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Canada: Participation in genome project
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Furthermore, the part
2 MCC test will be held at only 7 locations across Canada and will cost Can$920 to sit, adding additional transportation, accommodation, and professional costs for many students already burdened with tuition debts. Specialty students in particular, are piqued by the timing of the part 2 MCC exam, since it is geared towards assessing skills that are used most often in general practice. Why, they ask, should a student be required to show competence examining, say, a knee, during the second year of specialty training in psychiatry? The students have an ally in the CFPC which, according to executive director, Dr Reginald Perkins, also wants both parts of the competence test to be taken on graduation from medical school, but the MCC and the other licensing bodies have refused to back "’ down. Beyond all that, however, both the students and qualified doctors are concerned about the impact of the new licensure provisions on "portability"-the ability of physicians to move their practice from one province to another. Initially, the MCC sold the idea of a two-part exam to the students by claiming it would be a "passport" to practice anywhere in Canada. That has not happened. MCC President Dr Michel Berrard said, "We’ve been unable to reach consensus on portability from the 10 provinces and 2 territories, mostly because of resistance from the medical schools, which are concerned about maintaining their allotted residency positions. Without portability being assured by passing the MCC exam, certification by either of the Colleges is necessary for candidates to meet the requirements for licensure". But that, in turn, has raised questions Dr Berrard cannot answer concerning the effects of mandatory college certification on some 20 000 qualified doctors who have, until now, met licensing requirements in their jurisdictions, but are not certificants of either national college: "It’s not the MCC’s job to licence, it’s a provincial matter. The colleges in each province could use the new requirements to insist that established doctors take additional training, but we (the MCC) are lobbying them to simply recognise previous credentials." So is the Canadian Medical Association. In a policy statement released at the end of May, the association claimed that changes to the MCC licence should neither affect the rights and privileges of physicians already qualified, nor place them in a position where they would have less opportunity than future _. --_ -
graduates to move. Gordon
Bagley
Canada: Participation in genome project The newly created Canadian Human Genome Program will be headed by Prof Ronald Worton, University of Toronto, who led the team that identified the gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His appointment was announced by Minister for Science Dr William Winegard as he unveiled a Can$12 million five-year federal government contribution to the Medical Research Council’s proposed$42 million component of the human genome project. But the$12 million falls well short of what the MRC had hoped to receive. Earlier this year, the MRC was left scrambling to raise monies for the programme after Winegard privately informed the agency that an extended federal spending-control plan severely limited the amount available for genomics research. The MRC has since decided to funnel$5 million of its own money into the programme by imposing constraints elsewhere. The council has also obtained$5 million from the
National Cancer Institute. The MRC programmes branch director Dr Lewis Slotin is still hopeful that industry will be able to make good the$20 million shortfall despite the concern that drug manufacturers are having about the recently proposed revisions to the pharmaceutical patent law. The$22 million now committed to the programme is the "rock-bottom" price for Canadian participation in the international venture, Slotin says. But it’s far too modest an amount for an ambitious research programme such as the sequencing of an entire chromosome. "What we’re really doing here is buying into the club, in a much more formal way. Having an identified programme, with identified individuals responsible for it, will allow us into international forums and consultations that otherwise we would be observers at." Slotin says he expects the Canadian programme to focus on three areas: mapping techniques and technologies; informatics; and legal and ethical issues (a rider attached to the government contribution obligates the MRC to spend 7-5% of federal funds on research into ethical questions prompted by genomics, such as safeguards against invasions
of privacy).
Wayne Kondro
Europe: Chemical weapons inspectorate The location of a major new United Nations agency with the awkward acronym of OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) might have been decided upon on June 19, after we went to press. The purpose of this agency is to act as a deterrent to anybody tempted to circumvent the treaty banning such weapons on whichwith the Western countries and Japan pushing hard-final agreement is now confidently expected by autumn at latest. Negotiators in the 39-nation disarmament conference, which has been working on this convention for eight years, agreed long ago that leaving the question of a site undecided after all else had been settled would further delay international action. Site bids were entered in February by The Hague, Geneva, and Vienna. Representatives of each city answered 92 questions that covered the cost of everything from housing, education, and medical insurance to the cost of a round of golf. The subsequent evaluation gave the Dutch capital a narrow lead. It is favoured by several countries, including the UK, Belgium, Canada, and Japan. Other have deferred their decision until the last minute, some in the hope of extracting additional concessions. All three would-be hosts, welcoming the prospect of an estimated$200 million local annual . expenditure by an OPCW agency with up to 1200 staff, offered office accommodation on preferential terms and financial support. The Austrians pointed out that it would be appropriate for OPCW to be situated beside the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) so that the two inspectorates could easily exchange information. But some negotiators thought that, with the IAEA’s record in Iraq, it was preferable to have them clearly apart. There was general agreement, however, that this objection did not apply to another Vienna agency-the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), about two-thirds of whose activities are directed to aiding developing countries in setting up chemical plants. UNIDO keeps a close watch for possible dual-process installations and diversion of chemicals. It would welcome prior
Furthermore, the part
2 MCC test will be held at only 7 locations across Canada and will cost Can$920 to sit, adding additional transportation, accommodation, and professional costs for many students already burdened with tuition debts. Specialty students in particular, are piqued by the timing of the part 2 MCC exam, since it is geared towards assessing skills that are used most often in general practice. Why, they ask, should a student be required to show competence examining, say, a knee, during the second year of specialty training in psychiatry? The students have an ally in the CFPC which, according to executive director, Dr Reginald Perkins, also wants both parts of the competence test to be taken on graduation from medical school, but the MCC and the other licensing bodies have refused to back "’ down. Beyond all that, however, both the students and qualified doctors are concerned about the impact of the new licensure provisions on "portability"-the ability of physicians to move their practice from one province to another. Initially, the MCC sold the idea of a two-part exam to the students by claiming it would be a "passport" to practice anywhere in Canada. That has not happened. MCC President Dr Michel Berrard said, "We’ve been unable to reach consensus on portability from the 10 provinces and 2 territories, mostly because of resistance from the medical schools, which are concerned about maintaining their allotted residency positions. Without portability being assured by passing the MCC exam, certification by either of the Colleges is necessary for candidates to meet the requirements for licensure". But that, in turn, has raised questions Dr Berrard cannot answer concerning the effects of mandatory college certification on some 20 000 qualified doctors who have, until now, met licensing requirements in their jurisdictions, but are not certificants of either national college: "It’s not the MCC’s job to licence, it’s a provincial matter. The colleges in each province could use the new requirements to insist that established doctors take additional training, but we (the MCC) are lobbying them to simply recognise previous credentials." So is the Canadian Medical Association. In a policy statement released at the end of May, the association claimed that changes to the MCC licence should neither affect the rights and privileges of physicians already qualified, nor place them in a position where they would have less opportunity than future _. --_ -
graduates to move. Gordon
Bagley
Canada: Participation in genome project The newly created Canadian Human Genome Program will be headed by Prof Ronald Worton, University of Toronto, who led the team that identified the gene responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His appointment was announced by Minister for Science Dr William Winegard as he unveiled a Can$12 million five-year federal government contribution to the Medical Research Council’s proposed$42 million component of the human genome project. But the$12 million falls well short of what the MRC had hoped to receive. Earlier this year, the MRC was left scrambling to raise monies for the programme after Winegard privately informed the agency that an extended federal spending-control plan severely limited the amount available for genomics research. The MRC has since decided to funnel$5 million of its own money into the programme by imposing constraints elsewhere. The council has also obtained$5 million from the
National Cancer Institute. The MRC programmes branch director Dr Lewis Slotin is still hopeful that industry will be able to make good the$20 million shortfall despite the concern that drug manufacturers are having about the recently proposed revisions to the pharmaceutical patent law. The$22 million now committed to the programme is the "rock-bottom" price for Canadian participation in the international venture, Slotin says. But it’s far too modest an amount for an ambitious research programme such as the sequencing of an entire chromosome. "What we’re really doing here is buying into the club, in a much more formal way. Having an identified programme, with identified individuals responsible for it, will allow us into international forums and consultations that otherwise we would be observers at." Slotin says he expects the Canadian programme to focus on three areas: mapping techniques and technologies; informatics; and legal and ethical issues (a rider attached to the government contribution obligates the MRC to spend 7-5% of federal funds on research into ethical questions prompted by genomics, such as safeguards against invasions
of privacy).
Wayne Kondro
Europe: Chemical weapons inspectorate The location of a major new United Nations agency with the awkward acronym of OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) might have been decided upon on June 19, after we went to press. The purpose of this agency is to act as a deterrent to anybody tempted to circumvent the treaty banning such weapons on whichwith the Western countries and Japan pushing hard-final agreement is now confidently expected by autumn at latest. Negotiators in the 39-nation disarmament conference, which has been working on this convention for eight years, agreed long ago that leaving the question of a site undecided after all else had been settled would further delay international action. Site bids were entered in February by The Hague, Geneva, and Vienna. Representatives of each city answered 92 questions that covered the cost of everything from housing, education, and medical insurance to the cost of a round of golf. The subsequent evaluation gave the Dutch capital a narrow lead. It is favoured by several countries, including the UK, Belgium, Canada, and Japan. Other have deferred their decision until the last minute, some in the hope of extracting additional concessions. All three would-be hosts, welcoming the prospect of an estimated$200 million local annual . expenditure by an OPCW agency with up to 1200 staff, offered office accommodation on preferential terms and financial support. The Austrians pointed out that it would be appropriate for OPCW to be situated beside the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) so that the two inspectorates could easily exchange information. But some negotiators thought that, with the IAEA’s record in Iraq, it was preferable to have them clearly apart. There was general agreement, however, that this objection did not apply to another Vienna agency-the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), about two-thirds of whose activities are directed to aiding developing countries in setting up chemical plants. UNIDO keeps a close watch for possible dual-process installations and diversion of chemicals. It would welcome prior