Sexual Assault Service

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 51, No. 8, October 2009, Page 354 Letters
By: Blanka Jurenka, MD,

I was pleased to note Vancouver Rape Relief’s information in the BCMJ (BCMJ 2009;51[6]:263). If you can supplement that information, we would like to add that for female, male, and transgendered patients (aged 13 and above) sexually assaulted within the previous 7 days, expert and supportive health care and the option of forensic evidence collection is offered by the BC Women’s Sexual Assault Service at VGH emergency, no referral required.

We also offer support and resources to health care providers. For non-urgent information, including other services for sexual assault patients throughout BC, call 604 875-2183 during office hours. In urgent cases, we can be reached through paging.

—Blanka Jurenka, MD 
Medical Director, Sexual Assault Service BC Women’s Health Centre

Blanka Jurenka, MD,. Sexual Assault Service. BCMJ, Vol. 51, No. 8, October, 2009, Page(s) 354 - 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.

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