Held on the last day of February every year, Rare Disease Day recognizes the impact of over 6,000 rare diseases worldwide. Started in 2008, its advocates celebrate Rare Diseases Day in over 90 countries by raising awareness among health practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and the general public. Diseases or disorders[Read More…]
Tag: Medicine
The case for legalizing all drugs
Canadian medical law recognizes an individual’s right to bodily autonomy: They can choose their own birth control options, select treatment options based on personal views, and even refuse treatment entirely. Given this principle of bodily autonomy, it seems reasonable that patients should also have the right to access drugs of[Read More…]
It’s 2018, and STEM is still an uneven playing-field for women of colour
Concordia’s new Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science is the first engineering faculty in Canada to bear a woman’s name. The faculty’s renaming stems from Cody’s $15 million donation, the largest individual donation given in Concordia’s history. While it’s refreshing to see a woman of colour earn such[Read More…]
Doctors demand that caregivers be allowed to accompany children
Doctors from the McGill Faculty of Medicine are fighting to repeal a Quebec policy that prevents parents from accompanying their children during health-related air transport, most recently in a 90-minute testimony on March 21 to the Commission on Relations Between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Quebec. Dr. Samir[Read More…]
McGill researchers identify possible treatment for autism-like disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), commonly known simply as Autism, comprises a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, with varying degrees of symptoms such as repetitive behaviors, impaired communications, and poor social engagement. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every 68 children across the globe, or 70 million people,[Read More…]
McGill bioethicists argue for stricter limits on first-in-human clinical trials
The standards for drugs entering first-in-human (FIH) clinical trials are too low, argues Associate Professor Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman and PhD candidate Carole Federico in McGill’s Biomedical Ethics Unit. In a commentary published online in Nature on Jan. 30, Kimmelman and Federico maintain that evidence for drug efficacy is not emphasized enough before[Read More…]
SSMU passes global access to medicines, cost-free birth control
At its Nov. 17 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council voted to pass the Motion Regarding Global Access to Medicines Policy and the Motion Regarding SSMU Support for Cost-Free Birth Control Coverage. According to SSMU President Ben Ger, Council voted on motions that were originally supposed[Read More…]
SSMU Fall GA fails to meet quorum, becomes consultative forum
On Nov. 7, the Fall 2016 Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) General Assembly (GA) was unable to meet a quorum of 100 voting members. Due to a turnout of fewer than 40 students, no motions were voted on. Attendees were instead invited to participate in a consultative forum. In[Read More…]
Straightening out our public health priorities
The world has been focused on the eradication of polio since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. The campaign is backed by massive funding from private philanthropists such as Bill Gates, and by the Global Alliance for Immunizations and Vaccinations (GAVI). Today, only one wild[Read More…]
The human connection: A path to paediatric surgery
On Tuesday, the common lounge in McGill’s Lady Meredith Annex fell silent as Dr. Sherif Emil, director of paediatric general surgery at the Montreal Children’s Hospital took the stage. No stranger to Montreal—Emil completed both his medical degree and paediatric specialization at McGill—his talk had been highly anticipated by current[Read More…]
