Why should I attend this conference?

 Citizens for Quality Health has pulled together a team of Health care experts who will speak to various strategies to improve your health and how changes to the health care system are required to improve service.

 The conference will be opened by Joanne Stalinski who is Senior Vice-President, Wellness of the Calgary Health Region.  Joanne leads the Region’s new Wellness Portfolio. Through this Portfolio, Joanne is responsible for focusing and coordinating the Region’s strategy and action plans toward enabling wellness – what people can do for themselves – and for each other – toward physical, mental, spiritual and social well‑being.  Joanne’s has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from McGill University and an MBA from the University of Calgary.

 Many people have heard about Naturopathic Doctors but do not know the extent of their training and alternatives they have to offer.  Dr. Trevor Hoffman ND of the Integrative Medicine Institute is a well-known Calgary naturopath trained in conventional western medicine, minor surgery and pharmaceuticals as well as naturopathic medicine encompassing many disciplines such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, herbology, and nutrition.  Trevor’s results speak for themselves.  For example, 9 out of 10 asthmatic children are able to stop their medication and neck pains often disappear after a few short treatments.  He will explain the role that a Naturopath could play in enhancing wellness and treating sickness as a part of his vision to truly integrate the MD and ND for the patient’s benefit.  Trevor trained at Southwestern Naturopathic School in Arizona.

 Few are better equipped to speak about not wasting health care dollars than Dr. Stephen Miller MD – Medical Director of Health Resource Centre in Calgary, Alberta.  Dr. Miller is passionate about the cost-effective use of our health care dollar.  He can also provide insights to patients as to what to expect in orthopedic surgery should you or someone you love require such surgery.  He is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hip and knee Arthroplasty who serves as Associate Clinic Professor at University of Calgary’s Department of Surgery.  Dr. Miller is a member of several professional organizations including the Alberta Medical Association, Alberta Orthopedic Association, and the Joint Injury and Arthritis Research Group and has published in several journals.

 Alberta is the first province in Canada to negotiate a fundamental change in how physicians, health regions and government work together to improve patient care.  The Alberta government has provided $100 million over eight years to improve access to primary care through Primary Health Care Networks.  As equal partners, a group of physicians and the regional health authority commit to providing a required list of primary care services to a defined population of patients in the region.  Micheline Nimmock, Director of Community Service Development, CHR will explain how Primary Care Networks are working to provide you with better health care.

 You will be surprised to hear about some of the potential choices available to Albertans that you didn’t know existed.  Nadeem Esmail, Director of Health System Performance Studies and Manager of the Alberta Policy Research Centre of The Fraser Institute, will provide insight on health care options across Canada and worldwide.  He will also provide an assessment of how the Alberta health care system is performing.  Nadeem is a respected expert in health care policy and the choices that are and could be available to the health care consumer.  He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Calgary and a Master’s in Economics from the University of British Columbia.  His articles have appeared in newspapers across Canada and he has been a guest on numerous radio and TV programs as well.

Wondering what good science says you should do or should not do to improve your health?  David Crowe will offer his insights into this important and practical topic.  David is a critic of modern medical science who has written many articles for popular health and communications media such as Alive magazine, Mothering, Natural Horse and RedFlagsDaily.com as well as papers and technical letters in major scientific journals such as Pediatrics, JAMA, AIDS, Journal of Human Lactation, Lancet, and Medical Hypotheses. He is the founder and president of the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society. David has written on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer and infectious diseases using data gleaned from a review of more than 4,000 published scientific articles.  He is currently writing "The Infectious Myth", an analysis of how we ignore the scientific evidence that many diseases most people believe are infectious are actually caused by synthetic chemicals or toxic metals.  David has an HBSc in Biology and Mathematics from Lakehead University, with a thesis on the computer analysis of multidimensional biological data.

Citizens for Quality Health will also present a summary of its work in the past year in determining policy priorities for the upcoming year.  Attending this conference will also provide you with an opportunity to meet other health minded individuals who are seeking to improve their health and the health care system. 

Further information can be obtained at www.cqhs.org or by calling (403) 701-8315.