News @ a glance
===============

* Wayne Kondro

*   © 2008 Canadian Medical Association

**President-elect:** Saskatoon, Sask., family physician Dr. Anne Doig has been selected president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association for 2009/10. Doig emerged as the victor on the fourth ballot of a 7 candidate contest (*CMAJ* 2008;178[5]:544). If ratified at this year's annual CMA conference, to be held in Montrèal, Que., Doig will assume presidential duties in August 2009. She will be the fifth female president of the association.

**Tuberculosis hot spots:** Nearly 500 000 or a staggering 5% of all 9 million new tuberculosis cases diagnosed annually worldwide are of the multidrug-resistant variety, according to the World Health Organization's first update on the disease in 4 years. The percentages rise to 15%–22% in parts of China and former Soviet Union republics because of poverty, overcrowding, alcoholism and other social stresses. The study also found that extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis has now been detected in 45 countries.

**Marijuana tug-of-war:** The 124 000-strong American College of Physicians has called on the Bush administration to review marijuana's status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance so that its therapeutic use can be legitimized. Reclassification as a Schedule III substance “would reduce barriers to research and increase availability of cannabinoid drugs to patients who have failed to respond to other treatments,” the college says in a position paper ([www.acponline.org](http://www.acponline.org)). The college also urges that physicians who prescribe or dispense medicinal marijuana under state law (some 12 now allow its use) should be exempt from prosecution or sanction.

**Down to 2:** Over the course of leading his Progressive Conservative party to a record 11th consecutive majority, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach vowed to phase out health care premiums over 4 years. Albertans now annually shell out $538 per individual or $1056 per family. Only the provinces of Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia collect health care premiums in Canada.

**Medical fugitives:** Nearly 9% of physicians, nurses and ancillary health care staff working in the United States have invalid licenses or questionable credentials, according to an assessment ([www.medversant.com](http://www.medversant.com)) of the professional licensing practices of 24 health care organizations conducted by Medversant Technologies LLC, a provider of Web-based management programs. That percentage soared to 11.33% among the 7318 physicians reviewed. Of those, 99 practise without a license or after having had to surrender their licenses, 419 have expired licenses and 311 practise under “questionable” conditions such as probation or having lost hospital privileges.

**Failing grades:** Nova Scotia Auditor-General Jacques Lapointe says the province's Department of Health Protection response to its recent mumps outbreak (some 777 cases) was “less than timely.” The department was ciriticized for, among other things, its lack of protocols for vaccine storage, its failure to ensure that vaccines were maintained at suitable temperatures during transportation and waiting 2 months before beginning to immunize health care workers.