Topics for our times: the medicine/public health initiative.

Stalin and Our Times

The paper considers how a number of features of Stalin’s rule that appear most pointless or counter–productive from a present day standpoint, summed up as “futile repression”, can be understood as the rational choices of a dictator optimising his regime. The same reasoning may be applied to those aspects of Stalin’s legacy that are most commonly seen as positive, such as the industrial and mili...

Understanding the heroes of our times

Self-Government in Our Times¤

The eighteenth century conception of democracy as a system of self-government was based on an assumption that rendered it unrealistic and incoherent, namely, that interests and values are su¢ciently harmonious so that each individual needs to obey only oneself while living under laws chosen by all. When faced with the reality of political parties, theorists of democracy recognized that some int...

Solving the global climate crisis: the greatest health opportunity of our times?

Today's substantial global health gains are being undermined by the threat of climate change. Ironically, the actions required to confront the climate crisis represent possibly the largest public health opportunity in more than a century. Health benefits from improved air quality may far outweigh the cost of clean energy investments. Upward trends in chronic diseases are now occurring throughou...

Can the Canadian Heart Health Initiative inform the population Health Intervention Research Initiative for Canada?

OBJECTIVES The aim of the Population Health Intervention Research Initiative for Canada (PHIRIC) is to build capacity to increase the quantity, quality and use of population health intervention research. But what capacity is required, and how should capacity be created? There may be relevant lessons from the Canadian Heart Health Initiative (CHHI), a 20-year initiative (1986-2006) that was grou...