A novel use for the BC HealthGuide

Issue: BCMJ, No. 6, July August 2001, Page 316 Editorials
By: James A. Wilson, MD

This will probably come across as sounding like I get delight from terrorizing wounded animals, but I just had to comment on the BC HealthGuide. I have to wonder what went into the decision-making process that allowed the spending of so much money for so little potential benefit. There seems to be a paucity of literature that validates the creation and distribution of government-funded self-help books. The only obvious reason for advancing this project through the ministry had to be economic. In other words, the hope must have been that people would read it, answer their medical questions without accessing the medical system, and save the government some money. I don’t know if anyone in the Ministry has noticed a marked decline in doctors’ visits since the guide was mailed out, but I suspect if there had been, we would have heard about it prior to the election.

Two studies were recently released in the BMJ (2001;322:1214-1217 and 2001;322:1218-1220) that demonstrated that self-help booklets had no significant impact on the use of health services. I wonder if anyone in the Health Ministry actually looked in the medical literature for validation?

The only other obvious reason for this project had to be a purely political one, but it seems to have failed as miserably as the rest of the NDP’s grand schemes. I wonder how much this one cost us?

My brother-in-law has come up with a good idea for his guide. He plans to take it to his cabin and use it as outhouse supplies. Is this what they mean by wiping the slate clean?

—JAW

James A. Wilson, MD. A novel use for the BC HealthGuide. BCMJ, Vol. , No. 6, July, August, 2001, Page(s) 316 - Editorials.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply