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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