One-stop shop for health-care news

[Guest dopetown]

Hi everyone,

 

Even though interviews for Ontario medical schools are far and away, I would still like to keep myself up-to-date in health care news.

 

I do check the Ministry of Health website, but it's a little tedious to sift through to the important news. Is there a sort of one-stop shop website that reports the most significant events in health care?

 

How do you people stay on top of this massive amount of information? What if I'm asked a specific health-care news related question to which I am not familiar with?

 

-Dopetown

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

There are many, many Canadian health care resources out there. The CMAJ (free, online) and the Medical Post will cover most, if not all, current medical affairs issues. Regarding the CMAJ, you can go to the website and request receipt of bi-weekly news headings, so this will automatically prompt you to have a read. As long as you read both of these resources regularly, and not simply a week or two prior to the interview, then you may have a good chance of being familiar with most medical current event topics thrown at you.

 

I don't know if you're in Toronto, but if you are then there's another amazing resource available that helps provide illumination and unique insight regarding many current medical issues. The University of Toronto Health Law & Policy Group began a fantastic seminar series this past January. (Here's the 2003-4 seminar series schedule.) The topics included SARS, pharmaceuticals in health care, public vs. private, etc. Most impressive were the roster of speakers who came to talk for each of the two-hour sessions. These included Tony Clement and Patrick Monahan and many other experts in the health care and policy field. (Patrick Monahan, for example, shared some of his strategies for his upcoming Supreme Court Chaoulli/Zeliotis vs. the Queen hearing (June 5/6) on the permission of private health care.) The audience members were no less interesting, containing the likes of Tony Pawson and members of the Canadian press, many of whom posed challenging and thought-provoking questions. All of this in a room that held no more than fifty people and a fully catered (and free) lunch. It was a very worthwhile experience.

 

Lastly, even after a lot of exposure to health care issues, if you are given one which is unfamiliar to you (and this happened to me at least once this year--it was an ethical question, which also frequently appear in the medical media) then there's nothing at all wrong with admitting that the issue is unfamiliar to you and doing your best to apply what you do know to the situation. Hopefully by then, what you will know will be a lot.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest blinknoodle]

I posted a bunch of mailing lists a while ago. I have found them very useful; CHERA moreso than E-Watch.

 

Check out p084.ezboard.com/fpremed1...=206.topic

 

Cheers,

-blinkoodle

[Guest blinknoodle]

Hi everyone,

 

I just came across a listing of health mailing lists at www.ucalgary.ca/~dllorenz/#current. Many of them are Canadian, and I personally recommend the Health Edition and the Health Clips (normally included in the CHERA mailings).

 

Cheers,

-bn

 

 

Alerting Services & Listservs

 

AIMS Alternative & Integrative Medical Society News & Research

 

Alternative Health News Online

A biweekly email newsletter of reports on recent news and research in complementary and alternative health

 

Health Canada News Digest

Subscribers receive a summation of news headlines, advisories and health warnings released by Health Canada in the previous month.

 

Health Edition-Canada’s Weekly Health Newsletter

Includes Hansard reports, and information on government initiatives and reports.

 

HSURC Daily Health Clips

Health Services Utilization and Research Commission Saskatchewan daily report on Canadian and international health services and policy research and news.

 

University of Laval E-Watch Bulletin

Weekly bulletin of information on relevant events for health services professionals and decision-makers, smart practice innovations and links to online publications promoting knowledge utilization in the health services.

 

UK Health News Daily Alerts

 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration News Digest