Doctors in two Canadian provinces are using exercise prescription pads to encourage patients to lead healthier, more active lifestyles. Doctors of BC (British Columbia) and the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS) offer free pads to their members so they can give patients a physical reminder of the exercise advice they’ve been given by their physicians. […]
Canadian Medical Association Journal
BMA votes to end investment in fossil fuels
The British Medication Association set an international precedent with a vote to end its investment in fossil fuel companies. The motion also urged the BMA to switch its electricity supply to renewable sources and to help create an alliance of health care bodies to promote the health benefits of reducing greenhouse gasses. Read more in CMAJ.
Colleges set guidelines for marijuana
Physicians need to ensure conventional therapies are exhausted before prescribing medical marijuana, say many provincial colleges. The seven provincial colleges of physicians that have issued guidelines are urging their members to take a cautious approach to prescribing medical marijuana. The uncertainty over the risks and benefits of the drug and the lack of reliable data […]
Quebec doctors aim to fill marijuana knowledge gaps
Doctors in Quebec who prescribe medical marijuana will automatically take part in a province-wide research project to assess the risks and benefits of the drug. Health Canada recently shifted responsibility for deciding who should have access to the drug onto the shoulders of individual doctors, raising concerns among physician groups, including the Canadian Medical Association, […]
Be wary of “prescribing” medical marijuana, CMA warns
Canadian physicians should be wary of “prescribing” medical marijuana under new regulations that come into effect on Apr. 1, 2014, says the president of the Canadian Medical Association. “For the CMA, nothing has really changed,” says Dr. Hugo Francescutti. “Our stand has always been that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support the use of marijuana for […]
New Brunswick drug plan hopes to avoid pitfalls of other provinces
New Brunswick waited a long time for a prescription drug plan but it may now have the best one in Canada, according to Steve Morgan, who studies pharmaceutical policy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “New Brunswick learned not to make the mistake of the western provinces, which only cover prescription drugs costs […]
US conflict-of-interest case draws attention across continent
A conflict-of-interest case in Oregon is gaining attention across the United States and Canada for the precedent it may set regarding how much physicians should disclose to patients about their financial ties to medical companies. Two physicians in Salem, Dr. Matthew Fedor and Dr. Kyong Turk, were charged under Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act. The doctors implanted […]
Risk of tick-borne infections on the rise
Canadians should be prepared for a big increase in the rates of tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease in the coming years, as milder winters make the country more hospitable for the bugs, according to a New Brunswick biologist. Vett Lloyd, who studies ticks at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, has seen a 6–8-fold […]
End funding for liberation therapy, say New Brunswick MDs
The New Brunswick Medical Society has asked the provincial government to stop giving money to patients with multiple sclerosis who want to obtain liberation therapy outside Canada. Dr. Robert Desjardins, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS), says the therapy, which involves using angioplasty to open constricted veins in the neck and chest, has not […]
C. diff rates falling but still a concern
Ten years after an outbreak of Clostridium difficile killed as many as 2000 people in Quebec, the diarrhea-causing bacterium is infecting fewer people in Canadian hospitals, though it remains a major public health concern. Read more in CMAJ.