September

What profession might you have pursued, if not for medicine?
Food critic.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Writing skills, so I can write food columns and restaurant reviews well.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Raising our children with my wife.

As physicians in BC (and across Canada), each day we encoun­ter challenges that affect our professional relationships. Some of these challenges are the result of changing times—new technology, increased team-based care, and ever-increasing demands on our time. 

1930–2012

Renee Ryan was one of seven children born into a banking family in Regina. To her parents’ surprise, she announ­ced in her late teens that she had been accepted at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, as a medical student. Apparently she had negotiated the process without adult help, in an era when female medical students were a rarity.

While most people know that a will is an important part of an estate plan, fewer may be aware that trusts can also be a valuable component of estate planning. A well-structured trust can allow for a number of advanced tax and estate-planning strategies, and can provide several benefits when assets are transferred during one’s lifetime. There are two main types of trusts, in­ter vivos trusts and testamentary trusts. 

A study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases shows that the HPV vaccine has reduced the infection rate in teenage girls by more than half, despite low vaccine uptake. The study, published in June, is titled “Reduction in Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Prevalence Among Young Wo­men Following HPV Vaccine Introduction in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 2003–2010.”