WARDING OFF THE BIG C WITH VITAMIN D The Globe and the Post lead, while The National and CTV News go inside with additional research about the cancer-fighting benefits of vitamin D. Last year’s loudly trumpeted study, saying that those who get enough D in their diet (or the old-fashioned way, by exposure to sunlight) experience a significantly lower risk of developing cancer, marked a comeback for a vitamin that had languished for too long in the shadow of A-list essential nutrients like the perennial popular favourite vitamin C. Now, a study conducted at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital shows that insufficient vitamin D nearly doubles the risk of breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body, and increases the breast-cancer death rate by 73 percent. This research is of particular importance for Canadians, and other pallid grumps who dwell at relatively extreme latitudes where the sun is often weak for much of the year, as the Globe says that our geography makes it more likely that we won’t get adequate vitamin D from sunlight. It’s still not clear, though, just how much D is enough to ward off the Big C. For those who believe you can never have too much of a good thing, a prudent note of caution in the Post: research team member Dr. Pamela Goodwin says that her study is by no means the last word, and that the public should hold off on popping vitamin D supplements in excess of the recommended daily intake until the completion of additional research probing the mechanism behind its promising effects.
Daniel Casey is a Montreal-based MediaScout writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.
Tuesday Mar 25, 2008 a class="t2" href="http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=d5b7c9bc-301e-4e26-8839-f6ae87019207" onmouseover="return overlib('click to SHARON KIRKEY, The Gazette ', LEFT);" onmouseout="return nd();" target="_" > CMA Journal takes on drug firms
It's time to stop letting drug makers directly sponsor the "education" of Canadian doctors because these..
Friday Feb 22, 2008 Dentists planning medicare pullout
Quebec's dentists are poised to pull out of the public health-insurance plan and start charging to fix.. The association, representing the province's 3,600 dentists, is seeking a 35-per-cent increase in the fees they can charge under the plan by the Régie de l'assurance-maladie du Québec. More than 3,200 dentists belong to the public plan and they have been without a contract since 2003.
Friday Feb 22, 2008 We won't let health report die, Dumont vows
Mario Dumont, leader of the opposition Action démocratique du Québec, wants to give the orphaned Castonguay...He said the ADQ would keep the Castonguay report alive.
Wednesday Feb 20, 2008 Headed for the waiting room?
The man considered the father of Quebec medicare is calling for the end of public health care as we ...
Saturday Jan 19, 2008 Private medical schools are worth studying
At first glance, the Canadian Medical Association's suggestion that private medical schools could help ease the country's doctor shortage seems a bit extreme.
Friday 18 January 2008 HALIFAX: NOVA SCOTIA ANNOUNCES HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL
The Nova Scotia government Thursday announced a major overhaul of the way it delivers health care. Premier Rodney MacDonald said he had accepted all the recommendations of a consultant's report that warns the system, as currently configured, can't sustain itself. Mr. MacDonald said all 103 recommendations will begin to be implemented over the next three years. Health Minister Chris d'Entremont said the changes outlined in the Corpus Sanchez report will affect everyone from consumers to employees to doctors and nurses. The intent is to shift money away from what is seen as an over-reliance on acute care, to community and personal health initiatives. The British Columbia-based consulting firm said not all small hospitals should be providing emergency care, noting that most ER's are used as substitutes for doctors' offices in many communities.
Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 ERs short of doctors
Officials at Montreal's largest French-language hospital centre are rejecting the idea of shutting an...
Thursday 10 January 2008 OTTAWA: DOCTORS STRUGGLING TO MEET PATIENT NEEDS
A national survey of Canadian doctors suggests that they are becoming increasingly frustrated by their inability to meet their patients' health needs. The survey was carried out jointly by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, by the Canadian Medical Association and by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. It found that 75 per cent of physicians reported too little funding, too few doctors and a tangled bureaucracy as the main reasons for inadequate care. A spokesman for the family physicians said that doctors are frustrated that people are unable to find a family doctor in many cities and communities across the country.
2007
Thursday 27 December 2007 OTTAWA: THINK TANK SAYS STATS CAN FAILING ON HEALTH REPORTS
An Ottawa-based think tank says Statistics Canada needs to do a better job measuring output and productivity from the health-care system. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards says in a report to be released Thursday that Canadians are getting better health-care value than the national statistical agency's figures suggest. The report was obtained by The Canadian Press. It says Statistics Canada "may seriously underestimate" the health-care system's true economic output. The report says Statistics Canada estimates productivity in the health-care and social assistance industry from 1987-2007 fell by an average of 0.76 per cent per year. But the report says that is in opposition to a 1.14 per cent increase in overall productivity in Canada during the same 20-year period. The report also notes life expectancy in Canada rose by 5.3 years during the 1979-2004 period. The report says Statistics Canada should put more effort into developing better estimates of the health-care system's output and productivity.
Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 Family MDs harder to find
Access to family doctors in Montreal has grown dramatically worse in the last couple of years despite...
Sunday 11 November 2007 TORONTO: ONTARIO FACING DOCTOR SHORTAGE
The Canadian Institute for Health Information has come out with a grim warning for patients in the province of Ontario who are seeking a doctor. The Institute's latest statistics show that the province has a shortage of two thousand doctors. Statistics also show that the province's doctors are leaving for other parts of Canada. A further shortage is predicted because 2,500 doctors are scheduled for retirement. The neighbouring province of Quebec also faces a doctor shortage.
Friday 02 November 2007 WASHINGTON: CANADA WORST FOR MEDICAL WAIT TIMES
A new study reveals that Canadians wait the longest to see physicians or to receive elective surgery. The survey by the Commonwealth Fund shows that only 22 per cent of Canadians are able to get a same-day appointment with a doctor when they're sick and 30 per cent reported having to wait six days or more, the longest of the seven industrialized countries studied, five of them having universal health care. Fifteen per cent of Canadians said they had to wait six months or more for non-emergency surgery. And two-thirds said they had had trouble being treated at night, on weekends or holidays. Sixty per cent thought the health care system needs fundamental changes, with 12 per cent feeling it should be completely rebuilt. Federal Health Minister Tony Clement was on hand in Washington to receive the report and says that Canadians told the Commonwealth Fund the same thing that they're telling politicians, namely that access to doctors and services must improve. However, he also noted that the Canadians involved in the study have good access to care without extra payment. The Commonwealth Fund is a private charity the purpose of which is to promote high-performing health-care systems.
Tuesday Oct 23, 2007 Dr. Day's Diagnosis
The president of the Canadian Medical Association explains how to fix our health care system
Brian Day, National Post ...Patients in Canada pay dearly both in taxes and out of pocket, yet they cannot access timely care. For doctors, this is unacceptable. And it's becoming more and more unacceptable to patients as well.
Wednesday 17 October 2007 MONTREAL: RESTRICTIONS ON FOREIGN DOCTORS EASED
Quebec's Collège des Médecins has announced that foreign-trained physicians who have been granted restricted licenses to practice will receive a regular license to practice in the province if the restricted one has been renewed five times. Doctors having a restricted permit may only practice in the institution that sponsors them. Henceforth, those physicians with a regular license will be allowed to work in private clinics or in family medicine groups, as well as in regions. The decision by the physicians' professional association is aimed at improving Quebecers' access to a doctor. However, it doesn't add a single doctor to the health-care system and won't help the 150 foreign-trained physicians who have passed all the tests imposed by the association yet still can't obtain even a restricted license because of their inability to obtain a hospital resident's post. The Association of Doctors Trained Abroad has condemned the decision by medical faculties not to have filled 87 residents' positions available this year. Among the 389 foreign-trained doctors who have a restricted license, 175 are eligible for a regular one.
Tuesday 16 October 2007 VANCOUVER: 18-WEEK WAIT NEEDED FOR SURGERY
A new report says that Canadians must now wait over 18 weeks for surgery or other specialized medical treatment. The study carried out by the Fraser Institute takes into account the amount of time patients must spend between referral from a family doctor until the time they are treated. The Institute, a right-wing research group, calls for substantial reform of Canada's health care system. It says it is obvious the current system cannot meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner. The study was carried out in 10 Canadian provinces and covered various medical treatments.
MONTREAL: HEALTH-CARE RULE FOR IMMIGRANTS PROTESTED
A coalition of community groups is protesting against the rules for new immigrants entering the health care system in the province of Quebec. Health Care For All says it is discriminatory to make immigrants wait three months before being allowed to use the health-care system. They point to the case of one man from Algeria whose son fell and injured a kidney while playing in the park. After the boy was treated for two weeks in hospital, his parents received a bill for $63,000 dollars in medical care. A spokeswoman for Quebec's health minister says all immigrants are warned of the three-month waiting period, a rule to prevent immigrants from coming to Quebec just to make use of the health-care system and leaving immediately after.
Saturday 01 September 2007 OTTAWA: MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION ESTABLISHED
The Canadian prime minister, Mr. Harper, has announced the chairman and board of directions of the new Mental Health Commission of Canada. The chairman is retired Sen. Michael Kirby, a mental health expert. The 17 directors include six current and former senior government civil servants. The creation of the Commission was first announced in the last federal budget in March. Mr. Harper says the purpose of the new body is twofold, to work to erase the stigma attached to mental health disease and to centralize information about the best medical practices to deal with it.
Monday 27 August 2007 VANCOUVER: NEW TOP DOC DEFENDS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE
The new head of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Brian Day, says private health care has a role to play within the medicare system. In a speech to the CMA's annual convention, he said that contracting out of care by the public system to private enterprise isn't new. Dr. Day told his listeners that injured workers in some provinces are treated in private clinics, with the result that workmen's compensation boards save millions of dollars and the workers don't languish on waiting lists. The new CMA president also said that medicare has to change because in its present form it's unsustainable. Dr. Day opened the country's first private surgery clinic in Vancouver, BC, in 1995. RCI
The Vancouver surgeon who became president of the Canadian Medical Association last night admits to this paradox: if wait lists are radically reduced, as is his mission over the next year, there will be a lesser role for private clinics such as his and "no queues to jump."
More from
Thursday 02 August 2007 OTTAWA: DOCTORS' CALL FOR TWO-TIER SYSTEM REBUFFED
Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement has said no to a suggestion by the national doctors' lobby that he permit a health-care system based upon a partnership between the existing public system and private enterprise. The Canadian Medical Association made its recommendation in a policy paper on Monday. Mr. Clement says the suggestion amounts to a "two-tier" system and as such would be a violation of the Canada Health Act. The minister was responding to a letter by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario which called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to uphold the "single-tier" system.
Tuesday 31 July 2007 rci CHARLOTTETOWN: DOCTORS PITCH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
The Canadian Medical Association in a policy document has suggested that private-sector health-care firms could help the public medicare system deliver medically necessary treatments. Association President Colin McMillan presented the document in a speech to a business audience. Dr. McMillan says that federal and provincial government have dragged their heels in setting wait-time benchmarks since proposing them in 2004. In April, the doctors' lobby noted progress in the delivery of some treatments but gaps in delivering others. Dr. McMillan says that the $612 million earmarked in the last federal budget is "a good start." However, there was criticism of the public-private recommendation by the Association from Michael McBane, the co-ordinator for the Canadian Health Coalition, who complains that it would create a "dual practice" that would allow physicians to bill the public system and then moonlight for private firms. At present, a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada has forced Quebec to allow patients to use private care when delays are unreasonable. Similar court cases have begun in Alberta and Ontario.
Sunday Jun 17, 2007 Minister breaks age, colour and language barriers ....In Yolande James (29) first news conference as a minister, she unveiled a plan to help foreign-trained doctors, nurses and other health professionals negotiate the snakes and ladders of entering Quebec's professional orders.
Fair play for doctors
Medical
residents pay back Quebec for their education with years of work for
about $10 an hour - and then they are penalized for staying in Montreal
Freelance
Published: Saturday, June 16, 2007
(This is the opinion of 10 medical residents in Montreal. Their names are at the end.)
A
recent Gazette letter writer suggested that Robert Maranda and his
wife, both Quebec-trained physicians who will be leaving the province
because of restrictions placed on where they can practise in Quebec,
should pay for the "pretty much free education" they received here.
We
are all bilingual residents who completed part or all of our
undergraduate and medical training in Quebec. By choosing to remain in
Quebec for residency training - like Maranda and his wife - we are
already providing significantly discounted service to the Quebec
population.
Throughout
our five years of residency, we work an average of 72 hours per week.
Some of us routinely spend 100 hours a week in the hospital. In
addition, the process of working toward specialty certification
involves considerable out-of-hospital study time. Responsibilities also
often include formal and bedside teaching of medical students for which
we are not compensated. Our job does not come with breaks or lunch
hours.
There is no set time when our "shift" is over. We leave
when our patients are managed appropriately. If that means we had
dinner plans for 7 p.m. and a patient takes an unexpected turn for the
worse at 6, we will likely not make it in time for dessert.
If we
are on our way out and a patient's family member meets us in the
hallway to ask, "Doctor, can you explain what is happening to my
mother?" we can easily find ourselves in a 30-minute discussion.
When
a patient - at 2 a.m. - is unable to breathe appropriately, we are
called immediately to manage the acute situation and ensure all is done
to maximize the patient's chance of survival.
If a car accident
brings two survivors to the emergency room, we are the first ones who
interpret the CT scan and diagnose the intracranial bleed that would
require urgent evacuation. A pregnant woman experiencing a miscarriage
would initially encounter one of us in the emergency room and receive
appropriate treatment.
In the operating room, we assist in
appendectomies, liver transplants and hysterectomies. When patients are
recovering from their cardiac bypasses in the intensive care unit, we
manage their complications.
The academic hospital system would
certainly collapse without our work and the work of all of our
colleagues in other medical disciplines. The service we provide is a
bargain. We are paid less than all other Canadian residents. The gross
salary for a first year resident is $39,749. For a 72-hour work week,
that translates to about $10.60 an hour.
The same reader
commented that he found it "hard to believe" that Maranda was "not
aware of the Quebec government's requirement that new doctors spend a
few years practising in regional hospitals."
If Maranda is
graduating this year as a fully trained cardiologist, he would have
started his medical school training 10 years ago (three years of
cardiology, three years of internal medicine and four years of medical
school). He could not have been aware at that time of future political
developments. The "rules" were changed during his training.
Furthermore,
why is it acceptable to require that physicians work in a certain
location? As a society we do not force any other professionals to
relocate. Plumbers, lawyers, bus drivers and accountants are not told
that they must forgo the right to work in Montreal because their
services are more needed in Abitibi. Why should doctors be treated
differently?
Many of us, like Maranda and his wife, might prefer
to remain in Quebec but we are not willing to be pawns in the
province's ill-conceived notions of how best to deliver health care.
Other provinces have northern regions and yet they have not resorted to
Quebec's method of subjugation. Instead, they actively recruit doctors
and offer incentives.
Unsurprisingly, it is not as difficult for
these provinces to fill open positions. When the time comes to
establish our practices, we will likely choose a place were we feel we
are valued. While salary is a factor (Quebec doctors are paid far less
than their Canadian counterparts), the bigger concern is the autonomy
that all other Quebec citizens enjoy: to choose where we would like to
work, live, raise our children and contribute to Quebec society.
The
following medical doctors submitted this opinion: Evelyne Caron,
obstetrics and gynecology; Chantal Cassis, hematology; Ashley Davidson,
oncology; Matthew Erskine, emergency medicine; Alexandre
Henri-Bhargava, neurology; Zina Kellow, radiology; Pascal Lamarre,
general surgery; Fady Mansour, obstetrics and gynecology; Richard Read,
internal medicine; and Debbie Woo, general surgery.
Health deal. Minister aims to ease rules for candidates trying to join professions
KEVIN DOUGHERTY, JEFF HEINRICH of the Gazette contributed,
Gazette Quebec Bureau
Published: Friday, June 15, 2007
Immigration Minister Yolande James moved yesterday to make it easier
for health-care professionals arriving in Quebec to get into the
professional corporations that are their ticket to practising.
But
she stopped far short of telling the professional orders to change the
way they admit would-be medical personnel from other countries.
James
called the agreements her department has reached with seven
professional corporations - governing doctors, nurses, nurses' aides,
occupational therapists, inhalation therapists, midwives and medical
technicians - "concrete projects."
Immigration
department officials estimate there are at least 200 immigrant
candidates in the province who want to do their residency and write the
exams
In
this file photo, Fo Niemi, executive director or CRARR listens as
Quebec immigrant doctors held a press conference to address the
problems related to the professional integration of international
medical graduates in Quebec.
John Kenney, The Gazette
Even though Quebec has a shortage of doctors, particularly
in emergency rooms, the health department has set a ceiling of only 60
immigrant residents this year. Sixty-five residencies for candidates
who want to become family doctors remain unfilled.
In her first
news conference since she was named immigration minister in the
post-election cabinet, James said this is the result of decisions by
the health department and tried to put a positive spin on the work.
"One
of the important changes that was made last October is the modification
of the selection grid," she said. "We now attribute more points to
people who have expertise or training in areas where we have needs in
Quebec.
"The ultimate goal is to make sure that every person who
comes to Quebec and who wishes to be a part of a professional order can
follow the steps as efficiently as possible and become a member of the
order," she said.
That won't happen, however, unless there's a
comprehensive overhaul of the professions' admissions system, not just
stop-gap measures like the ones James has initiated, critics said.
"She
could have ordered a fundamental review of all the criteria and
procedures for admission to residency positions," said Fo Niemi, of the
Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.
Last Thursday, the
advocacy group asked the Quebec Human Rights Commission to do a
systemic investigation of the selection processes, calling them
discriminatory.
Niemi said James would be more credible if she
could explain "why the system caps admissions at a certain number (and
why) the same people who 'fail' their (admissions) test get their
residency when they move outside Quebec."
The basic problem is
that the health professions intentionally block new applicants, Niemi
said. "There is a very strong resistance in the medical establishment
to get more foreign-trained professionals in."
It's not too late for James to use a firmer hand, he added.
"We still believe that if there's a will, there's a way."
The
immigration department's projects, accompanied by grants of up to
$100,000 for each of the seven professional orders, will help
foreign-trained immigrants understand the complexity of Quebec's system
and offer them tutoring, in some cases online, to help them pass the
corporations' exams.
The immigration department has also budgeted
$525,000 for specialized French courses to help health-care
professionals trained in other countries learn how to do their jobs in
Quebec.
James said that before 2003, when the Charest Liberals came to
power, only five immigrant doctors a year were getting into the
province's college of physicians, which allows them to practise in
Quebec.
Since then, more than 260 immigrant doctors have made the grade.
That
means between 50 and 55 foreign doctors a year have been allowed into
the residency programs required before they write the exams they need
to pass to practise in Quebec.
An
official in the immigration department gave reporters a form that
prospective immigrants with medical training are asked to sign.
It
states that the candidate has been informed "of the difficulty I will
have as a graduate in medicine from outside Canada and the United
States to meet the requirements to obtain a permit to exercise medicine
in Quebec."
Any immigrant trying to gain access to one of
Quebec's 45 professional corporations, whose stated goal is to protect
the public, must apply to have their qualifications examined, to
determine whether they are equivalent to Quebec standards.
If
their diploma is recognized, they can seek admission to the
professional corporation. If they are refused, that is the end of the
trail.
But if their qualifications are partly recognized, the
order can ask the candidate to take additional courses. There is also
the option in some cases of a limited licence to practise.
"My
hope is that every Quebecer and every new Quebecer will be able to
contribute fully their talent to Quebec," James said. "We do need
workers in the health care system and there are people who are more
than willing."
The sun might be good for you after all. The leading story in the
Big Seven today is what Canadian health officials are calling a “landmark”
event in cancer research. According to a US study published yesterday in
the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a daily dose of vitamin D can
dramatically reduce an adult’s susceptibility to several forms of
cancer, including breast, lung and colon cancer. The Canadian Cancer
Society has used this finding, among others, in deciding to recommend for
the first time that adult Canadians lower their cancer risk by taking
1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily, says the Citizen.
That’s five times the current recommended daily amount for people
under fifty. An average glass of milk has about 100 IU of the desirable
vitamin, claims the
Citizen, which also warns of the risk of getting fat by relying on milk
as a sole source of vitamin D.
This is no small find according to Dr.
Michael Pollak, professor of medicine and oncology at McGill
University, who said it may be time for public health authorities to
consider mandating higher levels of vitamin D in milk and adding it to
other foods, such as bread and flour. While he advocates spending a
certain amount of time in the sun for a dose of vitamin D, Pollak reminds
us that “almost 70,000 Canadians are diagnosed with skin cancer each
year.” Dr. Edward Giovannucci, who researches nutrition and cancer at
the Harvard School of Public Health, voices hesitancy over the size of the
study. "I
don't think it's the last word," he says. Meanwhile, the
Globe points out that the CCS has tailored the recommended dosage to
skin colour, as darker pigmentation slows the production of vitamin D.
Those who rarely see sun exposure are encouraged to take the 1,000 IU year
round, while those who more frequently see sunlight can limit the daily
dosages to just the fall and winter. A year’s supply of vitamin D
would cost a mere $15, the Globe adds, making the newest price for cancer
prevention add up to the cost of a cheap meal.
Thursday May 17, 2007 Teen pregnancies at all-time low
The rate of teen pregnancies in Canada has hit an all-time low and has fallen more dramatically than the US...
The falling teen pregnancy rate has been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the rate of abortions, especially since 1994. ...The decline comes despite studies showing the average age at which Canadian teens have their a first sexual encounter is steady at 16.5 years old for boys and girls. But Statistics Canada data from 2005 suggests 12 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls have sex earlier - by age 14 or 15.
Wednesday 02 May 2007 What we do know, thanks to Janet Bagnall of the Gazette, is that Australia has been far more innovative in attracting medical practitioners to rural areas without resorting to the drastic - and largely unsuccessful - policies espoused by Québec.
Saturday 28 April 2007
Frustrated foreign doctors
leave Canada for U.S There are thousands of them in Canada. They're called IMGs, international medical graduates - trained doctors whose degrees are not recognized in this country. Consequently, many are going to the United States.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 McGill downplays medical brain drain
Graduates dominate U.S. market. Low pay and restrictive working conditions cited as reasons why students look south
JAN RAVENSBERGEN, The Gazette
McGill University trained almost one in every four Canadian-schooled doctors currently working in the United States - even though the Montreal institution produces only about one of every 15 Canadian medical graduates.
The figures "are not as alarming as might appear at first glance," Richard Levin, dean of McGill's Faculty of Medicine, insisted yesterday.
Tuesday 13 February 2007 Human Orgins on Disply
A tour of the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
In 1990, following a series of technological advances resulting in shorter hospital stays and an attempt to reduce health care costs, the government closed a number of smaller hospitals, including the Queen Elizabeth and Reddy. In its more recent attempt to equalize the availability of quality health care throughout the province, the government has not only restricted the number of practitioners in the larger cities, particularly Montreal, but has made the tertiary care institutions, basically the University hospitals in Québec, Sherbrooke and Montreal, responsible for more advanced care throughout the province, to the detriment of the local population seeking specialized care in the larger cities. This care had previously been provided by those smaller hospitals closed in 1990 as well as by the larger institutions including the MUHC and CHUM. While politically astute, this policy, along with the increasing and aging population, exacerbates an already difficult situation locally.
Thursday 07 December 2006 <Video: The Forgotten Killer Pneumonia kills more children under the age of five than any other disease, but receives less attention than diseases like H.I.V. and malaria. Related Article
2006
VANCOUVER: FIRST PRIVATE ER TO TO OPEN
Canada's first privately-owned emergency ward will open in Vancouver on Friday. The Urgent Care Centre will be staffed by 24 physicians who also work in public emergency facilities. Critics charge that the private ER will be in violation of the Canada Health Act. B.C.'s health minister, George Abbott, says his department will assess its legal recourses if the private facility charges to treat medically necessary cases when such treatment is already available in the public system. The Urgent Care Centre will charge $199 for a basic evaluation and other charges for such treatments as blood tests and X-Rays ($50) and arm casts ($70.)
Monday 20 November 2006 TORONTO: CANADIAN CHILDREN TO RECEIVE MEDICAL ALERT BRACELETS
The private Canadian MedicAlert Foundation is scheduled to announce a new national program on Monday that will distribute medical alert bracelets or medallions to elementary school children with serious health problems. The bracelet will alert doctors to ailments such as asthma, diabetes and severe allergies in the event that the child loses consciousness. The charitable foundation is waiving its usual fee for the service. Last January, it launched a pilot program in 60 schools in five provinces. Since then, more than 400 other schools have said that they want to join. The foundation aims to reach all of Canada's ten thousand schools by 2011. The foundation has operated for 45 years. It has more than one million Canadian members.
Saturday 04 November 2006 WASHINGTON: CANADA LAGS IN HEALTH CARE
An international medical study of Canada and six other industrial nations indicates that Canada lags in many areas of primary health care. Canada's score in many areas trails those of the other countries, except the U.S. The other countries studied are Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Germany. The data show that only 23 per cent of Canadian doctors use electronic medical records, compared with 98 per cent in the Netherlands. As well, most Canadian physicians don't use computers to prescribe medications to access test results or hospital records. More than one-half of Canadian doctors report long waiting times for patients to undergo diagnostic tests. And only 47 per cent of physicians have arrangements for after-hours treatment to avoid the need for patients to visit an emergency room, compared with 95 per cent in the Netherlands.
Thursday 24 August 2006
Doctors embrace private health-insurance option Canadian doctors have given their blessing to patients having the option of purchasing private health insurance as a possible solution to the problem of not getting timely medically necessary treatment in the public system.
May 11, 2006 nyt Hepatitis Risk for East Asians in New York
Among east Asian immigrants in New York City, one person in seven carries the hepatitis B virus, a new study has found. The condition puts them at far greater risk than other Americans for deadly diseases like liver cancer and cirrhosis.
Thursday May 11, 2006 rci OTTAWA: HOSPITAL EMERGENCIES CALLED IN CRISIS
A report on hospital emergency rooms in Canadian cities says they're in crisis. The report comes from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, an independent body that advises the federal, provincial and territorial governments. The agency is reporting on the results of its survey of 158 emergency wards in cities with a population of at least 150,000. The study reports numerous cases of exhausted medical personnel, long waits, patients lying on gurneys in corridors and patients leaving exasperated without having been treated. Sixty-two per cent of the directors whom the authors consulted said that overcrowding is a major problem, more than one-half of whom said that this detracted from quality and accessibility of care. The researchers conclude that the main cause of the situation is the lack of hospital beds in the floors above the emergency ward
Tuesday May 2, 2006
CMA chief wants money left over from health accord The head of the Canadian Medical Association says Prime Minister Stephen Harper should release the $1 billion remaining from the 2004 health accord signed by the previous Liberal government in order to deal immediately with wait times.
Sunday, Apr. 23, 2006 Q: What Scares Doctors? A: Being the Patient
It's easy to imagine that doctors don't get sick. Surely the hygienic shield of the sterile white coat guards them from ever having to put on the flapping gown and flimsy bracelet, climb meekly into the crisp bed and be at the mercy of the U.S. health-care system. And if somehow they did enter the hospital as a patient, physicians ought to have every advantage: an insider's knowledge, access to top specialists, built-in second opinions, no waiting, no insane bureaucratic battles and no loss of identity or dignity when you turn into the "bilateral mastectomy in Room 402." But it doesn't..
globe Thursday, Apr 20 2006 - Researchers at University of Calgary investigating why music and dance can lift some Parkinson's patients out of a frozen state," Dancing may provide clues to treating Parkinson's Calgary — When Sheila McHutchison was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 12 years ago, she didn't realize she would slowly be robbed of her balance and her ability to walk and drive. But after a few minutes on the dance floor, the 65-year-old Calgary resident is back to her old self, even though the effect is only temporary. “When I dance . . .
Researchers at University of Calgary investigating why music and dance can lift some Parkinson's patients out of a frozen state, 20/04/06 5:31 PM (2)
Canadians are more sexually satisfied than Americans, but Austrians and Spaniards are happiest in the bedroom, according to new research. The study -- which is billed as the first of its kind to compare sexual behaviour and satisfaction worldwide among people over 40 -- found people in countries with gender equality are most likely to report being content with their sex lives. "In the male-dominated regimes, women are very subordinated.
Study billed as first of its kind to compare sexual behaviour and satisfaction worldwide among people over 40
Thursday, Apr 20 2006 - Kevin Gosling has done something no other Canadian has: donated part of his liver to a stranger"Giving the gift of life – to a total stranger Kevin Gosling was sent to three psychiatrists to see whether he had a death wish, was seeking atonement for a past sin or was just plain crazy when he offered to do something no other Canadian had ever done: donate part of his liver to a stranger. The 46-year-old man's wish was answered last year when he underwent a six-hour operation at Toronto General Hospital to have two sections of the left part of his liver dissected and transplanted into a child.
Sunday Apr 2, 2006 ts Malpractice costs soar, you get the bill
After six years Karen Escobar is wondering when the doctor who botched an operation that almost killed her is going to pay for his mistakes.
Monday Mar 13, 2006 CMA President Ruth Collins-Nakai says the weeks following the departure of editors from CMAJ have been challenging for both the journal and the association, but recent appointments of two interim editors mean that both are now "moving ahead." tanks to Dr. Alexandra
Thursday Dec 1, 2005 rci Hong Kong billionaire and philanthropist Li Ka Shing has donated $25 million to a hospital in Toronto for medical research. The donation by the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation will be used to create the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital. The purpose of the Institute will be to quicken the pace of the application of medical discoveries to actual patient care. The hospital's CEO, Jeffrey Lozon, says the Institute's work will benefit not only Canadian hospitals but also medical facilities around the world. St. Michael's is affiliated with the University of Toronto, which has exchange programs with China's Shantou University. The exchanges through the Institute will focus on expanding knowledge concerning bird flu and pandemics.
Dec. 5, 2005 A to Z: The Year in Medicine 2005 t's unlikely Woo Suk Hwang imagined his year would end this way. The veterinary scientist from Seoul National University made headlines around the world earlier this year--and was celebrated as a hero in South Korea--with a pair of triumphs in stem cells and cloning‚ including the world's first cloned dog. But Hwang resigned from his post at a new stem-cell research center last week when it was revealed that he had lied about the source of some of the human eggs used in his medical research. The quality of Hwang's science is unimpeached, but the reputation of the scientist has been pummeled.
The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit ...As society continues to scientifically and technologically advance, many questions begin to arise of a moral and ethical scope. In The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit, leading international authority on medicine, ethics and law, Margaret Somerville, presents a challenging examination of the various ethical concerns human society is currently facing at the dawn of the 21st century. Addressing everything from cloning to genetically modified foods, the mapping of a human chromosome and the use of animal organs for human transplants, this highly anticipated volume illuminates some of the most controversial and pressing issues of our time. "The book will bring Margo as many enemies as friends!"
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Slide Show: An Atlas of the Human Body
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