Ottawa Citizen health reporter
Elizabeth Payne
has won an award for medical journalism from the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians.
“Her reporting sheds light on the human impact of hospital overcrowding, staffing shortages, and system strain, while also highlighting innovation, resilience, and efforts toward health system reform,” the association states on its website.
Twelve of Payne’s
most notable articles
from the last year were highlighted in consideration for this award, including her coverage of
increases in hallway medicine
,
the impacts of pandemic funding cuts on Ottawa hospitals
, as well as how
new AI tools could reduce risks for heart attack patients
.
“It’s really helpful when someone of Liz’s calibre addresses what’s actually happening on the ground in health care, and it’s not just one-sided. Her reporting is always quite balanced, and there’s an element of compassion in her writing,” said Dr. Alan Drummond, an emergency physician in Perth who nominated Payne for the award.
Payne has been on the health beat for decades and has already won several other awards for her health reporting. In 2023, she was
recognized by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario
for an emotionally charged story about a nurse in a long-term care home whose mother, an immunocompromised cancer patient,
caught COVID-19 from her unvaccinated roommate in hospital
.
“Her compassion for the human condition, to me, seems to come across in each and every story,” Drummond said. “There’s always a personal link in her stories that make the issue a story, and therefore make it more relatable and more easy to understand.”
Payne’s work amplifying patient and front-line voices “holds policymakers accountable for addressing critical issues in access and quality of care,” the award website says.
“A journalist telling a story that has a human touch to it that allows you to put yourself in the place of that patient or that family is massively important,” Drummond said.
Payne will be recognized alongside other 2025 award recipients at an award ceremony next year. The medical reporting category is the sole journalism award featured in the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians awards.
Payne joins other past medical journalism award winners including André Picard at The Globe and Mail, Aaron Derfel at The Montreal Gazette and Mike Crawley at CBC.
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