Patients' Association of Canada

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 - 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.

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.