Welcome back Rounds Table Listeners! This week we sit down with Dr. Shannon Ruzycki, an Internal Medicine Specialist at the Foothills Medical Centre and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She joins us to share her research and experience in equity, diversity, and inclusion in medicine. You…
Tag: equity
COVID-19 testing failing marginalized communities
Low-income Ontarians facing partial claw back of federal assistance during COVID-19
COVID-19 disproportionately affects those living in poverty. And this impacts us all.
Medical research: One size doesn’t fit all
One year later: Are Syrian refugees finding the PTSD support they need?
Doctor on demand apps let you skip the waiting room. But experts urge caution
Health care system stigmatizes and discriminates against transgender people
When Lucas Silveira – then going by his female name – told his Toronto-based family doctor he identifies as male, the doctor’s discomfort was palpable. She stumbled over her words, and then said, “I don’t really know how to help you,” recalls Silveira, a musician with the rock band The Cliks. The doctor agreed to…
Prescription drug coverage: how does Canada compare?
When Jennifer* was laid off, it wasn’t paying the mortgage she was worried about – it was paying her drug bill. The $24,000-a-year cost of Enbrel, used to treat her rheumatoid arthritis, had been covered by her employer. She remembers sitting in the boardroom being told she had been let go, thinking, “I’m going to…
Is Ontario’s reliance on donations to fund hospital infrastructure fair and sustainable?
In 2010, after a regional needs assessment for medical imaging, the Pembroke Regional Hospital was approved by its Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to purchase a new MRI scanner. This new machine will allow the city and neighbouring region’s residents to be scanned locally, instead of having to drive as much as 3 hours each way…
Complacency about road safety hiding a public health crisis
“96 vehicles involved in collision after ‘wall of snow’ hits Highway 400” “Highway 17 Crash Leaves Five Men Dead” “Huge multi-vehicle pile-up injures 100 people near Edmonton.” Every winter, we’re snowed under by headlines like these, on stories of car crashes that seem as inevitable as the season. But it’s not just Old Man Winter…
Controversy over closing rural hospitals
Hymns, protests, and arrests – that’s what happened when the Fort Erie, Ont. community rallied against a planned conversion of their local hospital’s emergency room to an urgent-care centre. It didn’t work, and in 2009, it seemed their fears were realized when a teenager died after she was in a car crash and had to be…
Hospital parking: health care’s controversial cost
Shalimar Novak is sick of paying for parking. The social worker has been to Toronto’s Mount Sinai once or twice a week recently for appointments related to her pregnancy, and paid about $15 every time. “It definitely adds up,” she says. “And when you have a kid coming, you’re thinking in diaper dollars. It would be nice…
Despite Ontario’s Northern Health Travel Grant, some still pay out of pocket
When Nan Normand’s husband had quintuple bypass surgery, it cost them $1,500. It wasn’t the operation that was pricey, but the travel. The couple went from Kenora, a small city near the Ontario-Manitoba border, to Hamilton for the surgery. The trek included flights and a multiple-night stay. Normand was unlucky: Manitoba had temporarily stopped accepting most Ontario heart patients,…
Sheltering Canada’s homeless
“I’d do whatever I had to do to stay warm” recalls David, who was homeless on Toronto’s streets from 2000 to 2003. David said he spent the winter nights in emergency shelters, and bitter cold days in bank ATM lobbies or riding around on public transit. “Survival was tough” he says, describing everyday life on…
Experts warn bureaucratic duplication in research ethics delaying important science
Research on human subjects is essential to the advancement of patient care. Every life-saving drug, surgical technique and medical procedure was tested at some point in its development on humans. While research on humans has yielded enormous benefits, it can also carry risks to research participants. It is therefore essential to ensure research is carried…
Wait times for “non-priority” surgeries
Katie’s story Three years ago, Katie (name and some details changed to protect her identity) was in a car accident on a rural road two hours outside of an urban centre. Her ankle was crushed in the accident, and after a delay of several hours due to weather, she was air-lifted to the nearest trauma…
Interpretation services in health care
“We have a large immigrant population, and people sometimes have no English. This program has been a godsend.” –- Winnipeg pediatrician Stan Lipnowski Obtaining a good history is the most important thing in practising medicine, so being able to get that history about the children of new immigrants has made a “humungous difference”, says Stan…
Are bedbugs a health problem?
The past ten years have seen a surge of bedbug infestations across North America, with many cities across Canada affected. Although they do not cause or transmit disease, bedbug infestations are often perceived to be a health problem. An effective and efficient bedbug strategy requires coordination among various sectors, including public health, housing, community and…
Achieving better health for the homeless
Walking through the streets of any large city, one sees many homeless people. Nearly two in three have a history of some form of mental illness. Hospitals have become the place where homeless people with serious mental illness go during a crisis, but hospitals are poorly equipped to meet their needs. How can society improve…