May

Residential care in BC is facing critical challenges. Residential care patients make up less than 1% of BC’s population and consume approximately 25% of the combined budgets for MSP, Pharmacare, acute care, and home and community care.[1] At the same time, the number of family physicians who deliver residential care is steadily declining.

Over the past few years I have seen a significant increase in the number of young adults with type 2 diabetes in my practice. Some have a genetic basis but a greater number do not and behave just like adult type 2 patients. This is a diagnosis that I rarely saw until a few years ago. A significant commonality is the prevalence of overweight and obesity in this population (overweight: BMI greater than 25; obese: BMI greater than 30). My pediatric colleagues are seeing similar trends and this should be raising alarms.

Huddled in a pathetic little ball I was wracked by another coughing spasm as I looked out over the cold, wet Paris night. Feeling like the urchin from Les Misérables, I fought the chills and rigors, hoping for relief. Contemplating my mortality, I noticed Notre Dame in the distance and offered up a little prayer.

Physicians have often been challenged by the lack of available treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The Council on Health Promotion’s Nutrition Committee would like to alert you to an emerging dietary approach to potentially resolve IBS symptoms prior to initiating medications. Emerging evidence suggests that symptoms of IBS may be partly due to malabsorption of short-chain carbohydrates. Enter the low FODMAP diet—a potential IBS dietary management tool.

Recent audits have revealed a trend concerning tray fees: physicians are billing tray fees for procedures performed in a hospital; however, tray fees cannot be billed for any service performed in a funded facility, such as a hospital.