Study says private clinics are selling patient data to big pharma
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Patient information for sale to big pharma, study says
“This is really an area where we need transparency…We need oversight…What we know from other surveys and interviews with patients is that this is not how they want their data handled,” said Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, the lead author of the study, which found that for-profit clinics, data brokers, and pharmaceutical companies collaborate to turn patient medical records into commercial assets used to further the interests of the pharmaceutical companies, to CBC News, May 9, 2025.
Mr. Carney, get pharmacare done
“Prominent in the Liberal election platform was a commitment to obtain medications based on medical need, and not ability to pay—but only for contraceptives and some medications for people with diabetes. The prior Liberal government, with persistence from the NDP, passed the enabling legislation in October 2024. Yet, the federal government has been able to secure deals with only four jurisdictions: Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon, and Prince Edward Island. This is welcome news for the residents of those provinces, but there are millions more Canadians waiting for a deal. In Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia, opposition parties are agitating and pushing for both the prime minister and premiers to act,” wrote Dr. Monika Dutt, a public health and family physician in Sydney, N.S. and assistant professor at Dalhousie University and Dr. Danyaal Raza, a family doctor at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, in The Hill Times, May 13, 2025.
New federal health minister replaced Trudeau in Montreal riding
“Marjorie Michel, who was elected in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Papineau riding, is now Canada’s Minister of Health. She is a former deputy chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office,” said a report by CTV News, May 13, 2025.
Get to the heart of heart failure and treatment
“Better access to diagnosis and care for Manitobans with heart failure through a coordinated system would be a win for us all by reducing the time patients need to spend in hospital and keeping them away from our emergency departments, while allowing them to live easier and longer lives. What better goal could we have?” said Winnipeg cardiologist Dr. Shelley Zieroth, director of the St. Boniface Hospital Heart Function Clinic, Winnipeg Free Press, May 13, 2025.
An indigenous view of health care
“Last year, we saw an important step forward when the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) brought First Nations leaders and their proxies together, passing a resolution calling on the Government of Canada to include naturopathic medicine and allied health services in the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program, a publicly funded health-care system meant to provide coverage for Status First Nations. . .Naturopathic medicine offers a uniquely responsive approach to fulfilling several of the (Truth and Reconciliation) Commission’s Calls to Action by providing available, effective, and modernized health care to Indigenous people. However, despite growing evidence supporting its effectiveness, persistent funding gaps and restrictive policies continue to prevent access,” said Jenny Gardipy, senior policy analyst at the Assembly of First Nations, and Gemma Beierback, CEO of the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors, The Hill Times, May 12, 2025.
Health equity and environmental racism – there’s a link
“In the medical literature, it has long been established that air pollution contributes to both asthma development, and acute asthma attacks. The rates of ER visits related to asthma could be higher in this region for a number of other reasons, including limited access to primary care in rural and remote communities . . . While acute asthma exacerbations—often related to deforestation and wildfires—can be critical and life threatening, asthma is also a chronic disease with profound day-to-day impacts on quality of life. . . The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo exists within Treaty 8 territory, which is home to 39 First Nations in Alberta—approximately 40,000 people—who are disproportionately affected by the environmental harms of oil sands pollution,” wrote Dr. Julia Sawatzky, an emergency medicine resident in Edmonton, AB, and co-chair, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment Alberta chapter, in The Hill Times, May 7, 2025.
Ottawa MP wants health care approach to drug addiction crisis
“We need to really make sure that we are, from a health care perspective, providing the appropriate care for those individuals who are suffering from substance misuse and disorder, but also keep our community safe,” said Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi, Compass News, May 8, 2025.
Improve health care for women
“Women tell me that, ‘I can’t take this drug. It makes me nauseous. It makes me gain weight. It makes me sedated.’ [Women] have so many things going against us already, and now even the medications that are there to treat you are going against you,” said Dr. Tania Di Renna, medical director of the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute; anesthesiologist at Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, to CBC News, May 10, 2025.
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