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Many jurisdictions in Canada have enacted legislation that requires physicians to report their patients to the Ministry of Transport if they have a medical condition that may put them at increased risk to operate a motor vehicle. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society has published guidelines that are designed to assist physicians and policy-makers in their decision-making. Legislation is designed to protect society, and the guidelines are designed to fulfill that mandate. However, in the present paper, important issues that have not been addressed to date are discussed. What is the efficacy of mandatory reporting legislation? What are the harms done to patients who are restricted from driving? What are the costs of the mandatory reporting system? How can the scientific/technical assessment of risk be reconciled with the social/ethical view of risk assessment? Until these issues are addressed, important questions about the ethics, efficacy and cost of mandatory physician reporting will remain unanswered.

Background: Electrocardiographic (ECG) recognition of the underlying rhythm in patients with ventricular pacing can be difficult. Atrial fibrillation (AF) in particular may go unreported., Objectives: To compare the underlying atrial rhythm determined in the pacemaker clinic with the 12-lead ECG interpretation of the atrial rhythm in those who were continuously paced in the ventricle. It was intended to determine whether long term anticoagulation therapy was related to whether AF was diagnosed before or after pacemaker implantation., Methods: Pacemaker clinic patients were enrolled if they had a 100% paced ventricular rhythm. The underlying rhythm was determined using pacemaker programming manoeuvres. A 12-lead ECG was recorded on all patients within 10 min of their pacemaker assessment and interpreted by one of the several geographic full-time cardiologists at the centre. All cardiologists were blinded to the results of pacemaker assessment and to the clinical history., Results: Fifty-six patients were enrolled. At the pacemaker clinic, 37 were determined to be in AF and three were in atrial flutter (AFL). Of these 40 patients with AF/AFL, 28 were correctly identified as such on the 12-lead ECG interpretation. Twelve of the 40 were interpreted only as having an 'electronic ventricular pacemaker' (EVP). Sixteen of the 40 patients (40.0%) with AF or AFL were not taking warfarin. Twenty-two of 25 patients with an AF/AFL diagnosis before pacemaker implantation were taking warfarin, compared with two of 15 patients with AF/AFL diagnosis after pacemaker implantation (P<0.0001)., Conclusion: These results show that the underlying rhythm in patients with ventricular pacing is frequently unrecognized by routine ECG interpretation. This may be of particular importance in the AF/AFL population as a potential contributor to the underuse of warfarin, especially when AF develops after pacemaker implantation. The pacemaker clinic may be in a position to play an important role in the identification of these patients.