Technology and Innovation

How to make information accessible across care pathways

A recent article in Healthy Debate rightly drew attention to the fragmentation of Canada’s health information environment and to the burden this can place on patients, clinicians, public health and system learning. However, the issue should not be framed as if success requires a single, seamless pan-Canadian record available in every setting.

You can’t have patient safety without good system design

In modern health care, we still behave as though safety is primarily a function of individual vigilance. When something goes wrong, health-care providers will instinctively ask “what could I have done differently?” instead of addressing a more uncomfortable question “how did our systems make this mistake more likely?” This is understandable as many enter the health-care profession firmly grounded in the principle of “first, do no harm.”

If AI scribes were the test run, Supply Ontario has lessons to learn

In May, Ontario’s Auditor General released a special report on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Ontario government, including medical “AI scribes” that are increasingly being used by doctors, including us. While headlines and coverage focused mainly on so-called scribe hallucinations of these AI note-taking systems, that wasn’t the biggest news in the report.

Alberta’s change in digital health policy raises risks for adolescents

In Alberta, a recent change to MyHealth Records expanded parent and guardian access to children’s online health information, which could put some youth at risk.

Blood tests for Alzheimer’s are here – but Canada isn’t ready

Blood‑based biomarkers offer a real opportunity to improve dementia care – but only if we redesign our systems to use them wisely.

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?

Digital tools promise better care. Are they delivering on the Quintuple Aim?

If primary care is increasingly digital, are these tools helping us move toward better patient experience, health outcomes, lower costs, improved clinician well-being and greater equity?

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.

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?

The paperwork burden weighing on Canadian physicians

What’s the prescription for physician burnout? Intervention is required to simplify non-clinical workflows and alleviate the administrative burden on physicians.

The AI we get may not be the AI we need: Why physician-led governance is essential

AI holds enormous promise. Yet without clear, focused, physician-led and patient-centred governance, the AI we get may not be the AI we need.

Violent extremism is a public health problem

Social polarization and worsening toxic online ecosystems have catapulted a growing range of extremisms, which have pushed well beyond political ideology and into nihilism, misogyny, hate-fuelled and sexually exploitative forms.

These parliamentary studies are low-profile but have implications for access to medicines

Two studies by Parliamentary Standing Committees each have potentially serious implications for medical innovation, pandemic preparedness and access to medicines.

The quiet commercialization of primary care records

An emerging model is quietly turning Canadian patient medical records, and patients themselves, into lucrative commercial assets – often without patients' explicit knowledge or consent.

Our research ethics boards aren’t the problem – the system wasn’t built to protect participants

The bodies responsible for the ethical review of research and ensuring that it safeguards the individuals in it – operate with no national standards, no oversight and no accreditation at all.

Beyond the default patient: Diversity in virtual simulation-based health-care education

Virtual simulation platforms often fail to meaningfully reflect patient diversity, which may be shaped by underlying biases and have implications for clinical outcomes.