Here’s a prescription for emergency room overcrowding
Fifty two per cent of Canadians agree that our health-care system is broken and needs to undergo fundamental change if it is going to meet our needs in the future. One essential change must be reducing the back-logs in Canadian emergency rooms. As a physician who practised emergency medicine, most of the beds in my […]
Health care in the North: Imagining a different future
WHITEHORSE, YUKON—What qualities lead to happiness and high achievement? Current brain research suggests the unconscious mind—emotion and intuition—play a much larger role than hitherto thought. Mental health depends upon connection. “Happiness is determined by how much information and affection flows through us covertly every day…” (D. Brooks, ‘Social Animal,’ The New Yorker, Jan. 17, 2011, […]
Federal-provincial health accord expires in 2014, experts say it’s time feds talk about their plans
Sustainability of the publicly-funded system, access to primary care, the rising cost of pharmaceuticals and human resource shortages are the top issues facing health care in Canada, say stakeholders and opposition MPs. All these issues are interconnected, however, and as Canada moves toward the end of the 10-year health accord signed in 2004, the federal […]
Evidence and the privatization of health care
Evidence-based medicine has been enthusiastically embraced in Canada and elsewhere, and broadened to include evidence-based policy. Meanwhile, we are faced with a clamour for the privatization of important features of our public health-care system in Canada. The evidence is clear that privatization means increased costs, reduced accessibility and even reduced quality. Why then this clamour? […]
The $2-billion extra price tag of brand-name drugs in Canada
Canadians often think that their prescription drugs are cheap. Otherwise, why would so many Americans cross the border to buy them? Yet in the last five years, Canada has been the world’s third most expensive country for brand-name drugs. In 1987, Canada passed changes to the Patent Act extending patent protection for prescription drugs from […]
Walking the talk: negotiating a more effective Canada Health Transfer
The current federal-provincial accord governing the Canada Health Transfer expires in 2014 and early preparations for the next round of negotiations are underway. At this stage, signs are not encouraging. The Harper government appears to want to get Ottawa out of the health sector as much as possible, so its primary objective is likely to […]
Innovation lagging, but feds promise comprehensive review of R&D support, says Clement
The Canadian biotechnology industry has a competitive advantage but organizations such as the Council of Canadian Academies and the Science, Technology and Innovation Council recognize that business innovation is also lagging behind other comparable countries. It’s why the government will conduct a comprehensive review of its support for research and development, says Industry Minister Tony […]
Biotechnology agriculture industry lobbies hard against Atamanenko’s private member’s bill
An NDP private member’s bill had the biotechnology industry lobbying Parliamentarians last week that if they pass it into law, it could stifle future Canadian innovation of new crop varieties and cause the agricultural biotechnology industry to stagnate. Meanwhile, organic growers, the National Farmers Union and others are urging Parliamentarians to support the bill to […]
Biotech companies downsizing, blame a lack of capital funding
Performance Plants Inc. was seen as the star of Kingston, Ont.-based budding knowledge-based economy. With 29 employees there and another six in New York State, the 15-year-old company spent years developing genetically modified crops that are more tolerant to drought. “Kingston firm sows the seeds of success,” read a headline in The Kingston Whig Standard […]
A grand innovative challenge with Africa: Africa research chairs
A grand challenge, according to the newly-launched Grand Challenges Canada, is a barrier that, if overcome, would help solve an urgent development-related problem in the developing world with the likelihood of global impact through widespread implementation. There have been a number of examples of this over the past decade, including the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges […]
