Alex Singer

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. 🧵 👇

@MeghanAzad @GairdnerAwards Incredible!! Congratulations and well deserved!!

Surreal feeling to be "backstage" for this announcement rn. Bursting with pride & overwhelmed with gratitude this morning. @GairdnerAwards

@DrKathleenRoss1 theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Or were you just sloppy and didn't realize the hospital wasn't bombed at all but a rocket fired intentionally at civilians misfired and hit a parking lot in front of a hospital? We all want the suffering to stop, spreading blood libels won't help.

Reduce unnecessary routine vitamin D testing cfp.ca/content/69/9/6… (and unnecessary vitamin D taking, while you are at it!) #vitaminD #sunshine #choosingwisely

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.

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

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-…

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/july… @djillk1

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

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

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

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

Evaluation of administrative case definitions for #hypertension in Canadian children. @um_mchp @cpcssn #PedsNeph ➡️ go.nature.com/41D8sbn

@MichaelSchwandt @BirinderNarang Fascinating idea.

"If anyone had lingering doubts that mass incarceration is fundamentally incompatible with public health, the COVID-19 pandemic should lay them to rest...Prison abolition is not a utopian pipedream; it is a public health necessity." #abolition #publichealth

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.

Family medicine is the best and most important specialty. We need to make bold changes to our system to treat it that way.

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/10.100… @DrRitaMc @minnajohansson1 @BCFamilyDoctors @CFPC_e @drcadesky

@CJCJournals @ICESOntario @jayudell @husam247 @mayaasheth @drmikefarkouh @denniskomd @sacha_bhatia @CANHEART_News @WCHResearch Hold on hold on. Did they include SES, deprivation or medical complexity indices in this analysis? My guess is that all this is showing is that PCPs with smaller highly socially and medically complex patient panels have worse outcomes. Surprise surprise.

How do primary care physician (PCP) clinical volumes affect cardiovascular preventive care? We found that patients treated by the lowest volume PCPs had the ⬇️ cholesterol testing rates and ⬇️ statin prescription rates but ⬆️ incidence of CV events #CJC 👉 onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-…

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. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Uh, guys? Do you want a Skynet? Cuz this is how you get a Skynet. cbc.ca/amp/1.6752490