News in brief - Feb. 28, 2005

New medical school wins accreditation - L.A. hospital loses JCAHO accreditation - AMA updates popular CME course - NIH announces new ethics rules

New medical school wins accreditation

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education has granted full accreditation to Florida State University College of Medicine, just in time for the first class that graduates in May.

The accreditation has not been easy for the school to get. The allopathic medical school was created by the Florida Legislature in 2000 and began admitting students in 2001, before it garnered any level of accreditation from the LCME.

In February 2002, the school failed to win provisional approval from LCME and threatened to sue the organization before it was granted a re-evaluation in October 2002. At the time, the LCME's main complaints were that the school lacked faculty and had weak oversight of the curriculum.

L.A. hospital loses JCAHO accreditation

After a lengthy appeals process that began September 2004, Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles lost its JCAHO accreditation as of Feb. 1. As a result, it also stands to lose American Council for Graduate Medical Education accreditation for its remaining 16 residency programs, as well as federal funds tied to training residents.

The teaching hospital has been subject to surprise inspections by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the proper care of combative psychiatric patients and could lose $200 million a year if the federal agency revokes funding.

In the past five years, King/Drew Medical Center has lost residency programs in radiology, neonatology and surgery.

AMA updates popular CME course

The AMA has updated its online continuing medical education module on osteoporosis.

Intended for primary care physicians, the new module, "Managing Osteoporosis: The Online Series" was launched December 2004 and is free to all.

Since the AMA launched the osteoporosis CME program in 1999, the Web site has received 2.1 million page views.

The program has been redesigned to cover the latest treatment and prevention guidelines and now allows physicians to print their CME certificates immediately after completing the program.

The module consists of 12 sections covering various risk factors such as prevention measures, treatment and rehabilitation options for osteoporosis. Each section is worth up to 1.5 CME credits.

The online CME also features case studies addressing hormone replacement therapy and osteoporosis in two postmenopausal women, as well as a 70-year-old male receiving androgen-deprivation therapy.

NIH announces new ethics rules

In response to investigations that revealed some National Institutes of Health scientists were profiting from consulting jobs with pharmaceutical and biomedical companies, the NIH announced new ethics regulations for its employees.

The new rules prohibit NIH scientists from holding stock or performing outside work for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, an NIH press release stated. They also ban NIH scientists from working for research institutions supported by such companies, and prohibit them from working for health care providers, insurers, and related trade and professional associations.

They are, however, able to continue outside academic activities including teaching and writing scientific reviews and textbooks.