Nunavut sets up mobile tuberculosis clinic in Naujaat as outbreak grows

April 17, 2024admin

Nunavut sets up mobile tuberculosis clinic in Naujaat as outbreak grows

Nunavut's Health department is holding a TB screening clinic in Naujaat until May 30. (Havard Gould/CBC News - image credit) — Nunavut’s Health department is holding a TB screening clinic in Naujaat until May 30. (Havard Gould/CBC News – image credit)

Nunavut’s Health department has opened a community-wide mobile testing clinic in Naujaat, in the hopes of testing as many people as possible for tuberculosis.

It’s been almost a year since a TB outbreak was first declared in the community of 1,200 people on May 16, 2023.

Kevin Tegumiar, Naujaat’s mayor, said the hamlet has been asking for such a clinic for several months.

“Without accurate numbers, we’re not really sure where we are. This clinic will help clear things up,” Tegumiar said.

Tegumiar said three Naujaat residents have died since the outbreak began in the community. Nunavut’s Health department confirmed those numbers in a recent interview with CBC.

Since January 2023, 21 people in Naujaat have been diagnosed with active TB.

Another 118 others have been diagnosed with latent TB, according to the department, which is almost double the number reported in November last year.

Hundreds of tests

Health officials have set a goal to test 1,000 people in Naujaat for TB by the end of the clinic, on May 30.

“We hope that every one of them are coming and get screened during the time that we are here,” said Ekua Agyemang, Nunavut’s deputy chief public health officer. “When TB is identified early, the disease is very easy to treat in the community.”

The Health department said they will deploy a team of health-care workers, including a doctor, four nurses, an epidemiologist, a radiology technician and laboratory technician.

Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, will also visit Naujaat this week as part of a tour alongside Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. officials and the territory’s health minister. Tam will also visit Pond Inlet and Iqaluit.

“Though TB will be

…

Department Health

March 31, 2024admin

New Federal Health IT Strategy Sets Sights on a Heathier, More Innovative, and More Equitable Health Care Experience

ONC seeks public comment by May 28, 2024

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), today released the draft 2024–2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (the draft Plan) for public comment. The draft Plan:

Outlines federal health IT goals and objectives that are focused on improving access to health data, delivering a better, more equitable health care experience, and modernizing our nation’s public health data infrastructure.
Places an emphasis on the policy and technology components necessary to support the diverse data needs of all health IT users.
Supports the Department’s recent Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) final rule to advance the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information (EHI), and deliver more transparent and equitable care for individuals.
Aligns with the HHS Health Care Sector Cybersecurity concept paper and voluntary health care specific Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) to help health care organizations prioritize implementation of high-impact cybersecurity practices.

“As part of our statutory duty to align and coordinate health IT efforts with our federal partners, ONC collaborated on the draft Plan with more than 25 federal agencies. These agencies regulate, purchase, develop, and use health IT to deliver care and improve health outcomes, and they increasingly rely on the access, exchange, and use of EHI to effectively execute their missions,” said Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., national coordinator for health information technology. “We look forward to public comments to help inform the federal government’s health IT strategy for the coming years.”

Health IT is integral to how health care is delivered, how health is managed, and how the health of populations and communities is tracked. Thanks in part to the development of common standards, such as the United

…

Health Information

December 24, 2023admin

2023 sets a new record for health data breaches

Odds are, you’ve gotten at least one of the unnerving letters in your mailbox this year: “We’re writing to inform you of a cybersecurity incident,” it might start. It’s the standard notice many health care organizations are required to provide when your protected health information gets exposed — and in 2023, data leaks, hacks, and mishandling led more of them to be delivered than ever before.

As many as 116 million individuals have been impacted by large health data breaches reported to the Department of Health and Human Services this year, according to records from its Office for Civil Rights as of December 21. That number has more than doubled over recent counts, driven primarily by a surge in hacking and ransomware attacks on health care organizations regulated by the privacy rule HIPAA.

Since 2009, OCR has issued reports on large data breaches — those that impact 500 or more patients — which appear on its public “wall of shame.” The last record for individual impact was set in 2015, when three data breaches at health plans Anthem, Premera Blue Cross, and Excellus impacted tens of millions of patients each. It was a massive outlier, driving the total individuals impacted by large health breaches over 112 million.

By contrast, this year’s breaches were both large and numerous. Twenty hacking and IT incidents each impacted more than 1 million people, with the largest, at HCA Healthcare, exposing information for up to 11 million. Along with other industries and public groups, health care organizations fell prey to widespread hacks enabled by the MOVEit file transfer vulnerability, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to software providers like Nuance and Welltok. HHS has emphasized the challenge of these attacks in a new cybersecurity strategy issued this month: Between 2018

…

Department Health

December 14, 2023admin

CHEO sets up special mental health unit in its emergency deparment

Get the latest from Elizabeth Payne straight to your inbox

Published Dec 11, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) has opened a mental health transition unit beside its emergency department. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

Just to the side of CHEO’s busy emergency department, the newly opened mental health transition unit feels like it is a world away. The four-bed unit, complete with beanbag chairs and soft lighting, is designed to divert children and youth experiencing mental health crises away from the emergency department to a calmer space where they can be seen by specialists and, in many cases, safely discharged back home with a treatment plan after a short stay.

Advertisement 2

…

Tag: sets

Article content