December 5th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
No Comments »
Here’s my column in this month’s Emergency Medicine News.
In 1994 I was thrilled to become certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. I had worked very hard. I studied and read, I practiced oral board scenarios and even took an oral board preparatory course. It was, I believed, the pinnacle of my medical education. Indeed, if you counted the ACT, the MCAT, the three part board exams along the way and the in-service exams, it was my ultimate test. The one that I had been striving for throughout my higher education experience.
I am now disappointed to find that my certification was inadequate. In fact, all of us who worked so hard for our ABEM certification find ourselves facing ever more stringent rules to maintain that status. And it isn’t only emergency medicine. All medical specialties are facing the same crunch. Our certifying bodies expect more…and more…and more.
And the attitude is all predicated on the subtle but obvious assumption that those of us in practice are not competent to maintain our own knowledge base. Despite spending decades in education that we are not to be trusted. That we are not interested in learning. That we do not attempt to learn and that our practices are not, in fact, the endless learning experiences they actually are. They assume we need more supervision, despite demonstrating (by our continued practice) that we are willing to do hard work, in hard settings, and do the right thing.
Unfortunately, the rank and file Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
October 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in News
1 Comment »
Three young mothers under the age of 40 are dead because they wanted to be beautiful. Kellee Lee-Howard wanted a slimmer body. Ditto Maria Shortall and Rohie Kah-Orukatan. Shortall worked as a housekeeper; Lee-Howard was the mother of six kids and Kah-Orukotan died at the same place where she received manicures. What do these women have in common besides being minorities? They had liposuction procedures performed by men who offered a discounted price for an elective surgical procedure. These men professed to be competent in performing the procedures but never had accredited training.
I knew this day was coming. I saw the storm long before the clouds emerged. As the insurance payments for professional medical services decreased and declined, physicians began to look for alternative ways to earn money. But was it ethical? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
September 8th, 2011 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Medical Art, Opinion
No Comments »
Often the simplest solutions to problems are the best. So it would seem when it comes to the impact that increasing patient trust in physicians could have on many of the intractable challenges that face the health care industry everyday like non-adherence, lack of involvement, poor health status, dissatisfaction and so on.
I explore the link between patient trust and outcomes in the following infographic I curated and designed. What surprised me is how a patient’s level of trust in their doctor, like so much of what I talk about in this blog, boils downs to the patient’s perception of the physician’s ability to communicate: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
May 13th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News, Research
No Comments »
Much more practice is needed than gastroenterological professional societies currently recommend, concluded Mayo Clinic researchers in Rochester, Minn.
Current recommendations are that 140 procedures should be done before attempting to assess competency, but with no set recommendations on how to assess it, wrote the author of the research. But it takes an average of 275 procedures for a gastroenterology fellow to reach minimal cognitive and motor competency.
Now, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy is rewriting its colonoscopy training guidelines to reflect the need for more procedures and emphasize the use of objective, measurable tests in assessing the competency of trainees. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
October 10th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
2 Comments »
Here’s an interesting case. A young woman drinks antifreeze to commit suicide, writes a note saying she does not want any medical treatment and calls an ambulance so she can die peacefully with the help of medical support.
I read a lot on Happy Hospitalist about a patient’s right to demand what ever care they feel is necessary to keep them alive and the duty of the physician to provide whatever care the patient feels they require, no matter how costly or how miniscule the benefit. Readers like to say it’s not a physician’s obligation to make quality of life decisions for the patient.
So let’s analyze this situation. Does a patient have the right to demand medical care and the services of physicians to let them die without pain? Does a patient have the right to demand a physician order morphine and ativan to keep a depressed but physically intact patient comfortable as they slip away in a horrible antifreeze death under the care of medical personel? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
