Having a therapy dog visit in a hospital’s emergency department may not be commonplace, but there can be a marked benefit for some patients. That’s according to a USask research team, who introduced therapy dogs to patients at Royal University Hospital prior to the pandemic. Research Chair in One Health and Wellness, Dr. Colleen Dell, says researchers would approach the patient first to ask if they would be a part of the study and then the handler and therapy dog would come in. The study found that there was a clinically significant reduction in pain, depression and anxiety, and an increase in well-being.