Health Infrastructure

Integrating care to fill the gap for seniors’ physical, mental health

Mental and physical health are often treated separately, even though they're closely linked. That disconnect can be even worse for seniors, whose care is often fragmented to begin with. But one program is trying to change that.

The learning health system: An R and D department for local solutions

Health-care organizations don’t usually have R&D departments; instead, researchers typically apply for grants for one-off studies. That’s a problem—but one that could be changing.

‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure’: Hospitals slow to recognize increasing number of dementia patients

In our hospitals, we have no systems in place to identify people living with dementia, measure how many there are or how their dementia impacts our care. And hospitals are not implementing programs to improve.

North York Cares: Health team proving value of innovation

The siloes in Canadian health systems can decrease the quality of care patients receive. But Ontario Health Teams are trying to address this problem by bringing primary care, hospital and community providers together.

How one ER partnered with a mental-health organization to care for youth in distress

Young adults recovering from mental illness and substance use are working in the emergency room of a Toronto hospital to give young patients in psychological distress the support they need.

AI tool ‘fundamentally changes the game’ for ICU care

In our first learning health system case study, we profile an AI program that predicts which patients are at a high risk of going to the ICU. It has been successfully implemented largely because its developers took input from the physicians and nurses who would be using it from the get go.

‘You need not be alone anymore’: The doctor redefining palliative care

Dr. Ramona Mahtani has led an effort to integrate palliative care into siloed medical specializations throughout the pandemic. In doing so, she has put forward a bold, boundary-pushing vision of what palliative care can be.

Breaking down barriers: Learning health system connects researchers, health professionals and communities

Too often, health-care innovations don’t actually improve health systems – the innovators haven't collaborated with patients, and doctors, and other stakeholders. But a different approach, the learning health system, is trying to change that.

Quality management principles lacking in health-care planning

Canada's response to the pandemic has ignored the principles of quality-control planning and quality management. Having one could have saved us over $100 billion.

Tackling racism in health care

Health-care institutions must reflect critically on whether they're ready to make the commitment necessary to do antiracist work by investing time and money to bring about systemic change. Anything less is performative.

Health-care workers’ safety: it’s time to prioritize us, too

We should be doing everything we can to prevent every single case of health-care worker illness, and this includes fully vaccinating them as soon as possible.

A call to action: An approach to patient transfers for rural and remote communities in Canada

Healing Assembly Line Medicine

How "deep work," work performed in a state of intense focus, can improve a health-care system that leaves patients dissatisfied and physicians burned out.

Patient Navigator: Hospital program aims to boost vaccination rate among health-care workers

Paul Taylor responds to people asking why hospitals aren't requiring health-care workers to get vaccinated – or get placed on unpaid leave.

‘Do we have space to pump’: Another barrier for female physicians

More than half of Canada’s young doctors may be women, but our hospitals force breastfeeding physicians into shower stalls, bathrooms, hallways and makeshift lactation spaces.

‘Our hearts are breaking’: Disparities in access, funding put IVF treatments out of reach for many Canadians

Despite the praise Canada receives for its universal health-care system, the current patchwork of financial coverage and unequal distribution of IVF clinics is failing too many people.

Joy in work on a COVID Unit? Yes, Really

The leadership team knew that without creating a safe environment for our healthcare workers – both physical and psychological – we would not achieve the goals we had set for the newly implemented COVID wards

The challenges of health privacy: From the ER to virtual care

Though health privacy is now a larger focus in training, it can be hard to put into practice, causing systemic privacy breaches.

TBT – Dr. Robbie Goldstein on COVID-19

Throwback to our interview - how Mass General Hospital (MGH) in Boston prepared, and adapted, to a massive influx of patients with COVID-19.

Let’s turn wealth into health with a 1% tax on the rich