Six Highest-Paid Medical Specialties in Canada in 2023

 When entering the Canadian medical field, it’s a good idea to have a full understanding of the landscape. This can help you make the right career choices and avoid problems such as debt later down the line. One of the most important details to be aware of is the medical

Turning the tide on the harm of opioids

 By Wendy Levinson and Laurent Marcoux As clinicians, we are bound by professionalism and our ethical responsibilities to do no harm and to do what we can to address the pain and suffering of our patients. When powerful pain relieving opioid medications were introduced a few decades ago, they seemed

Canada Has More Doctors and Health Specialists Than Ever – But is That Good News?

 The recent negotiations between the Ontario Medical Association and the Ontario Government highlight the complex relationship between physicians and health spending.  As important and trusted gatekeepers to the health care system, physicians are nevertheless a crucial component of health care costs as the total number of physicians, the volume of

It’s Time to Test a Basic Income

 Recently I tabled a motion in the Senate calling on the government to create a pilot project that would test a basic income in Canada, also known as a guaranteed annual income. Canadians face immense challenges. Many families struggle to pay the rent, and some can’t afford their children’s school

What Should be Covered by our Publicly Funded Healthcare System?

 Patients and doctors need to learn the difference between ‘need’ and ‘want.’ All across Canada provincial governments are grappling with ever growing healthcare demands in the face of shrinking resources.  Our enviable publicly funded health system is now well into a downward spiral of unenviable disrepair.  As patients are becoming

How Doctors Can Tackle the Their Patients’ Poverty Without Leaving the Office

 Can a question asked in a doctor’s office contribute to ending poverty for patients and their families?  This is what we asked ourselves 10 years ago, as we set out to convince health providers to tackle poverty. There were two factors that pushed us into this work: first, the evidence

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

How to Make the Social Determinants of Health Matter

 An Interview with Sir Michael Marmot Recently, I was fortunate to attend the Global Symposium on the Role of Physicians and National Medical Associations in Addressing Health Equity and the Social Determinants of Health held in London, England. The meeting was organized by the Canadian, British and World Medical Associations

Growing Income Gap Poses a Health Risk to All

 Certain Canadian commentators are bringing forth a strange critique of public health, suggesting that physicians and public health experts, charged with caring for the health of Canadians, should not concern themselves with the root causes of illness and stick to a narrow range of health interventions. Fortunately, Canadian health experts

When is it Okay for Doctors to Let Someone Die?

 By Dr. Charles J. Wright The long overdue public, medical, legal and political debate on end-of-life care is now well underway in Canada. Medical journals and the general press are commenting regularly on the subject, the Canadian Medical Association is changing its ethics guidelines, Quebec has decriminalized assisted dying and

How to Eliminate MRI Wait Lists in the Public Health System

 How to do all this and save Alberta millions of dollars a year in the process Value for money appears to be finally getting the attention it merits as Alberta’s new health minister, Stephen Mandel, takes the reins of the portfolio that is close to consuming 50% of the province’s

The Canadian Doctor Who Prescribes Income to Treat Poverty

 By Trudy Lieberman Last fall when I visited Canada, I met a Toronto doctor named Gary Bloch who developed a poverty tool for medical practitioners. The tool assesses what patients might need other than prescriptions for the newest drugs. Bloch's idea was to zoom in on the social determinants of

Health in all Policies Approach Gaining Traction Across Political Spectrum in Canada

 By Danyaal Raza and Ryan Meili When counselling patients on health, physicians often focus on lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise or smoking. This kind of advice can be important for the individual, but does little to change underlying drivers of health like income, education and employment. These factors are

To the Editor of Ottawa Life

 Re: Report Card on Wait Times in Canada Omits Important Developments (published on July 3, 2014) Doctors Don Dick and Linda Woodhouse quite rightly note the great work Alberta has been undertaking to improve the standardization, collection and utilization of access and other health system performance related data. However, I

A ”Less Is More” Approach to Canadian Health Care: Reformulating the Canada Health Transfer

  Change has come to Canada’s health-care funding model. In December 2011, federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced that the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) – the legislative vehicle through which much of the funding (some $29 billion for the 2012-2013 period alone) for Canada’s provincial and territorial health-care systems is

Who’s Responsible for the Health of Canada’s Health Care System

 “Our health outcomes, with a few exceptions, are among the best in the world and a strong majority of Canadians who use the system are highly satisfied with the quality and standard of care they receive. Medicare has consistently delivered affordable, timely, accessible and high-quality care to the overwhelming majority