News in brief - Nov. 22/29, 2004

Resident program rules see revamp - Medical school, physician honored for service, humanism - Kevorkian appeal denied

Resident program rules see revamp

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently approved major revisions to its program requirements.

New requirements were set for the internal medicine subspecialties of clinical cardiac electrophysiology; critical care medicine; endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism; gastroenterology; hematology and medical oncology; infectious disease; interventional cardiology; medical oncology; nephrology; pulmonary disease; pulmonary disease and critical care medicine; and rheumatology.

Minor changes were made for programs in child and adolescent psychiatry, pediatric radiology and psychiatry.

For more information on these changes, contact the Resident Review Committee for the specific program.

The ACGME Web site (www.acgme.org) has contact information for all RRCs.

Medical school, physician honored for service, humanism

The Assn. of American Medical Colleges gave out two awards of note at its annual meeting this month in Boston.

The University of Rochester Medical Center was given the AAMC's "Outstanding Community Service Award" and the "Humanism in Medicine Award" went to Sharad Jain, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and assistant chief of the medical service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The AAMC said it had selected the URMC for the community service award because of its numerous community health programs, such as Health-e-Access, which uses telemedicine technology to give the working poor easier access to medical care for their children.

The AAMC also cited the URMC for its commitment to weaving community service into its curriculum. All fourth-year medical students at URMC are required to participate in the "Community Health Improvement Clerkship."

The AAMC said Dr. Jain was recognized for contributions as a medical educator and student adviser, for clinical care and compassion he shows veterans at his hospital and for his volunteer work for the homeless.

The AAMC said students call Dr. Jain "the greater omentum" because of his ability to "hold everything together" for his students and offer them support as they experience educational challenges and difficult career choices.

Kevorkian appeal denied

The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 said it would not hear an appeal that Jack Kevorkian, MD, filed to have his second-degree murder conviction overturned. Dr. Kevorkian argued that he had ineffective counsel at his 1999 trial.

A Michigan jury convicted Dr. Kevorkian of second-degree murder after "60 Minutes" aired a videotape showing that the pathologist administering an injection of potassium chloride to a man who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This is the second time that the high court has refused to hear an appeal. In 2002, it declined to hear arguments that Dr. Kevorkian's conviction should be thrown out because a constitutional right to be free from unbearable pain and suffering existed. Dr. Kevorkian is now serving a 10-to-25-year prison sentence.