Article

August 27, 2013 -- Already harried system not ready for rising home-care demand.

The headline for the July 29th New York Times article read “Scientists Seek to Rein in Diagnoses of Cancer.” The accompanying article discusses the fact that many diagnoses of cancer are of conditions that, though pre-malignant or not life-threatening, are labelled as cancer and frighten patients into seeking “what may be unneeded and potentially harmful treatments.”

We are looking for an Administrative Assistant to join our team! Are you an experienced administrator? Would you be excited to join a growing organization? Are you passionate about patients and family caregivers having a role in healthcare? Check out the job posting here.

Last week's Maclean's article Doctors, conflict of interest and evidence med schools are ignoring the problem looks at the first study of its kind that analyzes conflict of interest policies at medical schools across Canada.

In a new government initiative aimed at preventing adverse drug reactions and medication errors, Health Canada will use different ways to make medication easier to understand, including standardizing the format of non-prescription drug labels (such as a 'Drug Facts' table) and requiring manufacturers to provide mock-ups of labels and packages for review. Find the full article here.

Mounting concern that health professional/patient interactions are often less than therapeutic has led to many initiatives aimed at finding ways to put the care back into the health care system. In Canada, one such initiative is the creation of the Patient Experience department of Alberta Health Services. Find the full article here.

The only way to fix the problems plaguing Canada's health-care system is to involve patients in that change, says the president of the Patients' Association of Canada.

When the Canada Health Act was passed in 1984, Canadians were dying of acute and infectious diseases. Today, we die of chronic illnesses, which we can live with for years, says Sholom Glouberman. Find the full article here.