News in brief - March 1, 2004

D.C. court refuses to dismiss Match lawsuit - Med students threaten to leave Pa. - Ariz. physician named to head medical specialties board - LCME accredits Temple; probation ends - Group seeks $3 billion for stem cell research in California - Appeals court rules in favor of Terri Schiavo's parents, Gov. Bush - NPs, PAs form group

D.C. court refuses to dismiss Match lawsuit

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently denied a request to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit against the National Resident Matching Program and its supporting organizations.

On Feb. 11, the court denied most of the requests to dismiss the suit.

The AAMC and the ACGME will remain the focus of the antitrust litigation, along with 15 academic medical centers. But the American Hospital Assn., the AMA, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the American Board of Medical Specialties, Washington University Medical Center and Yeshiva University are no longer defendants in the case.

Jung et al. v. AAMC et al., claims that the Match is anticompetitive because doctors must participate to gain admission to a residency program and that residents' wages are kept artificially low since participating institutions share wage information.

Med students threaten to leave Pa.

More than 1,250 medical students from six medical schools in Pennsylvania signed a petition stating that they'll be forced to find jobs outside the state after they graduate if the medical liability system isn't fixed. The future physicians sent the letter to the Legislature and Gov. Edward Rendell in February.

"The soaring and uncontrolled cost of malpractice insurance in this state is a staggering obstacle to establishing a career here," the letter said. "How can Pennsylvania invest so much in medical education and pride itself on having some of the world's finest hospitals while simultaneously allowing such a barrier against providing health care to exist?"

The students support a reasonable limit on noneconomic damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, along with other reforms that California adopted in the 1970s. Pennsylvania is one of 19 states the American Medical Association says is experiencing a medical liability crisis. The AMA says California and five other states aren't experiencing those problems because they've passed effective tort reforms.

Ariz. physician named to head medical specialties board

Harvey Meislin, MD, has been elected president of the American Board of Medical Specialties. He is chair of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.

Dr. Meislin is founder and director of the university's Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center and professor of emergency medicine. He played a pivotal role in creating the university's department of emergency medicine in 2001.

He served as president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and as an Advanced Trauma Life Support instructor for the American College of Surgeons. He has been on editorial/review boards for numerous publications, including the Annals of Emergency Medicine, American Journal of Emergency Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association.

LCME accredits Temple; probation ends

Temple University's School of Medicine in Philadelphia recently received full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education after a year on probation.

Temple officials tied the change to improvements they've made to classrooms and study areas and an increase in scholarship funding.

A proposed 14-story medical school building, at a projected cost of $150 million, is being added to the campus, and scholarship funding rose 40% from 2002 to 2003. The entering class was cut from 210 to 180 to help increase available scholarship dollars and decrease pressure on space and facilities.

"I am thrilled by the LCME's decision and the exciting year that lies ahead," said John M. Daly, MD, dean of the medical school. "We are developing a new curriculum, we are adding leading researchers and teachers, we are constructing a new clinical skills and simulation laboratory, and we will soon break ground on the first phase of our new medical school building. All of these improvements speak to the rapid and substantive change in direction of the school."

Group seeks $3 billion for stem cell research in California

A petition drive has been started by a group called Californians for Cure that seeks to put a stem cell research-funding question on California's November ballot. It needs to collect 600,000 signatures by April 16 to do so.

If successful, the state would borrow money to issue $3 billion in bonds that would be used to fund $295 million worth of in-state stem cell research annually for 10 years. Supporters say the research would create jobs and generate additional revenues from royalties generated from scientific discoveries.

Scientific advisers for the effort are Irving Wiessman, MD, of Stanford University and Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, of University of California, San Diego.

Appeals court rules in favor of Terri Schiavo's parents, Gov. Bush

The Florida Second District Court of Appeals made two rulings in the Terri Schiavo case which favor Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Schiavo's parents, who are seeking to continue feeding their daughter who became brain damaged after a heart attack in 1990 and remains in a "persistent vegetative state."

Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, is seeking to remove his wife's feeding tube to allow her to die and is challenging the constitutionality of a law passed in October 2003 that was specifically designed to keep her alive.

The appeals court overturned a district court decision that denied Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, the right to intervene in the case. The court also ruled that attorneys for the governor will be able to question witnesses, the Miami Herald reported.

NPs, PAs form group

The world of associations has a new one joining its ranks. The American College of Clinicians, representing physician assistants and nurse practitioners has emerged to promote nurse practitioners and physician assistants as partners in the health care system.

The ACC intends to build upon the longstanding workplace collegiality between PAs and NPs by transforming it into a nationwide alliance that can educate other professionals about advanced practice clinicians and advocate for the professions.

"Unlike physicians, NPs and PAs lack a national political organization that advocates the rights of all advanced practice clinicians. ... We recognize that the time has come for PAs and NPs to have a group that represents interests that are common to both groups," an ACC statement said.