Latest news with #WhiteCoat
Business Recorder
20-05-2025
- Health
- Business Recorder
Future doctors urged to make service to humanity their core value
LAHORE: Terming the White Coat as a symbol of sanctity of the medical profession, Principal of Ameer uddin Medical College, Prof. Dr. M. Al-Fareed Zafar called upon the future doctors to make service to humanity their core value, win hearts through compassion and uphold the honour of this coat which signifies the noble tradition of ailing humanity. While addressing the first-year students of the MBBS session 2025–29 during the White Coat and oath-taking ceremony held at Lahore General Hospital, he stated that White Court recognized as a symbol of peace, and doctors work tirelessly to provide relief and comfort to their patients, often at the expense of their own rest and priorities. He pointed out that doctors are held in high regard by society which places a great responsibility on their shoulders to live up to public expectations. Executive Director PINS Prof. Asif Bashir and other faculty members advised the aspiring doctors to adhere strictly to medical ethics, underscoring that medical education requires immense dedication focus and a strong commitment to learning. Medical Superintendent Prof. Dr. Faryad Hussain appealed to parents to remain actively involved in their children's academic and personal development. The ceremony concluded with the administering of professional oath to the new medical students. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Times
25-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Employee at telehealth firm WhiteCoat suspected of falsifying genetic test reports for Vietnam client
[HANOI] Singapore digital healthcare provider WhiteCoat Global has acknowledged an 'isolated case' of employee misconduct, through which allegedly falsified genetic screening reports were sent to a corporate client in Vietnam. Two sources said that 300 fraudulent test reports were issued to the client's employees, who used the services of WhiteCoat and its third-party vendor to detect hereditary genetic mutations that put them at higher risk of cancer. The staff member who was handling the service package with the client engaged an unauthorised external service provider, without WhiteCoat's knowledge, to deliver these test results to the client. WhiteCoat has, for the past year, been in a partnership with Gene Solutions, a Vietnam-headquartered biotech firm which uses gene sequencing and data analytics technologies. The falsified test results bore the name of Gene Solutions, but were in fact generated by another party. Felda Chay, head of investor relations and corporate communications at WhiteCoat, said in a statement: 'Errant personnel had orchestrated the engagement of an unauthorised party to provide certain services to a corporate client of WhiteCoat Vietnam. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up 'We understand that there is no impact on the medical treatment and health of the individuals involved.' The Business Times understands that the employee who was allegedly involved is no longer with the company. The matter came to light after WhiteCoat received queries and feedback on the test results from the affected client. The digital healthcare provider then launched an internal investigation, gathered witness statements, and reported the matter to the Hanoi police. A post on the portal of Ho Chi Minh City's department of health dated Apr 17 said the authorities had conducted a separate surprise inspection of the WhiteCoat clinic in the city after they were alerted to the allegedly falsified test results by Thanh Nien, a local newspaper. The health agency has since submitted an official request to the city police to conduct further investigations. Gene Solutions, in a letter to clients and partners before the health department's inspection, said that, based on information from 'a leading commercial bank', certain parties had deliberately falsified reports – using forged logos, signatures and seals – to falsely suggest that the test results came from Gene Solutions' authorised units. The Vietnam-based biotech firm said in the letter seen by The Business Times: 'Gene Solutions confirms that WhiteCoat has not sent any medical samples for genetic tests related to screening for hereditary cancer risks.' Bryan Koh, WhiteCoat's chief executive, founded the company in 2018. It was among the pioneer firms in the regulatory sandbox set up by Singapore's Ministry of Health for startups in telemedicine and mobile medicine. The firm is backed by investors that include SoftBank Vision Fund, Raffles Family Office and MDI Ventures. With offices across Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, WhiteCoat offers healthcare solutions to corporate clients. Its digital platform connects its clients' employees with professionals for on-demand tele- and in-person health consultations, filling of prescriptions and wellness screenings across primary, specialist and allied care. WhiteCoat began operations in Vietnam in 2022 and has since opened two branches, one each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. A report on the website of Ho Chi Minh City's health department said WhiteCoat has signed contracts with 11 hospitals and clinics in Vietnam since 2024 to provide health consultation services for its clients. The company said that since the incident came to light, it has taken steps to remedy the situation and to strengthen its internal controls to prevent a repeat of the incident. Chay said: 'Immediately after the incident was uncovered, we proactively engaged and continue to actively work with the affected corporate client to resolve the issue.' Last October, WhiteCoat announced its acquisition of telemedicine platform Good Doctor Indonesia for an undisclosed amount. In what it called 'the biggest merger and acquisition involving two dominant telehealth companies in South-east Asia to date', WhiteCoat said the combined group would work with over 130 insurers and 7,500 corporate partners to service more than 6.8 million people. By the time of the acquisition, over 1.5 million consultations and medication fulfilment services had been provided by WhiteCoat to its global customers. Gene Solutions, one of Vietnam's biggest gene-testing firms, was founded by three Vietnamese scientists in 2017, and is backed by Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital and Singapore private capital firm, August Global Partners. The Vietnamese biotech company has a portfolio of more than 30 genetic-testing products in the fields of obstetrics, paediatrics and oncology. Aiming to make early disease detection and precision medicine more accessible to people in the region, Gene Solutions has expanded its operations to Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. In an interview with BT last year, the Vietnamese firm said it planned to raise some US$70 million in a Series C funding, and undertake a share sale in the following two years.
CBC
13-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Want to be sedated (for surgery)? Anesthesia assistants could help shorten wait times
One solution to a critical shortage of anesthesiologists in Canada could lie with increasing the ranks of anesthesia assistants, advocates say. "In a situation where we have a serious ... access to surgical care issue, we have to think about creative solutions to move forward and get people the care they need," Dr. Sally Bird, pediatric anesthesiologist and chief of pediatric anesthesia at IWK Health Centre in Halifax, told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art. Although many Canadians may not yet be familiar with their work, the anesthesia assistant profession was established more than 50 years ago in Quebec and about 15 years ago in most other provinces. However, they are not yet available everywhere. As the name suggests, anesthesia assistants (AAs) work under the direct supervision of anesthesiologists. Rob Bryan, a veteran AA at Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill, Ont., just north of Toronto, said that "the role of an anesthesia assistant is to extend the care and the service of the physician specialist in anesthesia in the anesthesia department." "A physician is always in charge of the patient's care," said Bryan, who was working in an endoscopy room providing anesthesia for colonoscopy patients on the day White Coat, Black Art visited the hospital. In contrast, specially trained nurses called nurse anesthetists can practise anesthesia independent of doctors in the United States, but they have not been able to do so in Canada since the end of the Second World War. Nurse anesthetists, also called certified registered nurse anesthetists, can have their own practice similar to the way a nurse practitioner can provide primary care in the absence of a family doctor. That means they can fill a gap in rural and remote areas of the U.S., for example, providing sedation in places where it wouldn't otherwise be possible to even get an epidural for labour and delivery. Duties of AAs vary among provinces Canadian anesthesiologists say it doesn't make sense to launch a new program to certify nurse anesthetists, given that Canada already has an established system with AAs that could be scaled up — not just in numbers but in scope of practice. "We work so well together as a team, and there's already a high level of trust," IWK's Bird said. That's also the official stance of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society, which came out with a position statement the last time there was a push in British Columbia to introduce nurse anesthetists, saying the organization "firmly rejects" nurse anesthetists in Canada. Instead, its plan to address surgical wait times includes, among other things, increasing the number and availability of trained AAs. Most anesthesia assistants have backgrounds as respiratory therapists (RTs), although some come to it from the ranks of registered nurses and all have additional training in anesthesia. Mackenzie Health's Bryan has a designation called Certified Clinical Anesthesia Assistant, or CCAA, given by the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists to RTs like him who received that additional training. In Canada, not all anesthesia assistants are CCAAs like him. While what anesthesia assistants are permitted to do varies from province to province, they're becoming part of anesthesia teams in more and more parts of Canada. WATCH | Canada still struggling to clear surgical backlog: Knee, hip replacement surgery wait times longer since the pandemic 1 year ago Duration 2:02 New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows patients in all provinces are waiting longer than before the pandemic for some priority orthopedic and cancer surgeries, but it's not all bad news — overall more surgeries are being performed than ever. 'Pretty incredible people with a lot of expertise' Dr. Jerod Gollant, chief of the department of anesthesiology at Mackenzie Health, said that before AAs joined the hospital's staff, it routinely had to postpone procedures because there weren't enough anesthesiologists. That doesn't happen now, he said, because anesthesia assistants have allowed the department to be more efficient and see more patients. For example, having multiple AAs working in the endoscopy unit under the supervision of one anesthesiologist allows another anesthesiologist to be freed up to work elsewhere in the hospital, Gollant said. "So we're able to provide the therapeutic diagnostic and screening endoscopic procedures for all of our community while not cancelling any surgeries downstairs in the main operating room." At IWK in Halifax, the scope of practice for AAs has expanded gradually starting in 2021, said Bird, the hospital's chief of pediatric anesthesia. "Initially, when they started they would do things like help us out with putting patients off to sleep, help out in the recovery room," she said. "But we slowly realized that these are pretty incredible people with a lot of expertise to offer, and so our anesthesia assistants now, in collaboration with us, are doing independent procedural sedations." Sami Jreige is one of the certified clinical anesthesia assistants who works with Bird. "We are a little unique in terms of what the AAs can do.... We can provide deep sedation to patients to have procedures done that would otherwise require an anesthesiologist to do," he said. "That's probably my favourite part of my job is being able to go off and clear a waitlist or schedule elective cases specifically for the AAs, where we can get things done in a more timely and efficient manner." Limited training capacity An editorial in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia in September 2024 said not only is there a relative lack of awareness of the profession as a career option, but training capacity is too low. The editorial points out that there are only four accredited AA training programs in Canada — two in Ontario and two in British Columbia, as well as one provisionally accredited program in Alberta. "I don't think we're a very well-known profession, to be honest," Jreige said, noting that even among health-care workers, those who don't work in operating rooms or with anesthesia departments may not have heard of AAs. Carolyn McCoy, director of professional practice for the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists, which represents certified clinical anesthesia assistants, said it takes one to two years to complete the additional training required to become a CCAA. "Typically, because the education to become an anesthesia assistant is not funded, in order to pay the bills ... the vast majority continue to work full time while they're taking this additional education on the side." The editorial in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia said training subsidies could be part of increasing the number of AAs, as could better pay. A more robust supply of trained AAs is also key to avoiding burnout among existing anesthesiologists, it said. Bird said she firmly believes AAs can make for a stronger anesthesia workforce in Canada, especially given that anesthesia assistants are already in place in many hospitals.
CBC
12-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Health care's taking a backseat in this election. That's a missed opportunity, expert says
Social Sharing In this federal election period, the twists and turns of tariffs, annexation threats and other surprises from the Trump administration have stolen focus from addressing the state of public healthcare in Canada. A leading expert on health law and policy experts says that's a shame. "We are in an emergency situation in Canadian health care, and we have been for a couple of years post pandemic," said Colleen Flood, who is also dean of law at Queen's University. An estimated 6.5 million Canadians don't have access to a family doctor and one-third of those who do find it difficult to get an appointment. Patients waited 222 per cent longer to see a specialist in 2024 than they did in 1993, ranking Canada the worst in wait times of all high-income universal healthcare countries. Across the country, more Canadians are paying out of pocket for health care that the Canada Health Act says should be available to them in the public system. Virtual private-pay family medicine is readily available, and most provinces and territories now have in-person clinics as well. In November 2024, CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art visited a busy private-pay family medicine clinic in Vaudreuil, Que., where patients pay $150 to see a family doctor for 15 minutes. Flood told White Coat, Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman that this election is an opportunity for voters to demand the next federal government provide Canadians with the healthcare they need. Here is an excerpt from their conversation. The Canada Health Act includes an expectation of "reasonable access" to healthcare. Can you define it? We all have a sense of what the bare minimum is, right? We want access to a family care team or a family doctor. We all want access to tests and diagnostic methods and specialists and hospitals within a reasonable time period. The Canada Health Act sets out criteria: reasonable access, which is a bit of a joke at the moment; comprehensiveness, of hospital and physician services, effectively; [and] portability — you should be able to get health care where you need it across Canada. The only way those criteria can be enforced is if the federal government uses its discretion to withhold money. The feds have never used their discretionary power to keep back money from a province that is allowing wait times to grow or not ensuring that everybody has access to a family doctor…. They're quite nervous about using a hammer rather than a carrot to get where they want to go. WATCH | Lining up for a chance to get a family doctor: Hundreds wait in the snow to get a family doctor in rural Ontario 3 months ago Duration 2:03 You have written extensively about how the Canada Health Act could be strengthened or at least better enforced. Have a go at that. That's a lovely thing to talk about. The Canada Health Act has been an incredible tool for Canadians since [former Minister of Health and Welfare] Monique Bégin brought it to pass. But it needs to evolve, in particular around reasonable access. I think the Canada Health Act should be overhauled so that the federal government requires the provinces to have a fair, transparent process to determine what reasonable access is. What does that mean for us in New Brunswick, in Manitoba, in Saskatchewan in terms of access to a family health-care team or a nurse practitioner or a primary care doctor? In terms of maximum wait times, in terms of coverage?…. And then this is revisited from time to time to make sure that it's updated to change with our needs, because our needs do change. Any idea what the federal parties are saying about what's happening in this current election environment? With the very serious situation in the U.S., health care is unfortunately taking a back seat. And that is a real shame because we are in an emergency situation in Canadian health care, and we have been for a couple of years post pandemic. We need the parties to speak to their plans for improving public medicare. And Canadians must hold their feet to the fire on this. I counsel everyone to ask their candidates about what they specifically will do to make sure that everybody has access to the care that they need. A lot of public health care in Canada came to pass after the Depression and World War II, where people realized that medicare should be available to everybody. So maybe this will actually bring us together more around the importance of public health care, that we need to protect it. What would you like to see the party leaders saying about the future of health care during this election period? Honestly, I'd like to see them say anything about what they will do. Conservatives may involve more private for-profit care inside of public medicare. The Liberals may involve more of a [mix] of getting there. The NDP may prefer more public hospitals, perhaps more salaried physicians, and moving more to an NHS-style system like you see in the U.K. Everybody may have their different recipe for improvement, but I think that's what Canadians need to hear: What are your plans? What will you actually do? And how will you ensure that myself and my family are going to be able to get the care when we need it? I want to close by asking you, what should voters be listening for during this election period when it comes to health care? Voters should be looking to parties to acknowledge that we are actually in a crisis, we're in an emergency, and that we need to take very significant steps very quickly to fix medicare. It is simply unacceptable that 6.5 million Canadians do not have reasonable access to the most basic of care, family medicine. It is even worse than that they are queuing up and desperate for care, clogging up ERs and so on, waiting to a point where the condition that could have been dealt with has got away on them. So what we want to see is that the parties are taking this crisis, this emergency, extremely seriously, and they have a serious plan to deal with it.
CBC
15-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Elderly patients can deteriorate hourly in the ER. This team works against the clock to get them out
It's 7 a.m. in the emergency department of St. Mary's Hospital in Montreal, and geriatric nurse Leeza Paolone is starting her day in front of a screen filled with patient names, taking note of each one highlighted in blue. "We're fighting against the clock to get these patients seen, and hopefully out of there," Paolone told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art. The blue names belong to patients 75 and over who've been identified by triage nurses as at risk of functional decline in the hospital. The longer these patients spend in the ER, the worse their outcomes are likely to be, due to a phenomenon known as hospital-associated deconditioning. It refers to physical and often cognitive decline that happens as a result of being hospitalized. The geriatric multidisciplinary ER team at St. Mary's targets these patients from the moment they arrive. Given the number of Canadians 85 and over will triple in the next 20 years, medical professionals and researchers are sounding the alarm about keeping older adults out of the hospital, spreading the word that — perhaps counterintuitively — the hospital isn't always the safest place for them. Research has shown that deconditioning is a catastrophe for elderly patients in hospital ERs. A study published in the Canadian Geriatrics Journal in 2017 found that one in five patients over 65 developed delirium — a serious change in mental state involving confusion and a lack of awareness — after spending 12 hours in the ER. It also found that delirium often extends hospital stays by a week or more, setting in motion a domino of decline. At worst, an elderly person enters the hospital as someone who lives independently and never goes home. ERs not designed for the elderly To avoid this, the first step is preventing an elderly patient from waiting a second longer than needed. "In the ER specifically, the environment can be much harder on the geriatric patient," says Paolone. With the frenetic surroundings of an ER — lights and noise that disrupt sleep, no windows, meals and medication given sporadically or skipped — a patient can grow delirious in just a couple of hours. Then they have to be admitted. And that's bad news, says geriatrician Dr. Julia Chabot, the team's co-founder. "We know that for every day an elderly patient spends in a bed or on a stretcher, it will take an average of three days for them to recover." Santé Québec warns against unnecessary ER visits as occupancy rates soar Plus, once a geriatric patient is admitted, their average stay at St. Mary's is 28 days, which costs the hospital tens of thousands of dollars, says Chabot. So the mission of this team — just over halfway through a two-year pilot — is to proactively screen, assess and treat elderly ER patients in the hope they can be discharged with proper support in place. On any given day, nurse Leeza Paolone is joined by a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker and one of four geriatricians. Preventing ER 'bouncebacks' One "blue" patient on the triage board the day White Coat, Black Art observed is 84-year-old Maria Pastore, who's come in with painful bursitis in her hip made worse by a recent fall. She also has a blood clot in her leg. This is the third Montreal ER she's been to in the past few months. At the first, she was given a cortisone shot in her hip following a 10-hour wait. At the second, a prescription for a walker. But with no follow-ups to make sure, she never got it. For the team at St. Mary's, one major goal is to prevent "bouncebacks" like this. "She needs the follow-up, otherwise she's going to end up at different ERs throughout the city," says physiotherapist Natalie Ilienko. Ilienko and occupational therapist Stephanie Yung do a detailed intake encompassing everything from how independent Pastore is — she does her own cooking and cleaning — to her medical history, physical strength, medications and mobility. Leeza Paolone chats with Pastore in Italian, which, she tells Dr. Brian Goldman, she learned from the grandparents who helped raise her. "They're the strongest people I know," said Paolone. Paolone starts stitching together a care plan. Pastore is a widow; her son lives in New York, and she has no family doctor. But when Paolone makes a call to the seniors' residence where she lives, it turns out there is a family doctor who works on site. An hour later, everything is set up. "So we have a rheumatology follow up. We have a hematology follow up… And I'm going to fax everything to the doctor at the residence." She also updates hospital records with Pastore's current phone number — a small but crucial detail given the appointments and follow-ups now on the books. Longer waits, higher mortality Dr. Robert Drummond, an emergency medicine specialist who has worked at St. Mary's for 30 years, says when the elderly have to wait, "it's not a mere inconvenience for them. It represents a greater risk for morbidity and mortality." A 2023 study from France found that patients 75 years and up who waited overnight in the ER had a "significantly higher in-hospital mortality rate." Drummond says the new ER team has "made a huge difference. They're very proactive." For example, the team gauges whether sufficient supports are in place for geriatric patients to go home, and gets them the right care when that's not the case. Like when they learn patient Thi Truong Nguyen, 77, lives at a Buddhist temple where she won't get the round-the-clock help she needs to recover from a shoulder fracture. "I feel lucid," says Nguyen, "but I cannot move much." Yung and Ilienko fit Nguyen with a sling to help the shoulder heal, and request an orthopedic consult to determine whether surgery is needed. But Nguyen uses a walker, and that won't work with only one good arm. So the team requests a transfer to a rehab facility and gets her a bed upstairs while she waits. Connecting the dots Elderly patients who need Nguyen's level of care are the norm, not the exception, says Dr. Brittany Ellis, an ER doctor in Saskatoon and chair of the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Committee for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP). CAEP data shows seniors make up 20 to 40 per cent of all ER patients. Ellis says access to comprehensive geriatric ER care is "extremely variable" across Canada. Though she knows of only a "handful" of teams comparable to St. Mary's, she says there are ER-delirium-prevention programs in provinces like Saskatchewan, B.C., and Newfoundland and Labrador. Ontario, meanwhile, has implemented a program to train nurses in geriatric emergency care. With some creativity, Ellis she says it's possible to apply this approach anywhere. "For example, a small hospital probably doesn't have in-house physiotherapy, occupational therapy, geriatricians, or a pharmacy," she says, but could partner with these other experts in the community for more comprehensive care. Discharging quickly and safely While the St. Mary's pilot is still underway, Dr. Chabot said preliminary data are promising enough she's confident the team will become permanent. Geriatric patients now spend an average of 10.5 hours less in the ER than before, and 28 per cent fewer are admitted. Like Maria Pastore, who the team is determined to get safely on her way by the end of day. Ilienko arrives with a brand-new walker, free of charge because it's covered by the province for her condition. The team helps Pastore get up, adjusts the walker to fit, then stands back as she makes her way down the corridor with her new wheels. "Wonderful. She looks steadier," says Chabot. "As a whole team, I think this was a great intervention."
