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113th AAMC Annual Meeting: Leadership Forum Examines Trends, Future Opportunities Plenary Speakers Address Challenges, From Bioterrorism to Health Disparities Roundup from San Francisco: AAMC's 113th Annual Meeting Notes Trends, Concerns, Solutions Medical School Applications May Be On the Rise For the Love of Country: Afghan-American Physicians Rebuild Medical Education in Their Homeland Caring for Community: Loma Linda Medical Students Organize Health, Mentoring Programs Viewpoint: The State of the VHA Is Strong A Word From the President
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Roundup from San Francisco: AAMC's 113th Annual Meeting Notes Trends, Concerns, SolutionsGRA Hears Tenn. Success Story
The Group on Resident Affairs Nov. 12 plenary session on "Two Cultures, Two Traditions: Issues and Progress in the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance" charted the progress of the alliance formed between the two Nashville, Tenn., medical schools in 1998. The session was moderated by Bernett L. Johnson Jr., M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, a Meharry graduate who said that as a student he had never laid eyes on Vanderbilt, alluding to the segregated past of the two schools in the southern city. Revisiting a session held at the 1999 AAMC annual meeting shortly after the Alliance was formed, participants in the session - which included PonJola (PJ) Coney, M.D., dean of Meharry, and Steven. Gabbe, M.D., dean of Vanderbilt - centered their discussion on how the two institutions have benefited through their collaboration in education, research and community health care. They have applied for, and received, more than over $83 million in awards, with more in the pipeline. Clifton Meador, the Alliance's CEO, joked that he had never had an idea of his own in five years. "I listen," he said, emphasizing that in setting the Alliance up, the schools realized it needed to be a full-time endeavor. Plenary Hears Morale ConcernsThe Nov. 10 joint plenary session on "Building Morale Across the Continuum of Academic Medicine," convened by Maria Savoia, M.D., from the University of California, San Diego, heard from Steven Gabbe, M.D., from Vanderbilt, who spoke about burnout in department chairs. Dr. Gabbe cited burnout and stress as serious workplace consequences, and cited a survey on stress that received an astounding 91 percent response rate, citing it as a prominent concern to medical faculty. Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., CEO of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, who spoke on faculty morale, advised that if a facility plans to undertake a morale study, as his facility did, "Don't do it unless you're going to act on it….You're going to get very strong signals; be prepared to act on them." Erin McKean Lin, a medical student at the University of Michigan and a former chair of the OSR, cited mentoring and faculty professionalism as being among the top concerns of medical students. A Humanistic View of Medicine
In a well-attended and well-received speech, David C. Leach, M.D., executive director of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), gave the annual Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Lecture Nov. 9. The lecture and following reception were co-sponsored by the Gold Foundation and the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. Dr. Leach spoke on a variety of aspects of humanistic medicine - some- times in allegorical and philosophical terms - and acknowledged that there are flaws in the way health care is delivered. "Much work remains" in this endeavor, he said. "The quality of life for our patients and ourselves is directly related to the quality of the conversations in our lives." Managed care, "is wrong, because it sabotages relationships" between doctors and patients, he said. On the issue of resident duty hours, and noting the difficulty in seeing the subject in clear-cut terms, Dr. Leach noted the public's concerns and reminded his audience that "we are talking about an outside world that says 80 hours is good, but 81 is bad." Residents, he added, "need to prepare for the unknown." Physician Plenary's ViewsIn a plenary session on the adequacy of the physician workforce subtitled "What if Buz Is Right?" - referring to Dr. Richard "Buz" Cooper's widely disseminated 2001 paper warning of a looming physician shortage - several scholars examined the question from historical viewpoints and in light of current trends. John Iglehart, editor of Health Affairs, gave a comprehensive overview of past efforts to predict physician supply, recalling successes and some outright failures. Daniel Fox, Ph.D., president of the Milbank Memorial Fund, stated that it was important to reduce variation in medical practice. Whether a physician shortage already exists, or looms ahead, there is no evidence indicating that increasing the number of physicians will improve the nation's health, he said. Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D., president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, shared perspectives from a "community tracking study." Although the respondents reported longer waiting times for appointments and other barriers to access, the study found no perception of general problems with physician supply. It did uncover some warning signs, however, such as the difficulties covering emergency services and limited access to specialty physicians for Medicaid and uninsured patients, he reported. AOA's History and Tradition
A focus session of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor (AOA) Society Centennial Symposium took at look at the history and tradition of the prestigious society. The session was introduced by AOA Executive Secretary Edward D. Harris Jr., M.D., of Stanford Medical School. In attendance at the session was Robert J. Glaser, M.D., the former AAMC chair whose name is on the Robert J. Glaser AOA Award. (See feature story, p. 6.) Outgoing president of the AOA Society, David C. Dale, M.D., from the University of Washington, gave a broad outline of the honor society, noting its 100,000 members that include about 15 percent of each graduating medical school class. Christine Cassel, M.D., of Oregon Health and Science University, said "to really understand suffering requires a language, and a certain openness to pain." Samuel Thier, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare in Boston, gave a history of medical education, which started in the United States in the mid-to-late 19th century at the University of Pennsylvania. Sherwin B. Nuland, of Yale University School of Medicine and the author of 1993's best-selling How We Die, spoke on the experience of being a physician and the reassurance a physician brings to his or her patients, bringing the "gift of hope." 'Hollywood on the Potomac'Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek magazine, delivered this year's annual "AAMC Political Spotlight" session. Jokingly referring to the nation's capital as "Hollywood on the Potomac," Fineman made light of recent corporate scandals and their political ties. His main focus, however, was on President Bush, whom he alternately poked fun at and admonished his audience "not to underestimate." His familiarity with Bush's political foibles drew frequent laughter from the audience. - AAMC annual meeting coverage reported from San Francisco by Barbara A. Gabriel and Michael G. Malloy; photos by Michael G. Malloy. |
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