Best of Physicians Blogs

‘I’m worried Dr. Perle,’ my patient said gravely. This was unlike her; she was usually a very tough and stoic customer. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

After 40 years of giving advice professionally it has become something that I cannot turn off.

The intersection of retirement and ageing can be dangerous to your health. They are often coincidental, conjoined phases of life.

With primary care sometimes difficult to access and ER wait times high, the number of patients leaving without treatment has spiked.

Valentine’s Day blues: A physician’s look at the physiology of a broken heart.

Olympians are just physicians with amazing speed, strength, cardio—and very short shelf lives.

It was Cassie—our two-year-old chocolate Lab—who taught me how to live long and live well.

What do I want in a healthcare system? I think everyone has different priorities, based on age, lifestyle and expectations. My list might include the following.

Lessons on letting go of the past, investing in the present, and why I’m signing up for hip-hop classes while I still can.

Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes discusses how she learned to give herself grace when the circumstances call for cutting corners.

Dr. John Crosby outlines his predictions in medicine for 2026, from two-tiered healthcare to ER wait times.

I remember driving into Kitchener from Cambridge on the fourth night, wishing I was a dermatologist.

Perimenopause can be tricky, with some symptoms more easily eased than others. But there is plenty of help to offer our patients.

When patients have help with navigating the health system, it can be hugely beneficial. But that extra help isn’t always available, so here’s my advice to patients so they can help themselves.

Sex differences in pain prevalence, perception and response to treatment are among the most consistent findings in pain epidemiology and experimental pain research.

My pain clinic has done a lot over the years to streamline the referral process. Our project of an internal audit became so thorough it actually turned into a study published in the Canadian Journal of Pain. But nothing is perfect—and primary care docs and specialists can always do better.

Normal imaging can close the door on disease yet open another on dysregulation, argues Dr. Ginevra Mills.

Dr. Ginevra Mills argues we need to reclaim clinical curiosity in a system designed for closure.