Blogs

The Care-ring Voice Network along with VHA Home Healthcare are offering a free webinar on May 29th from 7:00PM - 8:30PM (EST) on how to start an advance care planning conversation and planning for your loved one's end-of-life wishes. This session is offered in English and is also available by phone. Space is limited so register today! Visit their website here.

Do you believe research has a key role to play in improving the primary healthcare (PHC) system in Canada? Are you interested in being involved in shaping the path of PHC research in Canada? The Patients’ Association of Canada is participating in a new venture with the Canadian Primary Health Care Research and Innovation Network (CPHCRIN), an emerging research, training and knowledge exchange network in community-based primary health care (CBPHC), to engage patients in the ongoing development of a pan-Canadian CBPHC research network and research agenda. CPHCRIN provides a special focus on research in the areas of chronic disease prevention and management, primary healthcare service delivery, addressing health disparities and inequities, and meeting the needs of vulnerable populations.

On Monday, June 3rd, Health Sciences North in Sudbury is holding a summit, Designing a More Seniors-Friendly Community. Patients’ Association President, Sholom Glouberman, will be giving a talk about the role that patients and their families can take in improving the system. Prior to the event, there will also be a Seniors Fair, featuring information booths about the various services available to seniors at Health Sciences North and in the community. Both events are free! Learn more here

We’ve been working with Northumberland Hills Hospital, the Change Foundation, and other partners in Northumberland County on the PATH project. The project allows patients and caregivers to partner with providers across the community and system to co-design changes to improve healthcare transitions and experiences. Listen here to how the five project elements work to improve the patient experience.

Learn more about this project here.

Patients in the South East Local Health Integration Network have nominated a family physician and for the first time ever, a critical care team that comprises physicians and a physiotherapist for a Patients' Choice Award. Never before have a group of healthcare providers been nominated for this prestigious award.

This year's recipients are from Kingston. Family physician Dr. Sandra Brown and critical care team Dr. Conrad Watters, Dr. John Rudan, Dr. Peter Brown, Dr. David Ruggles, Dr. Sheryl French, and Heidi Linley were nominated by their patients for their commitment to enhancing the patients' overall experience within the healthcare system.

Find more information on the Patients' Choice Awards here.

In collecting written patient narratives and hearing them during our Open Meetings, it became clear that there were parts of patients’ experience that could have been made better with a small adjustment to a process or by adding a training component. Thus, we developed the KPIs for PFCC project. Our goal is to create a list of KPIs that act as hard indicators that organizations can look at to see if they have certain patient and family-centred processes in place.

This patient community website learned a lot from its members - five million posts written by the patients and caregivers in its online health community. The sheer volume of activity in the community—about three New York Times’s—worth of words written around the clock each day—makes it just about impossible to read every word, but certain themes stand out.  Such as, 'Patients want doctors to treat them as partners.' Read the full article here.

Catherine Cross -- The federal government is considering making adverse drug reaction reporting mandatory for doctors and other health care providers, says Health Canada.

Health Canada is concerned that adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are underreported. The Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology estimates that only 5% of suspected ADRs are reported... Every year, drug distributors submit a summary of all ADR reports to Health Canada, stating whether the reported ADRs change the drug's risk-to-benefit profile.

Sholom Glouberman, president of the Canadian Patients' Association, is concerned that practices like this give drug companies too much power. He describes drug regulation as a dance between pharma and the government.

Read the full article here.
Photo credit: 2013, Thinkstock