Show Notes
In Ontario, family doctors are the gateway to the healthcare system, including providing a referral for a specialist. If you are one of the nearly 2 million Ontarians without a family doctor and need to see a specialist, say a gynaecologist, it can be incredibly challenging to get the care you need. Nam Kiwanuka speaks to Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, the president of the Ontario Medical Association about the crisis in public healthcare. Got a question or comment? Email us at: [email protected] If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support: Canada.ca/mental-health Kids Help Phone Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868. The Government of Ontario's Mental Health Support Resources: https://www.ontario.ca/page/find-mental-health-support Follow TVO on social: https://www.youtube.com/theagenda https://www.instagram.com/mistreatedtvo Join our newsletter: https://www.tvo.org/newsletters Visit the TVO Today website for current affairs journalism, documentaries and podcasts: https://www.tvo.org Research links Meet the first Black woman elected to represent Ontario doctors: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/meet-the-first-black-woman-elected-to-represent-ontario-doctors-1.7525349 Gynecologic Surgery Delayed for Up to 3 Years in Canada: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/gynecologic-surgery-delayed-3-years-canada-2025a1000iev?form=fpf A Toronto-area doctor spent 10 days caring for a dying baby without pay. Here’s why she’s speaking up: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doctors-ontario-ohip-billing-rejected-9.6958953 Ontario, medical association near new compensation deal they say will help retain, recruit family Ontario Government and Ontario Medical Association Confirm Funding Increase That Will Protect Provincial Health Care: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1005805/ontario-government-and-ontario-medical-association-confirm-funding-increase-that-will-protect-provincial-health-care Ontario, medical association near new compensation deal they say will help retain, recruit family doctors: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-family-doctors-new-contract-1.7602189 Province's response: Ontario's Medical Claims Payment System (MCPS) efficiently processed more than 200 million claims annually. To be clear, over 99% of these claims are paid automatically, exactly as submitted, reflecting the system's productivity. Only a small fraction, 0.58%, of all claims are sent for manual review, and even among these, more than 95% are resolved within 30 days. In general, two thirds of these claims are categorized as Complex Surgical Claims, where there are multiple procedures performed, and where a three-tier review process, as is used in a manual review, is fitting. Claims are reviewed in three tiers. A Claims Assessor handles the initial review, and if deemed necessary, it is escalated to an Assessment Officer, who further evaluates the claim and supporting context. More nuanced cases go to a Medical Advisor, a physician, for final review. Outcomes include full payment, partial payment, or return to the provider, and physicians can appeal with additional information. This reliable, structured process ensures that claims subjected to manual review comprehensively align with the payment requirements of the Schedule of Benefits. It’s ultimately disappointing that the OMA is choosing to focus on .58% of OHIP claims, rather than highlighting the real progress we’ve made together to support physicians. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from (MIS)Treated
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women in Canada will develop breast cancer during their lifetime and in 2010, Canadian Broadcaster Cynthia Mulligan announced her diagnosis. In 2020, days before Christmas, she found out that she had Stage 4 breast cancer. We speak to her about why she chose to go public with her diagnosis, how she navigated treatment as a forward facing person and we reminisce about our friend and former colleague, Mark Dailey. Got a question or comment? Email us at: [email protected] If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support: Canada.ca/mental-health Kids Help Phone Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Autoimmune disease is complicated. For one, there is no exact number of how many autoimmune conditions there are. We know that at least 80 of them exist and that globally, autoimmune impacts 1 in 10 people. While men also get autoimmune disease, women make up approximately 80% of patients. According to a 2021 study, women make up 75% of patients with MS. an autoimmune disease. And global cases of autoimmune disease are rising. We speak to Dr. Gabor Maté who wrote more than 20 years ago about his observations on how autoimmune disease was impacting more women than men. We also speak to a neuroimmunologist on the connection of the Epstein-Barr virus and why women with some autoimmune diseases were once advised to not have children. Plus we talk to an epidemiologist who studies women's health on why autoimmune disease impacts women at such a staggering rate and we speak to a young woman with multiple sclerosis. Got a question or comment? Email us at: [email protected] If you, or someone you know, is struggling with mental health, visit any of the following resources for support: Canada.ca/mental-health Kids Help Phone Call 1-800-668-6868 (toll-free) or text CONNECT to 686868. Research Links: Incidence, prevalence, and co-occurrence of autoimmune disorders over time and by age, sex, and socioeconomic status: a population-based cohort study of 22 million individuals in the UK: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00457-9/abstract What Can We Learn from Sex Differences in MS?: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8537319/ Embodiment of structural racism and multiple sclerosis risk and outcomes in the USA: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-025-01096-5 How Is Céline Dion’s Health? What She’s Shared About Stiff Person Syndrome Battle: https://www.today.com/health/celine-dion-health-rcna98154 Celebrities and Medical Awareness—The Case of Celine Dion and Stiff-Person Syndrome: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9914970/ National study shows Indigenous patients with autoimmune liver disease face worse symptoms and outcomes: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/folio/2023/02/national-study-indigenous-patients-autoimmune-liver-disease.html Indigenous people more prone to rare autoimmune liver disease, often misdiagnosed: https://globalnews.ca/video/9353047/indigenous-people-more-prone-to-rare-autoimmune-liver-disease-often-misdiagnosed-research/ Meet Dr. Dalia Rotstein, the St. Michael’s neurologist dedicated to improving care for women during pregnancy: https://unityhealth.to/2026/03/meet-the-neurologist-dedicated-to-improving-care-for-women-during-pregnancy/ Researcher studying link between pregnancy complications and autoimmune diseases with prestigious fellowship: https://utsc.utoronto.ca/news-events/our-community/researcher-studying-link-between-pregnancy-complications-and-autoimmune-diseases An MS Diagnosis Led This Top Yogi to Evolve Her Practice: https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/multiple-sclerosis/an-ms-diagnosis-led-this-top-yoga-instructor-to-evolve-her-practice See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
(MIS)Treated is back for season 2. Join host Nam Kiwanuka as she continues explores how medicine has – and still is – failing women and speaks to the people looking to make a difference. This season we explore why women make up 80% of autoimmune patients, what it's like to access care for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and we speak to award winning journalist Cynthia Mulligan about why she chose to reveal her breast cancer diagnosis and how its impacted her career. We also have conversations with Dr. Gabor Maté, Clara Hughes and speak to Dr. Mathew Leonardi about adenomyosis and the advances being made in endometriosis awareness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Unlike a broken arm, you can't see chronic pain. This makes it complicated to treat or diagnose because it's subjective. This has led chronic pain to be called a "silent epidemic" and while 70% of chronic pain sufferers are women, historically the majority of pain studies have been done on men or male mice. Many people with conditions like endometriosis, PMOS, migraines, fibroids and painful periods, live with chronic pain. And the World Health Organization officially classified it as a disease in 2022. On the final episode of season 1, Nam Kiwanuka take a deeper dive on the history of pain research, what it is, the implicit bias towards women in medicine, and the research that's being done to combat that right here in Canada. Nam speaks with Dr. Tania Di Renna, the president of the Canadian Pain Society (CPS) and Medical Director of the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI) and Jennifer Daly-Cyr who has lived with chronic pain for more than a decade and is also co-chair of the Person with Lived Experience committee at the CPS. Research links Being A Woman Doesn’t Have To Be A (Chronic) Pain https://www.forbes.com/sites/evaepker/2023/04/05/why-is-being-a-woman-a-chronic-pain/ Women and pain: Disparities in experience and treatment: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/women-and-pain-disparities-in-experience-and-treatment-2017100912562 Mi'kmaw nurse explains how Indigenous pain often misunderstood: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mi-kmaw-nurse-1.5130067 Myths about physical racial differences were used to justify slavery — and are still believed by doctors today: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/racial-differences-doctors.html Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516047113 Sex differences in the transition to chronic pain: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12126234/ “Brave Men” and “Emotional Women”: A Theory-Guided Literature Review on Gender Bias in Health Care and Gendered Norms towards Patients with Chronic Pain: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2018/6358624 Yale psychologists find that adults take girls’ pain less seriously: https://news.yale.edu/2019/01/24/yale-psychologists-find-adults-take-girls-pain-less-seriously Pain medication finally recommended in U.S. for IUD use. What about Canada?: https://globalnews.ca/news/10687785/iud-insertion-pain-management-guidance/ The science that changed how we study pain: https://www.mcgill.ca/science/channels/news/science-changed-how-we-study-pain-372651 Action On Pain podcast takes a closer look at the implementation of An Action Plan for Pain in Canada: https://redcircle.com/shows/action-on-pain See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A recent study shows that autism is almost as prevalent in girls as it is in boys - so why have we been led to believe that autism is something that mostly impacts boys and men? The February 2026 study suggests that the difference, in part, is that girls are often diagnosed much later in life. On today's episode, host and producer Nam Kiwanuka speaks with Julie M. Green about what it was like to be diagnosed with autism as a mother at age 44, while also raising a child on the spectrum. She documents this experience in her book, "Motherness: A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood and Radical Acceptance." Links: Towards the equal recognition of autism in girls and women https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s120.full Everyone thought autism mostly affected boys. This study says otherwise https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260210082921.htm “I was always on the outside, watching quietly”: Autistic women reflect on school experiences https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03632-y Hans Asperger 'collaborated with Nazis' in WWII https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43820794 About Autism https://www.autismontario.com/about-autism Finding the True Number of Females with Autistic Spectrum Disorder by Estimating the Biases in Initial Recognition and Clinical Diagnosis https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8870038/ From the CDC: Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8214927/ Camouflaging and suicide behavior in adults with autism spectrum condition: A mixed methods systematic review https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050656525000124 8 Health Conditions Commonly Linked to Autism https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-autism-spectrum-disorder/202108/8-health-conditions-commonly-linked-autism 10. A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Neurodiversity and Psychosexual Functioning in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10243356/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.