 responsibility for those needing refuge and asylum.
The most egregious statement I probably heard and which surprised me given the speaker’s role in the Syrian refugee resettlement efforts, occurred at a planning meeting of government, public institutions, immigrant and refugee serving sector representatives and those representing private sponsors.
I came back with a clever repartee about donated clothes being sold in the markets of west Africa as ‘dead white men’s clothes’, but was very much taken aback by the casual racism, what my children’s generation call ‘micro-aggressions’.
It is these beliefs of those from Africa being less deserving, not as desirable, not as adaptable that drives public opinion and allows us to remain silent in the face of atrocities against very many African peoples. Another thought also crossed my mind as I reflected on this exchange later in the day. Would anyone else around the table have said anything or even acknowledged this comment as inherently racist, if I had remained silent?
We end the year in a very different place from where we started.
There is a sense of optimism in the air as we prepare to work with this new government that has given every indication that it will reverse the draconian immigration and refugee policies enacted by the previous federal government.
There is a sense that civil society and the important role that we play in shaping public policy is once again respected and appreciated. This is a good thing as there is much work to be done.
Maybe it is time for a complete review and revision of our Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
On the refugee front, the government has made some good policy decisions in waiving the transportation loan and extending type one Interim Federal Health coverage to all Syrian refugees who arrive post Nov. 4, regardless of sponsorship. A goodwill act for the New Year will be the extension of this access to all refugees.
The Syrian resettlement initiative raised the issue of affordable housing and has focused attention on the critical need for a national housing strategy.
As well, we need to look at introducing policy that will incentivize employers to hire new immigrants and refugees. The province must reopen the discussion on employment equity-like policy which will also include an immigrant/refugee lens.
Refugees to Ontario are immediately eligible for OHIP services. Let’s extend that to all new immigrants as well and forever retire the three month wait period. We must continue to review and make substantive changes to our child protection services and the relationship they have with racialized (including immigrant and refugee) communities.
We have much work to be done, but what a difference a year makes, as we prepare to work with the federal and provincial governments in the spirit of partnership and collegiality. Happy New Year indeed!
Debbie Douglas is Executive Director of OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, the umbrella organization for immigrant and refugee-serving agencies in Ontario. OCASI has 231 member agencies across the province.
This article was first published in the OCASI newsletter In The Field. It was republished with permission.
Digital health has been making its mark throughout the healthcare industry and transforming what we know as patient care. Improved technologies are reducing barriers to care, enhancing patient-provider communications, and are bettering the overall patient experience. However, pharmaceutical companies are lagging, which is impacting their bottom line. Read on to discover how pharma can use digital health tools to improve their revenue streams and boost patient care.
Why Digital Health?
Leaders in the pharmaceutical industry may wonder why digital health is a solution to improving revenue streams. The truth is, to thrive and survive in our new digitized healthcare industry, pharma must implement digital strategies to stand out and to fulfill their goal of maintaining the health and safety of patients.
Today, patients are more engaged in their healthcare than ever before. Patients feel empowered to seek healthcare information online and through mobile apps. For example, 85% of patients said they were confident in their ability to take responsibility for their health in a recent survey. Therefore, it’s only right for pharma to meet patients where they are, which is their phones. We recognize that there is more to healthcare than what occurs inside the four walls of a healthcare facility. Digital health helps bridge that gap.
By using digital health tools, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies have the unique advantage of offering more than just pills. Care pathway platforms can provide remote monitoring and track key health indicators. Patients, their families, and providers alike can view vitals and patient-reported outcomes in real-time, such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and even heart rate. The ability to virtually monitor one’s biophysical signals allows for practically immediate intervention if needed.
Our healthcare system has transitioned from a fee-for-service model to a value-based payment one. No longer are providers being paid based on the number of services they provide, but the quality. Therefore, hospitals are more likely to work with pharmacies that can help them improve their 30-day risk readmission measures, which increases revenue for both stakeholders.
Also, health plans rate pharmacies based on their ability to increase medication adherence, promote medication safety, and medication therapy management. Pharmacies that are scored well by the CMS star rating system are recommended to the health plans customers. In short, highly rated pharmacies will benefit from more patients and increased revenues through these referrals.
By not embracing automation, possible profit is missed. Automation can essentially help pharmacies dispense more prescriptions faster, which increases their profitability. Imagine a platform that collects data from your patient’s EMR, consumer wearables, and patient-reported outcomes. This same platform alerts you to recommend an additional product or service based on their health conditions and the types of drugs you’re dispensing to them. While this can be done manually, automation makes it much easier. Now you have a system that not only helps to drive appropriate treatment protocols, but also helps with upselling.
When patients don’t fill their prescriptions, potential revenue is lost. Thus, community pharmacies that incorporate digital health tools also benefit from improved workflows and increased medication adherence.
The pharmaceutical development industry also has a unique advantage in utilizing digital health tools. The data collected from patients will allow stakeholders to see how and if certain drugs are improving patient outcomes. Before, this was mostly limited to randomized controlled trials, but this data can now be pulled from a data-driven digital platform. That means pharmaceutical developers will strive to show their drug’s efficacy. Essentially, those with positive results will retain market access and premium pricing.
The next generation of pharma is one that includes streamlined processes, advanced analytics, and personalized patient portals. Today, pharma companies will need to partner with digital health firms in order to be prepared for the healthcare industry of tomorrow.
Patients want to be connected, payors want to reduce unnecessary resources, and providers strive to provide appropriate interventions both in and out of healthcare facilities. Overall, partnering with digital health firms is a benefit to all stakeholders. Now is the time for pharma to brainstorm how they can implement digital strategies to improve patient care and their bottom line.Quaint home located in the "Village" at Imperial Bonita Estates.  Spacious lot with mature fruit trees and landscaping. Endless possibilities!Private deck area to soak up the sun. Additional annual fee of $420 for use of the amenities.Seller will consider all reasonable offers. Property being sold as-is.
In our experience, Purchasing Cards can be a useful tool for low-value procurement, however, the aspect of potential fraud through the use of Cards – whether personal travel-type cards or corporate purchasing cards - is one that plays particularly strongly in the government (public) sector. Indeed, that has become even more of an issue since greater spend transparency has led to more detailed card spend information being put into the public domain. But our point in this post is not particularly about whether Cards are a good idea or whether their use should be extended, it is about the psychology of public spending.
This is a new regular feature from us – a review of the forthcoming conferences and events of interest to the pan-European public procurement world, practitioners, academics and others. We will update every month or so – here we start with three events coming up very soon, and two more in the Autumn. You are free to send us an update if you would like us to mention your forthcoming (relevant) here.
The UK’s National Audit Office (NOA) has announced that it is going to review the work of the central collaborative procurement operation, Crown Commercial Service. They have even invited you to make your own suggestions of areas that the auditors might want to consider. It does seem to us that the NAO has quite a tough job ahead of it, assuming it really wants to add value in its review. That’s not because it is hard to think of areas where CCS can and should improve; it is more that it is likely that CCS itself knows and understands where many of its challenges lie. So how does NAO avoid just stating the blindingly obvious? Here are some thoughts.
Dr Pedro Telles of Swansea University hosts a debate between Carlos Arrebola a PhD candidate at University of Cambridge and Albert Sanchez-Graells from the University of Bristol. Arrebola’s research into 'the influence of the Advocate General’s opinion in decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union,' is critiqued and we get to understand the drives behind the research and the main findings, what the variables were and what differences other variables might have made to the findings. It is a positive yet challenging discussion, the last in this series.There should be a better word. “Shed” just doesn’t capture it. One imagines a neglected structure at the edge of a property, full of shovels and rusted rakes