14833 November 15/97 CMAJ /Page 1336

Nouvelles et analyses give the [results] to radiologists. That Mystery surrounds death suspect. Her husband had life insur- way the money would have stayed of Canadian MD in US ance policies worth $4 million that there.” named his wife as lone beneficiary. As The province doesn’t appear keen More questions are being asked than well, they allege that Dale Johnson on the concept. A spokesperson in answered following the mysterious owned 4 guns, and only 3 have been the health department didn’t think shooting death of a former recovered. Coworkers said Johnson al- that type of arrangement is feasible, doctor in his Oklahoma medical ways carried a gun and it matches the although the province has arranged clinic. Police made no arrests follow- description of the weapon that killed with a -based clinic to ing the June 24 death of Dr. Dale him. Police have been unable to find it. help reduce waiting lists for bone- Johnson, 45, who worked in Pinawa, Johnson claims that her husband density testing. Man., for 13 years before moving to had only 3 guns and she knows noth- “As the minister mentioned when Midwest City, Okla., in 1992 to start ing of the missing weapon. Her hus- he announced additional funding to a family practice. A 1976 graduate of band’s briefcase is also missing, and reduce the wait for bone-density the , Johnson she told police her father discarded it testing, this was the first of many an- was accompanied to Oklahoma by his while cleaning out her husband’s van nouncements on waiting lists,” said wife and teenaged daughter. just days after the shooting. Cowork- Roger Matas. According to police, Beverly ers said it was unusual for Johnson to Anticipation of shorter lists does- Johnson claims that 2 armed men be at the clinic, although she claims n’t appear to be resolving frustra- stormed into her husband’s clinic she was there to help her husband tions about delays. “The minister during the evening of June 24 and with his paperwork. has talked about improving diagnos- fatally shot him when he refused to Another allegation involves 1 of tic services, but we’re not seeing any give them prescription drugs. She Dale Johnson’s former patients, who coming on stream rapidly enough,” told police she hid in an examining told police she broke off a 7-year af- White said. room and didn’t see the suspects. She fair with him in April. Peggy Tom- Judging by the number of phone didn’t come out until they had fled sons, who now lives in , said calls Sveningson has received from and her husband of 24 years was Johnson became suicidal after the north of the border, Manitobans ap- dead. breakup. She received an email mes- pear to agree with White’s analysis. However, police investigators have sage from him the day he died that However, the centre only accepts doubts about the armed-robbery said “I YES.” Neither Tomsons nor physician referrals. If enough pa- story and now consider Johnson’s the police know what it meant. Bev- tients pressure their physicians for wife their prime suspect. They say erly Johnson told police she knew such a referral, the Grafton centre she has refused requests to provide a nothing about an affair, although may stay in business for some time. written statement detailing what she Tomsons and several of Johnson’s Patients who go there will be paying witnessed. She responded by hiring a close friends and coworkers claim it from their own pocket. Although lawyer from the same law firm that was common knowledge. travel time isn’t onerous, the cost defended Oklahoma City bomber If Dale Johnson committed sui- may deter some visitors. A CT scan Timothy McVeigh. cide, police wonder where the costs between (US)$385 and $425, The investigation has stalled as weapon went. “Things just don’t add while the bill for an MRI is between police wait for a grand jury to sub- up,” said Detective Al Mason. — © (US)$400 and $690. An ultrasound poena Johnson and question her un- Mike McIntyre, Winnipeg Sun costs from (US)$115 to $300. der oath. The grand jury is currently In the meantime, DMS Imaging hearing an appeal concerning Prion discoverer receives in Grafton remains open for busi- McVeigh’s death sentence. Johnson’s Nobel Prize ness. CT scans are available 4 days a lawyer accuses the police of harass- week, ultrasounds twice a week and ment and won’t say if his client will The 15-year-old discovery of prions, MRIs weekly. The company special- speak to the grand jury or invoke her the strange little proteins implicated izes in mobile diagnostic services, right to remain silent. “She is not a in the development of bovine spongi- travelling to different rural commu- suspect,” said Robert Wyatt. “She is a form encephalopathy, has resulted in nities in North Dakota every week. victim in this crime and we are frus- the Nobel Prize in medicine for an Its new fixed site in Grafton was cre- trated that police are treating her in a American physician. Prions, which ated to assess Canadian demand, al- capacity other than a victim.” are discussed in 4 articles in this issue though it also serves local patients. Several revelations have caused po- of CMAJ, were discovered in 1982 by — © Jane Stewart lice to consider Johnson a potential Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a professor of

1336 CAN MED ASSOC J • 15 NOV. 1997; 157 (10) 14833 November 15/97 CMAJ /Page 1337

News and analysis biochemistry at the University of the /Toronto International tors hired later will be given addi- California at San Francisco. Aware- Hospital Project. Construction of the tional training at the hospital. The ness of his work grew when prions first 80-bed phase is to begin this first on staff will move to were blamed for causing the variant month, with the hospital expected to Beijing about March. of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease that open late in 1998. Eventually it will The hospital will be aimed at the killed several people in England. have 250 beds. foreign-expatriate market, although it That outbreak was tied to meat taken Unlike most foreign-run hospitals may also be available to Chinese em- from cattle that had developed BSE, in China, which employ British or ployees of multinational corporations popularly known as mad cow disease. American managers, the Beijing hos- and entrepreneurs. Wilson Parasiuk, pital will be run by Canadians. Fifty chair of Interhealth China Canada–China hospital staff members, including a medical Inc., says there are 160 000 expatri- being developed director, are currently being re- ates in China and the hospital will fill cruited. Forty percent of medical staff a growing demand for in-country Canadians are playing a key role in will be Canadian, with the first 15 treatment. Today, most foreign pa- developing China’s first joint-venture Canadian doctors being recruited tients with a serious illness are evacu- hospital. Interhealth Canada China next summer. Initially, all Chinese ated. The new hospital hopes to re- Inc., an Ontario company, is majority physicians employed at the hospital ceive Canadian accreditation within 2 owner of the development, known as will be foreign trained; Chinese doc- years of opening.

New health clinic for Asian women

Vancouver’s Asian Women’s Health higher incidence of cervical cancer health has been developed at the Clinic, which was established in in Asian women than Caucasian clinic, and women undergo screen- 1994 to increase the rate of cervical- women. Asian women generally ing mammography on site. and breast-cancer screening among consider gynecologic care separate Regina Li of SUCCESS, a Chi- Chinese women, has had to expand from the other health issues that nese community agency, says the to meet growing demand. It is now clinic has been “very successful.” located at Mount Saint Joseph Hos- Because of its word-of-mouth popu- pital, a major centre for multicul- larity, the agency no longer needs to tural facilities, and has tripled the promote the facility. Li says most of number of hours it is open because its clients have immigrated to of the area’s continuing influx of Canada within the last 3 years and immigrants. are attracted to it because of its fe- The clinic addresses language male physicians. Only about half re- and cultural barriers that make quire their doctor to speak Chinese, women leery of seeking gyneco- since they possess adequate English. logic and breast examinations by Dr. Lois Yelland, medical health employing only female doctors who officer for ’s East Health speak Mandarin and Cantonese. Unit, says the sheer numbers of Dr. Lorna Sent, the medical direc- Asian women needing service tor, says male physicians, even those prompted the decision to open a who speak a Chinese dialect, pre- clinic dedicated to them. Other sent the major cultural barrier to clinics have taken a different ap- these women. There are still rela- proach. The Bridge Clinic, which is tively few female physicians of Chi- also at Mount St. Joseph Hospital, nese descent living in BC’s Lower Dr. Lorna Sent: Male MDs a barrier for attracts women from diverse ethnic Mainland. More than 40% of female Asian patients? backgrounds. Its goal is to help women using the clinic for the first women adapt to the Canadian time had never had a breast exami- bring them to a family doctor’s of- health care system by encouraging nation. fice, explains Sent. Educational ma- them to seek care from their own As well, studies indicate a far terial on Pap smears and breast family doctors. © — Heather Kent

CAN MED ASSOC J • NOV. 15, 1997; 157 (10) 1337