White Coat, Black Art

AI-powered weapons detectors now scan everyone entering the Halifax Infirmary, screening out everything from box-cutters to homemade throwing stars studded with razor blades. The technology is part of a province-wide reset on hospital safety after years of escalating violence, and a knife attack that injured three healthcare workers. The message is clear: if you wouldn’t bring it to the airport, don’t bring it to the hospital.

For our episode on a nurse who survived a violent attack outside a Winnipeg hospital, click here.

There's a surgery to remove the fallopian tubes as a permanent method of birth control that could also reduce a woman's risk of the most common ovarian cancer. But a group of B.C. researchers and physicians say the procedure isn't widely known across Canada. They're trying to change that.

Canadians under 50 are twice as likely as prior generations to get colorectal cancer. In this encore episode, we met up with battle rapper Bishop Brigante, whose delayed Stage 4 colorectal cancer diagnosis drove him to advocate for better access to colonoscopies — ​​and to raise awareness that persistent symptoms deserve investigation at any age.

Three million Canadians live with a rare disease, but many still struggle to get treatment. Jeremy Harany was diagnosed as a child with hypophosphatasia, which weakens bones and can cause early tooth loss, but then spent decades without answers. A chance connection later in life led him to life-changing treatment. Now he’s pushing for faster, more consistent care for others with rare diseases.

So many Canadian small towns have lost their only doctor. But when this happened in Wembley, Alberta, two nurse practitioners stepped in thanks to new provincial legislation allowing NPs to run their own clinics and bill the province directly, as a family doctor would. Though doctors’ organizations are pushing back, patients in Wembley are thrilled with this new model of primary care.