OMA Spotlight on Health
Featuring doctors from across the province, the OMA Spotlight on Health Podcast covers health-care issues that are top of mind for physicians and patients. For more information please visit OMA.org Brought to you by the Ontario Medical Association and produced and edited by Jodi Crawford Productions. This podcast is not intended to provide medical advice for specific situations and is for general educational purposes only. Please consult your doctor if you have symptoms or questions about your health. The views and opinions expressed by the guest do not necessarily reflect those of the Ontario Medical Association.
Episodes
86 episodes
Advocating for a centralized referral system
Many Ontario patients are waiting weeks or even months to see a specialist. In this third episode of a three-part series, physicians explain how a centralized referral system could help alleviate anxiety and uncertainty around wait times, based...
•
16:45
Improving access to primary care through team-based care
Primary care in Ontario is in crisis, and team-based care is a key solution to helping the 2.3 million people in the province without a family doctor. In this second episode of a three-part series, physicians explain the benefits of team-based ...
•
8:10
The Ontario Medical Association advocates for better home and community care in Ontario
A rise in hallway health care and bloated emergency departments has become a norm in Ontario's health-care system. This first episode of a three-part series hears from physicians working in the home- and community-based care sector in the provi...
•
12:00
Addressing the primary care crisis
In this episode, Dr. David Barber, chair of the OMA’s Section on General and Family Practice and assistant professor at Queen’s University’s department of family medicine, discusses the challenges facing the primary health system in Ontario, al...
•
8:10
Removing barriers to Indigenous mental-health services
Statistics reveal that less than one per cent of Canadian doctors identify as Indigenous. In this podcast episode, physicians discuss the barriers to mental-health services Indigenous doctors face and how the OMA’s Physician Health Program is w...
•
17:00
Health-care advocacy bridges gaps in a challenged system
Physicians weigh in on the influential role doctors can play outside of their practices as advocates for health care. Personal stories and perspectives shared illustrate the difference they’ve made in their communities, health-care settings and...
•
14:45
Medical scribes to ease administrative burden
Studies show that the use of medical scribes to document details of patient visits and take on onerous paperwork has relieved physicians, freeing them up to focus on the work they do best: personalized, one-to-one patient care. In this podcast,...
•
17:30
Ensuring health care reflects Ontario’s multicultural make-up
Physicians speak to the importance of multicultural representation in Ontario’s health-care system, and the need for culturally sensitive care that considers patients’ social determinants of health. Sharing their professional experiences, famil...
•
14:30
Ontario’s doctors want immediate solutions to health care
The Ontario Medical Association is calling on the provincial government to put money in the upcoming budget to find and keep more doctors, address wait times and improve palliative care. The OMA has a comprehensive plan for fixing the health-ca...
•
20:10
Fostering trust with Black patients
In this second part of two-part Spotlight on Health podcast series for Black History Month, Ontario doctors discuss how physicians can build relationships and cultivate trust with Black patients, while emphasizing the need for an increase in Bl...
•
14:00
Confronting racism and Black patient distrust in health care
This February, during Black History Month, five Ontario physicians discuss how systemic racism infiltrates into Ontario’s health-care system, the implicit biases Black patients face and inequitable care they often receive. Solutions, they say, ...
•
21:30
Preparing doctors for a future in medicine
In the second part of this Spotlight on Health podcast episode, Ontario doctors and physicians in training discuss how medical schools are adapting and innovating curriculum to meet the demands and challenges of the health-care system, while pr...
•
12:37
Shaping the future of medicine
In the first part of this Spotlight on Health podcast episode, Ontario doctors and physicians in training discuss the future of medicine and the role medical schools, technological innovation, societal demands and next-generation doctors will p...
•
12:10
Embracing transition with medical technology
Medical technologies, such as artificial intelligence and data analytics, are shifting how physicians make decisions and treat their patients in real time, whether in a specialist’s clinic or an emergency department. Yet, their potential is far...
•
17:10
Paving the way with medical technology
Ontario physicians are amid a digital transformation, adopting increasingly sophisticated technologies that help better serve patients and simplify day-to-day operations across health-care settings. In the first episode of this two-part podcast...
•
24:50
Moving through health-care transformation
Our health-care system is evolving to keep up with technological innovation and evolving patient needs. Behind this transformation, today’s physicians are adapting, balancing the rise in medical information, increased administrative demands, el...
•
8:00
Caring for our caregivers
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the conversation around mental health and the effects of burnout on our physicians and medical community to the forefront. We’ve become increasingly aware that those treating patients must also look out for their o...
•
13:10
Solutions for palliative care
The OMA is calling for increased access to palliative care, as way to ease the strain on the health-care system overall. In this podcast, Dr. Sandy Buchman, a palliative care physician and medical director of North York General Hospital's Freem...
•
6:45
Coping with disasters in health
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges for our health-care community, the impact of which is still being felt today, almost three years later. In this podcast, Dr. Frank Sommers, founding chair of Disaster Psychiatr...
•
11:30
Striking balance with virtual health care
With virtual care now a permanent official component of Ontario’s health-care system, physicians continue to experiment with how best to serve patients under a hybrid model. In this podcast, Dr. Hemant Shah, Toronto hepatologist and vice-chair ...
•
11:50
Helping women physicians thrive financially
In addition to earning less due to a gender pay gap, female doctors come up against other financial inequities on the job such as being tasked with uncompensated work or lacking return-to-work support post maternity leave. In this podcast, Dr. ...
•
12:30
Finding solutions to the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap is an unpleasant reality in many industries and is also pervasive in Ontario's health-care system. In this second of a two-part series, Dr. Clover Hemans, co-chair of the OMA Women Committee; Dr. Simron Singh, medical oncolog...
•
16:15
Uncovering roots of the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap is a persistent reality spanning Ontario’s health-care system. In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Clover Hemans, co-chair of the OMA Women Committee; Dr. Simron Singh, medical oncologist and member of the OMA Burnout Task...
•
16:50