Technology and Innovation

Digital therapeutics and the social determinants of health are on divergent pathways. Can they be reconciled?

Two significant trends in health care are at cross-purposes: the boom in digital devices that tackle diseases at the individual level, and the growing recognition of the importance of social determinants of health. Can these two trends be reconciled?

Children’s visits to emergency departments surge as winter looms

Pediatric emergency departments are seeing record numbers of visits since some families can’t see their family doctors or go to walk-in clinics. More patients mean longer waits, hindering care for some children with emergency conditions.

‘What’s the appropriate amount of virtual care? It’s not zero, and it’s not 100’

Provincial governments are urging family doctors to resume in-person visits, arguing that virtual care increases pressure on ERs and leads to poorer health outcomes. But some doctors counter that it improves accessibility, among other benefits.

​​Professor’s NOVID app turns contact tracing into a safety game

If you get contact-traced because you've been near someone infected with a contagious disease, it’s too late to protect yourself. You isolate to protect others. But a new app aims to fight outbreaks using our desire to protect ourselves. Here's how.

Smart bras, molecular imaging and genome sequencing: Innovations take on breast cancer

What if a bra, taking images like an MRI, could detect breast cancer? With recent technological innovations, there may soon be cheap, non-invasive ways to screen people for breast cancer in their own homes.

The dangers of antimicrobial drug resistance must not be ignored

We are seeing an increase in dangerous microbes becoming resistant to antimicrobial drugs. To counter this threat, we must reduce our use of the drugs and explore innovative treatments that could one day replace them.

It’s time to transition to an era of genomic medicine

It’s time we make genome sequencing a standard-of-care clinical test to usher in the next era of health care and help us tackle the unknown.

Children must be heard as we envision AI’s role in health care

We often say that children are the future, but when we imagine the future of health care with artificial intelligence, are the voices of children and youth really included in that vision?

Health Canada’s controversial ‘regulatory sandbox’: Enabling innovation or lowering the bar for safety?

Health Canada has a controversial plan for regulating new, complex health tech. Instead of the old vetting and approval process, a company and the agency would decide the standards as they go. Does this enable innovation or put patient safety at risk?

Telemedicine proves its value for trans and non-binary community

The pandemic has led to a rise in virtual care, which has increased access to primary care for the transgender and non-binary communities. But this trend highlights the relative lack of gender-affirming care available through traditional primary care.

The patient as content

COVID-19 pushed doctors to the front of the cultural mainstream. But to maintain this status, some doctors share patients' medical information on social media, potentially undermining the doctor-patient relationship.

‘We became more confident’: Pandemic proving value of no-touch abortions

The pandemic accelerated the roll out of telemedicine abortion care. Now, as restrictions on clinical medicine ease, we must consider whether to revert back to in-person assessments, or embrace telemedicine as a new normal.

We need substantial health system improvements to be prepared for future pandemics

When the next crisis hits, will we again rely on the sheer grit of heroic individuals to craft ‘work-arounds’ with patchwork solutions? Or will we invest in the infrastructure that would improve the lives of Canadians?

When hope kills: Social media’s false promises to cancer patients

Our columnist explains how following her cancer diagnosis, Facebook’s advertising algorithms began targeting her for cancer ads from quacks selling fake cures. We must hold these snake-oil salesmen accountable while teaching people how to not be persuaded by fake solutions.

Integrating care to fill the gap for seniors’ physical, mental health

Mental and physical health are often treated separately, even though they're closely linked. That disconnect can be even worse for seniors, whose care is often fragmented to begin with. But one program is trying to change that.

North York Cares: Health team proving value of innovation

The siloes in Canadian health systems can decrease the quality of care patients receive. But Ontario Health Teams are trying to address this problem by bringing primary care, hospital and community providers together.

AI tool ‘fundamentally changes the game’ for ICU care

In our first learning health system case study, we profile an AI program that predicts which patients are at a high risk of going to the ICU. It has been successfully implemented largely because its developers took input from the physicians and nurses who would be using it from the get go.

Virtual care evens the odds in ‘palliative care lottery’

While virtual care comes with drawbacks that must be carefully managed, it will ultimately be a huge step forward in improving access to palliative care in Ontario and Canada.

Could AI make health care more human?

An AI program in a Toronto hospital seems to be saving lives. Does it also offer a glimpse of a future in which AI makes health care more human, not less?

Seniors with dementia in LTC homes are using virtual reality to relive their pasts

During the pandemic, elderly people with dementia in long-term care homes have used virtual reality to relive their pasts. Is this dementia care's future?