(Press-News.org) OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA — Delivering quality health care rather than health care sustainability is a key issue for Canada's federal election, and Canadians need a vision from federal leaders to radically transform our health care system, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.110540.
While health care delivery is a provincial and territorial jurisdiction, renegotiation of Canada's health accord is a federal responsibility.
"Without hesitation, we should all ask how governments propose to deliver quality health care – arguably the most important issue this decade — because the 2003 First Ministers' Accord on Health Care Renewal and the 2004 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care expire in 2014," writes Dr. Paul Hébert, Editor-in-Chief, CMAJ, with coauthors.
"Barring a fragile minority, the government we elect May 2 will lead the negotiations for a new accord and therefore have a powerful opportunity to help shape Canada's health care system," state the authors.
Safety, effectiveness, patient-centred care, timeliness, efficiency and equity are the six aspects of high-quality care that can help make Canada's health system cost-effective and sustainable if they are given priority.
Information is key to ensuring quality care, and an effective national electronic health record system is vital to this. Health prevention and promotion programs and transparent public reporting are also areas where the federal government has a significant role to play.
"We need to shake off the habits and attitudes of 20th-century health care that have led to a narrowly focused, discontinuous and often wasteful system that doesn't do enough to prevent illness or promote overall health, often fails to satisfy patients and wears out the people who care for them," write the authors.
###
Media contact: Kim Barnhardt, Senior Strategist, Communications and Partnerships, CMAJ, 613-520-7116 x2224, kim.barnhardt@cmaj.ca
Quality health care delivery key election issue, says CMAJ
2011-04-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Supreme Court Gives the Go Ahead to State Court Seatbelt Claims
2011-04-07
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided to allow the family of a woman killed in a car accident to sue Mazda for failing to install shoulder belts for all passengers in its minivans. Until now, this type of lawsuit has been thrown out by lower courts, since federal regulations allow companies to install lap belts only for middle second or third row seats. The new ruling will likely open up a variety of legal options for those injured in cars that do not meet the strictest safety standards.
The Case
Thanh Williamson died in a 2002 accident while riding ...
Off the hook! Who gets phished and why
2011-04-07
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Communication researchers at four major universities have found that if you receive a lot of email, habitually respond to a good portion of it, maintain a lot of online relationships and conduct a large number of transactions online, you are more susceptible to email phishing expeditions than those who limit their online activity.
The study, "Why Do People Get Phished?" forthcoming in the journal Decision Support Systems and Electronic Commerce, uses an integrated information processing model to test individual differences in vulnerability to phishing. ...
Precedent-setting evidence of the benefits of biodiversity
2011-04-07
Frequent reports of accelerating species losses invariably raise questions about why such losses matter and why we should work to conserve biodiversity.
Biologists have traditionally responded to such questions by citing societal benefits that are often presumed to be offered by biodiversity--benefits like controlling pests and diseases, promoting the productivity of fisheries, and helping to purify air and water, among many others. Nevertheless, many of these presumed benefits are have yet to be supported by rigorous scientific data.
But Bradley J. Cardinale of the ...
Vehicle Black Boxes: Attempts to Improve Motor Vehicle Accident Data
2011-04-07
A recent Los Angeles Times article provided interesting insights about ongoing efforts to make automobile event data recorders (EDRs or "black boxes") mandatory on all vehicles sold in the U.S., and to make better data available to promote public safety. In the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident, such data can help investigators understand whether the crash was caused by a negligent driver, an auto defect or a hazardous highway condition.
Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, and Tom Kowalick, a North Carolina college professor, ...
Neuralstem ALS trial in multiple presentations at upcoming American Academy of Neurology meeting
2011-04-07
ROCKVILLE, April 6, Maryland, 2011 – Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CUR) announced that the Phase I safety trial of its human spinal cord stem cells (HSSCs) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) is the subject of three presentations at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, April 9-16th, in Honolulu, HI (http://www.aan.com/go/am11). Chief among these will be a presentation by Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., who is an unpaid consultant to Neuralstem and the Principal Investigator in the ongoing ALS trial, entitled: "A Phase I, Open-Label, ...
Chemical engineers at UCSB design molecular probe to study disease
2011-04-07
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Chemical engineers at UC Santa Barbara expect that their new process to create molecular probes may eventually result in the development of new drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses.
Their work, reported in the journal Chemistry & Biology, published by Cell Press, describes a new strategy to build molecular probes to visualize, measure, and learn about the activities of enzymes, called proteases, on the surface of cancer cells.
Patrick Daugherty, senior author and professor of chemical engineering at UCSB, explained that the probes are ...
New Bill May Ease Arizona's Tough DUI Laws
2011-04-07
A new bill before the Arizona legislature aims to ease tough DUI laws that put in place in 2001, when Arizona passed a rule that established a blood-alcohol concentration of .08 percent as the legal limit within the state.
Since then, the DUI laws have become even tougher. Presently, first-time offenders face at least ten days in jail, fines of $250 or more, and if they blow a .15 percent BAC or higher, the installation of an ignition interlock device in their vehicles for an entire year. The ignition interlock device is connected to the car's starter; a driver must ...
New 2011 Michigan Driving Laws: Drunk Driving, Teen Driver Limits
2011-04-07
As of January, Michigan law enforcement agencies are taking a new approach to bringing down fatal drunk driving statistics in Michigan. The Michigan Legislature approved a new pilot program that will require convicted drunk drivers to install ignition interlock devices on their vehicles. Michigan lawmakers also approved a bill restricting teenage drivers.
Michigan Requires DUI Offenders to Install Ignition Interlock Devices on Vehicles
Michigan lawmakers passed legislation now requiring convicted drunk drivers to install ignition interlock devices on their motor vehicles. ...
Novel association between Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer
2011-04-07
SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah School of Medicine researchers have found compelling evidence that Parkinson's disease is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer and melanoma, and that this increased cancer risk also extends to close and distant relatives of individuals with Parkinson's disease. Although a link between Parkinson's disease and melanoma has been suspected before, this is the first time that an increased risk of prostate cancer has been reported in Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurologic condition that leads ...
Shopping online, privacy, data protection and third-party tracking
2011-04-07
In the wake of yet another e-commerce data breach in which the names and email addresses of millions of online shoppers and credit card users have been accessed illegally, researchers in the US suggest that privacy discussions, and ultimately legislation must urgently focus on the expanding roles of third-parties handling pervasive online customer profiles.
Nancy King of the College of Business, at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, explains in the latest issue of the International Journal of Private Law that marketers have long created market segments in an effort ...