The Canada Health Act must permit more room for experimentation and innovation at a provincial level The provinces say they need more federal money for health. The federal government says it wants to be assured of improved outcomes first. In my view, adding money, even with various provinces and metrics, will not be sufficient. We…
Provinces should allow other options, like duplicate insurance, so patients can access the care they need more quickly Over 660,000 Canadians are waiting for surgery at the moment, with many waiting long months and even years. For these people, each day stuck on a waiting list is 24 more hours of sore knees, of pain…
Molecule appears to trigger the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis A University of Alberta researcher is one step closer to demonstrating the potential of a brain molecule called fractalkine to halt and even reverse the effects of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the…
The competition will pressure governments to improve the public system Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to use private health centres to alleviate long wait lists has faced opposition from many quarters. It may seem counterintuitive, but Ford’s plan will actually ease the shortages of doctors and nurses. It was B.C.’s NDP government of the early…
Finding unexpected because women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s more often than men Scientists at the University of Alberta have discovered that important risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease affect males and females very differently. “Two types of risk for Alzheimer’s disease work differently for males and females, and dramatically so,” says Mackenzie Heal, neuroscience master’s student…
Foreign-trained health professionals could help alleviate the strain Canada’s medical system is fast becoming a disaster area and a tragedy. There are not nearly enough family doctors to provide primary health care. Walk-in clinics were supposed to backfill this need, but many now do not take walk-ins as their registered patient load is already beyond…
Homeless make more than 26,000 visits to Alberta emergency departments each year Edmonton emergency department patients who lack housing will soon get a chance to find permanent homes following their hospital stay, thanks to a new transition housing program. “No one should leave emergency without a place to go and a roof over their head,”…
Tuktu services include driving, shopping, housekeeping, companionship and technical help, all at an affordable cost The year 2022 is finally over, and most of us would say good riddance. It was a year of wars and plagues, floods and famines, autocrats and accidents, inflation and uncertainty. As we start 2023, we really need to find…
Model predicted high-risk patients with an accuracy of 86 per cent Clinicians and policymakers might get assistance from artificial intelligence in predicting opioid use disorder, thanks to a team of Alberta researchers. The researchers have created and tested a machine learning model that reliably predicts the risk of developing the disorder in individual patients by…
But could take 10 to 15 years to develop and test a drug An international team of researchers has uncovered a new mechanism that enables cancer cells to move throughout the body, providing a potential new target to stop metastasis, which is responsible for 90 per cent of cancer deaths. In findings published in Nature,…
The Canada Health Act must permit more room for experimentation and innovation at a provincial level The provinces say they need more federal money for health. The federal government says it wants to be assured of improved outcomes first. In my view, adding money, even with various provinces and metrics, will not be sufficient. We…
Provinces should allow other options, like duplicate insurance, so patients can access the care they need more quickly Over 660,000 Canadians are waiting for surgery at the moment, with many waiting long months and even years. For these people, each day stuck on a waiting list is 24 more hours of sore knees, of pain…
Molecule appears to trigger the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis A University of Alberta researcher is one step closer to demonstrating the potential of a brain molecule called fractalkine to halt and even reverse the effects of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the…
The competition will pressure governments to improve the public system Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to use private health centres to alleviate long wait lists has faced opposition from many quarters. It may seem counterintuitive, but Ford’s plan will actually ease the shortages of doctors and nurses. It was B.C.’s NDP government of the early…
Finding unexpected because women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s more often than men Scientists at the University of Alberta have discovered that important risk factors in Alzheimer’s disease affect males and females very differently. “Two types of risk for Alzheimer’s disease work differently for males and females, and dramatically so,” says Mackenzie Heal, neuroscience master’s student…
Foreign-trained health professionals could help alleviate the strain Canada’s medical system is fast becoming a disaster area and a tragedy. There are not nearly enough family doctors to provide primary health care. Walk-in clinics were supposed to backfill this need, but many now do not take walk-ins as their registered patient load is already beyond…
Homeless make more than 26,000 visits to Alberta emergency departments each year Edmonton emergency department patients who lack housing will soon get a chance to find permanent homes following their hospital stay, thanks to a new transition housing program. “No one should leave emergency without a place to go and a roof over their head,”…
Tuktu services include driving, shopping, housekeeping, companionship and technical help, all at an affordable cost The year 2022 is finally over, and most of us would say good riddance. It was a year of wars and plagues, floods and famines, autocrats and accidents, inflation and uncertainty. As we start 2023, we really need to find…
Model predicted high-risk patients with an accuracy of 86 per cent Clinicians and policymakers might get assistance from artificial intelligence in predicting opioid use disorder, thanks to a team of Alberta researchers. The researchers have created and tested a machine learning model that reliably predicts the risk of developing the disorder in individual patients by…
But could take 10 to 15 years to develop and test a drug An international team of researchers has uncovered a new mechanism that enables cancer cells to move throughout the body, providing a potential new target to stop metastasis, which is responsible for 90 per cent of cancer deaths. In findings published in Nature,…