N
INTOUCH
U RS IN G
MAY 2014
W EE K: M AY 12 6 -1
Nurse practitioner Kari Fulton tends to a patient in her home. (Photo by Yuri Markarov, Medical Media Centre)
The patient will see you now By Patricia Favre
Medical house calls are thought to have gone the way of rotary phones. But at a time when home phones are being replaced by smartphones, the St. Michael’s Family Health Team is delivering the time-tested service to patients who need it most. Nurse practitioners Lorna McDougall and Kari Fulton are part of an interprofessional team that visits frail, home-bound seniors in downtown Toronto. “Our patients have complex health care issues, but for many of them isolation is what looms large in their
day-to-day lives,” said McDougall. “Our goal is to provide them with access to acute and chronic care in the home. Our visits also give patients a sense of socialization and remind them that they have access to support.” Since the program’s inception about a year and a half ago, 400 nurse practitioner home visits were completed with the 29 patients who are enrolled in the program. In addition to the two nurse practitioners, the team also consists of two family physicians, a geriatrician, a palliative care physician, a pharmacist Continued on page 5
Printed on 100 per cent recycled paper
St. Michael’s and Ryerson hit the road to drive neuroscience research By Evelyne Jhung
Dr. Tom Schweizer really wants to get into your car. And your mind. Preferably at the same time. Dr. Schweizer, director of the Neuroscience Research Program, maps drivers’ brains to see which areas activate or shut down when they perform complicated maneuvers, such as making left turns at busy intersections, or are distracted by talking on a cell phone. He puts healthy young drivers into a high-powered functional MRI and Continued on page 7 MAY 2014 | IN TOUCH | 1