Health & Fitness
The pandemic has changed all of our lives. But it's also changed our health-care system in surprising, and even positive ways. This season, White Coat, Black Art will explore that idea, beginning with a story about how a rural community in Ontario re-imagined primary care as a result of the global pandemic. Dr. Brian Goldman visits Renfrew County to find out about their Virtual Triage Assessment Centre, which was set up to provide COVID-19 testing but which also promises same-day virtual access to family doctors in a place where 20 percent of the population doesn't have a family physician. They also get home visits from community paramedics who deliver basic primary care and act as the doctor's eyes and ears. Dr. Goldman rides along with a community paramedic as he visits an elderly cancer patient and he checks in with the architects of VTAC, who call it a 'silver lining' to the pandemic and make the case for it to become a permanent fixture in their community.