November

In the BCMJ 2003; 45(5):210 I agreed with Dr George Price (BCMJ 2003; 45[2]:72-73) “that if good clinical teachers are to be re-recruited, they will have to be accorded compensation commensurate with their contributions.” Dr H.E.

I was not surprised to read in the 29 August 2003 Vancouver Sun that the cesarean section rate in BC has risen to 27.9%. Increases in maternal age, fetal weight, and multiple pregnancy account for some part of the rise, but the major changes have been in the skill and attitude of obstetricians.

At a retirement dinner for a veteran case room nurse I sang a song (which parodied “Those Were the Days”) part of which went:

Sport medicine has evolved over the past 25 years from orthopedic trauma to a full study of musculoskeletal injury, both acute and overuse, plus a host of exercise medicine challenges. This is reflected by the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre at the University of British Columbia. It was the first integrated sport medicine centre in Canada, and has a focus on clinical care by our team of primary care sport physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and physiotherapists.

The French paradox was never a paradox to me. It always seemed so obvious that the reason the French (particularly that group with whom I share gender identity) lived long, healthy lives without a statistically significant burden of “hard cardiac events” was in some way related to the consumption of red wine. Now, I freely admit to having an appreciation of red wine that is somewhere beyond actuarial statistics and being able to recreate the molecular formulas of grape-containing flavinoid antioxidants such as pycnogenol.

Access to safe water is a global priority. While Canada’s drinking water is recognized as both a valuable resource and an important determinant of population health, it is also a national concern following waterborne outbreaks in Walkerton[1,2] and North Battleford.[3,4]

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