Two Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientists are uncovering surprising statistics about the cost of asthma in British Columbia. Dr. Mohsen Sadatsafavi of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, and his colleague Dr. J. Mark FitzGerald, director of the Centre for Heart and Lung Health, just completed a series of clinical trials and descriptive studies that all tell a similar story: asthma patients are costing BC a lot of money. And most of that spending could be avoided if patients were properly using available, affordable medications.

Movember is in full swing, changing the lives of men with prostate cancer by raising both awareness of the disease and funds for research. One program made possible by these funds is My Precision Oncology Program (MyPOP), recently launched by the Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC). 

It’s hard for families to talk about death with their elderly loved ones. It’s also hard for caregivers. Research shows clinicians and staff in residential care are often reluctant to initiate conversations about dying with patients and their families. In fact, many elderly patients die without having being told their condition is terminal. Palliative care experts like Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute research scientist Dr.

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.