The University of Ottawa Journal of Medicine (UOJM) is proud to share this special issue featuring the top ranked, winning submissions in each category of the fourth annual UOJM National Commentaries Contest. Through academic writing, this contest seeks to give a platform for trainees across Canada to communicate and reflect on timely topics in medicine and research.

The commentaries received ranged across a diverse range of healthcare issues. This annual contest is open to any student, medical resident, and post-doctoral fellow across Canada. Trainees were invited to submit a 1000-word commentary article on any topic related to the medical field in French or English. In the spring of 2024, UOJM received well over 60 submissions which were peer-reviewed by the UOJM Editorial Team. Double-blinded submissions were initially scored by independent peer reviewers and submissions that ranked in the top quartile of each submission category were then evaluated by a faculty expert at the University of Ottawa.

We hope that this collection of commentaries from trainees across Canada is an exciting, stimulating, and intriguing read.