Karla Van Kessel's GP failed to recognize she had symptoms of cervical cancer and her Pap smear results were misread causing a delay in diagnosis that took away her best shot at a cure. Now, she thinks women need to demand better screening tests and keep tabs on their medical records to avoid the same fate.…

Alan Alda is best known for his 11 seasons on MASH but he's also forged a second career as an expert in communication. He tells Dr. Brian Goldman it began with hosting Scientific American on PBS, where he talked to some of the world's smartest people and helped them get their ideas across. About a decdade ago the Alan Alda Center for Communicat ...…

After a homeless woman died of breast cancer, the doctors, nurses and shelter workers who helped to ease her final days gathered to remember her.

Dr Brian Goldman talks to Jessica Grossman, a twenty-nine year-old marketing executive with Crohn's disease. In an effort to battle the stigma of having an ostomy, she uses social media to post photos of herself with her ostomy clearly visible. Brian also talks to Karen Bruton, a frontline nurse in Victoria BC who specializes in wound, ostomy a ...…

Not a lot of doctors expect to work part-time while in the throes of a demanding medical school education. But more are choosing to do so after they graduate. It's estimated that 15 percent of Canadian doctors work part-time. Some do it because they want to, others need to, as a means of coping with stress that's inherent in the job This week, ...…

Elizabeth Rathbun is one of more than 77,000 Canadians who live with Multiple Sclerosis. She shares her 30-year journey with the disease, and offers insight into what it's like to live with MS, and into the health-care system.

Vivian Tam's older brother Stanley died in 2016 of cancer, while she was a medical student. She speaks to Dr. Goldman about how his illness and death have shaped her as a physician. We also hear from listeners on everything from low-carb diets and reconstructive surgery after breast cancer to recovering from mental illness.…

Hospital chefs and medical students make a hands-on connection to put food at the heart of preventative care.

Joanna Rankin, a 40-year-old Calgary woman, is not only a survivor of breast cancer, but of breast reconstruction that went wrong. She found emotional and physical healing in going flat.

Meet three doctors who eat a low-carb, high-fat diet, and find out why they'd like to see it more commonly prescribed to patients who are facing metabolic disease, even though some critics call it a fad.

Astronaut and ER doctor Dave Williams shares stories of his successes and setbacks with Dr. Brian Goldman. Williams says that failure is a key part of success.

How peer support workers help people with mental health crises in the ER of the North Bay Regional Health Centre.

Dr. Julia Orkin's life - and the course of her medical career - changed when she met a very special patient and her family in 2010.

Rachelle Downton hoped her son Xavier, 4, would take a few steps with a walker for Christmas. That likely won't happen, and doctors say his recovery from AFM, a frightening and mysterious ailment may take much longer.

Tristan Lederman, 34, spent his final months in pain and distress before he died. His parents say he got inadequate palliative care from his doctors. One expert says gaps in both the health-care and educational systems have left doctors unprepared to help adult patients with complex needs have best death that they can.…

Amy Willans was a driven nursing student and champion figure skater in 1996 when she became depressed and began to experience paranoid thoughts. She would eventually be hospitalized and diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Now a published poet and an acclaimed peer support worker, she talks to Dr. Goldman about living with mental illness an ...…

Dr. Brian Goldman speaks to Linda Windross from Castor, Alberta about her husband's frustrating wait for stroke rehabilitation. Dr. Anita Mountain of Dalhousie University in Halifax and Heart and Stroke's Patrice Lindsay tell Dr. Goldman that the good news is more patients are surviving strokes, but the bad news, we "haven't got a system built ...…

Dr Shelly Dev shares her story of burnout.

White Coat Black Art looks at ways of dealing with loneliness in seniors. We visit roommates Cara Duncan, 23 and Lesly Adamson, 92. Dr. Mayur Lakhani, a family doctor and president of Britain's Royal College of General Practitioners, talks about the social prescribing expert in his office who guides his patients to local community activities. D ...…

You may not know Dr. Michael Klein's name, but if you've had a child in the past 30 years, he may have played a key role in how that baby came into the world. Klein was a pioneer in pushing the medical system to put the needs of mothers and babies first -- including exposing the fact that the episiotomy, a once-routine procedure performed on mo ...…

Dr Brian Goldman heads to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation to learn about an emerging health care profession: cancer coaches.

Doctors need to see people with disabilities as sexual beings.

Recorded at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario, scientists and physicians from the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research tackle questions ranging from whether it's safe to drive after using cannabis, the dangers of second-hand pot smoke to how long the drug stays in your system, and how it interacts with other drugs - and much more.…

This week: The surprising intersection between the worlds of medicine and monsters

'Provide good quality care, not just any care,' nursing home advocate says of Wettlaufer inquiry lessons

Alan Alda is best known for his 11 seasons on MASH but he's also forged a second career as an expert in communication. He tells Dr. Brian Goldman it began with hosting Scientific American on PBS, where he talked to some of the world's smartest people and helped them get their ideas across. About a decdade ago the Alan Alda Center for Communicat ...…

More than 40 per cent of Canadian women have dense breasts that increase the risk of breast cancer and render many of those cancers invisible on a mammogram. It's a surprisingly common problem that experts say should be getting much more public attention.

Dr. Brian Goldman travels to Iceland to find out how they turned around a culture of binge-drinking among youth, and discovers what we can learn from their incredible public health turnaround, just as Canada prepares to legalize cannabis.

Could your hip replacement hurt you? Journalist Jeanne Lenzer explores the medical device industry in her book, The Danger Within Us.

Sharron Cooke and Devora Greenspon speak frankly about life in long-term residential care, from the loss of freedom to advocating for those who can't do it themselves.

Dr Paige Church, developmental paediatrician talks about her life as a doctor with spina bifida.

This week: A follow to our #metoo in medicine show - A senior MD goes on the record about her experience being sexually harassed by a mentor, and details what she and others are doing to change the culture that allows for abuse. Reaction to our our Crisis of Care town hall event and we follow up on our first story of the season, about a woman w ...…

On June 12, White Coat, Black Art hosted a town hall meeting on 'aging out' at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Parents, caregivers gathered to talk about the crisis of care they face when children with disabilities and complex needs 'age out' of the pediatric system that has supported them for their entire lives.…

Dr. Goldman spends a day with Gilly, a teen with autism and developmental delay. Gily is on the cusp of aging out of the programs that support her, and her parents are struggling to figure out how the family will manage when that happens.

Greg Price, a 31-year-old Alberta man fatally fell through the cracks of the health-care system after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. After his 2012 death, his family advocated for change by continually telling his story. This week, we explore how Greg's story became a film to teach med students, and why some of the best in Canada's TV ...…

Professor Michael Thaut, explores how music can be used to treat cognitive ailments from dementia and Alzheimer's disease to brain injuries. Dr. Michael Ehrenreich, a dermatologist based in New Jersey, wrote Medicine: The Musical opens off-Broadway this fall.

Dr. Lori Regenstrief took a job as the doctor on a luxury cruise liner and ended up having to treat herself. Astronaut Dr. Bob Thirsk tells Brian about practising in zero gravity. And Brian has his own tale of intrigue about visiting Russia and helping out a Soviet dissident. ** Note: This episode originally aired in January***…

When antidepressants first came on the market in the late 1980s it was recommended patients take them for six to nine months to relieve symptoms. But in 2018, in the US alone, 15.5 million people have been on anti-depressants for five years or more. And when they do try to stop, they face a raft of unexpected and debilitating withdrawal symptoms.…

Host Brian Goldman travels to Ottawa to meet two extraordinary women who share a common bond. Kim McLeod and Julie Drury were both mothers to children who doctors call “medically fragile”: two kids with rare diseases so complicated they need nearly round the clock care just to stay alive. Because of their medical conditions, both children died ...…

Each year Toronto’s Central Ambulance Communications Centre responds to more than 400,000 calls for 9-1-1 emergency care, but not everyone calling in has a critical emergency. After taking a closer look, one paramedic discovered that some buildings in the city are "hotspots" for 9-1-1 calls, meaning the residents made more than 100 9-1-1 calls ...…

The new movie Peter Rabbit didn't get great reviews from critics - but it got a unanimous thumbs down from kids who have anaphylaxis and their parents. The movie features a scene in which the animated rabbits pelt a character with blackberries - knowing he has a deadly allergy to them. It's just one of a raft of gags and insensitive jokes, whic ...…

There's a surprising intersection between the world of medicine and zombies. Yes, the flesh-eating undead of The Walking Dead, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and of course Shaun of the Dead. The iconic re-animated creature pops up in some unexpected places in medicine.

We asked listeners to tell us about the seeming "stupid rules" that frustrate them when it comes to our health-care system. We got a barrage of emails, tweets and posts ranging from gripes about getting kicked off a GP's roster for being "too healthy," being forced to jump through hoops to get a referral to a specialist; being unable to access ...…

Kathryn Fudurich was 21-years old when her 55-year-old mother Pat was diagnosed with dementia. Pat's memory loss began with small things, like leaving the TV remote in the pantry. But soon, she was forgetting to take her medication. Then she could no longer remember the route to get to her teaching job outside of Toronto. Soon it became clear t ...…

What happens when the health-care system heals you but leaves you with emotional scars?