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Blair Bigham

Blair is a multimedia freelance journalist and emergency and critical care doctor based in Toronto, Canada.  He received his journalism training at the Munk School of Global Affairs and his research training at the Institute for Medical Sciences, both at U of Toronto. His medical training was at McMaster and Stanford universities. 

Blair has delivered health care on five continents and transported patients on helicopters, boats, and vehicles that could generously be described as pick-up trucks.  In the past he worked as a paramedic, scientist and educator, and frequently speaks at conferences around the globe.

He reports on social, political and biological influences on health and wellness. His first book, Death Interrupted: how modern medicine is complicating the way we die, became a best-seller.

 
English
 
Audio package (Radio / Podcast) Interview (Video / Broadcast) News Gathering Feature Stories Content Writing Corporate Content Research Investigative Journalism Interview (Print / Radio / Podcast) Photography Fixing Live Reporting Fact Checking
 
Technology Science & Environment Health & Fitness Medical Investigative Reporting Fact Checking

BMJ (opinion): How should physicians manage their online personas? What's the right blend of professional and personal?

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GLOBE AND MAIL (opinion): At this point in the pandemic, it's misinformation that's killing people. Social media companies are partly to blame.

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MEDICAL POST - Opinion - Ontario public health hasn’t stepped up—we need it to, now. Doctors have been getting conflicting information about how to handle this pandemic, and PHO has failed to clarify the confusion

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MEDICAL POST - Opinion - As pandemic arrives, Canada's medical training colleges must not fail in their duty to certify new doctors.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - opinion - Healthcare workers in Canada are going to start dying of COVID-19. We need to prepare ourselves.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - Opinion - After a month of transformation, it's time for Canada's hospitals to resume services to prevent collateral damage.

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HEALTHYDEBATE.ca - OPINION - Four things Canada must do NOW to save lives in the COVID19 pandemic.

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HEALTHYDEBATE.ca - As social media companies fail to limit lies and conspiracies, doctors are speaking out to set the record straight.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - Every poison control centre in Canada has seen a rise in pediatric exposure to cannabis. The Globe and Mail surveyed paramedics, emergency doctors, poison control centres and veterinarians to find out what situations could end up in a marijuana-related emergency, and how they can be avoided.

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OPINION - BMJ - When hospitals fail to create a culture where doctors and nurses can speak up patients pay the price.

8699

THE WALRUS - When is dead, actually dead? With modern technology, the answer is somewhat unclear.

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CANADIEM - Opinion - A lesson on blood and bullets for Rick Santorum. Advice from an ER doctor to the US Senator who suggested that highschool students from Parkland learn CPR after a mass shooting.

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CMAJ - Managing the patient who ate a Tide Pod as part of the Youtube viral challenge.

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HAMILTON SPECTATOR - We must not let up in our battle to reduce the global burden of tuberculosis.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - Resident doctors will be scrutinized more, if a new educational program launched nationally pans out as expected. Whether that will make them more competent is a matter of debate.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - With cannabis legislation looming, emergency doctors are preparing for overdose cases.

8699

HAMILTON SPECTATOR (Opinion) - Tuberculosis is the world's #1 infectious killer. Here's what we're doing about it.

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Toronto Star: Kids in Canada are dying by suicide at alarming rates. Why? An investigation covering 10 provinces, 2 territories and 13 years finds over 5800 Canadian children and youth have died of suicide.

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OPINION: Doug Ford offers a lesson in homophobia. Doug Ford continued to discriminate against LGBTQ students last week with his threat to punish teachers who don’t stick to the 1998-era sex-ed curriculum, which fails to mention sexting, same-sex couples and consent.

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The Globe and Mail - OPINION All Canadians deserve access to emergency care.

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MACLEANS: After an ex-Russian spy was poisoned in the UK, Canadians are asking: Are we ready for nerve gas attacks? We investigate for Macleans.

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CBC The National: A mother shares the story of her son, who died in jail of a fentanyl overdose. As inmate deaths rise, experts are questioning if Ontario's jails are doing enough to treat those with drug addictions.

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CBC NEWS: Eight drug overdose deaths in one Ontario jail has caught the attention of the coroner; an upcoming inquest will hear that Corrections services isn't providing methadone to some prisoners because of it's own policy.

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MACLEANS - (Opinion) More than four billion people will step foot on a commercial flight this year, and it’s time for Transport Canada and their counterparts around the world to listen to emergency experts rather than the airline industry and modernize lifesaving supplies and technology on commercial aircraft.

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VICE - As two bodies lay in hospital beds attached to court-ordered ventilators, lawyers speak out to encourage millennials to start thinking - and talking - about end of life decisions.

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CBC NEWS - Admitted patients wait days in the ER waiting for a bed on the ward, and the problem is getting worse, says a CIHI report.

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CBC THE NATIONAL - Blair Bigham discusses the deleterious effects of ER wait times.

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CBC RADIO - Matt Galloway interviews Blair Bigham on Metro Morning. Youth mental health demands are surging and Universities can't keep up.

8710

CBC NEWS (Opinion) - Science must be the guiding factor when diagnosing brain death. Ontario courts have ordered that artificial breathing machines remain attached to Taquisha McKitty and Shalom Ouanounou after their families launched legal challenges.

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CBC RADIO - After a teenager developed a collapsed lung while screaming at a One Direction concert, CBC asks: Can you literally scream your lungs out?

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GLOBE AND MAIL - An island nation is grappling with an outbreak that has killed more than 100 people, and experts say it could spread across east and southern Africa if left unchecked. Here's what you need to know about the spread of pneumonic plague in Madagascar

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Ottawa Citizen: Opinion: Technology is the answer to ER crowding

8700

CBC Radio - Syndicated coast-to-coast medical column: this week we discuss sepsis - what is it, and why is it so hard for doctors to find it and treat it?

8701

CBC RADIO - Is coconut oil healthy? We talk about saturated fats, unsaturated fats, cholesterol and heart attack risk.

8696

MONTREAL GAZETTE - After injecting $100 million into Quebec’s appalling emergency health system, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette last month issued an ultimatum to hospital executives: fix emergency department crowding or be fired. He seems to think a threat will get people motivated to solve a problem never before solved. He’s wrong.

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GLOBE AND MAIL - Porter Airlines doesn't carry lifesaving defibrillators on board - because Transport Canada doesn't require them on commercial aircraft. Air Canada and Westjet carry them because at 30,000 feet, shocking a dying heart back to life is the only way to save a life.

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CBC RADIO - Youth mental health demand is skyrocketting. Blair Bigham explains why millennials are struggling.

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TORONTO STAR - Dr. Robert Chu’s suicide is not an anomaly. It is emblematic of a deeper problem that threatens the future of Canada’s health care system by ignoring — or worse, abusing — doctors-in-training, and it’s only getting worse.

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TORONTO STAR: "Overwhelmed" investigation. Unprecedented demand for mental health services among young people today is raising alarm among medical experts and transforming the financial plans of universities, businesses and governments.

8721

NATIONAL POST - One in five willing organ donors have their wishes vetoed by family, meaning perfectly good organs end up in the trash as transplant waitlist grows.

8705

CBC NEWS - Why this man chose to broadcast his colonoscopy live on the internet, the the message his surgeons wants people to hear.

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CBC NEWS - Canada's doctors are taking a lesson from US Navy Seals and the Canadian military to reduce burnout and perform better during stressful situations.

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Sometimes, babies decide they're ready to enter the world in a hurry. Midwives, 911 dispatchers and surprised parents share their stories and tell you how to deliver a baby in a pinch.

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EMS WORLD - Pimping has long been used in medicine to shame students into studying harder. But times are changing - what's the role of questioning learners in this day and age? Here's a guide to how to do it right, and how to do it wrong.

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EMS WORLD - First responders in Canada are dying by suicide at an astonishing rate. Advocates demand the government steps up and supports mental health for the front lines.

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NATIONAL POST - Why don't doctors take sick days? And should they? Turns out the answer isn't so simple. Patients can be put at risk either way.

8712

BEMERGENCY BLOG - Trump and Santa: A Christmas Poem

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CBC RADIO - The Early Edition - Does hockey cause heart attacks? Medical advice for older people considering vigorous exercise.

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CBC RADIO - The World This Weekend - Powerful new narcotic drugs are killing hundreds of people in Vancouver.

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CBC RADIO - Metro Morning - Could drones carrying defibrillators save your life?

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STAT NEWS - When a plastic surgery resident invented a way to improve cleft palate operations, international aid agencies saw a bright future - until the price tag was announced.

8702

CBC NEWS - Imagine a hospital without Code Blues. That dream is close to becoming a reality in one university hospital, thanks to a decade of work by a doctor who has harnessed technology to scan vital signs and alert staff when a patient's condition takes a turn for the worse.

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VICE.com - Overdose kits with heroin-reversal drug Naloxone are being handed out to thousands of at-risk people, but new, stronger street drugs - like Carfentanil - are too powerful for them, leading some doctors to call for CPR training to prevent more deaths - but other doctors disagree.

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TV ONTARIO - A medical resident has created a true-to-life model to train junior surgeons how to operate inside the mouth of a one-year-old; it's a gamechanger for the millions of children around the world who suffer from cleft pallate, say senior surgeons.

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CBC NEWS - Defibrillator-carrying drones could beat ambulances to the scene of a dying patient, leading to survival rates doubling. One paramedic service in rural Canada has bought the technology, but the airspace regulator is still figuring out how to make sure drones don't interfere with airplanes.

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