Dr. Janet Kushner-Kow is the physician program director of elder care at Providence Health Care and division head of geriatric medicine at the University of British Columbia.
To ensure access to high-quality palliative care for all Ontarians facing a life-limiting illness, we need a unified model of palliative care across Ontario.
The pandemic has highlighted stark equity gaps in health-care access for BIPOC and essential workers. But grassroots initiatives like Vaccine Hunters Canada have brought a broader vision of health equity to the rollout.
This pandemic, placed on top of the longstanding social pandemic, has created a "syndemic" – a synergistic pandemic – in which the spark of COVID has ignited a tinderbox of social inequity.
When the pandemic hit last year, doctors were hailed as heroes. But the hero-worship may be putting them at higher risk of moral injury – and its potential long-term, detrimental consequences.
Health-care institutions must reflect critically on whether they're ready to make the commitment necessary to do antiracist work by investing time and money to bring about systemic change. Anything less is performative.
Deprioritizing pregnant people in vaccine campaigns across Canada will result in more severe maternal infections, more strain on our intensive care system and ultimately, preventable deaths in this otherwise healthy, young cohort.
Long Covid Syndrome has no known treatments. We must support the individuals who suffer from it and prevent its spread by implementing a ZeroCOVID policy.
One of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's favourite phrases is "the buck stops with me." But because of his inaction, he’s passed the buck on to me and my colleagues in GTA hospitals.
We should be doing everything we can to prevent every single case of health-care worker illness, and this includes fully vaccinating them as soon as possible.
To control the pandemic, more needs to be done immediately. You have seen the clips about hospitals in Italy and New York City last year: make no mistake, this is what we will soon face if we don’t make changes now.
As COVID-19 continues to devastate the most vulnerable, like my patients with addiction, the testing and vaccination system in Ontario is set up to further disempower them.
Amidst the clamour for mass vaccination, we think it's worth reflecting on the limitations of our fixation on vaccine procurement as a nation. What does it mean for global health equity?
As social media increasingly dominates day-to-day life, it’s not uncommon to see a sudden shift in a friend or family member’s online behaviour. The change in attitude may be an indicator of an emerging or reoccurring mental health issue.
Provincial governments cover only half of treatments for mental-health conditions. It’s not that the public system can’t afford to cover such services. It’s that we can’t afford not to.
How "deep work," work performed in a state of intense focus, can improve a health-care system that leaves patients dissatisfied and physicians burned out.