by Dr. Adrian Gamelin
Aurora Reproductive Care is proud to announce that they have partnered with EngagedMD to enable them to remotely educate patients throughout the entire fertility journey and digitally and securely manage all patient paperwork and consent forms. This will allow Aurora to operate more efficiently, while simultaneously improving the patient experience in the following ways:
Improved Patient Experience
EngagedMD’s cloud-based platform lets patients access their learning plan and sign consent forms from their laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Patients enjoy the convenience of self-paced learning in the comfort of their own home while still having access to their care team when they need it.
Saves Time
With EngagedMD, patients will arrive for appointments informed and prepared. Which means the time spent between patients and Doctor will be more productive for everyone.
Paperless
Arriving 30 minutes early to “do the paperwork” is no one’s idea of convenience. Neither is rescheduling procedures over missing signatures and lost forms. With EngagedMD, consent forms are digitally delivered and stored, so patients can sign from the convenience of home, and Aurora staff can keep everything conveniently in place and on schedule.
by Dr. Adrian Gamelin
At Aurora, we are occasionally asked why we don’t post our IVF pregnancy rates on our website. IVF success rates have changed a lot over the past decade. The treatment has improved, because of advances in the science of stimulating egg development and growing the fertilized eggs (embryos) in the laboratory. There is no doubt that the treatment success rates have improved dramatically. But IVF success rates can be tricky to interpret. There are many factors that come into play when interpreting a clinic’s success rate.
Clinics can differ in the patient population they treat – for example some clinics may care for a larger proportion of older women, or couples with previous treatment failures, and this can affect the “success rates.” Some clinics may promote transfer of 1 embryo at a time, to encourage the best possible outcome for the mom and baby while others may liberally transfer multiple embryos during treatment.
There are many other factors that are important when choosing a fertility clinic, beyond success rates. It’s important to find a fertility care team that meets your needs: a place that is comfortable, convenient, has good communication and supports you through the stress of infertility.
If you are planning to do IVF treatment at Aurora, your physician will counsel you about your chance of pregnancy. Rest assured, our pregnancy rates compare favorably to the national average and we will work with you to achieve our common goal – a healthy, happy mom and baby!
by Dr. Adrian Gamelin
Dr. Adrian Gamelin was interviewed by Global Regina in a story on Fertility Funding.
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REGINA – Rod and Jayleene Sully have been married for nine years, and have decided it’s time to add a child to their family photos.
“We started trying and ran into some problems,” said Jayleene.
The couple consulted a fertility specialist and were told they were unlikely to conceive without help – either from a sperm donor or in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The Sullys prefer not to go with a donor, but IVF is a pricey procedure – costing upwards of $10,000.
“We had hope, (thinking) ‘Maybe we can do this,’” Jayleene said. “Then we found out the cost and said, ‘I don’t think we can afford that.’”
Depending on the province, some in vitro treatments are paid for by health care. In Saskatchewan coverage is only provided for infertility investigation, including sperm testing.
Infertility Saskatchewan – an advocacy group pushing for public funding of infertility treatments – wants to change that, citing a new report from the University of Alberta.
It says funding some forms of IVF could actually be more cost effective for the health system.
“We can try and reduce the financial barriers so couples are more inclined to transfer a single embryo during their fertility treatments, there will be fewer multiple pregnancies,” said Dr. Adrian Gamelin of Saskatoon’s Aurora Reproductive Care – the province’s only fertility clinic. “Therefore, the government will actually save money.”
While treatment is on the rise, doctors say, too often infertility isn’t recognized as a health issue.
“Infertility is a medical condition,” Gamelin said. “It’s not a choice any couple would make not to be able to have children.”
Rod and Jayleene don’t believe IVF funding will arrive in time for them, but they’re not done trying – to conceive and to effect change.
“Anything we can do, so that someone doesn’t have to say ‘no’ to a family because they can’t afford it.”
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You can view the VIDEO on Global website by clicking here
