Opinion

We need virtual care that cares for everyone

Non-profit virtual care has the most potential to not only improve health outcomes but promote health system sustainability. It's time for governments to protect virtual care that supports everyone.

The role of innovation in addressing Canada’s primary care crisis: A response

Rather than dismissing innovative care models, we should evaluate how their successful elements can be integrated into our public system.

In praise of ‘dual users’

As physicians our goal should be to reduce death, disease and disability, not to tell other people how to live their lives. Dual users deserve our praise and encouragement.

Is the red dye ban a case of virtue signalling?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent announcement that Red 3 will be banned will go down in history as the very definition of a red herring.

Health professionals issue urgent call for climate action and for their pension plan to step up

The RNAO is calling on the $112 billion Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to stop investing nurses’ retirement savings in companies that are making the climate crisis worse.

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 We can cling to outdated ideals and watch our system collapse under its own weight, or we can rewrite the playbook.

Social media is damaging relationships in health care

For social media to be an effective tool in health care, there needs to be a balance between keyboard warriors and the rest of the population. The noise of some should not drown out the needs of many.

Barriers to Paxlovid are exacerbating our health inequities

Access to Paxlovid has become increasingly challenging. Canada needs to do a better job at making it more accessible to those who would benefit most.

MAiD’s vanishing slippery slope

New data on MAiD sheds much needed light on a topic so broiled in hysteria and unforced errors to seem like some sort of deranged game of political and health-care tennis.

We don’t pay donors for blood plasma. But is that the right approach?

Any debate about whether to enhance the domestic supply of blood plasma by allowing payments to donors should consider these five items and ensure that citizens are aware of them.

Canada’s health charities must prioritize trust and transparency

An Investigative Journalism Bureau investigation has revealed questionable practices – and regulatory lapses – in Canada’s health charity community, raising questions about fundraising practices, administrative costs and government oversight.

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.

Boutique primary care clinics are making the family doctor shortage worse

Boutique clinics are not the future of health care. They are a step backward and are making primary care access worse.

AI offers hope to those suffering from MCAS

The question isn’t whether AI can play a role, it’s whether the global health-care community is willing to invest the necessary resources to unlock its potential.

Productivity in health care doesn’t mean doing ‘more with less’

Canada can build a health-care system that is not only more efficient but also more compassionate and sustainable.

Health-care workers are under attack. We must do more to ensure their safety

Every day, healthy-care workers document a spectrum of abusive behaviour they experience in providing care. More needs to be done stop it.

International Medical Graduates: An untapped resource for Canada’s alarming doctor shortage 

We must reform residency quotas, prioritize Canadian International Medical Graduates, and create accessible pathways for practice in underserved areas to transform this health-care crisis into an opportunity for growth.

The future of prescriptions: Pharmacogenomic testing on the verge of revolutionizing health care

With the growing trend of using genomic information to personalize care, is there a type of testing that can tell us whether medications we have been prescribed are actually working?

The false and confusing narrative against bike lanes

The short-sighted rhetoric of “I’m not anti-bike lanes… I’m against the way they’re implemented," is ultimately detrimental from health, environmental, economic and equity perspectives.

‘Your body, my choice’: American politics and the looming threat to reproductive freedoms in Canada

It is incumbent on us to engage with and defend reproductive rights, because of and despite what is happening in the United States.