Y2K: Is Healthcare Ready?

Some Strategic Y2K Blessings

Future system development and management efforts must strive to institutionalize these gains and provide ongoing, incremental improvement in these areas. With the growth of e-commerce and further socioeconomic reliance on IT, the organizations that have achieved these gains will be well positioned to outdistance those who were less aggressive. Figure 1 depicts the silver linings and competitive...

vertical gastric plication: is it ready for prime-time?

Forging a Frailty-Ready Healthcare System to Meet Population Ageing

The beginning of the 21st century has seen health systems worldwide struggling to deliver quality healthcare amidst challenges posed by ageing populations. The increasing prevalence of frailty with older age and accompanying complexities in physical, cognitive, social and psychological dimensions renders the present modus operandi of fragmented, facility-centric, doctor-based, and illness-cente...

Is epidemiology ready for epigenetics?

The revellers depicted in the painting by the Dutch artist Judith Leyster (1609–60) (Figure 1) will not have given epigenetics a passing thought. Little were they to know that indulgences, such as drinking alcohol and smoking, would be contributing to their ‘exposome’ and marking their epigenome to potentially compromise their future health. The skeleton proffering an hourglass is perhaps a por...

Fire, Aim… Ready? Alberta's Big Bang Approach to Healthcare Disintegration.

Alberta's abolition in 2008 of its health regions and the creation of Alberta Health Services (AHS) was a bold move, but the reasons for the change remain hazy. The stated goals were to "help make Alberta's … system more effective and efficient" and to "provide equitable access to health services and long-term sustainability." Data show, however, that Alberta's health regions were already perfo...