Another in a weekly series of brief snippets of health care stories that bemused, intrigued and otherwise beguiled me over the past week along with my random thoughts on the matter.
Item(s): CBC new is reporting that with more food insecurity, physicians are being urged to be on the lookout for scurvy (!!). Similarly, Canada Health Network reports that ferritin (iron) levels are being re-visited to help better identify those with iron deficiency. More concerning studies on the link between erythritol and heart attacks. While there have been no randomized control trials, the number of studies correlating having too much of this very common artificial sweetener to blood clotting disorders (heart attacks, pulmonary emboli, strokes) is very concerning. And finally Medscape published a study showing eating Ultra Processed Foods leads to weight gain.
My thoughts: I’ve long maintained the North American diet is garbage. It’s embarrassing that first world countries like Canada and the US put so much crap in our food. The US for example has over 10,000 chemicals that it allows in its food. Compare this to Europe where they are much more stringent in their food standards – and of course, Europeans are slimmer. A good first step would be for Canada and the United States to immediately adopt European food regulations. The big multinational food companies already have to make products meeting European Union standards anyway. Just have them make all their products that way.
For more watch this (hilarious but salty) video of Comedian Leslie Jones on her trip to Europe, where it turns out a peach actually tastes like, you know, a peach.
Item: Doctors Manitoba issued a joint task force report on reducing admin burden for family physicians. The report not only include steps that need to be taken, but clearly lists the progress on each step.
My thoughts: I should move to Manitoba. The amount of progress they’ve made is impressive. Compare that to the utter and complete joke that is in Ontario. For the un-initiated: The Ontario Government and Ontario Medical Association formed a task force to reduce paperwork for family medicine. The result of said joint task force (after over a year of work)? An announcement made on Jan 29 of this year that hearing aid forms (which take about 10 seconds to fill out) no longer need to be signed by family doctors. With no announcement of any further progress. Worse it turns out that the College of Audiologists refused to let “hearing aid specialists” sign the hearing aid forms, it had to be only Audiologists. But most hearing aid clinics are run by hearing aid specialists.
I got four forms to sign last week….
Item: New Brunswick PC party leader Blaine Higgs insists that “business acumen” is needed to run health care and that efficiencies can be found in the system.
My thoughts: Yes, yes and more yes! I don’t know what the New Brunswick health care budget is, but we spend over $80 billion dollars on health care in Ontario. That’s more than enough. So much is wasted on bureaucratic silos and inefficient methods of care that it’s embarrassing. A hard business approach is needed.
Item: A study conducted by OntarioMD showed that there was a 70% reduction in time spent on patient encounter documentation when using an AI scribe (in this case the study was limited to Well Health’s software).
My thoughts: The AI scribe most commonly used in my neck of the woods (I don’t use one) is very very poorly received. It’s clunky, cumbersome and requires a lot of clicks. Can AI help? Of course it can and hopefully the Well Health one (which I have not seen) is better. But the software needs strong physician input to develop to ensure user friendliness – or it will wind up like EPIC – one of the main hospital IT systems, which, well, is best described by none other than Dr. Glaucomflecken himself:
Item: Ontario Medical Association President Dr. Dominic Novak spoke to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs at Queen’s Park. While he talked about the admin burden driving physicians out of running a comprehensive care family practice, what people seemed to be talking about was the focus on eliminating sick notes.
My thoughts: I’m glad Dr. Novak is speaking about the admin burden. But seriously, can we move the focus off the sick notes? They take me one minute to do, and I get $25 for them. The real admin burden that is driving people out of family medicine is the constant reviewing of lab data, downloading reports, re-categorizing mislabelled reports (my personal feeling is EPIC is really a problem for this) and so on. I don’t get any money for doing that. Keep your eye on the big picture.
Item: Bill 121 the “Improving Dementia Care in Ontario Act” had more readings at various committees in provincial parliament. The bill seeks to help the estimated 315,000 people in Ontario with dementia right now (a number that is expected to triple by 2050).
My thoughts: It’s overall a good Bill. We certainly need to support and care for our elderly. The true measure of the strength of a society is reflected in how well they care for the weakest among them. I just hope that we look at some of the novel models of elder care in Europe as well, to give our seniors the compassionate, dignified care they deserve.
Item: Health Journalist Avis Favaro published on X (formerly Twitter) that there is a dire shortage of supplies in Home Care. Some sort of issue with the new supplier for the Home Care system. She mentions that the shortage is being described as a “crisis” internally. Without the supplies (syringes, needles) patients are unable to get needed medications and treatment at home.
My thoughts: I have not seen this personally myself. But I’ve heard some horror stories from my colleagues. I hope this gets resolved ASAP.
That’s it for this week. I’m away next week and will return with Sunday Snippets in two weeks.
justanoldcountrydoctor 