To remain certified, most of the nation's 700,000 doctors are required periodically to take continuing medical education courses. But critics have said that too many of those courses are little more than drug company marketing in the guise of education. Sponsorship by the pharmaceutical industry pays an estimated half of the cost of such programs in the United States, and critics have argued that the national nonprofit group that accredits the course providers has not done enough to fight drug industry influence in the classroom. But now Murray Kopelow, MD, chief executive of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, said he would make public a previously confidential listing of classes and companies that violated rules against commercial bias, the New York Times reports.
The M.D. Anderson-Orlando Cancer Research Institute has opened its new research facility in the University of Central Florida's Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences building, officially becoming a part of Lake Nona's "medical city." The 30,000-square-foot facility will triple the cancer research institute's wet lab space and provide thousands of additional square feet of work space.
After sitting on the question for the better part of the year, the Louisiana Supreme Court has handed the Louisiana State University System a legal victory and ruled that a lawsuit challenging the closing of Charity Hospital must be heard in East Baton Rouge Parish. The seven patients who filed the lawsuit want it tried in New Orleans, and a group of New Orleans lawyers originally filed the suit in January 2008 asking the Orleans Parish court to order the reopening of the giant hospital or mandate that the state replace it with equivalent services.
Alarmed by the spread of the H1N1 flu, hospitals throughout California restricted visitors, barring children and capping the number of visitors per patient. In Los Angeles, Cedars- Sinai Medical Center raised the minimum age for visitors from 12 to 18 and restricted the number of visitors for patients at greatest risk for H1N1, including those in labor and delivery, or in the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.
With deep ties to Capitol Hill, President Obama's core healthcare reform team is designed for the inside game unfolding now in House and Senate offices. Their job includes gathering intelligence, assessing what lawmakers want, and devising compromises to win over balky members without alienating others, according to the Los Angeles Times. But their paramount goal remains to keep the process moving irrepressibly forward and on a practicable track.
Swine flu vaccine shipments to Massachusetts are running three weeks behind schedule, forcing the state to direct local health departments to cancel vaccine clinics scheduled for November. Shortages of the vaccine against seasonal flu strains are also being reported, as unusually high demand is outpacing the supply. The problems seen in Massachusetts reflect a nationwide shortage, as production facilities have been unable to churn out adequate amounts of either vaccine.