Generic drug industry agrees to cut prices up to 40% in 5-year deal with provinces
Public drug plans agree not to ask for open tenders in bid to get drug costs lower (CBC News) — Canada’s generic drug industry has agreed to cut prices 25 per cent to 40 per cent for provincial/public drug plans, in exchange for suspending open tenders for five years. The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance made the announcement […]
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Heart attack care dangerously unequal for women, study finds
(BBC News) — Fewer women who suffer a heart attack would die if they were given the same treatments as men, a new study found. Researchers analysed the outcomes of 180,368 Swedish patients who suffered a heart attack over a 10-year period. They found women were three times more likely to die than men in the […]
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In a milestone year, gene therapy is finding a place in medicine
(Associated Press) — After decades of hope and high promise, this was the year scientists really showed they could doctor DNA to successfully treat diseases. Gene therapies to treat cancer and even pull off the biblical-sounding feat of helping the blind to see were approved by U.S. regulators, establishing gene manipulation as a new mode of […]
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Organ donation after death on the rise in Canada, helping to ease some waiting lists, study finds
But rates of donations from living donors have declined, leaving many waiting for kidney transplants (Canadian Press) — A new report says the rate of organ donations from deceased people has risen substantially over the last decade in Canada, while the rate for living donors has declined. The data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information […]
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Millions more will need to lower blood pressure under new guidelines
(Gina Kolata/New York Times) — The nation’s leading heart experts on Monday issued new guidelines for high blood pressure that mean tens of millions more Americans will meet the criteria for the condition, and will need to change their lifestyles or take medicines to treat it. Under the guidelines, formulated by the American Heart Association and […]
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It’s not all in your head: different aches need different treatments
(Healthline) — When there is pressure or pain in your head, it can be difficult to tell whether you are experiencing a typical headache or a migraine. Differentiating a migraine headache from a traditional headache, and vice versa, is important. It can mean faster relief through better treatments. It can also help prevent future headaches […]
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Antibiotic crisis bigger than Aids as common infections will kill, WHO warns
(The Telegraph) — A child’s scratched knee from falling off their bike, common bladder infections among the elderly in care homes and routine surgery to replace broken hips could all become fatal as antibiotics are becoming increasingly useless, the World Health Organisation has said. The crisis is bigger and more urgent than the Aids epidemic […]
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Is light drinking while pregnant okay?
(CNN) — Experts agree that binge or heavy drinking while pregnant is alarmingly dangerous for a fetus, and advise against it — but what about light drinking during pregnancy? It turns out that there’s not much research on just how little a pregnant woman could drink without harming her unborn baby, according to a paper published […]
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Q & A with Dr. Morris Browman, Director of Radiology at VM-Med
What services do you find important or unique that VM-Med offers? The multidisciplinary, team approach to breast cancer screening and treatment is truly cutting edge. We are also unique in terms of how much expertise and state of the art technology we focus in a single, pleasant setting outside of a hospital, allowing us a to […]
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