APPROVAL for a medical school at Charles Sturt University could be just months away, according to the universitys advisor, Professor John Dwyer.

Advocates for the medical school, designed to boost doctor numbers in the bush, have welcomed a meeting planned with NSW health minister Jillian Skinner as the next step towards making the training facility a reality.

In a formal letter to CSU, Ms Skinner invited the university to start negotiations with the government on student numbers, medical training requirements and infrastructure for the medical school.

While final approval for the school rests with federal health minister Tanya Plibersek, the letter from Ms Skinner was fantastic news, according to Professor Dwyer.

Both the university and I went and spoke to the government and we got a very warm reception, he said.

Its obviously an important move for the NSW Government to be supporting it.

CSUs director of corporate affairs Mark Burdack said the Federal Government had made it clear State Government support for the school was essential.

Because medical training is undertaken in hospitals [the NSW Government] plays a critical role in making available training spaces, he said.

He said the university would now develop a curriculum model for the school and take the plans to the NSW health minister. Professor Dwyer again reiterated the importance of community support to get the medical school off the ground after a two-year campaign.

With 25,000 supporters and growing ... the Central West community is putting the pressure on the government, he said.

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Health minister in talks over CSU medical school

News 12 This Morning at 6 o'clock // Thursday, July 12, 2012

AUGUSTA, GA -- The state of Georgia is facing a critical shortage in the number of doctors. This, despite Georgia Health Sciences seeing an increase in the number of applicants wanting to attend the medical school. An aging population, more people moving to the state, and the health care law could flood the market with even more patients.

The only public medical school in Georgia saw a record number of students applying. Yet, the state ranks number 41 in the entire nation, when it comes to the number of doctors per capita. "We are under producing number of doctors to meet the health care needs of Georgians," said Dr. Peter F. Buckley, the dean of the Medical College of Georgia at GHSU.

The problem is worse for patients in rural parts of the state. That's why the school is ramping up efforts to train and keep more doctors inside Georgia's borders. "We've been engaged in an effort to create new residency position, particularly in general medicine," Dr. Buckley added.

He says doctors who train in the state are more likely to stay here. The school is also reaching out to students state-wide, through education at clinical training sites and regional clinical campuses. "We currently train 190 top students per class here in Augusta, and we have forty outstanding students in partnership with the University of Georgia in our Athens program."

Through the support of state lawmakers they're planning to partner with more hospitals to open up residency slots. "Bring new hospitals into the residency program development that haven't been involved before," Buckley said.

The school is also preparing to unveil a new Education Commons in 2014. "This will allow us to ultimately teach a class size of 300 medical students per class in what will be state of the art facilities," he added.

Responding to the national need of more doctors by increasing the number of medical students that train and practice in the state. The Medical College of Georgia is the tenth in the nation in terms of number of medical students they train. They saw a 10% increase in people applying to the school. A significant increase, considering across the county it was a 2.5% increase.

The campus in Athens which opened a couple of years ago helped increased overall class size. The students that enrolled at the Athens campus all started their clinical rotation through northeast Georgia this summer.

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Doctor shortage leading GHSU to increase class size over time

More than six years ago, when Florida International University secured the green light to create a new medical school at its West Miami-Dade main campus, the affirmative vote by the states Board of Governors was hailed as perhaps the most important in the universitys history.

Leading up to that yes vote, FIU leaders presented a finely tuned sales pitch that highlighted the expected benefits of a new med school: significant economic impact, increased numbers of minority physicians and increased access to healthcare among the regions underserved populations.

We have the largest concentration in the state of underserved citizens, then-FIU President Modesto Mitch Maidique told the Board of Governors in a formal presentation prior to the key vote.

But now that FIUs medical school is up and running with a clinic that began seeing public patients in April the school has been placed on the defensive because of the limited access it provides to a key segment of the medically underserved: Medicaid patients.

The universitys on-campus Faculty Group Practice, comprising a handful of full-time FIU faculty physicians, does not accept Medicaid patients, and does not expect to do so for about six months. The clinic includes two family-practice physicians, an internist, four gynecologists and several other doctors, with plans to add specialists in areas such as neurology and cardiology.

The clinic is under an umbrella group known as FIU Health, which encompasses 119 full-time medical faculty members and more than 800 part-time volunteer faculty. A patient who calls the FIU Health main hotline seeking a doctor could be referred to any physician within the umbrella group, regardless of whether they are full- or part-time faculty.

Over time, FIU pledges that all its full-time faculty will honor all forms of insurance. Currently, the doctors at FIUs modest 6,000-square-foot Faculty Group Practice accept Medicare, AvMed and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, among others.

The university did confirm that its Faculty Group Practice does not currently accept Medicaid, but said it does not track what insurances are accepted by the 800-plus volunteer doctors under the network.

FIU provided the names of all volunteer faculty to The Miami Herald. That list was compared with the states database of local Medicaid providers, and revealed that almost one-third of those doctors do not accept Medicaid.

I was very disappointed, said Dr. Francisco Pita, a general practice doctor with an office a few blocks from the FIU campus.

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Is FIU health program falling short in its pledge?

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Construction is underway on the state's third medical school at Quinnipiac University in North Haven.

While the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University doesn't look like much now, much like its namesake, a renowned medical illustrator, school officials view it as a palette for change.

"We will train medical students with nursing students, physician assistant students because healthcare more and more is a team activity," said Dr. Bruce Koeppen, Dean, Frank H. Netter School of Medicine.

And more and more in need of primary care doctors.

"If you look at the needs of CT and in fact, the country, there is a physician shortage in general," said Koeppen, "but a severe shortage for primary care physicians."

That's where the medical school, which will be the third medical school in the state, sees its role in the future of healthcare. Its focus will be on training medical students to enter the primary care field.

"Right now if you look at the national statistics about 15 percent of current medical students are planning a career in primary care," said Koeppen. "We hope that 50 percent or more of our graduates will go into primary care."

Studies in the medical field indicate lower salaries and less control over work hours in primary care practice play a role in steering med students to specialized fields.

Yet, Koeppen says there is no better time to grow the field of primary care than now, especially since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, which supports more preventative health care.

"Absolutely, you've got the uninsured who will have insurance," Koeppen said. "Estimates are 30 plus million. You also have the baby boomers that are entering the Medicare system and there you've got 80 million plus, so there will be a huge influx of patients into the health care system."

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Construction begins on QU med school

Gevvie Stone has promised herself that the next phase of her life begins on Aug. 27 when she returns to Tufts Medical School for her third-year residency.

That gives her about six more weeks to immerse herself in the dream of nearly every young athlete in America as the Newton rower represents the United States in the 2012 London Summer Games.

For the past decade, Stone has done her best to alternate between the two spectacular parts of her life. She won an NCAA championship while a student at Princeton University and then moved back to the Boston area to begin medical school while she trained daily on the Charles River.

It was a workload and time-management puzzle that would have crushed many a twenty-something who lacked the focus and discipline of someone like Stone. But it was one she felt she managed well in all but a few of the most extreme cases.

The one time that was really tricky was the spring of my second year when I was studying for board exams, she said. At the same time, I had won the National Selection Regatta, so I was already defined as the U.S. single scull for the World Cup. So I felt more pressure on myself to train more seriously because I wanted to perform at the World Cup, while at the same time I was supposed to be spending 12 hours a day in the library studying for my board exams.

That was the only time where I was full-time training and full-time studying, and I was probably not at 100 percent for either. I probably didnt get anywhere near enough sleep.

Once Stone got through her boards June 15, 2010, she remembers - she knew the better part of the next two years would be dedicated to rowing as she attempted to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Lisa, who rowed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and her father and coach, Gregg, who was likely headed to the 1980 Moscow Games until the U.S. boycott.

It was tremendous challenge of training on the water and in the weight room that saw its share of achievements and its share of setbacks. It all came down this spring when she competed in the single sculls at the 2012 Non-Qualified Small Boat Olympic Trials and won. That earned her a spot at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta where she would need to finish top four to make the Olympic team in the only window of opportunity her school and impending medical career would likely allow.

She finished third. She was going to London.

She was fulfilling that dream she said every little girl athlete has at one moment of her life.

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Newton rower Gevvie Stone on her way to London Olympics

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- The 84-year-old baseball has been sitting in Elizabeth Gott's drawer for years, but now she's hoping it will pay off her son's medical school debt.

New York Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig smashed the ball into the bleachers for a home run during the 1928 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Gehrig hit the homer off Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander while teammate Babe Ruth was on base and called it his most significant homerun at the time, according to a newspaper account.

Hunt Auctions plans to sell the ball Tuesday at the All-Star FanFest in Kansas City, Mo., and predicts it could fetch $100,000 to $200,000. Online bidding has already begun, with the top bid at about $37,000 as of Thursday.

Gott, a 57-year-old Stamford resident, said she's selling the ball on behalf of her 30-year-old son, Michael.

''I'm just sort of floored by the whole thing,'' she said. ''It has a lot of history. It's a lot about America. To think that it's possible the team that we rooted for could actually help my son pay off some of his medical school debt, any amount would be fine.''

Michael Gott, who is in his last year of residency, said he was surprised at the potential value of the ball. He said his medical school debt was nearly $200,000.

''I'm extremely fortunate that this occurred and definitely I'm extremely thankful that something so lucky would happen to me,'' Gott said. ''I'm ... very appreciative that someone in my family was able to contribute to something I worked so hard for.''

Gott said the ball was a gift to him from his uncle, who received it from other relatives of Buddy Kurland, who is Elizabeth Gott's great-uncle.

Kurland, who lived in Manchester, had gone to the game with his friend Scotty Stevenson. Kurland nearly caught Gehrig's three-run homer, but a fan knocked his cap over his eyes and he dropped the ball, according to a newspaper account. Stevenson picked up the ball and gave it to Kurland.

''There she goes right into the bleachers in center field,'' broadcaster Graham McNamee said, according to the account. ''He's got it. No, he hasn't. It's his error, the first error of the day. It has fallen from his hands and everybody else is trying to find it.''

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Conn. family selling Lou Gehrig's home run ball

Brandon Universitys medical school recommendation report has been submitted to the province.

President Deborah Poff, along with representatives from BU, the University of Manitoba and other committee members, met Tuesday to discuss the feasibility study that had been completed by two consultants.

Poff submitted the report Thursday and will be meeting with the Council on Post-Secondary Education on July 13.

Poff wouldnt discuss the recommendations, but said she was pleased to see it moving forward.

Itll feel better when we know what people are going to do with it, she said.

Last spring, the Manitoba government provided $350,000 to conduct the feasibility study to determine how enhancing medical education in Brandon can help to increase the number of doctors across the province.

The study is looking at a variety of options, including a stand-alone medical school in Brandon, a satellite program expansion from the University of Manitoba in partnership with BU and a continuation or expansion of existing models of rotational and educational experiences.

Earlier this year, Poff said she would like to see the university involved in medical education either stand-alone or partnered.

The recommendation report was originally supposed to be submitted to the Council on Post-Secondary Education on March 31, but was given two extensions.

jaustin@brandonsun.com

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University submits medical school study to province

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First year Medical Students Travis Corgan, left, and Christine Dahlhausen wait to don their white coats during the Texas Tech Paul L. Foster School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony at the Plaza Theatre.

El Pasoan Victoria Nuez smiled after putting on her white medical coat for the first time during a ceremony Saturday for the newest class of students at El Paso's medical school.

Nuez is one of the 80 students in the fourth class to enter the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. Nuez is among 12 El Pasoans in the medical school's Class of 2016.

The new students were given the coats, which are symbolic of the medical profession, during a White Coat Ceremony at the Plaza Theatre. The White Coat Ceremony is a milestone that marks entering the medical field and signifies the responsibility to take care of patients.

Nuez, a graduate of Americas High School and the University of Texas at Austin, said she was happy to attend medical school in her hometown.

"It means so much," Nuez said. "I still have family here. I have that support network from my family. I can give back to my community."

Nuez said she was inspired to become a doctor by her grandfather, Dr. Germinal Nuez, who was a doctor in El Paso before he retired, and her aunt, Dr. Lourdes Nuez of Miami.

Medical school leaders said the new group of students were selected from 2,900 applicants. The school now has 260 students, including the newest class.

The school's first class will graduate next May in what will be a milestone for the medical school, which for decades was only a dream for El Paso, said Dr. J. Manuel de la Rosa, the medical school's founding

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New medical school student sees chance to serve El Paso

Public release date: 4-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Fessenden james.fessenden@umassmed.edu 508-856-2600 University of Massachusetts Medical School

WORCESTER, MA Older patients undergoing cardiac surgery often experience changes in cognitive function, such as memory problems or an inability to focus, in the days immediately following their operations. While these changes are usually temporary, for unknown reasons, a significant number of cardiac patients will encounter long-term cognitive problems, lasting as long as a year after their surgeries.

Now, new research published in the July 5 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), establishes a link between postoperative delirium and prolonged loss of cognitive function in cardiac surgery patients. Led by investigators at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Aging Brain Center at Hebrew SeniorLife, the findings suggest that interventions to prevent delirium in advance of surgery could help cardiac patients avoid long-term cognitive consequences.

A state of confusion that can develop following illness, infection or surgery, delirium is one of the most common complications in hospitalized patients over age 65. "Our findings now suggest that postoperative delirium, once thought of as an acute, transient cognitive disorder, may have longer-term effects on cognitive function in patients undergoing cardiac surgery," said co-lead author Jane Saczynski, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

While delirium has been studied quite extensively in other patient populations, including general medical and surgical patients and orthopedic surgery patients, few studies of delirium have targeted cardiac surgery patients. "With the aging of the patient population undergoing cardiac surgery and increases in survival after surgery, clinicians and patients are increasingly concerned with factors associated with quality of life, including cognitive status, as major outcomes of surgery," the authors write. "Whether postoperative delirium is associated with prolonged cognitive dysfunction has been unclear."

The researchers followed 225 patients, aged 60 to 90, who underwent either coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or heart valve replacement surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), UMass Memorial Medical Center or the Boston VA Medical Center, for one year after their surgeries, assessing them for both delirium and cognitive impairment.

"One of the real strengths of our study is that we assessed patients' cognitive function preoperatively and an average of five times during the year after surgery," said co-lead author Edward Marcantonio, MD, section chief for research in BIDMC's Division of General Medicine and Primary Care and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Previous research had shown an association between postoperative delirium and functional decline in activities of daily living [such as grooming and dressing, driving, shopping, preparing meals and managing medications and finances.] But, believe it or not, the one thing that's been most uncertain is the association between delirium and long-term cognitive difficulties. This study allowed us to accurately model the course of cognitive function and to compare the rate of recovery among patients with and without postoperative delirium."

The results showed that compared with patients who did not experience delirium, the 103 patients who developed delirium after cardiac surgery 46 percent of the total experienced a more significant drop in cognitive performance immediately following surgery, as determined by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). They also took significantly longer to recover back to their pre-surgical level of function than did patients who did not develop delirium. For example, five days after surgery, nearly half of those who did not develop delirium had returned to pre-operative levels of function while less than 20 percent of those who did develop delirium had returned to pre-operative level of function; six months after surgery, more than three-quarters of those without delirium had recovered cognitively compared to only 60 percent of those with delirium.

Although patients who developed delirium took longer to recover to their pre-operative levels of cognitive performance, they continued to improve in the weeks and months after surgery. Cognitive performance reached preoperative levels and stabilized one month after surgery in patients who did not develop delirium but continued to improve until six months after surgery in those with delirium.

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Postoperative delirium in cardiac surgery patients associated with prolonged cognitive impairment

Israeli medical students donate books to Patan Academy for the Health Science

Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Hanan Goder-Goldberger on Thursday handed over a collection of books sent from the Medical School for International Health (Soroka University Medical Center), Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel to Prof. Dr. Rajesh Gangol, Dean of the Patan Academy for the Health Science.

The book was handed over to Dr Gangol amidst a ceremony held at the Patan Hospital.

The books have been collected from the students of the Ben Gurion Unitersity School for International Health in Beer Sheva, Israel with the initiative of Professor Michael Alkan for the students of Patan Academy of Medical Science. Prof. Alkan has been instrumental in promoting Patan Academy for Health Science in Israel since its inception in 2008.

In recent years there is ongoing cooperation and sharing of knowhow and exchange of professional staffs from Israel to Nepal and Nepal to Israel.

During the Ceremony Prof. Dr. Gangol expressed his appreciation for the ongoing cooperation between the two hospitals and the two universities. He hopes that this cooperation will further develop in the future.

Ambassador Goder-Goldberger expressed his satisfaction for the ongoing cooperation between two hospitals and said that the Embassy will be happy to see such projects in the future too. nepalnews.com

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Israeli medical students donate books to Patan Academy for the Health Science

"We live in a country where people like to point out all the things that are wrong in the U.S. To me, yeah, nothing's perfect, but there are so many things we have right here. To truly be able to be grateful for those things, I need to give back and serve my country." - Linnea Simcik, Bloomfield HS (Courtesy of Linnea Simcik / July 2, 2012)

Linnea Simcik said she wants to go to medical school, and serve her country in the military.

"We live in a country where people like to point out all the things that are wrong in the U.S.," Simcik said. "To me, yeah, nothing's perfect, but there are so many things we have right here. To truly be able to be grateful for those things, I need to give back and serve my country."

Simcik will attend Southern Virginia University in the fall and study biology, with a minor in computer science. She will also attend Virginia Military Institute's ROTC program.

In the future, Simcik said she hopes to be a radiologist and, eventually, a military doctor. She said she is "fascinated" with medicine and how the body works.

"I've always known I wanted to go into a career where I could directly help people," Simcik said.

In addition to playing varsity tennis and leading her church's youth group, Simcik was a member of the National French and Spanish Honors Society and was a battalion commander in JROTC.

Simcik said she received the Yale Book Award and the University of Rochester Academic Award and was a Governor's Scholar Semifinalist, in addition to school achievement awards.

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Class Acts: Linnea Simcik, Bloomfield High School

Posted on | July 3, 2012 | Comments

Newly amended legislation calls on lawmakers to put UC Riversides medical school at the top of the list for any money from the settlement of a federal lawsuit against the Senior Care Action Network health plan.

Until this week, the measure by Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, dealt with improving roads needed for fire suppression. It passed the Assembly in May 2011 and was awaiting consideration in the Senate.

Mondays amendments would require the state to give the UCR Medical School $15 million from the impending settlement of what the bill says is the U.S. Department of Justices investigation of the senior health plans payment rates. The states share is expected to exceed $100 million, according to the bill.

Notwithstanding any other law, from any amount paid to the State of California as a result of an investigation into possible overpayments of state funds to the Senior Care Action Network (SCAN) Health Plan and available for expenditure for the purposes of this act, as the highest priority for the use of these funds, fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000) shall be transferred to the Regents of the University of California for allocation, without regard to fiscal year, to the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, reads the bill.

Millers district doesnt include UC Riverside. The campus, though, is part of the 31st Senate District, where Miller faces Democrat Richard Roth, a Riverside attorney, in one of the states most competitive races. Roth touted his support for the medical school in campaign mailers leading up to the June 5 primary.

By: Jim Miller

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MEDICAL SCHOOL New bill says school should get $15 million

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Marshall University's medical school and Cabell Huntington Hospital will be featured in Thursday's episode of NBC's Rock Center, the hospital announced Tuesday.

The newsmagazine will feature the Maternal Addiction and Recovery Center at MU's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Cabell Huntington.

NBC will air the newsmagazine at 10 p.m. Thursday on WSAZ-TV.

An NBC news crew spent time at the hospital in early April and interviewed Dr. David Chaffin, a maternal fetal specialist and Dr. Sean Loudin, a neontologist, about the medical school and hospital's work to address the issue of opiate drug addiction by pregnant women and its effect on newborns.

"It is our hope that the national media exposure will give pregnant women who are addicted the courage to seek care in treatment programs like our center," said Dr. David C. Jude, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MUSOM. "Receiving prenatal care early in the pregnancy significantly reduces the likelihood of complications of pregnancy, and we hope that increasing awareness of both the problem and places where help is available will inspire women to seek care sooner in their pregnancy.

"Our experience so far has shown us that a little more than half of these women can either use significantly less or come off the medications completely and by doing so significantly reduces the severity of neonatal withdrawal and may prevent some babies from having withdrawal symptoms," Jude said.

The newsmagazine will feature the Maternal Addiction and Recovery Center at MU's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Cabell Huntington.

NBC will air the newsmagazine at 10 p.m. Thursday on WSAZ-TV.

An NBC news crew spent time at the hospital in early April and interviewed Dr. David Chaffin, a maternal fetal specialist and Dr. Sean Loudin, a neontologist, about the medical school and hospital's work to address the issue of opiate drug addiction by pregnant women and its effect on newborns.

"It is our hope that the national media exposure will give pregnant women who are addicted the courage to seek care in treatment programs like our center," said Dr. David C. Jude, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MUSOM. "Receiving prenatal care early in the pregnancy significantly reduces the likelihood of complications of pregnancy, and we hope that increasing awareness of both the problem and places where help is available will inspire women to seek care sooner in their pregnancy.

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MU med school, Cabell Huntington Hospital to be on TV

Media Release 4 July 2012 For Immediate Use

Student Protestors Interrupt John Key at Medical School opening

A group of students has interrupted a speech from Prime Minister John Key as he opened the new Medical and Health Sciences complex at the University of Auckland yesterday.The students from protest group Blockade the Budget stood in the wind and rain chanting 'We're cold, we're wet, we're drowning is student debt!' - One protestor was able to make her way into the ceremony to address Key directly.

The protest was one of a series of demonstrations against the National Government's recent Budget cuts. The Student allowances will no longer be available for post-graduate study, and access will be limited to 200 weeks for longer courses, including many of the degrees on offer at the Medical School. Commenting at the protest, post-graduate student Wednesday Jones said 'Isn't it ironic that millions of dollars were spent on revamping the Medical School while thanks to his shortsighted, selfish and detrimental budget, the school will only ever be accessed by students from wealthy backgrounds.'

Health Sciences student Mark Nelson added 'There is always money for new buildings or public relations campaigns, but nothing to support students from less privileged backgrounds. We should be able to celebrate these facilities as a benefit for everyone, but we know that the business approach to education means that this is an elite facility that will be out of reach for most of us'

When asked about the protest action, Blockade the Budget replied with 'It's only a few weeks since 43 students were abused and arrested by police for protesting against the arrogance of this Government, now we have John Key up here cutting ribbons and acting like a great benefactor. We want people to know the truth, the National Government is destroying education.'

Students are planning a large public demonstration called 'Show and Tell' for the 21st of July. The issues that the group will be protesting against include $400 Million in cuts to early childhood education, the National Standards program, performance based pay for teachers, charter schools and education as a business, $13 Billion worth of Student Debt, cuts to the student allowance scheme and arts funding, the 7th highest tertiary fees in the world and 15% of tertiary students living in absolute financial distress.

Anyone interested in joining the rally against education cuts are encouraged to meet at 1pm on Saturday 21st July at Britomart, Auckland CBD.

ends

Scoop Media

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Students Interrupt John Key at Medical School opening

Using electronic health records could help doctors face fewer malpractice suits, a study by Harvard Medical School researchers revealed.

In their study, called "The Relationship Between Electronic Health Records and Malpractice Claims," the Harvard researchers found that 84 percent of respondents were less likely to face malpractice claims after implementing EHR platforms.

The Archives of Internal Medicine, part of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) network, published the findings on its Website June 25.

Between 2005 and 2007, researchers interviewed 275 doctors in the surgical and medical specialties. Of the claims the doctors received during this period, 49 out of 51 involved events that happened before they adopted EHRs.

Participating doctors were members of Harvard Medical School and covered by a malpractice insurer, Controlled Risk Insurance Company/Risk Management Foundation (CRICO/RMF).

"The high quality and availability of proper documentation in EHRs may increase the likelihood of successful defense against malpractice claims," the report stated.

The authors of the study include Dr. Steven Simon, associate professor with Harvard Medical School and chief of general internal medicine at the VA Boston Healthcare System, as well as Dr. Mariah Quinn of the department of internal medicine at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a nonprofit medical group practice serving eastern Massachusetts.

"At the very least, this study should provide doctors and medical groups with further assurance that EHR adoption is very unlikely to increase their odds of a malpractice claim," Simon told eWEEK in an email.

To arrive at the study's results, Harvard researchers used a statistical method called Poisson regression to find a linear correlation between its 2005 and 2007 results.

"Because physicians in the sample were insured for different durations and used EHRs for variable amounts of time, the number of insured years was calculated for each physician before and after EHR adoption," the report stated.

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EHRs Can Reduce Doctors' Malpractice Claims: Study

SANTA ROSA The Family Medicine Residency Program at Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa announced its incoming class of 2015, selecting 12 medical school graduates out of 618 applicants about half of the nations 1,200 plus applicants in family medicine.

The three-year program, one of 450 family medicine training programs in the United States, is affiliated with the UCSF School of Medicine and has trained hundreds of family physicians since its inception in 1938.

And its become an increasingly vital asset to the regions health care landscape, as the county, the state and much of the nation confronts a persistent and emerging shortage of primary care physicians.

The county faces a shortage of up to 200 physicians over the next 10 years, according to a study commissioned by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services and the Sonoma County Medical Association. The study said the county has some 350 primary care physicians, which is better than the ideal range of 60 to 80 doctors per 100,000 residents. Still, an estimated 22 percent of the countys primary care physicians expected to retire and another percent 6 to 8 percent planning on leaving the area.

In addition the shortage, the nature of primary care has changed dramatically, with more and more physicians joining larger, more coordinated systems versus running a private practice.

Health care is changing in this country and the old models of family medicine, where a physician sits in the office and waits for patients to come to them, are out-dated. In our recruiting, we have positioned ourselves as one of the innovators in the world of family medicine education, said Jeff Haney, residency program director.

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Topics: Kaiser Permanente, physician residency, physicians groups, Santa Rosa Community Health Centers, Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, Sonoma County, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa | Categories: Employment, Health Care and Senior Living, Industry News, North Bay News, People, Position, Sonoma Report, Spotlights and Profiles, Top News Stories

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12 new medical residents are selected as region tries to address physician shortage

In addition to this finding, this finding, this finding and this finding -- all of which came out in the past month or so -- a new coffee study is showing us yet another health benefit of being a regular brew-drinker.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have found that there seems to be a relationship between increased coffee intake (meaning the more, the better) and decreased risk of basal cell carcinoma -- the most common skin cancer.

But researchers cautioned that if you aren't an avid coffee drinker already, this study shouldn't convince you to try to increase your coffee intake for the sake of protecting against skin cancer.

"However, our results add basal cell carcinoma to a list of conditions for which risk is decreased with increasing coffee consumption," study researcher Jiali Han, Ph.D., an associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston and Harvard School of Public Health, said in a statement. "This list includes conditions with serious negative health consequences such as Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson's disease."

This year in the United States, there are expected to be more than 2,000,000 new cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The Cancer Research study included analysis of 112,897 people who were in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Over a 20-year period, 22,786 people developed basal cell carcinoma.

Researchers not only found a link between increased coffee consumption and decreased skin cancer risk -- for example, women who drank three or more cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of skin cancer than people who drank less than a cup of coffee a month -- but also a link between overall increased caffeine consumption (like from coffee, soda, chocolate and tea) and decreased skin cancer risk. Meanwhile, there was no link between decaffeinated coffee consumption and risk of the skin cancer.

In addition, there was no link was identified between increased coffee or caffeine consumption and squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma, which are two other kinds of skin cancer.

"These results really suggest that it is the caffeine in coffee that is responsible for the decreased risk of basal cell carcinoma associated with increasing coffee consumption," Han said in the statement. "This would be consistent with published mouse data, which indicate caffeine can block skin tumor formation. However, more studies in different population cohorts and additional mechanistic studies will be needed before we can say this definitively."

However, there is such a thing as too much caffeine. The Mayo Clinic says that consuming heavy amounts of caffeine each day (500 to 600 milligrams a day, or more) can lead to muscle tremors, insomnia, irritability, restlessness and even upset stomach. But the Mayo Clinic did note that getting about 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine per day -- that which is in about four cups of coffee -- for adults is not a detriment to health.

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Coffee Skin Cancer: Caffeine Consumption Linked With Lower Risk Of Basal Cell Carcinoma

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire -07/03/12)- Cloudera, the category leader that is setting the standard for Apache Hadoop in the enterprise, today announced that Cloudera Cofounder and Chief Scientist Jeff Hammerbacher will be leading a revolutionary project with Mount Sinai School of Medicine to apply the power of Cloudera's Big Data platform to critical problems in predicting and understanding the process and treatment of disease.

"We are at the cutting edge of disease prevention and treatment, and the work that we will do together will reshape the landscape of our field," said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "Mount Sinai is thrilled to join minds with Cloudera."

As a founder of Cloudera, Hammerbacher fully appreciates the technology's potential for solving previously intractable or even un-askable questions in medicine. In concert with Mount Sinai's clinical and academic community, he will help to develop solutions designed to enable performance scalable data analysis and multi-scale measurements in areas such as genotype, gene expression and organ health for medical research and discovery. The new software will also provide real-time feedback and guidance for treatment to improve patient outcomes.

"We can improve healthcare delivery and treatment through new technology and acquired knowledge," said Eric Schadt, PhD, director of the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai. "I am delighted that Jeff will be collaborating with the Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology and look forward to working together to dramatically change how we think about medical analysis and reporting."

Hammerbacher is enthusiastic about the implications of Big Data in medicine and, with support of Cloudera's Data Science team, will be dedicating a portion of his time to this collaboration. Areas of research include analysis of human and bacterial genomes, study of the metabolic pathways of normal and disease states in the organism, structure and function of molecules used in treatment of disease, and more.

"I'm excited to work closely with one of the world's best research and teaching hospitals, as we expand what it means to be in the Data Science field," Hammerbacher said. "The value of Hadoop lies not in the technology itself, but in the real world problems it can solve."

Solving practical problems is core to Cloudera's focus; recent examples include using Hadoop to gain new insights for the FDA on adverse drug reactions across up to four drug combinations, and helping Opower customers to be more energy efficient as a result of visibility and connections drawn from disparate data.

About The Mount Sinai Medical CenterThe Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. Consistently ranked in the top 20 hospitals in the United States, Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and US News and World Report and whose hospital is on the US News and World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/

About ClouderaCloudera, the leader in Apache Hadoop-based software, services and training, enables data driven enterprises to easily derive business value from all their structured and unstructured data. Cloudera's Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH), available to download for free at http://www.cloudera.com/downloads, is the most comprehensive, tested, stable and widely deployed distribution of Hadoop in commercial and non-commercial environments. For the fastest path to reliably using this completely open source technology in production for Big Data analytics and answering previously un-addressable big questions, organizations can subscribe to Cloudera Enterprise, comprised of Cloudera Support and a portfolio of software including Cloudera Manager. Cloudera also offers consulting services, training and certification on Apache technologies. As the top contributor to the Apache open source community and with tens of thousands of nodes under management across customers in financial services, government, telecommunications, media, web, advertising, retail, energy, bioinformatics, pharma/healthcare, university research, oil and gas and gaming, Cloudera's depth of experience and commitment to sharing expertise are unrivaled. http://www.cloudera.com

Connect with ClouderaRead the blog: http://www.cloudera.com/blog/ Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cloudera Visit on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cloudera

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Cloudera Chief Scientist Jeff Hammerbacher Teams With Mount Sinai School of Medicine to Solve Medical Challenges Using ...

Pinoy Kasi By: Michael L. Tan Philippine Daily Inquirer

The commencement exercises were held last June 2, somewhat atypical in the Philippines, where these rituals are usually held in April. The togas and capes were different, too: as befitting the medical graduates, they had the color green, but this was combined with gray, associated with a business degree.

The graduating class was from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH), the first of a unique program that allows these new doctors to add MD as well as MBA (master of business administration) after their names.

The brain behind the medical school was Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, who wanted a new medical curriculum that would produce not just excellent clinicians but also public health experts and administrators. It was a 21st-century vision that began in the 20th when Bengzon was building up Medical City from a small hospital to the large medical complex that it is today. Other ideas came in when he was health secretary, the first after the 1986 Edsa revolt, when he had to fight many battles around inefficiency and corruption.

Our panganay (eldest), said Dr. Ma. Eufemia Yap, one of the associate deans, with pride and a bit of relief. It wasnt just taking care of the students through the five years of medical school, but also the many years of planning that went into the medical school.

The Ateneo Board of Trustees approved the creation of the school in 1997, after much discussion. But it was to take another 10 years before the school opened its doors to this first batch. There were numerous meetings and workshops all through those years, literally from one millennium into the next, to discuss how this medical school would be different, and what dual degrees could be offered. An MPH (master of public health) was considered, as well as an MM (master of management). In the end, the choice of the MBA was partly out of convenience: Ateneo already had years of experience with its MBA programs offered in its Makati campuses, including degrees specific for health professionals with strong exposure to public health and management.

I was roped (or, I felt at times, lassoed) in to help think of the inputs for the social sciences and to train teachers and mentors to lecture, with the aim of developing cultural competence, which isnt just sensitivity to peoples cultures but also the ability to harness peoples own knowledge, and practices, to keep healthy and fight disease.

MBA oath

I was initially uncomfortable with the MBA degree, in part because of public perceptions that an MBA produces business people, and that doctors are already too good at making money. But interactions with the Ateneo MBA staff have convinced me that we need more of these MBA programs for other professionals as well, to run government as well as private companies. The trajectory of todays MBA is well summarized in an MBA oath first crafted by the 2009 graduates of Harvard Business School and which has since been signed by thousands of other MBA graduates around the world, including, I hope, the new ASMPH graduates.

The oath begins with a recognition of MBA graduates role in society: first, to lead people and manage resources to create value that no single individual can create alone, and second, that their decisions affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside [their] enterprise, today and tomorrow. The oath has several promises concerning ethical conduct and the protection of human rights and dignity in the pursuit of value creation. How appropriate, I thought, for todays physicians, who create value by keeping people healthy.

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Medical pioneers

Med school applicants from rural areas are among those who can claim disadvantaged status.

Many premedical students have encountered some form of hardship. So when medical school applicants see the category "Disadvantaged status" on the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), they may wonder what a disadvantaged status really means.

Officially, AMCAS states that applicants determine whether to designate themselves as disadvantaged. Each medical school has its own policies on how it handles applicants who self-declare the disadvantaged status, or whether it treats those applications differently. AMCAS also provides certain categories for guidance in determining status:

Underserved: If you grew up in an underserved or rural area up until the age of 18, AMCAS states that you can identify yourself as a disadvantaged applicant. When you generate your AMCAS application, you can mark your county of residence as rural (R), medically underserved (U), or both.

[Learn what to consider when applying to med school with a low GPA.]

Immediate family: If you have a situation involving your immediate family that affected your educational opportunities or social circumstances, you can self-designate as disadvantaged.

State and federal assistance programs: If your family received state and federal assistance because of socioeconomic other circumstances, it would be considered appropriate to self-designate as disadvantaged by AMCAS.

If you think there are other circumstances that have contributed to your disadvantaged statues that are not listed on the AMCAS page, don't feel constrained by the above. In addition to requesting family financial data, AMCAS provides the opportunity for a 1,325 character statement explaining why you feel you should be considered a disadvantaged applicant.

In June 2009, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) published a compendium of examples of disadvantaged applicant statements, as well as other data that characterized admissions statistics of that group.

[See why minorities still don't feel completely comfortable in medicine.]

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What It Means to Be a ‘Disadvantaged’ M.D. Applicant