Patient experience

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.

#thatparent: The unfairly maligned ‘difficult’ parent in health care

The hashtag #thatparent is sometimes used by parents who are labelled "difficult" because of their advocacy in the health-care system. Why do we make them feel uncomfortable for trying to be the best parents they can be?

Health Care in Hues: Walk a Mile in Their Shoes

Where we as physicians and health-care providers strive to provide holistic care for our patients, our ability to impact their health and well-being is rooted in our ability to understand their perspectives and day-to-day challenges.

Teaching and learning to trust: the essence of medicine

The practice of medicine is predicated on trust. Our patients trust that we will do what is in their best interest. But how should we trust those we are teaching to be doctors?

‘Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always’: The importance of support networks

Brent Leonard poignantly describes the isolation of having an extremely rare, terminal illness to suggest that human connection may be the best solace for those whose conditions cannot be understood by medicine—let alone cured.

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.

Autism case highlights urgent need to reform Ontario’s regulatory colleges

Rolling out the welcome mat: Hospitals making visits less intimidating

Shining a light on an ‘embarrassing’ condition

Last rights: Connecting the space between palliative care and MAiD

For my Mom, palliative care and MAiD unfolded gracefully together. My family’s experience is one among many that might prompt Canada’s palliative care organizations to reconsider their relationship to MAiD

Patients need answers. Doctors don’t always have them.

The risks of equating ‘lived experience’ with patient expertise

The Opioid Chapters: 11 stories that show how complex the crisis is

Doctors need to do a better job collaborating on patient care

Patients ’R Us: But do we have to be all the time?

‘Morphine is no substitute for the truth’: Doctors must be honest about progressive illness

Why hiccups are still a medical mystery

How patient stories are re-shaping health care

Palliative care can’t wait: what I wish I’d known as my wife was dying

In the four years I accompanied my wife Suzanne as she endured the diagnoses and treatment for breast cancer, the most shocking moment came just five days before she died.

Cancer diagnosis? Why calling your pathologist might be a good idea