White Coat, Black Art

Ottawa’s Montfort hospital sees twice the number of patients for mental health emergencies as the Ontario average. And as this number increased in recent years, the everyday environment of the ER waiting room – chaotic, loud and overstimulating – became an ever larger trigger, causing distressed patients to flee or harm themselves or others. In the new Mental Health Emergency Zone right off the main ER, everything has been designed for de-escalation, and staff and patients are seeing dramatic results.

Gurleen Kaur Chahal is one of the inaugural students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s new Peel Region medical school, designed to serve the area’s diverse population. She's determined to be part of the solution for the kinds of struggles her multigenerational Punjabi household has faced accessing care.

After a seemingly innocuous question about pi, Allan Brooks tumbled down a ChatGPT rabbit hole. Three weeks later, he emerged, after spending 300 hours in a spiralling 7,000-prompt exchange with the chatbot. Dr. Keith Sakata, the psychiatrist whose viral thread on X breaks down the phenomenon known as “AI psychosis,” says the built-in sycophancy of large language models like ChatGPT needs to change before more harm is done.

How much would you be willing (and able) to pay to get your knee or hip replaced? Calgarian Linda Slater's knee pain became unbearable during her two-year wait to see an orthopedic surgeon. She drained her retirement savings to pay $30,000 for a new knee at a private Toronto clinic. Dr. Rick Zarnett, an orthopedic surgeon who works out of both a private clinic and public hospital, says the system needs to improve so patients can get surgery sooner.

Companies are spending big bucks advertising weight-loss drugs like Rybelsus, seeing huge potential in capitalizing on the popularity of Ozempic. But in Canada, so-called "reminder ads" can give only the name of the medication, not what it's for, telling people to ask their doctor for details. Ad man Terry O’Reilly says it can result in bad ads that turn people off, and pharmaceutical policy expert Barbara Mintzes says reminder ads can lead to overtreatment and high costs, doing more harm than good.

As a rapper, Bishop Brigante was no stranger to on-stage battles. We met up with the then-45-year-old when he was battling Stage 4 colon cancer, which he said was caught too late. Bishop wanted Canadians to have easier access to colonoscopies and said advocacy had given him newfound purpose.

 Many women report difficulties with orgasms, low libido or pain around intercourse. And given that many have never even learned much about their genitals, they don’t always know where to get help. A cadre of Canadian doctors specializing in women’s sexual health is trying to change that. They’re helping patients boost pleasure, while empowering them to get to know their sexual anatomy.

Attracting a family doctor to work in a community is challenging, with fewer physicians choosing family medicine. That's why Cheryl Gnyp, the recruiter for Castlegar, B.C., needs to stand out. She uses the board game Operation and specialized coffee as part of her 10-minute sales pitch to potential recruits at conferences. It can take years before a doctor starts working in the community, but she’s in it for the long haul.

Judith Morrison needs a kidney. While she's on dialysis, her sister Catherine is putting out a public plea for a living donor. But the search has been hard. And if they do find a donor, the sisters say that person will have to go through a long and opaque testing process. A process that experts say needs to be improved across Canada because the demand for kidney donations is high.

One morning as she arrived for her hospital shift, Winnipeg nurse Jennifer Noone was assaulted outside the staff entrance, leaving her with a bad concussion and PTSD. Rather than stay silent, she took the unusual step of having her assailant charged with assault. Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson says there needs to be more and better security and violence should not be accepted as just part of the job.

At 28 years old, Dr. Soania Mathur was building her medical practice and expecting her first child. Then, she was diagnosed with Young-Onset Parkinson’s Disease. She tried to ignore her diagnosis for a decade, but as the symptoms progressed, she had to close her practice. Now, the self-described "Unshakeable MD" uses her experience as both a patient and a doctor to advocate for especially young people living with Parkinson's, as up to 10% of patients are under 40.

How far would you go to test your body in extreme heat? Ironworker apprentice Britnee Miazek travels hundreds of kilometres to Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario for a gruelling experiment to see how her body deals with high temperatures. She wants to find out why she stopped getting her period while working in sweltering conditions on a coke oven. Researchers are hoping to find answers for Britnee, and understand more about the long-term health effects of working in an increasingly hot environment.This episode is part of a CBC collaboration called "Overheated" where White Coat, Black Art, What on Earth, and Quirks and Quarks explore how heat is affecting our health, our cities and our ecosystems.

When Kalpit Sharma started smoking high-THC weed several times a day, he thought he was just “living his life” as a university student. But then, he started hearing voices. Researcher Dr. Daniel Myran shares the science behind stories like Kalpit’s – and why young men are particularly at risk for concerning mental health outcomes.

We're replaying this episode in honour of National Indigenous History Month. Former senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Murray Sinclair spent the last months of his life at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. He found comfort in the music of Quinton Poitras, a Métis musician with Artists in Healthcare Manitoba who played his favourite songs. Niigaan Sinclair says that even though his father was in a lot of pain, the music helped him feel joy in the moment.

Dr. Theresa Tam steps down this week after eight years as Canada’s chief public health officer. Best known for leading the COVID-19 public health response, Tam tells Dr. Brian Goldman in a sit-down interview that Canada urgently needs a national vaccine registry to better manage outbreaks like measles, and must do more to support science and fight misinformation.

Cardiologist, scientist and bestselling author Dr. Eric Topol's new book "Super Agers" distills decades of research on how to make us healthier for longer. Topol says that humanity is on the cusp of developing treatments to help tame cancer, dementia and other chronic diseases… just as political forces in the U.S. are shutting down that research.

Alberta is dealing with almost 800 cases of measles, the most in nearly forty years. Dr. Mark Joffe is an infectious disease physician who recently served as Alberta's chief medical officer of health (CMOH). He says there’s a huge need to get the message out that the vaccine is safe and will protect people. Dr. James Talbot, an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and a former CMOH for Alberta, is concerned provincial leaders aren't taking this measles outbreak urgently enough.

After 25+ years as a family physician, Dr. Fan-Wah Mang closed her practice because she burned out. Now, she’s at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, teaching the next generation of family doctors how to avoid the pitfalls that made her leave. Two of the residents know what they’ll need to be a family physician long term, and it may surprise you.

Thousands of Canadians are in line for a joint replacement surgery. Tracey Knowlton is one of them, waiting over 84 weeks for a knee replacement. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Stephen Kwan says long waits are an ongoing, system-wide problem. Health-care policy experts like Tom McIntosh say we know how to make it better and faster for patients, but provincial health leaders need to step up.

A crowd lines up every weekday at a unique walk-in dermatology clinic in Toronto. People have conditions ranging from severe rashes to potentially cancerous moles, and can’t wait months for an appointment with a skin doctor. Dr. Davindra Singh, who runs the clinic, calls it a dermatology crisis.

At the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre for men in Winnipeg, over 90% of the staff are in recovery from substance abuse themselves. Staffers like Terrence Morrin use "lived expertise" to create a circle of recovery. He first came to the centre as a participant two years ago, after detoxing on the floor of a prison cell. Today, he's helping other guys like him walk the walk. 

When sportscaster Scott Oake isn't rinkside at NHL games, he's often hanging out at a substance abuse treatment centre in Winnipeg. He's there to be close to his late son. An urn with Bruce's ashes greets everyone who walks through the doors of Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Brian Goldman visits the centre to meet Scott and learn about the centre's approach to substance-abuse treatment — one that came too late for Bruce.

With election day just around the corner, we know Canadians have questions about health care and how the next federal government can help make it better. That's why we asked candidates from the five major parties about three priority issues: how they would ensure every Canadian has a family doctor or nurse practitioner, what they would do to make it easier for doctors to work across the country, and how they would address the creep in private-pay primary care. 

Much of the federal election campaign’s focus has been on the U.S. But health care is always on the minds of Canadians. So what are the federal government’s responsibilities when it comes to health care—especially when six and a half million Canadians don't have a primary care provider? Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, a McGill professor and Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities, explains.

The federal election campaign so far has been dominated by curveballs from the U.S. But meanwhile, the state of public healthcare in Canada remains dire. We look at what our listeners have to say about the creep of a two-tier healthcare system, and check in with health law expert Colleen Flood about how Canadians should demand healthcare reform no matter which party they choose.

More Quebeckers are paying to see a family doc for services that should be covered publicly. Dr. Martin Potter explains why he founded Clinique Santé Plus after 20 years in the public system. But Dr. Bernard Ho of Canadian Doctors for Medicare says Quebec may be a bellwether for the rest of Canada, and private-pay family medicine puts the public system, and individual patients, at risk.

In Quebec, family medicine is the latest troubling frontier in a two-tier system that's been quietly growing for years. Dr. Brian Goldman visits Clinique Santé Plus in Vaudreuil to learn why the clinic's youngest doctor turned away from the public system. Two patients - one languishing on a waitlist for a family doctor, and one who can never reach hers - explain why $150 is worth 15 minutes with a private family doctor.

Christina Shehata waited 40 hours in an Ontario hospital ER to get an inpatient bed. It’s a common reality in hospitals across Canada. What makes Christina's story different is that her husband, Dr. Adam Shehata, was keenly aware that she could have died. While the hospital did the best it could, Christina says without the aid of a physician spouse, her stay could have been even longer. They're highlighting the need for systemic change.