October

As Canada recently celebrated its 150th birthday, so too did the Canadian Medical Association, which held its sesquicentennial General Council (CMA GC) meeting in August. The event, often referred to as Canada’s medical parliament, is where physician delegates from across the country gather to debate pressing issues.

Fittingly, this year’s meeting took place in Quebec City, the site of the first CMA GC in 1867.

I applaud the College’s efforts to improve asynchronous communication between physicians for consultations [BCMJ 2017;59:256]. I find inordinate delays in health authority transcription to be the major factor in critical delays for emergency patients. I sent a letter regarding a man with suspected aortic dissection to our tertiary hospital on 9 August with a full consult letter the same day after full workup.

The editorial titled “Discharge Summaries” (BCMJ 2017;59:293) suggests that frustrations of dictation have changed little in the past 40 years, since I graduated from medical school. Thank you, to the practitioners who perform the onerous task. Anesthesiologists are primary consumers and appreciate finding a typed, concise oasis of information in the illegible chaos of a hospital chart.

In the past year, many news stories, peer-reviewed articles, and opinion pieces[1] have debated how eased restrictions on marijuana possession and use stand to affect the lives of Canadians. This topic is of keen interest to the public and it would seem that everyone has an opinion on how accessible marijuana will reshape the economy and health outcomes, particularly among underserved and vulnerable populations.

References

I love gardening. Hands in dirt, sometimes even stinky dirt. There is something so incredibly right about being a respectful human in a yard surrounded by life from a completely different kingdom. It’s quiet, somehow soft, fresh, pungent, and dirty. There is no hiding your interaction with earth and plant—even with latex gloves inside my garden gloves the soil makes its way into the skinniest fingerprint grooves and eponychial hidey-holes. I have scrub brushes everywhere.