It isn’t every day that a PHRI researcher gets to take the guest seat on a hot, hip podcast like The Gritty Nurse.
Amie Archibald-Varley; Sara Fung
Hosted by Amie Archibald-Varley and Sara Fung, nurses and health equity activists in the Toronto area, the podcast explores new healthcare ideas and challenges some realities. The pair has been invited frequently to participate in mainstream media discussions, including CBC Radio, CTV news, a panel discussion with the Prime Minister, and more, and The Gritty Nurse has been cited as in the top 10 podcasts dedicated to nursing.
So it was quite a honour when Amie and Sara invited PHRI Scientist Michael McGillion to talk tech with them recently. He is also Assistant Dean, Research, at McMaster’s School of Nursing, and holds the Heart and Stroke Foundation/Michael G. DeGroote Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Nursing Research.
In the podcast, Mike talks about how he and other researchers at PHRI and McMaster were “early adopters” when it came to exploring health technologies to benefit patients, dating back to 2016 (with the SMArTVIEW study) and continuing today with PVC-RAM-1 and further investigations in development.
“The pandemic was an accelerator for us as a research collective, ” Mike notes. “Here we were working on how to advance virtual care – and we got called upon to help make contributions” to alleviate the burden on our health system and to augment social distancing for surgical recovery – among the many pressing needs created by the COVID virus.
At at time when many healthcare organizations are adopting virtual care, the patients (in particular, seniors), their families, and even the healthcare professionals can be uncomfortable using technologies for care in the home, after hospital discharge. Mike notes that the nursing profession is being greatly impacted by health technologies.
“Focus on people and process – rather than technology itself,” he advises.
Listen to the entire podcast interview of Mike McGillion here (recorded October 1, 2021).
