Canadian medical students voice their concerns
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* Panayiotis Glavas

I read with great interest the article by Irfan Dhalla and colleagues on the demographics of Canadian medical students.1 However, as a student from the province of Quebec, I was disappointed that data from the Quebec universities were not included. 

As reasons for excluding Quebec students, the authors list a poor response rate, incomplete email databases and a “large number of premedical students.” To correct these problems, the survey could have been better publicized and a more thorough search for emails should have been conducted. In addition, the authors' concern about premedical students is unfounded; they could have easily eliminated those responses from the final analysis if they wished to do so. 

To make pan-Canadian inferences about Canadian medical students without including a quarter of Canadian medical faculties is a grave error. 

**Panayiotis Glavas** Medical Student Université de Montréal Montreal, Que.

## Reference

1.  1. Dhalla IA, Kwong JC, Streiner DL, Baddour RE, Waddell AE, Johnson IL. Characteristics of first-year students in Canadian medical schools. CMAJ 2002;166(8):1029-35. 
    
    [Abstract/FREE Full Text](http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6NDoiY21haiI7czo1OiJyZXNpZCI7czoxMDoiMTY2LzgvMTAyOSI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIyOiIvY21hai8xNjcvMy8yMzQuMi5hdG9tIjt9czo4OiJmcmFnbWVudCI7czowOiIiO30=)