health care Archives | Research & Innovation

Psychology prof co-lead in $1.8 million government funded program

muellerm — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ psychology Professor Jonathan Weiss is one of the co-leads in a research program that was recently awarded $1.8 million over three years from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s Health System Research Fund.

The program, Health Care Access Research in Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD), aims to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of individuals with developmental disabilities through improved health-care policy and services.

H-CARDD is directed by Yona Lunsky from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the University of Toronto. Weiss, the Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders Treatment and Care Research in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, is a member of the program’s core team, which includes scientists, clinicians and policymakers from across Ontario.

Jonathan Weiss

Individuals with developmental disabilities are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations when it comes to accessing healthcare. The goal of H-CARDD is to reduce disparities in health outcomes of Ontarians with developmental disabilities.

Four vulnerable subgroups will be examined over the next three years. The four subgroups are as follows:

Aging Adults with co-leads Lynn Martin of Lakehead University and Hélène Ouellette-Kuntz of Queen's University
Women with co-leads Virginie Cobigo of the University of Ottawa and Simone Vigod of Women’s College Hospital.
Youth Transitioning to Adult Services with Weiss and Barry Isaacs of Surrey Place Centre
Individuals with “Dual Diagnosis” with Rob Balogh of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Elizabeth Lin of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Researchers already know that youth with developmental disabilities visit emergency rooms more often than others and have higher rates of psychiatric hospitalization than youth without disabilities. What is needed is more research at the individual and system level on the factors that lead to these high rates and that is what Weiss and Isaacs will be doing.

Young people with developmental disabilities have difficulty in transitioning into adult health care services. For those who need mental health services, it is even more difficult especially with an already difficult to navigate health-care system. That can lead to a worsening of issues.

“Understanding patterns of service use as adolescents with developmental disabilities transition into adulthood can help us to identify barriers and gaps in the health service system,” says Weiss. “Doing so can lead to improved primary care and addressing problems before they become severe.”

H-CARDD’s program of research will provide new information that profiles vulnerable developmental disability subgroups and will translate research into action by facilitating the uptake of evidence-based practices in primary and emergency care.

H-CARDD’s partners include the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Surrey Place Centre, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, 91��ɫ, Lakehead University, Sunnybrook Hospital, and Women’s College Hospital.

For more information about the H-CARDD program, contact Julie Klein-Geltink, H-CARDD manager, at julie.kleingeltink@camh.ca.

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Despite benefits, heart failure clinics rarely used

muellerm — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Outpatient heart failure clinics, which provide patient education on risk factor and ways to manage the condition, prescribe home-based exercises and monitor therapy compliance, have shown they reduce morbidity, mortality and health care costs, a new study has found.

Published in the current issue of the , the study reports that despite guidelines encouraging physicians to recommend heart failure clinics, few patients recently hospitalized with heart failure receive referrals or use one.

“Given the demonstrated benefits of these services, the rates of referral and enrollment in our study are discouragingly low,” says lead investigator Shannon Gravely (PhD ’11) of 91��ɫ, the University Health Network and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. 91��ɫ Professor Sherry Grace and Professor Liane Ginsburg both of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health were also involved with the study.

Shannon Gravely

The investigators recruited 474 heart failure inpatients from 11 hospitals across Ontario. The patients completed a survey that evaluated environmental and individual factors affecting heart failure clinic use. Environmental factors included hospital type, whether the hospital had an onsite heart failure clinic and whether the patient had been referred to other outpatient disease management programs (DMP), such as smoking cessation clinics or diabetes education. Individual factors included socio-demographic information, whether the patient lived in a rural area, marital status, perceived stress and depressive symptoms. Clinical indicators of the need for rehabilitative services were gathered from patient charts.

A year after the first survey, the patients received a second survey. The 270 patients who completed the follow-up survey reported on whether they had been referred to a heart failure clinic and if they had attended.

Results showed that 15 per cent of study participants were referred to a heart failure clinic and 13 per cent reported using one. Patients with higher education were five times more likely to use an outpatient heart failure clinic compared to those with lower education. Lower stress levels and more serious health conditions were also associated with heart failure clinic use. Patients who received a referral to another DMP were nearly five times more likely to use a heart failure clinic. The most important factor in determining whether a patient used a heart failure clinic was the presence of an established program at the patient’s original hospital.

“It’s likely that having an HR clinic on-site is related to greater awareness of the benefits of such services by physicians providing care,” says Gravely. “However, broader referral mechanisms are needed to ensure that all patients, regardless of where they receive care, have equitable access to heart failure clinics.”

In a related study published in the same issue, Gravely and colleagues examined more broadly the use of DMPs by patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). The survey looked at factors that influenced DMP use and was completed by 1,803 hospitalized patients, along with a follow-up study a year later which assessed whether they had used any DMPs, such as cardiac rehabilitation, outpatient diabetes education, a heart failure clinic, stroke rehabilitation or a smoking cessation program.

Overall, roughly 40 per cent of patients did not access any post-acute DMPs, 50 per cent accessed one program and 10 per cent attended more than one. Among participants with a comorbid indication (diabetes, stroke, heart failure or smokers), 21 per cent of these participants reported that they used multiple programs. DMP participants were younger, more likely to be married and more highly educated than those who did not attend DMPs.

Overall, 53 per cent reported participating in cardiac rehabilitation, and among participants with a comorbid illness or risk, 41per cent of diabetics reported attending a diabetes education center, 26 per cent of stroke patients attended stroke rehabilitation, 13 per cent of patients with a heart failure diagnosis used a heart failure clinic and 12 per cent of smokers attended a smoking cessation program. Among all study participants these findings suggest a gross underuse of DMP services, particularly stroke rehabilitation, heart failure clinics, and most notably, smoking cessation programs.

“What is one of the most concerning findings is that only 12 per cent of current smokers reported taking part in a smoking cessation program,” says Gravely. “Participation in smoking cessation programs results in significantly higher cessation rates when compared with standard care.”

Gravely notes that future research is needed to explore not only patient-related factors, but also health-system factors, such as awareness and capacity that may be at play. “The appropriateness and cost repercussions of multiple DMP use should be investigated, as an integrated approach to vascular disease management may be warranted.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Interactive computer assessments may help foster health equity

fmaquito — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Through the use of interactive, computer-assisted health-assessments, Professor Farah Ahmad hopes to foster equity in health care, especially at the intersections of gender, ethnicity and migration. Ahmad will present her research and discuss how embracing eHealth innovations can boost community empowerment as part of the 91��ɫ eHealth Alliance Lecture Series.

The lecture, “eHealth Innovations to Address Health Inequities: A Case of Computer-Assisted Health-Assessment in Primary Care,” will take place Thursday, Feb. 16, from 3 to 4pm, at 402 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building.

Farah Ahmad

“Equity in health-care access is a key social determinant of population health,” says Ahmad, who is based in the Faculty of Health’s School of Health Policy & Management. “Fostering equity mechanisms is more salient today than ever before due to the challenges of economic recession and changing demographics.”

One way to embrace eHealth is by using interactive computer-assisted health-assessments in primary care for prevention and health promotion. Her recent research demonstrates that these kinds of assessments can enable patients to disclose socially stigmatized issues, such as partner violence and compromised mental health, as well as assist providers to offer needed care and referrals.

Ahmad’s action research on eHealth for psychosocial healthcare re-orientation takes place at the critical intersections of gender, ethnicity and migration. It is grounded in principles of social science includes quantitative and qualitative studies with inner city women, refugees and health-care providers. She will highlight the potential to develop integrated care models as an important pathway for simultaneous actions on the multiple health determinants that improve life conditions.

Ahmad is affiliated with the Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St. Michael’s Hospital as an associate scientist and with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Training Initiatives on Health Research on Health, Care, Place & Technology as a mentor. She held several prestigious fellowships, including awards from the CIHR during her doctorate and post-doctorate.

For more information, visit the Faculty of Health website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Health summit's goal is to transform health care

fmaquito — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The challenge in health care today is to shift the emphasis toward prevention and health promotion, while creating accessible and sustainable health services for all. It’s this kind of transformation that is at the heart of discussion at a by-invitation-only Rethinking Health Summit: A Roadmap for Integrated Systems in the GTA/91��ɫ Region today at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

A critical component of this health-care transformation is the move toward people-centred health that can be powerfully enabled by eHealth information and communication technology (ICT). As Canada faces a looming health-care crisis, today’s Faculty of Health summit is all about integrating health and health care to ensure accessible and sustainable health services for all.

Left: Faculty of Health Dean Harvey Skinner

Roberto Nuño Solinís, director of the Basque Institute for Healthcare Innovation, will talk about the problems and solutions of transformation in health care in the Basque Country, Spain. University of Toronto Professor , chief innovator and founder of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, will bring a global perspective to the discussion, while Daniele Zanotti, chief executive officer of the United Way of 91��ɫ Region, will bring the 91��ɫ Region perspective.

Right: U of T's Alex Jadad

Harvey Skinner, dean of the Faculty of Health, is co-chair of the summit with Jadad and , who is president of the Canadian Association of People-Centred Health. Skinner will talk about the mission to design and test ways to dramatically improve the capacity to keep more people and their communities healthier, longer.

To do that, he says, it is important to go beyond traditional boundaries in medicine and health care and to work together to create an integrated health system. That means addressing the social determinants of health, prevention and health promotion, as well as providing accessible, quality treatment and rehabilitation when needed.

Left: Co-chair Vaughan Glover

The summit will provide an opportunity for participants to share key learning about what works and what doesn’t in integrated health systems and an innovative network will be explored for linking academic, clinical, public health, community and private sector partners with potential chronic disease/injury initiatives.

In the second half of the summit, participants will have the opportunity to co-create a roadmap for accelerating innovation in chronic disease prevention and management that will support the design, testing and implementation of integrated systems in the culturally diverse community of the GTA, including 91��ɫ Region.

For more information, visit the Rethinking Health website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Six Faculty of Health professors honoured for excellence

fmaquito — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Six Faculty of Health professors were honoured for their outstanding contributions at a presentation of the 2010-2011 Dean’s Awards for Excellence last week.

An award is given to two faculty members, one in the early career category and another in the established career category, in the areas of research, service and teaching. The awards, which took place Sept. 14, are conferred annually by the Faculty of Health Research & Awards Committee.

“This year’s winners are joining a very illustrious group. Every year the committee is faced with a very difficult task because everyone nominated is quite deserving,” said Gordon Flett, who chaired the adjudication process. “The award itself is a great way of recognizing the outstanding accomplishments, as well as the exceptional commitments that our faculty members have made both within the Faculty of Health and in the broader community.”

Above: Back row, from left, William Gage, associate dean of research & innovation in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health, Christine Jonas-Simpson, Dianne McCauley and Peter Tsasis. Front row, from left, Mary Wiktorowicz, Marcia Rioux, Mary Fox and Harvey Skinner, dean of the Faculty of Health

Excellence in Research Award (Early Career) – Professor Mary Fox (Nursing)

Fox was honoured for her research in the prevention of bed rest dependency in older adults with complex chronic disease. Fox has been recognized as having made significant contributions to her field. Her work has been critiqued by Canadian Institutions of Health Research (CIHR) peer reviewers as “very innovative”, “highly significant”, and “to be of interest nationally”. A recently funded grant by the CIHR ranked Fox’s application first out of 47, and place it in the outstanding category – the highest attainable category. In addition to serving as a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Nursing, Fox is an Adjunct scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Fox said having her work recognized and knowing that her colleagues and students have taken the time to nominate her “means a lot.”

Excellence in Research Award (Established Career) – Professor Marcia Rioux (Health Policy & Management)

Rioux, a distinguished and internationally recognized scholar, has published 10 books and monographs, over 50 articles and book chapters, and as principle investigator has held nearly $18 million in research grants over the past 30 years. Her nominator describes her as a visionary leader who is changing the way disability is studied and responded to in the context of human rights and social empowerment.

Rioux said the award reflects a significant honour for her as does the support she has received from her colleagues throughout the University. “My work benefits from 91��ɫ’s rich intellectual environment and an international, interdisciplinary research agenda related to social justice and human rights.”

The award came just as her latest book, Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and Disability Law, an edited collection that recapitulates many of the themes of Rioux’s research, was published.

Excellence in Service Award (Early Career) – Professor Dianne McCauley (Nursing)

McCauley is described by her nominator as “an excellent student advocate, not only with individual students, but also, of the student body at large; the kind of solid citizen who makes the School of Nursing successful.”

“It is an honour to be recognized by my colleagues … my colleagues, staff and students have enabled me to be successful in my role and receive this award,” said McCauley.

Well known to faculty and students for her availability and supportiveness to students, McCauley has actively participated in a number of key nursing committees, including the Student Affairs Committee and the Practicum Committee. Since 2007, she has served as undergraduate program director of the Collaborative BScN Program in the School of Nursing.

Excellence in Service Award (Established Career) – Professor Mary Wiktorowicz (Health Policy & Management)

Wiktorowicz began her tenure as the chair of 91��ɫ’s School of Health Policy & Management in 2006, the inaugural year of the Faculty of Health. Her colleagues assert that under her leadership, enrolment to the school has almost quadrupled and applicant quality has significantly increased. Additionally, Wiktorowicz has led the development of several new undergraduate programs, and has guided the final stage of development and the launch of the new Graduate Health Program, which includes a pan-University MA and a direct-entry PhD in health.

In addition to her many outstanding accomplishments at the School of Health Policy & Management, Wiktorowicz has actively participated in many committees over the years, spanning across all levels of the University. She has been an integral part of the 91��ɫ Senate and likewise as the 91��ɫ representative for the Ontario Training Centre Diploma in Health Services & Policy Research. Wiktorowicz has also made a sustained contribution to service at the national and provincial levels. Her recent work on the governance of mental health networks has recently been adopted by the Ontario Local Health Integration Networks Collaborative.

When asked what service means to her, Wiktorowicz said, “Service is like planting a seed, and it takes more than a single individual’s contribution to create a beautiful garden. There are amazing people in the school who each day sow the seeds of success. Good things happen when we all contribute. Being recognized among such an exceptional group of colleagues makes this a particular honour.”

Excellence in Teaching Award (Early Career) – Professor Christine Jonas-Simpson (Nursing)

Jonas-Simpson, who says she “loves to teach,” describes her pedagogy as “reflective of an arts-based narrative interpretive human science approach.” Instructor evaluation scores in nursing typically average 3.8 out of 5. Jonas-Simpson’s instructor evaluation scores are consistently 4.88 or 4.99 out of 5. Her students write, “Christine is by far the most caring, understanding, adaptable teacher I’ve ever had. She let us shape our class to suit our learning,” and “Christine epitomizes the human science philosophy that the program subscribes to by valuing her students’ experiences and being truly present with them.”

Jonas-Simpson has created engaging teaching tools through research-documentary films in collaboration with her colleagues from 91��ɫ and the community at large. She and her research colleagues have recently received Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada funding to begin filming the fourth research documentary in a series of inter-professional educational pieces focusing on children’s experiences of the loss of a baby sibling.

Excellence in Teaching Award (Established Career) – Professor Peter Tsasis (Health Policy & Management and Administrative Studies)

Tsasis, who is appointed jointly to the School of Health Policy & Management and the School of Administrative Studies, teaches various disciplines. A nominator remarked, “It is rare to find an individual that can span his teaching across the spectrum of disciplines and deliver exceptional teaching performance.” Tsasis stretches his teaching beyond the lecture hall, mentoring many students in the Research at 91��ɫ program. In 91��ɫ’s Alumni Matters newsletter, one student remarked, “working with Professor Tsasis was one of the best experiences I will ever have in my life.” In one of four letters of support, a student said, “Dr. Tsasis has unequivocally been the best professor I have had.”

Most recently, Tsasis has undertaken an initiative to negotiate with community health service organizations internship placements for students registered in a fourth-year Health Studies Project Management course, giving students the opportunity for enriching field experience. He has also helped to create a new certificate program in Health Service Finance offered jointly by the School of Health Policy & Management and the School of Administrative Studies. This program is designed to provide students with the opportunity for fast-track entry into the certified management accountant designation, while providing a skill set much in need in the health-care industry.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Four 91��ɫ professors elected to the Royal Society of Canada

fmaquito — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The achievements of four 91��ɫ professors have been recognized by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), which has inducted them as Fellows.

Professor Pat Armstrong, a distinguished research professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS); Professor Isabella Bakker in the Department of Political Science in LA&PS; Professor Rishma Dunlop in the Faculty of Education and in the Department of English in LA&PS; and Professor Bernard Lightman in the Department of Humanities, LA&PS, have all been inducted into the society as Fellows.

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ community, I would like to offer our sincere congratulations to four of our faculty members on being named as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,” said President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “This prestigious recognition is well-deserved as Drs. Armstrong, Bakker, Dunlop and Lightman are leading scholars who have made outstanding contributions in research in their fields.”

The society has elected 78 new Fellows, including two Foreign Fellows, and one Honorary Fellow to its ranks for 2011. The newly elected Fellows will be officially inducted on Saturday, Nov. 26, during a ceremony at the Ottawa Convention Centre.

Election to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada is one of the highest honours awarded to Canadian scholars in the arts, humanities and sciences.

Pat Armstrong (right) is an internationally renowned sociologist with expertise in health care and women’s health, social policy, and gender and work. She has co-authored numerous books on health policy, including They Deserve Better: The Long-Term Care Experience in Canada and Scandinavia, Women’s Health: Intersections of Policy, Research and Practice, and Critical to Care: The Invisible Women in Health Services, among others. Armstrong is the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Health Services and Nursing Research and an executive member of both the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy and Equity. She is the principal investigator for a major collaborative research initiative project titled “Re-imagining Long-Term Residential Care: An International Study of Promising Practices,” which is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Isabella Bakker (left) teaches International Political Economy, Women and Politics and Public Finance. A leading global expert in her field, Bakker’s research examines the interplay between feminist perspectives and international public policy, with a focus on how macroeconomics and fiscal policy affect questions of gender and social justice. Bakker’s published work includes: Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective, Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy, Beyond States and Markets: The Challenges of Social Reproduction and The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at 91��ɫ since 1986, and has held visiting professorships at the European University Institute in Florence, the University of California Santa Barbara and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, among other institutions. Bakker is a Trudeau Fellow and was named Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2004. She is the principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded project “Budgeting for Women’s Human Rights in Canada”.

Rishma Dunlop (right) is an award-winning Canadian poet, playwright, essayist, and fiction writer. She is founding editor of the international online literary journal Studio. Dunlop’s poetry collections include: White Album (2008), Metropolis (2005), Reading Like a Girl (2004) and The Body of My Garden (2002). Next month, her fifth book, Lover Through Departure: New and Selected Poems will be published. Known for her innovative research that merges scholarly inquiry with artistic production, Dunlop has taught interdisciplinary seminars on research and artistic creation for over a decade. In 2009 to 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Canada-US Fulbright Research Chair at the Virginia Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She won the Emily Dickinson Prize for Poetry in 2003, and her non-fiction and poetry have been short-listed for the CBC Literary Awards. She is currently principal investigator on the SSHRC research initiative on poetry of witness, human Rights and transitional justice. She is an interdisciplinary scholar, cross-appointed to 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and the Department of English, where she was coordinator of the Creative Writing program from 2007 to 2011.

Bernard Lightman (left) is an internationally renowned historian and currently the editor of Isis, the quarterly journal of the History of Science Society. He is also director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies at 91��ɫ. Lightman’s area of expertise is the cultural history of Victorian science. He is editor of the Pickering and Chatto Press monograph series, titled “Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century”, in which 14 books have been published. His publications include: The Origins of Agnosticism, Victorian Popularizers of Science, Evolutionary Naturalism in Victorian Britain and Victorian Science in Context, among others. Currently, Lightman is working on a biography of the physicist John Tyndall, and he is the founder of an international correspondence project to collect and publish Tyndall’s letters. The project is being funded by the Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

For more information on the 2011 Fellows, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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CIHR-funded nursing study finds specialized senior care delivers best hospital outcomes

fmaquito — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Seniors receiving hospital care in acute care for elders units have shorter hospital stays, experience fewer declines in physical functioning and are less likely to be discharged to a nursing home than when treated in regular hospital units. This is one of the preliminary findings of a -funded study led at 91��ɫ.

The researchers systematically screened more than 50,000 articles on existing studies of acute care for elders interventions, and included 63 different studies in either a narrative or meta-analysis.

91��ɫ nursing Professor Mary Fox, the study's principal investigator, unveiled the preliminary findings at 91��ɫ Central Hospital recently, while Michael Johnny of the Knowledge Mobilization (KM) unit provided KMb strategies to help the hospital determine how to disseminate the information.

Above: Mary Fox with participants at the unveiling at 91��ɫ Central Hospital

The goal of the research is to develop senior-friendly hospitals by informing and engaging decision makers about the best interventions to prevent functional cognitive, social and physical decline in older adults when they are hospitalized. Seventy-five per cent of people age 65 and older have two chronic illnesses and that can lead to a sudden worsening of their condition requiring hospitalization, says Fox.

Right: Mary Fox

“Sixty-two per cent of all day beds in acute care are filled with people 65 years of age and older and they make up only 13 per cent of the population. They really are the core care customer for acute care hospitals,” she says. “My role is to get the evidence and engage the decision makers and researchers in interpreting it for their context. We’re not just rolling it out, but engaging them from the very beginning so the information will be more useful.”

Left: Deborah Tregunno

The study also looked at what the system needs to provide and what interventions are needed to best serve seniors in acute care hospitals.

“I was interested in the study because there is really a lot of evidence that says when older people visit hospitals, they are at risk of experiencing bad outcomes,” says Fox. “The poor outcomes are not related to their illness, but to other things, like not getting up and walking around while in the hospital or not eating well. There are things that fall through the cracks.”

91��ɫ Central Hospital is interested in knowing what those things are so they can provide even better care for older adults.

Professor Deborah Tregunno and Professor Malini Persaud, a former post-doctoral fellow, both of 91��ɫ's School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health, along with 91��ɫ librarian IIo-Katryn Maimets and researchers from Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, were co-investigators of the study.

The team also included Michael Johnny, Andrea England, director of research and partnerships in the Faculty of Health, 91��ɫ adjunct librarian Angela Hamiton and decision-making partners Tiziana Rivera, chief practice officer at 91��ɫ Central Hospital, and Dr. Mary Ferguson-Paré, former vice-president of professional affairs and chief nurse executive at University Health Network.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Three research centres to host open house in TEL building January 13 from 2:30 to 5 pm

fmaquito — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

The LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution, the (ISR) and the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research (YIHR) are holding a research open house Thursday to highlight some of the excellence in research within each of the three units.

The event will take place Jan. 13, from 2:30 to 5pm, on the 5th Floor of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building, Keele campus. In addition, there will be some short remarks at 3:30pm in 5084 TEL Building, at the south end of the hallway. Refreshments will be served.

The open house will showcase faculty- and student-led research projects, along with short presentations by researchers.

The LaMarsh Centre conducts interdisciplinary research in health, education, relationships and development of infants, children, adolescents, emerging adults and families. Its particular focus is on the health and well-being of Canada’s youth, preventing youth violence and promoting positive development. The aim is to foster a centre of learning, productivity and exchange for new and senior scholars and to create a critical mass of related research activity.

The YIHR takes a determinants approach to health research with sub-areas including diversity and health, health equity and social justice, health and the environment, health law and ethics, health care and health governance. YIHR draws together a range of social, biomedical, environmental and behavioural scientists, as well as researchers from business, law, education and the physical sciences, bridging the divide between the sciences and social sciences to deliver real-world solutions.

The houses the largest university-based survey centre in Canada, conducting major surveys on population health, education, gender, the environment and voting behaviour. It conducts more than 25 survey research projects annually, as well as a range of qualitative research, including focus group studies. ISR staff complete all stages of the survey research process from questionnaire design, sample selection and data collection to the preparation of machine-readable data files, statistical analysis and report writing.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Poverty makes us sick; Professor Dennis Raphael says it should make us angry

fmaquito — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

The sky in Lawrence Heights is low and the horizon is as wide as it gets in the city; no skyscrapers here. Dennis Raphael and I were walking through the neighbourhood on a chilly day, wrote columnist :

He is a professor of health policy & management in 91��ɫ University’s Faculty of Health, and he is an observant guy. No skyscrapers?

“Downsview,” he said.

I should have known. The airport; incoming likes it low. But there are other features of the neighbourhood that are much more notable, in particular the overlapping of the maps of poverty, illness and crime.

What kind of poverty? Crushing. What kind of crime? You name it. How about illness?

Let’s talk diabetes. Everyone’s talking about it these days. The national public broadcaster even has a bunch of people eating lettuce and doing jumping jacks on TV.

Is it lifestyle? Fooey.

Raphael did a health study in a while back. His findings show that the correlation [of poverty and poor health] is not between the couch and the potato. “People who are poor don’t have the resources to be healthy. Diabetes is three or four times more likely to occur among poor people.”

He talked freely as we walked along. “We interviewed low-income people. We were struck, when we did the study, by how unable people were to access resources: the poor don’t go to ball games, to movies. They never spoke of recreation, of volunteering, of going out with friends.In other words, the poor have fewer ways to relieve their stress, and stress is a factor of the disease of diabetes, and I don’t know any poor people who are relaxed.

I was going to ask about other factors when he said something that is encouraging and ridiculous at once.

“People with life-threatening illnesses overwhelmingly say they get good health care. And most people on disability get free meds, diabetes test strips, monitors, feet and eye exams; and, overwhelmingly, they had public housing.” That’s the good news.

“But even with those pluses, we found that 72 per cent of the people we surveyed couldn’t afford the food they needed to be healthy.” He wasted no time in pointing out the irony: “The health care system will treat you fine if you keel over, but we won’t provide you with the resources you need to avoid getting sick.”

An easy fix?

“People are suffering, but I see little evidence that things are getting better.” I shivered, not from the cold. We passed a solid little building. He said, “The community health centre here is great. And the Community Care Access Centre is great.”

His proof?

“The people in our study knew about blood monitoring.” That, by the way, is a constant for diabetics. “And they knew about eating healthy food. But we found they didn’t have the money to afford the food they needed.”

That’s an outrage, or it ought to be.

I noted that some people seem to think that if you are fat, you are more prone to diabetes. Raphael hammered away at his original theme: “It isn’t whether you are fat, it’s whether you are poor.

“Countries that have low poverty rates are countries that give things like child care, tuition, decent social assistance.” These are countries where — surprise, surprise — people’s health is generally better.

“But in countries like ours, where there is a good chance of being poor, you don’t get those things — you don’t get universal child care; you don’t get good, solid employment insurance.”

Funny how we say we can’t afford first-rate social programs, and yet many of our neighbours haven’t got the money they need to be healthy. The dots ought to be easy to connect.

Raphael has published extensively about the , and the social determinants of health in Canada and internationally.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Nursing researchers collaborate with Department of Theatre to highlight patient safety issues on stage

fmaquito — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Canadian Patient Safety Week, the play’s the thing.

Researchers at 91��ɫ’s have come up with a pioneering way to convey their evidence-based research on what can happen when health-care mistakes are made – they’re putting on a play about it.

Seeing the Forest, inspired by a true story about what happens when a patient is not heard, will be staged as part of , Nov. 1 to 5.

Directed by 91��ɫ theatre studies PhD candidate Laura Jayne Nelles (BA Spec. Hons. ’84, MFA ’07) and presented by 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and the 91��ɫ – UHN (University Health Network) Nursing Academy, the play will take place Monday, Nov. 1 at 1pm in 152 Founders Assembly Hall, Founders College, Keele campus. The event is free and open to everyone.

It will also be performed as part of a symposium at various health-care sites across the Greater Toronto Area.

91��ɫ Professors Deborah Tregunno and Liane Ginsburg of the School of Nursing, are leaders in the field of patient safety culture. They collaborated with 91��ɫ nursing Professor Gail Mitchell, who has experience with conveying research findings through the arts. This dramatic approach presents research from their studies conducted in four provinces, in cooperation with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.

The play’s development was financially supported by the 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health Interprofessional Education Fund (IPE). IPE programming is shared with the health-care community through the Faculty’s innovative .

Co-written by professional playwright Julia Gray (BFA Spec. Hons. ’98, MA ’07) and Mitchell, Seeing the Forest is being performed in collaboration with six organizations, including the Central Community Care Access Centre, the , , , and Unionville Home Society.

“By dramatizing research using the arts, the findings become more meaningful,” says Mitchell. “The play presents the complexity of real life from the perspective of the patient and health care professionals. The impact is much stronger than it would be if you were just reading words off the page of a research report.”

The key character in the play, Healther, goes to the hospital for routine surgery and tries to communicate specific concerns to different health-care providers, yet things go awry. Research suggests that 2.9 to 16.6 percent of patients in acute care hospitals experience one or more adverse events.

“Health care providers work hard to keep patients safe every day. However, there are often systemic issues that contribute to errors. This play is valuable because it strikes an emotional chord and engages people in conversations about improving safety,” says Tregunno.

“This play is a great example of the innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to health care led by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health,” adds Professor Lesley Beagrie, associate dean, professional & global programs. “Instead of tailoring health-care programs to individual silos within the health profession, we aim to keep the focus on the end user – the patient.”

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