Daily News

Posted on Sept. 9: Canadian Cochrane Centre appoints new McMaster site co-representatives

Clinical nurse specialists Janet Pinelli and Amanda Symington are the new site co-representatives for The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre (CCN/C) at McMaster University. In their new positions, they will seek to raise awareness of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that helps individuals make well-informed decisions about health care. "We would like to focus on advanced clinical practitioners from the allied health professions as our target group, in order to raise their awareness of The Cochrane Collaboration and the benefits for all health care professionals," says Pinelli. Symington adds: "As advanced practitioners who have completed two systematic reviews, we can provide advice and support to individuals who are interested in participating in The Cochrane Collaboration as reviewers. We believe that The Cochrane Collaboration is a key resource in the facilitation of evidence-based practice."

Posted on Sept. 10: McMaster to remain open during Road World Cycling Championships

McMaster University, including the Downtown Centre, will remain open during the Road World Cycling Championships Oct. 6 to 12. Exams, classes and programs will continue as usual that week, except for at the Centre for Continuing Education at the Downtown Centre, which will not hold classes during the week of Oct. 6-12. The Hamilton boards of education will close schools for the championships. Although routes for the races do not encompass either the main McMaster campus or Downtown Centre, the routing and number of visitors could have an impact on University access. While everyone will be able to get to campus and the Downtown Centre, traffic congestion is expected to be heavier than usual, and delays should be anticipated. McMaster employees and students are encouraged to study race routes and schedules, available at http://www.hamilton2003.com to know when affected roads will be closed each day of the event which will determine where congestion occurs on other alternate routes through the city. Main Street will close between James Street and Queen Street for the duration of the event. Other roads will close one hour prior to the start of each race and will reopen approximately one hour after the finish of each race. Routes and race times will vary each day of the race. Click here for details.

Posted on Sept. 10: McMaster and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario announce first chair in cardiovascular nursing

McMaster University and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario today announced the appointment of Heather Arthur as the first Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing. In her new position, Arthur will work closely with McMaster's health partners to encourage new research and postgraduate studies in cardiovascular nursing. She will also continue her own program of research related to health behaviour and its relationship to both risk for, and recovery from, heart disease. "Dr. Arthur has established a reputation as an exceptional cardiovascular nurse researcher and educator," said John Kelton, dean and vice-president of health sciences at McMaster. "We're very pleased and excited to be able to recognize her invaluable work with this appointment."

Posted on Sept. 8: Funding helps researcher assess new technologies in health

A lack of evidence on the value of new health technologies has the Province of Ontario in a little bit of a conundrum. Without systematic comparative evidence on the effectiveness and efficiency of new medical technologies, how do they decide what should and should not be reimbursed? With a $3-million grant over three years from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, McMaster's Bernie O'Brien is hoping to provide some guidance. Through a series of research studies, the co-director of the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines and director of the Program for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH) will assess the economic benefit of new medical technologies, providing evidence to support government reimbursement decisions. "Evaluation research is about trying to gather the evidence so the decision makers can make sensible decisions," says the professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster. "They're tough choices because they involve trade-offs between different disease areas."