Recent rules issued by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for resident work hours have further limited the consecutive and total number of hours that medical trainees may work. These measures, originally created because of safety concerns, are…
Recent rules issued by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for resident work hours have further limited the consecutive and total number of hours that medical trainees may work. These measures, originally created because of safety concerns, are intended to decrease the number of fatigue-related errors made by physicians in training. They have received broad support within the medical community.
A rising second year medical student read some of my posts and wrote me a kind note asking if I would write something for students. I taught students and ran surgical clerkships at community teaching hospitals for my entire career…
A rising second year medical student read some of my posts and wrote me a kind note asking if I would write something for students. I taught students and ran surgical clerkships at community teaching hospitals for my entire career until about 19 months ago.
I also was prompted to address this subject after reading a recent New York Times story about a new admissions policy at Mt. Sinai …
The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog carries an interesting piece about a program at Indiana University–Northwest that allows volunteers from the general public to participate in preparing cadavers for first year medical students. This is a brilliant idea for several…
The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog carries an interesting piece about a program at Indiana University–Northwest that allows volunteers from the general public to participate in preparing cadavers for first year medical students.
This is a brilliant idea for several reasons:
One persistent problem facing physicians is the extremely low health literacy of most patients. Simply put, “health literacy” refers to how well patients can comprehend what their
There's been considerable buzz on the web recently - on the New York Times website, on Facebook, and on a physicians' forum called Sermo, at least - over a New York Times article recently entitled, "Getting Into Med School Without…
There’s been considerable buzz on the web recently – on the New York Times website, on Facebook, and on a physicians’ forum called Sermo, at least – over a New York Times article recently entitled, “Getting Into Med School Without Hard Sciences.”
The article describes the Humanities and Medicine Program at Mount Sinai Medical School, a program which each year admits into the medical school 35 undergraduates who major …
Should medical student applicants be chosen less for their demonstrated ability to master large amounts of knowledge and solve problems and more for their social consciousness and desire to push forward with social justice? That appears to be the suggestion…
Should medical student applicants be chosen less for their demonstrated ability to master large amounts of knowledge and solve problems and more for their social consciousness and desire to push forward with social justice?
That appears to be the suggestion of a panel of experts from the AMA in a project called the Initiative to Transform Medicine (ITM) who believe an altruism deficiency underlies …
Even as a medical student, I’m already complicit in exacerbating the problem of the high cost of health care. It hit me one day, during my medicine rotation. We were working up a patient, and I was ordering tests with…
Even as a medical student, I’m already complicit in exacerbating the problem of the high cost of health care.
It hit me one day, during my medicine rotation. We were working up a patient, and I was ordering tests with my resident. The patient had liver disease and perhaps some ascites.
He came in for another issue, and this wasn’t of primary concern to us, and we really wouldn’t have …
A guest column by the American Medical Association, exclusive to KevinMD.com. by J. James Rohack, MD This year marks the 100th anniversary of the landmark Flexner Report that standardized medical education in North America. Now, during this historic time of…
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the landmark Flexner Report that standardized medical education in North America. Now, during this historic time of health system change, medical education reforms on the scale of those enacted a century ago are needed to achieve a sustainable 21st-century. Preparing the next generation of …
I thought I was an oddball in college. I've only recently learned that I was avant garde. Right before beginning college in 1975, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. Being the first-born son – with decent SATs –…
I thought I was an oddball in college. I’ve only recently learned that I was avant garde.
Right before beginning college in 1975, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. Being the first-born son – with decent SATs – of an upwardly mobile Long Island Jewish family, I had relatively little choice in the matter. Notwithstanding this predestiny, I felt confident that medicine was a good fit for my interests …
Some reflections on my first semester of medical school. 1. Medical school is hard. Yes, it’s true -- medical school is as hard as people who have been through it make it out to be. I was skeptical when I…
Some reflections on my first semester of medical school.
1. Medical school is hard. Yes, it’s true — medical school is as hard as people who have been through it make it out to be.
I was skeptical when I started mostly because I felt I had challenged myself while doing my undergrad degree and in graduate school. I had taken heavy loads …
According to an article published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, counties with teaching medical hospitals experienced a 10% increase in fatal medication errors as compared to counties without teaching medical hospitals. First, what is the July Effect? It…
According to an article published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, counties with teaching medical hospitals experienced a 10% increase in fatal medication errors as compared to counties without teaching medical hospitals.
First, what is the July Effect? It represents an entire transition in the hospital, during which medical students become interns, interns become senior residents, and second or third-year residents become chief residents. …
Can the field of family medicine truly become monotonous? I never thought I’d ever find myself in a repetitive routine when selecting family medicine as my specialty. I spent eleven years after high school studying what I know. How can…
Can the field of family medicine truly become monotonous?
I never thought I’d ever find myself in a repetitive routine when selecting family medicine as my specialty. I spent eleven years after high school studying what I know. How can eleven years of material really become mundane? In a way, it’s a great thing – it means I am feeling comfortable and confident in my job.
One of the mantras of performance improvement is that caregivers and provider organizations should learn from their experiences. That’s all well and good, but how about policy-setting organizations? Recently, in the New England Journal of Medicine, two of the Biggest…
One of the mantras of performance improvement is that caregivers and provider organizations should learn from their experiences. That’s all well and good, but how about policy-setting organizations?
Recently, in the New England Journal of Medicine, two of the Biggest Kahunas in the safety and quality worlds – the Joint Commission (TJC) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) – announced bold new policies. To their credit, both organizations …
How many hours can a doctor work? The residency regulators are back. About ten years ago, the national organization that accredits residency programs (ACGME) set out its first guidelines about how many hours a doctor-in-training can work. Interns and residents…
How many hours can a doctor work?
The residency regulators are back. About ten years ago, the national organization that accredits residency programs (ACGME) set out its first guidelines about how many hours a doctor-in-training can work. Interns and residents finally achieved the vaunted 80-hour workweek. New York State was 15 years ahead on this, having mandated an 80-hour work week in 1989, stemming from the Libby Zion case.
by Timothy Dempsey One thing changes everything. While this may be a poor paraphrase of the cheesy slogan ESPN used for the recently finished World Cup, in my life this statement has revealed itself as a universal truth. For me,…
by Timothy Dempsey
One thing changes everything.
While this may be a poor paraphrase of the cheesy slogan ESPN used for the recently finished World Cup, in my life this statement has revealed itself as a universal truth. For me, one book changed everything. It would lead me into research labs, on a trip to disease-riddled Gaborone, Botswana, and pique my interest into an epidemic whose global …
It has been 10 years since the landmark Institute of Medicine report "To Err is Human" uncovered disturbing deficiencies in the quality of our nation's medical care. Progress in correcting these deficiencies remains frustratingly slow, and it has become clear…
It has been 10 years since the landmark Institute of Medicine report “To Err is Human” uncovered disturbing deficiencies in the quality of our nation’s medical care.
Progress in correcting these deficiencies remains frustratingly slow, and it has become clear that achieving the quality and safety improvements we seek will require us to examine our approach to medical education.
Although today’s newly minted physicians are well prepared in the science of medicine …
by John Gever Academic medical centers need comprehensive policies to manage their physicians' relationships with industry and other commercial interests, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Disclosure of such relationships -- both to patients and to their…
by John Gever
Academic medical centers need comprehensive policies to manage their physicians’ relationships with industry and other commercial interests, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Disclosure of such relationships — both to patients and to their institutions — should be more detailed than is currently the case at many medical schools, an AAMC task force recommended in a new report.
In particular, significant potential conflicts should be reported annually …
While the percentage of commercial support for continuing medical education (CME) has continued to drastically drop over the past few years (29% decrease from 2007 to 2009), recent data, which show an epidemic of medication errors in hospitals, make this…
As originally reported in a New York Times article recently, with more coverage in MedPage Today, the University of Michigan School of Medicine has decided to end all industry support of CME as of January 1, 2011. According to the…
As originally reported in a New York Times article recently, with more coverage in MedPage Today, the University of Michigan School of Medicine has decided to end all industry support of CME as of January 1, 2011.
According to the dean of the medical school, “the decision was based on a review of literature about the influence on clinical faculty of industry-funded CME.” Apparently the decision was made after a …
Incoming medical students, I know you're excited about medical school. I was in your same exact position about 2 years ago to the day. Every day I went to sleep and thought about how cool medical school was going to…
Incoming medical students, I know you’re excited about medical school. I was in your same exact position about 2 years ago to the day. Every day I went to sleep and thought about how cool medical school was going to be, how much cool stuff I was going to learn, and how much my life was going to change.
by Michael Smith Life is better but the quality of surgical training has gone down in the wake of a Swiss law restricting surgical residents' hours. That was the view of both the residents and the surgical consultants who supervise…
by Michael Smith
Life is better but the quality of surgical training has gone down in the wake of a Swiss law restricting surgical residents’ hours.
That was the view of both the residents and the surgical consultants who supervise them in a survey conducted by Daniel Oertli, MD, of University Hospital Basel in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues.
Less than 9% of residents and less than 5% of surgical consultants saw the change …
