Medicine Canada

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/6509169

Portion I thought was important:

So far, dietitian colleges that act as regulators have largely allowed members to take money from industry, as long as they follow guidelines for advertising.

But some experts say the current level of oversight is insufficient, or argue that it's not possible for a licensed health-care practitioner to take money from industry without having a conflict of interest.

A recent joint investigation by the Washington Post and health journalism outlet The Examination found a number of American dietitians had posted videos on Instagram where they criticized headlines that questioned the safety of aspartame. It was revealed that the dietitians had been paid by the beverage industry to make the posts, and that in some cases the payment wasn't disclosed.

The same article highlighted paid posts some Canadian dietitians had done for the Canadian Sugar Institute — a non-profit industry group funded by private companies.

See statement from CPSCBC here:

https://www.cpsbc.ca/news/notification-bylaw-amendments-physician-assistants

Amendments here:

https://www.cpsbc.ca/about/laws-and-legislation/bylaw-amendments

See release from BC Gov here:

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023HLTH0118-001511

Non-Paywall Article

Results:

The average quarterly percentage of emergency department visits for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm relative to all-cause emergency department visits was 2.30% during the prepandemic period and 3.52% during the pandemic period. The level (0.08%, 95% confidence interval [CI] −0.79% to 0.95%) or trend (0.07% per quarter, 95% CI −0.14% to 0.28%) of this percentage did not change significantly between periods. The average quarterly percentage of hospital admissions for the composite outcome relative to all-cause admissions was 7.18% during the prepandemic period and 8.96% during the pandemic period. This percentage showed no significant change in level (−0.70%, 95% CI −1.90% to 0.50%), but did show a significantly increasing trend (0.36% per quarter; 95% 0.07% to 0.65%) during the pandemic versus prepandemic periods, specifically among females aged 10–14 years (0.76% per quarter, 95% CI 0.22% to 1.30%) and females aged 15–18 years (0.56% per quarter, 95% CI 0.31% to 0.81%).

There is a lot of discussion around global health systems and the ripple effects from foreign recruitment. This article goes over some of it, and if you want more there are links in the article for the rest of "White Coat Black Art: Inside the recruitment pipeline bringing nurses from the Philippines to Canada"

This quote at the end of the page got me thinking about it again:

The reporting of this story was made possible by the R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship. Jim Travers, who died in 2011, believed it was crucial for Canadian reporters to "bear witness" because in our interconnected world, foreign news is local news.

This is especially true for healthcare, and any solution to our health system issues will need to address not only the immediate staffing needs here (in Canada) but also the long-term sustainability of healthcare systems in other countries. Even if you're primarily concerned with Canada's healthcare, neglecting the broader global context can still jeopardize the long-term sustainability of our own system.

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