Canadians are living longer. Unfortunately, our hospitals aren’t ready for them. Canadians over 65 years old use over 40 per cent of hospital services, a demand that continues to rise. As they age, Canadians hope to stay at home as long as possible. If hospitalization is required, they should expect to go home quickly and […]
Nearly half of Canadians aged 65 and over experience osteoarthritis in their knees. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of bones wears down over time leading to pain, stiffness and decreased mobility. It frequently occurs in the hips and knees — and can be […]
So why aren’t we making use of this important human resource? It was recently national Nurse Practitioner Week, but you would be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Nurse Practitioners. Most Canadians haven’t — and most don’t know their value to our health care system. You may be even more surprised to learn that […]
Of course not, in the same way nutrition labeling on the back of food packages doesn’t communicate what we need to know before buying food* Supermarkets are crowded with around 40,000 products, yet most shoppers spend fewer than 10 seconds selecting an item. That’s certainly not enough time to review current Canadian nutrition labels, […]
More medical tests, treatments not always the best Prevailing wisdom states that more is better — and it is no different when it comes to our expectation of medical treatments. With the help of the Internet, patients and their families have come to expect intensive tests, treatments and therapies at every life stage. But […]
Cold and flu season for many Canadians means getting ready to have their lives and routines thrown off by painful and annoying symptoms. This can mean days off work or school dealing with sore throats, nasal congestion and fever. For parents, it can be challenging to try to comfort young kids with fever, coughing or […]
Federal pipeline needs independent assessment, global health leaders say After a summer that saw over 90 heat-related deaths in Quebec, drought-impacted crops across the Prairies, and large swaths of Western Canada and Ontario ravaged by wildfires and shrouded in smoke, many of the world’s leading experts gathered in San Francisco at the Global Climate […]
New way to pay hospitals offers lessons on change management If there’s one thing provincial governments across Canada can agree on, it’s that the status quo in health care is no longer good enough to deliver equitable access to high quality care in a cost-efficient manner. Ontario’s Ministry of Health under the previous government […]
Canadians have the highest rates of emergency room visits among high income countries You’re getting home after a long day at work and the cough that has been bugging you just doesn’t seem to be letting up. Your muscles ache, you’ve got chills and you hear a slight wheeze when you breathe out. What […]
It’s time to change what we measure when funding healthcare The prestigious Canadian Academy of Health Sciences annual meeting last week in Vancouver focused on chronic pain, and of course, the current catastrophe of opioid deaths was discussed. But most of the discussion was broader: What are the biological mechanisms underlying chronic pain? What […]
