News in brief - Dec. 25, 2000

Advance-directive day planned

Orlando, Fla. -- The AMA will work with leaders of state and specialty medical societies to create local, state and national programs to teach professionals and the public why planning for end-of-life care is important and what needs to be done to ensure a person's wishes are followed.

Association delegates at their Interim Meeting this month declared the day after Thanksgiving as annual Advance Care Planning Day. The hope is that people -- with the help of materials distributed by medical professionals -- will use family time after Thanksgiving to choose a health care proxy.

Orlando, Fla. -- Medical students learn to become better doctors by participating on medical teams, but patients have a right to know if a student will be involved in the treatment, according to recommendations in a Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs report adopted by AMA delegates at their meeting in December.

Patients also have the right to choose not to let the student treat them, according to the adopted recommendations.

If a patient is going to be anesthetized, the physician should discuss whether student involvement is acceptable before the patient is put under.

Orlando, Fla. -- Jan. 1, 2001, will mark the beginning of the Decade of Pain Control and Research. The designation is the work of the Pain Care Coalition, made up of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American Pain Society and the American Headache Society. The groups hope to start a foundation to promote the event and get funding for pain research from the National Institutes of Health.

"Our hope is to emulate the decade of the brain in promoting research and advances in ... pain medicine," said Philipp M. Lippe, MD, of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. "Ten years from now we will have made major progress in these areas."