jjablkowski's blog

Yesterday, a lovely couple landed in our swimming pool. After a few minutes of frolicking in the water they retired poolside, their heads lovingly intertwined. He was a beautiful Mallard duck, with shiny, virtually fluorescent green markings on his head. She was much more demurely and simply feathered Mallard, as if in a travel outfit. I am not sure if they were the same ducks that visit us each spring, but they looked the same. As they snuggled together I thought of our current state of physical distancing when outside our homes, and being cooped up at home. 

We are living in a difficult time. It is wonderful to hear the heartfelt thanks for the heroism of our medical, nursing, and other health care colleagues, and the work of our health care system in the fight against our invisible viral foe. It was in this context that I read about Dr Hamlin’s death and I am not ashamed to admit that I ended up with tears in my eyes. In Ethiopia she was called “Mother.” 

Drugsearch.ca is a free search-engine website that shows the price of medications (brand and generic), whether a medication is covered by specific BC PharmaCare plans, and whether special authority is first needed for coverage. When special authority applies, links to the special authority criteria and application forms are provided. The search engine is refreshed monthly and syncs drug wholesaler pricing with the PharmaCare database. 

One of the BCMJ's Editorial Board members, Dr Caitlin Dunne, is helping to keep the public up to date on what we know so far about COVID-19 and pregnancy.

Check out her article in the National Post: "Opinion: Pregnancy in the time of COVID-19."

Those of us in the health care profession are collectively following the news on the latest SARS-CoV-2 updates, bracing for the potential wave of infections that may fill our hospitals and clinics. We’ve seen personally or heard anecdotally the terrifying impact this virus has on people. For many of us, our professional roles in the pandemic response have been to treat those individuals exhibiting or suffering from symptoms of this novel virus.