Canadian Health Information Podcast

Virtual health care in Canada has boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering Canadians unprecedented online access to medical professionals. Now, as the day-to-day effects of the pandemic are lessening in much of the country, the question on many minds is “will I still have this convenient option going forward?” In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Ewan Affleck, the senior medical advisor for health informatics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta and chair of the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body, about the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth. This episode is available in English only.Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Canada’s health care systems were already facing numerous challenges with wait times for surgeries before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now those problems are far worse. On this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. David Urbach, head of the department of surgery at Women’s College Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto, about how hospitals and health systems in Canada are trying to deal with the huge backlog of surgeries and what could be done to fix the problems for the long term. This episode is available in English only.Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed some clear gaps in Canada’s health care systems, including the need to better understand the roots of health inequalities and disparities based on race. On this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa, poet, author, advocate and the only Black woman ever selected as sole valedictorian at the University of Toronto’s medical school, about the value of race-based data and the importance of Black representation in health care in Canada. This episode is available in English only.Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with nurse practitioners Cindy Fehr and Stan Marchuk about where their field fits in Canadian health care and the challenges they face. Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Overuse of medical procedures and tests is a serious concern that costs Canada’s health care systems a lot of time and money and can even be harmful to patients. Host Avis Favaro is joined by Dr. Janet Reynolds and Dr. Wendy Levinson of Choosing Wisely Canada to discuss the roots of this issue, the progress made since a previous report on the topic in 2017 and alternatives to reduce overuse.This episode is available in English. Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Canada is facing an unprecedented shortage of health care professionals. COVID-19 is partly to blame, with some doctors and nurses simply burned out by the huge demands the pandemic has put on them. But there are several other key factors, including severe workplace stresses and a large cohort entering retirement age. On this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro discusses the causes of these issues along with possible solutions with Dr. Leigh Chapman, Canada’s new chief nursing officer, and Dr. Doug Sinclair, the vice president of Medicine, Quality and Safety and former chief of emergency medicine at IWK Health Centre in Halifax.  This episode is available in English only. Audio clips courtesy CBC News, CTV News, CityNews Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed life as Canadians knew it beginning in spring 2020, and among the hardest-hit groups were children and youth. On this week’s show, host Avis Favaro digs into the data with CIHI’s manager of Health System Analytics, Liudmila Husak. She is then joined by Chris Daken of Fredericton, N.B., who talks about losing his 16-year-old daughter, Lexi, to suicide amid the pandemic; and by Dr. Chris Wilkes, the division head for child and adolescent psychiatry for Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary, on how mental health experts have been dealing with the effects the pandemic has had on our kids. This episode is available in English only. Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced health care systems across the country to rapidly shift priorities to help save lives, but the result has been a huge backlog in care that will likely take a long time to fix. On this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro chats with Laura Greer, who developed breast cancer while missing out on screening tests during the pandemic; thoracic surgeon Dr. Christian Finley of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton; orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kishore Mulpuri of BC Children’s Hospital; and family physician Dr. Michael Green of Kingston, Ont., about their experiences during the height of the pandemic, the challenges health systems face and what needs to be done to get things back on track. This episode is available in English only. Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Season 3 of the Canadian Health Information Podcast is coming soon and here to introduce herself ia our new host, Avis Favaro.Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of the health care system in Canada, and one area where that impact is being felt the most is organ donation and transplantation. In 2020, there was a 14% decrease in solid organ transplants, with 4,129 Canadians on wait-lists to receive a transplant and 276 deaths while on wait-lists. Dr. Joseph Kim, nephrologist and co-chair of Health Canada’s Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaborative Data System Working Group, and patient Sandra Holdsworth, liver transplant recipient and award-winning advocate, join us on the CHIP to discuss what it’s like for physicians and patients inside the system and what can be done to save and improve more lives.Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page. Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter. Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.