Author profile

Opioids for pain and shortness of breath in frail older adults: How to choose and use

Opioids are indicated for the management of persistent moderate to severe pain that is severe enough to impact function and quality of life[1] and is not alleviated by non-opioid therapies. Chronic pain is common in... Read More

Guest editorial: Opioid prescribing: An essential skill for physicians and a collective knowledge we must not lose

Dr Romayne Gallagher Dr Philippa Hawley Throughout the last 15 years, the increase in opioid-related harms has been situated as a problem with a class of drugs rather than... Read More

Re: Evidence-based opioid sparing approaches to pain management

We would like to express our concern regarding the article “Think twice: Evidence-based opioid sparing approaches to pain management.”[1] We share the authors’ concern with the current increasing death toll from... Read More

The lived experience of people with dementia

The most common degenerative brain disease causing dementia was identified by Dr Alzheimer in 1906. The Alzheimer Society of Canada was not founded until 1978. The society initially focused on educating the public that... Read More

Re: Best practices in treating chronic noncancer pain

I was disheartened to see that Dr Peter Rothfels, in his article “Best practices in treating noncancer pain”[1] chose to use United States data and an Ontario study about emergency physician prescribing to back up his... Read More

An open, online survey of family physicians on the impact of the standard on the Safe Prescribing of Drugs with Potential for Misuse/Diversion issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on managing pain

British Columbia declared a public health emergency in April 2016 following a sharp rise in opioid-related deaths due to adulteration of street drugs with imported illicit fentanyl.[1] The College of Physicians and... Read More

Counterpoint: Medical assistance in dying: Living with dignity until life naturally ends

Medical progress has allowed us to live longer with less disability. But because the culture of medicine identifies life prolongation as its premier goal, death is viewed as a failure rather than a natural completion of... Read More

Re: Real doctors treat more than one species. Author replies

Thanks to Dr Byrne for writing in response to my article, “Real doctors treat more than one species.” As I mentioned in the article, this was a superficial analogy to get people thinking. And it seems to have triggered... Read More

Doctor, can we get this over with?

In 2016 physician-assisted death will become legal in Canada. Studies of general public knowledge about refusing or withdrawing life-sustaining therapy[1,2] suggest people may be confused about their right to make life-... Read More

Real doctors treat more than one species

Could physicians learn a valuable lesson from veterinarians? Veterinarians are aware that the same drug can have very different effects in different species. Could that approach be helpful for managing medications in... Read More