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