What’s the actual experience of dealing with the workplace while undergoing cancer treatment? At the 2018 Employers Cancer Care Summit, one woman told her story, and it wasn’t a particularly positive one from the perspective of the workplace role. Mei-Lin Yee was 45 years old in 2009 when she learned of her diagnosis with Stage […]
The hepatitis C hump is over. Since 2014, Health Canada has approved several promising medications for the disease. While the direct-acting antivirals offer cure rates of more than 90 per cent, they cost tens of thousands of dollars, and benefits plans felt the pinch. But now, “after an initial spike in treatment requests, claims have […]
From brain fog to fatigue, cancer patients face a range of challenges when it comes to staying at or going back to work. And with a significant number of cancer diagnoses happening to people during their prime working years, employers do have a role in supporting employees in dealing with their conditions, a speaker at Benefits Canada‘s […]
What new cancer treatments are emerging that will affect the workplace and how can employers do a better job of supporting their employees with cancer? With a roster of experts speaking on topics from new drugs in development to the role of the caregiver, Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit on Feb. 21 helped […]
Employers must acknowledge the role of family caregivers to get a true picture of the costs of cancer care, according to a University of Alberta professor. Janet Fast, a professor of department of human ecology at the University of Alberta, told the audience at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit in February that the […]
Improvements in cancer treatments are driving patients out of hospital beds and back into their own homes. “Cancer is now a treatable, chronic disease. With these new therapies, we’re seeing a paradigm shift and a difference in the way patients are being treated,” Sandra Salama Anderson, vice-president of consulting and business development at Innomar Strategies […]
Developing new drugs is only half of the job for those treating lung cancer, according to a medical oncologist. Most people know that the biology of cancer is extremely complex. What fewer know, Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price told audience members at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit on Feb. 21, is that “the machinery of […]
Employers should reach out early and often to employees facing a cancer crisis, according to a man with first-hand experience. Asaph Benun told attendees at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit in February his life took a major turn five years ago following his six-month-old son’s diagnosis with a rare blood cancer that doctors […]
The old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure works just as well when it comes to cancer care as it does for any other medical ailment, if you ask Dr. Jeffrey Rothenstein. The medical oncologist at the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre told the audience at Benefits Canada’s […]
“I had no idea.” “How can that be?” “Just doesn’t make any sense.” “But even if it keeps you alive?” These are just some of the responses I heard from neighbours and acquaintances a few years ago after a local paper quoted me in a story on cancer drug funding. In the article, I discussed […]