Pulsimeter

Your membership benefits just keep getting better

Broader array of insurance choices

Members of the BCMA and the CMA in BC and their families now have broader insurance choices than ever before. An insurance alliance between the BCMA and CMA Holdings* allows members and their families to select from a full range of individual and group insurance products and to benefit from fully integrated insurance planning.

A history of excellent service

The alliance between the BCMA and the CMAH combines the resources of two organizations focused on the needs of physicians and their family members. For more than 50 years, the BCMA has provided comprehensive and competitive insurance programs, and CMAH, through its subsidiaries, has provided insurance-related investments and financial planning to CMA members and sponsored clients since 1969.

Added value

Together, the BCMA and CMAH provide highly competitive insurance products underwritten by high-quality companies such as Sun Life, Industrial Alliance Pacific Life, MD Life, and Canada Life. 

Added convenience and peace of mind

You don’t need to go anywhere else; your insurance needs can be met through your membership organizations. Now your access to these insurance products is easier than ever through your MD Management financial consultant. As a salaried advisor, your MD Management financial consultant focuses on the solutions suited to your unique financial plan and needs.

Before you consider purchasing insurance elsewhere, call the BCMA or your local MD Management office for more information.

BCMA: Toll free in BC 1 800 665-2262 ext. 2882 or 2836/604 638-2882 or 604 638-2836
MD Management: Call 1 800 267-2332 and you will be put in touch with an MD Management office in your area

—Sandie Braid, CEBS
Assistant Director, BCMA Benefits

*CMA Holdings Inc. (CMAH) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the CMA. Subsidiaries of CMAH include, but are not limited to, MD Life Insurance Company, offering MD Life Plan; Lancet Insurance Agency Limited as the distributor of MD Life Plan; and MD Management Limited as a securities industry registrant providing, among other things, financial planning services to CMA members and their families.

Office overhead expense insurance

You’ve sold your medical practice—should you cancel your insurance coverage?

If you’ve sold your medical practice but still practise medicine, canceling your office overhead expense (OOE) insurance might not be in your best interests.

Even though you no longer have costs for things like rent and salaries, as a practising physician you probably still incur overhead expenses for malpractice insurance, the business-use portion of your vehicle, accounting fees, professional association dues, and so on.

But what if you become disabled and are unable to earn an income? Will your disability income insurance be enough to cover all of your family living expenses and your continuing overhead expenses? You could pay the overhead costs out of your savings, but this likely isn’t the ideal solution. By keeping OOE coverage in place, any ongoing overhead costs are reimbursed under your insurance plan even though you no longer maintain a medical office.

So, should you cancel your OOE coverage? Before making this decision, consider the overhead expenses that will still be incurred if you continue to practise and how you will cover those expenses if you become disabled.

The BCMA offers and administers a comprehensive array of insurance products that includes office overhead insurance. For more information, contact one of the following BCMA insurance administrators:

• Lorie Arlitt at 604 638-2882 or toll free 1 800 665-2262, extension 2882
• Karen Paul at 604 638-2836 or toll free 1 800 665-2262, extension 2836

—Sandie Braid, CEBS
Assistant Director, BCMA Benefits

The Royal Society of Canada citations and award winners 2005

In November of this year, Dr Robert E.W. Hancock, a professor at the Centre for Microbial Disease Research at the University of British Columbia, will be presented the Society’s McLaughlin Medal. The medal is awarded for distinguished achievement and important research of sustained excellence in medical science in Canada. Dr Hancock’s numerous and seminal contributions to research and research administration in the field of microbiology and immunology have established him as a leader in Canadian science. He has published more than 360 papers and holds 18 patents, and is one of the world’s most highly cited microbiology authors.

Dr W. John Livesley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in July and will be inducted to the Society in a ceremony in November 2005.

Dr Livesley is an internationally recognized authority and the pre-eminent Canadian expert on personality disorders. His scholarship, a unique integration of psychology and psychiatry, is a major influence on current thinking about the origins, diagnosis, classification, and treatment of these disorders, combining innovative empirical research and multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives.

CPSBC Award of Excellence

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC presented its Award of Excellence to five recipients at its annual dinner in May of this year. Among those honored were:

Dr Gerry Growe, internal medicine/hematology. Dr Growe’s achievements in clinical practice, teaching, research, and health advocacy include setting up BC’s first blood bank in the 1970s, establishing the Cell Separator Unit at VGH, and developing a provincial hemophilia program. He has received multiple grants for applied research in transfusion medicine and ethics, established a medical ethics teaching program for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and has been a health advocate for HIV awareness, most notably, serving as a medical expert in the Krever Inquiry. He is currently the director of the BC section of Canadian Blood Services.

Dr Linda Warren, diagnostic radiology. Dr Warren’s many achievements in her field include her work in education and the development of a province-wide breast cancer screening program (Screening Mammography Program of BC) for which she was awarded the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal for public service. She spent many years as executive director of this program and is now BC’s chief screening radiologist. Since 1994 she has been a clinical professor of radiology at UBC, responsible for the Breast Imaging Residency Program.

Dr Hugh Chaun, internal medicine/gastroenterology. Dr Chaun, a former head of gastroenterology at Shaughnessy Hospital, is recognized for his contributions as a clinician, educator, mentor, and researcher in his field. He is an expert in cystic fibrosis involving the gastrointestinal tract, an author, lecturer, and clinical professor emeritus in the Department of Medicine at UBC. He is a past recipient of the PAR-BC Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award and the Department of Medicine Master Teacher Award.

UBC bachelor of midwifery

In spring 2005 the inaugural class of the Bachelor of Midwifery program at UBC graduated. The Bachelor of Midwifery is offered as part of the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Family Practice, making BC the third province in the country to offer such a program after Quebec and Ontario. Modeled after a similar program in Ontario, the course combines classes and apprenticeships/preceptorships in locations throughout the province with current funding allowing for a maximum of 10 students per year.

Graduates must have attended a minimum of 60 births in order to earn their degrees and are required to spend 6 months in an established practice before setting up their own private practices.

Midwives attend approximately 2300 live births a year in BC. Working with a mother throughout her pregnancy, they offer care and education in 45-minute visits, provide all supportive care at home or hospital up to the birth, deliver the baby, and visit mother and baby at home at least four to five times.

Midwifery services are covered under the provincial health plan.

Book review

Clio in the Clinic. Edited by Jacalyn Duffin, MD. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8020-3854-9. Paperback, 334 pages. $35.

This interesting book is a collection of essays written by physicians who have two passions in common: clinical practice and the history of medicine. The editor, a clinician-historian from Queen’s University, posed this question to the authors: “Have you ever had a medical case or other experience that drew on your expertise as a historian?”

The result is a captivating collection of experiences ranging from a discourse on “floating kidneys” to one on “William Withering’s wonderful weed,” otherwise known as foxglove. New epidemics (HIV) are compared with old (bubonic plague and tuberculosis). Details are given on the life of Baron Munchhausen leading to some understanding of why the syndrome was named after him. A few of the essays are philosophical and deal with the importance of trust in clinical practice. To illustrate this importance, one essay recounts the ethical disaster of the Tuskegee experiments that bred a continuing mistrust among blacks in the southern US of all MDs, black as well as white. One author reminds us that a knowledge of medical history makes us less likely to judge harshly treatments of the past such as lobotomy; understanding the culture and context in which these treatments occurred leads to the realization that today’s treatments are tomorrow’s historical oddities. The book reminds one of the constancy of change and the value of an awareness of the past—“good historians make good patients, but they make even better doctors,” encourages one author.

This book is recommended to anyone who has even the most superficial interest in medicine, let alone the history of medicine.

—LML

BC Children’s and BC Women’s launch online bookstore

People seeking books about women’s and children’s health can now turn to a new resource. Up-to-date information about topics such as social behavior, diet and nutrition, grieving and palliative care, and women’s health are covered by books and manuals available through the online bookstore of BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre.

The bookstore’s collection is of particular interest to anyone caring for children—parents, health care professionals, and teachers. The online ordering system provides instant access and a convenient secure payment system.

Available resources can be viewed online at http://bookstore.cw.bc.ca. For more information call 604 875-2345, local 7644 in the Lower Mainland. Elsewhere, call toll free at 1 800 331-1533, extension 3 or e-mail bookstore@cw.bc.ca.

PET/CT at the BC Cancer Agency

In July, the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA), together with a number of partners (the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, BC Children’s Hospital, and Tri-University Meson Facility) officially opened a Centre of Excellence for Functional Cancer Imaging. This facility, located at the agency’s Vancouver Centre, 600 W. 10th Avenue, includes the first publicly funded PET/CT scanner in BC to serve patients from across the province.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a non-invasive, whole-body functional imaging technique that, when combined with computed tomography (CT), allows physicians to more accurately diagnose, stage, and manage disease, particularly cancer. PET can show whether a lesion is cancerous and CT can show exactly where in the body the lesion is.

Although PET/CT technology is recognized and accepted as an important diagnostic tool internationally, the radiopharmaceutical 18F-FDG is not yet approved in Canada. As a result all patients undergoing the test must be enrolled in a clinical trial sanctioned by Health Canada. The BCCA has sponsored such a trial in order to introduce PET/CT to adult oncology patients in BC. Data collected as part of this trial will help the agency assess the impact of PET/CT on patient management.

During the initial start-up phase of the PET/CT program, the numbers and types of patients that can be scanned will be limited. A staged service is being implemented to optimize protocols and procedures. The BCCA, through its Provincial Tumour Groups, has identified specific evidence-based guidelines to determine that (to begin with only) patients with non-small cell lung cancer and lymphoma will be accepted. In particular:

• Non-small cell lung cancer

• Staging of patients with clinical stage I and IIA lesions

• Staging of potentially resectable stage IIb and III disease

Lymphoma

• To plan duration of chemotherapy for patients with limited stage (IA or IIA, non-bulky) Hodgkin lymphoma

• To plan duration and type of treatment for limited stage (IA or IIA, non-bulky) aggressive histology (diffuse large B cell, mantle cell, peripheral T cell) lymphoma

In the fall 2005, as clinical and operational capacities allow, the BCCA will expand access based on the evidence-based recommendations of its Provincial Tumour Groups. Relevant documents including current accepted indications, referral forms, patient instructions, and consent forms are available on the BC Cancer Agency web site under Health Professional Info at www.bccancer.bc.ca/HPI/PET/default.htm.

This technology was made possible, in part, through a $5.1 million emerging-technology investment in PET from the government of BC and the Provincial Health Services Authority.

For further information, please contact Don Wilson, medical director, BC Cancer Agency Centre of Excellence for Functional Cancer Imaging at 604 707-5979.