CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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In the context of patient consent, "disclosure" refers to the provision of relevant information by the clinician and its comprehension by the patient. Both elements are necessary for valid consent. ⋯ Therefore, clinicians may need to consider how the proposed treatment (and other options) might affect the patient's employment, finances, family life and other personal concerns. Clinicians may also need to be sensitive to cultural and religious beliefs that can affect disclosure.
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In 1955, the Eye Bank of Canada introduced Canadians to the idea of postmortem tissue donation. The long-time administrator of the bank's Ontario Division, Anne Wolf, recalls the organization's early days and how the management of donated corneas became a family affair.
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The promise of a universal, comprehensive, publicly funded system of medical care that was the foundation of the Medical Care Act passed in 1966 is no longer possible. Massive government debt, increasing health care costs, a growing and aging population and advances in technology have challenged the system, which can no longer meet the expectations of the public or of the health care professions. A parallel, private system, funded by a not-for-profit, regulated system of insurance coverage affordable for all wage-earners, would relieve the overstressed public system without decreasing the quality of care in that system. ⋯ Wealthy Canadians can already buy medical care in the United States, where they spend $1 billion each year, an amount that represents a loss to Canada of 10,000 health care jobs. Parallel-system schemes in other countries have proven that people are driven to a private system by dissatisfaction with the quality of service, which is already suffering in Canada. Denial of choice is unacceptable to many people, particularly since the terms and conditions under which Canadians originally decided to forgo choice in medical care no longer apply.
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For nearly a century residents of Prince Edward Island were served by three physicians known collectively to the community as Dr. Jenkins. Father John, son Stephen and grandson Jack, each of whom won acclaim for service to medicine, war service and political work, practised a total of 89 years, from 1856 to 1945. This article looks back at a distinguished family's career in medicine.
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Most of the legal cases that follow the informed-consent standard set in recent court cases have involved surgical procedures. However, issues concerning a pregnant British Columbia mother who contracted chicken pox and whose child was subsequently born with severe medical complications demonstrate the complexity of medical decision making and the inadequacy of established legal requirements, especially when consent has dimensions beyond technical considerations usually associated with medical procedures. The problem physicians face, says lawyer Karen Capen, is to find a way to balance a range of professional responsibilities and the overriding fiduciary obligation to patients in matters associated with informed decision making and consent.