September

The 5-year survival rate for black people with melanoma is 59% compared to 85% for white people. “While people of color are less likely to become afflicted with skin cancer, they are much more likely to die from it due to a delay in detection,” says Perry Robins, MD, president of the Skin Cancer Foundation (US). “Therefore, we need to make these populations aware of the importance of early detection, prompt treatment, and effective prevention.”

Active Healthy Kids Canada’s 2009 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth showed that children’s physical activity levels received an F grade for the third year in a row.

The Report Card shows that even when time is taken away from other subjects, physical education does not negatively affect academic achievement—in fact, it enhances it. Increased physical activity/physical education improves memory, concentration, and attention span; it increases self-esteem, self-confidence, self-image, and feelings of school connectedness; and it reduces misbehavior at school.

The School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia is offering a new master of public health (MPH) degree. The MPH is a 2-year non-thesis degree. It consists of 21 core course credits, 15 elective credits, and a 6-credit practicum. 

The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre recently opened access to the full content of the Cochrane Library, an online resource that provides evaluations on health treatments.

The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre, in partnership with the Canadian Health Libraries Association, has successfully secured a national licence to the Cochrane Library. In essence, the licence provides a subscription for every Canadian with access to the Internet to benefit from the immense volume of health information found there.

Mr Ross A. Davidson and Mr Nathan A. Hoag are sharing the J.H. MacDermot Prize for Excellence in Medical Journalism (2008) for their coauthored paper “Prostate cancer screening practices and attitudes among primary care physicians in Victoria, British Columbia” (BCMJ 2008; 50[8]:456-460).