News in brief - Sept. 6, 2004

Federal judge rules on witness pay - New members join AMA Foundation board of directors - Veteran California lobbyist dies - Christian Medical Assn. lobbies for adult stem cell research - Pfizer funds health literacy research - AHRQ announces grant limits - Personality tests could predict physician burnout - Ophthalmologist to receive humanitarian award - New course addresses patient-physician communication

Federal judge rules on witness pay

A federal court in New York said lawyers who asked a physician questions that delved into areas of technical and other specialized knowledge need to pay the doctor a "reasonable fee" and not simply the small stipend given to lay, fact witnesses for deposition testimony.

The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of New York said although a plaintiff's lawyer did not identify Albany, N.Y., psychiatrist Mary Panzetta, MD, as an expert, the doctor was asked questions that "could reasonably be interpreted as calling for opinion testimony."

"The critical factor in determining whether a witness is entitled to a reasonable fee is the substance of the testimony," Judge Thomas J. McAvoy wrote in his opinion in Lamere v. New York State Office for the Aging.

For example, he said, a physician testifying to whether a clamp was left in a patient during surgery or whether an assailant in a battery case was wearing a blue shirt would not qualify as an expert entitled to a "reasonable fee." That type of testimony is limited to pure observation.

"If, however, testimony is elicited that reasonably may be considered to be opinion based on specialized skill and knowledge ... then the physician may properly be characterized as an expert witness and is entitled to a reasonable fee for time spent in responding to discovery," McAvoy said.

New members join AMA Foundation board of directors

The American Medical Association Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Association, recently named five new members to its 18-member board of directors and also appointed a medical student member, which is a first for the organization.

The new members are J. Edward Hill, MD, president-elect of the AMA and a family physician in Mississippi; Owen Garrick, MD, director of corporate strategy and business development for McKesson Corp. in San Francisco; Joseph Hatch, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center; Richard Hovland, vice president and chief financial officer for the American College of Healthcare Executives in Chicago; Elizabeth Anderson, nurse manager at Albany Medical Center in New York and chair of the Foundation committee for the AMA Alliance; and Arun Mohan, an MD-MBA student at Emory University.

The AMA Foundation offers scholarships to medical students, grants for research and community-based programs and educational resources on public health issues such as health literacy.

Veteran California lobbyist dies

California Medical Assn.'s vice president of government relations, Steven M. Thompson, died Aug. 17, six weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. Thompson lobbied for the CMA for more than a decade.

"Steve leaves behind a huge legacy of contributions to physicians, and to the health of every Californian," CMA CEO Jack Lewin, MD, wrote in a letter to CMA members Aug. 17. "To say he will be missed is an understatement."

Members of the California Legislature said they would dedicate to Thompson the California Physician Corps, a program he helped get enacted. The program enables physicians to get their medical school and residency loans repaid when they practice in underserved areas.

Christian Medical Assn. lobbies for adult stem cell research

More than 2,000 members of the Christian Medical Assn. signed a letter sent to President Bush and Congress advocating that federal scientific research focus on "those efforts most likely to produce real cures at a reasonable cost as quickly as possible." In other words, they want government dollars invested in adult stem cell research instead of embryonic stem cell research.

The CMA also called on the "current policy of preventing the commodification of human beings" to continue. It also noted how stem cells from nonembryonic sources -- such as cord blood, placenta, bone marrow, fat and teeth -- already have therapeutic uses for patients with heart muscle injury, diabetes and brain damage from stroke, while embryonic stem cell therapies are still 10 to 15 years away.

Pfizer funds health literacy research

Pfizer is funding health literacy research through the Partnership for Clear Health Communication. Three medical schools -- the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine -- were awarded grants of $70,000 each to evaluate the efficacy of health literacy communication tools.

The schools were chosen from a pool of 25 applicants.

The inability to read, understand and act on health information affects nearly one in two Americans and by some estimates costs the U.S. health care system more than $58 billion annually, according to a recent Institute of Medicine report.

The communications tool, Ask Me 3, developed in the fall of 2002, encourages patients to ask three questions of their health care professionals: What is my main problem?, What do I need to do?, and Why is it important for me to do this?

The Partnership for Clear Health Communication bills itself as a national coalition of more than 100 organizations working together to find solutions to low health literacy.

AHRQ announces grant limits

Effective Oct. 1, the government agency overseeing research in health care quality improvement and patient safety will no longer accept research grant applications that request more than $300,000 in a single year.

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality also announced that it will limit large conference grant applications to $100,000 due to "limitations on available grant funds."

"This is the result of a flat budget for the last couple years," said Jon Lawniczak, director of government relations for the Coalition for Health Services Research, which coordinates the Friends of AHRQ coalition -- a group that includes the AMA and 129 other organizations. "Congress keeps asking for more from the agency without increasing the budget, so they have to cut back in other areas."

The Bush administration 2005 budget calls for freezing the agency's funding at its 2004 level of just under $303.7 million. The Friends of AHRQ had lobbied for that amount to be increased to $443 million.

Personality tests could predict physician burnout

Testing personality and learning styles before medical school could have predicted dissatisfaction among physicians, according to a new study in BMC Medicine.

A 12-year study of British doctors found that approaches to work are predicted by earlier measures of study habits and learning styles. Doctors' perceptions of their work environment, and their feelings of stress and burnout, are predicted mainly by personality, the study said.

Doctors who reported a high workload found it difficult to organize their time effectively and often read things without understanding them. They consistently reported higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of conscientiousness over the 12 years studied.

Doctors who said they were not receiving enough support from colleagues were themselves less agreeable. Those who described colleagues as receptive and supportive were deemed to be more agreeable. Physicians who reported a high degree of satisfaction with medicine as a career tended to be more extroverted and less neurotic.

The study is available online (www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/2/29).

Ophthalmologist to receive humanitarian award

Peter R. Egbert, MD, will receive the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology at a meeting Oct. 24 in New Orleans.

Dr. Egbert, a professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, has provided ophthalmic care in more than 25 countries. He has participated in numerous teaching and humanitarian projects in diverse areas, including Haiti, Nepal and Afghanistan. His work has benefited at least half a million people in Ghana.

Working with International Aid's Christian Eye Ministry, Dr. Egbert helped establish the first eye clinic in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 1987, and three additional eye clinics since then. He has trained ophthalmologists and clinic staff members. His studies on cataract and glaucoma treatment in Ghana and other developing countries have influenced patient care in other regions of the world.

The humanitarian award is given to academy members who demonstrate a pattern of exceptional humanitarian service in the United States or abroad over several years.

New course addresses patient-physician communication

A new home-study CME course on patient-physician communications is being offered by Wescott Professional Publications. The course is titled "Effective Patient-Physician Communication: Strengthening Relationships, Improving Patient Safety, Limiting Medical Liability."

The six-credit course provides practical tips and insights for physicians and other practitioners to improve how they communicate with patients and to increase awareness of the impact that communication has on medical errors, patient safety, quality of care and incidence of professional liability claims.

The course costs $135 and can be ordered online (www.wescottprofpub.com/GetCoursesList.event).