Public 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.

Adherence starts with understanding: Why health literacy is a system responsibility

On World Adherence Day, the message should be simple but transformative: before we ask patients to follow treatment, we must ensure they truly understand it.

Co-payments ‘a step backward’ for refugees and the health-care system

It’s imperative we protect access to health care for refugees and asylum claimants. There is no compromise when it comes to equitable health care.

Encouraging signs but retention and recruitment essential for Ontario to achieve primary care goals

The Primary Care Act and the vision that positions primary care as the foundation of Ontario’s health system is the bold thinking our system has needed for many years. But now is the time to act on retention.

Too frail but not yet palliative: Ontario’s opportunity to lead in home care for older adults

If Ontario wants to help more people age at home, it should apply lessons from home palliative care to frailty right now. It needs to stop treating frailty as an administrative afterthought, and act on what it already knows works.

Transparency is not risk free. But neither is restricted access

Patients should not have to file formal requests to understand their own care. They should not have to wait months to read information that already exists. And they should not be excluded from conversations that shape their health and lives.

The paradox of progress: How medical advancements are expanding the time we spend unwell

Humanity is living longer, yet a growing portion of that extended life is spent in poor health. What if the same forces that prolong life, namely technology and industrialization, are also increasing the percentage of our lives spent unwell?

Bill to criminalize forced sterilization sparks debate over reproductive justice and medical practice

Bill S-228, which would criminalize forced and coerced sterilization with an up to 14-year prison sentence, is on its way to becoming law. But is it a step in the right direction? Experts weigh in.

Ontario’s health-care system was built for a different era but to quote our PM: ‘Nostalgia is not a strategy’

Ontario’s health-care system retains extraordinary potential. Realizing it will require abandoning outdated assumptions and committing to structural reform.

From awareness to accountability: The attention is nice but what comes after Heart Month?

Each February, Heart Month brings renewed attention to cardiovascular disease. Awareness matters. But when the campaigns end, an uncomfortable question remains: what changes?

Schooling or suicide: The ethical responsibility of educational institutions

Students are dying silently in the places meant to shape their futures. Schools cannot prevent every tragedy, but they also cannot ignore the role they play.