Cyber hacking and data breaches have been capturing headlines around the globe, making online security a top priority for everyone. With patient confidentiality and important clinical information on the line, the stakes in health care are very high. Our digital privacy and protection expert Janine Johnston decodes what clinicians and researchers can do to protect their electronic data from attack.
A new study by Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientists pinpoints the optimal timing for hip fracture surgery to reduce mortality. The study, recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, used the advanced methods of causal inference to project expected mortality if all medically stable older patients in Canada were to undergo surgery on the day of admission, on inpatient day two, on inpatient day three, or after three days.
A woman’s health is essential to her personal well-being, yet many women still feel they cannot speak openly about concerns they may have about their sexuality. For decades, women’s voices have not been adequately heard in the health arena. More attention needs to be directed to the societal need to address the health and safety of women.
Computer software is transforming much of the medical world. When it comes to computerized testing of brain health, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientist Dr. Julie Robillard says software designers need to do a better job of putting the emotional needs of patients first.
Doctors at Vancouver Coastal Health have teamed up with patients and a local poet to improve mental health care using the power of poetry.
The groundbreaking initiative, called the Depression Project, resulted in a book of poems titled “Oh Not So Great”. The team of researchers behind the project, including Dr. Josephine Lee, a general practitioner from Richmond General Hospital, will use the poetry collection to aid in enhancing empathy towards patients with depression.
Supportive and collaborative research brings benefits to the entire health care system. Through the Team Grant, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) is proud to support research mentorships that enable VCH staff and clinicians to exchange knowledge and build relationships with experienced researchers. These grants support collaboration between research mentors and VCH health care providers on applied research projects and improving health care providers’ practices.
We are taught since childhood to eat our fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, and while many of us find it challenging to stick to that rule of thumb, others excel. To better understand why, Anne Swann, a Vancouver Coastal Health registered public health dietitian in Richmond, analyzed how the distance people in Richmond live from healthy and less healthy food sources can be linked to their eating habits.
Future health care needs require visionary approaches to tackle the challenges confronting patients and their families today. From curing disease to improving quality of life, researchers are at the forefront of medical advances that support the health and happiness of patients and their families. For this reason, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) is proud to contribute to groundbreaking research with our annual Innovation and Translational Research Awards.
Inside the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), a clinician peers through a microscope. She is looking at a thin slice from a block of paraffin wax embedded with tissue samples, searching for clues to cure disease. VGH neuropathologist and VCHRI researcher Dr. Stephen Yip calls this the analogue version of histology—the study of the structure of tissues at the microscopic level. Research he and colleagues are conducting is paving the way for histology 2.0 in the age of digital technology.
