Thumbs UP…to Selkirk Provincial Park for adding an adult-sized water wheelchair to its beachfront offerings. We’ve also heard that Julie Sawchuck donated her Mobi-chair to the town of Goderich. Hats off to plenty of other municipalities who have or are fundraising to make these chairs available too.
Source: Facebook
Thumbs DOWN…to the Gov’t of Ontario Exceptional Access Program for not including drug treatment for non-small cell cancers related to the BRAF mutation unless the result is melanoma. This is particularly devastating when compassionate coverage is granted in other provinces and the USA. Thumbs up to patient Susan Brannigan Rampp, and her oncologist at Quinte Health Care for using Susan’s case to draw attention to the disparity and now to Pfizer who has stepped up to cover the cost of the treatment Susan requires. To read this story visit: change.org.
Thumbs DOWN…to influencers encouraging followers to drink raw milk. Aside from the fact that pasteurization laws cut the infant death rate by more than half, it’s recognized that there nasty pathogens in raw milk. Experts suggest a few sips could land you in the hospital with campylobacter, cryptosporidium, E. coli, listeria, brucella, salmonella and “summer diarrhea.”
Source: Bloomberg
Thumbs UP…to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its flagship initiative to share evidence of a huge burden of available patient harm globally across both developed and developing health care systems.
Thumbs DOWN…to the danger of using bots powered by AI instead of trusted sources for health information. In a January an NYC children’s medical centre researchers found bots gave the wrong answer 80% of the time when presented with a paediatric case.
Source: Forbes
