Associate Professor, University of Manitoba

Winnipeg, Manitoba
Joined March 2014
With long wait times, and more than 6.5 million Canadians without access to primary care, it’s time to take action to stabilize our health system. There are seven things we can do today, to create a sustainable and equitable healthcare system of tomorrow. 🧵 👇
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I don’t think asking how 🇨🇦 healthcare can be sustainable is a useful question to ask anymore. It takes us down the rabbit hole of hyper-fixating on cutting costs while expecting more and more output. It’s extractive capitalism at its worst, but in a publicly funded, non-profit system. Better questions, - if we spend a dollar on healthcare, do we get a dollar of being healthy? - are there any places where those dollars are amplified, ie - a $1 gives us a $1.50 in health? - how much health is “enough” to have a thriving society? - is health evenly distributed? - how can we move the care part of healthcare back into the community and out of hospitals, etc? - how do we incentivize providers to do tasks that lead to health, and minimize busywork that doesn’t make a difference to health? Sure there’s lots of others. Some of these we already know the answer to already.
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Alex Singer retweeted
The 2022 Commonwealth Fund survey results show that Canadian family physician practices have improved in sharing information with other health care providers, but there’s room to grow in realizing the full potential of electronic digital tools. Go to: ow.ly/Ee4150OIcSj
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Primary care providers play an important role in diagnosing and managing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Understanding the prevalence for patients with CVD being cared for in primary care settings can improve care for this important disease #CJCOpen 👉 cjcopen.ca/article/S2589-790…
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Brilliant article by Dr. Johanna Lynch about the complexity and value of #generalism. "GPs intentionally sit near the pain, suffering and uncertainty in their communities, seeking to offer healing relationships that are humane and respectful" www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2023/… @djillk1
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The cracks in our healthcare system are widening, and family doctors are on the brink of collapse. It's time for urgent action. ow.ly/9MBr50OKjTi #FamilyMedicineInCrisis
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Alex Singer retweeted
The results are in! Explore the results from the Commonwealth Fund (CMWF) 2022 International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians to find out what’s impacting primary care in Canada. ow.ly/Ee4150OIcSj
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Alex Singer retweeted
What are the key issues affecting #PrimaryCare in Canada? Explore the results from the 2022 Commonwealth Fund survey to learn how family doctors felt about workload, coordination of care, virtual care and more. ow.ly/Ee4150OIcSj
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Alex Singer retweeted
We'll be launching the #OurCare Manitoba Priority Panel in September If you live in Manitoba and are interested in being involved in a citizen dialogue to shape primary care, please sign up at ourcare.ca/data-1
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Evaluation of administrative case definitions for #hypertension in Canadian children. @um_mchp @cpcssn #PedsNeph ➡️ go.nature.com/41D8sbn
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Alex Singer retweeted
I agree with this piece but: How did all our previous change efforts, each with their own moment of optimism and false promise of a new era, still fail to avoid *this*? Our dollars + brains must fix the ways the machine is fundamentally broken, not just make it more tolerable.
Canada needs a health-care system change incubator. With so many throughout the health-care field calling for change, a new approach is needed that will entertain all sorts of new ideas, by Steven Lewis thestarphoenix.com/opinion/c… via @TheStarPhoenix
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Family medicine is the best and most important specialty. We need to make bold changes to our system to treat it that way.
268 unfilled residency positions in family medicine in the CaRMS match yesterday. Highest number ever. We have a serious problem to manage together. Why are med students not choosing a career as a family doc (best specialty ever😀)? Many reasons - some of it is on us...🧵
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Family doctors only need to spend this many hours per day to provide guideline-recommended preventive, chronic disease and acute care: a) 2 b) 2.5 c) 3 d) 27 SPOILER: 27. It's 27 hours per day link.springer.com/article/10… @DrRitaMc @minnajohansson1 @BCFamilyDoctors @CFPC_e @drcadesky
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I am so humbled, honoured, and thankful to the MB docs who have voted me the CMA president-elect nominee. I can't wait to get to work advocating for positive changes to our health systems. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
🗳️ The results are in: @jossreimer is the next CMA president-elect nominee. The chief medical officer for @WinnipegRHA, Dr. Reimer believes in the power of optimism, physician engagement and collaboration to transform #CDNhealth. bit.ly/3YESprY
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Uh, guys? Do you want a Skynet? Cuz this is how you get a Skynet. cbc.ca/amp/1.6752490
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Alex Singer retweeted
Adults could achieve global physical activity targets by walking inefficiently for just a few minutes each day, finds this study #ChristmasBMJ Includes a visual abstract summarising the findings #BMJInfographic bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022…
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This is horrifying. I'm more surprised than I should be.
Guns are now the No. 1 killer of children in the U.S., surpassing car crashes. Gun death rates for children have been rising for years, and in 2020 guns became the leading cause of death for those ages 1 to 18. nyti.ms/3WjRP1Z
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Alex Singer retweeted
“Americans have been trained for 100 years to think that the hospital is the best place to be, the safest place. But we have strong evidence that the outcomes are actually better at home.” The hospital-at-home movement is just getting started nytimes.com/2022/11/19/healt… @paula_span
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