September

The theme of the current issue of Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly, a publication from Simon Fraser University’s Children’s Health Policy Centre, is diagnosing and treating childhood bipolar disorder. Articles include:

• A basic guide to bipolar disorder: What is bipolar disorder? How common is it? And what can be done to help children who have it? Answers to the most commonly asked questions.

The BCMJ Editorial Board is pleased to present Mark Fok, a fourth-year medical student at UBC, with the 2007 J.H. MacDermot Prize for Excel­lence in Medical Journalism. This cash award of $1000 is granted annually to the best UBC medical student article of the year. Mr Fok’s winning paper, “Work hours, sleep deprivation, and fatigue: a British Columbia snapshot,” was published in the September 2007 issue of the BCMJ. 

The Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles (OSMV), in partnership with the BCMA, is revising the BC Guide for Physicians in Determining Fitness to Drive a Motor Vehicle (the Guide) to ensure that it reflects changes in the case law and best evidence.

The face of medicine and medical practice has changed dramatically over the last 25 years. Gone are the days of needing hospital privileges to practise effectively. Gone are the days of knowing all your colleagues by sight even when passing one another in the hallways of the smaller community hospitals. Gone are the days, for the most part at least, of the family practitioner doing comprehensive care on his or her own patients in hospital and the community at large. 

The Canadian government has recognized September as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Canada now joins the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia in supporting increased awareness of this disease, which is a leading cause of cancer deaths among Canadian wo­men. One in 70 Canadian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in her lifetime. 

As there is currently no population screening test for the disease like those for breast or cervical cancers, diag­nosis and early intervention rely on awareness of symptoms.