Research shows cardiac patients want to understand heart events, adopt heart-healthy diets, manage medications, recognize symptoms, control risk factors and engage in cardiac rehabilitation programs.
Health information is increasingly being shared online, and often the borders between legitimate health expertise and pseudoscience aren’t clear.
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How do we distinguish between valuable information from legitimate health experts, and pseudoscientific nonsense from unscrupulous wellness influencers?
It is clear that some public trust in public health, science and government has been lost in Canada and around the world.
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Now is the time to learn from the COVID-19 response through an action-oriented independent inquiry focused on accountability. Reforms to data generation, access and use are essential.
There are concerns about how health data are used, but research shows support for uses with public benefits by health-care providers, governments, health-system planners and university-based researchers.
Googling symptoms to self-diagnose is not the same as virtual health care.
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Searching symptoms online has become so common there is a name for the condition of health anxiety induced by self-diagnosis on the internet: Cyberchondria.
Even with optimal treatment, asthma and COPD patients encounter unpredictable flareups of their conditions, which can become life-threatening and need immediate medical attention.
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Researchers are developing an AI-powered device to detect asthma and COPD symptoms in real-time for faster treatment. The ‘patch’ listens to airway sounds, but filters out speech to protect privacy.
A mural of health protocol against COVID-19 spread in Indonesia.
Arif Firmansyah/Antara Foto
South Sulawesi residents’ low trust in government explains why people there did not take much efforts to protect themselves, despite feelings that they were at risk from COVID-19.
Shared decision-making is a patient-centred approach to health choices that considers a patient’s values as well as clinical evidence.
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Janet Jull, Queen's University, Ontario; Dawn Stacey, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, and Sascha Köpke, University of Cologne
Shared decision-making upholds person-centred care and supports people to take charge of their own health: their views, input and experiences are important contributors to health plans.
Sensationalist coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic spreads fear and is unhelpful.
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The majority of front page reports were negative in tone, seeing very little possibility for individual agency and self-efficacy. This can amplify public anxiety and fear.
HIPAA allows you to control disclosure of certain types of personal health information.
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While the HIPAA Privacy Rule prevents health care providers from sharing your health information without your permission, it doesn’t prevent other people from asking you about it.
Headlines pointed to the privatisation of hospital, end-of-life and dental services, but the Productivity Commission’s report is actually a lot less radical.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne