CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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To examine the type and number of interactions of psychiatry residents, interns and clerks with sales representatives of pharmaceutical companies and the attitudes of physicians-in-training toward these interactions. ⋯ Interactions between pharmaceutical representatives and psychiatry residents, interns and clerks are common. The physicians-in-training perceive little educational value in these contacts and many, especially clerks, interns and junior residents, disavow the potential of these interactions to influence prescribing. Therefore, supervisors of postgraduate medical training programs may wish to provide instruction concerning potential conflicts of interest inherent in these types of interactions.
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Biography Historical Article
Past presidents join forces to refurbish gravesite of Sir Charles Tupper, first CMA president.
The CMA's past presidents have donated a plaque and refurbished the headstone and plot at the Halifax gravesite of Sir Charles Tupper, the association's first president. "Sir Charles Tupper was a very significant personality in the conception of a national medical association and the past presidents wanted that fact to be remembered," Dr. Athol Roberts says of the endeavour.
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Anesthetists are at special risk for becoming addicted to some of the drugs they work with. The problem was highlighted by the recent death of a physician in Comox, BC, and a doctor's brush with death at a hospital near Ottawa. The University of Ottawa has responded with a program, the professional Assistance Program for the Impaired or Disabled Physician, that is in the final stages of approval. Although it will be aimed initially at anesthetists and anesthesia residents in the university's teaching hospitals, there are hopes the program will spread eventually to other medical departments.
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To determine the vaccination rate among infants discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and factors affecting that rate. ⋯ The vaccination rate of infants discharged from the NICU is not optimal. Urban native children appears to be at risk of not being vaccinated. Non-native infants are five times more likely than native infants to have completed all of their scheduled vaccinations. Methods to improve the rate of completed vaccinations, especially for native children, must be sought and tested.
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Biography Historical Article
Dr. Balfour Mount and the cruel irony of our care for the dying.
Dr. Balfour Mount of Montreal thinks that the health care system, because of its fixation on disease processes, may have forgotten that it also has a mandate to alleviate suffering. "We need to recapture that vision," says Mount, who describes palliative medicine as a "rich combination" of clinical pharmacology, rehabilitation medicine and internal medicine. Mount says there is a cruel irony in our care of the dying. "Although these are the sickest people in our health care system, when medical technology doesn't know what to do, the quality and quantity of care falls away. How can we justify that?"