Physician diagnostic and reporting practices for gastrointestinal illnesses in three health regions of British Columbia.

Time to Shift from Systems Thinking-Talking to Systems Thinking-Action; Comment on “Constraints to Applying Systems Thinking Concepts in Health Systems: A Regional Perspective from Surveying Stakeholders in Eastern Mediterranean Countries”

A recent International Journal of Health Policy and Management (IJHPM) article by Fadi El-Jardali and colleagues makes an important contribution to the literature on health system strengthening by reporting on a survey of healthcare stakeholders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) about Systems Thinking (ST). The study’s main contributions are its confirmation that healthcare stakeholde...

The Qualitative Descriptive Approach in International Comparative Studies: Using Online Qualitative Surveys

International comparative studies constitute a highly valuable contribution to public policy research. Analysing different policy designs offers not only a mean of knowing the phenomenon itself but also gives us insightful clues on how to improve existing practices. Although much of the work carried out in this realm relies on quantitative appraisal of the data contained in international databa...

Ebola Treatment and Prevention are not the only Battles: Understanding Ebola-related Fear and Stigma

The Challenges of Projecting the Public Health Impacts of Marijuana Legalization in Canada; Comment on “Legalizing and Regulating Marijuana in Canada: Review of Potential Economic, Social, and Health Impacts”

A recent editorial in this journal provides a summary of key economic, social, and public health considerations of the forthcoming legislation to legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana in Canada. As our government plans to implement an evidence-based public health framework for marijuana legalization, we reflect and expand on recent discussions of the public health implications of...

Prevalence of Allergies and Food Intolerance: a Comparison Between the Persian Community and Canadians of European Descent

Background: The prevalence of reported allergic diseases is higher in North-America than in other countries around the world. Further, certain types of allergies are more common in some geographic regions or amongst different ethnic populations. This phenomenon has not been well studied amongst the Persian population in the Canadian context; therefore, the current study aimed to compare the pre...