International Talk Like a Pirate Day September 15, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: funny, pirates
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Just a reminder that International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up on Sept. 19 (yer scurvey dogs, arrr!). 
OCRI Award August 26, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: health informatics, syndromic surveillance
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Seems I forgot to mention that the group I’m in (rather than “my group” which makes it seem like I’m the boss, which I’m not) and our partners (too numerous to mention here, but see below) won a “Health Innovation Award” for a syndromic surveillance system we installed at Ottawa Public Health.
The award is from an Ottawa organization called OCRI, which stands for Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation. I think it’s a pretty good organization (after all, they gave us an award). If you’re in high tech or an entrepreneur in Ottawa, you should check it out.
Our project partners were University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa Public Health, AMITA Corporation, The Ottawa Hospital, StataCorp LP, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Hopital Montfort, Queensway Carleton Hospital, Carleton University, Queen’s University Public Health Informatics (QPHI), Grey Bruce Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health, Carnegie Mellon University, Michigan Dept. of Community Health, York Public Health, SilvaCorp, e-Privacy Management Systems, PHAC and the City of Ottawa.
Exercise: Less Than the RDA Still Helps August 16, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: exercise, Public Health
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A few months ago, the recommended daily amount (RDA) of exercise was dramatically increased. I don’t remember what the RDA is, but I remember my reaction: “You have got to be kidding!” New studies show that even if you do less exercise, it still helps. (Although how much less is still an open question it seems. I want to know what the absolute minimum amount of exercise is.) (BTW, I know RDA is for nutrients, but it seems applicable to exercise too.)
lancet article. Of course, you gotta pay for the article.
C-Difficile in Ontario July 11, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: nosocomial infections
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Southern Ontario area hospitals have been having trouble with C-difficile cases (link). Here’s a an interview with a physician (and there’s a reference to an article at the end) on stool transplant as a treatment for recurring C-diff. Yeah, well, it works.
Dichloroacetate (DCA) and Cancer June 21, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: cancer, costs
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The blogoshpere is alive with conspiracy theories about big pharma blocking the cancer cure DCS because it is not patentable. Actually, they don’t need to block it. Since it isn’t patentable, pharma doesn’t want to put up the money for some drug trials, so DCA is not going anywhere fast. Here‘s the latest research article on DCA. Seems promising, but it was a very very small experiment. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately if you have cancer and DCA actually works), a clinic in Toronto has been prescribing DCA for cancer treatment (link). This makes DCA look, well, suspect. This attitude towards DCA is not going to help get drug trial funding for it. Interestingly, the physician from the Toronto clinic just published case report about successful (of course) treatment with DCA in the Journal of Palliative Medicine (link). In the end, it would be the government that would have to foot the bill for a drug trial. Cancer’s pretty expensive for society and governments (link), but I don’t know what types of cancer DCA might be good for, so I can’t calculate how much a drug trial (or maybe several) would cost in relation to the amount of potential savings from a cheap cancer treatment.
