Canada has a new distinction. Our country has been crowned the second-largest Ozempic user in the world. Most of us know about Ozempic’s class of drugs, GLP-1s, for weight loss, courtesy of testimonials from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey. But the reality is Ozempic, or semaglutide, was first developed for type 2 diabetes, a serious disease that can lead to blindness, kidney failure, amputations and heart attacks. 

New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that our health system has gone from spending about $13 million a year on Ozempic to over $800 million a year — an increase of nearly 6,000%. CIHI’s pharmaceutical data tool allows users to explore this dramatic rise in spending and see how drug costs are shifting across the country. It’s now the fastest growing drug expense for the public purse. Sticker shock for some, but as host Avis Favaro discovers, according to diabetes specialist and University of Calgary professor Dr. David Lau, paying upfront for this miracle drug will be well worth it in the long run.

This episode is available in English only.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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From going without electricity to relying on food banks, Canada’s seniors are struggling to age with dignity. Data shows that 1 in 5 live at the poverty line, with rent and housing eating up their meagre incomes. As well, 91% of seniors say they want to live at home, but the support isn’t always there — for example, home care may not reach seniors in rural communities. All of this is leaving our stressed health systems to fill the gap. And the pressure is only growing. In fact, in 2026, Canada officially became a super-aged nation — meaning that at least 20% of the population (1 in 5 people) is age 65 or older. 

In this episode, host Avis Favaro speaks with seniors across Canada who are struggling to make ends meet, as well as with Dr. Samir Sinha — a geriatric specialist at the Sinai Health System and an advisor to Canada’s National Institute on Ageing — on why, despite decades of warning, our country seems wholly unprepared to care for our aging population.

This episode is available in English only.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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In a world where AI sits in our pockets and answers our questions in seconds, how do we know when to trust the technology with our personal health? On today’s episode, host Avis Favaro talks with Alvina Nadeem, an engineer, mother and ovarian cancer survivor who says AI likely saved her life when she input symptoms that she had ignored into ChatGPT and it flagged the possibility she had cancer. 

But researchers from the University of Waterloo, including Sirisha Rambhatla, Director of the Critical Machine Learning (ML) Lab at the University of Waterloo, caution that using artificial intelligence to self-diagnose illness can misinform. They found that AI was right about a third of the time when prompted using real-world questions.

Bottom line: AI can be a powerful tool for health care, but experts urge it needs some kind of guardrails to prevent it from doing more harm than good. 

The episode is available in English only.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

According to CIHI’s new report on the state of Canada’s health workforce, 5.7 million Canadians don’t have a primary care provider. In this episode, host Avis Favaro talks with Emily Stevenson, the director of Practice and Policy with the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, and family physician Dr. Alexander Glover about one way to ease pressures on family doctors due to an aging and injured population. It’s a growing trend in Canada and other parts of the world known as first-contact physiotherapy: allowing patients to see a physiotherapist when they have back and joint pain, arthritis and sports injuries instead of waiting to see a doctor. Studies show that first-contact physiotherapy helps patients faster — and at a lower cost to the system — while freeing up primary care providers for other patients in need. 

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

When you call 911, police, fire or paramedics respond. But did you know they have no access to any medical information before they arrive? They’ll only get it at the scene — if you’re conscious and can tell them, if someone else is there, or if you have a medical bracelet or card with details. But even then, studies show the information, which is relayed by phone, takes an average of 7 minutes from dispatch, which delays medical treatment.

In this episode, host Avis Favaro talks with Leslie McGill, president and CEO of MedicAlert, about a world-first experiment with Ottawa’s emergency services to get 911 dispatchers access to health data, not when first responders reach the patient, but in the blink of an eye.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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New data shows that 2 in 5 Canadians say they aren’t getting any or enough mental health care to improve their lives. Host Avis Favaro talks about a first, and historic, step for mental health in Canada. Data collected from a new agreement between Ottawa and the provinces and territories is being used to measure how mental health services in the community are being delivered — and how new targeted funding is improving those services. 

You’ll hear from 3 people committed to improving mental health services. Sachin Latti is a first responder from Vancouver who ran across Canada to raise attention and funds for mental health services. He says he witnessed mental health issues and substance use that were off the charts. Cheryl Chui is the lead on CIHI’s Taking the pulse report on wait times for counselling and the disconnect between hospital care and follow-up in the community. And Dr. Kevin Young is highlighting a remarkable project that has cut hospital readmissions for severe mental health crises by 400%.

Explore the Taking the Pulse, 2025 report here.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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“Canada First” is a phrase politicians have been using a lot lately. But it’s been focused primarily on steel, aluminum and other consumer products. Nurse and scientist Anne Snowdon wants to change that. She’s been documenting Canada’s chaotic and vulnerable medical supply system that she says puts patients and health care workers at risk. There are over 3,000 shortages of critical medical tools and medications every year — with Canada suffering the highest rate of disruption in the world. And most of these tools that are used to care for Canadians are being trucked in from other countries. If borders close or trade wars expand, the risk to health care front lines could be catastrophic. The COVID-19 pandemic, says Snowdon, was a warning. 

The goal is to make Canada’s invisible health care supply chain visible — spotting shortages quickly, promoting the sharing of products across provinces and territories, and preventing the waste of expensive medical equipment. Her team at the Supply Chain Advancement Network in Health (SCAN Health) has also launched a Built Here: Bought Here test website — helping hospital procurement teams reduce the massive reliance on imported products by looking for Canadian makers of medical supplies.

This episode is available in English. 

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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 Chet Walker wants to warn Canadians about how dangerous e-scooters can be. His son Austin was killed after a driver hit him while he was riding home on an e-scooter. In fact, CIHI data shows a 22% increase in hospitalizations from e-scooter injuries across the country. Doctors are starting to send out an alert — as they document the rising fractures, brain injuries and worse, with most riders not wearing helmets.

Host Avis Favaro meets Dr. Brian Rowe, who studies e-scooter injuries in Edmonton, and Dr. Daniel Rosenfield, a pediatric emergency specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto who believes children younger than 16 should not be allowed to ride these powerful devices.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

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What can we learn about the mysteries of autism by combining artificial intelligence and Canada's valuable health data? That is the question posed by Dr. Christine Armour, pediatrician and geneticist at the University of Ottawa, and a physician scientist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Join host Avis Favaro as she learns about a first-of-its-kind study being led by Dr. Armour and her team at CHEO, into whether machine learning can effectively analyze health data on Canadian mothers and babies in an effort to turn it into a tool to identify children at risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies show early detection and treatment can improve health outcomes.

This episode is available in English.

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.

Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.

Imagine being just 8 years old and having to translate your parents’ medical information into a language they understand. That’s the story of Kayathiri Ganeshamoorthy, who’s made a career out of helping others avoid the misunderstandings and medical errors that come from inaccurate and poor communication. This episode is about how CIHI is drilling down into equity sources of hospital-based medical errors, as data from a recent report shows that people who don’t speak English or French are 30% more likely to experience a harmful event while in hospital. So how do we fix these gaps? Host Avis Favaro looks at what this report adds to the long history of patient safety — a decades-old mission of Dr. Ross Baker, a University of Toronto health policy scientist — and how that 8-year-old grew up to lead a special translation system in Alberta hospitals.

This episode is available in English only.  

Episode transcripts can be found on our podcast web page.

Learn more about the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Say hello on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also stay up to date on the latest news and upcoming releases with our monthly newsletter.

Vous préférez les balados français? Voyez le Balado d’information sur la santé au Canada.