Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M OReilly.
The latest consequence of the information age may be addiction to the Internet. A psychologist who has established the Centre for Online Addiction in the US says the disorder causes the same type of social problems as other established addictions. Michael OReilly went on line to find physicians interested in discussing potential problems posed by the Internet.
Two of London's three major teaching hospitals joined forces recently to form Canada's second-largest teaching hospital. The merger is considered a harbinger as teaching hospitals strive to maintain current teaching, research and clinical activities in the face of decreasing government spending.
Canada's fiscal policies are damaging the health of Canadians, two physicians told a conference that examined globalization's impact on the country. Near-record unemployment levels and the recent recession have forced 41% of families in which the parents are 30 or younger to live below the poverty level; more than 21% of Canadian children are also considered to live in poverty. The impact tight fiscal policies have on health and well-being are enormous, say the dean of medicine at the University of Western Ontario and the chair of the Canadian Institute of Child Health.
The development of computer data-bases and long-distance computer networks is leading to improvements in Canada's health care system. However, these developments come at a cost and require a balancing act between access and confidentiality. Columnist Michael OReilly, who in this article explores the security of computer networks, notes that respect for patients' privacy must be given as high a priority as the ability to see their records in the first place.
The future of Canada's public health care system has been the source of much debate in the past year. Several signs, ranging from laser-surgery clinics in Ontario to the possible opening of a new private hospital in Toronto, indicate that the trend toward privatization is growing. Dr. Hugh Scully, former chair of a CMA working group that looked at the issue, expects the trend toward privatization to continue because "it simply isn't the case that the coverage people have come to expect will continue to be provided through the public purse." Dr. Jeffery Machat, a laser-surgery specialist from Windsor, Ont., thinks privatization brings needed investment to Canada's health care system.
The lack of research opportunities in Canada and the large number of them in the US have cost Canada some of its brightest young researchers. The Robarts Research Institute in London, Ont., is trying to reverse that trend by bringing some of these researchers back home. However, Dr. Mark Poznansky says the repatriation efforts will mean little if research budgets keep getting cut in Canada. He says the budget of the Medical Research Council of Canada is barely adequate for today's needs.
Students entering medical school today face a health care system that is vastly different from the one new students experienced in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael OReilly interviewed five first-year students from the University of Western Ontario to learn about the hopes and dreams of medicine's next generation and the pressures facing these students. The Class of '98 doesn't appear intimidated by the cutbacks practising physicians are facing. As one student put it, these students won't be yearning for the "good old days" because "we don't have any good old days to remember."
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