
83 episodes

OMA Spotlight on Health Ontario Medical Association
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- Health & Fitness
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.
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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, along with some possible solutions. He speaks about how family doctors are facing growing administrative burdens and increasing care requirements for patients. That has led to physician burnout and a large number of unattached patients. He explains that taking some of those burdens off the plates of family doctors would allow doctors to focus on treating patients and make becoming and staying a family doctor more appealing.
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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 working to bridge these gaps. Through personal stories and clinical experiences, they share the importance of culturally competent care that understands and considers the unique needs and perspectives of these communities.
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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 the system overall, as well as the patients who benefit most.
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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, doctors discuss the evolving role of medical scribes, training required, financial implications on a practice and their future potential both in human and an artificial intelligence form.
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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, family and emergency physician, Dr. Latif Murji and Dr. Catherine Yu, medical director of Health Access Thorncliffe Park and chair of the East Toronto Family Practice Network, describe the work they’re doing to break down barriers and equitably service patients of diverse populations.
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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-care system over the next few years, Prescription for Ontario: Doctors’ 5-Point Plan for Better Health Care. While working on those bigger issues, the OMA has proposed three short-term solutions it recommends the government include in its 2023-24 budget. We hear from the OMA President and a panel of expert physicians.