Christina Spencer's blog

OTTAWA, Sept. 23 /CNW/ - Experts from around the world gathered in Ottawa today for the start of the third annual International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE), which is being organized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The unique three-day conference will examine current postgraduate medical education programs and challenges, and focus on emerging trends that could significantly change the way doctors are trained.

The keynote speaker for the opening session, Dr. Brian Hodges, Director, Donald R. Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, says many reports in Canada and the United States have called for "significant changes to medical education that will allow doctors to better adapt to today's complex environments, work in teams, and meet a wide range of social needs."

PAC President, Sholom Glouberman will be speaking and tweeting tomorrow at the Communities Supporting Communities event at the Toronto Congress Centre.

This event has been designed to provide an in-depth look at the future of healthcare, how technology can enable the business transformation the healthcare community is leading and how partnership with the IT community can propel progress forward. The following speakers will provide their expertise and experiences and participate in the day’s conversations:

Speakers:
Hon. Elinor Caplan | Former Minister of Health |Canada Strategies Inc
Benoit Long | Chief Technology Officer | Government of Canada |Former CIO | Trillium Health
Andrew Hussain | Regional Chief Information Officer and eHealth Lead | Mississauga Halton and Central West Local Health Integration Networks
Caroline Brereton | CEO | Mississauga Halton CCAC
Dr. Sholom Glouberman | Patients' Association of Canada

The P.E.I. government is hoping more women will make breast screening appointments now that wait times have been slashed.

Waits for regular screening mammograms have been as high as 14 months in recent years, but the province has been making investments to bring those wait times down.

There are now digital mammography machines at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown and Prince County Hospital in Summerside. More staff have been added and appointments are now available in the evenings.

As of Tuesday, women have a six-week wait to book their screening mammogram.

Jamie MacDonald, director of diagnostic imaging for Health PEI, said the long waits hurt recruitment efforts for screening. Rates fell from 40 per cent to 25 per cent.

"It takes a great deal of energy on the lady's part to call in and book that first screening mammogram," said MacDonald.

The United States could achieve significant health care savings if it achieved widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), but insufficient privacy protections are hindering public acceptance of the EHR concept, according to a new paper from researchers from North Carolina State University. The paper outlines steps that could be taken to boost privacy and promote the use of EHRs.

“Electronic health records could reduce costs in the U.S. by an estimated $80 to 100 billion each year,” says Dr. David Baumer, head of the business management department at NC State and co-author of the paper. “Using electronic records allows the health-care system to operate more efficiently, minimizes duplicative testing, et cetera. But you can only get those cost reductions if everyone, or nearly everyone, makes use of the records, from health-care providers to pharmacies to insurance companies.”

(Garrison, NY) As government support for personalized medicine grows, a consumer advocate, a patient, and bioethicists explore ethical controversies. Direct-to-consumer genetic tests, privacy, targeted cancer therapies, and Henrietta Lacks are among topics in a special issue of the Hastings center Report.

The new government in the United Kingdom has put out a White Paper on how to change the NHS. The first objective of the White Paper is to have a patient led NHS.

NHS White Paper, Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS

[img_assist|nid=298|title=|desc=|link=none|align=none|width=525|height=640]Almost half of University of Toronto medical students say they have felt pressure from their teachers to act unethically, including being asked to perform pelvic examinations on women under general anesthesia who had not given their consent.

The survey of 103 students a year away from completing medical school is a disturbing glimpse of the kind of care patients may be getting at teaching hospitals, and not only those associated with the University of Toronto. Previous studies have identified similar problems in other medical schools, but not in as much detail.

In the survey, done three years ago, medical students at U of T complained of being asked to perform unnecessary procedures on unwary patients, including those who were comatose or unconscious.

[img_assist|nid=293|title=|desc=|link=none|align=none|width=424|height=640]What's not to like about a hospital gown? Pretty much everything. The itchy, tush-exposing garments are a necessary evil for going through just about any hospital procedure, but they may be dreaded just as much -- or maybe more -- than the procedure itself.

But Jeanne Ryan thought something could be done about those gowns. The executive liaison and RN in executive health at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio started working on improving the hospital gown about five years ago, her mission guided by this: "I've been a nurse for almost 30 years, and gowns have always been a sore spot with me," she said. "We're all about improving things for patients."