Moving forward on health-care reform
In the Speech from the Throne and since, the new Liberal government has clearly said it is ready to re-engage with the provinces and territories on health care. This is a welcome development. For most of the past decade, the Harper government was distinctly unwilling to provide any leadership or even play a secondary role […]
Changing health-care paradigm: from economic drain to economic gain
On Jan. 13, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $20-million investment to create a Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine establishing a stem-cell therapy development facility in Toronto. In his speech, the prime minister noted that “regenerative medicine is the future and not only is it the future, it’s a branch of medicine that Canada […]
Health experts call on government to increase transparency around drug research
Health professionals and academics are putting the heat on Health Canada to release information about prescription drugs—information that the department deems confidential for the businesses that sell the products. While the 2014 passing of Bill C-17, the Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act—also called Vanessa’s Law—opened up some of the secrecy about pharmaceutical products, critics say […]
Health Statistics
A Check-Up on Canada’s Health: Total Fertility rate (average number of children per woman) 1.61 Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 4.8 Current smokers 18.1% Has a doctor 85.1% Heavy drinkers 17.9% High blood pressure 17.7% Overweight or obese adults 54.0% Overweight or obese youth (12-17) 23.1% Physically active (leisure time) 53.7% In […]
Protecting Canada’s universal health-care system is job No. 1
There is a constellation of serious issues piling up on the desk of our new Health Minister, Jane Philpott. There’s how to legalize cannabis, while ensuring medicinal marijuana is accessible and of high quality. Simultaneously, the government must manage health warnings that should be applied as healthy people look to cannabis as a recreational drug. There’s […]
Pan-Canadian collaboration on health-care innovation can deliver real change
Across the industrialized world, governments and health-care organizations face aging populations and growing rates of chronic disease as well as patients and families with unprecedented access to health information and an appetite to be engaged in their care. In this environment, promoting innovation in health care has never been more important. As federal, provincial, and […]
Deregulation of blood safety: Health Canada’s unhealthy decision on paid plasma
Health Canada has quietly licensed a commercial facility that pays for plasma collected from Canadian citizens in Saskatoon. Although seemingly innocuous, this constitutes a decision to massively deregulate the safety of Canada’s blood supply. How did this happen? This issue first arose in 2013, with an application by the same commercial entity, Canadian Plasma Resources, […]
Marijuana task force could assemble this spring, says Philpott
The federal ministers of Health, Justice, and Public Safety have been meeting regularly to discuss the federal government’s plans to legalize marijuana and want to have the task force announced by the spring, says Health Minister Jane Philpott. Legalizing, regulating, and restricting access to recreational marijuana is a shared initiative by the Department of Justice and Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould […]
Former MP Fletcher pleased with assisted-dying report, awaits legislation
With the special committee’s report finalized, former Conservative MP Steven Fletcher and many other right-to-die advocates are now anxiously awaiting the tabling of the federal government’s legislation on physician-assisted dying. “It’s a very interesting report, it raises a lot of interesting topics, but when the rubber hits the road is when we see the legislation that […]
Feds must follow provinces on collecting wait-time data: advocacy group
A group that monitors the time patients wait for health care for various procedures and in all parts of the country says producing this kind of data helps reduce waits and is calling on the federal government to step up and provide this kind of information on the care it provides to aboriginal peoples and veterans. The Wait […]
