In the month of October, Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health (CERH) featured two lectures, uncovering new areas of discussion on rural health including “Rural Transport Medicine” and “Immigrant Health Care: Understanding and Addressing Barriers”. These two lectures emphasized how various social determinants of health including language, geography and culture impact access to healthcare services. They mark the beginning of Season 5 of Gateway CERH’s virtual lecture series, an ongoing knowledge translation project that aims to promote knowledge and understanding of rural health.
S05-E02 – Rural Transport Medicine by Dr. Sean Moore
On October 1st, Dr. Sean Moore discussed how people in rural and remote communities access health care. Weather conditions, lack of equipment, physician and staffing shortages all present compounding challenges for people in remote regions to get timely and appropriate care in emergency and non-emergency settings. In the lecture, Dr. Moore gives the example of the number of MRI machines needed to achieve health equity by equipment.
Dr. Moore is a long-time practitioner and academic within this field. He is an emergency physician working in Kenora, Ontario and acts as the Chief of Staff at Lake of the Woods District Hospital. He is a leader in emergency services through his roles as Northern Medical Director for the Ornge air medical transport program, associate medical director with CritiCall Ontario, and as an assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. His academic areas pursuits are concerning health equity for indigenous and remote populations.
He was joined Anthony Sharp (ᐊᓐᕤᓐᔾ ᔕᕐᑉ), Base Manager at Kenora, Ontario. Anthony spoke on how weather impacts access to care, describing how the further north you go, in Ontario, the less frequent and accurate reporting on weather conditions can be.
The history and progress of emergency response in rural remote communities is ever evolving. Dr. Moore shares his expertise on various equipment that land ambulances, air transport and other emergency services now provide. Some recommendations he provides to help facilitate better emergency healthcare services are the adoption of formal patient transfer agreements and to leverage virtual technologies.
This lecture is available on YouTube for free:
The lecture series had previously featured related areas such as Enhancing Emergency Management in Northern Municipalities by Amanda Mongeon and on health equity with “Postal Code Medicine” by Dr. Ken Milne.
S05-E03 – Immigrant Health Care: Understanding & Addressing Barriers by Dr. Saleema Allana
The second online lecture for this season, uncovered information on immigrant healthcare. This lecture was in partnership with the Huron County Immigration Partnership. According to the County, “Huron County is home to 4,200 immigrants and 1,300 temporary international workers, making up about 8% of the population”. This is a significant number of people that live and work in rural communities in industry ranging from healthcare to agriculture to recreation and tourism.
On October 17th, Dr. Saleema Allana, Professor from The University of Western Ontario, shared insight into the health of newcomer populations. She discussed the various barriers that exist for utilization of health services, on the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Key issues that affect immigrant populations include chronic disease management, family caregiving, and access to inclusive and equitable healthcare.
Some of Dr. Allana’s latest research concerns virtual access to care and how to create compassionate and equitable access to care. Other areas of research include: exploration of immigrants' cardiovascular health, aging, brain health, health system's preparedness to accommodate immigrants' health needs, and immigrants' settlement in Canada. Translation of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion policies into practice in Canadian healthcare system is another major focus of Dr. Allana’s research.
Joining Dr. Allana in the discussion, Mark Nonkes, the Huron County Immigration Partnership Manager, shared key statistical information from a recent survey facilitated by Huron County on newcomer populations. Huron County continues to work towards providing best-evidence information to support newcomer populations in the area. They are conducting in November 2024, a research initiative into “Newcomers and Housing in Huron-Perth Counties”
This lecture is available for free on YouTube:
Gateway CERH’s lecture series has previously explored newcomer health of in “An Early Settlement Experiences’”, focusing on a particular case study example of Syrian Refugee settlement in Southwestern, Ontario.
About Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health
Founded in 2008 in the community of Seaforth, ON, Gateway CERH is a not-for-profit rural health research organization run by a community-based volunteer board of directors. Gateway CERH's main mission is to better the health and quality of life of rural residents through research, education and communication. Learn more on the Gateway CERH website at: https://www.gatewayruralhealth.ca/ and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
A brief disclaimer, the views expressed in these lectures may not necessarily reflect Gateway CERH’s views or opinions, but we believe in providing a platform for a range of perspectives and thoughtful discussion.
Gateway CERH has a full library of lectures and information about the upcoming presentation that can be found on our website: https://www.gatewayruralhealth.ca/lectureseries
Or watch all past lecture online on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GatewayCERH/videos
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