October

The American Heart Association released a new guideline on dietary sugar intake in August 2009. Since 1970 dietary sugar intake has increased by 19%, adding about 76 calories per day. Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the prime source of these added sugars. Excessive consumption of added sugars is contributing to the overconsumption of discretionary calories and contributing in part to the obesity epidemic we are facing. This amount of extra calories per day (76 calories) can lead to a gain of 3.4 kg (7.5 lbs.) of weight over 1 year if nothing else were to change.

The BC Initiative to Repatriate BC-raised IMGs is calling on all BC-raised medical students studying abroad, BC-raised international medical graduates (IMGs), and their parents to join in a campaign to immediately change the current provincial requirements facing BC-raised IMGs wishing to obtain postgraduate residency positions in BC and other parts of Canada. 

In May, Providence Health Care opened the Rapid Access Breast Clinic at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital (MSJ) in Vancouver. The clinic follows European Society of Mastology standards and serves as a single point of intake where diagnostic testing for breast cancer is coordinated and organized. The clinic will provide expedited access to diagnostic evaluation for patients with either of the following:
• An abnormality detected through routine annual screening mammogram (only if performed at MSJ’s Screening Mammography Centre).

In September three BC physicians received the Order of BC in Victoria. Geneticist and health researcher Dr Michael Hayden has made outstanding contributions in the areas of genetics, Huntington disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases. With his colleagues, Dr Hayden identified seven causal genes for disabling and devastating diseases. He has built a leading centre for genetics research in Canada, cofounded three biotech companies, and founded the first summer camp for Huntington disease patients in North America.

The BCMJ web site keeps improving. Classified ads from the current issue of the BCMJ are now online in an easily searchable format similar to that of the CME listings.