Other Notables

New Health Care Settings and Canadians Chair Website Unveiled

Dr. Peter Coyte's new website for the CHSRF/CIHR Health Services Chair in Health Care Settings and Canadians was unveiled in August. The site provides information about the research, training, and linkage & exchange activities that are undertaken through the Chair's program. Trainees associated with Coyte's Chair receive mentorship in research, knowledge translation, and relationship building with decision-makers. They serve on the editorial board of "Home and Community Care Highlights", enjoy secondment opportunities with home care provider agencies, and participate in educational activities in the CIHR Program in Health Care, Technology, and Place (HCTP). Visit the new site at: www.hcerc.utoronto.ca.

Health Care Technologies and Place (HCTP) Seminar Series and Workshops

The HCTP Monthly Seminar Series provides a monthly forum for Fellows and Faculty to present research-in-progress to an attentive, interdisciplinary audience. All are welcome. The first seminar will be held on October 24 from 2pm to 4pm in Cody Hall, Faculty of Nursing. Caroline Fusco, HCTP Post-Doctoral Fellow, will present "Adolescent Girls and the Reproduction of Healthy Living Spaces and Sites: Analysing Institutional Spaces for Active Living."

Health Care Technologies and Place is hosting an Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Proposal Development Workshop on October 1, 2003. HCTP Faculty and friends are invited to participate. For more information, visit: www.hctp.utoronto.ca.

"First Do No Harm" Reviewed by Prominent US Health Economist Uwe Reinhardt

In May 2002, Dr. Terrence Sullivan, HPME Associate Professor, and Patricia Baranek, HPME Adjunct Faculty released their book "First Do No Harm: Making Sense of Canadian Health Reform". Described in the Globe and Mail as a "primer on health care reform", First Do No Harm discusses the sustainability of the Canada's Medicare System and makes recommendations for change. In an essay entitled "Resisting U.S. Social Ethics", prominent US health economist Uwe E. Reinhardt's review of Sullivan and Baranek's book appears in the July/August 2003 issue of Health Affairs.

According to Reinhardt, discontent with healthcare systems found across nations, due to the rising costs of care and rising expectations of immediate access to sophisticated technology and care, has lead to attacks on the principle of social solidarity underlying modern health systems. Those who can afford to buy their way to the front of the line wish to do so without subsidizing those who can't. End result, if successful: a multitier healthcare system. Reinhardt views Sullivan and Baranek's book as an affirmation of traditional Canadian values, in contrast to those enacted within the American healthcare system. "A subtext in Terrence Sullivan and Patricia Baranek's fascinating little book…is that the almost decade-old debate on health system reform in Canada, at its core, is really a struggle over this proposed new deal. The authors firmly come down on one side of the issue: They prefer the traditional deal."

Uwe Reinhardt is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey.

Peace-building in the Middle East: Canada International Scientific Exchange Program

The Canada International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO) is a charitable non-governmental organization (NGO) based at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto. Headed by Dr. Arnold Noyek, its mandate is to contribute to peace-building in the Middle East by involving Canadian, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian academics and researchers in joint health care initiatives which span frontiers. CISEPO's lead program is the Middle East Association for Managing Hearing Loss (MEHA) (Acrobat PDF); His Royal Highness, Prince Firas bin Raad of the Royal Court of Jordan is MEHA's patron. To date, more than 11,000 Arab and Israeli newborns have been tested for hearing loss; over 200 Canadian hearing aids have been distributed to deaf, newly diagnosed, poor and needy infants; and hundreds of children across borders have been supported in their habilitation with hearing aids, auditory therapy, and family and professional education.

Paul Williams, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and Health Policy Consultant to CISEPO, has been an active participant in two recent CISEPO missions to the Middle East, including one in late June of this year. Demonstrating that even in very difficult times, Canadian academics can help to build crucial bridges across borders, this latest mission culminated in a joint planning meeting held in Ber Sheva, Israel, which included Canadian members of the CISEPO team (Arnold Noyek, Pearl Bader, Catherine Chalin, Ian Clark, Janet Lum and Harvey Skinner); Deans of all four Israeli medical schools (Tel Aviv University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion and Ben Gurion University of the Negev); the Dean of Medicine of the Jordan University of Science and Technology and senior officers of the Royal Medical Services of Jordan; and representatives of two leading Palestinian universities including the medical Dean of Al Quds University and researchers from Bethlehem University.

Building on a CIHR, Global Health Research Pilot Project Grant led by Dr. Harvey Skinner, Paul will lead the development of a new initiative involving Canadian, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian researchers which will examine variations in infant hearing screening and follow-up related to differences in health system capacity, and to cultural and gender differences. In addition to its direct relevance to health care in the Middle East, this research promises to provide important insights for Ontario which has recently established its own program of screening newborns for hearing loss.

Paul looks forward to continuing to contribute to CISEPO's ongoing research and peace-building activities.

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