Opinion

Designing virtual and physical clinical spaces to build trust

The clinical spaces that surround us are not passive; they can enhance or hinder our effectiveness as health-care providers. Research has shown the built environment can affect a number of outcomes for patients as well as improve workplace safety and satisfaction for providers.

On this Orange Shirt Day: What has changed?

Today marks our second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It has been two years since the death of Joyce Echaquan; 16 months since the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc community confirmed long-held knowledge that hundreds of little children were buried in unmarked graves on the grounds. Since then, the haunting reality of more than a thousand additional radar “pings,” with each ping confirming the body of a little child lying in an unmarked grave, on the very grounds of the school they were forced to attend. So much has happened . . . but what has changed?

Youth engagement essential for healthy school environments

Despite the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children, in Canada and across the globe children and youth too often do not have their voices heard, or their perspectives adequately considered. Issues related to child and youth health are no exception.

Take the survey: What are your priorities for primary care?

What trade-offs are acceptable to you? Do you currently have a family doctor or nurse practitioner? How important is it that every person living in Canada has a relationship with a family doctor? These are some of the questions we ask in the OurCare/NosSoins nation-wide survey.

More Beds, Better Care Act: Ethical controversy or a better use of public money?

The More Beds, Better Care Act shouldn't be considered controversial. Is it going to make a significant dent in our ALC numbers? Probably not. But that isn’t because the concept of quickly moving patients out of situations whose resources are misaligned to patient need is a bad – or unethical – idea.

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.

Malnourishment by design

Colonial attitudes and policies, now recognized as powerful social determinants of health, have led to mass hunger and preventable diseases.

Toxic tradeoff: Disinfectants are ineffective for COVID-19 prevention and create harmful exposures

There are countless benefits to improving indoor air quality, not least of which is reducing the spread of this virus that has altered our lives. But cleaning surfaces with disinfectants could be doing more harm than good.

The urgent need for mental health-care supports

By age 40, half of all Canadians will experience mental health issues. Implementing the “quality mental health care framework” would go a long way to providing much-needed care.

 A public policy dead end: The More Beds, Better Care Act

Bill 7, the More Beds, Better Care Act, is a hotbed of ethical issues that will fail to relieve our stressed hospital system. It's ethically and legally unsustainable, and as public policy - it’s a dead end.

Vaccine hesitancy is reviving long dead diseases

Vaccine are perhaps the greatest public health interventions in human history. But immunization coverage has declined over the last decade causing outbreaks of avoidable diseases across the globe.

Let’s talk about part-time: Finding work-life balance in residency

Life doesn’t stop in residency. Marriage and babies happen. Grief and illness and losses happen. Burnout happens. Therapy happens. And with some flexibility, life can happen while we remain present – more present for life and more present for all the work that comes with it.

Lack of political will means Ontario LTC residents will continue to suffer

Ontario’s LTC nurses want to be there to provide quality care to our residents. We know how to fix the system and do just that. But we need the political will to make it happen.

It’s time to revise Canada’s low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines

Canadians' alcohol use has increased significantly over the past decade. It's time to update low-risk drinking guidelines set in 2011.

Please parents, mask your children as they return to school

This year, we are sending children and educators back to school without mask mandates, without improvements to ventilation and without adequate HEPA filtration in classrooms, knowing full-well that COVID-19 is airborne and that rates of COVID-19 are still high.

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.

Pandemics as portals: What monkeypox teaches us about medical apartheid and resistance

HIV, COVID, monkeypox - then, as now, structural injustices have been made clear in the wake of any infectious outbreak. How we respond to this outbreak and dismantle the structural violence that created the conditions that allowed it to happen is up to us.

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.

Rural health care: How to get it right

Rural citizens are generally older, sicker and poorer than the rest of the population, and so have greater need for care if they are to achieve health outcomes equitable to the rest of the population. We have a system that is failing rural Canadians, and it must change. But what if we got it right?

Medicine vs. Journalism? Navigating the tension between two fields

It’s no secret that medicine and journalism are often at odds. But what happens when the doctor is a journalist? Physician-journalists Anthony Fong and Monica Kidd discuss navigating the tensions between medicine and journalism.