Sometimes the healthcare system works—even when the outcome is a tragedy. I am speaking about the loss of my father, Martin Hicks, to pancreatic cancer. My father was diagnosed with in April 2025 in his late 60s. Like many people diagnosed with the illness, by the time it was found, it had already spread to other areas of his body. This is a terminal diagnosis. Treatments can be provided but they are to help control symptoms and give people a little more time if they wor

September 30 represents Canada’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. It is an opportunity for Canadians to reflect on how we as a nation can act to repair the harm that colonialism has caused and is still causing today. This post of The Doctor Is In will celebrate the incredible Indigenous Peoples of Canada and explore what truth and reconciliation could and should look like in healthcare. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada outlined calls to action fo

I am sitting in the airport in Sault Ste. Marie as I write this week’s blog post and the sun is bright and warm in late September. I have just finished a two day membership tour of this incredible community and I am excited to share my experience. More importantly, however, I am excited to share the experiences of physicians working in northern Ontario. It is their stories that we will focus on this week on The Doctor Is In. Sault Ste. Marie in the early fall is gorgeo

I started writing this post for The Doctor Is In from Edmonton, Alberta while attending the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) conference. In the last 48 hours, my cup has been filled more than usual. What an honour to share space, break bread and celebrate with the incredible doctors at this conference. FMWC is 102 years old, started when 6 women physicians realized no one was going to make room for them unless they built the room themselves. I began attending th

When we think back to what medicine looked like 50 years ago, the landscape looked very different. Not just because medicine has developed so much in the last 50 years, but because the way patients and doctors interact has changed. The age of paternalism is over—doctors used to tell patients what to do and then patients would do what was recommended. There were fewer questions asked and there was less discussion had. This week in The Doctor Is In we will explore what’s ch

This week on The Doctor Is In we will be discussing the rise of Big Wellness. For decades the general public has been concerned about Big Pharma. Yes, they make the medications and vaccines needed to keep you healthy but they also do it for profit. Their motivation for research and development is not solely altruism. There has been a healthy amount of skepticism brought into public discourse about how pharmaceutical companies function. We have also seen an unhealthy amoun

This week on The Doctor Is In, I want to discuss the power of community. Being a doctor sometimes feels incredibly lonely. We feel a heavy responsibility of holding our patients’ health in our hands. Being a part of a community of doctors across Ontario lessens that burden. Over the last few weeks I have had an amazing time meeting physicians in Kingston, Brockville and London and I had the opportunity to build community with them. What an honour. Along with practicing ph

Hello OMA members—welcome to this week’s The Doctor Is In. One of the things that spurred me to run for election was my desire to connect with you, Ontario’s doctors. I shared your dream of a better healthcare system. I also shared your frustration of feeling out of the loop regarding the advocacy initiatives being executed on our behalf by the OMA. I wanted to make sure that there was as much transparency as possible. I have realized since being fortunate enough to learn

Just yesterday, I returned Toronto after a successful trip to Ottawa where the Ontario Medical Association participated in the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference. So often, we consider healthcare the jurisdiction of the provincial government, and legislatively this is true. But today on The Doctor Is In we will discuss that while the provincial government is responsible for the legislation and funding of healthcare in Ontario, we are all a part of help

This week on The Doctor Is In, we will be discussing patient portals—a relatively new addition to hospital and laboratory care in Ontario. In the last several years, most hospitals have adopted digital portals that allow patients to look up their health information, including test results, consult notes, and more. They were designed to ensure that patients have easy access to their health information, which is their right as a patient in Ontario. Empowering patients to be

A few weeks ago in The Doctor Is In I discussed the proposed Primary Care Medical Record which will better connect health records across the province. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity and it is also a massive undertaking. Even working full tilt, it will take time to develop and t hen to implement. So the question is, what can we do in the interim to make care more connected? One option is patient health passports. These are living documents patients carry with t

I became president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) on May 8, 2026. And with my installation into the role, history was made. My predecessor is the incredible Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman who was our first black woman physician to represent our membership. Together, she and I became the first back to back women in 145 years to be president. And in the very same year, we have seen a similarly exciting transition for our chair of the board as Dr. Sharon Bal and Dr. Cathy

Welcome back to The Doctor Is In. This blog is an opportunity for me to connect with Ontario’s doctors and Ontario’s patients about the issues that are important to them. And today we are going to tackle one of the biggest pain points in our current healthcare system. The interoperability of our electronic medical records (EMRs). I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but it is. This is one of the single biggest issues we face as physicians and patients in the healthcare syst

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has been an association supporting Ontario’s doctors since 1880 (the same year that the first woman in Canada to practice medicine, Dr. Emily Stowe, was finally granted a formal licence to practice, although not admitted to the association as a member until several years later). That is a lot of history. The amount of change that has happened in healthcare is astronomical. We have seen the advent of antibiotics, the discovery of insuli

The purpose of The Doctor Is In is to communicate directly as president of the OMA with the membership and the public. To share with you my experiences advocating on behalf of the doctors of Ontario. Today’s post will focus on the recent changes in governance at the OMA. While the organization will continue to keep members up to date through OMA News, it is my responsibility as president to reach out to members and speak to these changes directly. When I first began my jou

Thank you for finding your way this week to The Doctor Is In. Last week, I introduced this blog as a channel of communication to share the important issues facing doctors and patients in Ontario. The blog will also be about me sharing who I am, as a president, as a physician and as a person. To combine these two priorities, today’s post is going to focus on physician wellness. Not as an abstract concept we all strive towards, but instead as a real issue that I want to tack

Hello everyone, Welcome to The Doctor Is In. My name is Dr. Rebecca Hicks. I am a family doctor practicing in Toronto and the president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). When I began my term in May, I asked myself if there were new ways I could reach out to our members and the public- and the idea for this blog was born. Over the next year, I will be posting to share with you the incredible journey I am undertaking as president of the OMA. It feels especially im