News in brief - Feb. 21, 2005

No class action for OxyContin case - Arizona doctors use wristbands to highlight tort reform - Florida nixes publicly funded chiropractic school - AMA seeking innovative hospital communication programs

No class action for OxyContin case

A New York judge in late January said a personal injury lawsuit against the makers of OxyContin that alleges addiction and other harm from the pain medication cannot go forward as a class-action case.

Justice Stephen J. Maltese in the Supreme Court of the State of New York for Richmond County said the case doesn't meet the criteria of a class action because addiction is an individual injury, not a common one.

"[This case presents] important individual issues, and to lump all of those issues together would be inappropriate for all of the parties involved," Maltese wrote.

This marks the ninth written opinion in a state or federal court to reject requests for class-action status in lawsuits that patients or their families have filed against Purdue Pharma over the past four years.

Arizona doctors use wristbands to highlight tort reform

Arizonans for Access to Health Care, the organization created to carry out the activities of the Arizona Medical Assn.'s medical liability reform campaign, is using red wristbands to raise awareness to the medical liability crisis.

The group is encouraging doctors and others to get wristbands, wear them and use them as conversation starters about the medical liability crisis. Wristbands can be obtained through donations to the AAHC or by purchasing them in lots of 10 for $20. For more information, contact the medical association at (602) 246-8901.

Illinois physicians have been wearing and distributing green wristbands that read "Keep Doctors in Illinois" to create awareness about medical liability rate increases in their state.

Florida nixes publicly funded chiropractic school

The state of Florida put an end to a proposal that would have created the first chiropractic school at a U.S. public university.

Florida's Board of Governors, which oversees the state's public universities, voted down the idea 10-3 at a late January meeting. A spokesman for the board said members had voted against it because the university did not present a strategic need for the school.

The proposed school, which would have been part of Florida State University, was the center of intense debate among FSU faculty members, many of whom signed a petition against it. One faculty member went so far as to create a mock campus map with a "Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory" and other such facilities, openly ridiculing the validity of chiropractic medicine.

The American Medical Association holds that physicians may associate professionally with chiropractors, teach in recognized chiropractic schools and refer patients to them if they believe this will benefit their patients.

AMA seeking innovative hospital communication programs

The American Medical Association is looking to recognize hospitals that have successfully implemented innovative approaches to communicate with populations at risk for poor outcomes due to ineffective communication during encounters with the health care system.

These include patients who speak little or no English, those with low health literacy or those whose cultural groups might not share mainstream health beliefs.

Selected hospitals will be acknowledged on the AMA Web site and serve as models in the development of quality-improvement measures for patient-centered communication. To nominate a hospital, send an email to Jennifer Matiasek by March 4.