Health Policy

[LeBronto2019]

With the CMA GC going on, I'm curious to learn more about health policy and health systems. I feel like I came into medicine loving the medicine but want to be well-versed and knowledgeable in broader issues. When things like the PSA came up with the OMA or when people discuss Canadian healthcare vs. American vs. European vs. other healthcare systems, I am completely clueless. Any suggestions to learn more about physician governance, policy, politics, health systems, etc. to broaden my understanding? 

 

[ralk]

There are lots of places to learn about this stuff! I'd encourage you to not rely on a single source - health policy and economics are mixed up in politics, which leaves a lot of room for bias, so multiple opinions are usually necessary to get a full picture.

 

There are a few sources I'd recommend to start out with though. For learning about different healthcare systems around the world, Healthcare Triage's series of Youtube videos is pretty good and quite concise. They've set it up to play in reverse chronological order, which is a bit confusing, but it's a good place to start. Healthcare Triage's other videos can be worth checking out as well, providing information on a mix of clinical questions, research methodology, and healthcare policy (typically American healthcare policy).

 

Healthy Debate has some good articles on healthcare systems and current events in medicine in Canada, though it is a bit focused on Ontario and, to a lesser extent, Alberta. There are a lot of opinion pieces and it should be recognized that what's presented are opinions rather than facts, but they can give some excellent and varied perspectives.

 

For policy positions with a bit more evidence behind them, I'd recommend the Evidence Network, run through the University of Manitoba. It's still opinions, largely, but rather well-evidenced opinions.

 

Again, broad reading is arguably the best approach, because no one source gets everything right 100% of the time or can be said to be comprehensive. There are many, many valid places to learn about the healthcare system. Publications from the government, interest groups, or experts, news outlets, and even blogs, all can help develop a foundation of knowledge about the healthcare system to work off of. I find the main challenge after developing that general knowledge is refining it, cutting through the bias each source presents to find some semblance of the underlying truth. Discussion with others helps immensely.

[End Poverty]

I read the following booklet two years ago: http://evidencenetwork.ca/archives/8941. It was amazing because it talked about a lot of topics  in health care policy. Additionally, I follow Andre Picard on Twitter.. this guy is amazing-- he always posts great articles about health care and policy in Canada. 

 

https://twitter.com/picardonhealth?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwcamp%5Esafari%7Ctwgr%5Eprofile