National Medicare Week has just passed, buoyed with optimism as a fresh-faced government takes the reins in Ottawa — elected partly on a promise of renewed federal leadership on health care. Yet these “sunny ways” are overcast by recent developments at the provincial level that entrench and legitimize two-tier care.
Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/colleen-m-flood/canadian-health-care_b_8813156.html
In 1986, a person with lung cancer would be linked to approximately two types of disease. After the genome sequencing was completed in 2003, the medical community was able to find seven other molecular diseases associated to lung cancer and there are more to be discovered.
The access to new molecular data meant people had an increased chance of surviving lung cancer, whereas before the disease was considered a death sentence.
The original human genome project took 13 years to complete the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up human DNA at a cost of $3 billion. Today, this same process takes two days at cost roughly $15.
At the SAP Spotlight Tour earlier this week, healthcare professionals from CancerLinq, the Stanford University department of medicine and SAP’s own chief medical officer made a plea for more patient data to be made available in an effort to gain new insights for healthcare. The ultimate goal of this effort is to provide personalized medicine and treatment.
Read more: http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/why-big-data-means-big-changes-for-personalized-healthcare/379274#ixzz3u8EWcEkv
or visit http://www.itworldcanada.com for more Canadian IT News
Read more: http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/why-big-data-means-big-changes-for-personalized-healthcare/379274#ixzz3u8EJUI00
or visit http://www.itworldcanada.com for more Canadian IT News
While the impact of digital in health care is not new nor limited to a week, this is a chance to reflect upon the changes and new opportunities coming our way.
Over the last few years, entire hospitals have gone paperless and large swaths of digital imaging is filmless. Electronic medical records (EMRs) are increasingly commonplace in primary care, and telemedicine is growing in rural and urban settings. Even the stethoscope has gone digital.
Outside of the health system, we have handheld apps and wearables that can chart and log various aspects of our personal health — some promising to help diagnosis or suggest treatments.
This steady shift holds a strong potential to improve the quality of health care. Like most people, I support new technologies — although I can’t always claim to be an early adopter. However, I think we should temper enthusiasm with a degree of caution and be open to learning from some of the challenges to date.
Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dr-joshua-tepper/digital-health-care-how-t_b_8576200.html.
With Cyber Monday just around the corner, many people still wonder if it is safe to buy online during end-of-the-year sales events.
Of course it is safe in the sense that you won’t be pushed, hit, or crushed by other customers who also want to get their hands on the big deals. But is your credit or debit card information safe when you shop online? If you take a few basic precautions, you can enjoy the big discounts and not worry about getting into trouble.
Historically, November and December are the months with the most online transactions, and are therefore the months in which cyber-criminals are the most active.
We will enumerate the top five security threats you may encounter when shopping online and give you hints about how to shop safely on these dates.\
Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2015/11/28/top-5-cyber-monday-security-threats-and-what-to-do-about-them/#ixzz3snzVP4ZL
The dispute between Ontario doctors and the province over billing rates is threatening access to methadone treatment, with two private Toronto clinics closing their doors and patients in some rural communities facing an uncertain future.
The threat to service follows a 1.3-per-cent rate reduction imposed by the province last month on all fee-for-service billings. The money-saving measures also included targeted reductions, among them a 50-per-cent cut to rates paid to doctors for urine tests that are done once a week or more frequently as part of methadone therapy used to treat heroin and other opioid addictions.
Now at least one Toronto doctor says the fee cut amounts to roughly 25 per cent of his total revenue and means his smaller clinics are losing money. First Nations leaders also are warning access in rural and Northern communities is in danger because private clinics – where most methadone treatment is given – are not as financially attractive. Others say this latest battle over money points to deeper problems with how methadone treatment is delivered in Ontario that go beyond the current billing battle.
