CMAJ's Pulse column is designed to make use of the mountain of data compiled regularly by the CMA's Research Directorate. Each 1-page column concentrates on a single issue such as health care expenditures or physicians' fees. Suggestions from readers about potential topics are welcomed.

• Health system worries know no borders
• Fee-for-service MDs averaged $33 per service in 1998/99
• Canada has 57 803 active MDs: CIHI
• Computer use by Canada's physicians approaches 90% mark
• Almost 1 in 2 Canadians says health system needs major surgery
• Drugs taking bigger bite of health care pie
• AIDS in Canada: the 20th anniversary approaches
• Anesthesia the sleeper in 2001 residency match

Volume 164

• Injuries claim lives of many more boys than girls
• Canadians don't appear to fear electronic medical records
• The rural and urban realities of family medicine
• Prevalence of migraine headache in Canada
• Canadians continue to spend more on drugs than doctors
• Nfld., Sask. retain smallest proportion of postgraduate trainees
• Public ignorant about telemedicine, survey finds
• Canada's physicians: the rising cost of doing business
• A crisis aborning in maternity and newborn care?
• Canada ranks near top in health spending: OECD
• Teen pregnancy rate down, abortion rate up
• Out-of-pocket care costs
• Does Canada really rank 30th in world in terms of health care?

Volume 163

• "Freedom 55" closer to age 65 for physicians
• Driving: How old is too old?
• Trainees sponsored by foreign governments fill growing share of residence slots
• Are pagers replacing the stethoscope as a medical symbol?
• The greying of Canada's medical workforce continues
• Drug price index sees first increase in 5 years
• More Net-savvy MDs surfing the Web
• Lengthy hospital stays a thing of the past?
• Number of health care workers lags behind population growth
• Most Canadian welcome genetic testing
• Aging population means more cancer cases

Volume 162

• Where do medicine's job opportunities lie?
• Transplant queues grow as donor numbers wane
• Boys and girls and healthy behaviour
• Patients appear to be patient, survey finds
• The brain drain: a statistical snapshot
• Availability of services in rural areas
• Canada among leaders in OECD health results
• Doctors working harder, earning less
• Older and wiser?
• Growing dissatisfaction among Canada's rural MDs
• Drug costs surpass spending on physicians
• Are Canadians aware of the risks of smoking
• Caring for sick a strain on families

Volume 161

• Logging on in record numbers
• Ontario leads way for tuition fees
• With CME, time is not on MDs' side
• Has the lure of greener pastures lessened?
• Slight change in MD:population ratio
• Tuition fees and medical residents
• Looking for an alternative
• Canada's greying population
• The changing face of AIDS in Canada
• Where have all the nurses gone?

Volume 160

• Out of hospital, out of pocket
• Cancer numbers rise but risk remains stable
• MDs second on honesty scale, lawyers and politicians lag
• Canada's informal caregivers
• A good match for the Class of '99
• Medicare's reputation in free fall before budget
• Canada's tipplers cutting back
• Our incredible shrinking medical schools
• Smoking: an occupational hazard
• Students' confidence in residency-matching system grows
• Few family physicians go it alone
• Canadians not alone in complaining about health care
• Health care spending: Sunnier days ahead?

Volume 159

• BC still the place to be
• Impact of CPGs growing
• Drug prices remain constant
• Canada lags in public spending on health care
• The southward flow ebbs slightly
• Are men losing interest in medical careers?
• Computer use still climbing
• What women don't know could kill them
• A pill for every ill?
• Melanoma's toll is on the rise
• What's covered? What's not?

Volume 158

• Canada's massive injury toll
• Cancer in Canada and abroad
• Projected physician supply
• Physicians' gross billings: the latest data
• How hard do physicians work?
• Transfer payments: Ottawa's big stick being whittled away
• Abortion and the married woman
• Private spending on the increase
• Choosing a residency: Are the students prepared?
• For first time, men a minority in graduating class
• Spending on drugs surpasses $10 billion
• MDs want off fee-for-service treadmill
• Smoking levels settle on a high plateau

Volume 157

• How do we stack up within the OECD?
• Interprovincial migration
• Canada's changing life-expectancy trends
• Specialists are getting older; working longer
• Higher earners seek more alternative care
• What are specialists doing?
• The economic burden of illness
• Where is the money going?
• Physician supply: A change in direction?
• How far away is the nearest physician?
• Canada's international medical graduates

Volume 156

• Our disappearing hospital beds
• Public attitudes on access to service
• Regulating the price of patented drugs
• The cost of occupational injuries
• Are medical students ready to make career choices?
• The place of women in a changing profession
• MD fees much higher in US
• Physicians moving abroad
• Financial and geographic barriers to fee-for-service practice
• Where do we stand in the OECD?
• Gradual decrease in MD workload
• GP/FPs and the delivery of babies