Over one billion people globally experience some form of disability, yet despite having greater health needs, people with disabilities often encounter barriers to accessing care and have worse outcomes.
In a study published in Disability and Health Journal, MAP scientists Dr. Andrew Pinto and Dr. Tara Kiran examined how patients responded to being asked about disabilities as part of a routine survey and compared survey responses to data available in medical charts.
Featuring MAP scientist Dr. Ann Burchell, and her project: Effectiveness of human papillomavirus vaccine in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men
Five cases of the mysterious Wuhan coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, giving rise to concerns about a potential global pandemic. We’ve seen this story before, as health authorities working with threadbare data try to walk the line between epidemic readiness and needless panic. Is this new outbreak poised to become the next AIDS pandemic or a new SARS, which was stopped in its tracks after 774 deaths? To cut through the headlines, we can use a simple concept called the “epidemic triangle.” Employed by epidemiologists since the discipline’s earliest days, it is indispensable in predicting whether localized outbreaks will transform into full-blown epidemics.
…One stumbling block for approval from Health Canada has been the lack of a clinical trial in Canada showing how accurate and easy to use the kits are, and whether users will seek medical care if they test positive. So, Dr. Sean Rourke, a psychiatrist and scientist at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, raised the money for a 1,000-person clinical trial across give Canadian cities on INSTI finger-prick self-testing kits. Pant Pai is running the Quebec side of the trial. They expect it to be finished in February.
Once bio-Lytical submits the results to Health Canada, Rourke predicts the government will have everything it needs to approve the kits. “Hopefully by early spring or summer, the first self-test kits will be available in Canada,” he says.
…If self-test kits are finally approved for drug-store shelves and if more Canadians living with HIV gain access to medication, it’s a whole new world.
“We can end the HIV epidemic,” says Rourke. “Other countries have targets for 2030. We can do this in three to five years.”
The three biggest problems for patients surveyed about their discharge from Ontario hospitals all concern publicly funded home care, according to new research published in an international medical journal.
The researchers hope the findings will encourage improvements in the hospital-to-home transition navigated by some one million patients every year in this province.
Children who drink whole milk are less likely to be obese, according to a study which questions international dietary guidelines.
Researchers analysed data from 28 existing studies across seven countries involving a total of 20,897 healthy children aged between one and 18 years old. They concluded those who drank whole milk had a 40 percent lower chance of being overweight or obese compared with those who drank low-fat milk. The findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
