News in brief - May 12, 2003

Beauty queen joins tort reform push - Tort reform battle moves to television - Texas society installs new president - ACGME seeks nominations for "Courage to Teach" award - Specter urges changes to federal stem cell research policy

Beauty queen joins tort reform push

Miss Florida USA 2003 in April called on Sens. Bob Graham (D, Fla.) and Bill Nelson (D, Fla.) to pass tort reform in the U.S. Senate this year. Carrie Mewha joined Florida seniors, business leaders, physicians and other health care professionals at a rally in Orlando.

Mewha, a second-year student at the University of Miami School of Medicine, planned to go into high-risk obstetrics, but is considering other options because medical liability insurance for that specialty is expensive and sometimes difficult to get.

The House of Representatives earlier this year passed a bill that includes a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages. The Senate has yet to act.

Tort reform battle moves to television

A television ad telling the story of a woman whose father died after a car crash in Las Vegas while the trauma center was closed last summer is airing in Nevada and on some cable channels nationwide this spring in an effort to get residents to urge senators to pass tort reform this year.

The ad is one of three put together by the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care, an organization of hospitals, businesses and professional caregivers who want to resolve the medical liability insurance problem.

Texas society installs new president

Plastic surgeon Charles W. Bailey Jr., MD, of Houston, is the new president of the Texas Medical Assn. He was installed during the organization's 150th Birthday Bash last month in San Antonio.

Dr. Bailey earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1967, after receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He also graduated from South Texas College of Law and has been a member of the State Bar of Texas since 1980.

He has practiced plastic surgery in Houston since 1973. In more than 30 years as a TMA member, he has been active in the association in many roles, serving as a member of the TMA board of trustees. He is past president of other medical societies, including the Texas Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Harris County Medical Society and the Houston Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Bailey's father is a retired Austin general practitioner. A grandfather and two uncles also were physicians.

ACGME seeks nominations for "Courage to Teach" award

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is accepting nominations for the 2004 Parker J. Palmer "Courage to Teach" awards, presented each year to 10 to 15 residency program directors for their dedication to teaching and mentoring medical residents. Program directors, administrators, faculty and residents are encouraged to nominate program directors with innovative teaching programs and a commitment to graduate medical education.

Palmer was a sociologist, educator and author who developed a model education program for teachers of physicians.

Nominations are due by June 16. For more information, visit the ACGME's Web site (www.acgme.org/palmeraward/palmeraward.asp).

Specter urges changes to federal stem cell research policy

A prominent Republican senator is asking President Bush to amend his stem cell research policies to take advantage of scientific breakthroughs made since the president spelled out his federal funding guidelines back on Aug. 9, 2001.

In an April 21 letter, Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.) told the president about new discoveries that allow scientists to grow stem cells lines without the use of mouse feeder cells. Under current guidelines, however, researchers can only get federal funding if they use stem cells from the 78 stem cell lines that were in existence when President Bush set his policy almost two years ago.

Specter, who chairs the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and education subcommittee, argued that stem cells from only 11 of those lines are currently available to scientists, and that all 78 stem cell lines identified as acceptable for use in federal research have been grown with mouse cells and may not be suitable for use in human trials.

The senator urged the president to expand the number of eligible stem cells so that new ones grown without mouse cells could be used.