The recent annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association was remarkable for a number of reasons. Most notably, for its explicit focus on health equity and the social determinants of health. Though the link between health and factors like education, housing and income has been well-established for some time, never before has the medical association so openly acknowledged it - and they've done so with great gusto. What is equally remarkable is how far and how quickly the organization shifted from a 'pro-profit to 'pro-people’ agenda.

When Minister Diane Finley spoke in London on Thursday, I stood up and
interrupted her in the name of my fellow physicians and our refugee
patients who have long been a staple in the practice of Canadian
medicine. Here's why.

As my colleague pointed out here and here, the current federal government is going to be instituting major cuts to health services for refugees starting at the end of the month.

On June 18th, a broad alliance of physician's organizations accross Canada will be participating in public demonstrations of opposition to the cuts.

The proposed Interim Federal Health Program cuts (discussed further here) have not only motivated individual physicians to action, but also mobilized groups of health providers nation wide.

As the newest member of the Open Medicine blog team, you can expect posts from me that focus on the intersection of health and elected politics. If I had started posting some months ago, you might have seen stories on the 2014 health accord, the health scandals in Alberta/defection of Raj Sherman and the recent ICES report on primary health care reform in Ontario.