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April 13, 2012 - At our PAC Members’ Meeting this week we tried a new exercise to gather  peoples’ thoughts about health care services. We wanted to learn about the patient experience of emergency rooms. We collected short descriptions about the current state of emergency rooms, and then we asked participants to write descriptors of an ideal emergency room (heaven) setting and a worst-case (hell) emergency room setting. We also asked what events or actions might lead to each scenario.

April 9, 2012 - By the late 1940s we knew a great deal about acute infectious diseases. We understood that these diseases could be identified by the specific microorganisms that caused them and  that they had a definite course. Further, we knew  that they were accompanied by high fever, internal shivering, pain, skin eruptions or some other acute symptoms. It was also understood that these diseases could be reduced or even eliminated if an appropriate vaccine was found that would prepare the body to fend off the microorganism.

April 2, 2012 - Our health care system has been focused on acute care since its inception however the vast majority of illness these days is chronic rather than acute. Gradually, everyone is beginning to realize that hospitals can no longer be the core of the health care system if we are to respond appropriately.

March 7, 2012 - PAC’s visit to Kingston last week was a great success. We chose to visit Kingston General Hospital (KGH) because the hospital has dedicated itself to improving the patient experience through patient and family centred care. Members of our governance collaborative had a chance to meet each other and share ideas about how patients can become more active and effective as part of the decision making body in health care organizations.

Monday, March 5, 2012 | This article originally appeared here.

Engaging patients is the big new idea in health. Though it seems obvious that patients should be involved and actively taking part in their own care, medicare has been in trouble so long that this change is seen as a revolution.

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.

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

January 16, 2012 - I met with Katherine Smith last week to discuss her research into the dearth of policy effects of the British research into inequalities in health. The last fifteen years have been an exceptionally fertile time for inequalities in health research, but not for the policies that would reduce such inequalities. Katherine explored the issue and argued convincingly against the orthodox Canadian view that there are distinct policy and research communities that must be brought together through knowledge brokerage.