The Digital Expert Will See You Now

 Why doctors and digital experts should work together to improve patient health  As a family doctor, I have seen a dramatic shift in the range of people I work alongside every day – all for the better. When I was in training, most family doctors worked only with other family doctors and

Three Things Everyone Should Know About Autism in Canada

 Canadian governments have done little to address the crisis faced by autism families across the country. This sentiment was true in 2007 when it was put forward in the cross-party Senate report on the state of funding for the treatment of autism in Canada, aptly titled, Pay Now or Pay

Four Things We Can Do to Improve Healthcare in Canada

 What’s next for primary care? Healthcare is the purview of the provinces in Canada, but health leadership–setting big picture goals, helping achieve best practices across the country and providing long-term, sustainable funding models–is the role of the federal government. As the federal election campaign wages, Canadians should be pressing federal

Could This be the Best Campaign Ad Ever?

 In what may be the greatest campaign ad of our time, Wyatt Scott announced his MP candidacy for the new Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon riding by flying on a giant Canada goose and then stabbing a dragon in the head. “My name’s Wyatt Scott, and I’m running for parliament!” he roared just

Four Things you Should Know About the Pending Charter Challenge Against Medicare

 A long-running dispute between Dr. Brian Day, the co-owner of Cambie Surgeries Corporation and the British Columbia government may finally be resolved in the BC Supreme Court this year – and the ruling could transform the Canadian health system from coast to coast. The case emerged in response to an

Canada has Mixed Wait Time Results in Health Care

 We need governments to promote best practices across the country and improve patient outcomes Wait times have long been a source of concern for Canadians, and in some jurisdictions, remain a significant problem. Recently the Canadian Institutes of Health Information (CIHI) released its report for 2015. There is both encouraging

Putting Healthcare on the Federal Election Agenda

 A federal election could be called any time in the next few months, judging by the media coverage and the ramping up of political activity. Many issues have been crowding into the media headlines in anticipation of the election -- but with a notable absence of any consideration of healthcare

Why Has My Brain Stopped Working?

 Gillian, 42, a mother of two children, 4 and 6, worked as an accountant. She had a loving husband and a successful career she had worked very hard to create for herself. Gillian always had an incredible memory and could always count on her brain. However, over the past few

How Canada Fails People with Mental Illnesses

 Canada Needs Improved Access to Mental Healthcare Services In any developed country, politicians and clinicians are struggling to improve quality of care while reducing costs of healthcare systems. To remedy this, groups of doctors across North America--including here in Canada--have banded together to create lists of medical procedures or tests

Five challenges for bending the health care cost curve in Canada

 By Greg Marchildon and Livio Di Matteo Why health reform remains a challenge Canadian economists received a pleasant surprise this year: expenditure growth on public healthcare in Canada finally appears to be slowing down. However, it is unclear if this slowdown is the result of explicit success in sustainably bending the cost-curve

Quebec’s proposed health reform Iignores best evidence

 By Paul Lamarche, Réjean Hébert and François Béland Mega-mergers in healthcare don’t save money or improve health outcomes Quebec’s Bill 10’s objectives are the improvement to the access and quality of health and social services in the province, while diminishing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency. To accomplish these objectives, the proposed law

Why Do I Feel So Achy, Cold and Tired?

 Photos courtesy of Dollar Photo Club Lets talk about Laura, aged 30. It’s 7 a.m. on a January morning in Orleans and Laura leaves her house, jumps into her car and starts her 45-minute drive to work into Ottawa. The mornings are really cold this time of year and although she’s

Ontario Spends More than $11 billion a Year on Prescription Drugs

 Why an income-based drug plan would not be good for Ontario’s economy or its seniors Ontario spends $11 billion per year on prescription drugs. Nearly half of this is spent on medicines used by senior citizens, a group that receives public subsidies for nearly all of their prescription drug costs

Private Delivery of Healthcare Can Work in a Publically Funded System but Comes with Risks

 What the rest of Canada can learn from Alberta’s experience If you look at an old map of Canadian healthcare policy, just near Privatization Island is a big warning: “Here be dragons.” So it proved for Alberta Health Services last month when a seemingly innocuous decision—to swap the tender for

Dr. GM Geldert: A Pioneer of Radio Broadcasting

 Laudreville Daytime C.K.C.O. Studio, Somerset Street Ottawa native Shirley Shorter recalls a time when Canadian radio broadcasting was no more complex than a local talent performance airing live from the dining room of her Somerset Street West home. A recent interview with Mrs. Shorter, now 94-years-old, captures a period in

How Technology is Transforming Health Care – Cheryl-Anne’s Story

 Cheryl-Anne was diagnosed with a very rare form leukemia, a complex disease to understand. She believed part of getting well depended upon understanding her disease, her treatments and their effects. She needed to become a full, participating, engaged patient. She needed to get information. Before digital health tools were available

Community Leaders Rally to Support the OICC Approach to Cancer

 Spring has finally sprung in Ottawa and with it tulips and daffodils are popping up everywhere… not just the daffodils in your garden but the ones you pin on as a reminder that cancer is all around too. But there are havens of hope, and one such oasis of healing

The Digital Health Highway

 Q How can technology help me manage my health and wellness? Most Canadians want access to digital health tools and capabilities for themselves and for their health care team, because they recognize that technology can help manage their health and wellness together. Clinicians are increasingly taking advantage of these tools

Accreditation Canada: Highlights from the 2012 Annual Report

 In 2012, Accreditation Canada's many collaborations with healthcare organizations included the development of a comprehensive report on medication reconciliation and efforts to improve patient and staff safety. Since 2005, Accreditation Canada has worked with many partner organizations and stakeholders on the Required Organizational Practice (ROP) for medication reconciliation, which requires

The Most Valuable Commodity in Health Care

 In Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, the ruthless corporate raider played by Michael Douglas, explains that when picking stocks, “the most valuable commodity I know of is information.” This same mantra should apply when it comes to the serious business of making health care decisions — but

Dental Care a Gaping Hole in Our Health System

 Across Ontario, going to the dentist is financially out of reach for many people. This dilemma is well-known to physicians — many of us regularly care for patients who have terrible dental problems that we are powerless to address. We see people who have delayed seeking dental care that they

Inconsistency in the Cost of and Accessibility to Prescription Medications Drugs

 Canada’s health care system faces some daunting challenges. One of the crucial inconsistencies is the variation of access to prescription medications across the country. Like all other health-care services and products, prescription medications have a monetary value and are subject to inflation and the effects of Canada’s changing demographics. Let