Briefly
=======

* David Manly
* Wayne Kondro

**Drug network:** Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says the government will pump $31 million over 4 years into ongoing development of a national Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network that aims to link researchers into a new virtual network and coordinate a national research strategy regarding the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals in the marketplace. Having earlier shelled out $1 million for the initiative, the government has now committed $32 million and vows to fund the venture at an annual $10 million level once it becomes fully operational in 5 years.

**Isotope production:** The United States National Academy of Sciences says it is feasible to eliminate the use of highly enriched uranium in medical isotope production and shift to production methods that use low enriched uranium. But the move will require more R&D and “tens of millions of dollars” in new investment, the academy adds in its report ([www.nap.edu](http://www.nap.edu)). Such an approach may promote domestic isotope production, a development urged late last year by the highly respected *Bulletin of Atomic Scientists* ([www.thebulletin.org](http://www.thebulletin.org)). US calls for domestic isotope production have escalated as a result of the extended outage of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s National Research Universal reactor in late 2007, (*CMAJ* 2008;178[5]:536-8 and *CMAJ* 2008;178[6]:668).

**Lung transplants:** The rate of lung transplants in Canada rose more than 3 times faster than that of solid organ transplants over a 10-year period ending in 2006, according to a report by the Canadian Institute of Health Information ([www.cihi.ca](http://www.cihi.ca)). Lung transplants increased by more than 84% from 1997 to 2006, as compared to 29% for solid organs. That was primarily a function of advances in treatment since the world's first successful lung transplant was performed in Canada in 1983. Between 1997 and 2006, the 3-year survival rate for lung transplant recipients rose to 80% from 60%, but demand for lung transplants — 252 people in 2006, compared with 119 in 1997 — has lengthened wait times, while nearly 300 people died awaiting transplants.

**Fit notes:** The Department for Work and Pensions has announced that paper-based “sick notes” will be replaced in the United Kingdom in 2010 with electronic “fit notes” in a bid to keep people with disabilities or long-term medical conditions working rather than on extended sick leave. Instead of filling out notes for sick leave, which Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell estimated costs the British economy £100 billion (Can$176 billion) annually, National Health Service doctors will be asked to pen notes that articulate what tasks an ill worker can and cannot perform ([www.dwp.gov.uk](http://www.dwp.gov.uk)).

**Acquittal:** The first person to face a jury trial in Quebec on charges of assisting suicide has been acquitted. Stephan Dufour, 30, was found not guilty of aiding or abetting his disabled uncle, Chantal Maltais, who had polio, to commit suicide. In September 2006, Dufour put rope and a choke chain in his uncle's bedroom. Maltais later used the equipment to kill himself. The defence argued Dufour's limited intellectual capacities made him unable to resist pressure from his verbally abusive uncle.

**MEDNIK:** Scientists have discovered a rare disease characterized by mental retardation, enteropathy, deafness, peripheral neuropathy, ichthyosis and keratodermia that afflicts 4 French Canadian families in the eastern Quebec region of Bas-St-Laurent. The syndrome, caused by a mutation in the *AP1S1* gene (*PLoS Genet* 4[12]:e1000296), was traced to common ancestors who had emigrated from France between 1608 and 1759.

**Judicial prejudgment:** A Barrie, Ontario, judge who demanded that an HIV-positive witness don a mask before testifying because “the HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself,” has been found by the Ontario Judicial Council to have behaved “inappropriately” ([www.aidslaw.ca](http://www.aidslaw.ca)). But Justice Jon-Jo Douglas of the Ontario Court of Justice, against whom complaints were laid by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and HALCO, the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic (Ontario), was not censured as he had acknowledged his misconduct and apologized.