Disabled, racialized medical students at risk  By Louise Kinross Last year a groundbreaking study found that Black people in American counties with more Black primary-care doctors live longer, yet research shows that Black medical students have higher rates of burnout than white students, which means they’re at risk of leaving the field. Recently, a new study in JAMA Network Open looks at burnout rates in medical students with disabilities, including those who are racialized. The study of over 27,000 medical students in the United States found students with one disability were 70% more li ..read more

Begin with children  Caused by systemic underinvestment in healthcare, “never events” have become normal as young people have challenges accessing essential, time sensitive services. Unlike our European counterparts, France, UK and Sweden who invest almost 4% of GDP to policies and investments Canada dedicates but 1.68 % to children and youth. With untenable backlogs recent unprecedented transfer funding from the federal government has seen Ontario and Nova Scotia leading the way good use to right size care for children.  In Ontario, increasing capacity in children’s hospitals, paedi ..read more

Today, thanks to New Brunswick long-time nurse, Kelly Dunfield, epinephrine auto-injectors (EAI) are much more accessible across North America than they’ve ever been.  Triggered by a “too close to home,” allergic reaction that turned fatal, Dunfield launched a family led pilot project in 2014 that distributed stocked EAI cabinets to public sites in her home town.  A decade later the campaign has grown with Nurse Dunfield and her team’s commitment to community health continuing with many more visible, centrally located sites  up and running in colleges, universities and restauran ..read more

By Janet Mantler, Ivy Bourgeault and Nicole Power Researchers can tell you that grant proposals take a long time to develop. Primary investigators are advised to allocate at least 120 hours to prepare an application, but it often takes much longer. Other researchers on the proposal will also work many days, and community partners write letters of support. Many universities offer significant support staff to review and vet proposals. Imagine working for months on an outstanding proposal for an 80 per cent chance of failure (the current rejection rate for CIHR grants, for example). That’s the re ..read more

University Health Network, Canada’s largest research hospital, has become the first hospital in the country to appoint a Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scientist. The appointment of Dr. Bo Wang, whose primary research areas are machine learning, computational biology and computer vision, builds upon the launch earlier this year of UHN’s AI Hub. Designed to augment human intelligence through AI health care innovation, the UHN AI Hub brings together scientists and clinicians from across UHN working in AI, including those in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, transplant and rehabil ..read more

Zero tolerance for abuse Government leaders suggest they are “fixing long-term care” to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care and quality of life they need and deserve after the horrific outcomes that occurred during the pandemic. The plan is said to be built on four pillars: staffing and care; quality and enforcement; building modern, safe and comfortable homes; and connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need, according to a recent announcement. Major transformation needed Across the province  long-term care homes, providers of affordable h ..read more

A Picture of Health CANADA – A new device called Swift Ray 1 is making identifying infection significantly less time consuming. Run from a smartphone/tablet, it allows for imaging of wounds to identify infection. Swift Ray 1 connects to software by taking medical-grade photographs, infrared thermography images and bacterial fluorescence images.  Addiction on the Brain USA – A neglected brain region could play a critical role in how likely a person with an addiction is to relapse. Researchers discovered the supplementary motor cortex could be a new target for therapeutics. The region has n ..read more

Persons with disabilities earn less  On average, there’s a 21.4% pay gap between persons with and without disabilities. Infact, they earn 79 cents to every dollar earned by persons without disabilities. At 16 years and older persons with disabilities had an average annual income of about $11,500 less than persons without disabilities ($43,400 and $55,200, respectively).  Source: Statscan The role of Exposome  Referred to as Exposome research, this relatively new field looks at long-term exposures caused by the environments and domains where people live, work, pray and play thro ..read more

PODCAST Getting “unconfused” about Alzheimer’s By Bill Gates It isn’t easy to deal with tough topics and find humour in them but somehow, Gates does it with guests Seth Rogen and Laren Miller Rogan. After investing millions into new testing, Gates is also determined to be part of the worldwide solution to both raise awareness and reduce stigma. https://people.com/bill-gates-podcast-unconfuse-me-debuts-with-seth-rogen-and-lauren-miller-7566209 WEB SITE Web Site Cuso International A Canadian-based charity working to end poverty and inequality across the globe. Cuso provides strategic programmi ..read more

Cost-effective accessibility improvements for schools and offices The Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) and architecture and design firm HCMA have published a one-hundred page study that estimates that RHF Accessibility Certified Gold can be achieved through upgrades in an office tower at less than 0.5% of the replacement cost, and in a K-12 school for less than 1.5% of the replacement cost. The study outlines strategies that management can take to increase the feasibility of upgrades and to cost-effectively improve accessibility for people of all ages and abilities.  The study included 1 ..read more