Chronic Dis Can
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In the mid 1990s, the high cost and increasing number of new anticancer and supportive care drugs began to result in an inequality of access to promising new treatment approaches in the Province of Ontario. Starting with a single drug, paclitaxel, in 1995, the New Drug Funding Program has evolved to a provincial program that enables cancer patients in Canada's most populous province to equitably access new and expensive, intravenously administered drugs. ⋯ In fiscal year 2000/2001, the Program made 14 drugs available for 24 indications for a total provincial expenditure of approximately $37.7 million. These intravenous drugs can now be accessed through nine Regional Cancer Centres, the province's only cancer hospital (Princess Margaret Hospital) and 80 community hospitals and will directly benefit more than 8,700 patients.
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The Health Belief Model (HBM) was evaluated for secondary prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus in an Aboriginal population in British Columbia. Glycemic markers (glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c]), insulin and post-load glucose), diabetes health beliefs (susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers), knowledge and behaviour were measured for 16 men and 18 women with diabetes (age [SD]=57.7 [11.6]). ⋯ The results support a therapeutic emphasis on belief in the severity of diabetes complications, and the complementary belief that barriers to therapeutic behaviour can be overcome in efforts to support Aboriginal persons with diabetes to manage their disease. The empirical utility of the HBM in glycemic control was partially upheld.