Dr Clarence Roger Fernandes

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 55, No. 10, December 2013, Page 461 Obituaries

1949–2013
Clarence left us suddenly on 7 October. He left a huge void in the hearts of his family, his patients, and his colleagues.

Clarence came to Canada in 1972 from Uganda, which was politically unstable at the time. He made the move unwillingly, as a lifesaving step, and entered UBC to continue his medical education. Like many of us, he checked out various specialties and loved every branch of medicine, so he chose family practice in order to embrace all aspects of medical practice.

Clarence came to Maple Ridge for part of his residency requirement and, finding that he loved the work and the congeniality of his colleagues Dr Brian Dixon Warren and Dr Bruce Pitt Payne, he decided to stay. That was in 1976. For the following 37 years, with the indispensable assistance of Vienna by his side, he built up a family practice with special interest in fertility.

Clarence was one of the most dedicated doctors I have ever met. He started his work day at 9 a.m. or earlier 6 days per week, working until 8 or 9 p.m. He would attend to his patients in Ridge Meadows Hospital, or at their homes or nursing homes whenever the need would arise. At the end of an office visit Clarence would ask his patient, “Is there anything else you would like to go over with me?” During one of his family vacations, he carried a briefcase full of his patients’ charts, so he would not be idle on the plane! 

A devoted teacher to medical students, medical residents, and nurse practitioners, he had at least one of them in his practice for the majority of the year.

Clarence was a soft-spoken gentleman with much wisdom. While we, his colleagues, had heated debates in the doctors’ lounge, Clarence never raised his voice. He simply made his point and left quietly. 

Clarence left some big shoes to be filled in our medical community. He will be sadly missed by his wife, Vienna; his sons, Aaron, Aalton, and Aiden; his staff; his colleagues; and all his patients in Ridge Meadows and beyond.
—Daniel K.C. Wong, MD

Daniel K.C. Wong, MD. Dr Clarence Roger Fernandes. BCMJ, Vol. 55, No. 10, December, 2013, Page(s) 461 - Obituaries.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply