Not only a top story for the year, but one that compromises patient health, and affects voactional security for licensed nuclear medicine technologists.

via Sam Solmon of Canadian Medicine:

The radioisotope shortage. The Chalk River nuclear plant, responsible for producing about half of the world’s supply of the technetium-99 isotope used in many diagnostic imaging exams, was shut down in May for the third time in 18 months over safety concerns after leaks were discovered and it was determined radioactive water was escaping into the Ottawa River. When the plant was shut down in 2007 for similar safety reasons, the government, worried about a world shortage of the isotope, held emergency sessions in the House of Commons and, concerned about the issued an order overriding the nation’s nuclear regulatory body’s decision to shut the plant down. But by 2009, the safety problems had become so serious that the plant’s operators had no choice but to shut down the plant, halting Canada’s production of technetium-99. Canada has no backup plan and no other nuclear reactors ready to begin production of the isotope anytime soon, since the construction of two MAPLE reactors was scrapped in 2008 after years of delays and difficulties. Foreign plants supplied Canada and the U.S. as best they could, but the shortage became so severe at times that physicians were threatening to postpone patients’ tests. In the summer, Chalk River was said to be ready to come back into service in late 2009. Late 2009 came and went. The latest estimate is that the reactor will come back on-line by the end of March. We’ll believe it when we see it. In the meantime, as nuclear medicine specialists raise alarms about their technetium-99 supply problems, Canada appears to still have no long-term plan to deal with the radioisotope shortage.

Circa 2012. That’s not that far away.

See the report by Primary Care Wait Time Partnership here.

The Primary Care Wait Time Partnership is a joint project between The College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Medical Association.

Omar Ha-Redeye completed a training session at the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) on the Essentials of Governance for Public Sector Boards.

The session was conducted by Jim Mackay of the Berkley Consulting Group and Anne Corbett of Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP.

An overview of the public sector landscape was provided, as well as the role that a board plays in an organization.  The legal obligations and duties of directors were covered, as well as how to effectively conduct board meetings and play a director role.

The training also included several role-playing scenarios, and an expert panel featuring: Linda Lamereux, a lawyer sitting on the Health Services and Appeal Review Board and the Health Professions Appeal & Review Board; John Bell, a partner at Shibley Righton LLP with considerable board experience in the public sector; and Helen Hayward, who currently sits on the Board of Governors for Seneca College.

Mark Scrimshire, one of the organizers at Health Camp, thinks the customers are the ones that count in healthcare too:

Jennifer White, a lawyer specializing in Health Law at Baldwin Law, P.C., spoke at UWO law on the relevance and growth of health law as a discipline, the nature of services health lawyers can offer clients, and institutional health care clients and risk management.

Sam Solomon of Canadian Medicine and Parkhurst Exchange posted an article today mentioning reputation management and a recent post by Omar Ha-Redeye suggesting that this is a service that physicians should seriously consider.

Torys LLP picked up on a post about pension law reform from Slaw and posted it on their site:

The World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine has posted pictures from the 2009 conference in Victoria, B.C.

Omar Ha-Redeye was one of the speakers this year.

Omar Ha-Redeye, Ahmed Yousif & Native American Performers - Photo courtesy of Omar Ha-Redeye Previous | Home | Next

Omar Ha-Redeye attended the 2009 World Conference on Disaster Management. He has attended this conference regularly for several years, and has spoken at it before.

Day 1

Eat Dessert First – Using Social Media Channels to implement Company or Community Recovery Faster workshop by Bill DelGrosso, Director of Emergency Management for Professional Organization for Women’s Enrichment (EMPOWER).

Best Practices in Crisis Communications by Boyd Neil, Senior Vice President, and Jane Shapiro, National Practice Director, at Hill & Knowlton Canada.

A write-up on the second workshop can be found on Slaw and Social Media Mafia

Day 2

John Merkovsky spoke on Building Resiliency in the Face of Global Risks, and Scot Phelps
of Southern Connecticut State University shared Ten easy, cheap, or fast technologies you should know about.

What Hackers Don’t Want You to Know about Identity Management was shared by Jeff Crume, while Graham Walsh of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP presented Business Continuity and Risk Management: A Legal Perspective.

Prof. Martin Rudner of Carleton University gave a provocative talk entitled Communication, Collaboration, and Co-operation in Countering Terrorist Threats to Critical National Infrastructure.  What the talk gained through sensationalism it lost in accuracy and substance, and it would have little use in mitigating future threats.

One of the final talks for the day was given by K.C. Rondello on EMOC: Emergency Management On Campus — Student Assistance in University Disasters.

Day 3

The third day started with a plenary session by James Lukaszewski on How to Avoid Career-Defining Moments in Crisis: Manage The Victim Dimension, followed by a break-out session with Jeannette Sutton on Warning Systems, Risk Communication, and New Social Media: How Technological Innovation is Changing the Landscape for Disaster Communications.

Dana Libby shared some New Mapping Tools Aid in Response to the 2008 Hurricane Season, and Dan Hefkey spoke on some First Nations programs with Culturally Appropriate Emergency Management Programming.

The afternoon continued with David Tickner on Pandemic Tipping Points – planning for and responding to the collateral impacts of failing critical infrastructure and Applying recent lessons from the Indian Ocean to improving tsunami warning along Canada’s West Coast by Peter Anderson

Day 4

An international panel, with Peter Powers, David Parsons, Nathaniel Forbes, John Stagl, and Raph Dunham gave A Global Perspective on Resilience.

Patrick Helm spoke on a Systems Approach to National Security Risks.

Amit Yorand presented Taking the Uncertainty and Doubt (But Not the Fear) Out of Information Risk Management.

The closing plenary was given by Warren Faidley, author of the bestselling book, Storm Chaser.