News in brief - March 13, 2006

Hospitalists launch journal, set training standards - Drugmaker prevails in Vioxx lawsuit - Think tank to tackle conflicts of interest at medical schools - British Medical Assn. calls for doctors to wash hands, abandon neckties

Hospitalists launch journal, set training standards

With about 15,000 hospitalists nationwide, hospital medicine as a medical specialty is showing signs of maturing.

The Society of Hospital Medicine published the first issue of The Journal of Hospital Medicine in February and released guidelines to standardize the curricula of those teaching hospital medicine to medical students, residents and practicing physicians.

SHM President Steve Pantilat, MD, said he expected the new guidelines to become a benchmark for assessing gaps in training programs and a tool in planning for hospitalist credentialing or certification programs.

The guidelines are free to SHM members, medical school deans, and internal medicine and family practice residency program directors. SHM developed the guidelines in conjunction with more than 100 hospitalists and physician leaders. The SHM, which was established in 1997, has about 4,300 members. For more information visit SHM's Web site (www.hospitalmedicine.org).

Drugmaker prevails in Vioxx lawsuit

Merck & Co. scored a victory in February after the drug company won the first federal lawsuit to go to trial against it for failing to issue safety warnings for its painkiller, Vioxx (rofecoxib).

A unanimous New Orleans jury found no negligence on Merck's part in the death of Richard Irvin, a Florida man who died of a heart attack in 2001 after using Vioxx for a short time.

This is the second time the case went before a jury. Judge Eldon Fallon declared a mistrial in December 2005 after a Houston jury could not reach a unanimous decision.

The verdict is the second win for Merck, which also won a state lawsuit in New Jersey in November 2005. The company still faces thousands of lawsuits after it voluntarily pulled Vioxx from the shelves in September 2004 when data revealed increased cardiovascular risk for patients who took the drug for at least 18 months.

An attorney for Irvin's family said they were "more than likely" to appeal the verdict.

Think tank to tackle conflicts of interest at medical schools

The Assn. of American Medical Colleges' executive council gave the go-ahead on establishing a new task force to examine interactions that medical schools and teaching hospitals have with drug and medical device makers.

The task force is expected to recommend ways to ensure that industry marketing does not undermine educational programs' objectivity or bias physicians' evidence-based decision-making.

AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, MD, was a co-author of a Jan. 25 Journal of the American Medical Association article calling for the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals to take the lead in eliminating conflicts of interest between physicians and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

He said the AAMC council believed "that medical educators and the medical profession should establish more effective policies and procedures to minimize conflicts of interest" to maintain the public's trust and protect patients.

British Medical Assn. calls for doctors to wash hands, abandon neckties

Keeping hands clean and not wearing ties will help physicians prevent the spread of deadly "super bugs," according to a February report by the British Medical Assn.

The BMA said physicians should not wear "functionless clothing" such as ties, which can carry pathogenic microorganisms and are rarely cleaned. Physicians should wear clothes that minimize the spread of infection, for example, items that are laundered frequently. When possible, clothes should be changed when leaving the clinical setting.

The report said effective hand washing is the single most important way to stop infections from spreading. While alcohol scrubs are a useful adjunct, they are not sufficient in many situations, the BMA said.