[Podcasts] Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder guideline + recording physician-assisted dying on death certificate

Diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is essential to improve outcomes for affected individuals and families, and to inform pre-pregnancy counselling to prevent future cases. This guideline (open access) from the Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network provides evidence-based recommendations for best practices in the diagnosis of this condition.

In this podcast, two of the authors of the guideline explain what to look for in clinical practice. Dr. Valerie Temple is a clinical psychologist at Surrey Place Centre in Toronto, and Dr. Christine Loock is a developmental pediatrician at Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia, with an academic appointment at UBC.

As well, if physician-assisted death becomes legal in Canada, physicians need to know whether and, if so, how to record it on medical certificates of death. In this podcast, Jocelyn Downie, Professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine, and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Law, at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, discusses the best approach by examining current practice and best principles.

Professor Downie and her co-author Kacie Oliver have published an analysis article in the CMAJ (subscription required).