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Can health care be a toxin for those providing care to others?  The drive for cost savings, the increasing complexity of care, the menace of electronic medical records and the emotional challenges of responding to patient suffering put health care professionals at high risk for burnout.  Today, burnout is common among all members of our health…

Northern Ontario covers 87% of Ontario’s land mass, is inhabited by 6% of the province’s population, and has the highest rates of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease in Ontario. Disease prevalence is highest in the 13% of Indigenous Northerners. Providing Northern Ontario health care in the future will be challenging as the lifestyles of…

I’m often asked why I do what I do. Actually, it’s rare that someone questions my decision to look after sick people as a physician. People also rarely wonder why I chose to get married or to have children. On the other hand, my academic interests – the focus of my research and educational work…

The first time I witnessed a death, I was a third year medical student and at  the very beginning of my training. My patient was older – in his late 70s – and all alone. His family dropped him off at the emergency department and were not reachable by phone. One of my first nights…

When we think about the health and care needs for Indigenous peoples in Canada, we often are drawn to the mental and emotional challenges resulting from the intergenerational trauma of residential schools. The fallout of this trauma, as we are familiar with and have heard in the media, includes increased substance misuse and addictions. It…

Can we decolonize and indigenize our medical school?  I have been thinking about this question over the last few years. It underpins my AMS Phoenix fellowship to teach medical students about cultural safety. It also foregrounds a larger challenge about how to make our health care systems welcoming places for all patients, including those who…