CMAJ Podcasts

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have transformed our lives. The adoption of AI in medicine has perhaps lagged its adoption in other areas, and machine learning in healthcare has had mixed results. In this episode, Drs. Muhammad Mamdani and Amol Verma discuss a series of three CMAJ articles on the development, use, misuse, and evaluation of machine-learned models in medicine....

Many options exist nowadays for teenagers choosing to be on hormonal contraceptives. They are generally categorized into SARCs (short-acting reversible contraceptives) and LARCs (long-acting reversible contraceptives). LARC methods are recommended as first-line contraceptives. These include intrauterine devices and a new option that gets implanted into the arm and lasts up to three years. In this...

In this episode, Dr. Kirsten Patrick, interim editor-in-chief, chats with Francine Buchanan about her experience as a patient partner. Francine is in a unique position at the intersection of caregiver for her medically fragile son, PhD candidate in health services research, and a patient and family advisor at The Hospital for Sick Children. She wrote a Humanities article published in CMAJ called &...

New research shows that Indigenous People living in rural Canada are 16 times more likely to have to travel long distances to give birth compared to non-Indigenous people living in rural areas. In this podcast, Dr. Janet Smylie and Evelyn George explain these striking findings. Dr. Janet Smylie is Métis-Cree, a family practitioner and professor of public health at the University of Toronto. Evelyn...

Dr. Malika Sharma and Dr. Rahel Zewude explain the tenets of critical race theory. They also share how it has helped them tackle racism in the practice of medicine and how they've applied it to their professional and personal lives as physicians in Canada. Dr. Malika Sharma is an HIV and infectious diseases specialist and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of...

Anticraving medications are a lesser-known therapy for patients with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder. In this podcast, Dr. Jon Mong and Dr. Paxton Bach explain how to recognize and diagnose moderate to severe alcohol use disorder and how to talk to patients about treatment options. Dr. Jon Mong is a general internist working at The Ottawa Hospital, with a clinical focus in addiction medici...

Dr. Olga Kciuk and Dr. Sari Kives talk about painful periods (dysmenorrhea) in teens – what causes it, how to diagnose it, how to rule out secondary causes, and how best to treat. Dr. Olga Kciuk is a fourth year resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Sari Kives is a gynecologist in Toronto, both at the Hospital for Sick Children and St. Michael's Hospital. The...

Dr. Ainsley Moore discusses a new guideline by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. The guideline recommends opportunistic screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea in primary care for individuals not known to be at high risk. Ainsley unpacks the recommendation and talks about what it means for clinical practice. Dr. Ainsley Moore is a family physician and an associate clinical professor...

Dre Guylène Thériault explique les recommandations clé des nouvelles lignes directrices sur dépistage de la chlamydia et de la gonorrhée en médecine de soins primaires chez les personnes non connues comme appartenant à un groupe à risque. Dre Guylène Thériault est médecin de famille et membre du Groupe d’étude canadien sur les soins de santé préventifs. Dre Thériault enseigne aussi la médecine fon...

Prof. Jonathan Berman discusses what drives antivaccine and anti-mask protests, such as the Montréal vaccine protest of 1885 which turned violent. He talks about vaccine hesitancy in history and how it relates to our current COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan Berman is a physiologist at the New York Institute of Technology medical school and a science educator. He wrote an humanities article published in...

Prof. Andrea Tricco and Dr. Ainsley Moore discuss gender inequity in medicine at the senior leadership level and how it's intertwined with race. They also outline practical ways of advancing gender equity in medicine. Dr. Ainsley Moore is a family physician and an associate clinical professor in medicine at McMaster University. Prof. Andrea Tricco is a scientist at St. Michael's Hospital...

Drs Shirin Dason and Mara Sobel discuss how to diagnose and treat adenomyosis, a common cause of heavy and painful menstrual periods. Dr. Shirin Dason is a resident and soon-to-be infertility fellow at Mount Sinai Fertility in Toronto. Dr. Mara Sobel is a gynaecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and Women's College Hospital in Toronto. To read the practice article published in CMAJ: www.cmaj.ca/...

A prescribing cascade happens when the side effects of a prescribed drug are misinterpreted as a new medical condition for which an additional drug is prescribed. Some prescribing cascades can become complicated to untangle and hard to catch. In this podcast, Dr. Paula Rochon outlines some of the common prescribing cascades that occur in older adults. Dr. Paula Rochon is a geriatrician at Women’s...

In this podcast, Dr. Andreas Laupacis, editor-in-chief of CMAJ, interviews two authors of a research article published in CMAJ. The research looked at SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients undergoing long-term dialysis in Ontario during the first wave of the pandemic. Rebecca Cooper is the director of clinical programs at the Ontario Renal Network, and Peter Blake is a nephrologist and the provincia...

Prof. Colleen Flood discusses the legalities around requiring health care workers to be vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19, both at the employer or hospital level and at the provincial government level. Colleen Flood is a professor in the faculty of law and the inaugural director of the Centre for Health Law Policy & Ethics, both at the University of Ottawa. She co-authored, wit...

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most hospitals in Canada adopted no-visitor policies because of concern that visitors would spread the virus. It was also a way of preserving personal protective equipment, which was in short supply at the time. Now, almost one year later, the authors of a commentary published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal argue that it’s time to reconsider such...

Dr. Carl Boodman discusses four cases of trench fever from Bartonella quintana which is transmitted by body lice. Trench fever was common during the First World War and killed millions of people. In modern times, it is rare, but outbreaks tend to be associated with homelessness, poor living conditions or a history of severe alcohol use disorder or IV drug use. Dr. Boodman first talks about a patie...

Dr. Christen Shoesmith and Dr. Colleen O’Connell discuss the first Canadian guideline on the care and management of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Shoesmith and Dr. O'Connell are two of the authors of the guideline, which is intended for ALS clinicians, allied health professionals and primary care providers and includes a patient-focused approach to care, with attentio...

Prone positioning has been widely adopted and is considered standard of care for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). But how beneficial is prone positioning for patients with COVID-19 who are awake and not intubated? In this podcast, Dr. Kevin Venus talks about evidence, lung physiology and observational studies regarding prone positioning. Dr. Kevin Venus is general internis...

Dr. Caroline Quach and Dr. Shainoor Ismail discuss guidance on identifying priority populations for COVID-19 immunization. It's likely that when Canada does get a vaccine, it will not be possible to immunize all Canadians at once. We therefore need to have a plan in place for prioritization within our population. Dr. Quach and Dr. Ismail are two of the authors of an evidence-based guideline p...

In this narrative, a musician, a nurse and a doctor come together to provide a virtual bedside music concert for some of their sickest patients with COVID-19.The article is read by its authors. First, Melanie Ambler, the musician and aspiring physician, then Laura Wodecki, nurse manager at Rhode Island Hospital, and ending with Dr. Timothy Amass, intensive care physician in Denver, Colorado. They...

The spread of misinformation during epidemics is not a new phenomenon. But the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly the largest epidemic in recent times and its intersection with the internet and social media have amplified a modern infodemic of misinformation. In this podcast, history professor Nancy Tomes unpacks this modern infodemic and shares her thoughts on the role of health care providers in man...

Dr. Maxim Ben-Yakov and Dr. Maala Bhatt discuss emergency procedural sedation in children. They cover safety, protocol, sedative agents, recommendations around fasting for this emergency procedure and more. Dr. Maala Bhatt is an emergency physician and the director of emergency research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa and also associate professor at the University of Ottawa...

Many workplaces are essential for our health care, our supply chains, or the economy and are under immense pressure to stay open. The work bubble is one strategy that can be used to open businesses while limiting the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. In this podcast, Dr. Jeffrey Shaw and Ms. Hayley Wickenheiser explain the work bubble concept. They also describe how a large Canadian company, Bombardier,...

With so much talk about COVID-19 and frequent updates to protocols and guidelines, is COVID-19 affecting the way physicians diagnose? In this podcast, two physicians describe how they misdiagnosed a patient back in April of this year. The patient presented with classic COVID-19 symptoms, but her diagnosis turned out to be something entirely different. And it took the physicians quite a lot of time...