scholarly journals Canadian health care professionals' knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of nutritional genomics

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (8) ◽  
pp. 1112-1119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Weir ◽  
Karine Morin ◽  
Nola Ries ◽  
David Castle
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professional ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Genome Project ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Open Debate ◽  
Canadian Health Care ◽  
Nutritional Genomics

Nutritional genomics has reached the public through applications of the Human Genome Project offered direct to consumers (DTC). The ability to pursue nutrigenetic testing without the involvement of a health care professional has received considerable attention from academic and policy commentators. To better understand the knowledge and attitudes of Canadian health care professionals regarding nutritional genomics and nutrigenetic testing, qualitative research in the form of focus group discussions was undertaken. Four key themes emerged: (1) concerns over DTC testing; (2) lack of health care professional competency; (3) genetic scepticism and inevitability; (4) expectation of regulation. Together, they indicate that health care professionals have little knowledge about nutritional genomics and hold contradictory attitudes towards genomics in general, and to nutritional genomics in particular. Respondents argue in favour of a delivery model where health care professionals act as intermediaries. They are also aware of their lack of competency to provide such services. To ensure greater public protection, respondents cite the importance of more stringent regulatory oversight of DTC genetic testing. Whether such an approach is necessary to address the various ethical and social issues raised by nutrigenetic testing remains an open debate.

scholarly journals Tobacco Control and Nicotine Addiction in Canada: Current trends, Management and Challenges

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew McIvor
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Tobacco Control ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Care Organizations ◽  
Nicotine Addiction ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care

Despite a significant decrease in tobacco use over the past four decades, cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Canada. Nicotine addiction, unequal access to available support programs and gaps in continuity of health care are recognized as the main barriers to smoking cessation. To overcome these obstacles and to reach the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy goal of reducing smoking prevalence in Canada from 19% to 12% by 2011, several Canadian health care organizations developed extensive sets of recommendations. Improved access to affordable pharmacotherapies and behavioural counselling, better training of health care professionals and the addition of systemic cessation measures appear to be the key components in all of the proposed recommendations.The present article provides an overview of the current approaches to smoking cessation in Canada, describes the remaining challenges, and outlines recent recommendations that are geared toward not only tobacco control but also overall improvement in long-term health outcomes.

scholarly journals The Impact of Health Care Restructuring on Nosocomial Infections and Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistant Organisms

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 271-274
Author(s):  
J Conly ◽  
Lynn Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Health Care Expenditures ◽  
Outpatient Basis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care ◽  
The Impact

The past decade has seen a dramatic change in Canadian health care as the treatment of many patients shifts from the hospital setting to the home or other alternative health care settings (1). Complex advances in technology and significant changes in the funding environment have also precipitated many changes in the functional capacity of our health care system. The portion of the total Canadian health care expenditures that has been allocated to hospitals and other institutions has declined steadily over the past two decades (2,3). This reduction in institutional-based funding reflects the need to develop a system that improves the use of out-of-hospital sites for delivery of health care services and decreases reliance on the specific institutional component of the health care sector. Recent data reveal that Canadian hospital discharge rates have decreased by 14% between 1994 and 1998, and there has been a reduction in the length of stay from 7.4 to 7 days (4). In conjunction with a reduction in the number of hospital beds, there has been a massive shift in the proportion of surgeries that are performed on an outpatient basis. Further developments in the delivery of care include the increased use of telehealth, which allows health care professionals to provide increasingly complex services centralized hospital sites to outlying areas.

Conflicts of Interest in Canadian Health Care

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 259-280
Author(s):  
Bernard M. Dickens
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Canadian Law ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care ◽  
Law Reports ◽  
Health Care Law

A study of conflicts of interest in Canadian health care law supposes that Canadian law contains features that distinguish it from law in any other jurisdiction. There was a time when law applied in the Canadian Common Law jurisdictions lacked these features. The law and legal process of the Common Law jurisdictions derived directly from England, whereas the Civil Law of Quebec was fashioned on the French Code Napoléon. Indeed, as recently as 1959, a distinguished Canadian academic commentator observed that “a perusal of Canadian law reports … conveys the impression that most of the opinions reported there are those of English judges applying English law in Canada, rather than those of Canadian judges developing Canadian law to meet Canadian needs with guidance of English precedent.” However, modern developments in Canadian society in general, and in its health care system in particular, now justify the claim that Canadian law is sufficiently distinctive to warrant its inclusion in comparative studies of legal regulation of health care professionals’ conflicts of interest.

The Canadian Health Care Conundrum

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
BRYAN R. FINE
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Canadian Health Care
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document