While it is known that power wheelchairs can positively impact on well-being, self-esteem, pain, activity and participation, health professionals who evaluate and train patients to use this technology report that it sometimes cannot be provided to individuals with cognitive, visual and motor problems. Over the past few years, technological advancements have allowed the development of wheelchairs that can drive themselves semi-autonomously according to a predetermined path and avoid obstacles.

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Most of us rely on the media to learn about scientific innovations and breakthroughs. Where health is concerned, the media are often accused of looking for sensational stories, presenting incomplete, unbalanced, uncritical or misleading information. Yet, scientific journals and experts constitute, by and large, the main source of information for science journalists. Would it not be possible that misleading conclusions in the media stem, at least in part, from misrepresentation of data in scientific papers?

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Ces dernières années, la santé publique a déployé beaucoup d’efforts pour documenter les aspects négatifs du jeu, du moins au Québec (Papineau, 2010). Chaque semaine, les médias publient un article, présentent un reportage ou une publicité sur les dangers de la dépendance aux jeux de hasard ou de la cyberdépendance aux jeux vidéo. L’équipe d’Hinnovic a aussi exploré ce phénomène.

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In a Panel hosted by Research Canada, I was asked whether a major obstacle to a well-thought out integration of health technology into our health care system may be our focus on affordability rather than its desirability. These are terms I used in my book, “The problem of health technology”, which called for a clarification of what we mean by the value of health innovation. Is it something that relates to our purse, or to the purposes behind health technology?

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Still interested in finding clever and socially relevant solutions for health? This month, we invite you to listen to David Theodore’s talk presented at the TEDxMontrealQuartierLatin, an event hosted by the Hinnovic team on October 1st, 2010. David shares his views on the history of pediatric hospital architecture and describes an original research that relied on an active participation of children and young people.

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Last June, we published a dossier on healthy cities. Adopting a public health policy perspective, we examined the links between urban environments and population health. With our guest contributors, we clarified the concept of healthy cities and addressed some of its most urgent challenges.

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L’ère du pétrole à bon marché touche à sa fin. Nous approchons du « pic pétrolier », soit ce moment où la production mondiale de pétrole commencera à décliner du fait de l’épuisement des réserves d’or noir. Quel est le lien entre le pic pétrolier et les innovations en santé dont traite ce blogue?

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Get Active Orlando (GAO) was originally part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living by Design initiative. Started in 2004, with much learning along the way, GAO has evolved its approach for creating built environments that encourage physical activity.

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En Amérique du Nord, on considère encore la banlieue comme le lieu qui permet une qualité de vie optimale. Pourtant, vivre en banlieue n’est pas automatiquement synonyme de vivre en santé. Dans cette entrevue, l’architecte Dominique Laroche discute de modèles alternatifs à la vie de banlieue et présente son ambitieux projet d’imprégner l’imaginaire collectif québécois de l’idée d’un nouveau cadre bâti afin d’agir sur la demande immobilière.

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Our health is linked to the quality of our environment. For example, health is affected by how clean our air, water, and surroundings are; by how the neighbourhood is built to enable physical activity; and, by the quality of our social networks and the information available to us.

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On sait que lors de journées chaudes, le risque de mortalité augmente. Ce qui est moins connu, c’est qu’il y a une forte variation des températures à l’intérieur d’une même ville et selon les types de logis habités. Les personnes qui se trouvent dans des micro-ilôts de chaleur urbains (à la maison ou en institution) seraient plus à risque de mourir avec l’augmentation de la température en été.

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Even with the best intentions, there is always a reason to hesitate to use our bicycle to transit: there is no place to store it at destination or for the return ride we would have to go uphill. To address these excuses, a public bicycle share program (PBSP) might be a good solution. In this interview, Daniel Fuller, a Ph.D. candidate in public health, presents BIXI, a PBSP in Montreal and explains how this innovation can help adopt a more active lifestyle.

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