Longwoods eLetter July 31, 2007

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"If you just dispense the stuff and nothing else goes with it, like counselling and other supports, it is simply not effective," Chair, MMTP task force chair

The Government of Ontario and Methadone:
• McGuinty Government Increasing Access to Methadone Treatment (information release)
• The task force full report can be found at: methadonetaskforce.com. Or here: Methadone Maintenance Treatment Practices Task Force
• Toronto Star coverage: (Day one) thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/239983, (Day two) thestar.com/News/article/240446, and day three (editorial) thestar.com/comment/article/240711

The Government’s response can also be found on the Longwoods Blog here.

The Tomorrow Project
The Alberta Cohort Study (The Tomorrow Project) is sampling of 50,000 adult Albertans, who have never been diagnosed with cancer and are between 35 and 69 years of age at the time of enrollment. Participants will regularly contribute information about their health, lifestyle and occurrence of illnesses over a long period of follow-up (age 85 or death.) The possibility of enhancing the strength of an Alberta cohort exists if other Canadian provinces build on our experience by establishing comparable cohorts that can be combined for analyses of important research questions.

Canadian Medicare: through the eyes of Peter Gzowski

The Conference you cannot miss. Managing healthcare issues from the perspective of notable leaders and patients: General Colin Power; Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Wynton Marsalis, Mary Walsh, Pamela Wallin, Stuart McLean and more. + Canada's largest collection of cases reviewing the Patient Experience. All the makings of a leading-edge program.

Looking for opportunity? Did you know? There are leadership transitions currently in the making at: Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, Canadian College of Health Service Executives, Canadian Public Health Association, Ontario Hospital Association. Any others? Let us know; maybe we can flush out those “leaders in the making.”

If you are thinking about social and political reasons for advancing health technology read this book.

DIVERSION
If you don’t know Longwoods from Adam’s off ox would you be reading this eLetter? The five most creative explanations receive a year of electronic access to all things Longwoods. Free. All journals. Write to the Publisher.

[Last week’s winners of a year long e-subscription were: Christa Hruska, Lynn Moore, Robert Gordon, Mickey Kerr, and Dennis Hulme. Barbara Marshall from Longwoods will be contacting you. Thanks for telling us Mao Tse Tung is the proponent of research we quoted.]

DID YOU KNOW?
Breast cancer mortality rates for women aged 45 years and older are higher in urban Canada than in rural areas. CIHI.ca

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• London ON. Lawson Researcher Aims to Find the Best Postoperative Management of Anticoagulation. Patients who are at risk of developing blood clots deep in the arteries take anticoagulants to prevent the clots. When these patients face surgery, however, anticoagulation could cause excessive bleeding. A London scientist and his team are trying to determine the best balance between preventing bleeding during surgery and preventing clotting complications. >>more | view as PDF
• Vancouver Coastal Health. The Four D’s of West Nile Virus
• Saskatoon Health Region Strategic Plan: summary (PDF) |  full plan (PDF)
• Surgical Waits in Manitoba: Up? Down? No Change?
• From Mt.Sinai in Toronto: breaking down barriers for internationally trained nurses: Full story »

The Veterans Health Administration: Quality, Value, Accountability, and Information as Transforming …
H Quarterly, E Healthcare, N Leadership, H Policy, … - Am J Manag Care, 2004 - longwoods.com. The Veterans Health Administration is the United States' largest integrated health system. Once disparaged as a bureaucracy providing mediocre care, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reinvented itself during the past ...
Cited by 53 - Related Articles - Web Search

A Toolkit to Facilitate the Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Healthcare Settings
A DiCenso, T Virani, I Bajnok, E Borycki, B Davies … - longwoods.com. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) has taken the lead
in Canada in the development of best practice guidelines for nurses. The Nursing Best Practice Guidelines (NBPG) Project funded by the Ontario Ministry of ...
Cited by 8 - Related Articles - Web Search

Improving Hospital Performance: Culture Change Is Not the Answer
SG Leggat, J Dwyer - longwoods.com. An inappropriate culture is often presented as the reason why hospitals throughout the world have been unable to achieve best practice. Many have concluded that the organizational culture of hospitals limits the ...
Cited by 5 - Related Articles - Web Search

High-Quality Healthcare Workplaces: A Vision and Action Plan
GS Lowe - Health - longwoods.com. I also offer suggestions for adapting guiding principles and lessons from other sectors to fit the unique character of health- care organizations. This is helped by a multidisciplinary convergence of thinking that workplace ...
Cited by 15 - Related Articles - Web Search

Multi-Professional Mortality Review: Supporting a Culture of Teamwork in the Absence of Error …
K Jarvi, R Sultan, A Lee, F Lussing, R Bhat - longwoods.com. Commitment to patient safety must be a priority of every healthcare institution. York Central Hospital has implemented a quality initiative to address multi-professional issues that result from a significant sentinel ...
Cited by 7 - Related Articles - Web Search

Working Within and Beyond the Cochrane Collaboration to Make Systematic Reviews More Useful to …
JN Lavis, HTO Davies, RL Gruen, K Walshe, - longwoods.com. Participants in the Cochrane Collaboration conduct and periodically update systematic reviews that address the question, "What works?" for healthcare interventions. The Cochrane Library makes available ...
Cited by 20 - Related Articles - Web Search

HIT Report from KLAS: Nurse and Staff Scheduling: Tightening Up the Ship? Electronic Healthcare, 6(1) 2007
Abstract: With the current nursing shortage, tight budgets and minimum staffing requirements, some providers say their staff and nurse scheduling technology is helping them run a tight ship. KLAS recently conducted a study of staff and ... Web Search

Find ALL the HIT reports from Longwoods here.

November 5, 6 &7, 2007. Toronto, Ontario. Visit www.ohahealthachieve.com

A photo review of HealthAchieve 2006 (PDF): see what you can experience in 2007.

Healthcare Quarterly
ICES Report: The Growing Prevalence of Diabetes in Ontario: Are We Prepared?
Lorraine L. Lipscombe

HealthcarePapers
Why Healthcare Renewal Matters: Lessons from Diabetes
Diane E. Watson, Michael Hillmer, Farrah Prebtani, Kira Leeb

Nursing Leadership
Feasibility and Outcomes of Paid Undergraduate Student Nurse Positions
Lucia Gamroth, Claire Budgen, Mary Lougheed

Healthcare Policy
Innovations in the Ethical Review of Health-Related Quality Improvement and Research: The Alberta Research Ethics Community Consensus Initiative (ARECCI)
Brad Hagen, Maeve O'Beirne, Sunil Desai, Michael Stingl, Cathy Anne Pachnowski and Sarah Hayward

Electronic Healthcare
Fraser Health PACS Project: Learning from Experience in Planning
Christine A. Vandebeek and Paul Brownrigg

World Health and Population
Strengthening Health Development at the Community Level in Thailand: What Events Should Be Managed?
Vasuton Tanvatanakul, Corália Vicente, João Amado and Sastri Saowakontha

Today’s featured Podcast: Development of a Regional Clinical Pathway for Total Hip Replacement in a Rural Health Network
Jessica Meleskie and Katrina Wilson

The Grey Bruce Health Network began developing regional clinical pathways in 2002. The Total Hip Replacement (THR) pathway was one of the first developed.
Listen. Read the article here.

Organizations interested in contributing to Longwoods Radio read this . . .
This is great opportunity to effectively transfer knowledge using storytelling, compelling lectures or gripping interviews – using simple digital recordings that we distribute on the web. Formatted for iPod listeners too. For criteria and specifications please contact Rebecca Hart at RHart@longwoods.com. All subject to editorial review and acceptance of course.

Need to Ask an Expert?
A feature presented by Longwoods Publishing in collaboration with a pool of leading experts in the design and management of healthcare organizations.

Question: What are the lessons learned for Canada from the NHS adopting a new General Medical Services contract that provides new governance and incentive arrangements for general practice?

Response: Despite differences between the two health systems, the mechanisms being developed to measure quality and reward practices are
clearly transferable, and the new GMS contract has generated a lot of international interest. … click here

Please submit your questions to Experts@longwoods.com

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To see some photo archives click here. To see our video archives click here. Thank you for your support. We are now planning a new season starting in September ’07.

Our most recent Breakfast with the Chiefs: One hundred and fifty Chiefs and aspiring chiefs heard Matt Anderson as interviewer in the second of a series of discussions with Richard Alvarez. We heard about IT’s last frontier – healthcare; Infoway’s new strategic plan – soon to be out; Infoway’s criteria for future spending; consumerism – coming on like a tsunami; the committed role of employers and patient portals; Google’s drive to serving the health sector – as only Google can; regional EMRs; Infoway’s strategy for better uptake by physicians and the importance of demonstrations of technology that works. Stay tuned – the next interviews will be in Montreal and one of Alberta’s academic health sciences centres.

August 26-29, 2007: Winnipeg, MB. Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) 2007 National Conference. The changes in the global marketplace and the explosion of network-driven decision-making are transforming the public service at a pace never before experienced. New demands and innovations continue to affect public administration. This year’s national IPAC conference will help us manage today’s demands while we prepare for tomorrow. For details click here.

September 13 - 14, 2007: Edmonton, AB, Leaders in Rehabilitation: The Perfect Storm. In partnership, Capital Health, Calgary Health Region and the University of Alberta – Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, are pleased to announce the 3rd annual Leaders in Rehabilitation Conference. Join us for an in-depth look at workforce sustainability, knowledge transfer, and consumer integration in decision making as it relates to the future face of healthcare in rehabilitation. This forum will bring together rehabilitation leaders from across all disciplines. For details click here.

October 15, 2007: Richmond Hill, ON. Supportive Housing: The Winning Formula for Supporting People and Sustaining the Health Care System. Presented by the Canadian Research Network for Care in the Community (CRNCC) and the Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA), this symposium focuses on the crucial role that supportive housing plays in maintaining the health, well-being, independence and quality of life of individuals. For details click here.

October 19, 2007: Toronto, ON. Enhancing Cognition in Older Adults: Connecting Research and Clinical Care. Get updated on recent advances in cognitive difficulties faced by older adults, as well as pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches to treatment. The conference includes morning lectures led by internationally recognized leaders in cognitive and neural aging, and afternoon workshops led by scientists and scientist-clinicians focusing on specific issues related to cognitive rehabilitation of older adults. For details click here.

October 24, 2007: London, ON. LHSC Patient Safety Conference. The conference will be of interest to administrative leaders, professional practice leaders, frontline staff and physicians. Objectives include enhancing awareness of national strategies; learning about Patient WalkRoundsTM as a strategy to advance culture change; gaining insight from the family’s perspective; and championing safe patient care for every patient every day. For more information please email heni.dykstra@lhsc.on.ca.

For our complete list of conferences and events go here.

Ontario Hospital Association conferences www.OHA.com/conferences

Registered Nurses Association of Ontario conferences click here.

[We don't go looking for these conferences. Send details to conferences@longwoods.com]

Luis H. Navas to National Practice Leader, Executive Compensation, Hay Group
Dr. Jack Barkin to Chief of Staff,Humber River Regional Hospital, Toronto ON
Allan Kean to Chair, Timmins (ON) and District Hospital Board of Directors.
Julie Gilbert to Manager, Policy Research & Analysis, Cancer Care Ontario