Re: Sale of MD Financial Management

The questions posed by Dr Ken Markel [BCMJ 2018;60:345] are shared by many of us, including me. The answers provided by Dr Brian Brodie [BCMJ 2018;60;345-346] do not address my concerns, which are:

  1. What were the concerns that prompted the need to look for a buyer? The response from Dr Brodie that, “At the end of the day, it would have been very difficult for MD to remain relevant and stay competitive,” is vague and explains nothing. What was the crisis we were facing and why were we in that dire situation? What alternatives had been considered and dismissed? And by whom? Was this a unanimous decision?
  2. Where is the money now (all of it)? Who was paid to arrange the sale and how much? How many buyers were considered?

—Jose Zanbilowicz, MDCM, FRCPC
Comox

This letter was submitted in response to “Sale of MD Financial Management” and “Re: Sale of MD Financial Management; CMA Board Chair replies.

Jose Zanbilowicz, MDCM, FRCPC. Re: Sale of MD Financial Management. BCMJ, Vol. 60, No. 10, December, 2018, Page(s) 482 - Letters.



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