A number of companies are already offering chatbots for healthcare. One doctor in Arizona has been using bots for administrative tasks, but his practice decided to also use this function for its annual flu initiative. During flu season, the practice
A Dutch study found men responding to an early retirement offer were 2.6 percentage points less likely to die over the next five years than those who did not retire early. An analysis in the U.S. found about seven years of retirement can be as good
The Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety developed StressAssess, an online survey tool to identify psychosocial hazards that can lead to stress and mental injury. There are
A report from the Association of American Medical Colleges suggests 24% of U.S.-trained physicians who completed their residency from 2007 to 2016 are practicing in underserved areas. Some states, it's noted, offer new doctors financial incentives to
Between Jan. 22 and March 2, Horizon Health Network asked inpatients for feedback on their hospital stay through a short survey similar to that of the New Brunswick Health Council Acute Care Survey. The data will be used to evaluate the overall
A report from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) uses data from 30,000 patients to gain insights into their experiences living with, and beyond, a cancer diagnosis. Among the findings in the study: Up to one in five cancer patients report
Quality improvement (QI) is advocated as one way of addressing problems with healthcare. But this report from RAND researchers finds its effectiveness is still showing mixed results. The reasons for this, it explains, is that QI is done in isolation
In 2016, Massachusetts-based non-profit Atrius Health conducted 251 empathy forums, training 90% of its staff in 90-minute sessions to integrate empathy into their daily work. The effort, the provider claims, resulted in an increase in patient survey
Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality developed SPADE (Symptom-Disease Pair Analysis of Diagnostic Error), an approach that allows providers to use databases instead of having staff go over medical records
A poll for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada finds 68% of respondents would feel helpless if they or a loved one were given a blood cancer diagnosis. The class of illnesses includes leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma or Hodgkin's disease. The survey