News in brief - Aug. 9, 2004

ACOG sees specialty's future imperiled by liability crisis - AOA names new leaders - U. of California settles medical resident suit for $1.3 million - Report: Living wills influence end-of-life care - Sports medicine society names new president

ACOG sees specialty's future imperiled by liability crisis

One in seven American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists members surveyed said the risk of liability claims led them to give up OB practice, according to an ACOG report released in July. On average, an ob-gyn faces 2.6 lawsuits during his or her career.

"The crisis is getting more serious by the day," ACOG President Vivian M. Dickerson, MD, said in a statement. "It's not only threatening today's ob-gyns, but also the future of our specialty."

ACOG's medical liability survey is an ongoing study that has been conducted every two to four years since 1986. This survey, designed and conducted with Princeton Survey Research Associates, covered 1999-2003.

The survey showed that 49.5% of claims against ob-gyns were dropped, dismissed or settled without payments. Of the cases that did go forward, ob-gyns won 81.3% of the time.

AOA names new leaders

The American Osteopathic Assn. installed family physician George Thomas, DO, of Bentleyville, Ohio, as the 2004-2005 president during its July meeting in Chicago. Philip L. Shettle, DO, an ophthalmologist from Clearwater, Fla., is president-elect.

Dr. Thomas has a group practice with six associates in Euclid, Mentor and Garfield Heights, Ohio, and will remain on staff at Richmond Heights and Lake County West hospitals. He will continue to represent the AOA on the U.S. Practicing Physician Advisory Committee of Quality Assurance.

Dr. Thomas said he would dedicate his presidency to quality-of-care issues. "As osteopathic physicians, we have the ability to better the lives of our patients by remaining devoted to the quality of patient care provided within our practices," he said.

Dr. Shettle practices at Shettle Eye Center in Largo, Fla., with his son, Dr. Lee Shettle. Dr. Philip Shettle is also on staff at Sun Coast Osteopathic Hospital in Largo and Belleair Surgi-Center in Clearwater, Fla.

"Treating patients in Pinellas County for the past 40 years has been an invaluable experience," explains Dr. Phillip Shettle. "I hope to bring together this experience and my background as an AOA board member to serve my fellow DOs and continue on the successful path of the osteopathic medical profession."

U. of California settles medical resident suit for $1.3 million

The University of California's board of regents agreed to pay out $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former family medicine resident alleging that he was fired from the program 10 years ago because he was black.

David M. Dixon, MD, claimed he had been dismissed from the family medicine program at the University of California, Los Angeles, just two months shy of graduation in 1994 because of his race. According to the suit, Dr. Dixon was only the third black physician admitted to UCLA's family medicine program over a 20-year span, and officials did not know he was black when he was hired. Once he began his residency, he said efforts to discredit him began.

UC regents denied the allegations and said the settlement was not an admission of guilt.

"While the university vigorously denies that discrimination played any role in Dr. Dixon's time at UCLA, we reached this settlement in recognition of the uncertainties that any trial can bring and to put this 10-year-old matter where it belongs -- in the past," said Christopher Patti, the university's attorney.

Dr. Dixon, 43, is now a medical researcher but cannot practice medicine because he did not complete his residency.

Report: Living wills influence end-of-life care

Patients who had living wills were more likely to die outside of a hospital, less likely to receive life-sustaining medical treatment, more likely to have had medical treatments withheld and more likely to have had efforts made to keep them comfortable and pain free, according to a report by University of Pittsburgh long-term-care researcher Howard D. Degenholtz, PhD, in the July 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Degenholtz and colleagues reviewed a national sample of 539 people older than 70 who died in the early 1990s, of which about 40% had living wills, 81% of which were written two years or more before death.

While other studies have shown that living wills do not influence patient care, Dr. Degenholtz concluded that those might have suffered from a selection bias, especially those based on data from terminal hospitalizations.

He also recommended that physicians discuss patient preferences for location of death during advance care planning.

Sports medicine society names new president

Thomas L. Wickiewicz, MD, is the new president of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. He is an attending surgeon and chief of the sports medicine and shoulder service at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, N.Y.

Dr. Wickiewicz, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., is a professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery at Cornell University's Weill Medical College. He served seven years as assistant team physician for the New York Giants and is currently team physician for his alma mater, Saint Peter's College in New Jersey.

Dr. Wickiewicz has served the AOSSM on numerous committees, including its credentialing and education committees. He also is a member of the Eastern Orthopaedic Assn., the Orthopaedic Research Society and the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons.