MY WRITING
I write for general and medical audiences in English and French on a range of topics involving the intersection between medicine, politics, society and culture. The following is a selection of recent publications.
Scroll down to see all my publications.
DISSECTING THE PAST (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich, by Sabine Hildebrandt
December 13, 2022
"The crimes of Nazi anatomists are not unique; they are echoed by medicine’s many abuses, which often lie at the intersection of the pursuit and application of medical knowledge and the state’s drive for control over people’s lives."
AN ANCIENT MALADY (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, by Carl Erik Fisher
February 28, 2023
"The Urge is written for a general audience and is therefore a history told in broad strokes. But it is also full of specific revelations that challenge received ideas about society’s relationship to addictive substances."
ALWAYS LOOKING (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITES BLOG
Review of Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper-Jones
October 27, 2022
"Our ways of looking and seeing, our obsession with bodies, cuts out not only others, but also ourselves, from the fabric of humanity and the possibility of shared experience and connection."
ICU
MISSOURI REVIEW BLAST
(2022 PERKOFF PRIZE FINALIST, NONFICTION)
August 19, 2022
"Naturally, doctors want to feel useful and necessary, to test their skills and themselves. But that noble calling has a morbid underbelly: to be useful, essential, and challenged means someone else is sick or injured or on the brink of death."
THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM: BEYOND "HEARTSINK" (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, by Meghan O'Rourke
June 29, 2022
"What practitioner has not witnessed the chasm that opens up when their training, skills, and tools fail to address a patient’s suffering?"
TOUTES SORTES DE FIERTÉS
LE DEVOIR
June 10, 2022
"Et je sais que le Québec est tout plein de gens fiers, pour toutes sortes de raisons et de toutes sortes de façons. J’aimerais bien les connaître, ces fiertés, les voir et les entendre davantage sur la place publique, dans les médias, et surtout en politique."
COMPLETE PUBLICATIONS
Links to all of my published articles
AN ANCIENT MALADY (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, by Carl Erik Fisher
February 28, 2023
"The Urge is written for a general audience and is therefore a history told in broad strokes. But it is also full of specific revelations that challenge received ideas about society’s relationship to addictive substances."
DISSECTING THE PAST (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Anatomy of Murder: Ethical Transgression and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich, by Sabine Hildebrandt
December 13, 2022
"The crimes of Nazi anatomists are not unique; they are echoed by medicine’s many abuses, which often lie at the intersection of the pursuit and application of medical knowledge and the state’s drive for control over people’s lives."
ALWAYS LOOKING (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper-Jones
October 27, 2002
"Our ways of looking and seeing, our obsession with bodies, cuts out not only others, but also ourselves, from the fabric of humanity and the possibility of shared experience and connection."
ICU
MISSOURI REVIEW BLAST
(2022 PERKOFF PRIZE FINALIST, NONFICTION)
August 19, 2022
"Naturally, doctors want to feel useful and necessary, to test their skills and themselves. But that noble calling has a morbid underbelly: to be useful, essential, and challenged means someone else is sick or injured or on the brink of death."
THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM: BEYOND "HEARTSINK" (BOOK REVIEW)
BMJ MEDICAL HUMANITIES BLOG
Review of The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, by Meghan O'Rourke
June 29, 2022
"What practitioner has not witnessed the chasm that opens up when their training, skills, and tools fail to address a patient’s suffering?"
TOUTES SORTES DE FIERTÉS
LE DEVOIR
June 10, 2022
"Et je sais que le Québec est tout plein de gens fiers, pour toutes sortes de raisons et de toutes sortes de façons. J’aimerais bien les connaître, ces fiertés, les voir et les entendre davantage sur la place publique, dans les médias, et surtout en politique."
LET'S FACE IT. THE "FREEDOM CONVOY" WON.
March 17, 2022
"The problem with decreeing Covid normalcy is that we don’t get to decide what’s normal."
SUIS-JE UN MÉDECIN FANTÔME?
LA PRESSE
October 22, 2021
"Les médecins fantômes ce n'est pas bien, mais un système fantôme, c'est bien pire."
CANADIANS SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR ASTRAZENECA'S VACCINE
IPOLITICS
June 22, 2021
with Alan Freeman
“It appears that in an act of ultimate rich-kid entitlement, Canada could send back what it so desperately needed months ago, now that something a bit better is readily available.”
CANADA'S FIRST WAVE: A PANDEMIC REPORT CARD
IPOLITICS
June 26, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"Politicians must not succumb to the temptation of telling the public what they want to hear: that after months of sacrifice, we can return to normal life."
BEWARE THE DANGERS OF COVID-19 FATIGUE
IPOLITICS
June 5, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"That’s like a surgeon telling you that other than the terrible complications, the operation was a huge success."
AS WE PREPARE FOR A SECOND WAVE OTTAWA NEEDS TO ACT QUICKLY
IPOLITICS
May 22, 2020
with Alan Freeman
" If lockdowns are a field amputation — urgent and crude — the next phase is microsurgery, painstaking and precise."
QUEBEC'S SHAKY CORONAVIRUS LEADERSHIP
IPOLITICS
May 15 2020
with Alan Freeman
"It seems the burden of scaling up testing falls not on the provincial government and its pandemic planning team, but rather on the infected and sick. Quebec citizens beware: if you don’t avail yourselves of the government’s tests, it may take them away from you."
QUEBEC GETS A PANDEMIC REALITY CHECK AS CONFUSION REIGNS
IPOLITICS
May 8, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"The Quebec infection and death rate from COVID-19 are now worse than that in the U.S., the world’s hardest hit country overall. Only the UK, France, Italy and Spain, home to Europe’s most devastating epidemics, have worse death rates than Quebec."
DÉCONFINEMENT: PLUS UN DANGER DEVIENT FAMILIER, MOINS IL PARAÎT DANGEREUX
HUFFPOST QUÉBEC
May 5, 2020
with Olivier Drouin
"Les décisions de rouvrir les régions, les commerces et les écoles devraient se baser sur les données épidémiologiques plutôt que sur ce que la population peut vouloir entendre, ou pire encore, ce que le gouvernement veut croire de son efficacité."
ROLLING THE DICE: THE PERILS OF QUEBEC'S REOPENING STRATEGY
IPOLITICS
April 30, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"With an epidemic still underway and no plan in sight for the massive scale-up in testing, random sampling, and contact tracing needed to keep the disease spread under control, Quebecers may be the first Canadians to see what a hasty return to work and school can do to a society."
IS CANADA'S COVID-19 PROBLEM MUCH BIGGER THAN WE THINK?
IPOLITICS
April 16, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"We need more transparency from government, which could make extra efforts to bypass the existing cumbersome systems in order to collect and disseminate critical data in real time."
WHY QUEBEC IS AT THE CENTRE OF CANADA'S COVID-19 EPIDEMIC
IPOLITICS
April 14, 2020
with Alan Freeman
"It’s becoming increasingly clear that the province’s preparations for COVID-19 had a major, and deadly, blind-spot: the welfare of Quebec’s institutionalized senior citizens."
MÉDECINE: VOIR OU NE PAS VOIR NOS PATIENTS EN TEMPS DE PANDÉMIE?
HUFFPOST QUÉBEC
March 25, 2020
"Je ne veux pas parler pour mes collègues, mais je dois admettre aussi que j’ai peur. Peur de faire des erreurs dans nos protocoles de dépistage, dans nos précautions anti-infectieuses, et peur surtout de devoir décider éventuellement, comme nos collègues italiens dans une situation hors de contrôle, qui vivra et qui mourra."
SYSTEMIC SOCIAL ISSUES REFLECTED IN CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
IPOLITICS
March 5, 2020
This is your item description. Use this space to add a description of the services, products, team members or any other items you want to highlight on your site. Have a lot to say? Easily turn any item into a full page by clicking ‘Create a page from this item’ in the edit panel.
DES DONNÉES SUR TOUT... SAUF LA SANTÉ DES QUÉBÉCOIS
LA PRESSE
February 22, 2020
avec Olivier Drouin
"C’est aussi par l’analyse de nos données que nous pouvons évaluer nos gouvernements, et comprendre si leurs politiques ont un impact positif sur nos vies. La publication des données de santé est donc bien plus qu’un enjeu académique, c’est aussi un enjeu de démocratie."
HEALTHCARE NEEDS AI. IT ALSO NEEDS THE HUMAN TOUCH.
STAT NEWS
January 22, 2020
with Olivier Drouin
"Although it can be exciting to think about the outcomes that a minimally flawed and maximally accurate artificial intelligence system would yield, such as a 100% detection rate for potentially deadly skin cancers like melanoma, it’s still worth considering whether that’s the health care we really want."
LE TRAVAIL SUR SOI AU SERVICE DE LA MÉDECINE
LA PRESSE
January 5, 2020
"Faire un tel travail d’introspection et de questionnement sur le lien entre son travail et ses motivations profondes n’est pas chose commune parmi les médecins."
COMMENT AMÉLIORER LA RELATION PATIENT-MÉDECIN?
LA PRESSE
November 15, 2019
"À la lumière de mes nouvelles expériences, je me demande s’il ne serait pas possible d’aller chercher, dans le vécu des patients et des professionnels de la santé, matière à dynamiser et alimenter le changement de notre système."
LES MÉDECINS GAGNENT-ILS TROP, PAS ASSEZ, JUSTE ASSEZ?
LA PRESSE
October 5, 2019
"Les médecins gagnent-ils trop, pas assez, juste assez? Comment le savoir?"
WHAT BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE CAN TEACH US ABOUT VACCINE HESITANCY
MONTREAL GAZETTE
June 18, 2019
with Olivier Drouin
"By revealing how our grasp of the facts is often stubbornly distorted, behavioural science points us toward shaping behaviour rather than shaping beliefs when seeking to bring about collective change."
I’M A PEDIATRICIAN: HERE’S WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT WHY PEOPLE DON’T TRUST VACCINES
HUFFPOST
April 19, 2019
"We in the medical establishment take our good intentions for granted, and so we are struggling with this state of affairs. We believe ourselves to be good, and we expect others to automatically believe the same."
RELIGIOUS SYMBOL BAN FOR TEACHERS WOULD BE BAD FOR STUDENTS
MONTREAL GAZETTE
November 23, 2019
"Research shows that diversity in the classroom is beneficial for students on many levels. Quebec’s next generation deserves those benefits."
THE CURRENT GLOBAL REALITY: POVERTY AND INCOME INEQUALITY
SEMINARS IN PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGY
October 2018
SE DONNER LE DROIT D’ÊTRE HUMAIN: RÉFLECTIONS D’UN RÉSIDENT SUR L’ÉPUISEMENT PROFESSIONNEL
LE BULLETIN DE LA FÉDÉRATION DES MÉDECINS RÉSIDENTS DU QUÉBEC
2018
"Les étudiants et les résidents en médecine, et les patients qu’ils soigneront, seront mal servis si nous oublions que ce sont des personnes aux aspirations complexes et aux objectifs parfois contradictoires, qui ont dû faire de nombreux compromis en cours de route."
MOST OF MY MEDICAL COLLEAGUES ARE WOMEN. THE GOOGLE GUY GETS THEM WRONG
WASHINGTON POST
August 15, 2017
"Medicine has made huge strides in the inclusion of women in the workforce, but even equal representation, or being the majority doesn’t guarantee that biases and systematic discrimination are undone."
TIME FOR A NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INDIGENOUS YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH
OTTAWA CITIZEN
December 26, 2016
"Across practically every major indicator, Canada’s Indigenous children have worse outcomes than the average Canadian child."
UN RECUL ALARMANT DE LA LIBERTÉ RELIGIEUSE
LA PRESSE
November 24, 2016
with Alan Freeman
"Une société ouverte et démocratique se démarque par sa capacité d’accepter, de protéger et même de célébrer l’autre même s’il ne nous ressemble pas et surtout s’il ne nous ne ressemble pas."