News @ a glance

International child growth standards: The WHO's new international child growth standards provide for the first time evidence and guidance about how every child in the world should grow (www.who.int). Using these standards, physicians and others will know when the nutrition and health care needs of children are not being met. The standards are the result of a study of more than 8000 children from Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the US that began in 1997. “The WHO Child Growth Standards are a major new tool for providing the best health care and nutrition to all the world's children,” said Dr. Adenike Grange, president of the International Pediatric Association. The IPA encourages all its members to adopt and use the standards. The first set of the new growth charts includes weight-for-age, length/height-for-age and weight-for-length/height, plus a BMI standard for children.

Governance panel: Montréal lawyer and chartered accountant Richard Pound replaced former Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Lamer as head of the CMAJ Governance Review Panel on May 8. Lamer resigned May 3 due to illness. Pound is the chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a partner with the law firm Stikeman Elliot, as is Lamer. The panel was created earlier this year to recommend a new governance plan for CMAJ and its publisher, CMA Media Inc. Its report is due July 14.

WHO Director-General dies: Dr. Lee Jong-wook died on May 22, 2 days after surgery for a subdural hematoma. Dr. Lee, a 61-year-old national of the Republic of Korea, worked at WHO for 23 years and began his 5-year term as Director-General of WHO in July 2003. During his tenure, he announced the HIV/AIDS “3 by 5” initiative, and led global efforts to tackle avian influenza and prepare for a pandemic. “We lost a great man and a devoted fighter for the human health rights,” stated WHO's representative in Syria, Dr. Fouad Mojallid. The Acting Director-General is Dr. Anders Nordström, the former assistant director-general for general management.

CMAJ wins award: The Canadian Association of Journalists presented its award for investigative journalism in a magazine to CMAJ in Halifax, May 13. The award was for the journal's news article, “Privacy issues raised over Plan B” (CMAJ 2005;173:1435-6), by Barbara Sibbald and Laura Eggertson.

More MDs: The US is increasing first-year medical school enrolment by as much as 4500 students by 2015. First year enrolment in 2002 totalled 19 567. n Canada, enrolment will rise by about 300 this September, for a total of 2500 first-year medical students.

Hypertension chair: The first ever Canadian Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control will be filled by Dr. Norm Campbell from the University of Calgary. The chair has funding of $900 000 over 5 years from the Canadian Hypertension Society, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada's Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), sanofi-aventis and Blood Pressure Canada. Campbell will expand the Canadian Hypertension Education Program, develop a comprehensive national surveillance plan, increase public awareness and lobby to eliminate indiscriminate addition of salt by the public food sector.

Teamster doctors: Frustrated by a 20% cut in fee schedules and restrictions on medical care by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, nearly 300 central New York State physicians have joined the 1-million strong Teamsters Local 1149. According to http://amednews.com, the union is planning to push for state legislation to allow physicians to bargain collectively, something federal antitrust law now prohibits. — Compiled by Barbara Sibbald, CMAJ