What’s keeping PrEP under wraps
PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a safe and effective medication that can prevent at-risk patients from contracting HIV, yet the treatment is not widely known by physicians or the patient base that could benefit most from it. Learn what HIV experts say about the treatment and the obstacles to integrating it into primary care practice.
Getting the word out
PrEP reaches a small proportion of the Americans who could benefit from it, experts said at an education session by the AMA LGBT Advisory Committee during the 2016 AMA Annual Meeting.
“What’s really interesting about it is a lot of people haven’t heard ab...
Source: AMA Wire - July 19, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Later start date could ease transition to new Medicare system
Testifying before the U.S. Committee on Finance, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt made known concerns about physician readiness for implementation of the new Medicare payment system. Physicians already know the answer to that problem—a later start date and transition period.
“We need to launch this program so that it begins on the right foot, and that means that every physician in the country needs to feel like they’re set up for success,” Slavitt said. “We remain open to multiple approaches. Some of the things … that we’re considering include alternative star...
Source: AMA Wire - July 18, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Social media: How to reap the benefits while avoiding the hazards
A tweet said the small-town hospital was deluged with suicidal patients that day, and the person who posted it appeared to show frustration with the endless hassle. The post could be seen as whiny, disrespectful and invasive of patient privacy—or supportive and compassionate, depending on how it was read.
Thinking ahead
This tweet illustrates the two edges of the social media sword—an opportunity to promote health care and a minefield that can scar a physician for years to come. How to navigate Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media to help your patients and foster your online image as a positive one w...
Source: AMA Wire - July 18, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
5 Nutrition Facts misconceptions that sabotage patient health
The fight against diabetes and heart disease also means fighting nutritional misunderstandings and offering sound advice to patients. A new video helps dispel common misconceptions about the Nutrition Facts label found on food packages and offers physicians guidance on how to educate their patients.
Designed to help patients better understand what they are consuming and make more informed decisions about their daily diet, the Nutrition Facts label can be a powerful tool when used correctly.
A new video from the AMA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers tips to get started using the label and describes ...
Source: AMA Wire - July 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Easing the burden: An end-of-life decision tool to help patients
Talking about and planning for end-of-life care can be difficult for patients and their families. Often these conversations occur too late or even not at all. Recently, Stanford University Department of Medicine developed a project that empowers patients to take the initiative to talk to their physician about what matters most to them at the end of their lives.
Without end-of life decisions on file, a patient’s care decisions may be made by family members and the care team and not reflect what the patient actually wants. A new module from the AMA’s STEPS Forward™ collection of practice improvement initiatives can h...
Source: AMA Wire - July 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Network with academic colleagues Nov. 11 in Seattle
Academic physicians should plan to attend the 2016 AMA Academic Physicians Section (APS) Interim Meeting, Nov. 11 at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle. This event will be held prior to the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges, taking place Nov. 11-15.
The meeting begins at 1 p.m. (with an optional new member orientation/update at 10 a.m.). Meeting registration is free of charge.
Plan to attend this important event so that you can:
Hear an update on the progress of the AMA's Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium
Play a role in developing AMA medical education policy by reviewin...
Source: AMA Wire - July 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Amy Farouk Source Type: news
Keys to cultivating empathy in residency
With burnout on the rise and so many competing demands, cultivating a healthy sense of empathy can be a struggle. Dhruv Khullar, MD, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and contributor to the New York Times Well blog, shared insights following a special AMA tweet chat.
AMA Wire: How can a resident work to maintain pragmatic empathy over the long term?
Dr. Khullar: We go into medicine to help others, and empathy is at the core of what we do as doctors. But as enriching and inspiring as medical training can be, it can also be demanding and overwhelming. Maintaining our empathy and compassi...
Source: AMA Wire - July 14, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Amy Farouk Source Type: news
HHS begins second phase of HIPAA audits
The second phase of audits for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations is underway. These audits provide an opportunity to get out ahead of problems that may exist before they result in breaches. Learn what you need to know about the process and the specific HIPAA provisions being reviewed.
The 2016 phase 2 HIPAA audit program, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), is a key part of OCR’s health information privacy, security and breach notification compliance activities. The audit program allows OCR to assess covered en...
Source: AMA Wire - July 13, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Online database simplifies residency, fellowship search
The go-to online resource for finding residencies and fellowships is turning 20. Learn what users have to say about FREIDA Online®, the AMA Residency & Fellowship Database™, and how students can use it to make informed decisions about the next big step in their careers.
Customizing the search
FREIDA—Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access—provides custom searches of more than 10,000 residency and fellowship programs to help students and residents find a match. Users can search by geographic areas, specialties and keywords. They can review basic program data and training statistics, find m...
Source: AMA Wire - July 13, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Amy Farouk Source Type: news
How faculty, students can improve care while saving money
Medical school faculty could do more to cultivate a new generation of physicians focused on containing health care costs, a new research report finds. It outlines the opportunities and obstacles on the road to greater cost consciousness.
The ethical imperative
Nine out of 10 students agree that physicians have a role in containing costs as well as limiting unnecessary tests and treatments for the sake of patients and society, according to a report in Academic Medicine. But it found that faculty and physicians must lead the way, modeling cost-conscious behavior and making clear it has a place in clinical practice.
“...
Source: AMA Wire - July 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Court case examines telemedicine safety regulations
A case before a United States Court of Appeals could restrict a state medical board from protecting patient safety through the regulation of telemedicine in that state.
At stake in Teladoc, Inc. v. Texas Medical Board is whether the Texas Medical Board has demonstrated immunity from federal antitrust laws.
The Court of Appeals is being asked to determine whether the Board may be held liable under the antitrust laws for its rule requiring a “defined physician-patient relationship to exist before a physician may prescribe dangerous or addictive medications. The necessary relationship is defined as established through...
Source: AMA Wire - July 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
The physician ’s essential art of balancing emotion and logic
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Source: AMA Wire - July 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
The physician’s essential art of balancing emotion and logic
From patient to patient and from hospital to home, physicians have to toggle back and forth between the emotional and rational parts of their minds to be effective in both establishing a therapeutic relationship and logically determining the best course of treatment. But how do you find the appropriate balance?
In a piece for the New York Times Well blog titled, “Death and sandwiches,” Dhruv Khullar, MD, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, investigated a skill that physicians develop over the course of their training—toggling between the rational and emotional sides of their minds.
T...
Source: AMA Wire - July 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
How much do you know about carrier screening?
As prenatal genetic screening options expand, physicians face questions about which screening is best for individual patients. Test your knowledge about new expanded carrier screening and what role it can play in clinical practice.
Casting a wider net
Genomics is part of precision medicine, the science of crafting treatments to fit a patient’s particular genes, environment and lifestyle. Unlike traditional one-size-fits-all treatments, precision medicine tools enable clinicians to better understand a patient’s health and conditions, and better determine what treatments will be most effective for that particular per...
Source: AMA Wire - July 11, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
Inside peek: Test-driving clinical skills before rotations
The rising third-year student, tongue between his teeth, slowly drove his needle into a silicone pad meant to mimic human skin, then pulled his thread tight and started in again.
Steady hands and keen focus meant clean stitches at the suturing table, one of seven skills stations at the clinical skills workshop.
Theodore Zaki sealed up the gash with a classic horizontal mattress suture, not unlike the stitches in a baseball, then straightened up and took a satisfied breath.
“You want to do anything you can to avoid looking like an idiot on the first da...
Source: AMA Wire - July 11, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news
