Short briefs on what is changing in healthcare in Alberta and across Canada, collected from official bodies and news outlets, each linked to its original source.
Health organizations using AI to accelerate digital tool development must still complete standard privacy, security, and procurement reviews. While AI can speed up coding, it does not automate the necessary governance documentation. Custodians remain accountable for personal health information regardless of the development method used.
Before adopting AI-built tools, confirm with vendors that they use enterprise agreements with zero data retention and only synthetic data in development environments.
The Alberta government is providing $5 million to Bow Valley College to develop a proposal for a new Health Care Centre of Excellence. This funding will support project design and cost estimation to potentially expand training programs for nurses, pharmacy technicians, health care aides, and therapy assistants.
QuidelOrtho has identified an issue where certain generations of Vitros chemistry products A1c slides may produce positively biased results. The manufacturer has received 58 complaints regarding this performance issue as of October 15, 2026. No adverse events have been reported to date.
If you use these slides in your lab, contact the manufacturer for further guidance on managing potential result inaccuracies.
Philips identified a safety issue where power supply units in certain Azurion systems may fail during startup or restart. Energy surges can cause these components to malfunction, preventing the system from completing its boot process. This failure renders the imaging equipment unavailable for clinical use.
If you operate this equipment, contact the manufacturer for further guidance on managing potential startup failures.
The manufacturer identified a software issue affecting all RotaFlow consoles on the market. This fault can prevent the device from charging its battery after the unit has operated in battery mode. Users should contact the manufacturer for further information regarding this device defect.
If you use RotaFlow consoles in your clinical practice, contact the manufacturer to determine how this charging issue affects your equipment's reliability.
Boston Scientific issued an advisory for the OptiCross family of intravascular ultrasound imaging catheters. The manufacturer is updating flushing instructions and reinforcing device preparation and air-management practices. Users should consult the updated Instructions for Use for the specific products listed in the company's customer letter.
If you use these catheters, review the updated flushing and air-management protocols to ensure proper device preparation before use.
A software defect in syngo.via MR Cardiac Analysis affects the evaluation of 2D cardiac flow data. The algorithm fails to include the final cardiac phase in calculations, leading to systematic underestimation of flow quantification parameters like forward volume. This issue specifically impacts beat sensor-triggered data where flow peaks occur during the final cardiac phases.
If you use these imaging systems, be aware that cardiac flow measurements may be underestimated and require manual verification of data.
Siemens has released service pack NX VA60A-SP04 for Magnetom MRI scanners. This update addresses image loading errors, improves system stability, and adjusts coil specifications for breast and body imaging. It also implements new data access requirements and ensures compliance with safety standards for table movement.
If you work with Magnetom MRI systems, check with your technical team to ensure this update is installed for improved system performance and safety.
BioMérieux identified a product issue with lot 0727226 of the BIOFIRE BCID2 Panel kit. Unintended movement of pouch chemistry in this specific lot may cause false negative results across all analytes on the panel. No other product lots are affected by this safety notice.
If your lab uses this specific lot, contact the manufacturer for guidance on managing potential false negative results.
The Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the manufacturer of Elahere have reached a funding agreement. This targeted chemotherapy for FRα-positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer is now recommended for public reimbursement by Canada’s Drug Agency. Provincial and territorial governments must now finalize the process to include the drug in their respective public plans.
If you treat patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, this agreement moves the drug closer to being covered by provincial public drug plans.
The Enoch maskêkosihk Recovery Community has been completed with $35 million in provincial capital funding. The 75-bed facility provides no-cost, culturally grounded addiction treatment for up to 300 people annually in the Edmonton region. Treatment services are scheduled to begin this December, offering support for up to one year.
You can now refer patients in the Edmonton area to this new facility for long-term, culturally grounded addiction treatment starting this December.
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.
Medtronic has issued a recall to update the instructions for use for the Abre venous self-expanding stent system. The update provides a validated manual deployment method to address rare instances of partial stent deployment. No product returns or disposals are required.
If you use this device, review the new manual deployment instructions provided by the manufacturer to manage potential partial stent deployment.
Beckman Coulter reports that DxC 500i and DxC 500 AU clinical chemistry analyzers may revert custom calculated rules to default settings following software or parameter package upgrades. Operators who have modified these 25 predefined rules must verify settings after any system updates.
If you use these analyzers, check your calculated test rules after any software or parameter package updates to ensure they remain correctly configured.
Alberta has increased acute care capacity to over 9,000 spaces, including 221 permanent beds and 194 temporary beds. The province also launched a Provincial Integrated Operations Centre to coordinate resources and a Triage Liaison Physician program to place doctors in emergency waiting areas. Additionally, hospitals are implementing automated daily staffing reports to improve resource management.
You may see triage physicians in emergency waiting areas and use new automated staffing reporting tools to help manage seasonal patient surges.
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.
Only about 34 per cent of Canadians eligible for the Registered Disability Savings Plan have opened one, a 2024 Statistics Canada investigation found, versus roughly 68 per cent uptake for TFSAs and RRSPs. The plan offers up to $70,000 in federal grants and $20,000 in bonds, but take-up is held back by low awareness, few providers, and a 16-page clinician questionnaire needed to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit.
Frontline workers may be the first to tell eligible clients about a plan worth up to $90,000 in federal help that most never hear about.
A fatality inquiry heard that Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died on Dec. 22, 2025 after waiting about eight hours in the Grey Nuns emergency department in Edmonton for chest pain. A doctor testified the hospital's five general medicine units have run above capacity since at least 2024, with occupancy around 101 per cent in 2025, and that 20 to 30 per cent of beds hold patients who no longer need hospital care. The inquiry resumes in December.
The testimony puts numbers to ER overcrowding: more patients than beds, and a fifth to a third of beds taken by patients awaiting placement elsewhere.
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.
Philips has issued a notice regarding Azurion 7 systems that may contain unauthorized solid-state drives. These incorrect components could lead to system failures, including the loss of imaging capabilities, motorized movement issues, or the inability to access and store patient data.
If you use an Azurion 7 system, be aware that unauthorized drives may cause sudden equipment failure or loss of patient data.
Abbott has issued a recall for specific lots of i-STAT hs-TnI cartridges due to manufacturing variability. These cartridges may produce falsely elevated cardiac troponin I results because of reduced interference mitigation. There is no evidence of falsely low test results.
Check your i-STAT hs-TnI cartridge lots against the recall list and stop using any affected units immediately.
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 Quality Alberta has published a guide and toolkit designed to foster civility within health care environments. These materials aim to support safer care outcomes by improving professional interactions.
You can access the new guide and toolkit through Health Quality Alberta to help improve team communication and safety in your workplace.
Federal, provincial, and territorial health ministers met in Winnipeg on October 16, 2026, to discuss healthcare system reforms. Key priorities included improving workforce mobility for internationally educated professionals, advancing national public health data sharing, and ensuring the sustainability of long-term funding for rare disease treatments and community care services.
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.
