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Including:

We are currently working with the Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons to help estimate the number of cardiac surgeons required in 15 years, since it takes 10 to 12 years to train. Do to a continued decrease in demand, current medical students are not selecting cardiac surgery as their specialty and residency positions are not being filled. With 43% of current Canadian cardiac surgeons expected to retire over the next 15 years, this could be a major problem by 2025. Our work is intended to demonstrate the viability of the profession for prospective residents.

On August 28, 2007, the government of Ontario launched a $1.1 billion, four year initiative to allow seniors to live healthy, independent lives in the comfort and dignity of their own homes. The Aging at Home Strategy will work towards matching the needs of seniors and their caregivers with the appropriate local support services and avoid premature admission to higher care long-term centres and hospitals. CRHE is helping the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care develop a simulation model (using System Dynamics) to help them understand the impact and effectiveness of the Aging at Home strategy. We are also working with the LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) to provide quantitative decision support tools to best allocate Aging at Home dollars to specific initiatives.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Canada, yet it is highly treatable if discovered early. In January 2007, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, in collaboration with Cancer Care Ontario (CCO), launched a province-wide, population-based colorectal cancer screening program; ColonCancerCheck. The goals of the program are to increase screening rates and ultimately reduce mortality due to colorectal cancer. ColonCancerCheck will expand access to screening and supporting physicians and other health care providers to screen participants. The current initiative has dramatically increased the demand for colonoscopy. CRHE is working closely with CCO on capacity planning, and to help hospitals efficiently operate the endoscopy suite.
Governments and health care workers are very concerned about the potential of an influenza pandemic. CRHE is working with Dr. Brian Schwartz, Director of Emergency Management Support for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Ontario has stockpiles of antivirals, but they must be taken within 48 hours of infection. Possible delivery methods include hospital ED, local pharmacy, family practice or home delivery. Each has implications on timeliness and infection rates. We are working on logistics models to provide decision support for the distribution of antivirals in the event of an outbreak. In conjunction with this, we are developing agent-based models to measure the potential impact in terms of infections and mortality.