Health

Erik Soby thought he had a shot at getting into medical school last year. The Torontonian scored high on the standard Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and had an impressive grade point average. But most medical schools in Canada now require another admissions test — called the Casper — and Soby believes that hurdle was his downfall."That was the one aspect where I was below the average," he said. "So I ended up getting screened out."Medical schools are under a lot of pressure to sort through thousands of applications each year — people vying for a coveted spot and the chance to become a physician. To help narrow down candidates, many medical schools use the Casper, which stands for Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics. The company behind the test, Acuity Ins...

Demand for the services of local food banks has never been higher, and Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy of the Guelph Food Bank says she's worried about the impact U.S. tariffs will have on the local economy and workers."We're quite nervous about what that's going to mean for being able to provide food to people in need," McLeod-McCarthy told CBC News.She said the southern Ontario food bank is seeing more people needing help than ever before."The word unprecedented gets used a lot and that's exactly what's happening: unprecedented growth," McLeod-McCarthy said.Food bank officials and advocates say they want leaders and candidates to make pledges to end food insecurity a top priority during the federal election campaign.Over the last year, they've seen an additional 1,000 people seek assistance. She...

It's hard to get any further from Australia than downtown Toronto, so for a dual-citizen like Leighton Walters, the quickest way to be transported home is to take a bite of Vegemite on toast.The yeasty spread, made from the byproduct of beer production, is hard to find in Canada, but back in Walters' home country, it's part of the national fabric. For five years, he says he's been importing jars of the stuff to offer at Found Coffee, his chain of Australian-inspired cafés in Toronto.Until recently, Found Coffee sold jars of Vegemite directly to customers, who could also order Vegemite on toast or pastries with the spread baked in."I grew up as a Vegemite kid ... eating it for breakfast every second day," Walters told CBC Toronto. "It's an iconic Australian product ... we've been so proud t...

The Dose25:35What do I need to know about tattoo health risks?Tattooing services are regulated and largely considered safe, but there's a growing group of experts concerned over links between tattoo ink and allergic reactions, as well as potential associations between tattoos and certain kinds of cancer. Current evidence largely shows associations — not causation — with cancer, but experts say people should be aware that tattoos do come with a small amount of risk, even if more research is needed to determine the severity of that risk. What are the risks of getting a tattoo? Tattoos are permanent because they're formed when a needle containing ink pierces skin and deposits the pigment in the dermis — the skin's middle layer — according to Dalhousie University dermatologist Dr. Kerri Purdy....

White Coat Black Art26:30Meet the people who help sedate youOne solution to a critical shortage of anesthesiologists in Canada could lie with increasing the ranks of anesthesia assistants, advocates say."In a situation where we have a serious ... access to surgical care issue, we have to think about creative solutions to move forward and get people the care they need," Dr. Sally Bird, pediatric anesthesiologist and chief of pediatric anesthesia at IWK Health Centre in Halifax, told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.Although many Canadians may not yet be familiar with their work, the anesthesia assistant profession was established more than 50 years ago in Quebec and about 15 years ago in most other provinces. However, they are not yet available everywhere.As the ...

A Court of King's Bench judge has reserved her decision on the province's request to compel the former CEO of Alberta Health Services to delete work emails she sent to her private account the day before she was fired.Lawyers representing the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services argued in an Edmonton courtroom Friday that the nine emails they know about contain confidential information that belongs to AHS. They are seeking an injunction against Athana Mentzelopoulos from sharing the material. The government also wants the court to compel Mentzelopoulos to face cross-examination by its lawyers to find out who she has already sent that information to. Mentzelopoulos's lawyer Dan Scott called such an exercise, "a fishing expedition."The injunction request is tied to a wrongful dismis...

This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.Dr. Michelle Barton has been working at the heart of Ontario's measles outbreak for months, trying to contain the damage the highly-infectious disease can wreak on children hospitalized with the virus. Barton heads up the pediatric infectious disease team at London Health Sciences Centre children's hospital in the province's southwest, the region with the highest rate of the illness. "We offer the best treatment that we can under the circumstances," Barton said. "If the child proceeds to deterioration, that is difficult to watch because you know that you probably wouldn't be here ...

White Coat Black Art26:30Public healthcare is a national crisis. So why isn't it an election priority?In this federal election period, the twists and turns of tariffs, annexation threats and other surprises from the Trump administration have stolen focus from addressing the state of public healthcare in Canada. A leading expert on health law and policy experts says that's a shame."We are in an emergency situation in Canadian health care, and we have been for a couple of years post pandemic," said Colleen Flood, who is also dean of law at Queen's University. An estimated 6.5 million Canadians don't have access to a family doctor and one-third of those who do find it difficult to get an appointment. Patients waited 222 per cent longer to see a specialist in 2024 than they did in 1993, rankin...

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged that the country's top health agency will pinpoint the cause of autism by September, an announcement which sparked a wave of concern among medical experts and advocates who question the feasibility and focus of the research.Kennedy — a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause autism — said Thursday that the effort will involve hundreds of scientists. He shared the plans with U.S. President Donald Trump during a televised cabinet meeting. Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates, even though decades of research have concluded there is no link between the two. "There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this," Trump told Kennedy, later sayin...

A nurse practitioner whose research at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children is dedicated to helping children and teens manage pain has won a Gairdner Award.The Toronto-based Gairdner Foundation says Jennifer Stinson is the first nurse to receive one of the prestigious awards it hands out annually to recognize scientists who contribute to human health around the world.Reached by phone in Australia where she was set to speak at a scientific gathering, Stinson says it's "great" the prize is recognizing the role nurses play in research."Nurses are very good at listening to patients and learning from them and then trying to figure out what kind of solutions would be best for them," Stinson said, noting that a lot of her research is "team science" with researchers from multiple disciplines.Stins...