Author profile
Hamish Hwang, MD, FRCSC, FACS
Background Breast cancer is a common condition among Canadian women, with one in eight diagnosed within their lifetime.[1] Despite stable or decreasing age-standardized incidence, the number of cases in British... Read More
Background General surgeons play an essential role in the health care system in both urban and rural settings. Patients with breast cancer, melanoma, colorectal cancer, and other cancers have their cancer removed by... Read More
Background The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.[1] This led to subsequent unprecedented lockdown restrictions and public health interventions that varied widely... Read More
Background Gallstone disease develops in 10% to 15% of Caucasian adults and is the consequence of supersaturation of cholesterol in bile.[1] Risk factors include female sex, age over 40 years, obesity, and rapid... Read More
In May 2019, a secure, interactive, multifunctional website (www.ubcreticulum.com) was launched to create a virtual network of general surgeons, both community and academic, across British Columbia. Funded by a grant... Read More
The UBC Reticulum website was launched in May 2019 to help connect general surgeons across British Columbia. The site’s primary function was to connect surgeons based on their name, location, specialty area, and the... Read More
Background Colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in Canada, as well as the second leading cause of mortality from cancer in men and the third leading cause of mortality from cancer in women.[1]... Read More
I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the letter submitted by Dr Figurski. I believe that the lack of a control group for patient satisfaction, lack of randomization, and differences between the study and... Read More
The practice of general surgery has traditionally been a hospital-based specialty and requires hospital resources. In BC 65% of hospitals have an immediate need to recruit general surgeons but are unable to do so... Read More
Background Ambulatory surgery for breast cancer has become commonplace, with most patients being discharged on the day of surgery.[1,2] Compared with in-patient surgery, outpatient surgery has proved to be more cost-... Read More