David Gratzer - Residency and Better Medicine (2002)

Residency and Better Medicine (2002)

In June 2000, Gratzer graduated from medical school and in July 2000 began a five-year psychiatry residency program at the University of Toronto. During his psychiatry residency, Gratzer continued to write newspaper opinion columns. A 2001 Gratzer column "Make room for prescription drug ads on television" advocated allowing direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs on television in Canada (the United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs).

In April 2002, ECW Press published Better Medicine: Reforming Canadian Health Care a book of essays edited by Gratzer. The collection of essays had 17 contributors from 3 countries and 2 continents. Essayists included historian Michael Bliss and columnist Margaret Wente. Dr. Victor Dirnfeld, a physician and former president of the Canadian Medical Association, wrote the introduction. Gratzer co-wrote an essay on market reforms seen in various European countries, and also wrote the concluding essay on medical savings accounts.

In September 2002, Gratzer was one of 25 Canadians under age 30 featured in a Maclean's "Leaders of Tomorrow" cover story. In 2002, while still a psychiatry resident, Gratzer joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow.

In 2004, Gratzer was first author of a peer-reviewed brief report "Lifetime rates of alcoholism in adults with anxiety, depression, or co-morbid depression/anxiety: a community survey of Ontario" published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

On June 28, 2005, Gratzer testified in support of H.R. 2355, the Health Care Choice Act of 2005, at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.