White Coat, Black Art

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Ozempic: The good, the bad and the future Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

To some, Ozempic and drugs like it are a weight loss silver bullet. But to others, they’re hyped medications with severe side effects. Dr. Daniel Drucker is a Canadian physician-scientist whose research helped pave the way for Ozempic. He wants more research, especially as ever more effective weight loss drugs are developed. But with the potential to also reduce major cardiovascular events, he’s hopeful we’re in a new era of medical therapy to treat obesity.

Fear of racism deters many Indigenous people from seeking medical treatment, says health-care leader Nov 26, 2020

Show notes

Indigenous Canadians are avoiding going to the doctor or seeking care in hospitals, says the president of The Indigenous Physicians Association. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact, but there's also another potentially deadly factor: racism. "People are fearing that they will be treated in a racist manner, or not receive the standard of care that a non-Indigenous person would," Dr. Cornelia (Nel) Wieman, tells Dr. Brian Goldman. Wieman, who is also a psychiatrist and senior medical officer at the First Nations Health Authority in Vancouver says the death of Joyce Echaquan has contributed to that fear. Echaquan, a 37-year old Atikamekw woman live-streamed her final moments at hospital Joliette, Quebec which revealed staff berating her. Dr. Wieman says the refusal of Quebec's premier to acknowledge systemic racism in the wake of that incident is a barrier to progress and she's concerned the inquiry into Echaquan's death will not probe the root causes of what happened to her. Despite that, and the racism she's faced in her own career, she's still hopeful progress can be made. She says one step forward would be to hold authorities at a higher level responsible for actions of healthcare workers who prove to be racist. She says Canada needs to increase the availability of cultural safety training for health-care workers, which was featured on a previous episode of White Coat, Black Art. We also speak to Gregory Buffalo, a Cree man from Fort McMurray who contacted White Coat, Black Art after listening to that program several times. He tells us why that show moved him, and shares his family's experiences dealing with racism in the healthcare system.

Cultural Safety: Making healthcare safe for Indigenous patients Nov 12, 2020

Show notes

When you get sick and call an ambulance or you make your way to the local ER, the assumption is you're heading to a safe place. They'll greet you, treat you and heal you. But it's not something all Canadians can take for granted -- we were yet again reminded of that yet again in September, when Joyce Equachan, a 37-year old mother of five and member of the Atikamekw Nation, recorded and made public racist taunts she endured from staff at a hospital in Quebec. This week, White Coat Black Art revisits a show about the San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Program in BC, which aims to teach health-care workers to recognize and respect the history of Indigenous peoples, so they can access care without fear of being discriminated against. "It's the hardest conversation we can have as Canadians," says Cheryl Ward, who helped design the course. Dr. Marcia Anderson, a public health physician with the WInnipeg Regional Health Authority also speaks to the show about why she brought the course to Winnipeg, and her own family's experience with racism in the health-care system.

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