Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

p Pop star Michael Jackson, who bridged the gap between black soul and white pop music, has died after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday. B. The sudden death of Michael Jackson, an American cultural icon for almost 40 years, sent immediate shockwaves through a country that watched him evolve from a breathtakingly talented little boy in his youth to a bizarre eccentric in adulthood. C. A Canadian soldier accused of killing !–more– a comrade in Afghanistan was playing a game of quick draw with his gun at the time of the shooting, a court martial heard Thursday in Nova Scotia. He was 50. An Iranian doctor who tried to save a woman shot on the streets of Tehran during a protest over the country’s election says she was slain by a member of the Basij militia, a voluntary paramilitary group. ‘s Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of Robert William Pickton on six counts of second-degree murder, but his case appears to be headed to the country’s highest court.

br /br /cbc.ca

Hearing a human say blood-thinner doses are correct may be reassuring, but an automated system can be equally effective for some, a new study suggests.
In Monday’s online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers concluded that an automated voice response system reduced the workload by 33 per cent and was almost as effective as a phone call from a human.
About five per cent of seniors take oral anticoagulants such as warfarin (more…)

Nine years after vowing to find out why his healthy teenage daughter died while taking a popular prescription drug, a rookie MP is launching a campaign to persuade the Harper government to establish an independent drug safety agency in Canada.
Terence Young, Conservative MP for Oakville, Ont., is making his pitch for the agency in a new book that details his battle with “Big Pharma” and the health agencies and professionals that are charged with (more…)

“Pharmacists are scientists, and I urge them not to sell products that are proven to be ineffective”, states Dr. Shaun Holt in the latest issue of Pharmacy Today.
Mirroring a similar call made by Professor Ernst in the UK, Dr. Holt said that homeopathic products did not contain any active ingredient but supposedly had energy of substances that were in the product before they were diluted away. “Not only does this make no sense, (more…)

“The groundswell of interest in the consultations demonstrated that mental health is everyone’s business, and everybody has a part to play,” the report said. One of the areas that McKee said had to be acted on immediately was getting government departments to make an effort to work together. While the report took months to put together, Murphy promised on Thursday that it won’t take that long for the government to decide how it plans to move forward. (more…)

The passing of Washington’s assisted-suicide initiative has renewed calls by a B.C. group to enact similar legislation.
Retired B.C. physician Brian Finnemore, who practised medicine for 40 years and is a member of the Right to Die Society of Canada, supports a similar bill on this side of the border.
“I’ve seen many people suffer through a very uncomfortable death which could have been prevented,” Finnemore told CBC News.
Washington voters (more…)