Canadian Health Information Podcast

New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows emergency departments are dealing with a record high number of visits, 16.1 million and climbing. And more numbers reveal the pressures that are leaving patients stuck in emergency departments for hours or days, putting them and health workers at risk.  In this episode, host Avis Favaro discusses the picture the data paints — with D...

How do you safeguard Canada’s public health in an era of unprecedented upheaval — from the growth of health misinformation and conspiracy theories to advice from Dr. Google and looming pandemics? That is the role of Canada’s new chief public health officer, Dr. Joss Reimer — a physician from Manitoba and former president of the Canadian Medical Association — who began her new job on April 1, 2026....

Every day across Canada, seniors who live in long-term care (LTC) homes are sent to hospital for medical care, some during their final days of life. In fact, according to new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, nearly 1 in 5 residents transferred from long-term care to the hospital die within a day — meaning they were likely near the end of their lives regardless of the urgent...

There are some 3.8 million men across Canada who are 65 and older- with studies showing once they leave the workforce they lose connections, friendships, and purpose. Loneliness in this group boosts the risk of heart disease, depression, dementia and even suicide.  So how do you help keep this large and growing group of older Canadians mentally and physically healthy, and out of hospital and long-...

Canada has a new distinction. Our country has been crowned the second-largest Ozempic user in the world. Most of us know about Ozempic’s class of drugs, GLP-1s, for weight loss, courtesy of testimonials from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey. But the reality is Ozempic, or semaglutide, was first developed for type 2 diabetes, a serious disease that can lead to blindness, kidney failure, amputations a...

From going without electricity to relying on food banks, Canada’s seniors are struggling to age with dignity. Data shows that 1 in 5 live at the poverty line, with rent and housing eating up their meagre incomes. As well, 91% of seniors say they want to live at home, but the support isn’t always there — for example, home care may not reach seniors in rural communities. All of this is leaving our s...

In a world where AI sits in our pockets and answers our questions in seconds, how do we know when to trust the technology with our personal health? On today’s episode, host Avis Favaro talks with Alvina Nadeem, an engineer, mother and ovarian cancer survivor who says AI likely saved her life when she input symptoms that she had ignored into ChatGPT and it flagged the possibility she had cancer.  B...

According to CIHI’s new report on the state of Canada’s health workforce, 5.7 million Canadians don’t have a primary care provider. In this episode, host Avis Favaro talks with Emily Stevenson, the director of Practice and Policy with the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, and family physician Dr. Alexander Glover about one way to ease pressures on family doctors due to an aging and injured popula...

When you call 911, police, fire or paramedics respond. But did you know they have no access to any medical information before they arrive? They’ll only get it at the scene — if you’re conscious and can tell them, if someone else is there, or if you have a medical bracelet or card with details. But even then, studies show the information, which is relayed by phone, takes an average of 7 minutes fro...

New data shows that 2 in 5 Canadians say they aren’t getting any or enough mental health care to improve their lives. Host Avis Favaro talks about a first, and historic, step for mental health in Canada. Data collected from a new agreement between Ottawa and the provinces and territories is being used to measure how mental health services in the community are being delivered — and how new targeted...

“Canada First” is a phrase politicians have been using a lot lately. But it’s been focused primarily on steel, aluminum and other consumer products. Nurse and scientist Anne Snowdon wants to change that. She’s been documenting Canada’s chaotic and vulnerable medical supply system that she says puts patients and health care workers at risk. There are over 3,000 shortages of critical medical tools a...

 Chet Walker wants to warn Canadians about how dangerous e-scooters can be. His son Austin was killed after a driver hit him while he was riding home on an e-scooter. In fact, CIHI data shows a 22% increase in hospitalizations from e-scooter injuries across the country. Doctors are starting to send out an alert — as they document the rising fractures, brain injuries and worse, with most riders not...

What can we learn about the mysteries of autism by combining artificial intelligence and Canada's valuable health data? That is the question posed by Dr. Christine Armour, pediatrician and geneticist at the University of Ottawa, and a physician scientist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Join host Avis Favaro as she learns about a first-of-its-kind study being led by Dr. Armour and he...

Imagine being just 8 years old and having to translate your parents’ medical information into a language they understand. That’s the story of Kayathiri Ganeshamoorthy, who’s made a career out of helping others avoid the misunderstandings and medical errors that come from inaccurate and poor communication. This episode is about how CIHI is drilling down into equity sources of hospital-based medical...

He’s a doctor and scientist who’s helped steer Canada’s public health systems through new diseases like COVID-19 and through a revolution of data-based health care. Dr. Vivek Goel, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo and CIHI’s former Board chair, joins host Avis Favaro to discuss his long career as an academic and the insights he gained as chair of a federal expert advisor...

What are the challenges of leading a national health data organization like CIHI?   CIHI’s new CEO, Dr. Anderson Chuck, talks about transformation in a changing world — from giving patients, health practitioners and researchers faster access to data, to improving analysis and context around the numbers. Find out his vision for how data can power the future of health care and what part of his new j...

How far do you have to travel for health care? Down the street? To a hospital in another town? How about to an entirely different province? A new CIHI report shows that 1 in 11 people admitted to hospital in Canada have what’s called a high travel burden. Meaning there’s no clinic, no hospital — sometimes not even roads to get to the medical care they need. In this episode, we meet Paula Alorut, a...

Behind operating room doors, medical teams work under extreme pressure to save lives. And all that pressure can make for a toxic work environment. Research shows that many OR staff and trainees report being victims of uncivil behaviour — rude and demeaning comments, being ignored or sometimes colleagues not even knowing their name. Dr. Carol-Anne Moulton, of University Health Network, is on a new...

It’s called the hidden killer. That’s because there’s little public awareness about sepsis and not a lot of data on how many people it really affects. But Amalie Henze is out to change all that. This Canadian teen knows its dangers all too well after almost dying from septic shock and having her hands and feet amputated to save her life. She’s not alone. Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud has been researchi...

Each year, there are over 15 million visits to emergency departments across Canada. But new CIHI data shows that 15% of these — that’s 1 in 7 — could potentially have been treated by a doctor or nurse practitioner in primary care. While ED doctors don’t want to discourage anyone from going to emergency, they do acknowledge that this statistic highlights the crisis in primary care happening in Cana...

“You have dementia” are 3 words no one wants to hear. For the three-quarters of a million Canadians living with the disease and the 1.7 million projected to develop it, it’s a painful reality they all must face. But what happens after diagnosis — to patients, families and caregivers? Host Avis Favaro speaks with • “Care-y godmother” Katrina Prescott, a caregiving coach who helps families get the h...

40 amputations a day are performed at hospitals across Canada. And the single biggest culprit is diabetes. Host Avis Favaro meets with • Harish Rangan, who knows first-hand what it’s like to lose a limb to the disease • Dr. Karim Manji, director of the Zivot Limb Preservation Centre in Calgary, whose team is working on ways to reduce the number of amputations, with encouraging early successes This...

In this special edition of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro sits down with David O’Toole as he contemplates the biggest challenges and successes of his 10 years as CIHI’s president and CEO. To read more about the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter click here . This episode is available in English only. Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page . Learn more about the Canadian Institute for H...

With an exodus of family doctors — due to burnout caused by heavy workloads, difficulties getting patient referrals and financial stress — 1 in 5 Canadians do not have direct access to primary care. Why is family medicine so important and what can we do to repair this over-burdened health care sector? Listen as host Avis Favaro speaks with 2 physicians who say they know how to turn this around — a...

According to the latest CIHI data, almost all (93%) patients experiencing homelessness were admitted to hospital via the emergency department — a high proportion that suggests inadequate access to primary care. In this episode of the CHIP, we’ll hear about the complex health needs of the growing number of people who are unhoused and turning to hospitals for help, and how doctors are working toward...