
Three years ago, I commented on the then new (2012) OMA and Government agreement. I expressed scepticism at the time that the Agreement would truly result in the freeze (and indeed savings) the Government asserted that it would, especially without a hard or soft cap on utilization growth. As it turns out, at least according …
Can’t you do something, Judge? This was the question I was asked in Drug Treatment Court last week. Unfortunately, my answer was “I tried. But I can’t seem to get these doctors to change!” The issue was doctors charging their patients for one line notes stating they had been ill and had been seen in …
Last week, taking in the failed negotiations between the MOHLTC and the OMA, Dr. Mario Elia voiced his thoughts in the Healthy Debate column: “Ontario doctors vs. Ontario government: we need better”. The ‘we’ in Dr. Elia’s title refers to the collective group of physicians represented by the OMA, and his arguments draw attention to …
“Almost all LGBTQ people going into shelters have a fear of them, because it isn’t a matter of if it’s dangerous, but just how dangerous it will be. It is horrible to live in that fear everyday. ” – Mouse, 23 years old Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, and 2-Spirit (LGBTQ2) youth are overrepresented …
Like most Ontario physicians, I’ve spent the past few days trying to digest our failed negotiations with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC). I don’t typically consider myself to be someone who is particularly passionate about matters of remuneration. I generally feel I’m paid adequately for the services I provide, and I think most physicians …