Research partnerships with the people and communities affected help to challenge health inequities, and support person-centred care in health systems.
Nurturing hope among patients with cancer and their caregivers is possible and includes coping strategies and exploring realistic goals.
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Patients with incurable cancer want to be informed about their disease and its treatment, but must also maintain hope. This inner conflict can affect how they process information about their prognosis.
Nursing homes care for more than a million people in the U.S.
AP Photo/Richard Drew
The shortage of family doctors affects not only patients, but the entire health-care system. A strong primary care foundation increases average lifespan, improves overall health and reduces costs.
A fundamental component for training health-care professionals is interacting with patients and families.
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Each encounter that health-care students have with patients and families helps them understand real-world patient needs. That means all Canadians have a role in educating future health-care providers.
The 21st Century Cures Act requires that test results be released to patients even before their health care provider has reviewed them.
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Bill C-7 has created ethical tensions between MAID providers and palliative care, between transparency and patient privacy, and between offering a dignified death rather than a dignified life.
Involving young patients and their parents or caregivers can help bring new research evidence into clinics.
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People with long COVID report that their symptoms are dismissed or not treated seriously by health-care providers. This medical gaslighting not only prevents treatment but can cause stigma and shame.
When ambulances are delayed at overcrowded hospitals because they can’t offload patients, it means they can’t respond to emergency calls and people wait longer for paramedics to arrive.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Ambulance response times have not always met targets, but the alarming new pinch point in our health-care system is that there are no ambulances at all available to respond to calls.
Even though chronic pain is recognized by scientists as a disease in its own right, it remains largely under-recognized, under-diagnosed and, above all, subject to many prejudices.
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Although chronic pain is recognized by scientists as a disease in its own right, it remains largely under-recognized, under-diagnosed and, above all, associated with numerous prejudices.
Former Saskatchewan Premier and national New Democratic Party leader T.C. (Tommy) Douglas in 1965. Douglas was instrumental in the creation of Medicare.
The Canadian Press
At the dawn of Medicare, Saskatchewan’s community co-op clinics pioneered team-based, holistic care. Now, with the health system in crisis 60 years later, it may be time to return to that care model.
Research suggests that supports are more likely to be provided to meet the needs of the majority of people with cancer who are older, rather than to younger people with cancer.
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Younger cancer patients have unique challenges, and resources often target older patients. Social media brings younger cancer patients together to share information, emotional support and hope.
Putting patients at the centre of care means seeing them as a whole person and treating them as a partner in their journey to better health.
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Health researchers hope a new regulation requiring hospitals to post their prices will tame soaring health care costs, but compliance and standardization are hurdles.
A guest looks out from a Sheraton hotel window in Mississauga, Ont., on Feb. 22, 2021, as new air travel rules come into effect in Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Canadian government travel restrictions are an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants. But vague language around exemptions for medical travel may confuse the physicians who can grant them.
Given the observed and anticipated growth of telemedicine since the beginning of the pandemic, it would be a good idea to clarify and co-ordinate the rules applicable to it in Canada.
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne