Resources

Canada Health Infoway

Consulting with leaders in all areas of the Canadian healthcare sector, Canada Health Infoway has developed a comprehensive strategy - a vision - for the next ten years of investment in healthcare information systems. The full report, 2015: Advancing Canada's Next Generation of Health Care, serves as a roadmap for modernizing Canada 's healthcare system and forms the strategic framework to guide Infoway's investments and priorities for
the years ahead.

Read the full report >>> (PDF 2876.78 KB/36p.)

Canadian Policy Research Networks

The Taming of the Queue annual conferences are becoming a much sought after venue.  Health care professionals, researchers and policy-makers from
across Canada met on April 4-5, 2007 in Ottawa to hear researchers from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand describe their victories and challenges in cutting wait times. Conference participants also heard an update on improvements in Canada - and some ideas about how this country can move beyond "the big 5" (joint replacement, cardiac surgery, cancer care, advanced diagnostics and sight restoration). The conference report includes a complete description of all presentations made over the two-day event.

Read the report >>>

Health Canada

Patient Wait Times Guarantees (PWTGs) are important tools to help provide certainty for patients, build public confidence in the public health system and enhance system accountability. As international experience has shown, PWTGs can be designed to meet particular needs as part of a multi-pronged access strategy.

For more on this, please visit: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/nr-cp/2007/2007_wait-delai-bk1_e.html

Plan International

This 98-page publication summarizes issues of inequality and poverty faced by many girls and includes relevant tables and statistics. This is the first of several reports on the topic to come from Plan International, and it offers an eight-point plan listing steps through which individuals, organizations, and governments can contribute to improve girls' lives.

Read the report >>> (PDF 4178.43KB/98p.)

International Women's Health Coalition, 2007

This is the first in a series of briefs on very young adolescents (10-14 years old). This brief highlights the challenges faced by policy-makers, health professionals, and other adults, as well as young people themselves, in protecting their health and rights.

Read the brief >>> (PDF 265.14KB/8p.)

Canadian Commission for UNESCO

The guidelines are intended to assist anyone involved in the development, revision and editing of HIV and AIDS related materials and have been developed through a process of consultation with key stakeholders in HIV and AIDS work.

Read the guidelines >>>

Sumach Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of this groundbreaking study of the effects of hemorrhagic stroke on the lives of women. Author Sharon Dale Stone is herself a survivor of a hemorrhagic stroke which she suffered at the age of eleven. Her own experience in the years following the misdiagnosis of her stroke, and the silence and isolation surrounding her condition, led her to seek out other women with similar experiences.

Stone journeyed through Canada, the United States, England and Scotland to research this unique collection of eleven narratives by women who experienced hemorrhagic strokes before the age of fifty. In A Change of Plans, the women's stories are told honestly and movingly, and touch upon the themes of recovery and rehabilitation; being a medical patient; self-image; being or not being recognized as disabled; relations with family, friends and co-workers; and how the stroke so suddenly changed their lives. Stone also provides background information on hemorrhagic stroke and its disabling consequences.

A Change of Plans is a valuable contribution to the scarce literature on how women experience this disability. It will be greatly welcomed by professionals and those working with stroke survivors, and by survivors who are looking for others with similar experiences.

About the Author: Sharon Dale Stone is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Lakehead University. As an activist and academic, she has been committed to giving voices to groups of people whose experiences are marginalized in mainstream society, and has published widely on the many issues facing women with disabilities.

248 pages   $26.95 paper   6" x 9"     ISBN 1-894549-65-1    Release: May 2007

http://www.sumachpress.com/change.htm

From the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

This updated edition of the popular The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women includes the most recent information on women's heart disease and practical suggestions for how to reduce the risk of developing it.

The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women (PDF 2511.83 KB/ 127 p.)

From the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Office of Research on Women's Health is broadcasting the second in a series of podcasts, "Pinn Point on Women's Health," hosted by Dr. Vivian Pinn, Associate Director for Research on Women's Health and the Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health. The monthly podcast will discuss the latest news in women's health research and will include conversations with guests on a variety of subjects. In this episode, Dr. Pinn discusses new developments in the detection, treatment and cure of breast cancer, a major health concern for women and their families, with Dr. Larissa Korde, National Cancer Institute Staff Clinician and Dr. Worta McCaskill-Stevens, Program Director, Cancer Prevention Branch, Medical Oncologist, National Cancer Institute.

"While we don't have all the answers yet," emphasized Dr. Pinn, we are making great strides in understanding breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women." Drs. Korde and McCaskill-Stevens both agreed that the wave of the future is to explore the concept of individualized treatment in order to develop targeted therapies for breast cancer.

To listen to Dr. Pinn's podcast, log on to the ORWH homepage at: http://orwh.od.nih.gov/ . Under the section ORRWH Presents: Pinn Point on Women's Health, click on Listen. If you need further assistance on how to use podcasts, go to: http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/nihpodcast.htm .

For questions, contact Marsha Love at the Office of Research on Women's Health; (301) 496-9472 or lovem@od.nih.gov

From Government of Canada

Having a baby can be a wonderful experience, but it can also be a time of uncertainty. Many women have questions and concerns as they face all the changes that pregnancy brings. But with advice coming in from everyone it's tough to know who to listen to. That's why having the accurate information is so important! It will help you to make good decisions about the best way to take care of yourself before and during your pregnancy.

Read more >>>