Good morning! Here's our round-up of weekly health and medical science news. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
| | | | | This week |  | Some virtual care companies putting patient data at risk, new study finds | | | | | Manulife will cover specialty drugs filled at any pharmacy following backlash to Loblaw deal | | | | |  | Virtual care became a convenient way to access health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. But a new study has raised concerns that patient data isn't always being adequately protected from drug companies and other third parties that want to market products and services. (Issei Kato/Reuters) | | | Some virtual care companies putting patient data at risk, new study finds
Canadian researchers have patient privacy concerns as industry grows post-COVID | | Amina Zafar | If you visit a doctor virtually through a commercial app, the information you submit in the app could be used to promote a particular drug or service, says the leader of a new Canadian study involving industry insiders. The industry insiders "were concerned that care might not be designed to be the best care for patients, but rather might be designed to increase uptake of the drug or vaccine to meet the pharmaceutical company objectives," said Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, a physician and scientist at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Virtual care took off as a convenient way to access health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing patients to consult with a doctor by videoconference, phone call or text. It's estimated that more than one in five adults in Canada — or 6.5 million people — don't have a family physician or nurse practitioner they can see regularly, and virtual care is helping to fill the void. But the study's researchers and others who work in the medical field have raised concerns that some virtual care companies aren't adequately protecting patients' private health information from being used by drug companies and shared with third parties that want to market products and services. | | |  | Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, a physician and scientist at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, co-authored a new study that found the for-profit virtual care industry valued patient data and 'appears to view data as a revenue stream.' (Turgut Yeter/CBC) | Spithoff co-authored the study in this week's BMJ Open, based on interviews with 18 individuals employed or affiliated with the Canadian virtual care industry between October 2021 and January 2022. The researchers also analyzed 31 privacy documents from the websites of more than a dozen companies. The for-profit virtual care industry valued patient data and "appears to view data as a revenue stream," the researchers found. One employee with a virtual care platform told the researchers that the platform, "at the behest of the pharmaceutical company, would conduct 'A/B testing' by putting out a new version of software to a percentage of patients to see if the new version improved uptake of the drug."
Read more about the virtual care industry from CBC Health's Amina Zafar. | | | Cross-Canada health news from CBC | | | Belleville, Ont. declares addiction emergency after latest overdose surge | CBC Ottawa | | | | | Public health officials flag measles case in Montreal | CBC Montreal | | | | | | |  | Canadian insurance company Manulife has backtracked on a decision to only cover drugs filled at Loblaw-owned pharmacies, less than a week after the exclusivity deal was announced. (The Canadian Press/Illustration by CBC) | | | Manulife will cover specialty drugs filled at any pharmacy following backlash to Loblaw deal | | | Manulife will cover specialty drugs filled at any pharmacy, the insurance company said this week — backtracking on its decision to only cover drugs filled at Loblaw-owned pharmacies less than a week after the exclusivity deal was announced.
The initial deal would have impacted around 260 medications under the insurance company's Specialty Drug Care program, which are meant to treat complex, chronic or life-threatening conditions.
It sparked backlash from customers, drug policy experts and independent pharmacists, who said the plan — known as a preferred pharmacy network arrangement — would degrade the quality of pharmaceutical care that patients receive.
Read more from CBC's Jenna Benchetrit. | | | THE BIG NUMBER
| Zero | | | A new study revealed that no cases — zero, zilch — of invasive cervical cancer were detected across Scotland among women who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when they were 12 or 13 years old.
The observational research, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at hundreds of thousands of health records. It showed close to 240 documented cases of invasive cervical cancer, but none among the vaccinated women, regardless of the number of vaccine doses they'd had as a preteen.
Those findings confirm the shot protects against the development of serious cancer, even from one or two doses of the three-dose vaccine given when someone is a preteen, the researchers say.
It's increasingly clear there's "durable, effective" protection against cervical cancer precursors, echoed Dr. Cleve Ziegler, an obstetrician-gynecologist and the director of gynecology at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, during a conversation with CBC News.
"There is a general skepticism, reluctance, paranoia among people with anything related to vaccination... but certainly they are of great value in preventing HPV infections and cancer-causing strains of this virus," he added.
"I don't think any responsible, rational physician could say anything negative about their introduction, particularly in young women." | | | | | Stories we found interesting this week | | | An Ontario woman who beat stage 3 breast cancer calls out health system | Global News | | | | | Battles brewing over the booming bereavement industry could determine the future of death in Toronto | The Local | | | | | Can exercise help treat long Covid? New study finds patients improve with self-paced approach | STAT | | | | | | |  | New episode dropped Feb. 8
Sleep apnea is a medical condition in which breathing stops and restarts many times during sleep.
And despite being a fairly common condition, as many as eight out of 10 Canadians living with it are undiagnosed.
Respirologist and sleep physician Dr. Sachin Pendharkar explains how sleep apnea works, as well the options available for diagnosing and treating the disorder.
Play on CBC Listen | | | |  | New episode airs Feb. 10 and 11
When Kalpit Sharma started smoking high-THC weed several times every day, he thought he was just “living his life” as a university student. After all, he had been led to believe cannabis was relatively harmless.
But then he started hearing voices.
Researcher Dr. Daniel Myran shares the science behind stories like Kalpit’s – and why young men are particularly at risk for concerning mental health outcomes.
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