July

Two $1 million donations will help support UBC’s Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health, created in 2014 to train more Aboriginal health providers, to optimize indigenous curriculum in the health sciences, and to foster research into Aboriginal health issues. Both gifts are dedicated to the centre’s goal of recruiting and retaining Aboriginal students in UBC’s health professional programs and ensuring Aboriginal people are encouraged to pursue health sciences from an early age and are supported throughout their careers.

Avoid CT scans for mild head injury and avoid psychostimulants for preschool children with ADHD. These are 2 of the 49 new recommendations pertaining to various medical specialties recently released by Choosing Wisely Canada.

Children with orofacial clefts face challenges in school concerning cognition, reading, language, hearing, speech, and developmental and behavioral problems, which leads to poor academic achievement compared with their peers. The article “Academic Outcomes of Children with Isolated Orofacial Clefts Compared with Children without a Major Birth Defect,” in The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, discusses a comparative study among children 5 to 12 years old with and without orofacial clefts born between 1996 and 2002.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation has launched a province-wide FAST signs of stroke awareness campaign to ensure Canadians learn the signs of a stroke and implement the FAST approach to improve chances of survival and recovery:
•    Face: Is it drooping? 
•    Arms: Can you raise both? 
•    Speech: Is it slurred or jumbled? 
•    Time: Call 9-1-1 right away.

The FAST theme is an easy way to remind people of the major signs of stroke and the urgency of seeking medical attention.

Dr Cliff Henderson received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BC Association for Child Development.