Evidence Based Medicine

AI and the mental health crisis: Can chatbots fill the gap?

Canadians are increasingly turning to AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, for mental health support. But is this type of technology truly up to the task?

Three tools clinicians use to debunk viral health myths

Canadians face a steady stream of confident health claims; some partly right, others wrong and risky – and some potentially fatal. Health care experts share some best practices to combat myths in clinic.

Climate change fuelling the spread of tuberculosis

With floods in Pakistan, cyclones in Madagascar and droughts in Somalia, it is crucial that we learn to recognize the critical links between climate change and disease.

Using ‘integration’ to silence culturally specific care

When culturally specific care is allowed to vanish under another name, we all lose a piece of the commons we rely on.

One collective voice: Family doctors must speak up to protect our profession

Canadian family medicine is standing on a knife’s edge. We, as family doctors, need to decide our future.

Knit one, purl two on the way to mental health

Addressing rising mental health rates will undoubtedly require a range of different tools, both pharmacological and non-pharmaceutical.

Tylenol misinformation puts pregnant patients at risk

Casting doubt on Tylenol without solid evidence does not empower pregnant people, it corners them. It adds guilt, stigma and undermines their confidence in making safe decisions for themselves and their babies.

The training gap undermining Canada’s primary care teams

While family medicine is exploring how to prepare doctors for team-based primary care, other health professions lack equivalent training requirements.

We are taught to fix the system – then forced to waste time in it

Every year, medical students across the country must resubmit the same forms verifying their vaccine history. Redundant paperwork like this is a symptom of a system which bureaucracy overrides basic logic.

Trust those who heal, not those who provoke

A Seuss-style rhyme on the very real harm of health misinformation.

‘I understand’: Words of empathy that have helped me through residency

"That evening, they walked me past the point we usually diverged and sat with me in my apartment lobby. They sat as I cried. They listened."

Financially sustainable and fair: Value-based care a solution to pay disparities and health-care system strain

The gender-based physician compensation gap is more than a workplace injustice – it undermines the efficiency and effectiveness of the Canadian health-care system.

When patients ask about psychedelics

Over the past decade, scientific interest in psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA has risen, along with recreational use. This has put physicians in a difficult place – one our medical training has not prepared us for.

The MS treatment gap: How costs and outdated policies limit care in Canada

Early, aggressive treatment can significantly improve outcomes for people living with MS. But provinces have yet to implement coverage policies that would ensure patients receive optimal care.

Beyond the signature: Is consent truly informed?

Moving forward, making informed consent truly informed – rooted in both equity and accessibility –  needs to be a priority, not just an ideal.

Approved but denied: Canadians with neuromuscular diseases face unequal access to treatment

We are told health care in Canada is equal for everyone. But it is not. Particularly for patients with neuromuscular diseases, what you get depends on where you live.

Is peer-review dead? A scientist’s plea to fix a broken system

Peer-review may not be over, but the era of exploitative, opaque and corporatized gatekeeping should be.

When care doesn’t translate

For South Asian communities, improved care means earlier screening, culturally relevant guidance and meaningful language access. Without these changes, we risk continuing a pattern of preventable harm.

Competency-based leadership: A critical imperative for Canadian health care

Canada is in a moment that demands more – more wisdom, more rigor, more courage. Medical associations, like the government itself, are being asked not just to manage systems but to transform them.

Integrating environmental justice into environmental health research. How are we doing?

The journey of embedding of environmental justice principles in health research has only just begun. But it is more important now than ever for researchers to undertake this work.