Dr Tom Martin, 1934–2016

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 58, No. 3, April 2016, Page 157 Obituaries
By: Kim Martin, MD,

portrait of the late Dr. Martin
Dr Martin’s medical career began in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He graduated from Durham University Medical School and moved to Newfoundland with his new wife, Brenda, where he completed a 1-year internship program. Dr Martin then decided to become a general practitioner and moved to Halifax to join a physician there.

After 4 years in practice he realized obstetrics was his real passion. During his residency program at Dalhousie University he developed an interest in toxemia and diabetes in pregnancy and did further year training at Harvard, and then in Augusta, Georgia.

Dr Martin returned to Canada to begin practising as an obstetrician in Halifax. Teaching medical students and residents at Dalhousie, dedicated care of his own practice, and spending time with his family and then four children led to a busy life. In 1979 Dr Martin was appointed associate professor at UBC and head of obstetrics at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, so he headed for the West Coast.

After working at St. Paul’s, Dr Martin became head of perinatology and a senior administrator at BC Women’s Hospital. A desire to return to clinical practice then led to a move to Chilliwack. He enjoyed 5 years of active practice in this small community until he retired in 2005.

Dr Martin enjoyed life by cycling in the countryside, playing tennis, dancing at Harrison Hot Springs, and spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren. His passion for teaching and patient care was so well engrained that he ventured off to teach at the Aga Khan University in Karachi and in small communities in Pakistan from 1998 to 2003. Surgical assists and volunteering at the Chilliwack Hospital, when he returned from Pakistan, kept him involved in the medical community in his later years.

When he passed away on 4 February 2016, Dr Martin left behind many patients and physicians who were blessed by his dedication to clinical care and teaching within the medical community. He is no longer with us, but his legacy lives on. 
—Kim Martin, MD
North Vancouver

Kim Martin, MD,. Dr Tom Martin, 1934–2016. BCMJ, Vol. 58, No. 3, April, 2016, Page(s) 157 - Obituaries.


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