Public Health

Disconnected by design: How fragmented health data is failing Canadian patients

Patients living in Canadian rural and remote communities often move across multiple systems simply to access basic care. Bill S-5 represents an important first step toward addressing a problem.

The healing reach of art: Creative insights from participants and practitioners

If we are serious about improving health outcomes, particularly for populations navigating systemic barriers, creative expression should not be treated as an add-on. It should be recognized as a practical, accessible component of care.

Lifestyle medicine vs. wellness culture: Evidence-based preventative care should not be a luxury product

Evidence-based preventative care should not become a luxury product or a marketplace trend. It should remain a core part of accessible public health care.

Beyond attachment: The role of community artists in newcomer primary care

Community artists help humanize both health care and settlement experiences by creating accessible, relational entry points.

CSC policy change endangers health and lives in correctional facilities

The alarming number of overdose deaths in Canadian correctional facilities warrant an urgent, multi-faceted response from the federal government.

Hantavirus outbreak shows we haven’t learned the lesson of SARS-1 or COVID-19

It’s happening again. Not a global pandemic but the minimizing of airborne precautions for an event with human-to-human transmission of a deadly respiratory virus possibly spread by airborne transmission.

The words we use: Mental health literacy is expanding but not always improving

We have more language than ever to describe mental health, but not always more clarity about what those words mean.

From burden to blueprint: Clinicians and patients as co-architects of primary care’s digital future 

Clinicians and patients are not simply users to be consulted. They are indispensable partners – co-architects of a digital transformation that serves care, not the other way around.

Who owns the results?

When it comes to diagnostic test results, patient access to information has expanded rapidly. Responsibility for interpreting and acting on that information has not expanded in the same way.

People increasingly are turning to AI for health questions but should it be trusted?

The convenience of turning to AI or health information is appealing. But it raises an important question: how reliable are these answers when the topic is our health?

Ethical recruitment of internationally educated health professionals: From principles to action

With one of the highest volumes of migrant intake in the world, Canada has both a responsibility and an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in ethical recruitment and for policymakers to support implementation of WHO code-aligned policies and practices.

HPV vaccination in Canada: Progress made, gaps remaining

It is critical for federal and provincial policymakers to act decisively to achieve public health goals, particularly in light of a concerning decline in HPV vaccine coverage.

Flawed by design: The case of the Saskatchewan fertility treatment tax credit

Saskatchewan’s fertility treatment tax credit is fundamentally inequitable, exclusionary and revealing of whose access to care is prioritized – and whose is not.

It’s time to act: Canada needs standardized genetic testing for breast cancer care

Every patient deserves to know if their breast cancer is hereditary, if their treatment could be more precise and if their loved ones are at risk.

Canada’s health-care systems are practicing disaster medicine every day

Across Canada, clinicians are increasingly working in environments where the demand for care far exceeds the resources available.

Alberta can’t rely on immigrant workers while denying them health care

Alberta cannot build a functioning health system by recruiting newcomers to sustain it while denying some of them the care and education that allow them to live, work and stay.

Sharing the waterfront with e-scooters and e-bikes

If we listen to the people who use the roads, including walkers, bicyclists as well as riders of e-bikes and e-scooters, we can design roads so that getting around feels safer and more pleasant.

When digital tools reshape primary care: What happens to the 4Cs?

The question is not whether digital systems can do more. It’s whether we are designing and governing them to protect the core functions of primary care – or allowing them to add load in ways that quietly undermine care.

A federal bill aimed at protecting women could actually cause harm

"We call on Members of Parliament not to pass Bill S-228 in its current form and focus instead on improving policies and funding that could enhance enforcement of existing laws that prohibit coerced sterilizations."

To improve primary care, ‘think globally, act locally’

Primary care is the foundation not only for individual but also for collective health, and we must mobilize more family physicians to improve it.