Rx: Advocacy

Dr. Sue Reid is a physician and anesthesiologist in Edmonton. She's an advocate for physician health and wellbeing, and for publicly funded healthcare and education.

Dr. Clover Hemans is a physician in Ontario. She was the 96th president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada, and the Co-Chair of the Ontario Medical Association’s Outreach to Women Physicians Committee.

Dr. Genevieve Eastabrook is an obstetrician/gynaecologist and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in London, Ontario. She's an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on placenta and maternal cardiometabolic health. Content warning: this episode discusses abortion, pregnancy loss, and reproductive rights and justice.

Dr. Lisa Richardson, a physician advocate for Indigenous health and medical education, is Anishinaabe. In her role as the Strategic Lead of Indigenous Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Women's College Hospital, and the Vice-Chair of Culture and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine, she talks to us about the structural change that is required to address institutionalized discrimination in Canadian healthcare.

Dr. Michelle Cohen is a rural family doctor, an Assistant Professor and preceptor with the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's University, and  co-chair of the Advocacy Committee of Canadian Women in Medicine.

Dr. Melissa Holowaty is a family physician practicing in rural Ontario. She specializes in addiction medicine and substance use disorders. She talks to us about barriers to care for her clients, harm reduction, rural/urban life challenges during the pandemic.

Dr. Eugenie Waters and Dr. Sarah Sloan are both family physicians practicing in Ottawa. They're both part of a group of Canadian female physicians and mothers who are speaking up about the connections between climate change and health.

Emilie Coyle is a lawyer and is the Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. The organization works with and for female and gender-diverse people in the justice system, in particular those who are incarcerated in Canada's prisons for women. Since taking the helm of the organization in January, Emilie has become an advocate for prisoners' rights and wellbeing during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Jill Promoli was thrust into the world of advocacy after losing her two-year-old son, Jude, to influenza in 2016. She and her family launched the flu vaccination campaign, ForJudeForEveryone.com, later that year. Jill is now advocating for universal paid sick leave so that families don't have to choose between their health and their finances.

Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos is an Associate Teaching Professor at Ontario Tech University whose research specializes in family caregiving. Over the course of the pandemic, Dr. Stamatopoulos has become a leading advocate for long-term care residents and their families, with a particular focus on the dangers of prolonged and restrictive visitation bans. To that end, she has provided over 25 expert interviews (print, radio and television) and has written several editorials tracking the provinces pandemic response to long-term care and the harms of resident isolation. She also collaborated with Ontario NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky and team of family advocates to table a motion on July 20, 2020 urging the government to create a COVID-19 ‘Essential Caregiver Strategy’ that protects the rights of residents and their most trusted care partners across all congregate care settings.