Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Canada, but screening doesn’t begin until age 50. Seeing younger people getting diagnosed, Dr. Shady Ashamalla helped launch Sunnybrook's Young Adult Colorectal Cancer Centre in Toronto. It offers minimally invasive care to patients like Catherine Mifsud, diagnosed with three kids at home in the prime of her career.

Like many of Canada’s rural and remote communities, Mackenzie, B.C.’s hospital struggles to staff the ER. But once a week, a doctor hundreds of kilometres away fills in virtually. Many provinces like B.C. are using virtual care in ERs in an attempt to keep the doors open. But critics are concerned about patient safety and the need to balance virtual with in-person care.

When Ned Bell’s wife was recovering from cancer surgery at Vancouver General Hospital, the unappetizing food she was served left a bad taste in his mouth. So the five-star chef teamed up with his wife’s surgeon to revamp patient meals. Dr. Brian Goldman visits Chef Bell in the hospital’s test kitchen to see how the new “Planetary Health Menu” helps boost patient health and reduce the carbon footprint of traditional hospital food.

In this season of bearing gifts, it’s been said the highest form of giving is the anonymous kind. Heather Badenoch knows that very well. She donated part of her liver to a child she never met in Toronto. Now she uses her communications skills to recruit donors for people in need of an organ.

Former senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Murray Sinclair spent the last four months of his life at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. He found comfort in the music of Quinton Poitras, a Métis musician with Artists in Healthcare Manitoba who played his favourites, especially the blues. Niigaan Sinclair says that even though his father was in a lot of pain, the music helped him feel joy in the moment.

Josh Booth has a pitch for Canada: Bring in nurse anesthetists to help deal with Canada’s shortage of anesthesiologists, the doctors who manage sedation before and during surgery. Booth, a Canadian certified registered nurse anesthetist working in the U.S., says health professionals like him can help handle the demand for anesthesia. B.C. has tried twice to bring in the nursing role but it has yet to happen. Dr. Giuseppe Fuda, president of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society, says there are concerns about bringing in nurse anesthetists to our healthcare system.

Ian Stedman Googled his rash and self-diagnosed a rare genetic condition called Muckle-Wells syndrome. It took him 32 years and almost 200 inconclusive doctor visits. A decade later, he's on a mission to get AI into the Canadian healthcare system to help diagnose and treat rare diseases faster.

More Quebeckers are paying to see a family doc for services that should be covered publicly. Dr. Martin Potter explains why he founded Clinique Santé Plus after 20 years in the public system. But Dr. Bernard Ho of Canadian Doctors for Medicare says Quebec may be a bellwether for the rest of Canada, and private-pay family medicine puts the public system, and individual patients, at risk.

In Quebec, family medicine is the latest troubling frontier in a two-tier system that's been quietly growing for years. Dr. Brian Goldman visits Clinique Santé Plus in Vaudreuil to learn why the clinic's youngest doctor turned away from the public system. Two patients - one languishing on a waitlist for a family doctor, and one who can never reach hers - explain why $150 is worth 15 minutes with a private family doctor.

For decades, Ian Stedman lived with severe rashes, constant joint pain, red eyes and debilitating migraines. He saw dozens of doctors, but no one knew what was wrong with him. So he gave up. But when his infant daughter started showing the same symptoms, he turned to the internet. After a lot of research, he successfully diagnosed himself with a disease so rare, only one in a million people have it.

Pete Pearson, 74, is not ready to die. He was diagnosed six years ago with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has an average survival rate of 2-3 years after diagnosis. He knows he's on borrowed time, and has been dealing with anxiety and depression. That’s why he's seeking approval from Health Canada to use psilocybin as part of a treatment called psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. His son Blake, who is also a family doctor, believes it can help his dad live the rest of his life to the fullest.