September

Thank you for your comments on our article [BCMJ 2021;63:211-216]. We agree that a primary care provider should see and examine all adolescents with an acute knee injury. In today’s health care climate, a screening virtual visit can be offered as an initial evaluation; however, this should be promptly followed by a physical examination if there is any history of concerning symptoms such as swelling, loss of motion, or instability.

I am not surprised by the finding that discrepancies exist in the W0 time between individuals. Further studies on this, as suggested in the article [BCMJ 2021;63:211-216], would be helpful. However, I am concerned that the authors’ recommendation that all adolescent patients presenting with an acute hemarthrosis be referred for an MRI will only lengthen the W0 time.

In May 1954, the editor of the Vancouver Medical Association Bulletin wrote, “This issue of the Bulletin is intended to commemorate one of the greatest events in the medical history of British Columbia—the granting of the degree of Doctor of Medicine to the first graduates from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia.

I am disappointed that the BCMJ allows Dr Brian Day (who is on the Editorial Board) to use the journal to advance the issues of his own ongoing litigation [2021;63:197]. This is not the first time he has been allowed to do this, and it is a potential conflict of interest.

References

We, allergists and immunologists of British Columbia, working on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Indigenous peoples, want to raise our imperative concerns about the climate crisis, including global warming, glacier melting, rising sea levels, air pollution, water shortages, drought, floods, forest fires, and zoonotic infections, which have caused major damage and disruption.