Dr. Yukiko Asada explores the ethics of access to health care services and health outcomes
Yukiko Asada’s mission is to challenge society with tough questions about equity in health systems and health outcomes. “I want to explore equity problems in health and health systems,” says Dr. Asada, who joined Dalhousie Medical School in 2003 as a postdoctoral fellow in bioethics. “For example, research shows that people of lower socioeconomic status are sicker and die sooner than those of higher socioeconomic status. This strikes many people as unfair. But why is it unfair, and how should we respond to that?”
An assistant professor in the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology since 2005, Dr. Asada uses epidemiology to take quantitative measures of access, resource allocation and health outcomes into ethical and policy debates. Much of her philosophy and findings to date are summarized in her book, Health Inequality: Morality and Measurement, published in 2007.
Equitable access to cancer-related services is a key interest for Dr. Asada. She is involved in a five-year, $1.5-million Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded team study of access to colorectal cancer care services in Nova Scotia, from screening to end-of-life care. She is also a part of a CIHR-funded team that is evaluating end-of-life care across Nova Scotia. In both studies, Dr. Asada is looking at the vulnerability of certain subsets of the population and whether or not they are denied access to quality services.
How fairly health care resources are distributed is another hot topic for Dr. Asada. She and Dr. George Kephart are examining the formulas used to determine how much money to transfer to each region for health care. “The government currently allocates health care resources based on population size,” notes Dr. Asada. “We are making the case that funds should be distributed based on each province’s need for services.”
In 2008, Dr. Asada received the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation’s Award of Excellence in Population Health Research and a CIHR New Investigator Award.