Healthcare

Until recently, few had heard of this obscure code. Recently the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) disclosed that during the pandemic, a at least $623 million had been paid to civil servants—especially in the Canada Revenue Agency and Correctional Services. According to Yves Giroux of the PBO (Jennifer Chevalier, CBC News, July 24, 2020), this amount of lost productivity was the “absolute minimum.” Federal employees were permitted to stay at home during the pandemic and receive full pay while not working—all thanks to the pay code 699 policy. This involved at least 76,000 persons, or a quarter of all government employees. Randall Denley (Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 2020) put this number at 79,000. (By comparison, there are 86,000 practising physicians in Canada.)

The government of Alberta has given patients the ability to create their own secure messaging account to connect with healthcare providers. Brightsquid Secure-Mail has been integrated into the provincial MyHealth Records (MHR) portal. Patients registered for MHR can create their own Secure-Mail account to communicate virtually with community healthcare providers.

The program is funded 75% by the federal government but each province gets to determine which workers are eligible

Adracare, a leading provider of telemedicine and practice management solutions based in Toronto, announced the launch of its self-serve platform, available to Canadian and U.S.-based clients immediately. With the Adracare self-serve platform now fully functional, healthcare professionals can sign-up and start running their virtual practice in under 90 seconds

Active discussions are taking place to potentially pre-order COVID-19 vaccine doses for Canadians, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Tuesday. She said an independent vaccine task force is advising the government on options for Canada's choice of vaccine, including exploring the possibility of manufacturing a potential pandemic cure at home.

The testing identified people with Alzheimer's vs. no dementia or other types of it with accuracy ranging from 89% to 98%

Health Canada has approved the use of remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19. The federal agency says the antiviral drug may be used to treat patients who have pneumonia and require extra oxygen to help them breathe. It's the first drug that Health Canada has authorized for the treatment of COVID-19. Health Canada approved its use in adults and adolescents.

As the clock ticks down to September, a new poll suggests many Canadian parents are on the fence about whether to send their kids to school if and when classrooms are reopened. The poll by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies comes as provincial governments are working on how to get students back into classrooms, most of which have been shuttered since mid-March due to COVID-19.