Looking Out for Our Patients

I drove to my CPM preceptor this week thinking, as I often do, "There is so much to learn, to appreciate from this experience -- if only there were four more hours in the day." It's easy to get bogged down by studying for our GI test or our endocrine test and forget that we're all in medical school to, one day, care for patients. Shouldn't CPM be the good part? (No offense to CPM.)

There was a recent article in NEJM that said we shouldn't limit ourselves to caring for our patients, but we should also recognize the need to care about them. It's great to know how to treat a heart attack, but it's also important to know that patients can get a lot of those meds at Wal-Mart -- or WEGMANS! -- for $4/month. The same goes for diabetes, but we have to realize that if you're homeless or you don't have a refrigerator, you can't store your insulin. That is honestly something I had never thought of before reading this article. Perhaps most impressive about the article is the author: Nick Rohrhoff, a senior medical student at the University of Miami. Some of you might recognize his name from a webinar about health care reform he gave to UB last year as the AMA GRAF (Gov't. Relations Advocacy Fellow). Check out the full article here (probably through UB's network, if you're not otherwise subscribed to NEJM).

In a more policy-oriented take on caring about patients, there's been a lot of discussion about transparency to improve patient care vs. hindering physicians' autonomy, and even impairing their professional reputations. Check out this article about peer review as a patient safety initiative, and whether the results of review should be released on the internet or in malpractice suits. Currently, everything is kept "privileged" as per a 2005 federal act, but that hasn't stopped some courts from allowing "facts" to be admissible or, in legal terms I don't exactly understand, discoverable. Check out this article about disclosing physicians' financial relationships with drug and device manufacturers that include anything over $10, including a CME course or a lunch. A lot of physician groups are worried about incorrect information ending up on-line, especially since docs can't correct data on a rolling basis. Then there's always the issue of internet reviews of physicians and hospital score cards -- for that, check out this YouTube video from Hofstra University which, while a few years old now, has some interesting points. Watch out for MSSNY's own Dr. Charles Rothberg (our MSS advisor).

For more MSSNY fun, be sure to stop by Butler Aud. this Monday, 3/19 at 5:30 for the annual Physician Advocacy Day webcast. Not only will it be a great opportunity to learn more about NYS goings-on regarding health care, but it will also be a great networking event, as local docs and professors will be there with us.

If these issues -- or anything else regarding health care or patient care -- speak to you, keep your calendars open on Sunday, 3/25 at 6 for a resolution writing webinar (from home) and on Wednesday, 4/11 at noon in Butler for a more convenient resolution writing workshop hosted by your current AMA E-board. We'll also talk about the AMA national meeting itself, which will be June 14-16 in Chicago. Registration opens on April 2, and the tentative meeting agenda can be found here.

News from MSSNY House of Delegates

This past weekend was the annual MSSNY House of Delegates (HOD) meeting, at which physicians from all over the state get together to decide MSSNY policy. While the AMA-MSSNY chapter here at Buffalo focuses heavily on community service to promote health and physician awareness, these groups are at their hearts advocacy organizations. So it came as no surprise that proposals were raised on issues ranging from restricting children/adolescents from commercial tanning to how to apportion revenue raised by the society to repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Much of the political focus centered on the NYS budget that did not include medical malpractice reform. MSSNY had made a statement that it would not support the budget without these stipulations (caps on pain and suffering litigation, a lower-than-expected fund for infants born with neurological problems, etc.). The HOD was a reminder to all physicians (and future physicians) to play an active role in government by calling up and e-mailing our legislators -- just because we aren't politicians doesn't mean these issues don't affect us!

As far as new policy in the HOD went, the Medical Student Section particularly came out on top. We sponsored four resolutions, all of which were passed by the voting body of MSSNY, the House of Delegates. The proposals were:

1) Promoting financial aid opportunities for NYS medical students. (The importance of this one is fairly obvious.)

2) Expanding graduate medical education (GME) funding for residency spots. The problem is that medical schools keep increasing class sizes and new medical schools are opening, but there are no new residency spots! There is currently a cap on GME funding/new residency spots, and now MSSNY has committed itself to advocate for making sure all of these new doctors will have the appropriate training upon graduation.

3) Expanding MSSNY’s physician database to include an opt-in mentorship program based on race/ethnicity, LGBT status, etc. Based on 2008 data, only 10% of NYS physicians identify as underrepresented minorities, and only about 20% of US medical students do the same.

4) Giving preference to US medical students over offshore students in nearby clerkship sites. This is a big problem in NYC, where many local students are excluded from NYC clerkship rotations due to Caribbean medical schools effectively buying out the clerkship positions.

Additionally, the HOD spent quite a while battling out its position on PPACA. A compromise was reached, and MSSNY’s position is now that it has a specific set of grievances against the bill and supports new legislation to improve any shortcomings, but MSSNY is not 100% against this health care reform.

Overall, it was a very exciting weekend. If anyone is interested in getting involved in the more political side of AMA-MSSNY, contact our VP of Policy/Legislation, Lauren Gluck at lgluck01@gmail.com.

Congratulations to the UB AMA-MSS Chapter!

We are proud to announce that on March 12th, the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) awarded the UB American Medical Association Medical Student Section (AMA-MSS) two honorable awards: Chapter of the Year and the Recruitment Award for NY State!

It is officially the tenth consecutive year for our chapter to receive the Recruitment Award! On average we recruit over 75% of the incoming first year medical class to join the AMA - a number that is significantly higher than other NY medical schools. The Chapter of the Year award was a great achievement. The past e-board, led by co-presidents Joanna Lim and Gaurav Rao, successfully held a full year of events. Some of the most notable accomplishments include a Halloween for Children with Diabetes Party, Miles for a Healthier Life Style, and passing a student-written resolution to decrease the price disparity between healthy and unhealthy foods (which is currently being lobbied for in Washington, D.C.).

A new e-board was recently elected and has taken off with a promising start. For example, Linda Wong is leading a Worldscopes Project, CJ Cancino was recently elected to state recruitment chair, and Lauren Gluck is serving as an Alternate Delegate on the state level. We have many new goals set. We plan to focus more on state policy, keeping an updated website, addressing minority issues (such as human trafficking), and simply filling the big shoes left by our predecessors. Several new e-board positions were created to help our more widespread goals for the next year, including Minority Issues Community Liaison, Worldscopes Project Leader, and AMA Student Advisor. There are several upcoming events planned in April so check the website frequently to keep yourself updated!

Please read the recent article about our UB AMA-MSS chapter on the SMBS website: http://medicine.buffalo.edu/news_and_events.host.html/content/shared/smbs/news/2011/03/ama-mss-awards.detail.html