Briefly
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* Wayne Kondro

*   © 2008 Canadian Medical Association

**President-elect:** Dermatologist and former Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Dana Hanson will lead the World Medical Association in 2009/10. Hanson, who was head of CMA in 2002, was elected unopposed at the organization's annual general assembly in October. He will become the first Canadian to head the confederation of over 90 national medical associations since former CMA secretary general Dr. Arthur Peart served as president in 1971.

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/179/11/1118.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/179/11/1118.2/F1)

World Medical Association president-elect Dr. Dana Hanson. Image by: Canadian Medical Association

**Banned:** Six months after proposing to ban the importation, sale and advertising of polycarbonate baby bottles which contain bisphenol A, Health Canada has announced it will draft regulations to that effect. The move does not prevent the use of bisphenol A in other consumer products, but the government says it will spend $1.7 million over the next 3 years to fund more bisphenol A research.

**Spiralling fees:** Tuition at Canada's medical schools rose an average 4.6% for undergraduate medical students in the 2008/09 academic year, Statistics Canada reports. The average fee was $10 392, trailing only dentistry at $12 906. Graduate level medical school fees rose 3.4% to $6008, while those for nursing rose 4.3% to $4469 and those for pharmacy rose 5.1% to $2006.

**Died:** Bernard E. (Woody) Freamo, the first non-physician to serve as secretary general of the Canadian Medical Association, 1992 recipient of CMA's Medal of Honour, and the oft-described “father of MD Management,” died Oct. 18 at the age of 85. Freamo joined CMA in 1957 to set up a department of economics and became Secretary General in 1982, serving 4 years before becoming executive vice-president of MD Management Ltd. (*CMAJ* 1986;135:920-5).

![Figure2](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/179/11/1118.2/F2.medium.gif)

[Figure2](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/179/11/1118.2/F2)

Former CMA secretary general B.E. Freamo. Image by: Sherwood