Nicholas Pimlott

3 weeks ago | cfp.ca | Nicholas Pimlott

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Vernon Sanders Law, who played 16 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950-1951 and 1954-1967), once said: “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.”1 This is arguably the first theme of the May 2025 issue of Canadian Family Physician, which features several contributions by early-career family physicians.2,3 Learning by doing In “What risk of death is acceptable?” (page 299)2 Dr Danny Liang, a Vancouver family...

1 month ago | cfp.ca | Nicholas Pimlott

The German-born American physician and writer Martin Fisher, famous in his day for his aphorisms, is credited with saying half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out of the window, except that the birds might eat them. It sounds like he was an environmentalist physician well ahead of his time. It is surprising how little we physicians sometimes know about the medications we prescribe, even those prescribed routinely.

Feb 18, 2025 | cfp.ca | Nicholas Pimlott

I woke upand I was old—It’s hard to judgeif this new countrywas worthits costsEileen R. Tabios,Mom Betty Addresses the Nature of ProportionAging and its attendant risks and losses—some visible, others not—is a theme of the February 2025 issue of Canadian Family Physician. Since 2018 the journal has published the Geriatric Gems series, curated and contributed to by Dr Chris Frank from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont, and Dr Frank Molnar from the University of Ottawa in Ontario.

Jan 22, 2025 | cfp.ca | Nicholas Pimlott

Canadian Family Physician (CFP) begins 2025 by introducing the Consensus Reporting Items for Studies in Primary Care (CRISP) checklist to its tools for journal authors and peer reviewers. What is CRISP and why is it important to CFP and its research contributors, peer reviewers, and readers? The CRISP checklist is built upon a 5-year program of rigorous research that engaged the worldwide, interprofessional, interdisciplinary community of primary care.

Jan 22, 2025 | cfp.ca | Nicholas Pimlott

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the first case of what would become known as COVID-19 being reported at a hospital in Toronto, Ont, where I live and work.1Do you remember where you were when you heard of (or saw) your first case of COVID-19? I do. I was in a restaurant celebrating a family birthday when the news broke.2 Having worked as a physician in previous pandemics, beginning with the AIDS crisis, the news cast a pall over the rest of the evening.