May

A total of $100 000 is available for up to 20 medical students who demonstrate an interest in practising medicine in rural and remote communities in BC. Annually, up to 20 medical students will be given individual awards of $5000 to support their pursuit of practising rural medicine. The award is offered by the BC Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC with the goal of strengthening efforts to attract more doctors to rural and remote communities.

On 15 March 2015 the National Post ran the story “BC doctor delivers unusual foreign aid to Haiti by teaching surgeons to perform safer circumcisions.” Dr Neil Pollock recently spent a week in Haiti training surgeons to perform circumcisions with the hope that the operation will assist in the fight against HIV in the country. Dr Pollock cites recent research suggesting the procedure can cut spread of the disease significantly.

By Eric Topol, MD. New York: Basic Books, 2015. ISBN 978-0-465-05474-9. Hardback, 364 pages. $32.

I liked Dr Cavers’ March 2015 President’s Comment [BCMJ 2015;57:57] calling for doctors to get involved in teaching medical students.

I have been teaching for the past 9 years. I’ve always felt that it is my responsibility to teach skills that are not offered by any other physician in Canada to first- and second-year medical students. I teach them peripheral nerve root blocks (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) and intra-articular injections to most joints in the body.