BACKGROUND The healthcare expenditure on self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) test strips under the Nova Scotia Seniors' Pharmacare Program (NSSPP) has increased significantly in recent years. The objective of this study was to identify the frequency and cost of claims for blood glucose monitoring test strips by NSSPP beneficiaries in the fiscal year 2005/06 and to explore the variation in t...

A 10-year-old male cat was presented with severe dyspnoea of fairly recent onset. Thoracocentesis was performed for therapeutic as well as diagnostic purposes and it revealed that a milky-white fluid had accumulated in the thorax. Either chylothorax or pseudochylothorax was suspected. The fluid did not clear when centrifuged, as fluids resulting from other aetiologies would have done, but this ...

Even on a cold winter night, it seems Canadians can’t resist the promise of an earnest evening of debate over medicare reform: With 500 people in the room and another 150 turned away Tuesday in Toronto, Ontario, at the Canadian Medical Association’s second town hall meeting on health care transformation, it’s evident that a passion for public health persists in Canada’s biggest city. In a two-h...

To the Editor: It has been a few years since the furor 1–8 in the CAEP Commu-nique regarding the debate as to whether the two tracks into Canadian emergency specialization should be merged or adjusted in some way, so it is probably time for those emotional letters to start again. Some CCFP-EM graduates, like myself, still suffer from a " second class citizen " complex and are without means to d...

728 CMAJ, April 5, 2011, 183(6) © 2011 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors We’ve heard a lot of health care punditry lately stressing that Canada’s health care system needs to be more patientcentred, which is great in theory, but what does that actually look like on the ground? Some have said that one manifestation would be to have more patient input in policy decisions and there are ...

BACKGROUND Increasing copayments for higher-priced prescription medications has been suggested as a means to help finance drug coverage for elderly patients, but evaluations of the impact of such policies are rare. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of reference-based pricing of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors on drug utilization, cost savings and potential sub...

To the Editor: Boyce Mkhize's rather verbose attempt 1 to refute Professor Van Niekerk's editorial 2 seems a classic case of the lady protesting too much. It does, however, unintentionally highlight a key issue that has puzzled me since I sent my first cheque off to the then SAMDC. The stated aim of the HPCSA is to protect the public and guide the profession. It is rarely seen to act out of con...

Background: Patients with Raynaud’s Phenomenon (RP) from systemic sclerosis (SSc) may experience severe complications. Digital ulcers (DUs), occur in approximately half the patients SSc, and cause hand dysfunction, pain, decreased quality of life. DUs lead to increased healthcare utilization economic burden through hospitalizations, ED visits, ambulatory services (1). However, access medication...

Background In the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada, a health policy implemented in July 2017 mandated that all new anti-TNF prescriptions for which biosimilar exists, i.e., etanercept and infliximab at time, be dispensed rather than originator, universal cost coverage by BC PharmaCare. May-December 2019, further current users agents switched to corresponding biosimilar. Objectives The ...