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Step into an infinite world of stories

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Trusted ER doctor Brian Goldman brings you honest and surprising stories that can change your health and your life. Expect deep conversations with patients, families and colleagues that show you what is and isn't working in Canadian healthcare. Guaranteed you’ll learn something new. Episodes drop every Friday.

White Coat, Black Art

Josh Booth has a pitch for Canada: Bring in nurse anesthetists to help deal with Canada’s shortage of anesthesiologists, the doctors who manage sedation before and during surgery. Booth, a Canadian certified registered nurse anesthetist working in the U.S., says health professionals like him can help handle the demand for anesthesia. B.C. has tried twice to bring in the nursing role but it has yet to happen. Dr. Giuseppe Fuda, president of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society, says there are concerns about bringing in nurse anesthetists to our healthcare system.

Should Canada have nurse anesthetists?

Former senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Murray Sinclair spent the last four months of his life at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. He found comfort in the music of Quinton Poitras, a Métis musician with Artists in Healthcare Manitoba who played his favourites, especially the blues. Niigaan Sinclair says that even though his father was in a lot of pain, the music helped him feel joy in the moment.

The Senator's Singer

In this season of bearing gifts, it’s been said the highest form of giving is the anonymous kind. Heather Badenoch knows that very well. She donated part of her liver to a child she never met in Toronto. Now she uses her communications skills to recruit donors for people in need of an organ.

ENCORE: The gift of life

When Ned Bell’s wife was recovering from cancer surgery at Vancouver General Hospital, the unappetizing food she was served left a bad taste in his mouth. So the five-star chef teamed up with his wife’s surgeon to revamp patient meals. Dr. Brian Goldman visits Chef Bell in the hospital’s test kitchen to see how the new “Planetary Health Menu” helps boost patient health and reduce the carbon footprint of traditional hospital food.

Making hospital food scrumptious, and sustainable

Like many of Canada’s rural and remote communities, Mackenzie, B.C.’s hospital struggles to staff the ER. But once a week, a doctor hundreds of kilometres away fills in virtually. Many provinces like B.C. are using virtual care in ERs in an attempt to keep the doors open. But critics are concerned about patient safety and the need to balance virtual with in-person care.

Virtual doctors for real ERs

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Canada, but screening doesn’t begin until age 50. Seeing younger people getting diagnosed, Dr. Shady Ashamalla helped launch Sunnybrook's Young Adult Colorectal Cancer Clinic in Toronto. It offers minimally invasive care to patients like Catherine Mifsud, diagnosed with three kids at home in the prime of her career.

Young colorectal cancer patients are different. So is this clinic

Faced with a life-limiting illness, most Canadians would like to die at home. But only 13% are offered the palliative support to do so, which Dr. Sammy Winemaker wants to change. The palliative home care physician introduces us to the family of patient Shelley McCarthy two years after her death at home from thyroid cancer. They say a palliative approach should be offered early and include everyone.

Palliative care isn't just for patients – it's for families

CBC producer Adam Killick has spent his whole life believing something was wrong with him. It’s only now, in his 50s, that he’s wondering if he has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. About four to six per cent of adult Canadians have ADHD. If Adam is diagnosed, it would help him make sense of his life. If not, he's not sure what he'll do. We follow along on his quest.

The quest for an ADHD diagnosis in middle age

[Encore Presentation]: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder – or ADHD – is a common diagnosis in children. But more and more adults are also being diagnosed with ADHD. Family physician Dr. Ainslie Gray explains some of the tell-tale signs you might be living with undiagnosed ADHD, as well as some of the ways you might be unknowingly coping with the condition.

THE DOSE: How do I know if I have undiagnosed adult ADHD?

We know there are problems with our country’s health-care system, with millions of Canadians going without a family doctor or nurse practitioner. But Denmark, a country where more than 98 percent of its population is attached to a primary care provider, could have some lessons for us. We travelled to the Scandinavian country to see how the Danish system works for patients and doctors. The differences are startling.

Primary care for all: Lessons from Denmark

A growing number of young people in Canada are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and their needs often differ from older patients. Melissa Grof​f was diagnosed at age 34, with three small kids, in the prime of her career.​​ ​She​ says she would have benefitted from more age-appropriate care. Sunnybrook's Young Adult Colorectal Cancer Clinic offers this care including support for mental health, sexual health, body image issues and family planning.

A career, three young kids, and colorectal cancer

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