Tag: Dr. Victor Montori

Implantable cardiac defibrillator shocks vs. “careful and kind” end-of-life care

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

Here’s how I defined implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD)  in my patient-friendly, jargon-free glossary:  small battery-operated electronic device that’s surgically inserted into the chest to treat life-threatening heart rhythm problems.  An implanted ICD is almost like having a tiny Emergency Department at the ready, right inside your own chest, capable of delivering a shock strong enough to restore a struggling heart’s normal rhythm, thus helping to prevent sudden cardiac arrest.

But what happens when the ICD patient is not dying from a heart rhythm problem – but from a terminal medical condition?     Continue reading “Implantable cardiac defibrillator shocks vs. “careful and kind” end-of-life care” →

Financial toxicity: can you afford to have a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

Here in the Lotus Land that is Canada’s beautiful west coast, my total hospital bill after my heart attack was ZERO. The costs of my Emergency Department visits, all cardiac diagnostic tests/procedures/treatments, my hospital bed, physician/nursing care – plus all follow-up appointments with a cardiologist – are entirely funded by our provincial government health plan. Unlike so many of the American heart patients I’ve encountered since my own heart attack, I left the hospital without ever worrying how I was going to pay for my medical care.

Yet I’m highly aware that cardiac patients far less fortunate than I am often leave their hospitals not only worried about their hearts, but now worried about paying catastrophic bills.  Medical researchers call this financial toxicity.     .   Continue reading “Financial toxicity: can you afford to have a heart attack?” →

Implementation science: should research actually DO SOMETHING?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

“Don’t just publish another paper.  Let’s DO something!”  That feisty challenge to her academic colleagues comes from Dr. Cindy Blackstock, expressing her frustration in a University Affairs interview.

The McGill University professor in Montréal is internationally known for her work in child protection rights of Indigenous families. But her frustration can readily apply to medical research, too – where “doing something” seems barely on the radar.           Continue reading “Implementation science: should research actually DO SOMETHING?” →

Precarity: the perfect word for our times

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters   

I learned a terrific new word recently. The word is precarity, meaning the state of being precarious, unpredictable or uncertain. Any woman who is freshly diagnosed with heart disease already knows the precarity of life following a cardiac event – a reality that suddenly feels precarious, unpredictable and uncertain as we try to make sense of something that makes no sense. And after 19 months of navigating a global pandemic, we now know yet another kind of precarity.       .          .  Continue reading “Precarity: the perfect word for our times” →