Engineering Health: Recent Episodes
Tilak Dutta
Today was Global Accessibility Awareness Day. I had a great chat with Juan Olarte about his work to make digital information (websites and documents) more accessible as well as what National Park Accessibility means to him. Near the end he highlights an event he hosted to mark this important day including a keynote talk from the co-founder of GAAD, Jennison Asuncion.
Tonya and I discuss how cases are increasing rapidly and what the province needs to do. Yesterday evening (when we recorded this) the number of new cases was just over 2400 - today it is just over 3100.
Vicki shared her journey through her undergraduate and graduate studies, applying for jobs in and outside academia and how to give a good job talk. In particular, she gave some great advice on how to deal with imposter syndrome.
You can find her contact info here: https://engineering.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/vicki-komisar/
Here is the products she worked on during her PhD are here: https://hartmobility.com/products/easy-range-600/ and https://hartmobility.com/products/easy-range-500/
Here is a video that demonstrates the impact one of her products is having on end users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwq4EilsXEY
Ahmed took the time to share advice for deciding what to do after school for undergrad and graduate students. He also describes his plans for the next phase in his life as the Founder of Hellamaid.
The Reddit article that helped Ahmed launch his business: www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5lfy6n/4_years_ago_i_wrote_a_case_study_on_reddit_on_my
Ahmed's website with pictures and videos including his undergrad project, masters project and DEEP experience: ahmedmezil.com/portfolio
The psychology tool that helped him with important decisions (Ahmed is ENFJ): www.16personalities.com/personality-types
This was recorded over a week ago. Tonya and I talk about how worried we should be about a fourth wave.
Tonya and I discuss the record breaking COVID-19 case numbers happening now in the third wave.
Tonya and I both went back and listened to our podcast from 1 year ago (Friday March 13, 2020) and reflected on it.
This episode was actually recorded a few months ago on November 29th when case counts were going up.
In this episode, Tonya and I discuss three pieces of good news: the Pfizer vaccine, Drs Lo and de Villa push back and Joe Biden becomes President Elect.
This episode was recorded on August 3rd. Tonya and I talk more about the plans for school reopening.
Tonya and I talk about the news today that two COVID-19 vaccines released findings and are showing promise
Tonya and I talk about how things are looking pretty good in Ontario right now. This episode was recorded on July 7th.
Tonya and I discuss the SickKids report on how schools should handle kids going back to school.
This episode was recorded on June 7th. Tonya and I touch on COVID stats but talk mostly about the Black Lives Matter protests and how some horrific events have gotten people around the world talking about the issue of police violence and racism and could lead to real change.
Tonight Tonya and I talk about the decision to start testing asymptomatic people in Ontario, how people in parks getting shamed.
Tonya and I talk about how we're starting to get antsy and we're ready for the lock down to be over...but we're not there yet. We also talk about how the Micheal Warner, a critical care doctor at Michael Garron hospital, thinks Ontario public health's target of completing 90% of contract tracing within 24 hours of a positive COVID test is a mediocre target. His team has started doing their own contact tracing as soon as they think they have a likely COVID case.
Tonight we talk about why we think the public health leadership in Ontario is not inspiring confidence as restrictions start to be lifted. Here is the article we discuss: https://nationalpost.com/news/lockdown-and-release-how-ontarios-imperfect-wall-against-covid-19-is-about-to-be-tested
Tonya and I talk about how we need to discuss the potential for stamping out COVID rather than just flattening the curve. Here's the article by Irfan Dhalla we discuss: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-elimination-not-adaptation-is-the-courageous-covid-19-choice-for/
Tonya and I talked about Ontario further easing restrictions on businesses, plan for Ontario schools still unclear and Montreal schools will not open until September.
Tonya and I talked about how the Premiere's inconsistent messaging around physical distancing may have set us back in Ontario but that it may reflect what much of the public is feeling.
Tonight I talked about how experts have been predicting an outbreak for many years. In November 2019, an Expert Panel released a report on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance (https://cca-reports.ca/reports/the-potential-socio-economic-impacts-of-antimicrobial-resistance-in-canada/) that predicted much of what we are experiencing including dramatic shifts in the way people now behave in what used to be mundane interactions such as taking a flight (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/is-flying-safe-coronavirus/611335/).
Tonight we talked about how things are about to start opening up but the risk of getting COVID-19 for us isn't really any less than it was 3 or 4 weeks ago, Amazon's plans for reinvesting their profits to deal with COVID, and Ontario will move as one on easing restrictions.
Tonya and I discuss even more COVID conspiracies that are out there and how youtube and facebook are taking them down.
Tonya and I discuss how Sweden is not doing too bad considering they didn't shut down as hard as we did here, whether people from the GTA should be going to cottage country and Ontario starts to open up.
Tonight Tonya and I talked about how Sweden is doing pretty well considering they didn't lock down, the difficulty in keeping people from going to their cottages and how the power of stories isn't always a positive thing and can lead society in a bad direction at times.
In this episode, I discuss stories and why they are so important to us as human beings - perhaps they are what makes us human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e80BbX05D7Y
https://jamesaltucher.com/podcast/yuval-noah-harari/
https://play.acast.com/s/akimbo/cheapplacebos
Tonya and I talk about, faceshields, Ed Yong, and bylaw officers in Toronto going too far.
Tonya and I talk about how there are still so many questions regarding COVID-19, how silly banning window visits at long-term care facilities seems and how there is evidence that regularly processing our feelings in journals at difficult times leads to better outcomes for people in the longrun and how there are groups that are interested in archiving these entries: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-23-2020-1.5542275/we-want-it-all-keeping-a-covid-19-diary-it-could-help-future-historians-and-your-mental-health-1.5542907
Tonight I talk about the news that a vaccine could be out by September (?), a handwash prompting device for home idea, and Apple/Google are working together on an API that could help with contact tracing.
Tonya and I did a short chat tonight. Among the topics of discussion were the fact that TD bank wasn't allowing healthcare workers in to their banks and what happens to those that slip through the cracks in our society.
Tonight we talked about Ontario's plans for loosening the lockdown along with a comparison of plans from a few other provinces.
We discuss how well does COVID spread outdoors and whether things might be back to normal by Christmas.
Tonight Tonya and I talked about my trip back to the bank, antibody testing show that the numbers of people getting COVID-19 are 5-50 times higher than the numbers reported in the media and a number of jurisdictions are now starting to talk about planning to end the lockdown.
Tonya and I talk about serum testing for antibodies and the first signs that jurisdictions are starting to think about opening things up again.
Tonight Tonya and I talked a little about our feelings, how Sweden's alternative approach is working and how the phrase evidence-based may be used inappropriately at times.
Tonight we discussed the shooting in Nova Scotia, the Ontario press conference where they announced the good news that Ontario had peaked, and my trip to the bank.
Tonight Tonya and I talk about how there are bidding wars for personal protective equipment among different states in the US, there is good news from the Ontario hospital data on patients with COVID-19 in ICU and on ventilators and we cut my hair today.
On my own today. I discuss how we could all build a time machine for our kids and future generations as well as why it's more important than ever for us all to understand how science if funded in Canada and how we might be able to encourage more people to go into science.
We talk about Eileen de Villa creating a new COVID-19 tracking system for Toronto because Ontario's is outdated and the outsized impact COVID-19 is having on individuals with disabilities for a number of reasons.
Among other topics, we talk about a couple of studies that show that there are a lot of people infected with COVID-19 that are asymptomatic out there.
Tonight Tonya recounted her experience taking our 2 year old son Cayden to SickKids during COVID-19.
Cayden went to SickKids today following a couple of days of having a fever, high heart rate, and breathing rate. His fever is gone and he's nearly back to baseline. Looking forward to getting him home tomorrow.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in the ICU has been flat for a number of days now - a good sign that we are flattening the curve! https://howsmyflattening.ca/
Our main topic of conversation was this article/video Tonya showed me: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-hospitals-bronx.html
Among other things, Tonya and I talk about how it finally sounds like there is some needed change coming to leadership at Ontario Public Health, the differences between positivity and optimism as well as between being scared and afraid.
This is a short one due to time pressure. Tonya talks about how the Toronto Public Library is at the leading edge in supporting the community by converting itself to a foodbank and I talk about how pleased I am with Doug Ford's leadership and the tone he set. He makes it clear that he is as upset about the lack of testing as we are and he that he doesn't want any more excuses from his team.
Among other things, we wondered why Ontario's testing numbers remain so low despite our apparent capacity being much higher.
We talk about the first good news in a while - we may be bending the curve! Here's the main link we talk about: https://www.covid-19-mc.ca/
The main thing we cover is how poor testing rates in Ontario are relative to other provinces and why the testing data is so misleading.
Here is the link Tonya mentions: https://epiforecasts.io/covid/posts/global/ and here is the one I describe: https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/?region=Canada&location=Alberta&location=British+Columbia&location=Manitoba&location=New+Brunswick&location=Newfoundland+and+Labrador&location=Nova+Scotia&location=Ontario&location=Quebec&location=Saskatchewan
Tonya took the night off, so I used this opportunity to give a bit more information about a book I've alluded to a few times: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. I discuss why I think having an infinite mindset is particularity important in the context of COVID-19. I give a very brief introduction to his ideas and probably don't do them justice. I recommend this video to give you the full picture if you are interested: https://youtu.be/tye525dkfi8. This episode was recorded in the morning of April 4, 2020.
The main thing we talked about tonight was how the Ontario government's press conference was a massive disappointment and left us questioning the competence of the people running the fight against COVID-19 in the province. This was recorded in the evening of April 3rd. Anyone interested in how Ontario is doing needs to listen to Steve Paikin's podcast episode with David Fisman: https://www.tvo.org/video/ep-18-ontarios-oncoming-covid-19-toll. Also this is the link with Dan Savage: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current/clip/15768950-sex-writer-dan-savage-shares-what-love-and-sex-from-a-safe-physical-distance-can-look-like
In tonight’s discussion we talked about how Ontario is going to share some "stark" projections tomorrow, 600 nursing homes in Canada have COVID-19, the Canadian Institute for Health Research decided to cancel their spring competition, Italy's numbers are still looking good, and more discussion about masks (I've looked into the HEPA material masks more and I've learned this is probably not a good idea to make masks from this material as it contains glass fibres that have the potential to be breathed in - will discuss in Part 22). This was recorded in the evening of April 2nd.
In tonight’s discussion we talk about how unconscionable it is that a cruise ship with an outbreak of COVID-19 is being turned away from ports, how Ontario has finally made more data available to epidemiologists, how viral dose probably matters to how sick we get, and some things to keep in mind to keep your relationship strong under lockdown. The link to the Pivot podcast with Esther Perel is here: https://megaphone.link/VMP4364037687. This was recorded in the evening of April 1st.
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 31st). This one gets us a little worked up.
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 30th).
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 29th). Here's the video we discuss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54XLXg4fYsc and this is the National Post article about the 1 million tests the Ontario government is planning to buy from Spartan Bioscience: https://nationalpost.com/news/covid-19-ontario-to-buy-one-million-testing-kits-from-leading-tech-firm-amid-backlog-worries.
This is a special episode that is my response to a couple of videos that a friend sent me that argues 5G cellular technology is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. I discuss why I don't think 5G has anything to do with the current pandemic. Here are the links (the first one has been taken down since I watched it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PesGcZ74CY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR38Sy_Eboz0E3hXsu0E2NaN0O5GUugz-RFNMAdnt0uY8kDvVEkuWjZxbDY
https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/watch-debate-raging-on-link-between-5g-technology-coronavirus-pandemic-45124913?fbclid=IwAR0E3IHQjgrg_-fqRdcOFDq8QZR9GmUbNsBNktOPl0mLaItIq-J58tUM96c
Here is the CBC article I mention that discusses the second video (the one that went viral):
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fact-check-viral-video-coronavirus-1.5506595
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 27th).
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 26th).
Tonya and I discuss our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience (recorded in the evening of March 25th). Here's the link to the Vox article we talk about: https://www.vox.com/2020/3/19/21187123/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-today-explained.
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 24th.
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 23rd.
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 22nd. We discuss the potential for Frontline Support Signs to get more people to stay at home. The sign can be downloaded here: engineeringhealth.ca/covid19/
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 20th.
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 19th. Here's the link to the NY Times article we discuss: www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 19th. Here's the link to the new tracking website we discuss: https://covid19.nguy.dev/
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the evening of March 18th.
Tonya and I have decided to keep an audio journal of our thoughts and feelings surrounding our COVID-19 experience. This one was recorded on the morning of March 18th. This is the Washington Post article we discuss: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
Tonya and I have both watched this interview (https://youtu.be/E3URhJx0NSw) with Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist, and found it provided a lot of good information. It's from the Joe Rogan podcast. I know there are strong views out there on Joe Rogan, but I think he is really good at long-form interviews.
Tonya and I spend a few minutes processing our thoughts about the COVID-19 situation before heading to bed.
We're about to get hit with some winter weather including freezing rain that could dramatically raise the risk of falls. Buying the right footwear may be able to reduce the risk of falls by 60 to 80%. The problem is it is difficult to determine how well a given pair of boots will perform on ice just by looking at them. We've developed an objective test at Kite to measure slip resistance on ice. This video from a similar presentation shows some of the visuals: https://youtu.be/yZWBdgPdWj4.
My mom had knee replacement surgery last month and her time in the hospital made it clear that there were a number of holes in the swiss cheese of risk that had to do with handwashing and infection control around toileting.
Our experience with Cayden showed us that healthcare organizations need to do a better job of managing risk. In this episode, I discuss how poor communication in the NICU led to the worst day of my life.
Tonya spoke at a VHA Home Health Care pediatric inter-professional education symposium recently on the importance of healthcare workers listening to their clients/families.
I predict that scams like phishing are only going to get worse in the future and it could have a big impact on our mental health.
I wish there was better information available on which type of exercise was best for us long term taking into account that each type of exercise likely increase the risk of injury/pain/disability in later life.
After having kids, getting good sleep became a much higher priority for me. I found four strategies that help me wake up feeling rested.
Doing creative things doesn't just make us happier, but also prepares us for the future.
Experts are great at providing advice on how to solve problems they have encountered before. They are less helpful with new complex problems.
In honour of National Caregiver Day, this episode discusses the some of the challenges unpaid caregivers face when they are suddenly faced with providing care to someone.
This is a short introduction explains that the goal of this podcast is to discuss ways that we can prevent health problems from popping up in our lives and ways to deal with the ones that inevitably come up.