Headlines from over 60 years at the Medical Post
1965
Saskatchewan ‘no healthier’ for medicare
1971
CMA narrowly approves liberal stand on abortion
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Med students favour new law on marijuana (Ontario survey shows 43% had or were smoking pot)
1974
Women in medicine: views are changing as numbers go up (Women make up almost one-quarter of med grads)
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Federal green paper favours swing toward preventive medicine (the Lalonde report)
1975
Family medicine residency planned after 1981
1978
Squeeze plaque against wall to treat stenosis (New method of angioplasty described)
1979
New physicians’ group warns of nuclear danger (First meeting of Canadian chapter of Physicians
for Social Responsibility)
1980
Terry Terrific (Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope)
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Extra billing out, arbitration in: Hall (Chief Justice Emmett Hall’s report on problems of medicare, calling for extra billing ban and binding arbitration to settle fee disputes)
1982
Rare disease now seen in Canadian gays
AIDS: Blood bank’s hidden time bomb
1983
When radiologists talk about NMR, everyone listens (Magnetic resonance imaging)
1984
Canada’s first test-tube baby born and he’s ‘doing just fine’ (Born in Vancouver on Dec. 25, 1983)
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Act becomes a fact (Canada Health Act passes)
1985
CMA takes Canada Health Act to court (Claiming it is unconstitutional)
1986
Ottawa to review breast implants (Due to reports of silicone leaking)
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Canada uses artificial heart (Dr. Wilbert Keon implants Canada’s first artificial heart)
1987
Female doctors may be improving profession’s image (U.S. study finds patients more satisfied with female doctors than male doctors)
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Fewer doctors in politics today than in early 1900s (Royal College told this reflects lowered public standing of profession)
1988
ASA cuts heart attacks (Physicians’ Health Study)
1989
Canadians share in CF success (Researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children help discover the first disease-causing gene for cystic fibrosis)
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OMA drops extra bills fight: starts fee talks with govt
1990
Now first neurologist in space, and she’s Canadian too, eh? (Dr. Roberta Bondar to become first Canadian physician in space)
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Cautious optimism over tPA use for ischemic stroke
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Healthcare faces new trend toward decentralization
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Antibiotics can cause infectious form of colitis, diarrhea (Clostridia difficile colitis)
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Bikini cholecystectomy makes its debut here (The new era of laparoscopic surgery)
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Refractive surgery by excimer laser shaping the future of eye care
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CMA still opposes (Canada) Health Act but drops suit
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Islet graft success (Edmonton researchers wean type 1 diabetic off insulin after islet cell transplant)
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Gene therapy may ‘substantially’ restore immunity (First use of gene therapy for a human disease—adenosine deaminase deficiency)
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Margarine might be as much a danger to heart as saturated fats
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Bacterial resistance to antimicrobials ‘here to stay’
1991
UFO abductions may be new mental health phenomenon
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Canadians slammed for ‘head hunting’ in South Africa
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‘Mac’ heads pack – ‘Traditional’ medical schools may switch to McMaster’s way (Problem-based learning)
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Caps or capitation – ‘Definitive’ report on doctors likely to spark big debate (The Barer-Stoddart report that resulted in cuts to med school enrolment)
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Canada’s first anti-AIDS drug set for trials here and U.S. (3TC, aka lamivudine)
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Blood test may double chance of detecting prostate CA (Prostate-specific antigen)
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Sex report: reaction – Comments vary from approval by some, to worries about ‘McCarthyism’ (Release of final version of Ontario college report on sexual abuse of patients by doctors)
1992
Patients’ values may dictate future of medicine
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Hospital injuries seen as ‘hidden epidemic’ (Dr. Lucian Leape’s Harvard Medical Practice Study)
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Brain drain – Oh, Canada! Our best and brightest docs are leaving (News feature on Canadian physicians relocating to U.S.)
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Researchers at odds over mammography (The controversial Canadian National Breast Screening Study)
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Morgentaler not surprised at OMA silence on bombing (Of Toronto abortion clinic)
1993
Folic acid test – Supplements can reduce incidence of neural tube defects
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Easy theft of fentanyl is making addicts out of anesthetists
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Enrolment axed – Med school places to be cut 10%-30% in Canada
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Right to die schism – Ruling throws euthanasia back into political arena (Supreme Court rejects Sue Rodriguez appeal)
1994
H. pylori eradication halts ulcer recurrence
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Penis envy operation leaves docs dickering (Dr. Robert Stubbs, Toronto plastic surgeon, claims to be first to perform penile elongation surgery in Canada)
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Menopause mandate – Hormone replacement therapy urged for all women (SOGC Canadian Menopause Consensus Conference)
1995
Has ‘mad cow’ disease jumped over to humans?
1996
HIV triple-drug combo packs powerful punch
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Erection resurrection – Antianginal reject (sildenafil) plays stand-up role for impotent men
1997
Research conflict – Doctor may be in legal battle after reporting negative findings of drug company study (Dr. Nancy Olivieri and the deferiprone controversy)
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Statins strut their stuff in low-risk patients
1998
Dolly the sheep named as year’s top science innovation (for 1997)
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Brit. report links triple vaccinations to autism (The Dr. Andrew Wakefield MMR vaccine debacle)
1999
How to make your practice Y2K-prepared
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New life for health research (Health Minister Allan Rock announces start-up budget for Canadian Institutes of Health Research)
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COX-2s will ‘totally change’ arthritis Rx (Approval of celecoxib)
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Children now plagued by type 2 diabetes
2001
Canadian MDs rally to help U.S. after terrorism attack
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World’s first telesurgery a complete success (New York MDs operate on woman in France)
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West Nile virus confirmed in Ont.
2002
New approach aids prostate CA patients (Active surveillance)
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HRT risks outweigh benefits, study concludes (Women’s Health Initiative trial)
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Kirby report calls for self-sufficient physician supply
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Is Canada America’s favourite drugstore? (The rise of Internet pharmacies)
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Alberta considers if pharmacists should be able to prescribe
2003
SARS: a strange time to be a doctor
2004
U.K. allows OTC sale of statin
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COX-2 chill? (Market withdrawal of rofecoxib)
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Anastrozole tops tamoxifen in treating breast cancer
2005
Targeted cancer therapies show dramatic results
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Canada’s doctors come home (For the first time since 1969, more doctors are returning to Canada than leaving.)
2006
Alternative payment rising (More physicians are making more of their income from alternatives to fee-for-service.)
2008
Romanow report languishing in the bowels of history
2009
Fecal transplantation a stunning success in treating recurrent C. difficile
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Here comes the polypill for cardiovascular disease
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H1N1 caught the world by surprise
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Angioplasty for MS? Italian surgeon’s claims prompt media circus, but Canadian doctors are skeptical
2010
CME rethink – Medical education policy-makers divided on pharma industry involvement
2011
The divide over opioids
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Open-access journals’ growth outpacing traditional journals
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Social media: Why are doctors missing the revolution?
2012
Are we facing a doctor glut?
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Atrial fibrillation: Braving the new world of oral anticoagulants
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The new war on doctors – Why Deb Matthews’ fee cut attack on Ontario doctors is coming to a province near you
2013
You could be left holding the bag on medical marijuana
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Canadian study sounds ‘death knell’ for Zamboni theory of MS
2014
Making the cut on unnecessary medical tests with Choosing Wisely
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Cell-free fetal DNA – The new world of noninvasive prenatal screening
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Hepatitis C: On the brink of a cure
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Year of the virus
2015
Doctors offer mixed reaction to Supreme Court knocking down assisted-suicide ban
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Stroke care remade: Endovascular treatment sets a new standard
2017
Can this doctor save the OMA? (After the governing council voted non-confidence, the president and president-elect resigned leading Dr. Nadia Alam to be appointed to board and on track to be president)
2018
New passive income rules starting in 2019: What incorporated physicians need to know
2019
The CMA’s long road to restored faith (After the Canadian Medical Association sold MD Financial to Scotiabank in May 2018 for $2.7 billion)
2020
Shock and horror in Red Deer (A doctor murdered in his exam room)
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Returning to a new normal (Doctors adjust to reopening after the initial COVID-19 lockdown)
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Unpacking why male doctors earn more
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A messy year for resident exams (Big exams postponed from spring to fall due to the pandemic and some didn’t even happen)
2021
Different definitions of ‘essential’ (Two health authority CEOs lose jobs for taking non-essential travel)
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Controversial MAiD bill passes (Bill C-7 for people who have a serious and incurable illness or disability but for whom death is not reasonably foreseeable.)
2022
Kids faking COVID tests using OJ
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FP residency: CFPC backs down on third year
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Longitudinal care: B.C.’s new pay plan a lure for FPs
2023
ChatGPT & MedPaLM: Useful AI for doctors arrives
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New drug poised to upend obesity care
2024
MedsChecks: Pharmacy quotas = doctor headaches
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Capital pains – Will the proposed capital gains changes require you to take action?
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The great AI scribe rollout