In the News
Weight Gained from Psychiatric Medications Can Be Lost With Basic Diet and Exercise
By Françoise Makanda, Communications Officer at DLSPH Weight gain can be a major challenge for patients taking psychiatric medications. But a new DLSPH-led study suggests basic exercise and dieting are effective at controlling it. “A lot of doctors tell patients they won’t be able to lose weight because they are...
Health System Reform Must Include Physicians
Ontario has embarked on a bold experiment to transform care with a large focus on Ontario Health Teams or OHTs. At maturity, OHTs will be responsible for the full continuum of care within a community. As the Premier’s Council’s latest report suggests, OHTs should be able to provide an integrated...
Uncovering the Communities with the Highest Premature Deaths in Ontario
U of T researchers have conducted the first spatial analysis of death in Ontario, discovering that social and demographic factors are by far the biggest factors in predicting who dies before their time. Public health researchers used traditional statistical and geography tools to break down premature death rates community by...
Building Respectful Inclusion One Semester at a Time
Dr. Fady Shanouda does not require student accommodation letters. He does not believe in late marks or penalties. He uses close-captioned slides, and his handouts are at least 16 point font for those with low vision. And he records lectures so students who can’t make it to class, for mental...
High School Students Learn How to Save Toronto from Deadly Theoretical Virus!
by Françoise Makanda, Communications Officer, DLSPH A virus hits Toronto just as the Raptors clinch the NBA championship and crowds pour into the streets. For 11 high school students, this was the theoretical challenge. They had five days this summer to come up with a plan to avert catastrophe. The...
Reducing Waste in Health Care – Are We Making Progress?
For the past five years, Choosing Wisely Canada has helped introduce patients to the idea that there could be a downside to unnecessary tests and procedures. Although the movement is focussed squarely on what’s best for patients, health systems researchers are following Choosing Wisely closely -- interested in whether it...
U of T Researchers Show Kids Widely Exposed to Smoking in Movies
More than half of the top-grossing movies in Ontario in the past 16 years featured smoking, according to University of Toronto researchers with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit – and most of these films were rated as acceptable for youth. Since 2002, Adult Accompaniment (AA) or 14A rated movies have...
DLSPH Grad Challenges International Standard of Care for Trans Patients
By Françoise Makanda, Communications Officer DLSPH This week, Postdoctoral Fellow Kinnon MacKinnon turned his PhD dissertation into a website tailored for clinicians on trans patient care. MacKinnon’s PhD dissertation focuses mainly on equity in the administration of hormones and surgeries for trans people. As a trans person himself, he argues...
IHPME welcomes new acting director, Audrey Laporte
As the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) bids a fond farewell to outgoing Interim Director Rhonda Cockerill and wishes her well on her retirement, we are very pleased to welcome our current acting director Audrey Laporte, who has been with IHPME since 2001 as a faculty member and...
DLSPH Push Forward Recommendations to Improve Health of LGBTQ2S+ Communities
By Françoise Makanda, Communications Officer at DLSPH Trans people do not have access to adequate and inclusive medical care. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men face discriminatory policies when donating blood. When measuring homelessness, researchers cannot determine how many LGBTQ2S+ youth and young adults experience homelessness....