INNOVATION NOTEBOOK
Transgender Care
McMaster University has created an online learning tool to help future health-care workers care for transgender patients.
“There are unique needs transgender people have that aren’t taught well in our health care professional schools,” said Dr. Michael Lee-Poy, project co-lead and associate clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine. “It’s important for health -care providers to be educated to minimize and not to be part of the barriers, and not be part of the stigma.”
TransEd provides interactive lessons to help Ontario post-secondary students in health care programs become comfortable and competent in transgender care including assessment, psychosocial considerations, medication and surgery. The training tool launched Nov. 21 was created by McMaster University and the Waterloo School of Pharmacy and was funded by a grant from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
Alcohol survey
Residents are asked to share their stories and thoughts about how alcohol is affecting the Haldimand-Norfolk community.
The anonymous survey will be part of a community report on alcohol being done by the end of the year by the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit.
“Alcohol is commonly used but it’s not harmless and we want to start the conversation on this important social issue,” said Lina Hassen, a health promoter with the unit.
“With recent increased alcohol availability throughout Haldimand and Norfolk, as part of a wider provincial rollout, we want to give residents a chance to share their thoughts on the subject of alcohol through our survey,” Hassen added.
To participate in the survey, call 519-4266170 or go to hnhu.org.
Prescribing opioids
Two Hamilton researchers caution against Canada adopting American guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain.
McMaster University’s Jason Busse and Dr. Gordon Guyatt call the directions released in March by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “useful initial guidance” but warn it “has important limitations” in an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Nov. 21.
The editorial, also authored by Dr. David Juurlink from the University of Toronto, says a major omission in the CDC’s guideline is that it fails to address how to manage patients currently prescribed doses in excess of the recommended maximum of 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day. All three researchers are helping create Canadian guidelines for safe and effective use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain and say their directions will address the deficiencies of the CDC recommendations.
Autism medication
McMaster University scientists have discovered an alteration in the gene that changes the way brain cells grow and communicate in people with autism spectrum disorders.
The researchers at McMaster University’s Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute found the genetic alterations in the gene DIXDC1 in collaboration with Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital. The gene that instructs brain cells to form mature connections called synapses with other brain cells during development was turned off in a group of people with autism concludes the study published Nov. 8 in Cell Reports.
Finding a way to turn the gene back on could result in new medications for people with ASD. This is significant because there are currently no drugs to target the core symptoms of the complex disorder that affects one in 68 people.
Skin cancer treatment
Immunotherapy for patients in the late stages of a deadly form of skin cancer is as effective as chemotherapy, found a McMaster University study. “This is the first analysis to draw comparison between targeted and immune therapies,” said Feng Xie, principal investigator and associate professor in the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. “Our results will help patients and clinicians choose treatments.”
Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer with a 15 per cent death rate.
When diagnosed in the late stages, most patients can’t get surgery so are left with drug therapy. It has been unclear whether optimal initial treatment is targeted therapy like chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Targeted therapy stops cancer from growing and spreading while immunotherapy stimulates the immune system to attack tumour cells. The McMaster team evaluated 15 randomized controlled trials published between 2011 and 2015 involving 6,662 patients in the study published in JAMA Oncology Oct 27.
Diabetes video
McMaster University is tackling diabetes with a song. Clinicians and scientists at the Boris Family Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program created a music video of them singing about how they can help patients manage the chronic disease.
“The goal is to destigmatize the disease and reduce barriers for people seeking help to manage their diabetes,” Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, medical director of the clinic who wrote the song. The music video, “We get it … Together” is available at: https://youtu.be/Qmh4qGLd2Tk.