Clinical and investigative medicine. Médecine clinique et experimentale
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The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) is committed to fostering the development of future Canadian investigators. Up to 1986, research fellowship support was obtained from the Medical Research Council (MRC) of Canada. Since that time, several peer-reviewed, industry-sponsored, CAG-supported research fellowships and a variety of independently funded awards have augmented this effort. In the same period, peer-reviewed operating grants (OGs) from the MRC and other agencies have been constrained. The aim of this study was to determine the success of CAG, MRC or any other Canadian research fellowships in the development of career investigators in digestive sciences and to identify factors influencing the outcomes of such training. ⋯ The establishment of the additional research fellowships has fostered the development of career investigators in digestive sciences. The high success rate of former trainees in obtaining academic appointments and OG support suggests that the fellowship programs are effective and appropriately oriented. The structure of the current programs does not require substantial revision. OG support for new investigators appears now to lag substantially.
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The advances of health informatics over the last 50 years are briefly sketched to reveal the pervasiveness of their applications in health and health care. The relations to research in health informatics and health are pointed out. ⋯ The impact of health informatics on medical education is further elaborated, and the requirements on infrastructure in support of this education are detailed. This infrastructure goes beyond instructional laboratories and includes academic units for medical informatics and, most importantly perhaps, funding resources and adjudication capacity for health informatics research and their integration into the Canadian research organization and the new Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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To review the variation in time spent on the waiting list for elective vascular surgery provided by a single team of specialists. ⋯ When queuing procedures are uniform, the waiting times for access to elective vascular surgery provided by the same team of specialists differ considerably for patients with equal surgical needs and urgency. It remains to be examined whether delays in scheduling operations and cancellations affect the waiting time after adjustment for urgency and comorbidity.