The federal government is tabling legislation to permanently exclude individuals with mental illness as their sole underlying condition from accessing medical assistance in dying. The bill also introduces provisions for advance requests, allowing patients with degenerative conditions to consent to MAID before losing capacity. The legislation must pass by March 17, 2027.
If this bill passes, provinces will decide whether to implement advance request procedures within their own health systems.
Abbott has released a mandatory security update for the FreeStyle Libre 3 app on Android and iOS. A previous patch to address a vulnerability caused a defect that may lead to prolonged communication loss between the app and the sensor. Users must update to version 3.6.10 immediately to resolve this issue.
If you assist patients using this system, ensure they update their app to version 3.6.10 to prevent sensor connection failures.
P.E.I. released a 16-recommendation alcohol strategy after five years of planning, aiming to reduce drinking rather than ban it. Measures include screening for high-risk drinking at medical appointments, youth programs, pricing by alcohol content, and putting 3 per cent of net alcohol profits into community and harm-reduction work. Alcohol causes about 7,000 ER visits and hospitalizations a year on the Island, and impaired driving rates are nearly three times the national average.
The strategy links alcohol policy directly to health care: screening in clinics, and a share of liquor profits funding harm reduction.
Canada’s flu season began seven weeks earlier than usual, with national positivity rates exceeding the five per cent epidemic threshold by mid-October. While H1N1 is the dominant strain, experts note that current vaccines remain effective at reducing the severity of illness and the risk of hospitalization.
You can now offer patients the current flu vaccine, which remains effective against the dominant H1N1 strain.
Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA vaccine intismeran cut the risk of melanoma returning by 42 per cent two years after surgery, in a study of more than 1,100 people with high-risk melanoma. Two years on, 82 per cent of vaccinated patients were recurrence-free, versus 70 per cent on Keytruda alone. The companies are discussing approval with regulators; full results were due at a European oncology meeting in Madrid.
A personalized mRNA vaccine, matched to each patient's tumour, is moving toward approval after a large trial showed a clear gain in living without recurrence.
More than 300,000 British Columbians live with long COVID, and the province's virtual-care clinic serves over 8,500 patients. From Nov. 1, virtual group appointments will be capped at 30 patients, down from groups of up to 50, and the per-patient fee falls from $14.71 to $11.42. The clinic says allied health will no longer be available in virtual group settings and patients should expect longer waits; the changes were signed off by the Medical Services Commission on Sept. 24.
The changes land Nov. 1 on a clinic that is the main virtual-care route for thousands of long COVID patients across B.C.
Saskatchewan hospitals are now using a rapid test that gives a mother with HIV her viral load on site within about two hours, instead of waiting days for a central lab, so treatment decisions for mother and newborn can be made at once. The practice is in use in Regina and Saskatoon and is rolling out to Melfort and more remote communities. Saskatchewan is the first province to use the test this widely; in 2024 its first-time HIV diagnosis rate was three times the national average, second only to Manitoba.
A two-hour result instead of days means treatment for mother and baby can start before they leave the hospital.
A new national target aims to limit antipsychotic use in long-term care residents without psychosis to 15%. Current Canadian rates sit at 24%, prompting calls for cross-sectoral collaboration to improve prescribing, monitoring, and deprescribing practices across acute, community, and long-term care settings.
Expect increased focus on reviewing antipsychotic prescriptions and improving care transitions to meet this new national safety benchmark.
Nearly 130,000 Ontarians now show signs of gambling problems, about triple the roughly 43,000 in 2018, according to new Alberta Gambling Research Institute research, after private online casino games and sports betting expanded in 2022. Gambling-related suicides also tripled after 2022, from an average of five a year in 2016-2021, the Chief Coroner's office says. Ontario says it has spent $421 million on responsible gambling and addiction treatment since 2018.
The numbers tie the 2022 online-casino expansion to a tripling of both problem gambling and gambling-related suicides in Ontario.
A study involving Manitoba researchers found that the time taken to start appropriate antifungal therapy is the most significant factor for survival in Candida septic shock. Patients treated within two hours of persistent hypotension had an 86% survival rate, with outcomes worsening by 5% for every hour of delay thereafter.
For patients with suspected Candida septic shock, prioritizing the rapid administration of appropriate antifungal therapy within the first two hours of hypotension is critical.
Health Canada announced more than $6 million for initiatives to improve culturally responsive mental health and substance use services for Black Canadians, announced by federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel in Toronto. The funding runs through the Substance Use and Addictions Program and the Supporting Community Mental Health Crisis Response Initiative as part of Canada's Black Justice Strategy, covering culturally safe prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services, expanded supports for Black youth and families, peer mentorship, provider training and community-based crisis res
Winnipeg's HSDE is among the funded organizations, so frontline workers there can point clients to school-based workshops, peer support and drop-in help.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has declared the two-year national measles outbreak over, following two months without new linked cases. The outbreak resulted in 6,417 total cases across 10 provinces and territories, including 1,033 in Manitoba. Officials continue to emphasize the importance of routine vaccinations to prevent future transmission.
