Alykhan Abdulla

Contributor

Dr. Alykhan Abdulla, MD FCFP CCPE ICD.D, is a comprehensive family doctor working in Manotick, Ont.; Board Director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada; Chair of the General Assembly at Ontario Medical Association; and Director for Longitudinal Leadership Curriculum at the University of Ottawa Undergraduate Medical Education.

21 Contributions
by Alykhan Abdulla

We can no longer afford the wrong leadership for our medical organizations

Choose leaders for what they can do, not where they come from. The right competencies will carry the profession – and the health system – forward.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Healing the healers: Servant leadership and moral injury

In medicine, service and skill are not opposing forces. They’re inseparable. One without the other leads to harm. Together, service and skills just might help us heal.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Competency-based leadership: A critical imperative for Canadian health care

Canada is in a moment that demands more – more wisdom, more rigor, more courage. Medical associations, like the government itself, are being asked not just to manage systems but to transform them.
by Alykhan Abdulla

How to deal with a bully

Dealing with a bully – especially one as duplicitous and manipulative as U.S. President Donald Trump – requires a strong foundation of mental resilience, strategic thinking and collective action.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Protecting the Canada Health Act comes at the expense of patients

It’s time to stop treating the Canada Health Act as a symbol and start treating it as what it is: A tool that needs updating.
by Alykhan Abdulla

The cost of lies: Misinformation is worsening mental health and eroding our social fabric

Political propaganda, amplified by social media and unscrupulous actors, has become a weapon of choice, wreaking havoc on mental health, public safety and democracy itself.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Ontario’s health care needs courageous leadership, not political appeasement

Ontario’s health-care system is crumbling. We can cling to outdated ideals and watch our system collapse under its own weight, or we can rewrite the playbook.
by Alykhan Abdulla

How The Grinch stole family medicine: A tale of Ontario’s health crisis

Like a green, scheming miser, the Grinch of health care – festooned in a slew of government mismanagement and shortsighted policies – descended upon family medicine, stealing its spirit one policy at a time.
by Alykhan Abdulla

We have lost our way in Ontario

Ontario's government has pursued a "populist" agenda, focusing on privatization, deregulation and profit-driven models. These have had devastating effects on health care and public safety.

by Alykhan Abdulla

May 1 is Doctors’ Day. My thanks go to patients, students and physician colleagues

Doctors’ Day (May 1) is really about all those in medicine working together to make our health-care system better for all. We just need politicians and policy makers to step out of the way.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Yes, Alykhan. There is a Santa Claus

After reflecting on the state of health care in Canada, family physician Alykhan Abudulla begins to doubt the existence of Santa Claus. He writes to the editor in search of answers.

by Alykhan Abdulla

Will we let the fires of 2023 keep burning?

In our safe country, we “react” to disasters like the forest fires or flooding with exorbitant efforts and resources after the crises. But we also lose track of key commitments to civil society and human progress.
by Alykhan Abdulla

The iDOCTOR will see you now

Patients without a family doctor can see a doctor virtually through artificial intelligence or non-family doctors apps run by private, for-profit corporations. But iDOCTOR will be of limited value to a system already stretched thin.

by Alykhan Abdulla

Sometimes the truth is unbearable

The health-care system is failing Canadians with lethal consequences. Policymakers need to make urgent changes now to address delays in access to care.

by Alykhan Abdulla Matthew Schurter

The future of human care: Why family doctors are more relevant than ever

With so many new technologies and practices changing how health care is delivered, do we even need family doctors at all?
by Matthew Schurter Alykhan Abdulla

Dear consultant doctor: An open letter from a couple of family physicians

In family practice, we’re struggling. Many of us are burned out from trying to be all things to all patients and using bandages to solve frank hemorrhaging.
by Alykhan Abdulla Matthew Schurter

Dr. Pharmacist?

Pharmacists can prescribe medications for certain ailments in eight provinces with Ontario about to follow suit. But while pharmacists knowledge of medications is invaluable, are they diagnosticians?

by Alykhan Abdulla

The need for family medicine

This optimistic article looks at the exceptional nature of family medicine based on these key words: longitudinal; relationship- and patient-focused; and comprehensive. They are foundational to supporting and serving everyone equitably.
by Alykhan Abdulla

Can we improve health care for all with only the empty public purse?

In a follow-up to his recent article on the day in the life of a family physician, Dr. Alykhan Abdulla discusses the knee-jerk reactions to privatization following Ontario's announcement that it would increase publicly funded surgeries at private clinics.

by Alykhan Abdulla

A day in a life of a family physician

Family medicine has been in the news lately, with accounts of shortages and medical graduates shunning the practice. Many believe family medicine is about infections, prescription renewals and referrals to specialists. Perhaps by sharing the details of a day in a life in family medicine, then my colleagues can either substantiate, educate or commiserate with my experience.

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