Point-of-care HIV tests are screening tests for use in the clinic setting that provide immediate results on fingerstick blood specimens. These antibody-based tests have similar properties to laboratory-based screening tests (e.g., high sensitivity and specificity, a 3-month window period) and confirmatory lab-based testing for preliminary positive results is essential. All preliminary positive point-of-care HIV test results must be reported to the local medical health officer.
Fresh air—it’s one of BC’s most well-known resources. But how do BC residents know if the air is actually clean or if it contains pollutants that are harmful to health? Well, due to the dedication of provincial and national health and environment partners, BC now has the first Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) in the world. The AQHI communicates the relative acute health risks associated with air pollutants.
I am sure that many of you will have heard or read about Mayor Sam Sullivan’s proposed Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment (CAST) trial and have wondered what it involved. Meanwhile, anyone frequenting the centre of Vancouver will have long ago recognized that a significant number of the citizens of Vancouver struggle to stay alive in a milieu of poverty, homelessness, and addiction.
I began life as a microbiologist and I remember being thrilled to see living things moving around (albeit by Browning Motion) magnified 1000X under a light-focusing microscope. Originally, this was achieved by placing two convex lens in a frame, one that enlarged (and inverted) the image and an eyepiece that magnified the image for the observer. Over a few hundred years, we gained the ability to make invisible living things not only visible but morphologically unique, and a new science was born.
Dr Leon Bard, a GP in North Vancouver, recently asked for clarity regarding ICBC requests for patient records.
“Why does ICBC ask the physician to produce copies of complete medical records that often precede the motor vehicle accident when the ICBC release form states that the authorization only authorizes the release of information pertaining to the injuries sustained in the motor vehicle accident?”
Dr Bard raises an important yet often confusing issue for many physicians.
