Insights

Jonathan Moreno retired as a Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, of History and Sociology of Science, and of Philosophy, at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a prolific author and writer.

Pediatrics and ethics professor Dr. Ari Joffe challenges the medical community’s reliance on animal research. Drawing on decades of work in pediatric intensive care, he argues that animal testing not only fails to predict human outcomes but is also morally indefensible.

Dr. Charu Chandrasekera, the founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, challenges the appropriateness of animal research for developing treatments for human heart conditions.

Dr. Udo Schüklenk discusses whether Premier Doug Ford's proposed ban on medical testing on dogs and cats is the right approach to tackle the ethical dilemmas of animal research.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale, Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Children discusses what needs to be done to stop online crimes against children.

The IJB’s ongoing investigation into drinking water contaminated by lead — which found that half of all public schools in Ontario have exceeded federal safety guidelines — led us to Siddhartha Roy, an environmental engineer and assistant professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, who helped uncover the Flint, Michigan water crisis in 2015. We asked Sid, an expert in water quality and lead exposure, how Ontario can clean up its act — and its water.

Neil Seeman is a senior fellow and associate professor at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, where he specializes in Big Data and health systems innovation.

Dr. Gail Tomblin Murphy is Director of Dalhousie University’s PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre, providing technical guidance and expertise on health workforce planning, transformation, and innovation efforts globally. Dr. Tara Sampalli is the Senior Scientific Lead at Dalhousie University’s PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Workforce Planning and Research.

Dr. Blair Bigham is an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and senior editor at the Investigative Journalism Bureau. He trained in not-for-profit governance at the Rotman School of Management and has held numerous board positions, including Chair of the MedicAlert Foundation of Canada.

Ontario's Patient Ombudsman, Craig Thompson, sheds light on how hospital complaints can inform and improve healthcare after the Patient Files investigation by the IJB examined patient survey data and revealed that at least 21 out of the 50 reviewed hospitals had in-patient units or emergency departments that consistently scored poorly on patient experience.

Kelly Turner is the operations manager of Care Opinion Canada, a program of the Alberta-based non-profit Imagine Citizens Network that enables patients, families, and healthcare professionals to share their experiences with health and social care services. After our investigation into hospital files, we asked Kelly for her insights into patient experience.

A registered nurse reacts to an IJB investigation which found nurses working in acute medical units at Niagara Health Services hospitals were sometimes assigned 10 patients each.

A bioethicist sheds light on the shadowy world of phase one clinical trials, where new drugs are tested on humans for the first time in a broken system of incentives and lies.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear is a professor at Simon Fraser University who studies the health impacts of environmental neurotoxins. A leading voice on the dangers of lead exposure, particularly in children, he has been a vocal advocate for removing lead-contaminated pipes from schools and daycares. In this Insights column, he shares his personal perspective on why Canada continues to allow a known neurotoxin to leach into the water our children drink.

We invite contributors to share their insights with our readers to supplement our reporting. We aim for ideas that are constructive and reflect a diversity of views that contribute to public discourse.