Health Futures

Passionate about helping people, Oumar El-Aina’s most rewarding University experience has been volunteering his time as an exercise trainer with elderly post-stroke patients and other individuals with mobility issues.

Spending several hours a week at the Faculty of Health’s Centre for Community, Clinical and Applied Research Excellence (CCCARE), the fourth-year kinesiology student works with participants to regain strength and functionality in the centre’s gym.

Since January 2023, pharmacists across Ontario have been prescribing medications for 13 minor ailments. Nardine Nakhla, pharmacist and professor at the University of Waterloo, was a member of the advisory group that drafted regulations enabling this expansion in scope. Nakhla provides an update on the changing minor ailments landscape in Ontario.

How have the new regulations affected our health-care system, pharmacists and patients since minor ailments took effect this past January?  

A family doctor might see a toddler with conjunctivitis. An emergency room doctor might see someone with a retinal detachment or stroke patient with vision symptoms. An endocrinologist might see a patient with diabetes who’s experiencing blurred vision. These are just a few of the reasons why physicians need to know eyes.

You can talk to a therapist or take medication to treat stress and burnout, but what happens if you can’t afford therapy and medications don’t work for you?

Roga, a company that recently joined Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, has developed a wearable mental wellness device, giving users stress relief options when therapy is too expensive or inaccessible, or when medication usage is limited due to side effects or stigma.

HPV, or human papillomavirus, is the most common sexually transmitted infection. It is also the leading cause of cervical cancer. Over 1,400 Canadian women are affected yearly, with almost 400 deaths, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. It is completely preventable with the HPV vaccine, and yet, unfortunately, many people are unvaccinated.

If you’ve ever had an eye exam, you’ve probably been asked to read from a card to test your near vision. The words were likely from standardized text developed in the 1960s. That text is now being changed thanks to an initiative by a University of Waterloo optometry student to advance health equity for Indigenous peoples.

Thanks to support from the optometry profession, alumni and donors across Canada, the University of Waterloo will begin construction next year on the Waterloo Eye Institute (WEI), a state-of-the-art facility supporting advances in vision research, optometric education and patient care.

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC), which comprises the Academy of Arts and Humanities, Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Science, recognizes excellence, advises the government and promotes a culture of knowledge and innovation with other national academies around the world.  

Founded in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), which comprises of the Academy of Arts and Humanities, Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Science, recognizes excellence, advises the government and promotes a culture of knowledge and innovation with other national academies around the world.  

Professor John Hirdes (School of Public Health Sciences) is one of five University of Waterloo researchers to be named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) for their exceptional contributions in Arts, Social Sciences and Sciences.