• The Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index: How do we compare to Europe?

    Original broadcast date: January 27, 2008 How does Canada’s health care system compare to that of European countries? The ongoing debate over what direction our health care system should take to continue to provide universal coverage in the face of an aging population has not included a direct comparison of Canada’s health care system with…

  • Rotavirus vaccine reommended by NACI

    Original broadcast date: January 27, 2008 This week the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended “individual infants and their families are likely to benefit from immunization with the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians supports this recommendation. Dr. Vincent Grant, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Alberta Children’s Hospital and…

  • The effects of antipsychotic medication use to treat agitation in non-depressed patients with dementia

    Original broadcast date: January 20, 2008 One of the more difficult aspects in treating agitation and aggressive behaviour in people with Alzheimer’s is choosing medications that are effective but without severe side effects. In a study published online in the September 2007 issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, researchers at Toronto’s Baycrest geriatric…

  • The human cost of wait times

    Original broadcast date: January 20, 2008 Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Brian Day released a study produced for the Canadian Medical Association by the Centre for Spatial Economics, in Toronto during a Jan. 15 speech. The study claims that wait times in the four of the five targeted areas, joint replacement, sight restoration, cardiac bypass…

  • Sitagliptin, a novel treatment for type II diabetes

    Original broadcast date: January 13, 2008 The prevalence of type  II diabetes continues to increase and estimates are that three million Canadians will be diagnosed with the disease by 2010. The mainstays of control and prevention, weight loss and exercise, are not always heeded, and as such, medications are employed to control blood sugar levels.…

  • Case study: Antibiotic-resistant strain of strep pneumoniae

    Original broadcast date: January 13, 2008 There were reports in November 2007 about an antibiotic-resistant strain of streptococcal pneumonia that caused a small number of childhood ear infections in Massachusetts and New York State. One case was reported at SickKids in Toronto wherein it progressed to meningitis. The strain 19A was treated with an antibiotic…

  • Same exposure, different allergic reactions. Why?

    Original broadcast date: January 13, 2008 Why do some people suffer a severe allergic reaction or anaphylaxis while others do not when both are exposed to the same allergen? From a clinical standpoint, anaphylaxis can be difficult to diagnose because it is highly variable in its presentation and its signs and symptoms overlap with life-threatening…

  • Gene mutation illustrates how muscles respond to exercise

    Original broadcast date: January 6, 2008 How do our muscles respond to exercise? What factors contribute to better endurance and exercise capacity? How does this help understand the pathophysiology of diabetes? A discovery reported in the September 19, 2007 issue of the journal PLoS ONE identified a mutation in a gene that is widely considered…

  • Sunday House Call 2007 year in review

    Sunday House Call 2007 Year-in-Review January 21st Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the University of Calgary and The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine have found a new mechanism that is directly involved in the pathophysiology of diabetes. This new insight into the mechanism of diabetes has advanced possible new treatment strategies, with…