Health

Teaching in a time of crisis: looking back at SARS

Sub-title: 
Lessons learned at the Faculty of Nursing
Picture: 
Sars Outbreak Infographic

It has been 10 years since severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crept into Canada and paralyzed Toronto.

No one was prepared--hospitals were caught unaware and health care professionals struggled to make sense of a deadly virus that initially looked and felt like the common cold and flu. During these turbulent months, 44 people in Canada would lose their lives, including three health care workers. 

Posted Friday, April 5, 2013

Children of divorced parents more likely to start smoking

Sub-title: 
Link between smoking and divorce "very disturbing" says U of T expert
Author: 
Dominic Ali
Picture: 
photo of teen girl smoking

Both daughters and sons from divorced families are significantly more likely to initiate smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families, shows a new analysis of 19,000 Americans.

“Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing,” said lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

Posted Friday, March 15, 2013

How Much Sodium are You Eating? New Online Salt Calculator Sums it Up

Picture: 
Salt spilling from salt shaker.

Canadians can track how much salt they’re eating and identify the main sources of sodium in their diet using a new online Salt Calculator.

“Many Canadians think the biggest source of salt in their diet comes from a salt shaker, but that’s not the case - it’s the hidden sodium added during food production that’s the biggest culprit,” says Joanne Arcand, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at U of T, who helped develop the calculator. 

Posted Friday, March 8, 2013

Parental divorce linked to stroke in males

Author: 
Michael Kennedy
Picture: 
photo of a man and a woman holding a file that says divorce

Men with divorced parents are significantly more likely to suffer a stroke than men from intact families, shows a new study from the University of Toronto.

The study, to be published this month in the International Journal of Stroke, shows that adult men who had experienced parental divorce before they turned 18 are three times more likely to suffer a stroke than men whose parents did not divorce. Women from divorced families did not have a higher risk of stroke than women from intact families.

Posted Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Health versus Wealth

Author: 
Shibu Thomas
Picture: 
image of Da Vinci's Vitruvian man blended with image of dollar bill

In 1776, Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations theorized that the free market economy was the solution to increase the wealth of a country. Almost 250 years later, health professionals, policy makers and Professor Gustavo Saposnik, a neurologist with interests in global health and population-based studies are asking another, arguably more important question:

"How does one best allocate wealth to increase the health of a nation?”

Posted Monday, May 28, 2012

Chest pain: when conventional treatments don't work

Sub-title: 
U of T researcher creates guidelines for treating refractory angina
Author: 
Anjum Nayyar
Picture: 
graphic image of someone suffering from heart attack

Tens of thousands of Canadians seek emergency services and are referred for angiograms each year to investigate sources of chest pain. For approximately half a million Canadians, chronic chest pain – or, specifically, refractory angina – is a devastating disease. Refractory angina is not only painful but is also frightening and debilitating. There have been no specific Canadian guidelines for treating this population until now.

Posted Wednesday, April 18, 2012

U of T, IBM, Western University to lead research partnership

Sub-title: 
$210 million consortium includes governments, five more Ontario universities
Author: 
Jenny Hall
Picture: 
Photo of Paul Young, John Lutz, Dr. Amit Chakma, Brad Duguid, David Naylor and G

The University of Toronto, IBM, Western University and five other Ontario universities, along with the federal and provincial governments are launching a bold new research and development innovation network unique in Canada.

Their goal: to use state-of-the-art computing infrastructure to solve critical problems related to cities, healthcare, water, energy and computing innovation and bring jobs and  prosperity to southern Ontario.

Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Faculty of Medicine hosts Brain Bee

Sub-title: 
Top students win summer placement in U of T neuroscience lab
Author: 
April Kemick
Picture: 
Photo of high school student Torri Odell at U of T Brain Bee

What brain region processes fear and anxiety? Which drug can break up blood clots to improve the outcome of a stroke? Where are neurotransmitters stored?

More than 100 high school students from across the Greater Toronto Area tackled questions like these in an intense, elimination-style “Brain Bee” held March 30 at the Faculty of Medicine.

Posted Friday, March 30, 2012

Prof. Andreas Laupacis, Faculty of Medicine

Prof. Andreas Laupacis (Dept. of Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital) was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Health Policy and Citizen Engagement.

Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Dr. Robin Mason, Faculty of Medicine

Dr. Robin Mason (Dept. of Psychiatry, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Women's College Research Institute) has been selected to receive the Excellence in Education Award at the 18th annual Nursing Network on Violence against Women International Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. The award recognizes Dr. Mason's many important contributions to educate health care professionals about how to better support women who are experiencing violence.
 

Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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