Public Health

From Miami to Mississauga: The Golden Girls and Ontario’s $1.1B homecare plan

Whether in the fictional world of The Golden Girls or the real-life province of Ontario, the tension between independence and formal care is real.

Canadian student abroad questions Ontario’s exclusionary residency rule

The goal should not be to exclude, but to bring home every capable doctor who calls Canada home.

Needle phobic? Nasal spray flu vaccine allays fear but has limited access in Canada

Canadians who avoid the flu shot because they fear needles have an alternative that won’t make them hold their breath until it’s over. But availability may pose a problem for access.

Code Black and Blue: Nurses launch campaign against violence in the workplace

No one should be hurt at work, least of all those who care for others. It’s time to protect nurses and make safe staffing a priority.

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?

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.

A call to action for the health sector on planetary health and a wellbeing society

An emerging national health sector coalition is working to spur action, at all levels from the grass roots to the national level, to create a Wellbeing society in which we achieve equitable health now and for future generations while living within planetary boundaries.

Emergency department wait times are deadly. They’re also avoidable

Until governments act on our scientific recommendations and commit to meaningful system change, Canadians will continue to wait in dangerous conditions – and more families will face tragic, preventable loss.

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.

Ontario has a new way of measuring how hard family doctors work. What does it mean for doctors and their patients?

The new “Continuity of Care” measure included in the new agreement between the Ontario government and its doctors has good intentions but comes with severe penalties and without necessary checks and balances.

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.

Empowering pharmacists is about more than saving emergency departments – it’s about equity in health care

Not only did Ontario's move to allow pharmacists to prescribe for certain minor ailments reduce ED strain, but it also reduced inequities in access to care.

Planetary health is public health

Ignoring planetary health would be a gross dereliction of duty by the public health profession, a breach of the ethical obligation to protect and improve the health of the population and to narrow health inequalities.

Expanding access to disability supports: the case for impact investing

Thanks to limited access to interventions and income thresholds that fail to account for the cost of caregiving, families with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities are often left to pay out-of-pocket for services.

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.

Black mistrust is logical and rational: What public health policymakers must learn from Black communities

Black communities are not hesitant just for the sake of it. They are hesitant because of memory. They need structural change built from trust, not just crisis.

Food security is health security: Tackling Type 2 diabetes in Indigenous communities

First Nations on reserve have Type 2 diabetes rates three to five times higher than the rest of Canada. Yet, they remain underserved and underrepresented in health policy and decision-making.