Understanding the ethical and other implications of leveraging digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable compassionate care in support of healthy ageing
Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (DT/AI) have considerable potential to revolutionize healthcare, but also have the potential to cause harm. Numerous organizations worldwide are developing best practices and guidelines/policies for the safe adoption and deployment of these powerful technologies; yet older adults are often not considered. Samir’s study endeavors to enhance the delivery of compassionate…
Read MoreDesigning compassionate AI for use in dementia care
Many technologies are being developed for long-term care settings to improve safety and quality of care, such as behavioural health monitoring technologies to support the assessment of responsive behaviours in dementia. We need to make sure that these technologies are designed in a way that promotes compassionate care of people with dementia and avoids stigma.…
Read MoreCo-designing a digital health intervention to support compassionate survivorship care after cardiac arrest
Each year, 60,000 Canadians suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Survival is challenging and the recovery journey can be fraught with anxiety, confusion, lack of connection and changes to all aspects of life. To date, the focus has been on clinical survival, with a lack of understanding and compassion towards helping survivors and their families navigate…
Read MoreDeveloping a digital communication tool to support compassionate care in long-term care homes
Lisa aims to develop a digital communication tool (mobile app) to support and optimize compassionate, person-centered care for older adults (residents) in long-term care homes. The digital communication tool builds on previous research that tested a paper copy of the tool to support resident and family caregivers in collaborative care planning. A digital communication tool…
Read MoreBuilding compassion in digital nursing mentorship
Transition from studentship to clinical practice for nurses is a challenging time. At Trillium Health Partners (THP), one in five nurses are new to practice, and there are not enough experienced nurses to offer one-to-one mentorship support. THP nurse leaders have leveraged technology to develop iMentor, a digital mentorship application to connect new and experienced…
Read MoreEnhancing compassion in technology-enabled care: Training and guidance for practitioners supporting autistic children and youth
Tech-supported therapeutic tools and AI solutions are actively being created with aims of enhancing services, independence and overall well-being for autistic children and youth, often without careful consideration of if the solutions attend to the heterogeneous nature of autism, or align with autistic preferences and needs. To maximize benefits and minimize potential harms (e.g. overgeneralization,…
Read MoreDeveloping Ethical AI for compassionate delivery of precision medicine
Precision medicine promises to transform health care. However, low accrual to precision medicine trials and barriers to patient decision-making threaten innovation. Machine learning for matching patients’ genomic information with preclinical datasets and trial eligibility criteria can increase trial accessibility, while conversational AI can provide empathetic, accessible, and tailored information to support patient autonomy for informed…
Read More“Volunteers Don’t Wear Price Tags”: Compensation Discourses and the Hospital Volunteer in 20th Century Health Care
The COVID-19 pandemic is only the most recent global health crisis to highlight that even those workers who are deemed to be “essential” to health care may not all receive compensation consistent with this proclaimed value. Within this vital workforce are those who receive no compensation at all, volunteers. Despite the inclusion of “hospital volunteer”…
Read MoreThe Great White Plague: Canada’s War on Tuberculosis, 1939–52
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Canadian officials employed X-ray screening to ensure a healthy fighting force and, later, to decrease state liability for those who might have enlisted with pre-existing tuberculosis disease. Despite these preventative measures, the Canadian government discovered that members of the Canadian armed forces suffered far greater…
Read More#TeamVaccine: Exploring the History of Toronto’s COVID-19 Vaccination Initiative through Social Media
In 2021, Toronto’s healthcare institutions – its academic hospitals, community health centres and faculties of health sciences – came together to plan, coordinate, staff and promote large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinics in Toronto and in its surrounding areas. The size, the scale and the collaboration of this vaccine campaign were unprecedented in Toronto history. Through interviews…
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