Christina Spencer's blog

February 8, 2012 - At the Canadian Food Summit yesterday, it was fascinating to hear the speakers introduce the farmers, food distributors and food processors to the topic of the two day conference: to prepare a food strategy for Canada. Galen Weston, Executive Chairman of Loblaw Companies Limited, was nearly flawless in his introduction of the topic. The idea was to get everyone together to enunciate a strategy that would help make sure that Canada has a viable, safe, and sustainable food industry.

February 3, 2012 - Last night was a significant meeting of the Patients' Association of Canada. More than 30 members came for a very special workshop run by Sue Reynolds and her associate Theresa Dekker who are experienced writing teachers and members of Amherst Writer and Artists (AWA). We were introduced to writing by the injunction “Show! Don’t tell!” and after some warm up exercises everyone wrote for 10 minutes and took turns reading their writing. As Sue and Theresa reaffirmed, "it's not therapy, but it's therapeutic."

February 3, 2012 - Yesterday’s New England Journal has a brief history of acute infectious diseases and a plea for continued vigilance. It declares how such diseases played an important part in the history of medicine and celebrates success in combating them through vaccination and scientific research. Although it somewhat overstates the benefits due to medical advance, it appropriately recognizes that our current medical system was founded when such diseases became understood and began to be dealt with.

February 1, 2012 - I was asked to be interviewed by a representative of Edelman, a firm that is handling public relations for DIFICID, a new drug that treats C. difficile infections. They sent me a questionnaire to find out more about who we are, what our perspective is on this drug, and whether we would like to partner with a drug company on advocacy issues. I agreed to the interview to see what it would be like. In the mean time, I did a bit of research on the drug.

Victoria offers some insight from a patient's point of view. Watch the video!

December 22, 2011 - Lauren Vogel, a journalist from CMAJ, called yesterday to ask me about the rules in parts of Canada that allow doctors to insist that a chaperone accompany patients during an examination. She wanted to know if doctors should have that right and what we at the Patients’ Association thought about it. It seemed to me that this was yet another indication that the relationship between patients and doctors has been changing in ways that make it more and more difficult to provide continuity of care.

December 12, 2012 - Did you miss the last members' meeting? Read the notes here.

December 8, 2012 - We'll meet at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at 252 Bloor Street West in room #5280. The closest subway station is St. George. For those of you getting off at St. George, there's an entrance to OISE in the underground so you don't have to go outdoors. Hope to see you there!