Unity Health Toronto

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from all of us at Unity Health Toronto! Pictured here are some of our amazing staff from the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at St. Michael’s and St. Joseph's spreading some holiday cheer.

What’s it like to be among the first health care workers in Canada to be vaccinated against COVID-19? Zhahara Javate, Registered Practical Nurse at the Houses of Providence, shares why she rolled up her sleeve and got the vaccine. I believe in science. I’m a nurse and I want to be safe. Some people suggest that there are risks but I’m willing to take them if I can save lives and lessen the risk of getting or transmitting COVID-19 to our residents.

Wonderful things take place across Unity Health Toronto every single day. Join us in celebrating 10 great things that happened this week.

‘It’s a game changer’ yesterday, we launched our appointment-based COVID-19 vaccination clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital as part of the first phase of the province’s vaccine roll out. The Globe and Mail highlights this milestone in our fight against COVID-19.

Today, St. Michael’s Hospital launched the appointment-based COVID-19 vaccination clinic as part of the first phase of Ontario’s vaccine roll out. This is a huge milestone in our fight against COVID-19. Photographer Yuri Markarov captured the historic day.

There has never been a more important year to get your flu vaccine. Tamara, Registered Practical Nurse at St. Joseph’s, explains why. It’s particularly important to get your flu vaccine this year to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s stay healthy together. Get your flu vaccine. For more information, visit: https://bit.ly/2HaF218.

Every week, we celebrate the wonderful things that took place across our sites. Here are 10 great things that happened at Unity Health Toronto this week.

For World Pancreatic Cancer Day, we are recognizing the Hepatic, Pancreatic and Biliary Tract (HPB) Surgical Oncology Team at St. Joseph’s. As one of the largest HPB surgery units in Canada, the dedicated team aims to provide the best care for pancreatic cancer patients. From onsite diagnostics to chemotherapy, they manage all aspects of patient care. Despite the challenges during the pandemic, the HPB team has worked together to find creative and innovative ways to maintain and grow their volumes and improve the patient experience, says Dr. Shiva Jayaraman, hepatobiliary and pancreas surgeon. Join us in thanking the team for the excellent care they provide to all patients!

One of the greatest limitations of surgical education is that students only see a snapshot of the impact breast cancer has on patients and their support system. To overcome this barrier in medical education, Dr. Jory Simpson and his team at St. Michael’s created the Patient as Teacher program. Through this initiative, survivors are empowered to share their personal stories and lived experiences with undergraduate medical students. For their work, they received this year’s honourable mention in the Innovation Award category at the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario’s annual ceremony.

A medication used to treat diabetes is able to reduce hospitalizations and cardiovascular deaths in patients with heart failure by 33 per cent, suggests a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Heart failure is a grievous condition and it’s on the rise. We need multiple approaches to improve quality of life for these patients. It’s very exciting to be part of a solution for patients and share results that provide tremendous hope, says Dr. Subodh Verma, a cardiovascular surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital and scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, who led the study.

A COVID-19 test can intimidate anyone. But walking into a hospital full of people wearing yellow gowns, face shields and gloves can be particularly scary for kids. At St. Michael's COVID-19 Assessment Centre, staff have worked to make the space more welcoming for children. It’s important that the experience isn’t traumatizing. The child might have to go through the test again, so we don’t want them to remember it as something terrible. We want to do everything we can to make it more comfortable.

The General Internal Medicine (GIM) unit at St. Michaels Hospital moved into its brand new space inside the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower (PGT) this week. The PGTs inpatient units were designed to care for critically ill patients in individual, private rooms. The new GIM space offers numerous features designed for a comfortable stay for patients and an efficient work flow for staff.

Its #RehabilitationDay in Toronto and we are sharing Bill Hymans inspiring story. After undergoing spinal cord surgery at St. Michaels Hospital earlier this year, Bill found himself at Providence Healthcare where he is learning to walk again.

If youre at St. Michaels Hospital, you may see Apheresis Registered Nurse Megan Buchholz (left) pass by with an apheresis machine. As part of the small but mighty four-person unit, Megan treats patients for various autoimmune diseases, neurological conditions and other disorders using a medical procedure known as therapeutic apheresis. The procedure removes whole blood from the patient and separates the blood into different parts so that the part responsible for the disease... can be removed. The remaining parts are combined with replacement fluid and returned back to the patient. As one of only two adult treatment centres in the Greater Toronto Area that offer this procedure, the unit completed over 750 apheresis procedures last year. This National Apheresis Day, join us in recognizing Megan, Rebecca Zavalunov (right) and their amazing team!

Its not a sprint, its more like a marathon. The hard part is the difference between this and a real marathon is you know a marathon is going to end at 42.2km. As the pandemic hits the six month mark in Canada, St. Michaels emergency physician and marathon runner, Dr. Amy Cheng, speaks with CBC The National about the mental and physical stamina required to push through the pandemic.

Dr. Tara Gomes, a scientist at St. Michaels Hospital, led the first-ever study to track naloxone distribution in Ontario by geographic location. She tells CBC News London how free naloxone at pharmacies has lowered the rate of opioid-related deaths, but some regions are distributing more than others.

If a child could ask a pediatrician anything about COVID-19, what would they ask? Watch 9-year-old Ethan interview his fathers colleague, St. Josephs pediatrician Dr. Justine Cohen-Silver.

Blood donation is safe, is not a big time investment and may have a tremendous impact on a patients life. By giving blood, you may save or improve the quality of life of a patient, says our Dr. Katerina Pavenski, Head Division Transfusion Medicine at St. Michaels. Donated blood can be used to treat patients who cannot make enough themselves or who are bleeding. It can also be used to make medicines, such as clotting factors and immune proteins. With a single donation, you can help many people. Learn more: https://www.blood.ca/donate.

A positive COVID-19 antibody test may help explain lingering symptoms and offer some peace of mind for patients, but a positive test doesnt mean you are immune. Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michaels, spoke with the Toronto Star about the emerging science on COVID-19 antibody tests.

Scientists at St. Michaels Hospital have been awarded nearly $3 million in federal grants in support of research projects focused on improving our understanding of COVID-19 immunity in Canada. The funding is part of a $12.4 million investment from Canadas COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

We were pleased to welcome Canadas Health Minister Patty Hajdu at St. Michaels Hospital where she met with some of our researchers to discuss their COVID-19 research.

Join us in celebrating the wonderful things that took place across Unity Health this week. Here is our list of 10 great things that happened.

The pandemic reveals who we are. These are our stories #BehindtheMask. Ive been in the operating room for eight years now, and I was nervous about leaving my home for another challenge. But they needed somebody in the COVID Assessment Centre to oversee process and flow and then support the nurses. In the OR you already have a history, whereas in the Assessment Centre its a bit different because it involves a lot of digging for history and using your assessment skills.... You need to use your critical thinking: This is what the patient is showing; is there anything else thats concerning? Do I have to involve the physician for a second consult or are they safe to go home? There is also so much confusion, and patients come in and they need their questions answered. Its having that little bit of compassion for people and recognizing when people are nervous and taking the time to explain things. And if they need a moment, to give them that moment. Ive noticed a lot of people when they come in, they havent seen people or they havent talked to many people, so now is their chance to talk about how they feel. I think its important not to downplay that because I cant imagine what its like to be quarantined for so long and not have anyone to talk to. Now as theyre getting swabbed, they want to have a conversation and knowing that, we give them an ear to listen. Our team had nurses from all different parts of the hospital, and you could see how they interacted with patients. I had a patient who was frustrated, and you could tell. Voices were raised. The patient had their kids with them. There was definitely a miscommunication. The kids were scared. One of my nurses works in mental health. Having her with the patient really calmed the patients nerves a lot more. She knows the right way of speaking to people and she knows, from her experiences, how to handle someone who is escalated and frustrated. Having nurses from the OR was helpful too no other team knows sterilization and infection control better than the OR nurses. We can learn a lot from each other. When I started at the Assessment Centre, we took a picture, and thats the picture on my desktop when I log in to the computer now. Its kind of a reminder of just how far weve come. - Giselle Magtoto is a Team Leader in the Operating Room at St. Josephs Health Centre and former Team Leader at the hospitals COVID-19 Assessment Centre. - As told to Ana Gajic. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Healthcare organizations are well suited to engage directly with marginalized populations and can be involved in improving democratic engagement through education and interventions In a new review, our Dr. Danyaal Raza and Dr. Andrew Pinto and University of Torontos Chloe Brown explore the relationship between voting and health, and the role that health care organizations can play in support voting.

Working at St. Joseph is like working with a huge family. Colleagues are helpful and empathetic. This is particularly accurate when it comes to the Interprofessional Resource Team. Broaden your skills and gain experience in a wide variety of disciplines as part of St. Josephs Interprofessional Resource Team (IRT). Youll work alongside talented nurses, like Yodeet, to create the best care experiences for patients. Learn more about our exciting RN, RPN and HCA opportunities: https://unityhealth.to/careers.

Winter is coming. Canada needs a plan to stop untraced community spread of COVID-19. Dr. Irfan Dhalla, Vice-President of Physician Quality at Unity Health Toronto, explains why.

A world-first occurred at St. Michaels Hospital when Drs. Neil Fam, Mark Peterson and Graldine Ong performed a catheter-based tricuspid valve replacement through the femoral vein in Mir Hasan Alis leg. One year later, his health remains markedly improved.

Like many things coronavirus-related, whether or not Canada will need to tighten restrictions again is hard to predict. Our Dr. Prabhat Jha weighs in on what could happen in the next few months.

Living and working through COVID-19 is tough, but that doesnt mean we cant celebrate the wonderful things that take place across our network along the way. Heres this weeks list of 10 great things that happened.

Hospitals have massive environmental footprints. It takes a lot of electricity for the 24/7 care required in acute care, emergency and long-term care residences. To tackle this impact, Unity Healths Energy Team is finding ways to reduce energy consumption across our three sites.

A meta-analysis of seven international trials suggests that an inexpensive, widely available class of drug called corticosteroids reduces the risk of death among critically ill COVID-19 patients. "...The process of this work pooling data across seven trials conducted over a period of only three months highlights the willingness of researchers around the world to share data in a new research model that can bring reliable evidence rapidly to improve the care of patients with COVID-19," said our Dr. John Marshall who co-authored the analysis.

Sahil Gupta, a St. Michaels student completing his PhD under the supervision of Dr. John Marshall at the Keenan Research Centre, has raised $10,000 to help patients experiencing marginalization after discharge. He started the Centre for Research on Inner City Health U of T Chapter five years ago. I wanted to improve access to quality and complete health care for those living on the margins of our society, so I did this to help provide free access to food and winter clothi...ng. With the help of professors, volunteers, and student leaders (pictured here), he successfully reached his goal in August.

To mark International Overdose Awareness Day, St. Michaels Mental Health and Addictions team wore matching #EndOverdose t-shirts. They hope to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of drug-related death.

Female doctors in Canada consistently earn less than their male colleagues suggests a new analysis led by our Dr. Tara Kiran. The reason? Systemic biases that follow female physicians during their careers.

Group therapy is an important way of socializing for patients on the 7M unit at St. Josephs. When the pandemic started, these groups were temporarily halted until an iPad donation allowed one to restart, blending virtual and in-person therapy to support patients.

When Dr. Kelsie Thu was in elementary school, a gym teacher who taught her to love biology died of cancer. Then in high school she watched two grandparents battle the disease and pass away. Now a new recruit to the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Dr. Thus area of focus is lung cancer and the drugs that can be used to fight it.

We are about to have all the tools we need to end the HIV epidemic in Canada." HIV home self-tests are the missing link that can end the HIV epidemic in Canada, says our Dr. Sean Rourke, Scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michaels. To end the crisis, he urges all three levels of government to work together to make HIV self-testing available to everyone.

The pandemic reveals who we are. These are our stories #BehindtheMask. I was redeployed from the Family Health Team to the Emergency Department at St. Michaels, where nurse practitioners were responsible for notifying patients of their COVID-19 results after discharge. At the time, like everyone else, wed never heard of COVID-19, so being responsible for that was nerve-wracking and stressful. Many patients would ask me questions and I wasnt sure I was giving the right inf...ormation. Theyd ask questions like, does this mean my family is sick? Whats the treatment? It was really hard. I was also watching the same news as everyone else and still going into work. I experienced such cognitive dissonance the government is saying stay home, but I still had to pack my lunch and go to work every day. Its like seeing messages everywhere that say dont touch the stove, its hot! But YOU can touch it! Heres a glove; youll be fine! Knowing I can do something to help people during this time has helped me come into work every day. When I went back to the Family Health Team in May, my role as part of a wellness program was to call patients to check on their well-being and offer income support for things like groceries if needed. It was amazing to see how thankful and grateful they were. Were going to continue to do wellness calls on top of preventative care. Through this experience, weve been able to develop new guidelines for what we can catch in our patients before they need to call us. My key takeaway from this pandemic will be to fight for what we know is right. During the pandemic, we were fluid and we were able to mobilize and protect patients against COVID-19. We can do the same thing for other important social justice areas like the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racism initiatives. When we started working on anti-racism initiatives, we were able to mobilize over Zoom. We can make huge changes with limited resources. Complacency isnt an answer anymore. - Chantal Sorhaindo is a primary health care nurse practitioner at St. Michaels Hospital - As told to Selma Al-Samarrai. This interview has been edited and condensed. Share your story at [email protected].

The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Michaels moved into its new and intended space in the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower this week. The 10-bed CICU space - designed with patient privacy, critical care and staff work flow in mind - offers single patient rooms with separate washrooms and floor to ceiling windows for lots of natural lighting. There will also be new articulating arms that easily move around the patient bed in every room to support critical care, along with three new airborne isolation rooms in the unit. Pictured here on move-in day are Registered Nurses Sunhee Jang (left) and Avery Reany, along with Dr. Akshay Bagai.

How can we keep COVID-19 patients and their care teams safe while taking chest images? One group of researchers at St. Michaels has studied an innovative technique to do just that. This is our Q&A with Dr. Shobhit Mathur, who led the study.

Our patients need blood every day. Blood cannot be artificially manufactured and is only available through blood donations. Meet June Watkins, Business Analyst at St. Michaels Hospital. When she was a child, she saw her parents donate blood and thought it was a completely selfless act. This motivated her to donate blood when she was old enough. This August, she gave blood for the 191st time and she hopes her story will inspire you to do the same. To learn more, visit: https://www.blood.ca/donate.

Can treating COVID-19 patients with higher doses of heparin help save lives or will it cause more harm than good? Our Drs. Michelle Sholzberg and Peter Jni and Dr. Mary Cushman from the University of Vermonts Medical Center have launched an international trial to find out. Heres how you can support them in meeting the needs of patients globally: https://bit.ly/32kkqKj.

It is frustrating as a clinician to know that there is a medication that has the potential to improve the health of over 90 per cent of individuals living with CF but be unable to prescribe it. New research co-authored by Dr. Anne Stephenson, a respirologist and CF researcher at St. Michaels, shows how delaying access to a new cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment in Canada could result in avoidable death. The treatment could potentially help 90 per cent of the CF population in Canada.

"We need new strategies to make it easier for patients and family doctors to navigate a complex system. Ideas include integrating service directories into the electronic medical record and directly advertising services to patients and enabling patient self-referral." A study led by our Dr. Tara Kiran found that most family doctors are not aware of the centralized intake services available in the city, and that they were more likely to be aware of the program if they worked in an inter-professional team setting like a Family Health Team or Community Health Centre.

My biggest concern is that the stresses of the pandemic will create new cases of mental illness and exacerbate the ones that predate the lockdown. Throughout the pandemic, mental health care has been available at Ontarios hospital emergency rooms, but regular psychiatrist consultations have continued to be a challenge for many Ontarians. Dr. Thomas Ungar, psychiatrist-in-chief at St. Michaels Hospital, shares his concerns of the fourth wave of the pandemic and his hopes for the future of mental health care in Toronto Life.

The pandemic reveals who we are. These are our stories #BehindtheMask. A lot of my role was group programming, including physical programs like a seated Tai Chi class or a seated yoga class. We would have music programs where we would invite a pianist in and have a singalong. Now we dont do any group programs because were not allowed to gather, so Ive been a lot more present on the unit doing a lot of one-to-one.... Sometimes our patients will ring the call bell if they need a glass of water, or they need their TV adjusted. Or maybe they want to connect with their family member over a phone call. Weve been doing a lot of video calls and allowing families to connect with their loved ones. It has brought joy to the patients, the family and also the staff. I have a patient who loves walking around and being active and is quite confused and agitated at times. During one call, she mentioned that she really liked to do her make-up so her family members sent her care packages. One package had blush, foundation and a lip colour. And another package had her favourite drink, because she mentioned during a call thats what she really wanted. So now every time we have a video call, shell do her make-up and get ready. Shell wait. And if theyre late, shell say something. Then well pour a drink for her and shell enjoy her drink while shes chatting. And for those 30 minutes, she is animated, she is smiling and happy and shes able to focus. Its the little things that can bring her joy and make her feel calm and comforted. Ive actually enjoyed the change. I think at first it was a lot of different updates from management and policy changes, but once that got a little settled there was less panic and we were able to integrate into the role. Its important to be adaptable. Weve been trying to roll with the punches, and change our programs up. But weve been really more present on the unit and I feel more integrated into the team. Ultimately we all want to see the patients thrive and their health and well-being comes first. - Charissa Chow is a Recreational Therapist, Specialized Geriatrics at Providence Healthcare - As told to Ana Gajic. This interview has been edited and condensed. Share your story at [email protected].