Residents, attendings, and the physicians who remember training writing on KevinMD about residency: intern year, duty hours, supervision and autonomy, pay and unions, having a family during training, mistreatment, the Match for international medical graduates, and what physicians say should change about how residents are trained. Many contributors write anonymously, and many write while still in training. For a maintained record of what residents and attendings have said about residency itself on KevinMD since 2004, from intern year through the end of training, attributed by author and date and organized by question, see Residency: what residents and attendings say, in their own words. For what international medical graduates have said about the Match, visas, and being foreign in American medicine, see Immigration and medicine: what physicians say about immigrant doctors and immigrant patients, in their own words. Medical school itself is a separate record.
by Chris Emery, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
Reductions in resident physician work-hours at teaching hospitals in 2003 were associated with an increase in complications related to surgery to repair hip fractures, a new study found.
The rates of pneumonia, hematoma, renal complications, and blood transfusions associated with hip surgery rose disproportionally at teaching hospitals compared to other hospitals after resident …
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Do resident work-hour restrictions increase surgical complications?
by Larry Husten, Ph.D.
A recent hearing of the Senate Aging Committee on continuing medical education (CME) should scare anyone who might need to see a doctor in the next few years. But you don’t need to be a Washington policy wonk to discover that there’s a huge problem with CME.
Just walk into the lobby of any major downtown hotel when a large medical conference is in town and you will …
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How to make industry influence transparent in continuing medical education
The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American College of Physicians.
by Steven Weinberger, MD, FACP
In his column in the June 1 issue of The New Yorker, Dr. Atul Gawande used the example of McAllen, Texas, to illustrate the widely disparate spending on health care around the country. This oft cited article captured the attention of President Obama, who reportedly has made it required …
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ACP: Embracing a culture of cost-effective health care
A common complaint is that doctors these days are spending more time doing clerical tasks.
Examples include filling out pre-authorization forms, talking to health plans for pre-certifications on imaging studies, and spending time jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Generally, you do not need a medical degree to do these tasks.
Bob Doherty points to a study that gives some numbers to back up the claims. Primary care doctors spend about 3.5 …
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How much time do doctors spend on paperwork?
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Mediaslackers on the UK’s proposed 48-hour physician workweek:
I agree there are significant dangers inherent with limiting the number of hours a doctor can work in a week, but I don’t think they are totally insurmountable or all that much greater than when a doctor is working 30 hours straight, getting a divorce …
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6 top medical comments, April 26th 2009
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Manalive on quality measures:
It is almost always a leap of faith to apply evidence-based guidelines to the frail elderly, to patients with many medical problems, to alcoholics, to the poorly insured — in short, to a large percentage of my practice. Accordingly, I have been on the wrong end of too many …
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6 top medical comments, April 19th 2009
The following is reader take by Half MD.
The third Thursday of March each year is Match Day for fourth-year medical students. There are many smiles and frowns made on this day when soon-to-be doctors discover where they will obtain their first job to continue their medical training. While Match Day is the most famous day of the week, Monday and Tuesday are the …
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Half MD: How to fix the scramble before Match Day
Would Natasha Richardson be alive today if she had gone skiing in the United States instead?
I don’t think it would have made a difference.
To recap the tragedy, Ms. Richardson died from an epidural bleed, after she fell while skiing. Her presentation was somewhat classic, with the well-described “lucid” period before she deteriorated.
According to Canada’s Globe and Mail, “ambulance workers were not …
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Did the Canadian health system fail Natasha Richardson?
Doctors in training often do so in their prime family-rearing years.
A few pediatric residencies are offering part-time residency options, designed for those who also want to raise their own families. Proponents argue that residents can not only get more rest, but also avoid depression, which affected almost a quarter of pediatrics residents.
Combined with the talk of further limiting work hours down to 56 …
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Is there a place for a part-time medical residency?
