A team at the University of Saskatchewan is now using equipment that could help them delay early Alzheimer's disease.

The federal and provincial governments are investing $1.6 million dollars to help Darrell Mousseau, Saskatchewan research chair in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and his team buy neuro-imaging equipment.

Mousseau is looking to determine the link between depression and Alzheimer's.

Patients will no longer have to leave the province to receive the key testing that helps diagnose and monitor cancer.
 
"Having the PET scan in Saskatchewan, right here at (Royal University Hospital) will mean so much to my family and families like mine who have to endure this," said Kathy Kurmey.
 
Her daughter, Courtney, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 14.
 
"Her cancer was very aggressive, the one tumor within one week’s time had gotten so big it was pushing her chest bone apart," Kurmey said.
 

Saskatchewan is inching towards some big reductions in surgical wait times but the two big cities are still dealing with bottlenecks.

On Monday, the Ministry Of Health issued an update on its efforts to cut surgical wait times. The province set an ambitious goal in April of 2010, aiming to ensure no one in Saskatchewan has to wait more than three months for surgery.

That target is being phased in; the goal for 2012/2013 is to have no one waiting longer than six months. Right now seven out of ten health regions are within five per cent of the goal.

As fall beings, so does the dreaded flu season.

"Every winter, there's lost of coughs and colds that go around that can cause hospitalization, or even death." explained Saskatchewan's deputy chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab.  Dr. Shahab not only recommends getting flu shots, but to make sure you get one every year.

Those who are younger than five or older than 65 are especially vulnerable to the influenza virus. The same goes for women who are pregnant or people with underlying conditions that make them more vulnerable to illness.

A Regina woman is marking the tenth anniversary of her life-saving organ transplant.

Trish Craven first began dealing with diabetes when she was only five years old.  For over thirty years, she was able to manage the condition and lead a healthy life.  However, things changed when Craven was 37.

"I started losing sight in my eye, my leg was starting to turn black.  In the morning, I'd wake up and (my leg) would be numb, and very tingly in my hands and my feet."

Four teammates of a Saskatoon man who went into cardiac arrest during a rec. hockey game last November were presented a special award, today, to recognize their actions.

Robin Biggs was playing a hockey game at Agri Twins Arena with his team the Saskatoon Mixers, when he started to feel tired.

"It was about halfway through the game and I came to the bench quite tired and I sat down ... that was all I remember until I was bouncing down the road in the ambulance," Biggs said.

One in five teenagers smoke in Saskatchewan, the highest rate among teenagers in Canada.

The rate for Canada is 12 per cent to Saskatchewan’s 20, according to the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey for 2011.

It isn’t hard for some teens in Regina to understand why they and their friends smoke.

“Everyone I know is like ‘I used to smoke’ or ‘Let’s go out for a smoke’,” said one outside of Balfour High School.

The Saskatoon Health Region will pay if the evicted residents of a Humboldt care home need to move again.

Maura Davies, the president and CEO of the Saskatoon Health Region, tells News Talk Radio that they will provide a flat rate of $1,000 for those residents up until March 31, 2013.

The announcement comes after Davies accepted a scathing Ombudsman report condemning their timeline to move 10 seniors out the Humboldt care home, early this year.