September

When one arrives in a new country, the learning curve is steep. Though I came from an English-speaking country, much of the language in Canada was new to me. For example, in South Africa, drivers drive on the road (although that may be up for debate) and pedestrians walk on the pavement. Here, the words pavement and road are synonymous. South African cars have cubby holes, bonnets and boots, whereas Canadian cars have glove compartments, hoods, and trunks.

BC’s new health minister, the Honourable Terry Lake, has indicated the importance of health promotion and disease prevention strategies to improve patient health and reduce costs to the health care system. As physicians we have a very important role to play in helping our patients delay or avoid illness, and there are numerous ways in which we can do this.

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E-books accounted for 20% of the entire book industry in 2012 according to the As­sociation of American Publishers. The College Library reflects this trend: over 270 medical e-books are available to registrants through the College’s website (www.cpsbc.ca/library). E-books are available from Access Medicine, EBSCO, and MD Consult, and include titles such as Braunwald’s Heart Disease and an electronic version of the classic Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine known as Harrison’s Online.

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In the mid-1800s, Dr Ignaz Semmelweis recognized that pregnant women who delivered in the care of physicians and residents had more infections than those cared for by midwives.[1] He also recognized that doctors often went directly to the delivery suite from the autopsy rooms. Against great opposition, he initiated a hand-washing policy for the physicians and residents before they attended deliveries. 

Type 1 diabetes mellitus, cystic fibrosis, and congenital hypo­thyroidism are common terms in our medical lexicon. We are well versed in their clinical features, underlying pathophysiology, diagnostic criteria, and management approaches for these three diseases. The same, however, cannot be said for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (hFH).