Speaker:
Martha E Lyon. Laboratory Director, Clinical Biochemist. Kenora Rainy River Regional Laboratory Program.
Dr. Martha Lyon is a Clinical Biochemist who very recently joined the Kenora Rainy River Regional Laboratory Program in North West Ontario. Prior to this, Dr. Lyon spent 10 years with the Saskatchewan Health Authority in Saskatoon where she was primarily responsible for Pediatric and Neonatal Clinical Biochemistry and Point of Care Testing. She also spent 12 years in Calgary as the Section Head for Pediatric and Neonatal Biochemistry at Alberta Children’s Hospital and Calgary Laboratory Services. Dr. Lyon received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Following this, she completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa and then completed her clinical fellowship in Clinical Biochemistry in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Overview:
Several challenges have been identified with the provision of clinical chemistry services for vulnerable patient populations. In 2018, the Canadian Medical Association Journal added vulnerable populations as an area to champion in this journal. The term ‘vulnerable’, while not well defined in health care, has been used to justify the allocation of additional resources but it can also lead to the negative consequence of stigmatization. Neonatal/pediatric as well as LGBTQ+ populations have been identified as vulnerable populations in health care. In this seminar, several of the challenges in delivering clinical chemistry services for these patient populations will be discussed.
Objectives:
At the end of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Describe the concept of vulnerable populations in healthcare
- Recognize the impact of choice of language when describing vulnerable populations
- Discuss challenges affecting delivery of clinical chemistry service for pediatric/neonatal and transgender patients