Rosalie Wyonch – Eliminate hallway medicine by getting non-acute patients out of hospital
Published in the Financial Post.
Canadian hospitals are capacity-constrained and expensive and therefore not the best care setting for patients who no longer need acute care and the bed that comes with it. Yet these “alternate level care” (ALC) patients accounted for 17 per cent of all acute-care bed days in Canada (excluding Quebec) in 2022-23. Reducing this unnecessary use of limited acute-care capacity could help ensure hospital beds are open for Canadians when they need them.
High ALC volume is one of the most vexing and complex health system challenges, but there are ways to address it. Relatively modest improvement could help reduce the risk of hospital bed shortages. ALC occupancy, which ranges from 14.5 to 26.1…
Graph of the Week: The 5-Year Fixed Interest Rate
Introducing Graph of the Week, a new series from the C.D. Howe Institute’s Graphic Intelligence that presents valuable and easily digestible data. Each Monday we will unveil one new captivating chart or graph with interesting insights, explaining it in two-to-three sentences. Dive into the data with us. The 5-year fixed interest rate is the most […] Rosalie Wyonch – Ozempic: The Perils of Living Beside the US Elephant
From: Rosalie Wyonch To: Healthcare observers Date: July 22, 2024 Re: Ozempic: The Perils of Living Beside the US Elephant In the last instalment of our examination of the lessons of the Ozempic moment we look at the complications of living next door to the largest and highest profit pharmaceutical market in the world and ongoing changes to […] C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council Calls for Bank of Canada to Lower Overnight Rate to 4.50 Percent, Cut to 3.25 Percent by July 2025
July 18, 2024 – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) calls for the Bank of Canada to lower its target for the overnight rate, its benchmark policy interest rate, to 4.50 percent at its next announcement on July 24th. The MPC further calls for the Bank to lower the target to 4.25 at the following announcement in September, on the way to a target of 3.25 percent by July of 2025.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent inflation target. MPC co-chair, Jeremy Kronick, the Institute’s Associate Vice President and Director of the Centre on Financial and Monetary Policy, chaired this meeting. MPC members make…
Rosalie Wyonch – Ozempic: Economic Ripple Effects, Equity and Side Effects
From: Rosalie Wyonch To: Healthcare Observers Date: July 18, 2024 Re: Ozempic: Economic Ripple Effects, Equity and Side Effects The surge in demand for Ozempic (and other GLP-1 medications) has implications for healthcare’s future, is creating opportunities for complementary products and services and disrupting other markets. About 6 percent of US adults currently use one of the drugs, according to […] Plotting Progress on Primary Care Access Strategies across Provinces
The lack of access to family physicians in Canada is a critical issue affecting millions of Canadians, and provinces are all moving to address it.This Graphic Intelligence illustrates primary care initiatives and actions taken by various provinces since 2022 in pursuit of five well-established approaches: increasing supply of family physicians; reducing administrative burdens; implementing alternative compensation […] Rosalie Wyonch – Ozempic: Disruption and Drama in Pharmaceutical Markets and Insurance
From: Rosalie Wyonch To: Healthcare Observers Date: July 17, 2024 Re: Ozempic: Disruption and Drama in Pharmaceutical Markets and Insurance Ozempic (and other GLP-1 medications) are having their moment in the popular mind. And their sudden prominence illustrates how pharmaceutical companies can expand the market for existing products by finding new applications. They have been approved as safe for […] Rosalie Wyonch – Ozempic: A Microcosm That Can Teach Us a Lot about Healthcare Markets
From: Rosalie Wyonch To: Healthcare Observers Date: July 16, 2024 Re: Ozempic: A Microcosm That Can Teach Us a Lot about Healthcare Markets Ozempic (and other GLP-1 medications) have been having their moment. Headlines hail a “miracle drug” for weight loss, others say that’s too good to be true, and there’s even a South Park episode titled “the end […] Strengthening Global Supply Chains for Low-Emissions Technology: The Policy Playbook and the Trade-offs
Governments and companies are striving to lower emissions, through policies designed to encourage the adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. Reliable supply chains are essential for that effort. Concerns, however, have emerged about the national security implications of the supply chains related to these emerging low-emission energy technologies. The worry […] The Trilemma and Trade-Offs in Low-Emissions Energy Supply Chains – And What Canada Needs to Know
Geopolitical tensions around chokepoints in low-emissions energy supply chains have been raising alarm about their potential disruptions to the net-zero transition. However, before Canada and other governments respond, they must grasp the complex trilemma they face and carefully…Oreopoulos, Skuterud – It’s Time to Relearn Some Basic Immigration Lessons
From: Philip Oreopoulos and Mikal Skuterud To: Immigration Watchers Date: July 15, 2024 Re: It’s Time to Relearn Some Basic Immigration Lessons At the crux of economic immigration policy is the question of whether immigrant selection should prioritize current labour market needs or the human capital of applicants. Does Canada need more farmhands and delivery riders, or do we […] Miville Tremblay – Reflections on a Canadian Tilt to Public Pension Fund Investments
To: Canadian Pension Watchers From: Miville Tremblay Date: July 12, 2024 Re: Reflections on a Canadian Tilt to Public Pension Fund Investments Should Canada’s large pension funds follow the path of Quebec’s Caisse de dépôt et placement and demonstrate a greater home bias, or national preference, in their investments? This burning question is at the […]