Sunday, January 14, 2007
statistics sundays - and more!
Beware, USA and other countries of the world that are envious of Canada's much-flaunted healthcare system... It is not half as good as you think! The evidence follows...
A study that is already two years-old found that Canadians routinely underestimate their true weight - with all the repercussions that that can have on their health and on the overall cost of healthcare each and every year, as you can well imagine...
On top of that, read this:
Unexplained symptoms afflict 5% of Canadians... Those are symptoms that baffle ALL of the esteemed medical establishment...!
17% of Canadians do not have a family doctor though (like, why bother?)
In Quebec, that figure is much worse - 28% without a family quack!
They seek one - but none are available!
Yes; doctors actually flat out refuse to see more patients!
I always wondered... If a medical check-up is a yearly thing, and so little actual in-depth analysis is done for each individual patient, can't these quacks have in excess of 300 patients each then? I mean, there are 365 days a year - I am already being FAR TOO GENEROUS and leaving out a whupping 65 days for vacation time for these quacks! Do they really expect me to believe that EACH DOC WHO REFUSES A NEW PATIENT HAS ALREADY MET HIS QUOTA OF 300 PATIENTS APIECE?!? No freaking way... Their likely voiced reason to refuse getting even remotely close to that astronomical number of 300 will probably be "filing and file processing costs would be too much" and they'll add "but you may try the private sector"...
I know ONE quack who will not refuse ANYBODY - Dr. Pierre Marsolais, champion of the distasteful cause of organ donation - he won't refuse anybody who dies and donates all or most organs! Then, he'll take credit for each organ "sold" - and that alone can make his total "patients affected ratio" rise up to... 1000 a year?!?
Way to go, Marsolais - for most docs it is "save some, lose some" but for you it is "kill some and resurrect some - AGAINST GOD'S WISHES, PROBABLY!"
But of course, all quacks, almost, have some sort of God Complex - we aaaaall know that! Pierre doesn't go well with Frankenstein though - drats, poor you Marsolais! Twice out of luck ye art in fact, Jack, because I didn't sign my healthcare card in the back, "buddy"! Guess you won't be able to resell these parts without my pre-written authorization, eh? You better not... That is in the mere supposition that I go before you do, pal! Don't bet on it...
I'm sorry? I called you Jacques? Not Pierre?
Three strikes then - you're out of this blog! ;)
Next!
To the a$$hole who said -somewhere, somewhen- that "we are all going to die", echoing, probably, a Joe Pesci character (Jimmy "Jericho"Alto) from the last decade that he'd caught on some lazy late night on pay television... I'd like to answer, here and now, with this: of course, we are all going to die. Only a few of us have lived the life though. Better yet, only a few of us have led benevolent lives... Worthwhile lives... Saintly lives. Only a precious few of us left anymore will access The Life - Eternal Life. And you're not among that elite - pukey boy!
Now back to the regularly scheduled program...
As for the lack of family docs in Canada - help is, apparently, on the way!
And it comes from Britain!
That's right - British surplus quacks will be flocking over (about 3300 over the next three years, they estimate) simply because they cannot find work in the U.K. anymore... Doctors Who I, II, III, IV, V, VI and doctors Why (bother), When, Where, How and, mostly, What, will surely be among their overrated numbers...
Isn't this so typically pathetic of Canada though? They are still under the control of their colonial power! Still under the power of the Crown of England! Still dependent upon it! Nothing wrong with being dependent per se - but don't pretend to be "a country" and don't act independent so darn much, then! Lest you become more like unto a... Québec? Yikes! It must be true - we are our own worst enemy!
I do wonder what that 5% is though...
Maybe the subject of another blog post right there...
Or an essay...? Short story? Novel? Movie script?
The sky's the limit!
But that's another story... ;)
I simply have to add a special video to this post though, before I leave for la-la-land - a song that says it like it is - "au gré des saisons... la vie me prend... la vie me jette... tôt ou tard... tôt ou tard..."
Fiche technique du vidéoclip:
Artiste: Dumas
Titre: Au Gré Des Saisons
Production: Nù Films
Director / Réalisateur : Louis-Philippe Eno
Client : Tacca
Design : Julien Demers-Arsenault
Technician(s)/Animator(s) / Technicien(s)/Animateur(s) :
Julien Demers-Arsenault, Olivier Laberge, Paul Laberge
Creative Director / Directeur de Création :
Olivier Laberge
Post-Production Producer(s) / Producteur(s) Post-Production :
Charles Massicotte
Techniques :
3D tracking, After effects, Object animation, 3D animation
+++
Link
A study that is already two years-old found that Canadians routinely underestimate their true weight - with all the repercussions that that can have on their health and on the overall cost of healthcare each and every year, as you can well imagine...
On top of that, read this:
Unexplained symptoms afflict 5% of Canadians... Those are symptoms that baffle ALL of the esteemed medical establishment...!
17% of Canadians do not have a family doctor though (like, why bother?)
In Quebec, that figure is much worse - 28% without a family quack!
They seek one - but none are available!
Yes; doctors actually flat out refuse to see more patients!
I always wondered... If a medical check-up is a yearly thing, and so little actual in-depth analysis is done for each individual patient, can't these quacks have in excess of 300 patients each then? I mean, there are 365 days a year - I am already being FAR TOO GENEROUS and leaving out a whupping 65 days for vacation time for these quacks! Do they really expect me to believe that EACH DOC WHO REFUSES A NEW PATIENT HAS ALREADY MET HIS QUOTA OF 300 PATIENTS APIECE?!? No freaking way... Their likely voiced reason to refuse getting even remotely close to that astronomical number of 300 will probably be "filing and file processing costs would be too much" and they'll add "but you may try the private sector"...
I know ONE quack who will not refuse ANYBODY - Dr. Pierre Marsolais, champion of the distasteful cause of organ donation - he won't refuse anybody who dies and donates all or most organs! Then, he'll take credit for each organ "sold" - and that alone can make his total "patients affected ratio" rise up to... 1000 a year?!?
Way to go, Marsolais - for most docs it is "save some, lose some" but for you it is "kill some and resurrect some - AGAINST GOD'S WISHES, PROBABLY!"
But of course, all quacks, almost, have some sort of God Complex - we aaaaall know that! Pierre doesn't go well with Frankenstein though - drats, poor you Marsolais! Twice out of luck ye art in fact, Jack, because I didn't sign my healthcare card in the back, "buddy"! Guess you won't be able to resell these parts without my pre-written authorization, eh? You better not... That is in the mere supposition that I go before you do, pal! Don't bet on it...
I'm sorry? I called you Jacques? Not Pierre?
Three strikes then - you're out of this blog! ;)
Next!
To the a$$hole who said -somewhere, somewhen- that "we are all going to die", echoing, probably, a Joe Pesci character (Jimmy "Jericho"Alto) from the last decade that he'd caught on some lazy late night on pay television... I'd like to answer, here and now, with this: of course, we are all going to die. Only a few of us have lived the life though. Better yet, only a few of us have led benevolent lives... Worthwhile lives... Saintly lives. Only a precious few of us left anymore will access The Life - Eternal Life. And you're not among that elite - pukey boy!
Now back to the regularly scheduled program...
As for the lack of family docs in Canada - help is, apparently, on the way!
And it comes from Britain!
That's right - British surplus quacks will be flocking over (about 3300 over the next three years, they estimate) simply because they cannot find work in the U.K. anymore... Doctors Who I, II, III, IV, V, VI and doctors Why (bother), When, Where, How and, mostly, What, will surely be among their overrated numbers...
Isn't this so typically pathetic of Canada though? They are still under the control of their colonial power! Still under the power of the Crown of England! Still dependent upon it! Nothing wrong with being dependent per se - but don't pretend to be "a country" and don't act independent so darn much, then! Lest you become more like unto a... Québec? Yikes! It must be true - we are our own worst enemy!
I do wonder what that 5% is though...
Maybe the subject of another blog post right there...
Or an essay...? Short story? Novel? Movie script?
The sky's the limit!
But that's another story... ;)
I simply have to add a special video to this post though, before I leave for la-la-land - a song that says it like it is - "au gré des saisons... la vie me prend... la vie me jette... tôt ou tard... tôt ou tard..."
Fiche technique du vidéoclip:
Artiste: Dumas
Titre: Au Gré Des Saisons
Production: Nù Films
Director / Réalisateur : Louis-Philippe Eno
Client : Tacca
Design : Julien Demers-Arsenault
Technician(s)/Animator(s) / Technicien(s)/Animateur(s) :
Julien Demers-Arsenault, Olivier Laberge, Paul Laberge
Creative Director / Directeur de Création :
Olivier Laberge
Post-Production Producer(s) / Producteur(s) Post-Production :
Charles Massicotte
Techniques :
3D tracking, After effects, Object animation, 3D animation
+++
Link
Comments:
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Statistics Canada test clinic finds Canadian underestimating true weight
28/05/2005 1:05:00 PM
---------------------------
OTTAWA (CP) - A test clinic in Calgary has demonstrated what Statistics Canada already suspected - many Canadians routinely underestimate their true weight.
The clinic, designed to help the agency plan for a national health survey scheduled to begin next year, found that about one in five people who stood on the scales were heavier than they had indicated to interviewers beforehand.
"Weight was under-reported by all age groups," says a summary of the findings, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
The clinic, set up at the South Calgary Health Centre from October to December last year, involved a battery of direct health tests of 369 volunteers, including blood and urine samples.
Some of the detailed measurements, which took up to three hours for each volunteer, were compared with the participants' own assessment of their bodies.
Officials found that 67 people gave interviewers weights that differed significantly from direct measurements taken later.
"For adults (the) most common reclassifications were from normal to overweight, and from overweight to obese," the study says.
The phenomenon was no surprise to Statistics Canada.
"That had been demonstrated in published literature from other countries," said Mark Tremblay, one of the organizers of the Calgary clinic.
"And it makes pretty sound intuitive sense, too. It helps to demonstrate the potential utility and importance of a survey like this."
Researchers caution that the clinic was simply a testing ground, and the findings cannot be extrapolated to the entire population.
Nevertheless, the results showed why direct measurements of health can correct often-misleading statistics based solely on what Canadians tell researchers.
For example, the clinic found that 18 per cent of those tested had high blood pressure - but only about half of them were aware of it beforehand.
And blood tests showed 56 people had the herpes simplex virus-2, a sexually transmitted disease, but 45 of them were unaware they had the condition.
In all cases, volunteers were counselled to see their doctors if any test suggested potential health problems.
"Until you measure, you really don't know," said Tremblay. Similar direct-measurement surveys in Australia involving bodily fluids, for example, found diabetes at double the levels of previous estimates.
The clinic also showed that the planned national survey will be more complicated and expensive than forecast. The cost has risen to $27 million from the $20 million originally estimated, though the additional funds will come from existing Statistics Canada resources.
Beginning in the fall of 2006, two 16-metre trailers fitted out as a mobile clinic will be hauled into 15 communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. The communities were selected randomly, although ensuring that Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies and British Columbia were represented.
A team of 25 Statistics Canada employees will take blood and urine samples, and do other tests, on a total of 5,000 randomly selected volunteers. Each will be paid $50.
The sampling, spread over two years, will test for West Nile Virus, SARS, HIV, hepatitis C, measles, mumps, polio, diabetes and other diseases. Volunteers, ages 6 to 79, will be given fitness tests as well. Residents on reserves, members of the military and people in institutions such as prisons will be excluded.
Canada last carried out such a detailed measurement of health involving body fluids in 1978-79, though the United States and other countries do it regularly.
"It has tremendous power, it's tremendously informative, and can provide information that simply cannot be gathered any other way," said Tremblay.
28/05/2005 1:05:00 PM
---------------------------
OTTAWA (CP) - A test clinic in Calgary has demonstrated what Statistics Canada already suspected - many Canadians routinely underestimate their true weight.
The clinic, designed to help the agency plan for a national health survey scheduled to begin next year, found that about one in five people who stood on the scales were heavier than they had indicated to interviewers beforehand.
"Weight was under-reported by all age groups," says a summary of the findings, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
The clinic, set up at the South Calgary Health Centre from October to December last year, involved a battery of direct health tests of 369 volunteers, including blood and urine samples.
Some of the detailed measurements, which took up to three hours for each volunteer, were compared with the participants' own assessment of their bodies.
Officials found that 67 people gave interviewers weights that differed significantly from direct measurements taken later.
"For adults (the) most common reclassifications were from normal to overweight, and from overweight to obese," the study says.
The phenomenon was no surprise to Statistics Canada.
"That had been demonstrated in published literature from other countries," said Mark Tremblay, one of the organizers of the Calgary clinic.
"And it makes pretty sound intuitive sense, too. It helps to demonstrate the potential utility and importance of a survey like this."
Researchers caution that the clinic was simply a testing ground, and the findings cannot be extrapolated to the entire population.
Nevertheless, the results showed why direct measurements of health can correct often-misleading statistics based solely on what Canadians tell researchers.
For example, the clinic found that 18 per cent of those tested had high blood pressure - but only about half of them were aware of it beforehand.
And blood tests showed 56 people had the herpes simplex virus-2, a sexually transmitted disease, but 45 of them were unaware they had the condition.
In all cases, volunteers were counselled to see their doctors if any test suggested potential health problems.
"Until you measure, you really don't know," said Tremblay. Similar direct-measurement surveys in Australia involving bodily fluids, for example, found diabetes at double the levels of previous estimates.
The clinic also showed that the planned national survey will be more complicated and expensive than forecast. The cost has risen to $27 million from the $20 million originally estimated, though the additional funds will come from existing Statistics Canada resources.
Beginning in the fall of 2006, two 16-metre trailers fitted out as a mobile clinic will be hauled into 15 communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. The communities were selected randomly, although ensuring that Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies and British Columbia were represented.
A team of 25 Statistics Canada employees will take blood and urine samples, and do other tests, on a total of 5,000 randomly selected volunteers. Each will be paid $50.
The sampling, spread over two years, will test for West Nile Virus, SARS, HIV, hepatitis C, measles, mumps, polio, diabetes and other diseases. Volunteers, ages 6 to 79, will be given fitness tests as well. Residents on reserves, members of the military and people in institutions such as prisons will be excluded.
Canada last carried out such a detailed measurement of health involving body fluids in 1978-79, though the United States and other countries do it regularly.
"It has tremendous power, it's tremendously informative, and can provide information that simply cannot be gathered any other way," said Tremblay.
MORE ABOUT THE VIDÉOCLIP...
Added December 11, 2006
From Mandarine24
Pour ce clip, M24 a réalisé les séque Pour ce clip, M24 a réalisé les séquences d'animations à partir de vieilles gravures, composité les images des filles qui font les lettres de l'alphabet pour écrire des paroles de la chanson, et crée une tornade de confettis en particules CGI.
M24 a aussi réalisé l'effet du visage invisible sur lequel de la peinture coule en faisant de la rotoscopie et en projettant une texture animée sur un visage CGI aligné sur celui de Dumas.
For this music video, M24 has done the animation sequences from old etchings, composited the shots of girls making letters of the alphabet in order to write lyrics from the song, and created a confettis tornade in CGI particules.
M24 also created the effect of the invisible face on which paint is dripping by doing rotoscopie and by mapping an animated texture onto a CGI face tracked on Dumas' face.
+++
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Added December 11, 2006
From Mandarine24
Pour ce clip, M24 a réalisé les séque Pour ce clip, M24 a réalisé les séquences d'animations à partir de vieilles gravures, composité les images des filles qui font les lettres de l'alphabet pour écrire des paroles de la chanson, et crée une tornade de confettis en particules CGI.
M24 a aussi réalisé l'effet du visage invisible sur lequel de la peinture coule en faisant de la rotoscopie et en projettant une texture animée sur un visage CGI aligné sur celui de Dumas.
For this music video, M24 has done the animation sequences from old etchings, composited the shots of girls making letters of the alphabet in order to write lyrics from the song, and created a confettis tornade in CGI particules.
M24 also created the effect of the invisible face on which paint is dripping by doing rotoscopie and by mapping an animated texture onto a CGI face tracked on Dumas' face.
+++
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