Public Health

Dreaming of a bold and courageous health-care system for all

It's that special time of year again: The time when Healthy Debate asks health-care experts to share their one holiday wish for our health-care system.

Medicine can be better: A wish list for our health-care system

Health Debate editor-in-chief, Dr. Seema Marwaha, shares her wishes for Canada's health-care system as a general internist, educator, journalist and incoming president-elect of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada.

Why Canada needs a ready-to-run adaptive platform trial before the next pandemic hits

When the next pandemic arrives (and it will!) Canada will once again face urgent questions: Which treatments work? For whom? At what dose? And how quickly should we act?

Leadership lessons from a pot of flowers: Reawakening health-care leadership

Health care collapse is only one story. The deeper story lives underground, in the quiet places where resilience begins.

Smith has kept doctors and dollars in Alberta – but it doesn’t change access to care 

Alberta’s model may offer useful insight into whether a province can strengthen its public system by formally incorporating private activity rather than resisting it.

‘The war against dogs continues’: How 150 years of policy denied animal control to Indigenous communities

Unequal access to pet care in rural and Indigenous communities has led to dogs being shot when they pose a risk to the public. A century and a half of policies that have left these communities without animal-control systems are to blame.

You asked an AI bot about your symptoms. Now what?

More and more people are turning to Artificial Intelligence to ask about health. The challenge is how to use it without getting hurt.

We can’t afford to wait for health care any longer 

Canada’s health-care system remains one of our greatest national ideals. But ideals don’t shorten waitlists.

Queering the curriculum: Sexual orientation and gender identity in Canadian comprehensive sexuality education

Comprehensive sexual education plays a vital role in equipping young people with knowledge about their bodies, identities, rights and relationships. But access remains uneven across the country.

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.