Your editorial (When Unknowing, Hardly Implied - Feb. 1) stated that "Canada-wide guidelines appear to allow pelvic exams on unknowing patients."
In fact, in 2005, the Association Of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada (APOG) and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) created a joint policy on the teaching of pelvic examination that states "The surgeon should inform the patient that she may be examined by a trainee at the beginning of the surgery." What André Picard describes - "a group of medical students parades into the operating room and they perform gynecological exams (unrelated to the surgery) without your knowledge" - is clearly in violation of this policy (Time To End Pelvic Exams Done Without Consent - Jan. 28). To describe this as "standard procedure" is simply wrong.
It is important that the public understands that educators in obstetrics and gynecology and our trainees consider our ethical obligations to patients of the utmost importance.
Alan Bocking, president, Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada; Susan Chamberlain, chair, APOG Undergraduate Committee