Hello, I’m Heather Walmsley, the Health and Medicine Editor at The Conversation Canada. I’m really delighted to have spent another year collaborating with so many talented researchers on stories about human health.

Some of these are necessarily dark stories, arising in challenging times. They document the devastating impacts of the child welfare system on mothers whose children are in care, of crystal meth on gay and bisexual men, of drugs on migrant children in the United States and tuberculosis on infants in Nunavut. And of Canada’s shameful history of sterilizing Indigenous women. These are such important stories, calling our collective attention to the unacceptable health inequities that divide us.

Other stories dig deep into the worlds of pharmaceutical policy and economics. I am grateful here to Joel Lexchin of York University for helping us navigate this complex terrain with such rigour and insight – explaining the chaotic world of Canadian drug prices and the questionable reliability of these drugs. Not to mention what your doctor might be receiving from Big Pharma for prescribing them.

I also love the stories that have taught me something practical – like how to avoid Lyme disease, how to protect my kids from the wildfire smoke and how I can identify the more subtle signs of heart disease as a woman.

Incidentally, if I ever break my arm I won’t forget that, weirdly, I can strengthen it by exercising the other healthy one.

Finally, I’ve especially enjoyed working with those who are breaking new ground – developing ways to combat antibiotic resistance, for instance, and researching the potential of psychedelics for mental health. We do need to figure out a better way to manage death in this ageing society, and I like the idea of a future in which psilocybin could allow us all to pass more peacefully, without anxiety.

Regards,