News in brief - Oct. 13, 2003

Wis. physician does well in pageant - Another liability carrier exits market - Harvard to open new department - Michigan makes donor decision final - Another five OxyContin cases dismissed

Wis. physician does well in pageant

Tina Sauerhammer, MD, 22, finished third in the Miss America competition last month in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Miss Wisconsin postponed her residency to pursue the crown and was trying to become the first physician to win the title. But Miss Florida, Ericka Dunlap, won Miss America Sept. 20, and Miss Hawaii, Kanoelani Gibson, won first runner-up.

For winning second runner-up, Dr. Sauerhammer will receive $30,000 in scholarships. She also won $4,000 in scholarship money for winning the preliminary talent competition with her cello playing.

Dr. Sauerhammer, of Green Bay, Wis., said competing in pageants was a way to trim the $120,000 cost of her medical school education. She wants to become a pediatric surgeon, practice in the Midwest and raise a family.

Another liability carrier exits market

Farmers Insurance Group on Sept. 19 announced that it will stop writing new medical liability insurance coverage and will begin a nonrenewal process for existing customers Jan. 1, 2004.

The Los Angeles-based company is following a host of other carriers who have gotten out of the liability market because it has been unprofitable. The AMA says 19 states are experiencing a liability crisis in which physicians are leaving states, retiring early or discontinuing high-risk procedures because they are having a hard time finding insurance or cannot afford the premiums. Farmers is the nation's third-largest personal lines property and casualty insurance group.

Harvard to open new department

Harvard Medical School announced its intention to open its first new department in more than 20 years. The systems biology department is thought to be one of the first department-level systems biology programs in the nation, and it will use genetic and molecular understanding of how cells function and expand that knowledge base to multicellular systems such as organs and animals.

The Dept. of Systems Biology will add at least 20 faculty to the Boston school. Costs were not specified.

A quantitative understanding of an entire subcellular, cellular, or organism system is expected to speed drug discovery, by allowing researchers to predict the effects of attacking a specific target within the context of the complex cellular circuits. New drugs often fail because the effect on a single gene or protein target in the test tube fails to have the predicted effect when tested in the human body.

Michigan makes donor decision final

Once a Michigan resident decides and documents that they want to be an organ donor, a new law states that other people can no longer reverse that decision.

Sponsored by state Rep. Michael C. Murphy, the new law was signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in late July and recently went into effect.

"There have been situations when a person's expressed desire to make an organ or tissue donation was not adhered to because of a family member' refusal to do so," Murphy stated in a news release.

Murphy also said that about 300 people in Michigan die each year waiting for a transplant.

Another five OxyContin cases dismissed

Mississippi plaintiffs dropped their case against the makers of OxyContin in September, three weeks before the case was scheduled to go to trial. Cases were also dismissed in two other Mississippi courts, a federal court in Florida and a New Jersey court.

Those dismissals in late August and September bring to 47 the number of cases dismissed against Stamford, Conn.,-based Perdue Pharma LP, the makers of the prescription pain killers. Lawsuits were filed across the country, claiming that the way the company marketed OxyContin lead to addictions and in some cases, death.