Don’t let COVID-19 defer the diabetes care you need
diabetes
Four ways to break the link between diabetes and poverty
Mike G.
Paula K
Diabetes and the trouble with healthier lifestyles
At the end of January, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) announced almost $10 million in new funding to address type 2 diabetes, with a focus on screening and the ‘promotion of healthier lifestyles.’ There is a lot to celebrate in this announcement, particularly community-based screening initiatives. And who could complain about …
The most costly places in Canada for patients to have diabetes
The Personal Health Navigator is available to all Canadian patients. Questions about your doctor, hospital or how to navigate the health care system can be sent to AskLisa@Sunnybrook.ca The Question: What are the best and worst places to have diabetes in Canada, based on the cost of needles and other supplies? The Answer: This question came via twitter …
When public policy fails
Canadian health agencies continue to develop diabetes prevention and management strategies that primarily focus on “lifestyle”: poor diet, excess weight, and lack of physical activity. But the exclusive focus on “lifestyle” ignores the important role played by the social determinants of health. A recent paper entitled A toxic combination of poor social policies and programmes, …
Ontario’s new diabetes registry – the end of patient privacy?
More and more doctors across Canada are using electronic medical records to keep track of their patients’ health information. Finding a patient’s information record in most electronic medical databases involves entering the first few letters of each name, hitting <Enter> and choosing the appropriate person from the resulting drop-down list. Recently while looking up one …
The trouble with guidelines
A friend of mine took her 98 year old, 98 lb mother to the doctor recently. Additional diabetic medication was prescribed because her A1c (also known as glycated hemoglobin -a proxy measure of average blood sugar levels over the previous months) was “not at target”. When my friend questioned the safety of yet more pills …
Reducing ‘unnecessary’ blood glucose test strip use
Blood glucose test strips are the third most expensive cost for the Ontario Public Drug Program. A study released in 2009 suggests that the Ontario government is unnecessarily spending between $19 and $42 million per year on glucose test strips. However, no changes have yet been made to reduce the use of blood glucose test …