1. One of the presentations at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress meeting last week received widespread media attention! The project, titled: It’s Shockingly Cold: Defibrillator Shocks and Extreme Cold Weather, concluded that the risk of ICD shocks is higher with extreme and moderately cold weather, compared with warmer weather, and provides health care providers and patients with an awareness of the relationship between colder temperatures and ventricular arrhythmias. The authors of the study were Dr. Justin Cloutier, Dr. Shuangbo Liu, Dr. James Tam and Dr. Colette Seifer. Dr. Cloutier was interviewed about this by CJOB, CBC’s Ismaila Alfa on Up to Speed, and CTV. Click to read CBC’s online story about this or to see the CTV television coverage. Congratulations to Drs. Cloutier, Liu, Tam & Seifer!
2. In 2015-16, over 1000 cardiac patients took advantage of the cardiac rehabilitation program offered within the WRHA. By and large, participants in the program benefited in numerous ways, including improvement in psychological symptoms, a reduction in total blood cholesterol, a decrease in waist girth, an increase in functional capacity & cardiovascular conditioning, and improvements in quality of life. Read more about this excellent program in the Cardiac Rehabilitation 2015-16 Annual Report.
3. On a lighter note:
Do you remember the famous Olympic skier Picabo Street (pronounced Peek-a-Boo)? Well, Picabo is not just an athlete. She is now a nurse currently working at an Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital. She is not permitted to answer the hospital telephones any longer. It caused too much confusion when she would answer the phone and say, “Picabo, I.C.U.” LOL
