Doctor Of Osteopathic Medicine: A Growing Share Of The Physician Workforce
Conclusion
The doctor of osteopathic medicine workforce is growing rapidly with no signs of decreases in the quality of students accepted or their success in matching into a residency training program, which has been steadily rising. Given the doctor of osteopathic medicine workforce’s higher likelihood of practicing in rural communities and of pursuing careers in primary care, doctors of osteopathic medicine are on track to play an increasingly important role in ensuring access to care nationwide, including for our most vulnerable populations.
Note 1
Since some residencies are jointly accredited by both the ACGME and th...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 23, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Edward Salsberg and Clese Erikson Tags: Health Professionals Population Health doctors of osteopathic medicine osteopaths physician supply Source Type: blogs
ABMS Launches New Initiative: Continuing Board Certification
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its twenty-four Member Boards have launched a major initiative, "Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future" (Commission). A collaborative process, the Commission will bring together multiple partners to vision a system of continuing board certification that is meaningful, relevant and of value, while remaining responsive to the patients, hospitals and others who expect that physician specialists are maintaining their knowledge and skills to provide quality specialty care.
The Planning Committee to establish the Commission will include representatives from: A...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 13, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Residents need to learn medicine, not how to pass a test
In his famous novel, Moneyball, Michael Lewis illustrates the phenomenon of professional baseball scouts focusing on all the wrong characteristics when looking at players. He describes how scouts focus on fastball velocity as a way to compare pitchers, despite the lack of correlation between fastball speed and the quality of a pitcher. As it turns out, the most important factor in a pitcher is deception, not a high-velocity fastball. The goal, after all, is to get batters out, not throw the hardest pitch. Lewis theorizes that because pitch speed is easy to measure, and easy to compare, it became overemphasized. The princip...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 14, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/eric-w-toth" rel="tag" > Eric W. Toth, DO < /a > Tags: Education Emergency Medical school Residency Source Type: blogs
Maintenance of Conflict of Interest?
By WESTBY FISHER, MD
In the May 2nd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the American Medical Association (AMA) discusses the subject of physician conflicts of interest in medicine. This puts them at an interesting juncture when the editor-in-Chief and executive editor of JAMA failed to disclose their relationship with the AMA and the AMA’s relationship with US physicians. The AMA still presents itself to the public and legislators as representing Americas’ doctors, even though representing US physicians’ interests has not been their financial priority for many years. In fact, it i...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Maintainance of Conflict of Interest?
By WESTBY FISHER, MD
In the May 2nd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the American Medical Association (AMA) discusses the subject of physician conflicts of interest in medicine. This puts them at an interesting juncture when the editor-in-Chief and executive editor of JAMA failed to disclose their relationship with the AMA and the AMA’s relationship with US physicians. The AMA still presents itself to the public and legislators as representing Americas’ doctors, even though representing US physicians’ interests has not been their financial priority for many years. In fact, it i...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The little-known ACGME guideline change every resident should know
On July 1st, 2017, the updated Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements will take effect. The increase in the maximum continuous work hour shift from 16 to 24 hours has surely received the most attention, and will likely continue to do so.
However, the ACGME did make some significant improvements in this latest guideline update worth noting. Among them was a slight conjunctional switch from an “and/or” to an “and” that now requires all residency programs in the country to ensure both post-call rooms and transportation options for residents who may feel too fatigued to...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 2, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/christopher-gable" rel="tag" > Christopher Gable < /a > Tags: Education Medical school Residency Source Type: blogs
Defending the change in resident duty hour restrictions
After thirteen years of duty hours restrictions, it was important for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to assess the impact those regulations had had on patient safety and resident training. So last year, on March 16 to 17, 2016, the ACGME convened a congress on resident duty hours in Chicago. It was evident to everyone who attended that the ACGME had made a real commitment to hear all the evidence and do what was best for our residents, our patients, and our profession. I was impressed by the thoughtful analysis presented at that meeting by many medical and surgical disciplines.
Almost univ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 2, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/robert-e-harbaugh" rel="tag" > Robert E. Harbaugh, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Residency Source Type: blogs
The secret horrors of sleep-deprived doctors
Recently, the ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) made the reckless decision to increase work hours to 28-hour shifts for new doctors. Here are the catastrophic consequences of their decision. Here are actual quotes from physicians (de-identified with some patient details changed to protect confidentiality):
“I did my internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology before laws existed to regulate resident hours. My first two years were extremely brutal, working 110 to 120 hours/week, and up to 40 hours straight. I got to witness colleagues collapse unconscious in the hallway during r...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 12, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/pamela-wible" rel="tag" > Pamela Wible, MD < /a > Tags: Education Hospital Residency Source Type: blogs
Don ’t Ease Resident Work Hour Restrictions
One evening in May, 1999, when I was an intern, I fell asleep at the wheel driving home from a 36-hour shift at the hospital. Drives like that occurred not infrequently in those days, and I had developed techniques to fight off fatigue. Singing at the top of my lungs was one. Opening my car window wide to the brisk Chicago winds was another. Sometimes I had to combine one or both of these with a third, literally prying open an eyelid with one hand while steering with the other. I am embarrassed to reveal today how poor my judgment was then. How could I have taken such risks, endangering not only myself but others as well? ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 27, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Emmet Hirsch Tags: Featured Health Professionals general medical education physicians perspective resident work hours residents Source Type: blogs
Travel Ban Is Revealing —but Does Not Threaten American Medicine
BY JANE ORIENT, MD
A 90-day ban on travel from seven countries has sparked tremendous outpourings of worry or outright opposition by some 33 medical organizations.
“The community is reeling over the order, fearing that it will have devastating repercussions for research and advances in science and medicine,” states an article in Modern Healthcare.
Certainly the order is disrupting the lives of individual physicians who have won coveted positions in American medical institutions and were not already in the U.S. when the order was issued. Also their employers have a gap in the work schedule to fill. War tears people’s ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Your doctors may be lying about how long they worked today
America’s resident physicians have strict limits on how many hours they can work in the hospital. Many break that limit and keep quiet about it. Others lie.
Resident physicians are the doctors-in-training that millions of Americans come into contact with at teaching hospitals across the country. We work for three to seven years (it depends on the medical specialty) under the supervision of attending physicians. From admission to discharge, we are the often-tired, ever-present doctors who likely take part in your hospital care.
We are supposed to follow rules that specify how many hours we are able to work in a single str...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 12, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/christopher-lee-bennett" rel="tag" > Christopher Lee Bennett, MD < /a > Tags: Education Hospital Residency Source Type: blogs
What New Resident Work Hours Mean For Physician Well-Being And Patient Safety
Late last year, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) issued proposed revisions to the Common Program Requirements for residency and fellowship training.
At the heart of the proposed new requirements is this philosophy: Residency education must occur in a learning and working environment that fosters excellence in the safety and quality of care delivered to patients today and in the future. The important corollary is that physician well-being is crucial to their ability to deliver the safest, best possible care to patients.
In keeping with this philosophy, the proposed changes to the Common Progr...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 9, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Thomas Nasca Tags: Featured Health Professionals Quality ACGME duty hours graduate medical eduction Physicians resident training Source Type: blogs
A Vote To Reimagine Residency
I can’t say I knew much about medicine when I decided to become a physician. There were no physicians in my family. I had yet to learn about cells, anatomy, or antibiotics. I didn’t watch ER. I had no concept of health insurance, deductibles, or co-pays. But I understood fairness. And, as a young boy in Colorado, I watched loved ones—with addiction, cancer, and other ailments—suffer the misfortune of illness and the injustice of unmet medical needs. I saw in medicine an opportunity to find voice and to remedy the unfairness around me, to address failed policies.
Medicine and Politics
On November 8, I cast m...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - December 13, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Jarrad Aguirre Tags: Featured Health Professionals ACGME general medical education physicians perspective residency Source Type: blogs
Changing resident work-hours doesn ’t address the root of the issue
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) released a proposal last month that will affect physicians in their first year of training after medical school. Currently, there are regulations to prevent these doctors from working more than 16 hours at a time. The new proposal wants to remove these limits, extending the maximum shift to 28 consecutive hours.
There is an outpouring of public discourse on the issue with valid arguments on all sides. Should we keep the current restrictions or implement the new proposal?
Here’s the thing: Neither side addresses the root of the issue. Permanent, cultural ref...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 20, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/jamie-katuna" rel="tag" > Jamie Katuna < /a > Tags: Education Residency Source Type: blogs
The new hour restrictions for residents: Stop with the manipulation
On Friday, November 4, Thomas Nasca, MD, the chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), released a letter outlining the proposed changes to intern work hour restrictions and other regulations.
Specifically, the proposed update is expanding the previous restrictions to the length of the intern (who is a physician in their very first year out of medical school) work day from 16 to up to 28 hours. Strong opinions regarding the proposals have been shared by veteran physicians, medical educators, medical student and resident groups. Overall, I have felt encouraged that these com...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 14, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/michael-ward-and-nicole-zagelbaum" rel="tag" > Michael Ward and Nicole Zagelbaum < /a > Tags: Education Residency Source Type: blogs
