News in brief - Jan. 30, 2012

Senators ask IOM to review graduate medical education - Physician-assisted suicide is OK, Hawaiians tell pollsters

Senators ask IOM to review graduate medical education

Seven U.S. senators are urging the Institute of Medicine to conduct an independent review of the nation's graduate medical education system.

"We believe our GME system is under increasing stress, and the projections for our health care work force are of significant concern," the senators wrote in a letter to IOM President Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD.

The review should evaluate the governance and financing of GME and potential GME reforms, said the letter from Dec. 21, 2011. It should address a range of GME issues, including accreditation, physician distribution and the role of GME in easing health disparities and work force shortages. "We are particularly interested in IOM's observations about the uneven distribution of GME funding across states based on need and capacity and how to address this inequity," the letter said.

The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall of New Mexico, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado, all Democrats; and Jon Kyl of Arizona, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Crapo of Idaho, all Republicans.

Physician-assisted suicide is OK, Hawaiians tell pollsters

More than three-quarters of Hawaiian voters favor allowing terminally ill patients to request physician-assisted suicide, said a poll released in January by Compassion & Choices Hawaii, which supports legal access to aid in dying.

Eight in 10 respondents said they "trust their doctors to respond appropriately to a request for medication to bring about a peaceful death if suffering became unbearable," according to the survey (compassionandchoices.org/document.doc?id=1074).

Compassion & Choices Hawaii has argued that state law allows doctors to participate in assisted suicide. In December 2011, state Attorney General David M. Louie issued an opinion saying that charges could be brought under Hawaii's manslaughter statute. The Hawaii Medical Assn., like the American Medical Association, has policy saying physician-assisted suicide is unethical and should remain illegal.