Sholom Glouberman

March 22, 2012 - From the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) we can do little but applaud yesterday’s publication by Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario of Taking Action to Prevent Chronic Disease: Recommendations for a Healthier Ontario. They have recognized that the great killers today are no longer the acute infectious diseases of yesteryear which were caused by identifiable microorganisms, but the slowly progressing chronic conditions which are affected by social and environmental factors.

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.

February 17, 2012 - The Drummond Report recognizes that medical problems have shifted from acute (and often infectious) diseases to long term chronic conditions. Because the system remains dedicated to acute aspects of disease it has spawned a growing number of expert-based services and medical specialties that have fragmented the system and made it difficult to provide the continuity of care demanded by chronic conditions.

How Patients can Improve the Healthcare System

February 15, 2012 - Efforts have been made in eHealth to increase patient engagement and to allow physicians better access to patients’ healthcare information. Accessible and secure electronic health recording is at the core of these efforts. There has been some success, although much has to be accomplished before patients’ needs are met.

According to recent surveys, here are a few things that patients want to see:

February 10, 2012 - Yesterday I participated in a debate about the use of technology to drive down the cost of health care as part of Cancer Care Ontario’s Chief Information Officer Day. My partner was Irfan Dhalla, an internal medicine doctor from St. Michael’s Hospital. We were debating against Ed Brown, the CEO of the Ontario Telemedicine Network and Jeremy Theal, Director of Medical Informatics at North York General Hospital. Rudyard Griffiths was the very articulate and well practiced moderator.

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 - 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.