November

Health Education Solutions, an American continuing medical education company, has released a new Stroke Special Section within its online research library, incorporating a series of articles, vignettes, and facts about the American Heart Association’s stroke certification courses. The 10-article special section is free for health care providers, first responders, and individuals who want to be prepared to provide emergency care.

After 3 years of use, the Clinical Assessment Tool has now been discontinued and replaced with a standard province-wide, diagnosis-based prioritization system for all adult and pediatric elective surgeries in BC (see the Figure). As of 1 December 2010 three additional fields will be added to all Health Authority OR booking forms—two of those fields will be for “Date of Decision for Surgery” and “Cancer Status” and the third will be mandatory completion of a “Condition/Diagnostic code” field. 

The BCMA will honor Dr Donald Rix’s memory and his many achievements with the annual Dr Don Rix Award for Physician Leadership (D.B. Rix Award). This award recognizes exemplary physician leadership, as exhibited by the late Don Rix throughout his life and career.

Lifetime achievement is the prime requisite in determining the recipient for this award. The achievement should be so outstanding as to serve as an inspiration and a challenge to the medical profession in British Columbia. Medalists may have achieved distinction in one or more of the following ways:

BCMA Silver Medal of Service
BCMA members are encouraged to nominate physicians or laypersons for the BCMA Silver Medal of Service award. The medal will be presented at the BCMA’s Annual General Meeting in June 2011. Physician nominees must have 25 years of membership in good standing in the BCMA, the CMA, and the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia. Nonmedical candidates may be laypersons of Canadian or foreign citizenship. To be eligible for the award, nominees must meet at least one of the following criteria:

Telus World of Science is displaying the Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds and the Brain exhibition until early January. The exhibit is renowned for the human bodies, specially preserved through a method called plastination, that are displayed in life-like postures. Different specimens allow visitors to appreciate the functional anatomy of the various body systems, including fetal development.