Are you suffering burnout?
Like many people, I was facing significant challenges and burnout last year. It was so bad that I told my team in September that I was going to take a three- to six-month sabbatical starting in December. However, by the time January rolled around, and after just a few weeks of holidays, I was ready…
Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) typically leads to liver failure
It was a Friday afternoon, and Alexandra was running errands when she looked down at her five-month-old son Armando and thought, “You know, he looks really yellow, like jaundice, like a newborn would look.” She took him to their family doctor that same day and, by Monday, was told to go straight to the Stollery…
Polycystic ovary syndrome causes the ovaries to produce abnormally high levels of male hormones
By the time she was 15, Sarah Chambers knew something wasn’t right with her body. “I was late getting my first period, I’d only have a couple a year, and I had facial hair, but I got told it was teenage hormones.” So she waited, hoping the embarrassing symptoms would fade as she matured –…
The human body needs the right fuel for optimal performance
When it comes to learning, registered dietitian Heidi Bates likens humans to “high-performance sports cars” that need injections of just the right fuel throughout the day. “If you’re not fuelling the body at regular intervals, the amount of sugar in your blood – which is really the fuel for your brain – will go up…
There is nothing that bureaucracy cannot make worse
Bureaucracy begats bureaucracy, building its own demand and transforming people into managers designed to meet bureaucratic needs. A bureaucracy designed to serve patients ends up serving its creators instead and protects those who work inside. Economist William Niskanen offered a definition of bureaucracies in his book Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Roughly speaking, he says, 1)…
Uncover the links between microbiome, depression and immune conditions like asthma
A new University of Alberta laboratory is working to understand how altered microbiota – fungi, bacteria and viruses in the gut and lungs – are linked with mood disorders such as depression and inflammatory immune conditions such as asthma. Paul Forsythe, associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, has been named AstraZeneca Canada…
All evidence supports this conclusion
The Government of Canada and the official medical advisory groups are, once again, recommending the immediate need for more doses of both the existing COVID-19 vaccines and the new Omicron tailored vaccines, as the SARS CoV-2 virus continues to evolve, mutate, and spread rapidly. Emergency managers recognize that a vaccine may be part, but only…
Offer a small step to solving overconsumption and waste
Twenty-eight countries have universal healthcare. Twenty-two of them have some form of cost sharing. User fees offer one example. User fees work best as a small, flat fee paid at the point of service. Even a few dollars discourage (rational) people from booking an appointment for what they asked twice previously. User fees shorten the line…
A new report recommends a person only drink an average of zero to two alcoholic drinks per week
Looks like Canadians are drinking way too much alcohol. According to a recent report from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) which includes the assessment of over 5,000 different past studies on alcohol consumption from around the world, our country’s alcohol drinking guidelines need to be significantly reduced. The report recommends a…
Learning from the pros Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Amplify Your Business, produced by Amplomedia in partnership with Troy Media, will interview professional entrepreneurs who are currently in the trenches growing their businesses. Through insightful conversations, we will be unpacking their common business challenges and identifying the lessons every business owner needs to learn so…
Research has found that the sulphur content in some high-performance fabrics weakens them when exposed to moisture
Researchers have solved the mystery of why a high-performance fabric commonly used in firefighting and other protective garments weakens prematurely when exposed to moisture. The breakthrough helps solve a big safety challenge, says Saiful Hoque, a researcher with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. “As the garment weakens over time,…
Surface temperatures in Edmonton have increased by as much as 12C compared with surrounding rural areas over the last two decades
Last summer, Nilusha Welegedara and her family sweltered in their rented Edmonton townhouse, relying on air conditioning and fans to help make life bearable. With no trees for shade and living next door to a sun-baked parking lot, even going outside offered little relief, the University of Alberta researcher recalls. But then they moved to…
The federal funding supports centres that advance research in these two areas that have the potential to impact health on a wide scale
Two fundamental fields of study poised to revolutionize health treatments just got a major funding boost. The fields of glycomics and metabolomics are all about better understanding the human body and all its cells and processes. These two fields of study provide an avenue to address a wide variety of health needs. They are leading…
Political expediency once again trumps the realities of fixing health care
Canada’s health-care system continues to implode and fail Canadian patients at a catastrophic level. Systemic problems and staffing issues are overwhelming health care delivery, and people are dying from a lack of proper care. Daily news reports now relate the most egregious dysfunctions as patients sought help and instead found themselves in a chaotic system…
More money won’t solve the systemic, pervasive, and structural issues that plague Canadian health care
Hospital staffing in Ontario is in crisis – as it is in Alberta, British Columbia, and the rest of Canada. Provinces are responding with what they perceive as solutions: Ontario is fast-tracking foreign-trained nurses, and Alberta has made the interprovincial movement of professionals easier. But while these moves will help reduce the red tape surrounding…