Sara Al Sharani

Contributor

Sara Al Sharani, MSc, MD (Candidate), is a second-year medical student at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and a member of the Migration Humanitarian Health Collective at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health

3493 Contributions
by Kirk Corkery

Practice streams: Efficiency or a trap?

The news from the recently released Canadian Institute for Health Information report on emergency department (ED) congestion is not new. Nor is the news from the survey by the Ontario Medical Association on ED congestion.
by Doug McGregor

We need local solutions to ease hospital overcrowding

Over the past dozen years, every health system in the Western world has moved from struggling with capacity issues to becoming nearly overwhelmed. This is no less true for Canada – and our shifting demographics to a more aged population will exacerbate the capacity issue.
by Elyse Lackie

We know how to prevent one of the deadliest cancers affecting women. Why aren’t we doing more of it?

When it comes to cancer prevention, we often imagine breakthrough drugs, expensive technology or years of scientific discovery. But one of the most promising ways to prevent ovarian cancer is already here. It's simple, safe, takes just a few extra minutes in the operating room, and has the potential to save thousands of lives. So why aren't we doing more of it?
by Brodie Ramin

You think you know about drugs in the Netherlands. You’re probably wrong

A man in a Rotterdam clinic placed a large dose of pharmaceutical-grade heroin on a piece of foil, heated it from underneath and inhaled the vapour through a tube. I stood a few feet away, behind a glass wall, watching.
by Gabriel Fabreau Annalee Coakley Lorian Hardcastle

Alberta scapegoating temporary residents in its referendum

We are clinicians and health system researchers. Through both our clinical and academic work, we bear witness to a health system that is under great pressure, with more sick patients and fewer hospital beds and resources to meet their needs.
by Eugene Litvak

How to spend money and make emergency overcrowding worse

Canada's emergency departments (EDs) had no summer reprieve. In July, Global News reported that Montreal EDs were operating above 200 per cent capacity. In British Columbia, CityNews reported eight overnight interruptions at Mission Memorial's ED in two weeks because of physician shortages. By August, 100 Mile House had recorded its 36th ED closure of 2026, with patients directed to a hospital 95 kilometers away.
by Mohammad Karamouzian Dr. Thomas Kerr

Canada has no shortage of ideas for the overdose crisis. It has a follow-through problem

Ten years after British Columbia declared toxic drugs a public health emergency, Canada is still struggling to turn promising responses into lasting interventions that save lives.
by Dr. Vivien Brown

RSV protection has changed. Our conversations need to change, too

Few things are more frightening for a parent than watching a baby struggle to breathe. A child who seemed well suddenly has difficulty feeding, becomes exhausted or needs hospital care. For families, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, can mean anxious hours in an emergency department and days at a hospital bedside.

by Dr. Bettina Hamelin Michelle McLean

Canada is losing the race for clinical trials – and patients are paying the price

Canada has long punched above its weight in clinical trial activity: the rigorous, multi-stage research studies that give Canadians early access to breakthrough treatments. For years, we’ve led the G7 in clinical trials per capita – a point of national pride – but that advantage is slipping away, and fast.
by Madelyn Chu

Who will protect workers from AI algorithms?

The use of technology to monitor workers is not new. Take, for example, the use of security cameras, keystroke loggers and screen-time monitoring. Artificial intelligence (AI), however, is introducing new forms of surveillance that are more intrusive and controlling.
by Gabriela Lima de Melo Ghisi Camila Kümmel Duarte

Does the Mediterranean diet have to be Mediterranean? Rethinking heart-healthy eating in multicultural Canada

When someone in cardiac rehabilitation is told to follow a Mediterranean diet, they most likely picture olive oil, salmon, nuts and colourful salads. Maybe tomatoes, chickpeas and whole grains. For some Canadians, these foods are familiar, affordable and readily available. For others, they may bear little resemblance to the foods they grew up eating, the meals their families prepare or what is available at their local grocery store.
by Larry W. Chambers

Air Quality, Anxiety and Evidence: Rethinking the CN Milton Logistics Hub

The CN Milton Logistics Hub, a nearly finished $250-million project on about 400 acres of CN-owned land, highlights the challenge of balancing economic growth, public health and environmental protection.
by Tania Kazi Ilun Yang

Could we vaccinate against colorectal cancer? Lynch Syndrome may show us how

Imagine being told that you carry a genetic mutation that significantly increases your risk of developing cancer. For many people with Lynch syndrome, that is their reality. They may spend decades undergoing regular colonoscopies and other forms of surveillance, knowing that cancer could still develop. But what if a vaccine could change that?
by Emily Foucault

Beyond pilot projects: Why Canada needs care pathways for chronic inflammatory diseases

At a recent Economic Club of Canada event, Scaling What Works: Advancing Healthcare Excellence Across Canada, two comments stayed with me long after discussion ended.
by Devina Maya Wadhwa

The diagnosis is not the conversation

As physicians, we spend years learning how to make the right diagnosis. We memorize diagnostic criteria, interpret investigations and learn to distinguish one condition from another. Accuracy does matter. A diagnosis guides treatment, shapes prognosis and helps us communicate with our colleagues.
by Seema Marwaha

Saved from the cancer, undone by the care.

One in three patients over 70 leaves hospital less able to care for themselves than when they arrived. I am an internist. I have taught that number to my trainees. This fall, I watched it happen to my father. Hospital-associated disability is not a rare complication. It is the expected output of how we run acute care.

by Tara Moroz

Most wellness trends aren’t wrong. They’re just not always worth it

A new health trend rarely arrives quietly. It usually comes with a promise: better sleep, more energy, less inflammation, sharper focus, improved metabolism or a more “optimized” life. It sounds scientific. It feels personal. It may come with a wearable score, a testimonial, a supplement, a tracking app or one simple rule that seems easy to follow.
by Sudeshna Roy

Beyond loneliness and social isolation: Why belonging matters for public health

Loneliness and social isolation are recognized as severe public health challenges in this age of fast-changing lifestyles, technology and information.
by Tayyeba Darr

AI is not a shortcut: Canada must fix its health workforce, not bypass it

Canada is facing growing pressure to integrate Artificial Intelligence into its health system – often framed as a solution to physician shortages, long wait times and rising patient demand.
by Sara Al Sharani Mohammad Yasir Essar Mujja Alloba Gabriel E. Fabreau

Refugee youth and the right to learn: An investment that pays dividends

More than 123 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced by war, violence and climate-related disasters between 2016-2025. Now, following sweeping United States policies, many high-income countries are restricting refugee access to asylum, education and work. Against this backdrop, last September we published the Halifax Declaration arguing for a different approach: one that recognizes displaced people not as passive aid recipients, but as partners in building resilient health, education and social systems.

1 of 175