Information for physicians reopening offices

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 62, No. 6, July August 2020, Page 210 News COVID-19

Written by physicians, The Doctor Is In: Recommendations for Expanding In-person Care in Community-based Physician Practices, compiles official guidelines for opening community-based physician offices in a one-stop source of information. The document also provides insights and templates to help family physicians and specialists with community practices effectively implement changes resulting from the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. It covers topics such as:

  • What to think about before expanding in-person care.
  • Preparing physical office space.
  • Developing a safety plan.
  • Building physician and staff wellness and resilience.
  • Using checklists and a template to develop individualized plans.

The document will be updated as new information becomes available. It is accessible online, along with information on all COVID-19-related supports for physicians, at www.doctorsofbc.ca/working-change/advocating-physicians/coronavirus-covid-19-updates.

An illustration of a masked doctor in the office waiting area

. Information for physicians reopening offices. BCMJ, Vol. 62, No. 6, July, August, 2020, Page(s) 210 - News, COVID-19.


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.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply