Four years ago, Dr. David Patrick and his colleagues sounded the alert about the overuse of antibiotics in BC. Dr. Patrick was especially critical of the widespread use of antibiotics in food production and what he saw as a lack of oversight: “Antibiotics were being used too liberally, with no prescriptions. This increased the risk of organisms in our food that were antibiotic resistant. It was a huge problem.” These days, Dr. Patrick is a lot more optimistic. He says good progress is being made both in agriculture and health care.
Whether you’re the type of person who follows all the stars on Instagram, or whether you’re not quite sure what a Kardashian is, celebrity and popular culture influence how all of us think and talk about health.
The reassuring presence of a trusted loved one makes every patient feel better. For patients affected by dementia, that familiar face may be a lifeline out of fear and confusion. But trusted family can’t always be there in person, so staff at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) are seeing if iPads might fill the gap. Staff will use video recordings of family members and monitor if this has a positive impact on the behaviour of patients affected by dementia.
The combined hormonal contraceptive CHC – also known as the pill – has been around for more than fifty years. It’s widely assumed to be a safe birth control choice for women. But Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior, founder and scientific director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research at UBC (CeMCOR), says it’s time to reconsider that assumption, especially when it comes to adolescents.
Even anesthesiologists with extensive airway experience may encounter patients who prove difficult to intubate, including Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientist Dr. Raymond Tang. What Dr. Tang finds especially frustrating is that a number of these patients have already been through previous procedures in which another physician found it difficult to intubate them, but the information about what techniques failed and what finally worked is lacking. Such information allows for successful intubation on the first try and reduces adverse health risks.
If Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientist Dr. Alexander Rauscher has learned anything from studying concussions that happen during sports like ice hockey, it’s that helmets really can only protect so much – and it’s not enough.
It’s easy to take for granted that sexual attraction is a universal experience and that certain people can send our hearts fluttering and fantasies racing. But some people never experience feelings of sexual attraction – not in their youth, not during puberty when their peers’ hormones are raging, and not as adults.
Staff at Richmond Hospital’s Diabetes Education Centre realized they needed to rethink the healthy eating and nutrition program offered through the centre when they kept getting the same feedback from their diabetes patients: “I don’t eat half of the foods you just talked about.” Their patients’ honest response makes sense – most of them are of Chinese ethnicity, which reflects Richmond’s predominantly Chinese population. In Canada, people of Asian, Aboriginal, South Asian, Hispanic, and African descent are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes1.
